Health officials expect an active flu season, and cities and counties in the valley are putting together preparedness plans.The Harrisonburg-Rockingham Emergency Task Force, has gathered the resources of more than twenty agencies, and has worked closely with the state department of health to create it's plan."What our plan is, is a very basic plan that shows us who's responsible for what, and who will do what," says Rockingham County fire chief Robbie Symons.Chief Symons presented the 31 page emergency plan to the board of supervisors Wednesday night.It breaks down the responsibilities of local government, law enforcement, emergency agencies, hospitals, and even schools.The plan includes guidelines for canceling classes, and quarantine guidelines for sick people."The comforting part is that we've worked together for several years, and we know what our capabilities are, and we know what resources we have within each agency," Chief Symons says about the task force.The protocol may not be final..Chief Symons says, as the number of flu virus infections changes, so might the guidelines to address it"As the CDC may change the way they do things, or the health department has recommendations, we're going to change our plan based on what those recommendations are," says chief Symons.The task force will conduct a drill to test the plan, which may be modified at that time.

A team of Bigfoot enthusiasts is hoping to find the legendary creature in the bogs and barrens of a West Virginia wilderness area.Members of Sasquatch Watch of Virginia went camping in the rugged Allegheny Mountain highlands of the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area with GPS navigators, cameras, voice recorders and plaster of Paris to make casts of huge footprints.Billy Willard, founder of the group, says they're looking in places where people have reported sightings. He says he has never seen Bigfoot himself.Bruce Harrington, the group's self-described skeptical member, says he has yet to see convincing proof that the creature exists.The group took plaster casts of suspicious prints but didn't spot the creature during the expedition last weekend.

A woman from the Charlottesville area has died from a swine flu related illness.She passed away last week but her death was only confirmed, publically, Wednesday afternoon. Where she lived and how old she was, are being kept confidential.All we're being told is that she was an adult and had an underlying medical condition. 12 Virginians have died from illnesses related to the H1N1 virus.

One Charlottesville church is stepping up to help people in need keep their clothes clean. Parishioners at the Belmont Baptist Church are in the process of opening a free laundry facility for homeless and low-income people. They recently accepted a $25,000 national grant to get the project off the ground. The group says it will allow families to spend their laundry money on things like groceries. Belmont Baptist Church member Barbara Lowery says, "I might not think that $20 is a whole lot but to someone that doesn't have $20 that's a lot and can make a real difference to a family who is struggling." The group will use a building behind the church for the new laundry ministry.The goal is to have it up and running by January.

A woman who repeatedly locked a teen inside a sparsely furnished bedroom, sometimes without food, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last week in Waynesboro Circuit Court to felony charges of child abuse and abduction.Assistant Waynesboro prosecutor Jim Camblos said the girl, 15, weighed about 62 pounds when she escaped from her legal guardian, 46-year-old Billejo King, just days after Christmas.King was originally scheduled for a jury trial Wednesday before entering the guilty pleas last Friday.Camblos said King, who has a home on North Poplar Street in Waynesboro, began locking the teen inside a bedroom in June 2008, often for days on end in a room with no television, books or radio. Camblos said the room had only a bed and small dresser and was connected to a half-bathroom equipped with a broken toilet, forcing the teen to use a sink to relieve herself.During the last incident that lasted for 3 1/2 days, Camblos said the teen was locked in the bedroom and denied food. She managed to escape when the pair visited a psychologist's office in Waynesboro, Camblos said. The teen later called police and Child Protective Services were immediately notified."She's doing really well in a very loving foster home in another jurisdiction," Camblos said. The teen has brought her weight up to about 135 pounds, he said.King, who has no prior felony convictions, faces the possibility of 30 years in prison. A sentencing date has not been set. She remains free on bond.

The grand jury directly indicted the former Augusta County information technology director Monday after county property was reportedly found inside his home, according to information provided by the sheriff's office.Rick L. Vernier is charged with misuse of public assets with a value of more than $1,000.Lt. A.C. Powers, an investigator with the Augusta County Sheriff's Office, said authorities were notified about two months ago through an anonymous tip that property belonging to Augusta County was taken by Vernier and could be found inside his Stuarts Draft home. Powers said county computers and equipment worth more than $1,000 were discovered in the residence."Most of it was recovered," Powers said.Augusta County hired Vernier in March 1999. "He resigned Aug. 18," said County Administrator Pat Coffield. Vernier's salary was $84,820 at the time of his resignation.On Tuesday, Coffield said there are no plans to fill the position anytime soon."Yesterday, I proposed to the board that we keep it vacant ... through the remainder of the fiscal year," he said.Vernier faces the possibility of a 10-year prison term if convicted of the felony charge.

A severely mentally ill man who spent more than 15 years in seclusion at a Virginia psychiatric hospital has died, weeks after his family won a battle to have him moved closer to them.

Cesar Chumil, 59, died Oct. 19 in a northern Virginia mental health facility, his attorney, Alex Gulotta, said Tuesday.

Chumil's family fought for years to have him moved from Western State Hospital in Staunton, where he had lived for more than a decade locked inside a specially built three-room dormitory-style suite because hospital officials said he was too unpredictably violent to live among the other patients.

He was moved to Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute on Sept. 30, where Gulotta said he lived in a two-room suite on a regular housing unit. His door was not locked.

"One of the things I promised him was that he wouldn't die in that room and he didn't, but just barely," Gulotta said.

Chumil died of complications from colon cancer. Surgeons took part of his colon in 2007 and thought he was cancer-free, but it returned earlier this year, Gulotta said.

Chumil has been in and out of mental hospitals since 1978, when he was 28 and became violent toward family in his native Guatemala. He moved to the U.S. in 1980, and after several short hospital stays he was admitted in 1983 and never released.

Chumil moved to Western State Hospital in 1986 and he averaged 300 assaults against staff and another 100 against patients over each of the next seven years, according to records from a closed administrative hearing obtained by the AP.

To limit the amount of time he was spending in restraints or in a small seclusion cell because of the violent outbursts, hospital officials in 1993 built the three-room "limited containment suite," which had a separate bathroom, living area and a small outdoor area. He remained separated from the other patients, his meals pushed through a slot in a solid door that remained locked.

Chumil's family liked the idea in the beginning because Chumil had more freedom, but in 2007 filed a complaint because they said Chumil was not getting treatment in his native language and had no hopes of ever leaving the isolation room.

Chumil's family had been allowed to take him to Wal-Mart, the local mall and restaurants without hospital staff, but he was placed back in seclusion when he returned to the hospital.

Last summer, a state oversight committee ordered Chumil removed from seclusion, so the hospital moved all other patients off his ward and unlocked the door to his suite so he could go out into the day room. He remained alone, except for staff.

Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services Commissioner James Reinhard intervened and this spring worked out a move to the northern Virginia facility. Chumil's sickness delayed that move.

"The transfer was an extremely complex case that needed to be carefully planned and involved many partners so that it would be positive for the individual and those around him," department spokeswoman Meghan McGuire said.

Gulotta said he was glad Chumil got to spend those last few weeks with his family.

"I think it's incredibly sad," Gulotta said. "He really was a kind and humorous and intelligent man underneath a serious mental illness."

All northbound lanes on Interstate 81 are open, after being shut down at the Weyers Cave exit due to a crash involving a tractor trailer and a deer.The crash occurred at 11p.m. Tuesday night in Rockingham County. Traffic was backed up for at least three miles. Lanes were blocked for at least an hour and a half.

Shenandoah Co Considers Wind Turbines--WHSV
Members of the Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors are reviewing information on residential wind turbines used to produce electricity.Joyce Wegryniak, the county zoning and subdivision administrator, says they hope is to learn enough about such turbines so the board can make educated decisions on a draft ordinance.A preliminary ordinance has been drafted using language from other community ordinances that allow residential wind turbines.Wegryniak says the language in the draft could change between now and when the board of supervisors votes. The preliminary draft ordinance permits a small scale wind energy facility, with a maximum height of 120 feet, to be used on land of all zoning classifications where structures of any sort are allowed. The minimum lot size for a small scale facility is 20,000 square feet, or nearly half an acre.Large scale or utility scale energy facilities taller than 120 feet would be allowed with a special use permit. The minimum lot size for a large scale facility is five acres and 25 acres for a utility scale facility.A date for a vote hasn't been set. Wegryniak says the date depends on how long it takes the board of supervisors' Public Safety and Code Enforcement Committee to sort through the information before making a recommendation.Wegryniak says a vote from the board of supervisors could happened in January.
Posted by Newsroom at 10/28/2009 04:15:00 AM

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There are new details about the suspects accused of killing a family of three in Mathias, West Virginia over the weekend.Nakia Keller and his wife Lorie Ann Taylor, from Rockingham County, were arrested early Tuesday morning. They are accused of arson and murder. Investigators say the suspects shot Chip Taylor, his wife Alaina Taylor, and Alaina's five-year-old daughter Kaylee Grace Whetzel, then burned the home to try to cover up the crime.Chip Taylor is the ex-husband of one of the suspects, Lorie Taylor. According to investigators, the two were in a custody battle over their three children.Investigators believe Keller and Taylor committed the crimes Friday. Court records show the suspects were in Harrisonburg Monday getting married.According to West Virginia code, in this type of case a husband and wife cannot be called to testify against one another without both consenting. The code doesn't specify whether it matters that the marriage happened after the alleged crimes. Court records in Rockingham County detail Keller's long history of criminal activity.The Fulks Run man pleaded guilty in 2004 to a series of crimes.According to court records, his first wife was the victim in some of them. Abduction, petty larceny, assault and battery, and child endangerment were the charges.Records show Keller thought his wife was with another man. In November 2003, he stole her phone from her. The next day the assault and battery happened. While Keller was in jail awaiting trial he wrote, "This is my life I am fighting for." He went on to say, "I am scared as I should be since my freedom is on the line here..."But his case never went to trial. Instead, Keller took a plea agreement. He was sentenced to almost three years in a state prison. According to a transcript of the plea hearing, Keller said he had changed.Keller told the judge, "Well, sir, I just want to apologize to my wife and to my family and friends for having to endure the trouble and pain that I've put them through. I have turned my life around. I've given myself to the Lord, and I'm sorry for what has happened." Keller was released from prison in 2006.

VDOT will break ground Monday to widen an uphill, accident-prone stretch of Interstate 81 in Rockbridge County.The project will add a truck climbing lane along a seven mile stretch of northbound I-81 from mile marker 195 north to near Fairfield. That area has several long, steep grades that slow down tractor trailers to unsafe speeds with other drivers trying to get by. The $74-million project is expected to take three years to complete.

Albemarle County Police are investigating a series of car break-ins at three churches during Sunday services. One was at church on Rose Hill Church Lane and another on Stony Point Road. Police say that one car in each parking lot was broken into with purses, money, and credit cards stolen. All of this happened in a two to three hour time frame Sunday morning. Officers believe all three are connected.

A couple with a record of philanthropy has donated $5 million to fund diabetes research at the University of Virginia Health System.The gift by Paul and Diane Manning comes on top of nearly $3 million they've donated to the university in recent years.Paul Manning, whose two children have diabetes, says he thinks the health system has the best shot in the country of ultimately discovering a cure for Type I diabetes.Manning is the chief executive officer of PBM Products in Gordonsville, which markets and distributes baby formula to more than 20,000 retail locations.

The band Metallica has raised the reward in the search for Morgan Harrington. The Harrington family says the band, who Morgan went to see at John Paul Jones Arena last Saturday, is adding $50,000 to the reward. The reward for vital information in the investigation into the 20-year-old's disappearance now stands at $150,000.Morgan Harrington’s parents reported her missing when she didn't return from the concert one week ago. Virginia State Police tell us they spent eight hours canvassing around the arena Saturday night, handing out missing persons fliers with Morgan’s picture, description, and the tip line number. Investigators were hoping for new leads from people who travel around the arena routinely. Harrington's photograph was also featured on the "Whoo-tron" during the University of Virginia football game Saturday. Police say nothing significant came out of the night's canvas.Take another look at the pictures of Morgan Harrington on this page, if you've seen her or know anything, call the state police tip line at 434-352-3467.

After a tussle over payment and contract issues, Virginia health offices are getting 115 laptop computers to help monitor swine flu in the state.The Health Department's computers were held up for about three weeks while the contractor that provides information technologyservices to the state hesitated.Northrop Grumman, which has a 10-year, $2.3 billion contract with Virginia, was initially uncertain it would be paid for the computers.Samuel Abbate of Northrop Grumman says those discussions werequickly cleared up and the request approved.Dr. James Burns, deputy commissioner for public health, says thecomputers will be paid for with federal funds, although he didn't provide a cost per unit.