Talk of the Town November 26, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is the Talk of the Town from Morgantown to Klerksburg.
If it's happening, we're talking about it. Call the show
toll free at one eight hundred seven sixty five eight
two five five. Now Here is your host for the
Talk of the Town, Mike Nolting.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
A good Wednesday morning, and welcome to the program. It
is nine oh six light rain, fifty four degrees and
welcome to Talk of the Town. I'm Mike Nolting. You'll
be able to locate me out on x as your
news guy. Certainly hope to run into you out there now.
Also producing the program today, we've got the voice of

(00:44):
the Clay Bettel CBS Ethan Collins. Ethan is at eight
hundred and seven six five eight two five five. And
of course the text line as always available for you,
but today just a little bit different. All the numbers
the same three to four talk threeh four. But i'd
like to hear from you today. Is maybe something that

(01:07):
you're thankful for, something that you've worked for, or maybe
something that you've had to work through. I'd like to
hear what you're thankful for. Let me know, three oh
four Talk three oh four on the program. Today, we'll
spend a few minutes with Captain Dennis Smith with the
Salvation Army. We're going to talk about their Angel Tree

(01:28):
campaign and they're having a big Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. We'll
get the details on that and some other activities happening
with the Salvation Army throughout the community. Now, you know,
traffic already starting to pick up this morning on the
interstate system across the state. Right now West Virginia five
to one one is reporting some sort of problem on

(01:51):
I seventy nine northbound at exit or I'm sorry, at
mile marker one five that is.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
In the bridge construction area.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
You can't confirm an accident there, so you got to
chalk that one up to maybe one lane closed on
that bridge causing some congestion. So if you're on I
seventy nine around mile marker one forty five, just have
a little bit of patience, you'll be okay. And remember
you're not the only one sitting in traffic today. Because

(02:21):
more than eighty million have travel plans that will take
more than fifty miles away from their home over the weekend.
That makes it the busiest four day stretch of the year. Now,
the weather. It won't be a favor for the traveler today,
that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
We've got a.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Really after a pretty nice day, awfully rainy, but warm,
there's a strong cold front. It's going to march across
the area. It's going to bring falling temperatures throughout the day.
Will fall to just about forty five degrees. It's about
fifty four right now. How the wind gus that will
be the story for the roadways. Wind gus could be

(03:00):
up to forty miles per hour later today. That could
be a problem for driving and especially high profile vehicles.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Let's take a look at a couple.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Of headlines and we'll dive right into the program. The
Morgantown Utility Board, they're continuing to work with residents out
on Morgan's Run to get water service out there. It's
been a three year process. Now they have secured an
abandoned Mindland grant and they're working for additional grants to
defray the cost for those customers because unfortunately, that water

(03:35):
extension it will eventually happen, but it is going to
come at a cost for those customers. And of course,
all the work that they're doing on the front end
is doing a great deal in order to lower the
cost for the homeowners. Preston County school teacher accused of
duct taping a kid's mouth shut is now facing civil action.

(03:57):
Remember that Cassandra Sissler of Tara Alta now also named
in that suit is the Preston County Board of Education
suit filed by the parents of the child and says
that the child faced emotional and physical harm from that incident.
Sissler did plead guilty in a plea deal to four

(04:18):
counts of child abuse resulting in injury. In that case,
I believe that she was fined one hundred dollars plus
court costs, six months of home confinement, and she's no
longer allowed to teach in the state of West Virginia
or anywhere in the country or a territory of the
United States. Trucker convicted in the fatal accident on the

(04:42):
Ice sixty eight Cheat Lake Bridge that killed Smithfield, Pennsylvania
resident Kevin Lettail is now in ICE custody. Suck Gender
Seeing remains in Doddridge County's North Central Regional Jail, but
now he's on an ICE retainer, so he could be
not far away from being shipped out of the country.
He was convicted of vehicular homicide and was sentenced to

(05:05):
a year in jail in a one thousand dollars fine
earlier this year. Now that particular charge, by the Way,
is the focus of a new law that took effect
coming up in July. That will be a felony moving forward,
no more one year and one thousand dollars fine for
things like that. If you're in the giving mood, consider

(05:27):
stopping by Patty's Art Spot in Saberton. They're collecting nonperishable
food items through the month of December. Those donations are
going to the United Way of Monn Preston Counties. They
will benefit the residents right here in this two county area.
When we come back, we're going to talk a little
bit about the recent lawsuit filed against Morgantown Deputy Mayor

(05:51):
Brian Butcher, and we'll talk about how those things can
ripple through things like economic development and the image of
your community.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
We'll do that next.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Some light rain fifty four degrees in the University City
of This is Talk of the Town on AM fourteen
forty FM one oh four point five w AJR.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
We are talking about your town. Now back to the
talk of the town.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
A good Wednesday morning and happy Thanksgiving. Something that you're
especially thankful for, I'd like to hear about it. Why
don't you shoot me a text at three oh four
Talk three oh four. That number again is three oh four,
Talk three oh four. Well, this week we learned that
Metro Properties and Dave B four have filed a one
point two five million dollar lawsuit against Deputy Mayor Brian Butcher.

(06:47):
Now the suit is against Brian Butcher personally and does
not include the City of Morgantown. However, it's really kind
of through his duties as a counselor and deputy that
all this came about. It all started with the east
In Village development up on Richwood Avenue certainly has to

(07:09):
be and you know, I've been here for about six years,
but I got to tell you, looking back from my
knowledge and what I've seen in the town, this has
to be one of the largest redevelopment projects in the
history of the city. Eleven and a half acres of
old home stock being torn down and then transformed into

(07:30):
a multi use area. And we all know that when
Brian Butcher ran for council that his priorities. Some of
his priorities were number one, to find solutions for the
homeless population and affordable housing, and certainly those are two

(07:51):
very very worthy priorities to have. However, when those priorities
begin to I guess deep into your professional job, then
it becomes a problem. So back in June this year,
Butcher sent a text message to James Julianni, and evidently

(08:14):
there were several other people involved in this change. In
this text chain. Absent from the text chain was DA
BA four and Metro properties, and Butcher says this and
I quote, I can't in good conscience be a proud
supporter of enriching someone who threatened to kill myself and

(08:36):
my family be a four. Julianni responds by saying, please,
that's small minded. You're making this personal, but at least
you're honest, and then Butcher replies by saying, quote, I
don't think dealing with a violent crook is good for
the city, but I let it continue and keep my

(08:59):
mouth shut because I know it could be in net positive.
That's all you get out of me. But there were
other partners. The idea that be four the federal criminal
and violent psychopath is the only game in town is
what is small minded? Threatening to kill an elected official

(09:19):
should be disqualifying. I don't think that's a ridiculous thing
to say. That is just one of the text messages,
and I'm sure many many more are going to pop
up through the course of the discovery process. No court
date has been scheduled yet, but there will be a
discovery process and through that more documents will be created

(09:42):
and released and will learn more. Now, one of the
in the complaint portion of this lawsuit, Mark Keppel, attorney
representing the bfour's and Metro properties, says that mister Giuliani
holds power over mister bfour and his partners in this project.
Mister Butcher purposefully and part and parcel too maliciously motivated

(10:06):
in calculated strategy, sought to disrupt funding on the project
by slandering and defaming mister Beafoor and his partners and
business interests. Butcher set up an environment where a lending
institution or private financier might reasonably question why they would
want to become involved in a project with mister Beafoor

(10:30):
if partners of before are classified as violent crooks. Further,
the stage is set to question why one would become
involved with a violent psychopath who threatened to kill an
unknown miscellaneous elected officials, or who threatens to kill Brian
Butcher and other members of the Butcher family. That is

(10:53):
directly from the lawsuit from Mark Keppel representing David B.
A four or in this matter. Now, of course, the
things that Brian Butcher is saying here as Deputy mayor
of the city, we've known those positions as we have
traversed I guess maybe the last couple of years with

(11:16):
Brian Butcher on City Council here in the City of Morgantown.
One of the problems with this can be and you
know recently and we're still really waiting on the South
Korean insulin maker to make a decision on building a
one hundred million dollar facility that was what it was
valued at at the time, a high tech manufacturing facility

(11:39):
to be built right here in the city of Morgantown.
And you know, when people think about economic development, I
think they picture the big things they think of, you know,
the State Economic Development Office incentive checks new factories, a
high tech hub, maybe a new shopping district, or you know,
hopefully it could even be a revitalized downtown. But when

(12:04):
things like this happen, you know, elected leaders they are
the face and more or less the doormat of any community,
the first thing that people see, and it's not necessarily
face to face either. Reports like this get out on
social media, they get into the press, and they're then
disseminated regionally, nationally, but certainly locally and statewide, and the

(12:29):
word gets out. Now, A couple of other things that
can certainly stifle a community's effort to have a community's
effort to attract business and economic development can be how
council approaches their duties. Things like maybe endless debate, long

(12:54):
committee processes that lead to questionable results, something like that.
But I digress. But you know what, when voters do
elect their members of city council, they do so with
the idea that these folks are going to approach the job.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Like they would expect them to do.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Take care of the trash, keep the streets clean, make
public safety a priority, take care of the firefighters, take
care of the policemen. But when elected officials bring their
opinions outside those priorities, you know, developers can get concerned,
small business owners get frustrated. Some may even move out

(13:37):
of downtown for one of the shopping areas on the
fringe of city limits. Now, all of this we've seen
right here in the City of Morgantown, and we've seen
it just over the last year. Developers getting concerned. I
think that we're seeing that here. We've also seen a
lot of concern from the adrians, but a lot of

(13:57):
those issues are not city related and are getting worked
out now. Also the business owners being frustrated. How many
business owners and the folks from red brick properties would
like to bring them into this conversation because they've come
to city council on several occasions and talked about tens
of thousands of dollars in needless damage to their downtown properties.

(14:21):
Things like mailboxes torn off of walls, apartments broken into
and vandalized for no apparent reason, other apartments broken into
for the purpose of squatting. We also remember the rabbi
that lives downtown that talked about how you know, he
kind of had to look out the window before he
let his kids look out the window. He also had

(14:44):
to do a patrol along the fence in the backyard
before he let his kids go into the backyard and play.
These are all things that we're talking about that can
happen now. The Texters say, Mike, we had an eight participation. Okay,

(15:04):
let me back up here. The voter turnout eight percent
in the last local election for city officials. They were
elected by their followers, and we need real leadership. That's
what the Texter says. And that's one of the points
that I'd like to get to eventually, is because what
happens is eventually business existing, proposed and future have all

(15:30):
had enough. Then that bleeds over into the community because
what this means is it means a loss of tax revenue.
It means a loss of amenities for the public, and
that could spur other people to get involved. Like the
Texter says, new leadership, new opportunities for the city. That

(15:54):
text line is three to four, talk three to four.
And we've seen these things already happened with the Rabbi,
with the Bfor's, with other businesses, black Bear Burritos moving
out of downtown. Also Jimmy John's moving out of downtown.
I'm sorry, not Jimmy Johns, it was the other the

(16:16):
other sandwich shop. I'm sorry, but having a hostile tone
toward business costs money. It costs big money, and it
can also be a very tough stigma to strike once
you start to head in the opposite direction. Now, if

(16:37):
and I know that sometimes we feel this way, but sometimes,
you know, council meetings feel like an exercise in endurance,
an exercise in needless debate and micro managing. A lot
of questions that could be asked maybe off record, don't

(16:58):
necessarily have to be on the record. Maybe some things
that could be handled outside of council proceedings. I hate
to bring it up, but Montengelia County Commission, if you
take a look at some of their meetings, their meetings
can last anywhere from fifteen minutes to as much as
forty minutes. And chances are when you have a forty

(17:22):
minute meeting, there's going to be some substantive debate or
maybe a lot of public comment, or possibly even a
presentation from a public group or a school class. But
those meetings are structured, they follow the agenda, and they
move with a purpose. Now, you know what, For the

(17:45):
listeners at home, I think it's important for you to
start to think about some of the things that you
can do. And I think the Texter started to hit
on it because with a voter turnout of eight percent
in the last lie, that would signal the need for
new participation in the process. And certainly Morgantown politics, as

(18:10):
we've seen over the past few cycles, certainly can get
a little bit nasty and a little bit personal. And
like the Texter says, the eight percent that turnout in
these elections are die hard supporters of the people that

(18:31):
get elected. So when you run against that crew, that's
exactly that's exactly what you can expect, is a very
spirited campaign mounted against you.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
But nevertheless, no court date set yet.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
As soon as there is a court date, we'll be
sure and pass that information on. But this is certainly
a situation that could have been avoided, should have been avoided.
And I'm not sure if this is just a product
of both sides being stubborn, or maybe maybe there was

(19:11):
no apology. I'm not sure, but we'll find out. Light
rain fifty four degrees in the University City Metro Newsaki
Weather says following temperatures today, and as the temperatures fall,
the wind gusts are going to pick up and they
could reach as high as forty miles per hour today
and the chance of rain throughout.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
The day just about sixty percent.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Coming up next, spend a few minutes with Captain Dennis
Smith from the Salvation Army right here in the city
of Morgantown.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Join the conversation at one eight hundred and seven sixty
five eight two five five. This is the talk of
the town.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
Good Wednesday morning.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
Idiot is nine thirty four some Libran fifty four degrees
in the University city. Let's see the Morgantown core of
the Salvation Army. They operate from twenty Scott Avenue. That's
Hazel's House of Hope. They also operate the Hope Cafe there.
And on the phone, we've got Captain Dennis Smith. Captain Smith,

(20:26):
good morning, sir, how are you?

Speaker 4 (20:27):
Good morning. I am doing very well. Thank you so
much for having me on your show today.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Absolutely, it's a pleasure to have you on, Captain.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Okay, First things first, food is job one, where it's
at least idea one at this point of the day
for most people. Oh yeah, tell us about your dinner tomorrow,
please so tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
Courtesy of the Morgantown Realtors Association, they have provided us
with all the ingredients we need to provide a Thanksgiving
dinner tomorrow. Think that it's really important. My wife and
I bet that we celebrate holidays on the holidays, not
not there's there's there's you know. Sometimes we'll have Thanksgiving

(21:13):
dinners pop up across town and and they're not on
Thanksgiving Day, and we just we just feel like we
should take time out of our day and be thankful
for what we have and and serve others. And so
we have from two to four at Hazel's House of
Hope or our our very own Hope Cafe, we are

(21:35):
from two to four we're going to serve Thanksgiving dinner
and it'll be a full gamut of food and we're
just hoping that we get a lot of folks to
come and fill their bellies.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Absolutely, and that's the courtesy of the local Realtors Association.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
Certainly want to thank them, Oh absolutely, you bet.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
We've got Captain Dennis Smith with us from uh the
Salvation Army here in Morgantown. How many people do you
think you'll be serving tomorrow?

Speaker 4 (22:09):
Our hope is two hundred, two hundred and fifty plus people.
Last year we did, I believe it was right at
two hundred. And we know that the need is you know,
these days today, we live in some hard times and
we know that folks need help and and you know

(22:30):
what it's in if if you don't mind take a
load off, come and sit down with us and have
a meal and on us. It's all free. And so
we think we're going to have a lot.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Okay, good good now, Captain.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
You know we, as you very well know, we live
in a very generous community. But what what kind of
things do you need at this point?

Speaker 4 (22:57):
You know? For for our Thanksgiving dinner, I think we're
we're pretty set. We're starting to prepare everything right now.
We've been prepping and uh and now we're getting ready
to get turkeys in the oven and everything and get
them ready for that. By tomorrow, we'll have it all

(23:19):
done and all we've got to do is set up.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
We have a.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
Great team of volunteers who have reached out to us
and asked if they could volunteer tomorrow, and we certainly
certainly appreciate those And so I think I think for
our Thanksgiving dinner, we're pretty set. I think moving forward
into the holiday season, we have both our Angel Tree
program and our bell ringing asot.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
I wanted to let folks know that if they'd like
to follow all along with us, you can go to
the website that is Morgantown dot Salvation Army Potomac dot org.
Now I'm sorry I interrupted you, Captain. Oh no, that's okay,
Please go ahead.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
We we also have our own Facebook page. We're gonna
we'll be posting pictures and stuff of our our volunteers
and stuff serving through its Salvation Army. Morgantown is what's
called on Facebook, so they you'll be able to go
there and and if anyone has questions, they can communicate.

(24:27):
We always want people to really try and call us
at our number here is three oh four. Oh, I
just forgot what it.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Was, yes, three five, correct.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
But we we handed out some turkeys over the last
couple of days, a lot of them, and we still
have a few. The the the unfortunate parties are still frozen.
But if anyone needs a turkey, we have a We
have a limited number of them, of course, but if
anybody wants to come out and just come over and
see us today, they can combine and pick up a

(25:07):
free turkey. Those were those were donated to us from
two great groups. One a place called Ultimate Roofing. There
are a local roofing place. They provided us with a
whole bunch of them. And our local Chick fil As
also provided us with some turkeys. So we want to
make sure to thank them for doing that because it

(25:30):
is helping some folks at home to to to have
a turkey at home. In our in our Angel Tree program,
we've already finished. We've already finished are what we call intakes,
so to be able to sign up, we've already completed

(25:50):
that because we've got to start getting prepared to package
and make sure everything is set for all the recipis
and through our through our counties that we serve. We
serve mon Gallia, Marion, Taylor, and Preston County and through
all of them, we're we're at about I think I

(26:10):
think we're at about twelve hundred children that will be
served a will get Christmas, otherwise they wouldn't get now.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Captain Dennis Smith with the Salvation Armies with us. Now,
Captain Smith, can folks maybe go online and see wish
lists for the children or maybe see some suggested gifts.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
Oh you can, there is a Walmart. I think it's
in the Walmart Spark program where they can go in
and they can see items that are that are that
are requested. But we have in our Angel Tree program.
Many people know about it already that there's a on

(26:57):
their Christmas trees. There will be a a tag and
it will have uh, a child, and it will have
all the things that they would like and the things
that their parents say that they need, and and and
then and then as a as a donor for that,
you would just go and grab that ticket and and

(27:20):
go and shop for the child what you don't want.
Of the most amazing things to me with this program,
my wife and I before we became Salvation Army officers,
we would pick all those tickets and we'd go out
and shop for kids. But you develop a little bit
of a relationship with these children, and while you don't

(27:40):
know them and they don't know you, uh uh, a
sense of love kicks in and so you know, you
think about the child. You know, you pray it for
the child and things like that, and and it really
becomes a really personalized effort from our families that go
out and adopt these children. And we certainly certainly appreciate

(28:05):
the amount of care and love that goes into them.
It's not like they don't just go and buy a
big box of toys and just bring in They give
them to whatever kid wants them. It's it's a lot
of thought and care from these families go into it
for just for another family.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
And I can imagine, I can imagine that for these
children that maybe you know, lack love at home, that
this is maybe one of the most sincere gestures they
may ever receive.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
Oh sure it could be. Yeah, you know, we we
we we just look at the need and we it's
we don't We don't want any child to do without.
And I wish, I wish we could really start opening
up our sign ups earlier and get every child in

(28:54):
this community set up, but we can't. But and you know,
we we do our best to make sure that that
we get as many children on this program as we can.
And so I think it's a good program.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
We have.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
We have tags right now here in in Morgantown. The
the the Law School has their own tree and they
have their own set of angels. But we have them
at Walmart, also, Ashley Furniture, Star Furniture, those places have
tickets that you can just stop by. Subaru of Morgantown

(29:35):
has some has a tree up right now and they've
got some tags and and and we just you're welcome
to go to anyone those locations and pick up a tag.
We also have them for those hearing us from from
Fairmont in the Walmart also in the hospital lobby there
and at Star Furniture there and in Preston County we

(29:58):
have them at Walmart. They're in Kingwick. Those are and
you can call any one of our locations and requests
an angel or come by and requests a ticket, and
we will certainly make sure that those get out to you.
So we we have them out right now, and we're
already seeing some come back, and as are my wife,

(30:22):
Captain Jane. She's she's already getting everything set up. I
can tell you that she grabs a bag of children's
toys and we have to go through everything because we
have to make sure number one, it's age appropriate, but
even appropriate. But I can tell you a lot of
prayer goes into each one of the children from my

(30:43):
wife as she picks them up, and she thinks about
the children as she's setting up.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Certainly now let's see.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
You can go out to Morgantown dot Salvation, armypotomac dot org.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
You can take a look at all these programs.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
One of the the other things that you'll see when
you go to that website is they've got a link
to where you can visit the.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Virtual Red Kettle.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, yep, yeah, Now tell us about your red Kettle
campaign this year.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
Well, right now, we're off to a slow start, and
we get it. We get it. It's it's not an
easy year this year, and every year seems to be
getting tougher and tougher with inflation, with the economy, with
with being able to get a job, things like that.

(31:35):
We get it. So we're off to a slow start,
but we we're already at at a couple of locations.
We've been in bass Pro Shop and Hobby Lobby and
the Walmart here next to us off of Exit one,
and we were You'll start seeing us more as we

(31:58):
hire more people and as we get more people to volunteer,
so you can we we we love the volunteering you
can get. You can set yourself up. It's really easy
to volunteer. You just go to a site called register
to Ring dot com and you'll put in your zip
code and it will take you right to us and

(32:19):
it will set up. It will show you all the
locations that you can ring at, and then you you
can pick a time in a day and a time,
and it's going to even tell you what's available or
what's not available if another volunteer has already taken it.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Hey, you know what, when the when the weather isn't
bitter cold, ringing that bell and talking to those people
can be awful lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Yeah, Oh, it's absolutely a lot of fun. One of
the one of the neatest things that that I hear.
I don't know if you're familiar with the Salvation Army
and the Doughnut Girls. And during the World Wars, the
the ladies from the Salvation Army would would take they

(33:05):
would actually take helmets and they would they would put
oil in them, and they would fry donuts and they
would serve them with coffee to the soldiers overseas and
and it wouldn't be it wouldn't cost them anything. It's
just a service thing. And we would every once in
a while, now that you know, every year it gets
less and less, but we we will meet someone who

(33:27):
was a recipient of that, and they tell us the
stories and I just love those old, old stories that
how how the Salvation Army has impacted a family's life
over the years, definitely, and and you know, I'm I'm
talking dating all the way back into the forties and fifties,

(33:47):
and how they they have been Oh yeah, you know,
their life has changed because of that.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
I know that.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
You know, I've got family members and extended family members
who in World War Two. They've passed on at this point,
but when they came back from the war, they were
helped by the Salvation Army.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
And yeah, absolutely, But okay, Captain Dennis Smith. Captain, we're
gonna have to leave it there for now, but the
big dinner is coming up tomorrow from two until four.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
It's up, yep.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
It's up on Scott Avenue, twenty Scott Avenue at Hazel's
House of Hope in the Hope Cafe.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
Captain. Keep up the good work and please pass my
thanks on to your wife as well.

Speaker 4 (34:35):
Yep. I sure will. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
Absolutely, it's a pleasure to speak with and I'm sure
we'll be speaking again. Captain Dennis Spith Dennis Smith with
the Morgantown Salvation Army. When we come back, we're going
to get an updated preview on the Clay Battel semi
final high school football game that's coming up next on
Talk of the Town AM fourteen forty FM one oh

(34:59):
four point five AJR.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
Now back to the Talk of the Town.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Good Wednesday morning.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
It's nine to fifty three my brain, fifty four degrees
one o'clock Saturday afternoon. That is the kickoff for the
Class Single A semi final matchup between Cameron and Clay Battel.
Voice of the CBS Ethan Collins, Ethan. This is a
rivalry game.

Speaker 5 (35:35):
Yes, it's a rivalry game of the highest of stakes.
Claybattel has never made it to the high school football
state championships in their history, only made it to the
semifinals once in their history. That was in twenty fourteen.
That was, by the way, the last year that the
Cleybattel CBS beat the Cameron Dragons. Really, so this is

(35:59):
this has been kind of a rivalry of streaks. We
talked about it on our pregame show. Jonathan Edwards, one
of our part timers, gave me some great numbers. Let
me see here I'm looking at it. Clay Battel has
lost eleven straight meetings to the CBS. They have eleven
straight wins on the seasons, and then now now the

(36:23):
CBS have lost eleven straight to Cameron to Cameron gotcha.
And then before that, between twenty six and twenty fourteen,
Claytel won nine straight. So this has been a rivalry
that has been started off one sided and then has
just completely flipped over to the other side.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Now, so this late in the season, most people would
think injuries will play a role in this contest.

Speaker 5 (36:47):
So the Cleavertel CBS, honestly, that's probably one of their
biggest high points is that they've they're banged up. I
mean everybody is at this point of the season, but
nobody really is reported out and won't be like not playing.
We've got bumps and bruises and contusions. Work County beat
us up pretty good, but we were able to get

(37:08):
to win on the scoreboard and that's all that mattered.
And then they got a couple extra days rest. They
don't have school to worry about this week, so they've
just been coming to practice, hunting in the morning, coming
to practice, refresh maybe took a little nap in the
woods and now they're ready to go on Saturday afternoon.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
So what do you think happens in this contest?

Speaker 5 (37:28):
So Clay Btel is looking to avenge their Week one loss.
It was only by seven points. We didn't really know
what we have. Now we know exactly what we have.
A running quarterback that can dominate on the ground. You
can dominate this team on the ground and if, hey,
if they look like they're gonna crowd the box, we'll
just throw it over their head and pass. I look
to see the CBS squeak this one out. I talked

(37:52):
with my color commentator Chance. I think they're gonna win
this one. Thirty five twenty eight. It'll be a barn
burner at halftime eight to seven. Vittel will score twenty
eight points in the second half. They've done a really
good job responding from halftime all season.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
You know what, sometimes in football, it can be that
one loss that gives you what you need in order
to knock the big dog down.

Speaker 5 (38:13):
Absolutely, And you know, Cameron, they had a lot of
motivation last week. You know, they played with their six
starters out, So got to give them credit where credit
is due. They're still a very very very good football team,
and they beat the defending state champions in Wahama last week.
So we're gonna have our hands full. But I think
Clevitel has gotten a lot better since week one. Cameron

(38:35):
has two. I think cleave Tel just has that little
bit of an edge and battle tested throughout the course
of the season, have gotten better.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
I think there's one kernel of information that we've left out,
and that is the fact that Cameron, they are the
defending state champions.

Speaker 5 (38:50):
No, they're the defending state runner up. Ah Wellhama was
the defending state champions, and they that is who Cameron
beat last week.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
In the quarter five. Okay, in the pouring down rain.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
But like I say, I mean, this is a chance
to make history. You know, I can't emphasize it enough.
Cleviteal has never been to the state championships in Wheeling
or in Charleston, and this is a chance to really
write rewrite history under Lapoe's only second year as head coach.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
That's awesome. We gotta go.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Thank you very much, Ethan, thank you for time light
rain fifty four Metro News talk line coming up next