Shawn and Colleen Parker

Shawn

Parker

helping

Monongah

again

  

Shawn Parker, a former Monongah resident and Monongah Fire Department captain, will repaint 50 Monongah street signs without charging for his labor.

North Marion grad Shawn is married to Colleen Parker. Helping others is not new to Shawn.

When fellow firefighter Shaw Teets’ home was damaged by a blaze, Shawn Parker speadheaded fundraising to help the other Shawn’s family recover.

 

Shawn is a captain in the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and a senior dispatcher in the  911 Center.

The 911 Center will donate the lettering and  charge approximately $150 for the 50 blank signs.

Other estimates included $558, $474 or $109 for the tops of 20 signs.

In other news:

The Family Dollar will open at 8 a.m. Thursday. May 11 at Walnut Street and Camden Avenue (U.S. 19). The official grand opening will be May 20.

Monongah’s Bob Fortney passes away

Robert Lee Fortney, husband of Fairmont East graduate Diane Mercer Fortney, passed away Saturday, May 6. They resided in Monongah.

Robert Fortney

Bob’s parents were Brooks Fortney and Margaret Burns Fortney. His maternal grandparents were Mary D. Fortney Lambert and Samuel Lambert.

Bob’s sons, Robert Mercer and Todd Fortney, and sisters, Mary Fortney Lambert and Nellie Lambert Haught (married to Sonny Haught) all live in Monongah

Bob’s obituary:

Robert Lee Fortney, 79, of Monongah, passed from this life in his home under hospice care Saturday (May 6, 2017) after a valiant battle with cancer.

He was born in Fairmont on March 6, 1938, a son of the late Brooks A. and Margaret Burns Fortney
Bob was a welder/fabricator and worked for Car Mar Sales in Enterprise for many years. He was also known to be pretty much as a "jack of all trades." He was a man who spoke his mind. He enjoyed the out doors, swinging on his porch and especially playing golf with his son Bobby.

Mr. Fortney is survived by his loving wife of 48 years, Diane Mercer Fortney; five children, Tina Scritchfield of Fairmont, Mary (Robert) Pavalok of Gandeeville, Robin (Gary Butcher) Mercer of Flemington and Robert Mercer and Todd Fortney both of Monongah; two sisters, Mary Lambert and Nellie (Sonny) Haught both of Monongah; eight beautiful grandchildren and three beautiful great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and two sisters-in-law, Ann Fortney of Fairmont and Linda Fortney of Monongah.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his three brothers and one sister-in-law, Jim Fortney, Richard Fortney and Gene (Deloris) Fortney; also one brother-in-law, Brooks Lambert.

Bob's family would like to thank the folks at the Fairmont Regional Cancer Center and the caring folks at Amedysis Hospice, especially Cody, Karen and Amanda.

They have also requested that memorial contributions be made to Diane to help offset funeral costs at Frey Home For Funerals, P.O. Box 895, Fairmont, WV 26555.

Friends may call from 11 a.m. till 1 p.m. Tuesday at Frey Home For Funerals (Addition Chapel A), 320 Madison St. Services will be held in the funeral home 1 p.m. Tuesday. Interment will follow at the Grove Cemetery.

North Marion High and nursing graduate Teena Field Ailstock and husband Howard David Ailstock, Jr., who live in Monongah, are celebrating their 23^rd wedding anniversary.

They are the parents of 2 and the grandparents of 4.

Teena, who once lived in Tunnelton, gets involved in Monongah politics. She ran for Town Recorder and Town Council.

Teena also is one of Susan Staron Sanders’ angels in the Monongah High Christmas street lights fundraisers.

$6 million Monongah water upgrade

Monongah is planning a $6 million water improvement project.

Mayor Greg Vandetta said:

 “It’s a big project with two new tanks going in . . . work in Carolina, work in Idamay on those tanks, new water lines, a new service line from the plant to the new tanks on Tower Hill plus service lines in town.”

Thrasher engineer Randy Watson said it will take a year or more to complete.

 “Our goal right now is to get this out to bid,” Watson said. “Rights of way, which is mainly what we’ve been waiting on, have the potential to hold the project up.”

Watson said there are 106 rights of way to be signed and the town has 9. Monongah needs 80% to go to bid.

Monongah's first water rate increase in six or seven years is not tied to the upgrade.

MONONGAH — Monongah Town Council discussed the next steps for its water project at a council meeting. Mayor Greg Vandetta said the project is basically a $6 million upgrade. “It’s a big project with two new tanks going in ... work in Carolina, work in Idamay on those tanks, new water lines, a new service line from the plant to the new tanks on Tower Hill plus service lines in town,” he explained.

Thrasher engineer Randy Watson said once the project is underway, it will take a year or more to complete. They are still in the process of creating rights of way to distribute to property owners whom the project will affect. “Our goal right now is to get this out to bid,” Watson said. “Rights of way, which is mainly what we’ve been waiting on, have the potential to hold the project up.” Watson said there are 106 rights of way to be signed and they currently have nine. Of those, he said they only need 80 percent to go to bid. There is potential for the project plans to change, he said, based on getting the rights of ways signed. Vandetta said he is not concerned about the project or the rights of way as of yet. After Watson advised council how to obtain the rights of way, council discussed unpaid bills with the water plant. Vandetta assured that the town is making payments every month, and the amounts owed are decreasing. He indicated the unpaid bills are for the cost of operation such as chemicals, and resulted because there had not been a water rate increase in six or seven years. He said current water rate increases have nothing to do with the water project, but with the operating costs of the town. They will go into effect after the project is finished.

Vandetta said after the project is completed, the town will do a sewer upgrade process. He said smoke testing is the first step of that process. While smoke testing was completed in town, it was not done in the Stoney Lonesome area outside the town. Smoke testing is the process of discovering downspouts hooked into the sewer system, Vandetta explained. The property owners are responsible for removing those or face a fine.

 

This photo shows the legendary Amelia Shenasky Zentz, the blonde bombshell daughter of P.P. Shenasky and Nell Shenasky, with Susan Staron Sanders, whose Charge of the Light Brigade will have 20 Christmas street lights in Monongah before the end of the year, and Mary “Kitty” Ahouse Morrison, whose parties and travels are, well, legendary.

All together at Amelia’s home on Shenasky Lane in Monongah.

Amelia is 96 years old but her mind is about 50 years younger, judging by her memory. As a young woman she was invited to New York City for ballroom dancing with celebrities.

Kitty and Bertha Wilson each stay with Amelia a few nights a week.

As Kitty says: “She is indeed an amazing woman and a joy to be around.”

Amelia and her late husband, Bruce Zentz, built the Dairy Kone in 1968, after Amelia learned about business from her parents at the P.P. Shenasky Grocery on U.S. 19 next door to Thoburn School.

Susan and Kitty paid Amelia a visit. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that house at that time!

Kitty, Class of 1968, lives on Lyndon Avenue in Monongah but is equally at home in New York City, Key West, Myrtle Beach or elsewhere in the world.

Or, as you can tell from the shirt she's wearing, just back from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.

With or without her sister, Sue Ahouse Schrader, Class of 1971, who lives in Piscataway, New Jersey and Stoney Lonesome when she isn’t partying or traveling with sister Kitty or running the half-marathon in Chicago.

Susan Sanders, Class of 1971, is the angel of Thomas Street whose fundraising keeps adding Christmas street lights to her own.

Susan and husband Ron Sanders live on Thomas Street, next door to Mayor Greg Vandetta and his wife, Janice Manzo Vandetta.

Monongah High’s Class of 1974, shown here with seniors photos and some adult pictures, did pretty well for itself.

Just off the top of my head I see:

Monongah Town Council member, Johnboy Palmer.

Monongah Middle School teacher, Marcia Michalski Westfall, who has ridden a Harley Electro-Glide thousands of miles around America during summer vacations.

The effervescent Goldie Basagic Huffman.

Brenda Ridenour Graffius, who lives on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina with husband Chuck Graffius.

WVU Health Sciences graduate Karen Manzo, daughter of Raymond Levar Manzo of Monongah and Marie Ozie Manzo of Shinnston and granddaughter of Emilio Manzo and Frances Raymond “Raimondi” Manzo of Monongah.

                                                  74yearbook

Jenny Shaver, a North Marion grad who lives in Monongah, is a fierce fighter when it comes to battling her cancer.

Jenny tells it better than I could:

“I just wanna give a huge thank you to Tonia Carr Posten, Candice Fugera Norris, Mariah Carr for helping these last couple of days! I swear you all have been my rock!

“And to Gloria Sypult, Heidi Sypult, Jessica Graham Sypult , Seneca Toothman, Sarah Werner. You all have never left my side! You all have been here to fight like Goliath!

“And all the texts from my friends! Wow! I have so much support! I am so lucky!

“My nurse Lisa! OMG! She goes above and beyond since Thursday!

“And finally my husband and my boys, Steve Haught and Corbin Sypult. God gave me you three for reason. I don't know what I would do without you 3! I want you three right beside me all the time! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!!!

“# feeling loved# Flock Cancer # we will fight this!!”

What an inspiration, this Jenny Shaver!