BUCKHANNON, W.Va. (WV News) — On Thursday, Buckhannon City Council held a meeting that saw important updates on local venues, the city receive its first opioid settlement payment, as well
For The Inter-Mountain
BUCKHANNON Many public events such as the West Virginia Strawberry Festival and Festival Fridays did not happen in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the Buckhannon Police Department’s Volunteers in Police Service found they were needed in other ways – assisting with traffic at drive-thru testing sites, flu clinics, etc.
Despite a reduced number of events, the 15 VIPS found themselves giving back 1,515 in volunteer hours, about half of what was served in 2019, according to VIPS coordinator Steve Wycoff at Thursday’s Buckhannon City Council meeting.
“The number of events we help with dropped drastically this year, simply due to the pandemic,” he said. “Normally, we assist with 120 to 130 events per year including Strawberry Festival. This year, we only assisted with 78. We had 63 events that were canceled. Twenty-seven of the 78 were public health related such as the testing clinics for COVID-19, drive thru flu shots, etc.