Traffic changes scheduled for Wesleyan move-in day August 20, RiverFest to return August 27

Monica Zalaznik
July 31, 2022

BUCKHANNON – The Consolidated Public Works board approved a request from West Virginia Wesleyan College to make a few alterations to traffic patterns for student move-in day Aug. 20.

John Bohman, Director of Campus Safety & Greek Life at the college, attended the July 28 Consolidated Public Works Board meeting to ask the city to make Meade Street one-way from the corner of College Avenue to Camden Avenue from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 20.

“As we’re approaching the beginning of the year with West Virginia Wesleyan College, new students are coming in for orientation weekend,” Bohman said. “We are requesting the alteration to facilitate our new students moving in. Over the years it has worked out really well in helping our new students and families.”

He also asked for barriers to be placed at the corners of Camden and Meade, Meade and College and Main and College to control traffic.

“I’ve asked Chief [Matt] Gregory for VIPS to help us out, to facilitate traffic,” Bohman said. “We’re usually finished by noon easily, but sometimes it’s around 11 a.m., and it has greatly helped us out over the years.”

In other Consolidated Public Work Board news, members heard from Kevin Campbell, organizer of the Buckhannon RiverFest, who requested the use of the Riverwalk for the 2022 event.

RiverFest aims to entertain and educate the community about the Buckhannon River.

“The event will be similar to what we’ve done in previous years,” Campbell said. “Unfortunately again this year there’s no kayak rental organization to help us provide kayaks and transportation down to Hampton. We will have music, we will have exhibitors like the DNR, West Virginia Rivers Coalition and Sierra Club — organizations involved with environmental advocacy — and we will have the interfaith water blessing as we normally do at 3 p.m.”

RiverFest is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Aug. 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“The purpose of the event is a memorial for April Pierson-Keating, who started it six years ago, but it’s primarily to honor the tremendous resource of our waterways around here,” Campbell said. “Hopefully there’ll be an educational component, which isn’t fully arranged yet, but we try to put something in there for the kids to understand the importance of our water.”