The
Nutter Farm
I have traveled
across the Nutter farm for half a Century or more, usually to get to
the clay mine on the other side of their property. The farm,
while practically in the city, was as secluded as any farm could be if
you were standing there. I spoke to the owner many times, but
never knew the Nutters personally. I also talked to the grown
kids right before the airport authority completely buried their
farm. Many people have seen their homes disappear under water
when a new Dam was built, but this is the first time that I have
watched as an entire farm was buried under millions of tons of soil.
|
PHOTOS OF SOME OF THE FARM:
THE FAMILY CEMETERY
I remember climbing
the hill many times to walk past the cemetery and on to the entrance of
the old clay mine.
I was surprised to see the cemetery level with the surrounding ground
once the valley was filled-in, using the soil from the adjacent
hill. That hill was leveled in order to make it safer for
aircraft to take off from Yeager Airport.
|
Just a few of the Headstones in the family cemetery
At this point, the entire farm except for the cemetery is buried.
The last man to live permanently on the farm
IN THE MIDDLE OF ALL THIS:
The old farm property area is in the middle of a lawsuit....
Yeager Airport sued
by bankrupt company owned by Northgate developer
Rick Steelhammer September 27, 2019
The company owned by Northgate developer John Wellford is suing Yeager
Airport for allegedly failing to fulfill financial and other
obligations in agreements involving Northgate land to help remove
obstacles and accommodate repairs from the 2015 collapse of Yeager’s
runway safety-overrun area.
The complaint was filed earlier this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for
the Southern District of West Virginia. Wellford’s Corotoman Inc. filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year, and Wellford
filed for personal bankruptcy under Chapter 13 rules.
Part of the complaint involves a land-use agreement negotiated by
Corotoman and Yeager officials for reducing the height of a knoll in
the Coal Branch Heights area on Corotoman/Northgate property to ease
climb-out restrictions for aircraft departing the Charleston airport.
According to Corotoman’s filing, airport officials agreed to excavate
below the level required by the Federal Aviation Administration on
Corotoman land adjacent to the knoll, and then grade and compact that
land to make it suitable for development. That land was to have been at
least 10 feet below the highest point of the obstacle-removal site,
once work on it was complete.
After contractors hired by Yeager did not perform the extra excavation
work, and after Corotoman later allowed Yeager to take stone and earth
from Northgate property for use in rebuilding the collapsed safety
zone, an amended agreement was negotiated, according to the filing.
That agreement called for the airport to pay Corotoman $3.5 million, to
compensate for not reducing the elevation on Northgate land adjacent to
the obstruction-removal site, and for not exchanging certain agreed-to
land parcels, according to the lawsuit. The $3.5 million also
compensated for taking fill material from Northgate to make safety zone
repairs, according to the complaint.
By June 2015, Yeager had paid Corotoman $500,000 of the $3.5 million,
but, in August 2016, Corotoman’s attorney was advised that the FAA had
refused to approve the land-use and land-exchange agreements negotiated
by Yeager and Corotoman to complete work on the obstacle-removal
project. Yeager’s attorney told Corotoman’s attorney that, without FAA
approval, the airport would not give Corotoman “any additional
consideration other than what has previously been given,” according to
the complaint.
Corotoman’s lawsuit seeks, among other things, actual and compensatory
damages, attorney fees and other relief deemed appropriate by the court.
Corotoman and Wellford are named in lawsuits filed last December by the
West Virginia Water Development Authority and Kanawha County Commission
for allegedly collecting, but not forwarding to lenders, $1.56 million
in rent payments from Ticketmaster.
The West Virginia Water Development Authority loaned the
Kanawha-Charleston Regional Development Authority $3 million to develop
a new Ticketmaster call center operation at Northgate to the Charleston
area.
During the course of the 10-year loan, Corotoman failed to pass along
more than 70 monthly rental payments from Ticketmaster, according to
that lawsuit.
|
Back
|