BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — Senior Life of Morgan County will continue serving Morgan County seniors despite two damaging and expensive incidents in the past week.
Director Tammy Kees was a guest on Panhandle Live Friday and talked about the first incident that happened during the snow storm over the weekend.
“So the snowstorm came in, of course, and everybody was bundled down and warm and we didn’t come back into work until Tuesday morning. And so one of the things that we did was move our fleet of vehicles so that the plow truck could get the rest of the parking lot. And when we started up one of the vehicles, it sounded like the muffler had to come off,” Kees said. “But what had happened was someone had gone in and cut with a Sawzall taken out both of the catalytic converters that were on the brand new hot truck.”
The theft could cost upwards of $4,000 in repairs. It also means their newly acquired 2025 Ford 4X4 Hot/Cold truck will be out of service for a time.
Senior Services staff use the truck to “deliver nutritious meals, safety checks, and human connection to older adults” who depend on them every day.
The food truck is a key part of their meal service. “Well, we provided over 25,000 meals last year to the senior citizens in Morgan County and over 10,000 of those were home delivered meals,” Kees says.
“We have four satellite sites,” Kees says. “We have two sites that have kitchens, one in Berkeley Springs and one in Pawpaw. But we have four other satellite locations. Two of them are churches and two of them are community centers. So even though they’re not considered home-delivered meals, they still get (meals) delivered in the hot-cold trucks.”
The senior centers in both Paw Paw and Berkeley Springs have been closed all week due to the effects of the storm, but staff had delivered meal kits ahead of the storm to cover all five days.
“Knowing that the storm was coming, we have emergency food boxes that are five days worth of shelf stable food,” Kees says. “So we sent all of those out on Friday so that we knew that people would be covered until we could adequately serve them again.”
On Thursday morning, staff came in to see more damage, this time in their front yard.
“One of our building signs had been hit in the middle of the night by an unknown driver,” Kees said. “They drove off the side of Sand Mine Road and plowed into and took out one of our signs.”
Kees says she doesn’t believe these were targeted or malicious attacks, or even that they are related.
“I do not think we were targeted or (it was) malicious intent,” she says. “I think certainly someone saw that we had a new vehicle, probably because of the temporary tags and took advantage of that. And I think the sign was just a strange coincidence that it happened in the same week.”
She says the thief will likely try to sell the catalytic converters for what’s inside them. “They’re highly sought after because of the titanium that is in the catalytic converters,” she said, adding “What scrap yards are supposed to require is a VIN number that is associated with the car itself. Not all places are above board.”
Anyone with information regarding the theft is asked to contact the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office.
Meanwhile, the services will continue. “Well, we are going to just rearrange our schedules to make sure that no one is without and that they still receive hot meals,” Kees says.
“Our main problem is we’re going to have to come up with $3,000 to $4000 to cover the cost of getting the vehicle repaired.”
Senior Life Services of Morgan County is accepting donations to offset the costs, and Kees says they plan on doing some fundraisers.
“We’re accepting donations and anything from our community partners. We’ll be doing some fundraisers. Of course, we had already had planned, but now the money is going to have to go towards repairing the truck.”
Find more information at their social media and website.
In their social media post announcing the damage, the staff pointed out the truck had been purchased through grants, donations, fundraisers, and community support.
“This was not a personal or luxury vehicle,” Senior Life Services staff said, adding, “When nonprofit resources are targeted, it’s our seniors who ultimately pay the price.”