Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 02/12/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton

Transcript

02/12/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Is allocated one hundred and seventy five million dollars to
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: refurbish and refit some coal fired power plants, one of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: which is John Amos out in Putnam County. The John
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Amos Power Plant has been an economic driving force in
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Putnam and in Knaw and in Boone where the coals
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: mined since the early nineteen seventies. My friends and clients
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: who are boiler makers, pipe fitters, carpenters, insulators, they work
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: on the railroad, they're trainmen or carmen have all benefited significantly.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: And I mean, I've got really good.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Friends who've worked at the power Company and at Amos,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and most of them are Republicans, and we have a
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: like mind about this. And if the issue is do
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you need a base load of readily available, rapidly mobilizable
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: power to supplement a grid which should be supplemented further
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: with solar and wind and alternate alternate fuels and nuclear,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: we're not doing a very good job of that. But
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: if you do need that, first of all, the shareholders
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of American Electric Power are not going to pay the bill.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: They're not going to have a reduced dividend to pay
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the bill to do that refit. It's just a given
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: because the executives of the company who make a lot
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of money are not going to risk their positions. Secondly,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: it would be grossly unfair for our Public Service Commission
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: to approve rate increases and make the West Virginia rate
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: payers play for that refit when the need supposedly is national.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: So I remember having this conversation like a couple of
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: years and my friend Frank Patty was in management over
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: it aimous and he says, well, we do need this. Well, Frank,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: if we need it, and that's true, we'll let the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: government pay for it. It's socialism, yeah, it is. But
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: if we need a base load, allocate the money and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: pay for it. That's what I think the Trump administration
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: proposes to do. Now on the backside of that, what's
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: that going to do to mountaintops and West VIRGINIU. Well,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: that's a separate issue enforcement. If we enforce the law
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: with regard to reclamation and the performance of coal mining
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the way it's supposed to be enforced, we wouldn't have
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: these problems. That's an issue with state government. Just vote
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: these people out at a point of deep that won't
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: enforce the law.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: But as far as the needs.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: For power from a selfish standpoint of someone who lives
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and works and has prospered through my life in Putnam County,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I saw it this good news and how other people
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: will certainly disagree with that. But those are two things
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that I think are really good for our county.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: They're in the news today is the side looed.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I think the story that went along with that was
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: the where the EPA is repelling all consideration of.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: CO two as being a pollutant.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Right, So, I mean, and that's you know, and that's
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: why I say this administration seems to be able to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: spot a problem and then come up with the absolute
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: worst solution that you know, if you take the step
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: of refitting these plants. Yeah, but now we're going to
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: go a little farther and we're going to make this
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: more profitable for the shareholders who won't pay the bill
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: that we're paying. I mean, you're again, you're socializing the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: risk and privatizing the game. Yeah, the second STEP's bad,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and the sound of the third step is our toadying
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: legislature bending over again for the coal industry on mountaintop
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: removal and reclamation and fixing the roads and workers' compensation reform.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Then that's just another bad thing, but we control that
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: at the ballot box.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: It seems like we have a series of needles to
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: thread and we always stop after the first one.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: That's exactly well right, because there are forces of nature
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: at work here. You know, we have a state senator
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: from Putnam County, Eric Tarr. He's actually on the show
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: next Door pretty often with Dave Allen. I mean, I
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: like Eric Tar as a person. He's not a bad guy.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: He sponsors a lot of stuff down in the county.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I disagree with post everything, I mean, policy wise that
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: he talks about, but he's on this kick and I
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: think he's right about. He wants some disclosure on major
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: landowners who sell carbon credits. It's an arrangement under which
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: you if you thousands of acres, you only have to
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: own about one hundred acres to qualify to sell carbon credit.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: land companies that own ten thousand acre tracks or six
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: thousand acre tracks, or fifty thousand acre tracks of forest land.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: And first of all, they all run down of the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: assessor's office in the county where they own the land,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: and they get their land put under what's called a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: managed woodlands managed timberland exemption. That's something we've had for
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: about thirty years, which allows big land companies to file
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the a fairly perfunctory application and reduce the tax assessment
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: on their quite valuable land to something almost as below
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: a residential rate. It costs the counties, rural counties tens
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: of millions of dollars a year that would go to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: public education. It has for the last thirty years. The
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: basis for that being the legislative findings being that, well,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: this is going to help promote jobs and growth in
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the timber industry, the forest industry. Well, I was a
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: little curious about that, so I went back to look
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: at the labor statistics the year before we got managed
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: timberland and two years ago when I looked into it,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and guess what there was The needle on the jobs
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: in the wood industry had not moved in thirty years.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: There were fewer jobs. Now the question comes, Okay, you're
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: benefiting from a tax treatment on this land because it's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: quote managed timberland to promote forest development and wood industry use.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Then how do you square that with turning around twenty
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: years later and selling carbon credits on that land under
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a contract that is sure as you won't cut the
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: timber for fifty years. Is that not a paradoxical double dip?
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: Right? Right?
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: But there's any amount of opposition to even the disclosure
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: of these contracts. I mean there was a heartfelt pop
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: ed by one of the local Dickinson family heirs in
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the Charleston paper last year bemoaning the fact that this
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: is going to be an interference with our right to
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: use our properties. To listen, I said, okay, but nobody
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: has asked you, ma'am, do you also get a managed
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: timberland credit on your land? And you know we're that's
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: an example. I don't like to pick the Dicksons. They're
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: easy because they got here before the Civil War. They
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: made money in the banking business and leasing slaves to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: do salt and coal mining, and it's carried over. But
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: that's not the only one. I mean, there's Penn Virginia,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and there's Berwin Land.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: That's all.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: You know, we're not talking about mom and pop. You know,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: it might if people knew that the beneficiaries of these
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: tax breaks property tax breaks and perhaps but we don't
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: know carbon credit contracts benefit George W. Bush's grandchildren. How
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: do you think that would feel that people live up
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Campbell's Creek? Right? Since George W. Bush's grandchildren, Jenna Bush's
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: kids are the great great great grandchildren of Henry Dickinson,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: John Dickinson's brother, Danny Jones's great great grandfather. They live
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: in Richmond, they live in New York, they live in Philadelphia.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's what we're confronted with, and they mean
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to me. I admire Senator Tar for making an effort,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: but it's not going to come to pass because these
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: people have real money. They're the forces of nature that
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: control largely the economy of southern West Virginia. When the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: people who benefit from these land trusts or limited liability
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: companies which are passed through entities need a little money,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: well we're going to spur a little development. We'll kind
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: of deal to lease some lease some coal. Well we'll
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: take fifty cents less on our royalty to get some
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: cash being generated here. When they don't need any money
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: and the market turns down, well we're just not going
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: to lease this coal. We're not going to cut this
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: timber we're going to sit on it.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: You know that.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't want to get on a rant, but
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I will because they're a group of airs that insignificantly
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: valuable property up at the head of paint Creaking Cabin Creek.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Who when the timber market was bad, I represent some
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: fellows who make a living cut and timber. When the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: timber market was bad, say five or six years ago,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: they had a chance to lease their coal to be
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: stripped mountaintopped. Well, the coal underlies the surface that has
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: probably some of the finest hardwood, oak, maple, cherry, cucumber
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: in the world growing on the north slopes. You know
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: what was done with it? The landowner, the land owning
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: company charged an extra four dollars a ton royalty for
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: what's called quote surface disturbance. They got paid and they
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: hired people with bulldozers to do bulldoze all that timber
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: up in a big piles and burned it, burned it
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: so they could clear off the lands of the coal company.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: These coal companies don't own this coal, you know. But
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the coal that was being minded at Upper Big Branch
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: that wasn't owned by Massey. They lead lease it from
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: land companies who've owned this stuff. You know, thirteen percent
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: of Rawley County is owned by the oh I can't
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: remember the name of the company, it's one of the biggies.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: And that's where the money goes. So when we talk
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: about cutting income tax, let's you know, the pass through
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: income that goes through a limited liability company goes to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the members as ordinary income. Think of that. So let's
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: cut that tax rate. Let's do away with the state
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: income tax, so we no longer withhold six percent of
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the money before we send it to Atlanta or Philadelphia
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: or Richmond or New York, or maybe as a birthday
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: gift for George W. Bush's grandkids. Let's just let's just
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: do without that. Let's don't have any place to put
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: foster kids, so some people can prosper. And if anybody
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: thinks that's not what going on here and hasn't gone
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: on for the last hundred years, you guys are heading
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: this sand. You don't have to look real far to
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: see this, all right, tell you what you do? Go
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to the newspaper when you see one of those big ads,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: legal ads to renew a permit for they listening there?
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Who owns the mineral and surface. Just look at the names.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Then go to the Secretary of State's office and just
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: look at who owns those business entities. And then take
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: those names and google them and you'll find out who's
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: getting the real big and who's got the money, and
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: who runs the show around here, at least in this
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: part of the state. That's fascinating, Well it is, it
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: is to me, And I don't know why. I don't
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: know why I seem to be obsessed with that. There
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: there seems to be something wrong with And I can
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: remember when I was a little kid, my grandparents came
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: emigrated from Scotland. My grandfather was a coal miner in
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Rawley County. His health broke, they moved down to Offick,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Virginia because my aunt, my mom's twin sister, had a
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: job down there in a bank after the war, and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: so they couldn't work, so they moved down there. When
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: we'd get down to visit them, my dad was in
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: navy in the war, so we had to go. We
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: went to newpert News to the Maritime Museum. This guy,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I've got pictures still yet from when I was like
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: seven or eight years old.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Do you know how the money.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: What funds the Maritime Museum in newper News, Virginia. What's
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the val the money from the Valley Camp Coal Company,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: which is poured into a trust, the proceeds of which
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: are dedicated to the operation of a maritime museum in
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: newper News, Virginia. This is the same company. Keep in mind,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: it's mining coal owned by this trust that went down
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: to Lexington, Kentucky about fifteen years ago, plunged into bankruptcy
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: and stole the retirement benefits of all the union miners
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: who were working there. They got some of their money
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: back about ten years later through litigation. And that's just
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: what that's That's who runs the show for what it's worth,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: which is apparently not much.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: It's been that.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: You know, poor old Joe Mansion when he first ran
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: for governor, I had words with him because we got
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: a meeting downtown. But Joe, why didn't you back Charlotte Pritt. Well,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: he came up with his usual mumble mumble, mumble mumble. Well,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: then he said, he said, well, I think we're going
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: to raise the tacks on these royalties. You know, I
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: saw him down. I said, Joe, you know you've changed
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: my mind. If you're going to he's well, it'd only
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: be fair. They don't live here and it's all passive income.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Well then he goes over to the Greenbrier, to the
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Business Institute or whatever it is. I guess what he
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: said when he came back, Well, now you know, maybe
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that wouldn't be appropriate, that might be harmful.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Blah blah blah blah blah blah.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: And that idea died. And this idea is going to
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: die about disclosing who owns these carbon credits. It shouldn't.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: If you got a legislator that you can call, tell
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: them to get behind tar on this. I've sent him
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: a couple of emails saying, hey, you know, look at
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: both sides of this, and don't get a response, because
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the idea that you'd actually tax somebody fairly on their
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: mineral wealth I think a rakle sold eric. But but
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: it's just a double dip, and somebody should have up
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: there at the State House should have the gumps in
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to stand up and say, look, this is just not right,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and we ought of know who's selling these carbon credits,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: how much this property is being profited by not cutting
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: timber at the same time getting a benefit to manage
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: their land. To cut timber and not doing it. I mean,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: it's just this isn't I'm not Brad Michaelhaney. This isn't
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: my strong suit. But I've read some there's a difference
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: between like a passive income and a passive transfer of wealth,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: and that's almost what you're getting with a lot of these.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Things that you're talking about. There's no services that are
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: being provided. There's no transfer of service provided for for
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: for a fee, for for for somebody to pay into
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: something that they're getting a benefit from that. So we're
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: just talking about money that's moving out of state for
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: no real benefit of anybody in this story.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: And it doesn't all move out of state, I mean
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: or somebody.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it moves into the into the hands of the
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: now the fourth or fifth generations state, I mean, the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: people of this right. It moves away from the people
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: who work in mine it. It's you know, in Tennessee,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: where they don't have an income tax, they tax passive
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: income rents and royalties at ARE at a higher rate.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: You know, before the the Reagan Revolution, we tax passive
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: income in the United States at ARE rate twenty percent
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: higher than earned income. With the idea that well, if
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: you sit and draw rents and royalties at a posh
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: office in Philadelphia on the main line from some land
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: that your great great granddaddy stole from the Indians of
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: West Virginia. Maybe you ought to pay a little more
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: tax to the state of West Virginia than the guy
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: that's down there crawling around in the hole on the
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: ground getting his back broken, trying to get it out
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: for you. But that you know, we have to take
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: a break because there are actually a couple of really
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: good bills in the legislature I heard about today that
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: we can talk about.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Let's do that when we come back. If you have
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: anything you know to put the law on your side.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: Harvey Painton's here this morning from the Peyton Law Froom
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: and Nitro, West Virginia. You can give us a call
• 16:01
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• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Harvey with any questions or comments on things that Harvey's
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: discussed this morning, you're welcome to give us a call
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  Speaker 5: This update is brought to you by Fourth Avenue Financial.
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: A good retirement takes planning.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Let's get started today.
• 18:10
  Speaker 7: Good morning, here's your traffic update. In Canall County. A
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: vehicle crash on US sixty West at West Virginia six
• 18:16
  Speaker 7: p' oh one debris and the roadway on US one
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: nineteen forty five hundred block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Big
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: Chimney in Putnam County. A vehicle crash on County Route
• 18:25
  Speaker 7: twenty nine, twenty one hundred block of Rocky Steppe Road
• 18:29
  Speaker 7: in Scott Depot. And a vehicle crash on US sixty
• 18:33
  Speaker 7: Lee Street East and Rentals Street in Charleston. I'm Chapelin
• 18:37
  Speaker 7: the WCCHS Network Traffic Studio.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Twelve minutes of the tom of the hour you're listening
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: to as the lawyer with Harvey Payton from the Peyton
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: Law Firm. I'm Dell Cooper on BAVIDWHS, the Voice of Charlesting.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: You can get on the show this morning, last twelve
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: minutes of the program. If you have any questions for Harvey,
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: welcome to give us a call. Threes are four three, four,
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: five fifty eight fifty eight is a number. Threes are
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: a four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. If
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: you're in a situation where you need to shoot in
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: a text, you can do that as well.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Threes are a four non three five five zeros your eight.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Well, well, I heard on the show again this morning,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: driving in a very nice presentation by a young person
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: who's been in the foster care system.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: That was a very nice thing. Yeah right right, supporting.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: A bill that these children actually roughed out and gave
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to a legislature a legislator to introduce, which would I
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: and I haven't seen it, but the general description given
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: on the air was that it would require some minimum
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: notice to foster children who are in a placement situation
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: if the department plans to move them, which I would
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: wholeheartedly support.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: And I stopped.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Doing appointed work about fifteen years ago, but did have
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of work in the old days involved with
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: abuse and neglect and the placement of foster children. And
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: you know, it's it's tragic to see children they pick
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: up all their clothing and they're taken into the custody
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: of the department, maybe put in a home, and maybe
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: a week later just all right, we're going to move
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: you to another home. Well, the psychological trauma on these
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: children is massive, and the idea that they should be
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: entitled to some notice or an opportunity to prepare for that,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: I really hope that the legislature takes that to heart.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: I don't think we're going to get the money we
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: need to address the problem because it goes contrary to
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: tax cutting. But this at least would be some humane notice,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to adjust for these children who need every opportunity.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: I might add, they can add. Now I think we
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: have a call. Yeah, I believe we do. From the
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: three zer of four none four two, you are on
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: the air. What's your first name?
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: Now, my name's Joe. I'm in Charleston area.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Okay, Joe, go ahead, Harvey's online with you.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: Okay, Coop Harvey, y'all talking about the timber industry and
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: some of the stuff on it. Just to touch base
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: on that and the out of state interests that come
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: in here, export the natural resources we have and leave
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: us West Virginia sitting here with the remaining mess. A
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: lot of times, I think the State of West Virginia
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: DP has done a really good job of protecting the
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: environment while they're mining coal and minerals from the state.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: At Harvey, I know you represent the timber industry, so
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: I'm going to respect you. But big business in West
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: Virginia and timber coal, whatever land holdings, they are a
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: strong lobby and old Joe lived up Cabin Creek, doesn't
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: have much of a voice and not the power to
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: go to the legislature and lobby for stuff. The timber
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: industry has really been pretty much unregulated, and you've got
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: some of these big timber operators coming in West Virginia
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: from out of state. And it's not just mom and
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: pop Harvey like you're represented timber operators, but they're coming
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: out with huge equipment, mine and four five hundred acres
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: clear cutting it, oh yeah, and just leaving a muddy
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: mess then, and no set them of control or nothing,
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: and it just silts in the streams, the creeks, the mud.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: The forestry industry says, we can't really do much about it.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: DP don't regulate it. DNR says, well, unless they're shooting
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: deer and bear or something, we can't do nothing about it.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: And then we have all these small tributaries in Tabin
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: Creek and Alum Creek and all the creeks around there
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: and out Miitro that are flooded out because all the
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: small streams are shilleded in. And if you don't believe
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: how bad it is, there are large timber operators just
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: outside on the side of South Charleston. It's clear cutting
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: five hundred acres and don't even have a haybell on
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: the stream or anything to stop anything, and nobody can
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: do anything about it.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, go look at the land above if you go,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: like I grew up on the west side of saying
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: all of us, I can look right off the backboards
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: of my house over Nitro and uh you know the
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: status area. Just look at the hill you start a
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: status and go all the way back to cross Lanes.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Look at that seven or eight hundred acres it's just
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: been clear cut. Or go down the Coal Mountain on
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: this Kannawk County side of Coal Mountain and look about
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: harborland and another three or four hundred acres just trimmed
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: off like a like a marble. Uh sure, I mean,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I mean the best timber practice. And I agree with you.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: I think the DP, given the resources to which they
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: have been allocated, makes an effort to protect the environment
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: within the resources they are allocated and the leeway they're given. Now,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: you know, as far as fines and penalties for environmental violations,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: I think they're way short of what should be expected
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: by the folks. But you know, the timber industry which
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: follows these best practices.
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: Those best practices already being followed. They don't even have
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: teeth to do anything to them. So basically, Harvey fe
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: and I put in a strip mall. We have to
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: clear two acres of land. We have to have silk fence.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: We have a hall. This make sure muddy water's not
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: going anywhere, containing everything on site. These timber industries have
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: are not doing nothing. They're doing nothing. They're not regularly
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: by DP, They're pretty much unregular.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't disagree with you.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I mean that's and and you're correct.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: It's an insult to me and you and all these
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: citizens living around here, the people you represent, and and
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: and that you.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: You know, and they we suffer for it. And but uh,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: you know, when you start, I call it the forces
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: of nature. Good friend Truman chaff and people blow hot
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and cold on Trum And he was I think a
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: good state senator frown Mingo County. Uh he has said, buddy,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: when the black suits get off the airplane, you know
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: there's money that we had. It's all the big lawyers
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: from New York, Philly, Chicago, Atlanta, Richmond, the landowners representatives
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: that command, their inflex their muscle, and things just tend
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: to stop. You know, fat possums walk at night, said
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Stovey C. And and that's what happens. They walked the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: possum back from the tree and it just dies in
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: committee somewhere And we're never hear. And we still drive
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: on the worst roads, right, the worst roads in the country.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: We have some of the worst schools in the country.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: We're closing rural schools because small is bad. Well, if
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: small's bad, was Harvard so good?
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: Uh?
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Why is the.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Phipps or Phillips Institute or the Woodbury Forest Academy in
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Virginia is so good? If Small's bad, it's not. It's
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: just a matter of priorities and adequate funding and supervision.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: And Joe, I don't disagree with you. I agree with
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: what you say. Now, I don't want to break this off,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and I do have a couple of things I want
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: to say before we end the show.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Okay, we had appreciate your phone.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I appreciate the call.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Really, you know, one of the things Shop and I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: talked about off your air and we've you know, I'm
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: far enough along in my career that I do a
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: lot of passive, even transactional work. And one of those
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: things is I've been pointed boy a County commission of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Putnam County to be a what's called a producery commissioner.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: If there's a dispute or a question about a will
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: or in a state that's pending for probate, the county
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: commission on enter in order referring that matter to me
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: to review and take testimony or do legal research and
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: give them an opinion on how to resolve that. So
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: you're seeing the worst of the worst. Please, if you're
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: within the sound of my voice and either you or
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: a relative is thinking about writing your own will, writing
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: it on an envelope, writing it in your own handwriting,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: getting a form downloaded using AI, using AI, please give
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: that a second thought. You are setting your airs and
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: your family up to spend hundreds or sometimes thousands dollars
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: to straighten out a potential mess after you're gone, as
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: opposed to going to see a lawyer like the Peyton
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Law Firm. I mean, it's not a lot of what
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: we do, but what we do is regard to relatively
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: basic estate planning is excellent it's good, it's less than
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a thousand dollars for a family generally considerably less, and
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: have a professional consultation about how you're going to dispose
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: of your estate. I mean, it's heartbreaking for me to
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: see somebody whose wishes are not going to be carried
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: out because they just wrote, they filled in a form
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: and didn't understand the verbiage and put the wrong names
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: in the wrong place and made a mess. And then
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: they're loved ones are trying to straighten that out. And
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: then of course there's any money involved, then the big
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: green monster of greed rears it's ugly head. Then they
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: get each others throats, and you see families, brothers and
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: sisters who are just broken forever, which would break their
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: deceased parents' heart, just because nobody had the emphasis to say, look,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: just ask mom, have you done things taking.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: Care of well? I wrote this?
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Well wait a minute, mom, at a minimum, let's make
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: an appointment. Go over there and see Peyton. Let him
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: at least look at what you got here, and let's see.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: You know, it's just heartbreaking to see that happen. And
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: it doesn't have to happen. It's not that expensive. You
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: know there's not a lot of advertising done about the
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: cost of wills and simple estate matters. If you call
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: us at the office, we'll certainly tell you and you
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: can decide whether it's worth your while. I can tell
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: you it will be if we do it for you now.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: In that regard, another thing, there's a bill pending in
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: the legislature to modify one Act about real Estate Settlements
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: and fund Disposition, which would require it's just a one
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: line addition to the existing statute that would require anybody
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: who can real estate closing and distributes funds to either
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: it be an attorney or have access to consult with
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: an attorney. For instance, like here in Charles have Best Title.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Best Title is a title company. Most of their employees
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: are not lawyers, but they have like Bob Skeen, who
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: is one of the pre eminent property and real estate
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: closing lawyers in the state, is always on call to
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: answer questions. I have seen terrible cases where internet lenders
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: will send completely unqualified, untrained people to folks houses to
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: sign up. Let's get these papers signed for this loan,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: and you know they leave, they put the loan on
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the books, they immediately sell it to somebody and here's
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the landowner and well, wait a minute, that's not the
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: piece of property my house sits on. And they've they've
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: got to lean on my pastor field and you can't
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: straighten it out. So that's a good bill. Tell you hey,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Haatelaw Firm, Haylawfirm dot com. We're Nitro, we're local, we've
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: been here all our lives. We're here to help you.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Got an in injury claim, anything that's happened