Clear Fork residents ask Raleigh County Commission for help with crime

CLEAR FORK, WV (WVNS) — The community of Clear Fork is one of Raleigh County’s most rural. It’s miles from downtown Beckley, but a group of Clear Fork residents said on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, that their neighborhood has not escaped addiction and the drug-related crime the rest of the county faces.

Lewis and Megan Nason were among a group of Clear Fork neighbors who asked the Raleigh County Commission for help during the regular commission meeting in Beckley on Tuesday.

“Patrol would take care of, probably, 95 percent of the problem,” said Lewis Nason. “Just having a law enforcement presence down in Clear Fork shuts down a lot of the activity.”

The couple recently moved to Clear Fork from northern California. They said the drug crime problems in the two regions were not very different.

“I’d say it’s all pretty much the same,” said Lewis Nason. “There really is no difference, other than, in this community, you have the opportunity to actually be heard by the government.”

They said they want to work with Raleigh County Commission and their neighbors to make their new home the best it could be.

The Nasons said they established a local crime watch program and have support from a church at Colcord and other entities.

They said they were also in the process of establishing recreational outlets in the area.

“We just felt a need to see change and to, hopefully, not lose another innocent life to drugs and not have kids being exposed to that, giving kids a different life to grow up in,” Megan Naylor said.

Raleigh County Sheriff Jim Canaday confirmed on Tuesday that his office, along with Dr. Serena Starcher, superintendent of Raleigh County Schools, and West Virginia Del. Chris Toney (R-Raleigh} are in the process of establishing a satellite station for Raleigh County Sheriff’s Office at Clear Fork Elementary School.

Del. Toney plans to secure funding, said Sheriff Canaday.

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