4
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
News
pirit of JEFFERSON and FARMER'S ADVOCA'TE
Everett "Ed" Boober- Sheriff
38 years of law enforcement experience
:8 years as your Sheriff
Paid for by the Committee to Elect "EO" Boober Sheriff.
Dave Withers. Treasurer.
[~000~'---" "- -'-: o --" "-'" • ~--
David A. Camilletti
Attorney At Law
103 ~,,V. Liberty St., Charles Town, ~,,VV
(304) 725-0937 • dcamillettk.'fronticr.com
CRIMINAL • DIVORCE • ESTATE CONTESTS
Bergmann
FROM PAGE A1
ballet scholarship, where she received
a bachelor's degree in exercise science.
Bergmann also has a master's degree in
exercise science and health promotion
from California University of Pennsyl-
vania.
Bergmann describes her journey to
competing in triathlons as "going from
ballet to Ironman." but said she always
thought of triathlons as "the epitome of
fitness."
"I've always wanted to run but had
a lot of work to do before I could run,
so cross training was very important to
me," she said.
Bergmann dove headfirst into swim-
ming by signing up for races and admit-
ted that getting one from side of the pool
to the other was difficult because of her
asthma.
"I watched a lot of videos and read
a lot of books and basically taught my-
self how to swim," she added. "I didn't
know how to swim. I couldn't run, I did
have experience biking but I just had to
figure it all out for myself."
At first Bergmann competed in tri-
athlons in order to train others. "but then
I started winning and I got hooked." she
said. Bergmann won or placed in the top
three of every competition she entered
in her first year and was the sixth-ranked
female duathlon athlete nationwide in
the 25-29 age group in 2011. despite
competing in only two races, according
to information from USA Triathlon. a
Colorado-based organization that sanc-
tions more than 3,500 races and similar
events nationwide•
Bergmann's trainer Sean Leonard
said her times have continuously im-
proved over the course of her training,
which he attributed to Bergmann incor-
porating new exercises to her routine.
"She's a lot more sore than she usu-
ally was. but now she doesn't have to
spend four hours a day training," he
said. "She's greatly improved."
In addition to her training, Bergmann
also works as an exercise therapist at
Capitol Rehab in Charles Town, where
she designs exercise programs for her
clients, and can also be found at the
Gold's Gym in Charles Town at 6 a.m.
teaching cycling, yoga or weightlifting
classes. Bergmann als0 teaches injury
care prevention and fitness classes at
Shepherd University.
One of the good things about training
for a triathlon or duathlon is the cross
training that athletes go through, ac-
cording to Cindi Bannink.
"If you're just training to run in a
marathon, you're doing a lot of running
but may not be doing a lot of endurance
training," said Bannink, a Madison,
Wisc. resident and coach of 2012 U.S.
Olympic Triathlon Team qualifier Gwen
Jorgensen.
"It's very beneficial to incorporate
cross training methods, such as going
swimming to recover from running,"
Bannink said.
Bergmann is "hitting a brick wall"
with trying to obtain sponsors to help
pay for her France trip, which will run
into the thousands of dollars, .she said.
"If it was football, I'd have sponsors
coming everywhere," Bergmann said.
However, her chosen sport isn't the
most well-known m the area, "but I'm
not going to give up," she said. "I have
nutrition sponsors and shoe sponsors but
airfare and hotel is what's holding me
back .'"
Bergmann is holding clinics to in-
troduce local residents to duathlons and
triathlons to help pay for her trip, but
holding multiple jobs and training twice
a day "doesn't leave a lot of time for
fundraising," she said. Bergmann does
have a few sponsors already, including
local businesses like Two Rivers Treads
in Shepherdstown and Warrior Energy
beverage drinks. National brands Ham-
mer Nutrition and Endurance Films have.
also signed up and she has also reached
out to Camp Catch Your Breath, which
works with children who suffer from
asthma.
"Kids with asthma can't play like
other kids and this camp is a place where
you won't feel like an outsider an have
to sit on the sidelines," Bergmann said.
"I'm hoping I can race to bring aware-
ness and funding to the camp and the
fact that asthma does not have to limit
you dreams."
Fees
FROM PAGE A1
Captain Perry "Mickey" Ballenger
ors B
At the City of Ranson's Reg-
ular Council Meeting held Tues-
day, April 3. Mayor Dave Ha-
mill, along with full Council,
presented a Resolution recog-
nizing the retirement of Captain
Perry "Mickey" Ballenger, after
37 years of dedicated, faithful
and loyal service to the City of
Ranson and its residents. Mayor
Hamill thanked Captain Balleng-
er for his work on behalf of the
Ranson Police Department and
wished him a well-deserved hap-
py retirement. The City Council
was proud to honor and recog-
nize the service of Captain Perry
M. Ballenger-to the City of Ran-
son, Jefferson County and the
State of West Virginia as a whole
and congratulated him upon his
retirement.
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Laura Bergmann describes her fitness journey as one that took her from ballet to Ironman train-
ing. Trainer Scan Leonard helps Laura train at Crossfit 304 in Charles Town.
F
..~\~l,t,/. Downtown Charles Town
JEWELERS, INC. 304-725"7411
Those interested in helping Berg-
mann with sponsorships can reach her at
fitnes sfanatic247 @ yahoo .com.
Bergmann is scheduled to compete
in other events this year prior to her trip
to France, including duathlons and tri-
athlons in West Virginia, Maryland and
Vermont, she said, adding that her strat-
egy for competing in races is to just take
each leg at a time.
"I treat the first lap as a drill," she
said. "I just focus on the swimming and
then I just focus on the bike."
"It's just me versus me," Bergmann
added. "It's all a mental game."
She said she is honored to have the
Ed Smith, former chief of
Independent Fire Company
and operations manager of
the JCESA, said the fees are
needed so that the county's
fire stations can add a limit-
ed number of paid firefighters
during daytime hours to rill in
for a falling number of volun-
teers available at that time.
"B ack in 2008, the fire chiefs
of Jefferson County identified
a problem: we did not have the
volunteers to help. in the day-
time that we did in the past.
In the past, we handled a lot
of fires with two fire compa-
nies. After 2008, we got to the
point where three fire compa-
nies were going to be called
automatically. Now, we're up
to four," Smith said, explain-
ing that this phenomenon was
part of a larger national trend
of diminishing volunteerism
at fire departments. "The vol-
unteers are working their tails
off."
"We need this program to be
initiated so we can get more
resources available to help
us out in the daytime," Smith
said. "In the evening the vol-
unteers are still around."
Smith said that volunteer
hours are rising dramatically
at the same time volunteerism
is flagging.
"In 2000, we put in -- at In-
dependent (Fire Company)
- 15,000 hours of volunteer
opportunity to compete.
"I never got to do competitive
sports, ever," Bergmann said. "My
mother was a single parent, very low-
income ... I feel like this is a chance
I've never had and to represent this
area as an active, healthy individual,
I think can help turn around the im-
age" of West Virginia being a haven
for obesity, she said. "If I can start
from nowhere and do this great thing,
I hope I can inspire others that are
maybe saying 'I can't' or were always
told 'I can't' ... if I can overcome
those things, hopefully I can inspire
others too."
time. Now its up to 28,000.
And this is over a period of 10
years. Every year it goes up,"
Smith said, adding t.hat most
of those hours were spent in
training and fundraising rather
than in fighting fires.
Some residents expressed
considerable reservations
about the proposed fee. how-
ever.
Bob Aitcheson, a local resi-
dent, argued that instituting a
fee rather than raising property
taxes necessitates the creation
of a needless and expensive
collection infrastructure.
"Unless you do a levy, you
can't use the county Sheriff's
Department, the Assessor's Of-
rice, the infrastructure ... that's
already in place," Aitcheston
said. "What this plan proposes
to do is to put in place a half-a-
million dollar collection appa-
ratus that's going to go on ad
infinitum. To me that doesn't
make any sense."
Deputy Director Ed Hannon
said the JCESA had reduced
its projections of the num-
ber of staff needed to collect
the fee, and so the costs for
the new collections infrastruc-
ture would have to be revised
down.
Doug Rockwell, another lo-
cal resident, questioned the ve-
racity of the JCESA's fee col-
lection projections and also
pointed out that the amount
collected appeared to exceed
the amount that would be need-
ed by a considerable margin.
Rockwell said raising proper-
ty taxes tO pay for firefight-
ers would be preferable to in-
stituting a fee, since state and
local taxes can be claimed as
federal deductions, whereas
fees cannot.
Though the residential fee
has been lowered some 18
percent, the JCESA's finan-
cial forecast predicts it will
raise the same level of fund-
ing, approximately $2.9 mil-
lion. as it predicted the origi-
nal fee would raise.
Hannon said the JCESA re-
vised down its cost estimates
and had accordingly revised
down its proposed fee level.
He added that the current cost
and collection estimates were
only drafts and were in need
of revision.
"There was a $200,000
oversight. We just found that
out, and that was applied,"
Hannon said. "This is a very
fluid thing. We are continu-
ing to work on it."
The law says everyone
has an "estate".
Who's getting yours?
Established 1844
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