BERKELEY SPRINGS — The March meeting for the Region 9 Planning and Development Council, serving Berkeley, Morgan and Jefferson counties, took place at the newly renovated Cacapon State Park Lodge.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., attended the meeting in person to discuss broadband and infrastructure and made comments on the current situation with the Ukraine and Russia.

“I think what is at the top of the mind for everybody is what is going on in the Ukraine, and the invasion by Putin into Ukraine is just … to watch the images on TV, it is just heartbreaking. It seems as if it is deteriorating and getting worse and more brutal,” Capito said.

She mentioned that members of Congress had a Zoom call with Ukraine President Zelenskyy, who Capito thinks has risen to the occasion to inspire his people to fight with what they have.

“Basically, his bottom line in the Zoom call is, ‘We don’t want to pick a fight with Russia. We have like interests here, but we want to be a free country, and we want to associate with the West, and we want what is best for our country and our people.’ His plea to us was, ‘Thank you for the help, but we need a whole lot more help.’”

Capito said that they will be voting on this later.

“I am in full support of banning oil exports into this country, and Sen. Manchin and others are leading this effort. I wish the president would be more forceful on this. We have to figure out a way to bring Putin to his knees — if that can even be done,” she said. “There are a lot of concerns and prayers out there for the Ukrainian people, and the leadership has really stepped up. Their president has been, I think, a terrific leader for them. NATO and the United States have been strong allies.”

Scott Fortney, superintendent of Cacapon State Park, was the guest speaker at the meeting and discussed updates and progress with the park.

“I have been doing this for 27 years,” Fortney explained. “In May, we opened up the new lodge, and that was a $40 million project. We just currently started to open up the south lodge, which was the original lodge.”

He explained there is excitement at the location, with 78 rooms currently and 148 rooms when the other side completely opens. Indoor and outdoor dining, an indoor pool and hot tub, full-service spa and conference centers and event locations are among the offerings at the newly renovated location.

“The park is over 6,000 acres. We have 31 cabins, a swimming lake, golf course, a frisbee disc golf course, horseback riding, trails and mountain bike trails,” Fortney said.

He said that they received an accelerator grant from EMBA, the mountain biking standard.

“It was a $10,000 grant, and we were the first ones to receive it east of the Mississippi,” he said. “That lays out the whole master plan for the whole park and the development of the mountain bike trails.”

Fortney explained there have been several other grants, donations and local funding for these improvements.

Lastly, in an approximate $127 million project, all 31 cabins were remodeled. Fortney said that with the exception of the HVAC, the cabins were locally remodeled using local contracting, appliances, etc. Additionally, the majority of the furniture in the cabins and the lodge came from Gat Creek Furniture.