By Ron Allen, The Hurricane Breeze
On May 8, 2025, the Breeze reported that the Putnam County Commission had voted to enter into a representation agreement with Goodwin & Goodwin in legal proceedings against the Pilot Travel Center in Nitro. Goodwin & Goodwin presents Nitro Construction Services (NCS). Both NCS and Putnam County have issues with Pilot TC concerning traffic flow which could be but has not been addressed by the truck stop. NCS and Pilot are neighbors and share access to First Avenue in Nitro.
Goodwin & Goodwin filed the lawsuit against Pilot in September in Putnam Circuit Court. Pilot caused the case to be moved to federal court October 16.
The Federal Court of the Southern District of West Virginia will now hear the reasons for the lawsuit. At the April 29, 2025 meeting in which the commission gave Goodwin & Goodwin the go-ahead, Commissioner Andy Skidmore said that truckers who are under contract to use Pilot discover, upon exiting I-64, that the travel center is full and there is no turnaround provision. Traffic becomes parallelized for extended periods. The Putnam County Sheriff had previously asked Pilot to put a sign before the exit showing when the lot is full, but the center chose not to respond to the request.
On October 28th, the West Virginia Record reported that Pilot denied the allegations made by the county in a court filing and has asked the case to be dismissed because the county commission failed to state a cause of action upon which relief may be granted.
A “cause of action for relief” is the legal basis for a lawsuit. Pilot appears to believe its failure to warn unsuspecting motorists of waiting time is not a cause of action for relief.