WV MetroNews
The Voice of West Virginia
MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. — Photo gallery from John Marshall’s 6-5 win over Brooke on Senior Night.
(Photo gallery courtesy of Robert Ovies Sports Photography)
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ELEANOR, W.Va. — Organizers are getting ready to host food trucks for an annual event on Putnam County Fairgrounds in Eleanor.
The 6th annual West Virginia Food Festival will be held from 1-5 p.m. Saturday.
More than a dozen food trucks will be on site. Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Kelli Steele said the food is the highlight in addition to craft beer, live music and outdoor games.
“We always have some lawn games. You can play cornhole, lawn Jenga, Connect 4, people can toss the Frisbee around,” Steele said during an appearance on “580 Live” hosted by Dave Allen on 580-WCHS.
There’s a VIP ticket option from 12-1 p.m. Tickets are free after 1 p.m.
“It gives people an opportunity to make sure that they’re not waiting in line for an extra long line and to try multiple trucks before the lines get crowded,” Steele said.
Proceeds will go to benefit the Putnam County Library System.
“Each year we choose a different non-profit partner and any profits that are received from the festival, along with proceeds from our raffle basket and donations, go to a different non-profit each year and this year is the Friends of the Putnam Library,” Steele said.
To view a list of the food truck vendors and find more information about Saturday’s event, visit wvfoodtruckfestival.com.
The Putnam County CVB and Chamber of Commerce are hosting the event.
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BECKLEY, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Joe Manchin spoke Friday to members of the American Postal Workers Union at their annual convention in Beckley.
Manchin fielded a number of questions about the U.S. Postal Service and he also talked about the recent decision by the USPS to change the operations at the processing and distribution facility in Charleston at Southridge to a local processing center.
Manchin said he’s still waiting for the agency to answer his request for an audit of how the decision was made.
“There’s no need for them to delay this audit because they had to make a decision. Just show us how you made this decision and we’ll tell you if the audit is going to be acceptable or not,” Manchin said.
A review of the Charleston operation began last November. A decision was announced April 2 that some operations will be heading to Pittsburgh, PA and Pennwood, PA.
Manchin wants to know why.
“Tell us why you did what you did–why you changed everything,” he said.
Manchin said he can’t be convinced that moving some of the operations to Pittsburgh will be more efficient.
“Most of Charleston (Processing & Distribution Center) serves the rural area, when you look at West Virginia as we know it and you look over in Kentucky and down into Virginia and those are all rural areas. And you tell me that Pittsburgh will be able to serve them? I don’t think so but we’ll see,” Manchin said.
Initial results from the postal service projected the loss of 26 positions at the Charleston facility with the move. Union officials have said they believe the number will be higher.
WJLS Radio Reporter Keith Thompson contributed to this story.
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department has identified the man killed in a truck crash earlier this week near Morgantown.
Deputies said Bradley Fairman, 57, of Fairmont, lost control of the box truck he was driving on Smithtown Road near the intersection with Smithtown School Road at 7:21 p.m. Wednesday.
Investigators said the truck struck a large culvert.
When first responders got to Fairmont he was unresponsive and was later pronounced dead.
The crash investigation is ongoing, according to Sheriff Perry Palmer.
Volunteer firefighters from Triune Halleck and Clinton District, Mon EMS and Marion EMS assisted at the scene.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The new state Fire Hydrant Maintenance and Testing Task Force has less than 60 days to recommend a package of rules to the state Public Service Commission that will govern the testing, inspection and marking of fire hydrants across the state.
The PSC ordered a general investigation last year after a few situations where fires occurred and fire hydrants weren’t working or provided very little water. The state legislature followed that action with a bill this year that allows the PSC to establish rules governing hydrants. The PSC created the task force to recommend the rules.
The task force, which met for the first time Friday afternoon, has until June 30 to get its proposals to the PSC.
PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane told task force members their work would be key.
“This is an important endeavor,” Lane said. “I hope you can have a free and open discussion and give us a lot of good information from all of the expertise that you all have with fire hydrants.”
Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, told task force members what they were doing would end up saving lives.
“We want to hopefully come to a body of regulations which is workable,” Linville said. “There’s no reason to put forward regulations that no one can outright comply with.”
PSC staff member Jonathan Fowler, a longtime worker in the PSC’s engineering division, told the task force last year’s study showed there are 49,906 fire hydrants across the state, operated by approximately 250 water utilities. West Virginia American Water Company owns more than anyone else at 10,548.
Fowler told the task force the most obvious thing the study turned up is there are no codified state requirements relating specifically to the testing, inspection and marking of fire hydrants.
Fowler said not enough utilities are testing the water flow through their systems and hydrants.
“We found out that only 42% of water systems reported that they had written hydrant inspection procedures even though those procedures are readily available for free to the public utility,” Fowler said.
Upcoming changes to hydrants, including possibly replacing them, will come at a cost. The PSC asked the legislature before this year’s session to approve a $70 million hydrant replacement program over a 10-year period but Fowler said the request wasn’t taken up.
“We didn’t get the money so that’s the end of that,” he said.
Linville said he hopes the coming improvements won’t hit customers too hard.
“Obviously, we want to make sure it has a minimal impact to ratepayers as possible but clearly this is a responsibility that we all share to make sure this infrastructure works,” Linville said.
The next meeting of the task force was not immediately scheduled.
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WEST VIRGINIA — The opportunity to get rid of unneeded, unused, or expired prescription medications is here again for the first time this year.
As local and state law enforcement agencies, substance use prevention organizations get ready to team up to host Drug Take Back Day this Saturday, April 27, health officials area laying out why such a move is important for people’s health and safety.
State Health Officer Dr. Matthew Christiansen with the Department of Health told MetroNews that ridding the home space of those old medications helps prevent medication misuse, which contributes to the ongoing substance use crisis and drug overdose epidemic, and it keeps them from falling into the wrong hands.
“The most important thing is really making sure that family members, kids, even pets, who sometimes get a hold of bottles of pills that could be controlled substances or other dangerous medications not intended for those individuals and can really cause harm when consumed by the unintended recipient, does not do so,” Christiansen said.
Christiansen said Substance Use Disorder can affect anyone.
He said one of the worst case scenarios that comes out of leaving those unused pill bottles lying around is having loved ones pick them and use them, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and contributes to the cause of addiction or worsens their addiction symptoms.
He adds that prescription pills, specifically opioids, benzodiazepines, and stimulants can all be misused and can contribute to the ongoing crisis.
However, Christiansen said overtime, health experts have noticed that opioid prescriptions have declined, and he said it’s events like Drug Take Back that can help further dispose of them for good.
“We’re hopeful that as people get the messages about these Drug Take Back Days, that if they do have, specifically opioids, benzodiazepines, stimulants or other controlled substances in their pill cabinets, they use these opportunities to make sure that their families and friends are safe,” he said.
The Drug Enforcement Administration partners with law enforcement agencies nationwide for National Drug Take Back Day which they host on the last Saturdays in April and October.
Christiansen said he recommends taking the medications to a Drug Take Back event so they can be properly disposed of through the DEA rather than trying to dispose of them on one’s own by flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away in the garbage.
He said the twice-a-year event gives people the opportunity to be safe rather than sorry.
“Most importantly, make sure they’re out of your pill box or out of your medicine cabinet and are not at risk of causing addiction or substance use in your loved ones,” Christiansen said.
There’s a number of Drug Take Back locations that will be set up across the state Saturday.
You can visit DEA/ Drug Take Back, enter your location on the Collection Site Locator tool on the webpage, and find a location near you that will be conducting an event.
Most locations will be collecting tablets, capsules, patches and other solid forms of prescription drugs, and will not accept syringes, sharps or illicit drugs. Liquid products such as cough syrups should remain tightly sealed in their original container.
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LOGAN, W.Va. — Photo gallery from Logan’s 10-0 win over Chapmanville. Luke Blankenship pitched a shutout for the Wildcats.
(Photo gallery courtesy of Boothe Davis/Captured by the Moment Photography)
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The state Department of Health announced Friday that contact tracing has been done in connection with the first positive case of measles in the state in 15 years.
State Health Officer Dr. Matthew Christiansen said health workers have learned 152 people were potentially exposed to the confirmed case from Monongalia County. He said 128 of them are West Virginia residents from 30 counties and 24 are out-of-state contacts from four neighboring states.
Christiansen told MetroNews Friday state health officials have been working closely with the Monongalia County Health Department to ensure they have adequate supplies for testing measles as well as ensuring the availability of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine in Monongalia County. Additionally, they are assisting in the contact-tracing process.
“To ensure they have the adequate resources, support, and expertise to do contact tracing around this one measles case that we have,” Christiansen said. “This is the first measles case we’ve had in 15 years.”
Measles is a highly contagious disease spread through the air by coughing or sneezing. Symptoms include a high fever, inflamed eyes, a sore throat, and a blotchy red skin rash. The symptoms do not appear until 10 to 14 days after exposure.
“It is something we’re watching very closely and making sure we can stop this in its tracks and keep other vulnerable people from getting sick,” Christiansen said.
As many as 62 of those potentially exposed don’t have documentation of adequate protection against the measles and are considered high-risk. Those without evidence of immunity are being asked to quarantine until May 9 or May 10 depending on their last date of exposure.
“For those that do not have adequate documentation, we’re recommending they see their health care provider to get what are called titer tests done to test antibody levels to see if they’re protected or not, or to self-isolate,” Christiansen said.
The measles vaccine is generally administered in two doses, with the first recommended between 12 and 15 months of age. The second dose is recommended between four and six years and, in West Virginia, is required before entering kindergarten. Those without evidence of immunity, adults born after 1957, should get at least one dose of the MMR vaccine, and two appropriately spaced doses of the MMR vaccine are recommended for healthcare personnel, college students, and international travelers.
“If they’re born before 1957, we do recommend they get another dose of MMR if they don’t have other evidence of protection through titer or another measure,” Christiansen said. “We encourage people to reach out to their health care provider.”
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United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts contends newly-final federal rules on power plants represent a nail in the coffin for coal mining.
“We are analyzing the potential impact of this rule on our membership and will have more to say after that analysis is completed,” Roberts said this week.
“At first glance, however, this rule looks to set the funeral date for thermal coal mining in America for 2032 – just seven and a half years away – along with the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are directly and indirectly associated with it.”
Under the EPA rule announced this wee, coal plants that plan to stay open beyond 2039 would have to cut or capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032. Plants that expect to retire by 2039 would face a less stringent standard but still would have to capture some emissions. Coal plants that are set to retire by 2032 would not be subject to the new rules.
EPA’s rules come under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. EPA described the announcement as providing regulatory certainty as the power sector makes long-term investments in the transition to a clean energy economy.
“By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
The UMW’s Roberts, in a statement and on MetroNews’ “Talkline,” expressed doubt that technological innovations like carbon capture and storage are truly feasible or affordable as a way or continuing to use fossil fuels.
“There’s not anything we’ve found that would point in any other direction because carbon capture and sequestration is not available at this point in time, and it’s not cost efficient at this time,” Roberts said on statewide radio.
“Since we don’t have the technology, it looks to us as if 2032, if this rule stands as us, coal power power plants couldn’t operate after 2032.”
Roberts said the changes threaten the livelihood of members of the United Mine Workers. He said the rollout of the EPA’s power plant rules does not fulfill the administration’s promises to coalfield communities.
“I’m not trying to pick a fight with anybody, but I’m not going to mislead anybody either,” he said. “Part of the understanding was there would be jobs come to Appalachia — anywhere coal is currently being mined where power plants might close, coal mines might close — there would be good-paying union jobs to take their place. That has not happened either.”
The power plant announcement drew criticism from West Virginia political officials.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, ranking member of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, said she would introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to overturn the emissions rules.
Senator Joe Manchin predicted court challenges to the EPA’s new rule and projected the Senate Energy Committee that he leads would file a brief in support of the challenge. “And I’ll guarantee you, we will win in court.”
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican who is running for governor, vowed a court challenge.
Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican who is running for U.S. Senate, blasted the EPA during an appearance Thursday at a West Virginia Coal Association event in Wheeling.
“The EPA and White House’s tone is clear: West Virginia doesn’t matter. We are being told to close our facilities and send workers home without considering the economic impact. All West Virginians need to support our miners right now,” Justice said.
“I refuse to accept that thousands of hardworking West Virginians in our plants and mines are expendable. I promise you, not under my watch.”
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BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — The deadline to apply for the 2024 West Virginia Scholar Program is this Sunday.
The program, now in its 17th year, includes a four-year scholarship to West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon. One high school junior in the state will be selected for the scholarship valued at approximately $160,000.
WVRC Media, the parent company of MetroNews, is partnering with Wesleyan to provide the scholarship that includes free tuition, fees, and room and board.
“It actually covers that as the costs change during the year, so they’ll know that for the future their student costs at the college are all covered,” John Waltz, vice president of admissions at Wesleyan, said on Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Students who apply can also be considered for other prizes and admission to Wesleyan, Waltz said.
“They’re getting a head start on applying to college. This is their application to West Virginia Wesleyan so they will have already applied to college and when September rolls around, they’ll already be into that process,” he said.
Waltz said students have to be well-rounded in their community and participate in extracurricular activities in addition to having a solid GPA. He said a lot of talented scholarship winners have gone on to do great things in the state over the years.
“Having done this for 17 years, we see people living and working in West Virginia as doctors, attorneys, working in politics, working in education, working in all the different fields you can imagine. It’s been really amazing to see that happen,” Waltz said.
Fifteen finalists will be announced next month. Each finalist will next go through a personal interview process and a review by the sponsors. The winner will be announced in June.
Th sponsors for the 2024 West Virginia Scholar Program include Greer Industries, Friends of Coal, West Viriginia Hospital Association, ZMM Architects & Engineers, the West Virginia Farm Bureau and West Virginia Wesleyan College.
To apply for the West Virginia Scholar Program, CLICK HERE.
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