State News

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Through a team effort between the Morgantown Area Partnership  and the Preston County Economic Development Authority , the area is now included in the BUILD WV territory to incentivize the construction of affordable housing.

MAP President and CEO Russ Rogerson said qualifying housing development projects within a 20-mile radius of Browns Mill, WV, can receive state sales and use tax exemptions for building materials and a 10-year property value adjustment refundable tax credit to defray building costs. The Browns Mill location was selected as the center point in order to maximize the area of land in each county.

Projects eligible for the BUILD WV Act must meet the following criteria:

–be in a certified BUILD WV Act District.

–generate approved costs greater than $3 million, or include at least six units or houses.

–create a significant positive economic impact on the state.

–the project will directly or indirectly improve opportunities in the area where the project will be located for the successful establishment or expansion of other commercial businesses.

–provide additional employment opportunities in the state.

“The developer now needs to get their project certified by the state, and that is an important step,” Rogerson said. “Once they do that, it becomes more of an administrative process to receive the sales tax credit.”

The program was created by state lawmakers in 2022 and is managed by the West Virginia Department of Development. Applications must get the approval of state Commerce Secretary of Commerce, Chelsea Ruby, Secretary of the Department of Tourism, and Mitch Carmichael, Secretary of the Department of Economic Development.

PCEDA Executive Director Roberta “Robbie” Baylor said local developers are prepared to take advantage of the program.

“For our district, we actually had a developer that came to us and asked to apply for this status because they wanted to take advantage of it,” Baylor said.

A tight monetary policy leading to rising interest rates and high inflation is forcing many developers to pump the brakes on new construction.

“Say, somebody is looking at the increased cost of development, and their numbers aren’t quite as attractive as they need to be; building material processes are up,” Rogerson said.

Baylor said the program incentivizes the construction of workforce-affordable homes for families, but not necessarily low-income homes.

“The hope is it will provide incentives to builders to develop, not low-income, but workforce affordable housing in both Preston and Monongalia Counties,” Baylor said.

Co-owner of Metro Properties David Biafora told WAJR News the program would be of value to some developers.

“On a $5 million project, if you can save at least the 6-percent sales tax to the state,” Biafora said. “That goes a long way against the rent.”

The post Monongalia, Preston counties now part of Build WV District incentive program appeared first on WV MetroNews.

POCA, W.Va. — The body of a Putnam County man was recovered Thursday afternoon after he died earlier this week while kayaking near Poca.

Putnam County Sheriff Bobby Eggleton said Joseph Thomas, 57, of Poca, drowned on the Poca River Tuesday.

“He was last seen on the 30th (Tuesday) when a missing persons report was filed by his ex-wife,” Eggleton said. “He was last seen in a kayak on the Poca River. He was not wearing a life preserver.”

Eggleton said no foul play is suspected. He said it’s a tragic reminder of how important it is to be safe around the water.

“We’re fast approaching the boating season and we encourage people to have a good time but be safe. A life preserver is not only required in a kayak but it’s only commonsense to wear one,” Eggleton said.

Thomas’ body, which was brought down to the boat ramp at Raymond City after it was discovered, has been sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

The post Body recovered after drowning in Putnam County appeared first on WV MetroNews.

WINFIELD. W.Va. — Putnam County voters will find a school excess levy question at the bottom of their primary election ballot when they go to the polls.

It’s a continuation of the excess levy which has been in place since 1949.

“It does not increase the tax rate and it is a continuation,” said Putnam County School Superintendent John Hudson.

The excess levy helps fund a number of different areas of the school system. It allows for the hiring of additional personnel above the state aid formula. Hudson said the additional personnel help improve student instruction.

The $23.7 million levy also covers the cost for many areas of school security. The salaries of some School Resource Officers and the cost of safety equipment and upgrades are funded by the levy. There are also dollars from the levy to supplement extra curricular activities like sports or fine arts programs in the county. Transportation to sporting events for teams is one of the costs covered by the levy. Teaching supplies and instructional materials along with programs like 4-H and the Putnam County public library also get a chunk of the funding.

Hudson said county taxpayers are getting their money’s worth out of the excess levy.

“The last two years in West Virginia among public school systems we’ve been number one on the reading and math assessments,” Hudson said.

He added it’s an important funding source even if you don’t have children in the school system. Hudson stressed the money helps enhance education in the county and becomes a huge factor for those who are looking to move into the region.

“Parents really move into this area because of the school system and the economics and community minded folks we have here in Putnam. That increases home values and it has an economic effect on all people in Putnam County,” he said.

The levy needs only a majority of the voters’ approval to be renewed.

The post School system excess levy before Putnam County voters appeared first on WV MetroNews.

Reacting to protests on campuses across the country, President Joe Biden today said people have the right to free speech but not if it turns violent.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito, during a briefing today, said the president’s remarks have come too late.

“My question to him would be, where have you been?'” said Capito, R-W.Va. “We’ve seen violence break out on campuses all across the country — here in Washington at George Washington University’s campus, obviously Columbia, UCLA.

“I think that this should have been a speech the president made weeks ago as you could see this mounting and so now you have property destruction, you have Jewish students at Columbia being told not to come to class, you have Jewish professors fearing for their safety on campus. This is an abominable, appalling situation.”

College campuses across the country have been roiled by protests of how Israel’s operations in Gaza are being conducted. In most cases, protesters are pushing college officials to “divest” from companies that do business with Israel or that could benefit financially from the military operations.

Typically that refers to college endowments that are invested in stocks, bonds or other financial instruments.

Some of the statements, chants and signage have been criticized as crossing into antisemitism. 

On some campuses, the situation has grown increasingly confrontational. At Columbia University in New York, police this week removed protesters who were occupying a building. Police this morning dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California at Los Angeles. Police clashed with protesters this week at University of Wisconsin in Madison.

President Biden today said protesters should be free to express their opinions, but that violence is not acceptable.

“Violent protest is not protected,” Biden said. “Peaceful protest is. It’s against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancelation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest.

“Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law. Dissent is essential to democracy but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education.”

He continued, “There should be no place on any campus, no place in America, for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.”

Capito said college leaders should go farther in regaining control of campuses.

“When you see the aftermath of the destruction that these protesters went through, I think they ought to expel every student that’s involved with that, every professor should be fired and the federal funds should be withdrawn because it is breaking the law,” Capito said.

Capito said she had not yet seen Biden’s remarks but, “I hope he came out really strong today because this situation, if you don’t nip it in the bud, you can see it’s growing and growing and who knows what a hot summer is going to bring.

“Some of the slogans that these protesters are advocating for are things that were, you know, in Nazi Germany. I mean, how can this be happening? We need to protect our Jewish friends and family from this oppressive antisemitism.”

Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom in Wheeling said on MetroNews’ “Talkline” today said some of the chants on college campuses are heartbreaking.

“Calling for the death of all Jews everywhere is pretty horrible, and it’s doubly heartbreaking that the administrators of some colleges can’t determine that that’s hateful speech,” Lief said.

He said college leaders have been slow to push back on some of the protest activity.

“I think that just as they don’t wish to impinge on the free speech rights of the students who are protesting, they have an equal — if not greater — responsibility to protect the physical safety of the Jewish students who are being targeted and threatened and in some cases attacked,” Lief said.

“I don’t think the situation is a peaceful protest when you have people violently taking over private property and barricading themselves in it and threatening physical harm against those who are Jewish, regardless of their views on Israel. It’s pretty horrible.”

The post Capito: Biden’s statement against campus violence and hate speech is overdue appeared first on WV MetroNews.

Trey Lathan is making news.

In his first season at West Virginia University, he left his mark as a rising star on the football field and as a successful entrepreneur.

In this episode, Trey visits the “Guys” to talk about his debut season and the future of WVU football.  He also talks about his post-football future and aspirations in the business world.

Listener questions and comments complete the show.

Trey’s visit to 3 Guys was made possible by Daniels Men’s Store of Morgantown.

Three Guys Before The Game is sponsored by — Komax Business Systems  —-  GoMart   — – and Lou Wendell Marine Sales.

Don’t forget to check out Three Guys merchandise.

Never miss an episode, it’s free, subscribe below.

The post 3 Guys Before The Game – West Virginia University Linebacker Trey Lathan Visits (Episode 551) appeared first on WV MetroNews.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The April 2 storm that included 10 tornadoes in West Virginia cost Appalachian Power at least $30 million.

Company spokesperson Karen Wissing said they’re still totaling up the final numbers but it was one of the worst hits to the system since $70 million in damages from the 2012 Derecho and Superstorm Sandy.

That $30 million is a combination of damage and storm response, Wissing said.

“It includes our mutual aid that came to help us restore power. It includes the equipment that needed to be replaced, any and all costs,” Wissing said.

Here’s a list of some of what was replaced by more than 3,000 workers:

–468 power poles

–716 cross-arms

–234 transformers

–52,2 miles of wire

There were 2,300 outage orders and 74 total circuit outages.

“Our vice president of distribution said it was the highest number of circuit outages he has seen in his career,” Wissing said.

Most customers were back on line within three to four days. Wissing said flooding the serve area with thousands of workers from outside the state was key.

“Fortunately we were able to secure thousands of outside resources to come to our aid and thankfully restore power to roughly 100,000 customers within 48 hours,” Wissing said.

West Virginia Public Service Commission Chair Charlotte Lane previously praised the utility for its response to last month’s storm.

“Losing power is a frightening and painful experience for everyone involved,” Lane said. “I believe these companies deserve special credit for their heroic efforts to so quickly put right what these devastating storms did to our state residents.”

Praise also came from longtime Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper, who has been one of Appalachian Power’s sharpest critics in recent years.

“I think they’re response has been as good as I’ve ever seen,” Carper told MetroNews on April 4, two days after the storm hit.

Recovery

Appalachian Power will turn to its customers to recover the $30 million in damages.

Wissing said they’ll do so in a future filing with the PSC and they’ll ask to do it over a several year period.

“We do plan to seek recovery over a period of years in a future proceeding,” Wissing said. “The reason we do it over a period of years because we want to take our customers into consideration because in a one-year period the cost would be too much and we certainly want to be fair to our customers.”

The PSC already allows Appalachian Power to collect about $18 million a year as part of its base rate for storm response. The $30 million would be above and beyond the annual cost.

Appalachian Power took a similar path after those 2012 storms when it sought recovery of nearly $70 million in its 2014 base rate case. The PSC granted recovery over five years.

Record tornadoes

There were 10 tornadoes that were part of the storm, all in the Appalachian Power service area.

The National Weather Service, which said it was a record breakout for one day, confirmed those tornadoes in Fayette, Kanawha, Putnam, Cabell and Wayne counties.

The post April 2 storm cost Appalachian Power $30 million, utility will seek recovery over several years appeared first on WV MetroNews.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice’s state of emergency he declared earlier this week due to ongoing problems with the free application for federal student aid, also known as FAFSA, is making a difference, according to the state Higher Education Policy Commission.

“That action allowed 4,700 students in the state of West Virginia to automatically get scholarships and grants that they deserved,” HEPC Chancellor Dr. Sarah Armstrong Tucker said on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”

The governor’s declaration allows state funding to flow to students without the FAFSA requirement. The move is helping students who have applied for the state’s Promise Scholarship and for the need-based higher education grant.

“We had thousands of students who qualified for grants who weren’t able to get it because they didn’t have a FAFSA,” Tucker said.

Students who apply for the Promise scholarship by Sept.1 will receive an award of up to $5,500 for the coming academic year. If a student completed last year’s FAFSA and qualifies for the need-based higher education grant, they will receive the award of up to $3,400 for the fall semester.

Tucker said they’re working with the state Department of Human Services to get incoming freshman students who don’t have a FAFSA the money they need to go to college.

“We know that if a freshman is coming to one of our institutions and their family qualifies for SNAP, for TANF, for Medicaid, for CHIP, for WIC or for the Child Care Subsidy program, that student is also going to qualify for higher ed grants,” she said.

May 1 is traditionally National College Decision Day for high school seniors, but this year many students are still waiting for critical answers about their financial aid because of the delayed rollout of the government’s new FAFSA form. Colleges and universities are trying to manually get students through the process.

Tucker encourages students to continue applying for the FAFSA despite ongoing problems.

“The maximum amount that they can receive from the federal government is $7,395. That is a lot of money to put toward your college education, so it is worth trying and trying again,” she said.

Tucker directed people to collegeforwv.com or suggested calling the financial aid hotline at 1-877-987-7664.

Earlier this week, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) questioned U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona about problems with the FAFSA to which Cardona replied that the form now takes about 15 minutes to complete.

Gov. Justice said there’s been a 40 percent decline in FAFSA completion for West Virginia high school students this year due to the federal government delay.

The post Tucker says FAFSA state of emergency is helping students pay for college appeared first on WV MetroNews.

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — Detectives from the Upshur County Sheriff’s Department have made four drug-related arrests after serving a search warrant at a home on Randolph Street.

Detectives and members of the Mountain Region Drug and Violent Crime Task Force arrested Crystal Blankenship, 38; Eric Bellomy, 34; Joseph Lane, 34; and Jordan Sines, 27, for possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine as well as conspiracy to possess and deliver methamphetamine.

Officers recovered controlled substances, scales, paraphernalia, and packaging materials.

All four suspects are being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail.

The post Four arrested in Upshur County drug raid appeared first on WV MetroNews.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Professional Charter School Board has been given the green light from the federal government to begin accepting grant applications from charter schools across the state.

The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday approved the board’s Request for Applications (RFA) for Charter Schools Program (CSP) grant funding.

The board’s Executive Director James Paul said the grants will help improve and open more charter schools in West Virginia.

“The RFA is for new charter schools or existing charter schools that are hoping to expand their operations,” Paul said. “What we’re prepared to do and what we’re planning to do this fiscal year is to offer two subgrants: one for a school that’s not yet open and one for a school that seeks to expand.”

Applications from eligible schools be collected soon, according to the board’s Assistant Director Dusty Hurley.

“I would anticipate that within the next week to two weeks at the latest we’ll probably go ahead and publish the RFAs so that potential grant applicants could look at that. Approximately two weeks after that, the grant application period would open and four weeks after that it would close,” Hurley said.

Hurley said the board plans to use a portion of the grant funding to provide technical assistance to charter schools for training and recruitment.

“We are also going to seek a technical assistance contractor to help us solicit charter schools so we have a great pipeline of charter schools that know about West Virginia as a place to open charter schools and also draw from maybe even local interested individuals who might be thinking of a charter school so that we will have new applicants,” she said.

Hurley said they also want to train charter school boards so they can perform their governance more effectively.

West Virginia passed a state law allowing charter schools in 2019.

The post West Virginia charter school board to accept federal grant applications appeared first on WV MetroNews.

Today on MetroNews This Morning:

–A well known Charleston developers is facing prison time for bankruptcy fraud

–A three judge panels removes two members of the Jefferson County Commission from office

–The anticipated special session this month may or may not happen

–In Sports: WVU Basketball gets a guard from the portal and Mountaineer Golf is headed to the NCAA tourney

Listen to “MetroNews This Morning 5-2-24” on Spreaker.

The post MetroNews This Morning 5-2-24 appeared first on WV MetroNews.