David Adkins, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

City of Huntington Receives Donation Of Life-Saving Naloxone

The West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute donated 1,000 units of 8mg naloxone to the Huntington Police Department and to the Cabell-Huntington Coalition for the Homeless, otherwise known as the Harmony House.

The City of Huntington is getting some help in stopping opioid overdose deaths.

The West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute donated 1,000 units of 8mg naloxone from Hikma Pharmaceuticals to the Huntington Police Department and to the Cabell-Huntington Coalition for the Homeless, otherwise known as the Harmony House.

The donated overdose reversal medication, naloxone, comes in the form of nasal spray kits.

“We know in particular, Cabell County and Kanawha County are hit the hardest at the moment, and so this is where we’re focusing a lot of our energy and outreach,” President of the The West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute Susan Bissett said.

President of the West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute Susan Bissett, Huntington Police Chief Karl Colder, Doctor Sydnee McElroy, Harmony House Executive Director Amanda Coleman, and Director of the Mayor’s Office of Drug Control Policy and Public Health Jan Rader

Huntington Police Chief Karl Colder said that the large amounts of fentanyl police see and the harm the drug represents is a stark reminder of the many lives potentially lost without naloxone.

“Recently we had about 300 grams of fentanyl seized, which was equivalent to 155,000 people that could have been harmed,” Colder said. You look at the numbers, you look at the risk, not only for our officers who respond, but they can also save lives as well.”

Among the boxes delivered are emergency kits developed by ONEbox. These kits are designed with a 1 minute video tutorial by Jan Rader in both English and Spanish. Along with a video player inside the kit, the tutorial will also be made available online.

ONEbox CEO Joe Murphy giving a demonstration of naloxone emergency kit, with President of the The West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute Susan Bissett on the right.

“Anybody who comes in, they’re offered naloxone, all the staff here are trained and carry naloxone,” executive director of Harmony House, Amanda Coleman said. “This is huge for us to have something that isn’t injectable naloxone. This is much easier to use, people are less nervous about it.”

Joe Murphy, CEO of ONEbox, said that he hopes naloxone can become a standard part of workplace first-aid kits.

“Think about how many first aid kits we have out there. This is an opportunity for us to make this just available in our workplaces and to take that stigma away,” Murphy said.

The West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute plans on distributing more emergency kits with tutorials when manufacturing is complete in August.

Fairfield District Mural Honors Huntington Community’s Black Heritage

A large crowd gathered at the Unlimited Future Incubator in the Fairfield district of Huntington for the unveiling of the second mural in the Past to Our Future: 3 Building Mural Project.

The incubator regularly engages in community revitalization projects in Fairfield, such as the mural project. It aims to paint murals on prominent buildings in the Fairfield community that reflect the community’s Black American heritage.

“The beauty of this is to recognize those who have done so much within our community,” Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said. “We’re able to walk and drive by here and be able to see the history of Fairfield, the history of Huntington, the history of the Ohio River Valley, and indeed, and let’s make sure that everybody knows it, the history of West Virginia is celebrated in each of these individuals.”

Mitzi Sinnott, organizer of the mural project, introducing Huntington Mayor Steve Williams

Betsy Casañas is the mural artist of the mural. She is from Philadelphia and is the director of a Seed on Diamond Gallery and founder of Semilla Arts Initiative.

Mitzi Sinnott, organizer of the mural project, said that Casañas was chosen because of her specific ability to paint on non-flat surfaces, and for her ability to reflect the community she’s painting for.

“She chose the river birch tree, which is indigenous to the Ohio River Valley. She was talking about putting the people we choose to honor inside of birch leaves,” Sinnott said. “If you look at the mural, the woman, she is the divine feminine, who is the bridge between the heavens and earth, and we are rooted by her on Earth. So her roots are there and she actually is becoming a tree.”

Woman in the center of Betsy Casañas’ mural

Bishop Samuel Moore is one of the people included in the mural.

“To have your picture on this, I mean, it’s just overwhelming,” Moore said. “It’s very humbling to me, because it will be here for a long time. I came here from Huntington for Bluefield in 1985, and so this community, we’ve embraced it, and it’s embraced us.”.

Founders of The Unlimited Future Incubator and Mitzi Sinnott

The mural project began with Ernel Martinez’s mural on the side of Ebenezer Daycare and will continue with the J.W. Scott Center. For more information, you can visit the project’s website at www.unlimitedfuture.org/3buildingmural/.

State Legislators Receive Update On Ascend WV Program

State legislators got an update on the Ascend West Virginia program from Chelsea Ruby, Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Tourism and Danny Twilley, Assistant Vice President of the West Virginia University Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative

During Monday’s legislative interim meetings, Chelsea Ruby, Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Tourism, and Danny Twilley, Assistant Vice President of the West Virginia University Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative, gave the West Virginia Legislative Oversight Commission on Workforce Investment for Economic Development an update on Ascend WV.

In exchange for moving to the West Virginia towns of Morgantown, Shepherdstown, and Lewisburg, workers were paid $12,000, given access to professional development through West Virginia University, co-working facilities, and one year of free passes and two years of free rentals for outdoor recreation as part of the Ascend WV Program.

For the Ascend program in Morgantown, 7500 people applied for 50 spots. The applications came from all 50 states and from more than 70 countries.

Of the people who eventually moved to Morgantown, 23 percent originally hailed from the Mountain State. One of the new Morgantown residents hailed from Berlin.

“We’ve really seen a very diverse set of applicants,” said Ruby.

Contrary to earlier estimates, the program didn’t primarily appeal to people working remotely in the tech industry.

“There’s healthcare, computer systems, manufacturing, management, and then professional services,” she said.

The primary challenge was finding housing for new residents. Ruby indicated that the tax incentives from the recent passing of the Build WV Act will make it easier to find housing for new residents.

“The hope is that we can find some private developers to help us do that work rather than the state or WVU taking on that type of rehabilitation,” Ruby said.

Danny Twilley told legislatures that Ascend WV doesn’t just incentivize individuals to West Virginia, but tries to help them join the local community with events.

“We ask them to bring their families along with their significant others because, again, it’s all about building that sense of community and sense of belongingness,” said Twilley.

Secretary Ruby said the program was successful in presenting the state as a place to work remotely and even retire. She added that data shows Ascend advertising having a positive effect on the state’s image.

“The exposure of this Ascend program is really starting to get some traction. People are really starting to think about West Virginia as a place to work remotely,” she said. “That data shows Ascend advertising having a positive effect on the state’s image. These tourism ads layering on top of the remote worker ads are also starting to help, and we are continuing to improve West Virginia’s image overall.”

Ascend WV looks to expand to 1000 remote workers across five West Virginia towns.

Huntington Residents Affected By Floods Will Soon Benefit From Marshall University Thrift Store

Huntington residents affected by the recent floods will soon benefit from a thrift store run by Marshall University for students.

Under normal circumstances, the Marshall University Thrift Store takes items donated from dormitory housing to be resold to students at a reduced rate. Items at the thrift store include clothing, furniture, sheets, pillows, and home appliances.

Next week, the thrift store is giving away 60 bins of donated items to members of the Huntington community affected by the May 6th flood.

With student volunteers living off campus during the summer, the Marshall University Sustainability Department is looking for community volunteers to help sort through items from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and operate the store during the give-away. The Marshall University Sustainability Department will supply lunch to volunteers.

You can volunteer for the flood relief event here.

The thrift store is located at 331 Hal Greer Boulevard in Huntington. The Marshall University Thrift store will be giving out store items to residents Monday, May 23rd, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Marshall University To Help Unlock The Secrets Of Water Bears

The National Science Foundation awarded Marshall University a $366,624 grant to study tardigrades in a partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The National Science Foundation awarded Marshall University a $366,624 grant to study how protective structures adopted by tardigrades help protect them from their environment. The study will be part of a partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Tardigrades, also known as water bears or moss piglets, are micro-animals that are found in almost every place on earth. They are known for being able to survive the harshest environments.

“Tardigrades produce these compounds known as free radicals, which are reactive chemical species, when they’re exposed to stressors,” said Derrick Kolling, chair of the Marshall University Department of Chemistry.

You can see responses to extreme conditions in nature, but the reason why tardigrades are unique is their vast variety of responses to environmental stressors such as vacuums, UV radiation, dehydration, high salt concentration, and freezing temperatures. A common response by tardigrades includes forming into a tun.

“Forming this structure called a tun, they sort-of shrink down; extrude water, and then they can stay in that state for a very long period of time,” Kolling said.

When a tardigrade is stressed, it enters a quasi-death state. The animal retracts its head and its eight legs and curls into a dried-up ball.

According to Kolling, looking into these chemical structures could help development in space travel and pharmaceutical storage. They might even help fight against aging.

“Throughout our lives, we develop damage in our bodies,” Kolling said. “Not that we’re necessarily going to form one of these protective states, but these things might give us insight into how humans might protect our DNA.”

In a partnership with Robert C. Byrd Institute, the research team is starting the Tardigrade Trading Post outreach program. The trading post will send scientific kits designed by the research team to be used by citizen researchers. This includes students K-12; what Kolling referred to as little citizen scientists.

The Robert C. Byrd Institute is designing 3D printed microscopes that citizen researchers can use to gather tardigrades from their backyards. On top of providing young students an opportunity to learn about micro-species, Kolling hopes that this will help the team harvest a wide variety of tardigrade species.

“A lot of water bear species are parthenogenic, which means that you only need the female to reproduce so they can reproduce asexually,” Kolling said. “I think the odds of finding a new species are pretty decent, especially if people are willing to go to places like Dolly Sods. We could raise them in the lab. If we find interesting conditions, we would characterize them genetically.”

The grant will support the graduate and undergraduate student research team for the next three years.

Derrick Kolling, chair of the Marshall University Department of Chemistry

Gov. Jim Justice And Huntington Mayor Discuss Steps For Flood Prevention

Gov. Jim Justice joins Huntington Mayor Steve Williams at Four-Pole Creek to discuss flooding.

Gov. Jim Justice and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams met alongside Four-Pole Creek Monday morning to discuss flood prevention and response.

Justice said that once the damage is assessed, the State needs to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lessen pressure from flood bottlenecks. “Get these people qualified for FEMA,” he said. “If that’s possible.”

Gov. Jim Justice and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams Outlining The Four-Pole Creek Watershed

Justice and Williams both emphasized that flooding needs to be addressed on the local, county, and state level due to the wide geographical reach of the problem and the high cost of engineering solutions.

“All of us, the mayor, the governor, the house, the Senate, try to do anything and everything we can with dollars that we have available to try to help these folks,” Justice said.

Gov. Jim Justice and Huntington First Responders

The Four-Pole Creek watershed covers the majority of Huntington and its surrounding areas. A series of county waterways converge into Four-Pole Creek, and bottlenecks starting at the Enslow community, often the site of the city’s worst flooding.

Concrete changes the shape of a watershed, reducing absorption and increasing runoff. Justice and Williams noted that infrastructure must be built in a way that promotes development and prevents overflows.

“We want development all over the state of West Virginia,” Williams said. “In order for us to have the development that we know that we want, that we deserve, we also have to make sure that we have the capacity in place to be able to prepare.”

Justice encouraged West Virginia citizens affected by the flood to document the damage and contact the West Virginia Emergency Management Division at emd.wv.gov.