This week, ballads tell stories about all kinds of real-life events, but after Hurricane Helene, one group of ballad singers felt some topics were still too raw. Also, the author of a new book on ancient Ohio credits a former grad student with introducing him to the region’s mysterious earthworks. And, the legacy of Affrilachian poet Norman Jordan includes a summer camp for teens to study their heritage.
Federal Funds Will Help Redesign Monongalia Highway Interchange
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A transportation project in Monongalia County will receive millions of dollars in federal funds.
The Monongalia County Commission will receive more than $50 million to redesign Exit 155 on Interstate 79. The project has multiple components including replacing I-79 bridges over Chaplin Hill Road, reconstructing the exit 155 interchange, west bound I-79 flyover reconstruction, and a pedestrian and bicycle connection between the Star City bridge and the regional rail-to-trail network.
The redesign hopes to address several issues including the intersection’s higher than average crash rate, addressing a freight bottleneck, improving access to a job training center for individuals with disabilities, and reconnecting communities separated by I-79 just outside of Morgantown.
The project will also provide a new connection to the 48-mile rail-to-trail network that serves the region.
Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) Program provides funding for large, complex projects that are difficult to fund by other means and likely to generate national or regional economic, mobility or safety benefits.
When Marion County attorney Scott Summers realized Grant Town was planning to tear down an historic building, he decided to see what he could do to stop it.
Indigenous people created hundreds of earthen monuments in what is now Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. John E. Hancock, a professor of architecture and design at the University of Cincinnati, spent years studying these earthworks. He published a guidebook for visiting them. Inside Appalachia’s Bill Lynch spoke with Hancock about the book.
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