This week, historian Mills Kelly’s love affair with the Appalachian Trail started when he was a boy scout. Also, the region is known for exporting coal, but it’s losing people, too. And, Cuz’s Uptown Barbeque in southwestern Virginia fuses Asian ideas with Appalachian comfort food.
Justice Celebrates Groundbreaking of Wheeling Road Improvement Project
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Gov. Jim Justice and BabyDog were on the corner of Market and 10th Streets in downtown Wheeling Friday morning to break ground on the multimillion dollar road improvement project Wheeling Streetscape Project Friday.
The approximately $32 million project will add ADA-compliant curb cuts, widened sidewalks, and decorative traffic signals, plants and trees.
“This is an incredible community,” Justice said. “But from the first day that I drove in here, I thought if we don’t get this fixed, who in the world is going to want to come to the town of Wheeling?”
Justice was joined by Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston and Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, who called the project the most exciting thing to happen to the city in 20 years.
“When it’s done it’s going to be the most pedestrian friendly downtown of the state, I’m convinced of that,” Elliott said. “It’s gonna be really a great flagship for the state of West Virginia, for people to get off I-70 and come drive through it. So we’re thrilled.”
The Wheeling Streetscape Project is expected to be completed in 2024.
A design shows some of the planned improvements to downtown Wheeling’s streets.
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In an effort to attract more horse racing competitors this year to West Virginia, the state Legislature increased the funding cap to $2 million for certain races – and neighboring states are taking similar action. When Golden Tempo won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, his owner, trainer and jockey won an estimated $3.1 million winning purse. For the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, Justin Hicks reports much of that growth can be attributed to increased gambling on historical horse racing games.
On this West Virginia Week, an opioid settlement reaches a milestone, gas prices shock Sen. Shelley Moore-Capito, R-W.Va., and we have more information on the recent chemical spill near Nitro.
Over $50 million is scheduled to be paid to West Virginia on an accelerated, 9-year timeline due to the disproportionate impact the opioid crisis has had on the state.