The Charleston Sternwheel Regatta released its full 2023 schedule on Tuesday. The event will run from June 30 to July 4.
The Charleston Sternwheel Regatta released its full 2023 schedule on Tuesday. The event will run from June 30 to July 4.
“Our Charleston Sternwheel Regatta team has put together a robust schedule featuring nostalgic favorites and fresh newcomers – including the Slack Plaza Slamboree, the All Fired Up Youth BBQ Challenge and a stunt exhibition by BMX professional Zach Newman,” Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said.
Highlights for the festival include two nights of fireworks. The first will be on opening night following the band Better Than Ezra and then again on July 4. Wiener Dog Races take place July 1 on Magic Island. Later that day, the Slack Plaza Slamboree will hold the first Charleston Sternwheel Regatta Championship wrestling match. The Great Rubber Duck Race returns July 2 just prior to the Sternwheeler Races.
Denise Norris, children’s librarian at the Charleston Main Branch of the Kanawha County Public Library, said the organization will be involved again this year.
“The Main Library will host a Summer Library Club Super Saturday event July 1 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Capitol Street. In addition to signing up for summer reading with KCPL – free and open to all ages – community members may enjoy performances by West Virginia Symphony Orchestra musicians and WV Youth Symphony groups, participate in an instrument petting zoo, and play games and complete STEM projects. It’s another fun day of reading and learning at the library.”
Terry Godbey, owner of Charleston eatery Hot Diggity Dogs and organizer of the Regatta’s Classic Car Show, spoke about bringing the event back this year.
“As organizers, we’ve streamlined our internal processes to make registration easier, and with the move to Summers Street we’re expecting an even better turnout than last year,” Godbey said.
Scheduled for July 2, the show has space for 125 cars and will relocate to Summers Street and Slack Plaza.
The Charleston Sternwheel Regatta began as two days of boat races in 1971 and quickly grew to a week-long end-of-summer festival with major entertainment. But conflicts over beer sales and other issues forced the cancellation of the event in 2009. The regatta returned in 2022.
The full 2023 Charleston Sternwheel Regatta schedule is available on the official charlestonregatta.com website.
The opening of a small, community clinic brought out a big crowd on Charleston’s West Side Tuesday including many of the state’s top political and elected officials who came to the grand opening of the city’s new Health Right Clinic.
Health Right clinics provide free, comprehensive health care for uninsured and low-income people. State officials and members of the Charleston West Side community say the new clinic is meant to bridge a gap in health care coverage in the capital city.
“Having health here, and promoting health equity is so important, and it’s something brand new for the city and it’s even brand new for the state,” said Shayla Leftridge, Health Right director of outreach, diversity, equity and inclusion.
Both of the state’s U.S. senators, Charleston’s mayor, state delegates and community faith leaders spoke to the value of having another health provider in this part of the city.
“We have communities that sometimes need more attention, need more help, and sometimes they’re forgotten. They’re not forgotten today,” said Sen. Joe Manchin. “If you don’t have your health, you have nothing, and a person who’s gonna be productive has to be healthy in order to be productive.”
Charleston Mayor Amy Goodwin lauded the importance of having a community health facility on the West Side.
“The West Side has been deeply neglected for more than two decades… in health care, in housing, in public recreation, in transportation… the laundry list goes on,” said Goodwin. “When the pandemic hit, we saw the most serious effects on the West Side because it was already a community in which folks were suffering. There’s been so much talk of planning. There’s been so many discussions on what we should do. Now we’re seeing the fruits of those discussions.”
Decades of neglect on Charleston’s West Side has left the community with little resources. The goal of the new Health Right clinic is to help provide equity and stability there. Many who live in the area see the clinic’s opening as a strong and concrete step to improving the quality of life for residents there.
“The West Side, over the years, they’ve been promised a lot of things, and those promises disappeared, they just evaporated,” said Bishop Robert Haley. “Our young people are leaving West Virginia mainly because of job situations, but also, there’s nothing to do. Those things have to change, and Health Right being here is just the start.”
Health Right now has two clinics in Charleston. One on the East End opened in 1999.
The West Virginia Power will take the field on May 28, 2021 as part of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.
“To have the Power back in the city of Charleston is monumental,” said Charleston Mayor Amy Goodwin. “And it’s not just for baseball. This community depends upon this facility thriving.”
The Atlantic League is composed of eight teams in two divisions. The West Virginia Power will play in the South Division alongside the Lexington Legends, High Point Rockers and Gastonia Honey Hunters.
The 2021 season will consist of 120 games with 60 of them being played at Appalachian Power Park.
“I am beyond excited to be a part of the Atlantic League and keeping professional baseball in Charleston,” said Andy Shea, managing partner for the West Virginia Power. “There is a very rich baseball tradition in Charleston, and it has been a true pleasure working with Mayor Goodwin and her staff to ensure professional baseball will continue to thrive in a major way,”
Shea also announced that Mark Minicozzi, who played in the Nationals and Giants organizations, will manage the West Virginia Power.
Since its inception, the Atlantic League has sent over 950 players to MLB organizations and more than 160 players have signed Major League contracts. Over 100 ALPB managers, coaches and administrators have worked in MLB organizations.
“Professional baseball is on the way back to Charleston,” said Gov. Jim Justice, offering his enthusiasm to this new deal for the Power during his COVID-19 briefing Wednesday morning. “You’re going to be able to see some of the best players in the world right here in West Virginia”
U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) applauded the decision by West Virginia Power to join the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball for the 2021 season.
“Since November 2019 I’ve fought to save our baseball teams across the state and I am pleased that every team has found a league to call home,” Manchin said. “I am proud of the resiliency of the team and coaches and truly believe that the Atlantic League will give West Virginia Power the opportunity to grow and thrive.”
Added Capito: “I am thrilled that baseball will rightfully be back in Charleston. America’s pastime is West Virginia’s, too, and everyone who played a part in ensuring the team remained a part of our community here should be commended and congratulated.”
Minor league teams in Princeton, Bluefield and Morgantown also lost their major league affiliates, but have been able to join new leagues to keep baseball this summer.
The Charleston Police Department has referred an incident involving two of its officers to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for independent review, according to an announcement from the mayor’s office on Thursday.
There’s no guarantee the FBI will take up the case, involving patrol officers Joshua Mena and Carlie McCoy, who have been scrutinized by some members of the Charleston community for the way they arrested Freda Gilmore, a black woman with special needs, earlier in October.
The incident went viral overnight after a woman standing nearby, Alisyn Proctor, posted a cell phone video of the arrest to Facebook. There, hundreds of people have viewed what appears to be McCoy on the ground with Gilmore, while Mena — who arrived on the scene after McCoy called for assistance — appears to be punching Gilmore.
Proctor also was arrested that night. Police say they charged her with a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct.
An internal investigation by the department’s Division of Professional Standards cleared Mena and McCoy of any wrongdoing a week and a half later. Police leadership have said Gilmore was resisting arrest, and both officers were complying with the department’s policy for permissible use of force.
During a press conference at City Hall Thursday afternoon, retired Charleston Police Officer Eric Smith tried to explain Mena and McCoy’s actions on the night of Gilmore’s arrest.
Smith, who said he used to work on crime statistics during his time with the police department, explained that when Mena arrived to help McCoy, Mena likely couldn’t tell just by looking at Gilmore her size or the fact she has special needs.
“But [then] you throw in the mental health issues,” Smith said, “People with mental health, they don’t tire as quickly. They don’t feel pain as much. … They’re wired a little different, right? So they will fight, further to exhaustion, than normal people.”
A recent study from researchers at Indiana University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia reports a growing number of people are wrongly correlating evidence of mental health illness with acts of violence. Several organizations, including the Harvard Medical School in 2011, have pointed out that most individuals with psychiatric disorders are not violent.
Two Press Conferences Merged Into One
Smith and local members of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) — reportedly the nation’s largest member-organization for sworn police officers — shared a joint press conference with Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin on Thursday, during which she and a group of concerned religious leaders spoke first.
There originally were supposed to be two separate press conferences. Goodwin said she decided to combine the events shortly before their scheduled times, after a private meeting with the police and clergy.
Goodwin’s address on Thursday was in response to a letter she and the city council received on Nov. 5 from local clergy, which declared Mena and McCoy employed “excessive and unreasonable force” and that the internal review of that force was “inappropriate and inadequate.”
The letter went on to request all Charleston police officers receive training on proper use of force, cultural sensitivity, mental health awareness, emotional intelligence, crisis intervention.
“During our conversation we found we were probably a little closer than we were farther apart,” Goodwin said of the private meeting.
Rev. Marlon Collins, one of the clergy at the combined press conference, said his group talked hours before the conference about ways they could avoid making it seem like they were against the city police department.
“We did not want to make this a black-white issue. It had black and white elements to it, but we did not want to talk about it,” Collins said. He suggested the conversation had grown more intensely focused on race since the Oct. 14 arrest, due to miscommunication.
To Goodwin, she said the joint press conference on Thursday was an effort to express support both for the community and its police.
“To say to our police officers publicly, ‘You do 71,000 plus calls a year for our citizens’,” Goodwin said. “‘We owe a debt of gratitude to you. We appreciate you.’ But to our community? ‘Yes. We need to do better’.”
Goodwin’s highlighted some other initiatives she and the Charleston city council have agreed to, in addition to requesting help from the FBI.
That includes a review of the police department’s policies with help from current and former members of the police department, according to a press release from Goodwin’s office.
Goodwin also has reportedly discussed with Police Chief Opie Smith getting officers to take the “One Mind” pledge created by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, to improve how police interact with people affected by mental illness.
Still No Response On Other Requests
Goodwin’s letter from the clergy wasn’t the only set of requests Goodwin and the city have received from the Charleston community, related to Gilmore’s arrest and the subsequent investigation.
Also on Tuesday, Nov. 5, a coalition of community organizations issued a similar list of requests, which included revising the police department’s use-of-force policy, mandating police officers have working body cameras on them during all shifts and creating a mental health intervention team.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Delegate Danielle Walker from Morgantown holds a sign calling for the city of Charleston to implement racial bias training on Tuesday, Nov. 5, outside a public forum at the local Emmanuel Baptist Church.
Takeiya Smith from the coalition said during the press conference on Thursday the narrative had been taken over by the police.
“How many times did you say, ‘We support the community’?” Smith said of the Goodwin and comments made at the event. “‘We support the protection of the community’? ‘We support our community members with mental health issues, we support black women’?”
Goodwin said the city plans to hold another meeting for all of the parties involved in this matter soon. Coalition-member Smith said her group plans to continue holding Goodwin accountable for her response to the incident.
‘Our Community Is Forever Opened Up’
As for the family of Freda Gilmore, attorney Michael Cary said they still intend to file a lawsuit against the city. Their timeline is unclear.
He says he also plans to request the dismissal of Gilmore’s two misdemeanor charges from that night.
“We’re not against the City of Charleston Police Department,” Cary said of himself and Freda Gilmore’s parents, Richard and Kimberly. “There are several good officers who have dedicated their lives to the city of Charleston to make this place better … we just have to make sure we come together as a community, to make sure we weed out the officers that aren’t living up to the standards.”
Following the city press conference Thursday afternoon, Kimberly Gilmore said referring the incident to the FBI was a “step in the right direction.”
“I think that our community is forever opened up, our eyes are opened up, and it’s going to be forever changed,” Kimberly Gilmore said. “Because with everything that’s taken place, each cop is going to think about that.”
The Gilmores did not attend the Thursday press conference. Their daughter is at home, her parents said, healing from head and facial injuries sustained from the arrest.
The mayor of West Virginia’s capital city has canceled her upcoming appearance at the West Virginia Book Festival over a presentation by an author with homophobic views.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin announced the cancellation Tuesday in a letter to the Kanawha County Public Library Board of Directors.
Goodwin says she objects to the financial support of “Ender’s Game” author Orson Scott Card, who she says has a “history of homophobic, transphobic and racist views.” She had unsuccessfully asked event administrators to cancel his presentation.
A festival statement says Card was invited because of his novels, not his opinions. Card previously sat on the board of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage, and has suggested that gay people were abused into their sexuality.
Former state tourism commissioner Amy Shuler Goodwin is running for mayor of Charleston.
Goodwin announced her candidacy at a news conference Thursday.
Goodwin says she wants to build small businesses and promote Charleston on a state and national level.
The Charleston mayor’s race will be decided in 2018. Current Mayor Danny Jones has said he won’t run for office again.
A Democrat, Goodwin served as tourism commissioner from 2014 until last month.
She also has served as communications director in the governor’s office, was state director for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and headed communications for the city of Charleston.
Goodwin is a former television anchor and reporter and also was the managing member of a public relations firm.
