City of Charleston Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Plans Unveiled For Capital Sports Center

The city of Charleston and the Kanawha County Commission announced plans Wednesday to turn buildings connected to the aging Town Center Mall in Charleston into the Capital Sports Center.

The facility will have 247,000 square feet of space for activities, including an aquatic center with a 50 meter Olympic-size swimming pool, basketball courts, volleyball courts, an indoor turf field and pickleball.

Watch the video below from ZMM Architects to see how the proposed Capital Sports Center is expected to look:

ZMM Proposed Capital Sports Center

The city and county leaders, alongside U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, cited a sports tourism study that showed the economic impact sports can have on a region and the need for a single indoor facility to host large regional and national events.

“In order to position our capital city to attract top-tier, revenue generating events and the associated economic impact, we must have the necessary facilities to compete, “ Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said. “Through the proposed Capital Sports Center, we will have the opportunity to attract major regional or national swimming, volleyball, basketball and pickleball events. In addition to the economic impact of sports tourism, this facility will also provide our young athletes with a state-of-the-art facility in which to train — better preparing them to compete in collegiate athletics or other sports opportunities they may want to pursue.”

“I am so excited to announce our partnership with the City of Charleston to build the Capital Sports Center,” Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango said. “Youth sports tourism is a booming industry, and this indoor facility will enable us to compete on a national level. This state-of-the-art, 247,000 square foot facility will have a significant economic impact for our local businesses and economy. With the incredible success of the Shawnee Sports Complex, Kanawha County and the City of Charleston are well positioned to be leaders in sports tourism.”

The Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau, with funds received through the City of Charleston’s federal COVID-relief funds, contracted with The Huddle Up Group to conduct an audit of the current sports tourism work of the CCVB and an analysis of the area’s sporting venues.

The study identified facility enhancement/development as an opportunity to grow sports tourism in Charleston. More specifically, it noted the importance of having “anchor” and “tournament friendly” facilities to attract “top tier participant focused championships and their related tourism dollars.”

Charleston and Kanawha County partnered with ZMM Architects & Engineers to do draft renderings for proposed sites in downtown Charleston, Kanawha City and North Charleston.

The plan will cost an estimated $80 million and will be paid for with a combination of private donations and a potential excess levy where the government would sell bonds against the debt and they would be paid off by income from the facility.

The mall itself will not be part of the construction. Plans involve taking part of one parking building down and turning the Macy’s building that is attached to the mall into the aquatic center.

Read the full strategic plan below:

Charleston Receives $1 Million To Fight Mental Illness

The City of Charleston has been awarded $1 million to create a crisis intervention team to fight mental illness.

The money is part of an overall $241 million package secured by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito for various projects and initiatives throughout West Virginia.

“I am thrilled to see this money heading directly to West Virginia,” Capito said. “I respect this new process, and worked with the Appropriations Committee to ensure transparency and accountability in my requests on behalf of West Virginians.”

Charleston city officials say they plan to use their share of the congressional funding to set up a crisis intervention team.

The program will be part of Charleston’s Coordination Addiction Response Effort (CARE) office which was established in 2019 to coordinate attempts to address the impact of substance use disorder on the community.

The addition of the crisis intervention team is part of a proactive effort to fight mental illness throughout the city.

The program will be in collaboration with social services agencies, mental health professionals, and multiple faith-based communities.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reports that 82,000 West Virginians currently suffer from a serious mental illness.

Huntington, Morgantown Earn Perfect Scores For LGBTQ Inclusivity, Non-Discrimination

The Human Rights Campaign has released its 2021 Municipal Equality Index. The index ranks cities on how inclusive they are.

The rankings are based on factors including nondiscrimination laws, municipal employment policies, inclusiveness of city services and law enforcement with regard to LGBTQ persons and municipal leadership on matters of equality.

The cities of Huntington and Morgantown have both achieved perfect scores for 2021.

Jack Jarvis from Fairness West Virginia presented the awards virtually, today.

“The index isn’t a perfect tool for measuring how inclusive our cities are,” he said. “But it’s one important tool we have. It allows us to see how our cities stack up against cities across the country.”

Huntington received a perfect score for the third consecutive year. Morgantown also achieved a perfect score of 100 for the first time this year. The national average score is 67.

“It’s time for the world to know that West Virginia can be a welcoming place where all kinds of people belong,” said Andrew Schneider, executive director of Fairness West Virginia. “We’ve known for a long time these communities are welcoming, and today’s report card proves that. I congratulate the leaders of Morgantown for all of their hard work this year toward inclusivity. I look forward to more cities joining the ranks of these all-stars, and to leaders at the state level stepping up to protect all Mountaineers from discrimination.”

Morgantown’s score in the 2020 MEI was 77, meaning the city jumped 23 points in a single year. Part of Morgantown’s significant score increase was because members of city council there adopted a bill to ban so-called conversion therapy.

“The city of Morgantown is a welcoming place where everyone is valued,” said Morgantown Mayor Jenny Selin. “We’ve worked hard together as a community to advance policies that will ensure our LGBTQ residents can live free from discrimination, and we will continue this important work in the future. All of our children, including our LGBTQ children and their friends, deserve the chance to grow up in communities that support them. I’m proud that our city has earned full marks on the Municipal Equality Index this year.”

Other West Virginia cities listed in the report are Charleston, Wheeling Charles Town, Lewisburg and Parkersburg. Charleston was the only other city from West Virginia above the national average with a score of 94.

Parkersburg scored just 13 in the report.

Huntington, Morgantown and Charleston were also designated “All-Star” cities for scoring above 85 points despite being in a state without LGBTQ-inclusive statewide non-discrimination laws.

The City of Charleston adopted the state’s first conversion therapy ban in August. Caitlin Cook, a member of Charleston’s City Council, was the lead sponsor of that bill and is a member of the city’s LGBTQ Working Group.

“We became the first municipality in our state to ban the harmful practice of conversion therapy on minors and established an LGBTQ working group to continue advancing inclusive policies in the Capital City,” Cook said. “Looking forward, it is my hope we can continue to value and uplift LGBTQ voices in our community as well as improve our inclusivity score.”

Across the country, there are 74 cities in this category.

Leaders from Morgantown, Charleston and Huntington joined Fairness West Virginia to announce the scores and celebrate the improvements. Watch a recording of the virtual ceremony here.

Skate Park Opens In Charleston Giving Youth Options To Play

Skateboarders have been asking for a skate park in Charleston for decades. That wish finally came true Thursday.

Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin, along with members of the local skate community and local artists, opened Charleston’s first community skate park. The city council authorized the park in December 2020.

Charleston Mayor Amy Schuler Goodwin, Ben Coll and Ben Barkey at the opening of the Charleston community skate park.

Two generations of skaters, both named Ben, joined Goodwin at the official ribbon cutting for the park. Ben Barkey remembers writing a letter to the editor of the Charleston Gazette more than 30 years ago.

“I skated with the editor of the paper at the time, Jim Haught’s kids,” Barkey said. “I can remember calling him and asking him, ‘Hey, can we get some help to try to get a park built here?’.”

The other Ben was Ben Coll. The mayor explained that he was instrumental in getting a section of the park built with smaller equipment for smaller riders. And when she told him she wasn’t sure she could go back to the city council for more money for that equipment, he told her that he would talk to them.

The mayor also recognized local artists for the murals that were painted for the skate park on the pillars supporting the interstate. The skate park is located under the interstate bridge near Magic Island.

Goodwin said the skate park is another opportunity to get kids active.

“We’re saying to our kids ‘go outside and play’ but unless you give them a safe place to play, what are they to do, especially if they don’t play football or basketball or baseball,” she said.

The final push for the mayor was a teen town hall the city held on the West Side not long after she took office.

“There was a group of young kids that sat in the front row. And we were asking them ‘what can we do? We’ll do anything,” she said. The resounding answer was they wanted a skatepark.

Many skaters who cut their teeth in the 1980s are still skating and now can grind with their own kids.

“I’m 55 years old, and I’ll be out there and I have some other friends who are even a few years older than me. I won’t name any names, but I know they will be there,” Barkey said. “Every generation will be able to use this park. And I think that’s great, too.”

A skater tests out a new ramp at the Charleston community skate park.

Now that the skate park is open, skaters will be able to practice their tricks and have fun from dawn to dusk every day. The mayor said she expects this will also be a tourism draw for the city, bringing in young people and families from all over the region.

The park includes two bank ramps, 15 quarter pipes, four half pipes, grind ledges, slant pads, spines, jump boxes, roll-ins and more. Several safety features have been included including fastener-free riding surfaces, baluster guardrails, maxgrip polyester powder coat to create extra corrosion protection and grip and tamper-resistant hardware. All steel ramp components of the skate park are also covered by a 20-year limited warranty.

Admission to the skate park is free. It is open daily between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

New West Side Clinic Offers Health, Hope for Charleston Residents

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.

Charleston Citizens Push For Alternatives To Policing

Activists continue to push the City of Charleston to implement policing alternatives after an incident where police officers shot a man last month.

At the Charleston City Council meeting on Monday, local activist Hunter Starks asked that police not be dispatched on every 911 call. Starks said there are other ways to approach vulnerable citizens in the throes of a mental breakdown.

“When someone is in crisis, an authority figure with a gun will always feel like a threat for so many reasons,” Starks said.

Activists like Chad Cordell are calling for a 24-7 mental health response team that could be dispatched in lieu of the police.

“The mobile crisis response teams that we’re talking about are 24-hour fully staffed response teams that are fully integrated into the existing 911 emergency response system, just like paramedics and firefighters,” he said.

In late April, Denaul Dickerson was allegedly welding a knife when police pursued and then shot him.

Following the incident, Dickerson was in an ICU before being sent to a regional jail. He’s currently being held on a $50,000 cash bond, with a hearing scheduled for June 3 in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

Later at the meeting, council members heard from the Mayor’s CARE office, or Coordinated Addiction Response Effort. The team responds to those experiencing homelessness, substance use disorder and other crises. The team hits the streets to provide assistance within 24-72 hours after an incident. CARE workers also offer follow up services like treatment and housing referrals.

Activists said they were pleased to hear a mental health coordinator joined the team just days after the shooting. They don’t think it’s the full solution.

Mayor Amy Goodwin wrote to Police Chief Tyke Hunt earlier this month, requesting a plan of action to train officers in de-escalation tactics by June 1. She also called for the purchase of more stun guns and training on that equipment.

Footage from the scene of Dickerson’s shooting depicts officers asking each other who had a taser. Few had one. Hunt has said, due to COVID-19, that his officers have fallen behind on their training for that equipment.

Kyle Vass contributed to this story.