Clarksburg Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Italian Heritage Festival Prepares For Thousands Of Visitors

Since 1979, the colorful three day street festival has celebrated Italian culture and heritage in the Mountain State. In preparation for the event, blocks of streets are closed off to traffic to accommodate the thousands of visitors expected to pour into downtown Clarksburg over Labor Day weekend.

The 44th West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival is gearing up for a full line up of activities this Labor Day holiday weekend.

With one of the largest Italian American populations located in the north central part of West Virginia, it has been rated one of the “Top 100 Events in North America” including Canada and Mexico.

Children participating in the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival in Clarksburg.

*Credit/West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival*

Festival board member Weege Vargo said the authentic Italian cuisine and entertainment draws people from across America.

“Well of course, one of the things that the Italian culture is most known for is their delicious food, so you will find numerous food vendors lining both sides of Main Street between 2nd and 5th Street,” Vargo said. “Another cultural thing we are very well known for is our music and our dancing.”

Vargo said there will be continuous entertainment on the main stage all three days of the festival.

“You can listen, you can dance, you can enjoy however you see fit,” Vargo said. “We do have a traditional closing each day of the festival with the band AMICI – an Italian band – and during that show people dance in the street doing the traditional tarantella and some of the other Italian dances.”

The royal court of Regina Maria – Regina meaning “Queen” and Maria the name of the first queen of Italy – is crowned during the opening ceremony. The festival culminates with a traditional festival ball with highlights that include an annual 5k run, and West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival Golf Tournament and a pasta cook off.

Delaney Wells is the 2023 West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival Regina Maria.

*Credit/West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival*

This year’s Regina Maria is Delaney Wells of Charleston who gets to wear a signature sequin-rich, brilliant red dress for the celebration.

“Like with the big crown, and like she’s known for having this huge dress. I remember seeing it when I was kid and seeing her on the float,” Wells said. “I mean it was just like this huge ball of red, but like, it’s so beautiful, and there’s a huge court that she has, oh my gosh, there’s so many young kids on the court. There’s a minor court, a junior court and then maids of honor. And actually, my cousin is a maid of honor this year.”

To be chosen as Regina Maria, Wells said she sent the festival board a letter outlining her Italian heritage, experience and interests.

“And then I had an interview with them. I had a Zoom call on Superbowl Sunday and each person on the board asked me different questions,” Wells said. “They asked me if I have any memories of the festival, what I love about being Italian, what I’m doing right now in school, what my goals are in the future, and the next day they emailed me back with a letter of congratulations.”

Vargo said the crowning of the queen marks the official start of the festival which continues through the weekend.

The West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival draws people from multiple states and abroad.

*Credit/West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival*

“On Friday, we start at noon with the coronation of Delaney, who will be Regina Maria the 44th. She will receive her crown from last year’s queen, and she will start her official reign, and she will stay in that position until she crowns the queen next year,” Vargo said.

After hearing she’d been chosen as Regina Maria, Wells immediately told her family and set about preparing for the event.

“They’re so excited. My mom went to the first one in 1979 when she was 12,” Wells said. “There’s a picture of my grandma braiding her hair, and she and I recreated it when I was 16, and we took a picture of her braiding my hair at the Italian Festival. I’ve been going there ever since I was a little kid. I think I only didn’t go because of COVID, and then I was at college, but then that was when the whole world was messed up so I couldn’t go.”

Kids enjoying the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival.

*Credit/West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival*

For her role as Regina Maria, Wells has to attend all the festival events, something she said she is looking forward to.

“I’ve probably said dancing with kids a million times, but that’s what it is, I really do dance in the streets with all the children and all the people attending,” she said.

Along with a pepper eating contest and Italian bocce ball games during the festival’s pasta cook-off people share compelling stories about their ancestors while enjoying excited chatter over food.

“I mean, maybe when I was younger, it was people who had come from Italy who were cooking food. But now it’s their children, grandchildren who are there,” Wells said. “Because there are so many people, I know one of the women who runs the event, her name is Rose Mazza, she was born in Italy. So I guess, like talking about the food, like it’s more than just your pizza that you get at takeout, or just a little more real and tasty. They have really good food there.”

On Saturday, Wells and her court will ride on the Queen’s float reigning over her court in the Grand Parade which will feature dignitaries like Clarksburg Mayor Jim Malfregeot and others.

The annual pasta cook off is one of the festival’s most celebrated events.

*Credit/ West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival*

Sunday’s events include a Catholic outdoor mass at 10 a.m.

“Whether you are Catholic or not, it is a very moving and rich ceremony and service, and people stand in the street and worship,” Vargo said.

Following the mass, the Allegro Dance Company will entertain the public with archived festival footage and performances by Mary Frances Beto Smith, Benjamin DeFazio, Chelsea Boyles, Brandon LeRoy, Marissa Bailey and AMICI.

The last day of the festival also marks Fritti Sunday, which starts at 8 a.m.

“Frittis are an Italian type of dessert, it’s dough just covered in sugar. They’re so good,” Wells said. “I know people from Clarksburg who knew about them growing up so they’ve been around forever. People love them, I mean, they sell out so quickly.”

Families line a street in Clarksburg for the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival Grand Parade.

*Credit/ West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival*

Each year, the festival honors outstanding Americans with public awards and recognition. This year’s honorary Italian man of the year is Brad Smith from Marshall University.

Past recipients have included Govs. John D. Rockefeller and Cecil H. Underwood, Leland Byrd and Senior Status Judge Daniel L. McCarthy as well as A. James Manchin, uncle of current U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.

Delaney Wells is a journalism major at the University of Kentucky and she interned this summer with the West Virginia Public Broadcasting newsroom.

West Virginia Black Heritage Festival Returns

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the West Virginia Black Heritage Festival will take place this weekend in Clarksburg.

The West Virginia Black Heritage Festival is returning to Clarksburg this weekend for its 30th year.

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the West Virginia Black Heritage Festival will take place this weekend in Clarksburg.

Started in 1990 by the Kelly Miller Alumni Association as a celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation, the festival aims to inspire African American youth by awarding scholarships.

The Kelly Miller School was a Black school in Clarksburg until desegregation in 1956. In the 1980’s some of the school’s alumni formed an association and foundation to further Black education efforts through scholarships

This year’s scholarship recipients will be crowned Youth King and Queen to kick off Saturday’s events.

The weekend’s festivities include a golf tournament, a Youth Block Party Friday evening, as well as a concert on Main Street Saturday afternoon.

Find more information about the festival at WV Black Heritage Festival on Facebook or at wvbhf.com.

Clarksburg And Lewisburg Airports May Have New Carrier

Airports in Clarksburg and Lewisburg may have found a replacement carrier in anticipation of SkyWest Airlines’ departure.

Airports in Clarksburg and Lewisburg may have found a replacement carrier in anticipation of SkyWest Airlines’ departure. The budget airline asked to end service in March.

The directors for North Central Regional Airport in Clarksburg and Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg have identified Contour Airlines as their preferred carrier moving forward.

In March, the Department of Transportation blocked SkyWest Airlines from ending service to 29 airports across the country including Clarksburg and Lewisburg.

In documents filed with the Department of Transportation (DOT) at the end of June, both airport authorities requested a waiver to award their Essential Air Service (EAS) contract to the Tennessee based airline, which is affiliated with American Airlines.

According to DOT, the EAS program was put into place to guarantee that small communities that were served by certificated air carriers before airline deregulation can maintain a minimal level of scheduled air service.

As an Essential Air Service carrier, Contour would connect the regional airports to the National Air Transportation System via the American Airlines hub in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Contour currently offers service to 10 other EAS cities, including Parkersburg and Beckley.

Both airports declined proposals from Boutique Air and Southern Airways Express. Those airlines only offer single-engine service, and that would require the airports to waive their rights to twin engine service.

A proposal from Team Tundra was rejected by both airports as incomplete.

Clarksburg and Lewisburg airports will continue to offer flights by SkyWest Airlines

SkyWest Airlines has decided to stop operating out of two regional airports in West Virginia. The decision would have stopped all flights from and to Lewisburg, but a federal agency has stepped in to prevent any interruption in service.

The U.S. Department of Transportation blocked SkyWest Airlines from ending service to 29 airports across the country including North Central Regional Airport in Clarksburg and Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg.

In their filing of intent to terminate essential air service, SkyWest representatives moved to terminate service on or before June 10 and citied “pilot staffing challenges across the airline industry.”

Monday’s ruling from the DOT blocked the termination until a replacement carrier can be found.

SkyWest operates in West Virginia under United Airlines and serves as an Essential Air Service to connect regional airports to the National Air Transportation System via hubs like Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles.

In a letter sent to Sec. of Transportation Pete Buttigieg Friday, Sen. Joe Manchin placed the economic impact of Lewisburg’s airport at $91 million, and Clarksburg at $1.1 billion annually. He claimed losing SkyWest’s services would cause irreparable harm to local communities.

Manchin also highlighted local efforts to help ease the national pilot shortage at Marshall University’s newly opened flight school, as well as Fairmont State’s existing school.

Toxic At Every Level: Lead Pipes Burden Clarksburg, W.Va.

Thousands of homes in Clarksburg have received water filtration pitchers and notices in the past few months. The notice lets residents know their drinking water is flowing through lead pipes.

Tom Friddle, 60, got a filter and he plans on using it. He stood in this front yard with a small dog on a leash.

“I got a dog and cat. They’re my kids. So I’ll make sure their water is just as fresh as mine,” said Friddle.

The local fire department, water utility, and state National Guard have hand delivered more than 3,000 filters to these homes and businesses.

Millions of Americans get their water through lead service lines. The alarm sounded in Clarksburg when three children in town tested positive for elevated levels of lead in their blood.

The State Department of Health and Human Resources says 31 children in Harrison County presented elevated lead levels in 2020. Same goes for 447 children in West Virginia from 2015 to 2019.

Firefighters Justin Weber (left) and Jadden Marino (right) plan their route to distribute about 100 water filters throughout Clarksburg.

On the same street as Friddle and his dog, Tommy Dodd stood on his porch reading his notice. The houses on his street were built in the early 1900s. He figured this notice might be coming.

“The only thing we’ve used our water for in the last three or four months was just to wash our clothes, take a shower in,” Dodd said. “I don’t even think it was a great idea to use it to rinse off our toothbrushes. But we did that.”

Dodd has lived in this home for 14 years, on and off again. He has three sons, ages 12, 14, and 17. When Dodd moved back to this street, his middle son, Keenan, was in first grade.

“His attention, his focus, his memory. It’s like he can’t do two or three steps at one time,” Dodd said.

Kids exposed to certain lead levels can develop cognitive and behavioral issues. Dodd plans to ask for a lead test during his son’s next routine checkup. Keenan is starting high school this year.

“I can’t say it’s the lead,” Dodd said. “Ever since we lived here, he’s had trouble in school.”

Taking responsibility

There are about 8,500 homes, businesses and other customers that get their drinking water from the local public utility. Of those, about a quarter are suspected to have lead services pipes, based on records reviewed by the Clarksburg Water Board.

The water board says it has regularly sampled water over the years to check for elevated lead levels in accordance with federal standards.

“We’ve always been in compliance. So to be notified that we had a home out of compliance was shocking,” said Clarksburg Water Board President Paul Howe.

So far, 33 homes have been confirmed as having high levels of lead in their drinking water. Just 6% of customers have had their water tested at this point.

The water board says no school, hospital or daycare in Clarksburg has shown elevated lead levels.

The Clarksburg Water Board is creating an interactive map that will display where lead service lines are in its water system.

But the water board will keep testing and reviewing lines. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Bureau for Public Health have ordered the public utility to fix the problem on their own dime.

“If we can get in there and replace the lines that are causing us problems now and do a greater system upgrade, I think that might be in the best interest for our public,” Howe said.

To assure Clarksburg customers and health agencies that the water is safe, the board signed off on an action plan on Aug. 18.

It outlines a four-prong approach that will inspect all 8,500 service lines. The board will test each customer’s water. It will also confirm the material each line contains.

That will involve records reviews and visual inspections, which can require digging into the roads and people’s yards to get to the pipes. All confirmed lead lines will be replaced by the utility.

The board will also consider corrosion control measures. This could involve adding phosphate to the central water supply, to prevent lead pipes from leaching.

That could cost $15 million and up to three years to complete. The EPA and state have yet to approve the plan.

Not just Clarksburg

Lead lines are common. It’s estimated that 20,000 customers have lead service lines throughout West Virginia.

In the 1980s, Congress banned the installation of lead pipes. Lines that were already in the ground can still be used, though environmental groups say these lines should be replaced immediately.

“If you have a lead pipe in the ground, you’re only one act of incompetence away from sickening people,” said Erik Olson, senior strategic director of health programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s what happened in Flint [Michigan]. It’s what happened in Newark, New Jersey.”

According to federal standards, utilities have to keep an eye on the water coming out of these pipes through regular sampling, something Clarksburg says it’s been doing.

Olson believes current sampling standards under the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule are inadequate. The rule also gives utilities 15 years to replace bad pipes.

“It allows water utilities to test less frequently and less than we believe is urgently needed,” Olson said.

The greatest risk is to children, who can experience developmental issues, like a delay in acquiring speech or learning issues. High levels can cause seizures.

“We’re not supposed to have lead in our body. It’s really not required in biological systems for anything,” said Jim Becker, who specializes in occupational and environmental medicine at Marshall Health. “It’s a toxin at every level.”

Local news outlets have reported that no child in Clarksburg needs treatment yet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t experiencing effects.

Children are considered to have excessive exposure at 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But treatment to extract lead from the body is recommended at nine times that amount.

“The decision to treat is really a decision about the risks versus the benefits of treatment. Treatment of children with elevated lead levels isn’t completely free of hazard,” Becker said.

Infrastructure

The U.S. Senate has passed a bipartisan infrastructure package that would allocate $1.5 billion to replace lead service lines. Democrats hope to pass a budget reconciliation bill with even more funds. Olson is pushing legislators to earmark another $30 billion, which President Joe Biden had originally called for.

“Water utilities are saying ‘Look, we just need some help to pay to pull out these lead pipes,’” said Olson. “There is a once-in-a-generation opportunity right now,”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Probation For Ex-VA Hospital Doc Who Admitted Fondling Women

A former physician at a West Virginia’s veterans hospital was sentenced to probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to touching two female staffer’s breasts without permission.

The sentencing of Dr. Kenneth C. Ramdat, 65, of Silver Spring, Maryland, comes a month after a former nursing assistant at the Louis A. Johnson VA Hospital in Clarksburg was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms for giving seven elderly veterans fatal injections of insulin.

Prosecutors said the separate incidents involving Ramdat occurred as he hugged the women in 2019. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of simple assault. A U.S. magistrate judge then followed the prosecution’s recommendation and sentenced him to a year’s probation, The Exponent Telegram reported.

According to a plea agreement, Ramdat will not be required to register as a sex offender.

Ramdat apologized in court and called his behavior “repulsive,” the newspaper said. He has retired from the Veterans Affairs system, according to statements in court.

Ramdat’s plea “is a step in the right direction to giving the women affected by his horrific actions the justice they deserve,” said U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. “The systemic negligence at the Clarksburg VAMC must be addressed and dealt with. Accountability begins at the top, and I am committed to working with VA Secretary McDonough and as a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to ensure that these serious issues are addressed.”

In May, a federal judge called ex-nursing assistant Reta Mays “the monster that no one sees coming” before sentencing her on seven counts of second-degree murder for intentionally injecting the veterans with unprescribed insulin.

Mays, who has a history of mental health issues, offered no explanation for why she killed the men. But U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh told her “you knew what you were doing.”