Economy Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Charleston USPS Facility Downgrading Could Be Postponed

The United States Postal Service announced Monday it would pause its implementation of further mail network changes until January 2025, which could impact a mail processing facility in West Virginia.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is postponing mail delivery network changes nationwide, which could affect the proposed downsizing of its only full mail processing facility in West Virginia.

Last month, USPS announced it would follow through on plans to move certain mailing operations to facilities in the Pittsburgh area. This followed months of union protests, alongside concerns from residents and lawmakers that the move could increase mail delivery times or negatively affect postal workers.

The Charleston Processing and Distribution Center’s potential downsizing is part of a ten-year plan to restructure USPS operations nationally that has drawn increasing scrutiny from elected officials.

Earlier this month, 26 United States senators — including Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. — penned a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy expressing concern over the “irrevocable changes” underway through the national plan.

“I’m concerned about job loss, and also about delivery and what the accuracy and timeliness will be with all the mail being processed in Pennsylvania,” Capito said during a virtual press briefing last Thursday. “And the loss of jobs. Whether people can move, we want to keep them in West Virginia.”

As many as 90 postal workers in West Virginia would be affected by the proposed changes, through a combination of facility transfers and layoffs.

“It is essential we understand the full impact of these proposed changes, especially on our hardworking postal employees, before moving forward on their implementation,” Manchin said in a Tuesday press release.

Previously, DeJoy said the national plan was “correcting for decades of haphazard decision making and neglect to our physical infrastructure network.”

But USPS announced it was changing course Monday. DeJoy said further facility downsizing plans would not be implemented until January 2025, and promised to notify Congress of any further consolidation plans, and to slow the pace of implementation of facility changes nationwide.

Still, Tim Holstein, vice president of the Charleston-area American Postal Workers Union Local 133, said workers have not received clear communication on the future of their facility.

Holstein said that he and union workers worry that if USPS only pauses “further” consolidation plans, those that have already been approved — like the plans for the Charleston facility — could still be implemented.

“There is uncertainty whether the changes will be implemented,” he said. “Look at that word ‘further.’ Does that mean the ones planned, or does that mean the ones that are already in progress?”

Holstein said the South Charleston workers are awaiting further communications from USPS to verify how USPS’s decision will impact their facility. Susan Wright, USPS spokesperson for West Virginia, did not respond to email requests for comment on this story.

More Than 500 Residents With Substance Use Disorder Complete Job Training Program

Jobs & Hope, a West Virginia program that provides job training to residents with substance use disorders, celebrated its 500th graduates during a ceremony in Charleston Wednesday.

Community members filed into a graduation ceremony unlike any other Wednesday.

It was held in the office of Gov. Jim Justice, celebrating the graduations of Sierra Mullins and Shane McCoy — the 500th graduates of West Virginia’s Jobs & Hope program.

The program provides residents who have substance use disorders access to job training and educational resources, with the goal of helping them secure long-term employment.

Founded in 2019, the program now has 1,619 active participants across the state, and has graduated more than 508 individuals, with even more completing their programs after Mullins and McCoy.

During the ceremony, both graduates had the opportunity to share speeches, expressing gratitude for the program and pride in what they have accomplished.

Originally from Boone County, Mullins said the program provided her much-needed support during a difficult recovery process.

“The road wasn’t always easy. Monthly screenings, basic classes and maintaining sobriety,” she said. “But each hurdle was a small price to pay for the invaluable support and resources provided by the program.”

McCoy said he began his recovery journey in 2019, and soon accessed educational resources through Jobs & Hope that taught him how to operate heavy machinery.

Now, he said he has had steady employment on a construction crew since November.

“The crew that I work with, and the gentlemen that I have met at this place, it has definitely helped my growth in the field,” McCoy said.

After the graduate’s speeches, Justice expressed his gratitude for the program’s success, and his support for participants statewide.

“Lo and behold, we’ve got 508 people, that their lives have changed in every way,” he said. “God bless each and every one of you for the guts that it takes to really get this done.”

For more information on the Jobs & Hope program, visit the program’s website.

Rural Appalachia Community Coalition Building Creates Positive Change

A book from an academic researcher covering rural Appalachia shows how marginalized rural communities can create change by forming grassroots coalitions.

In her soon to be published book, “Hauled Away, How Rural Appalachians Leverage Place in the Face of Extraction,” WVU assistant professor of English Erin Brock Carlson balances the history of extractive industries like coal with combating a rural town’s cultural, economic and intellectual extraction.

“The mission of all of this is really that rural communities, especially in Appalachia, are painted in very one dimensional, oftentimes stereotypical life,” Carlson said. “I’m really committed to honoring the expertise of people that live in rural places, because they oftentimes aren’t viewed as experts of their own experience. This project is all about casting those people as experts in demonstrating that rural communities are capable of solving their own problems.”

In her book, Carlson showcases hometown problem solvers. For example, in a former coal hub, organizers involved the cash poor and houseless in economic development. In a town that suspected a local arms manufacturer had polluted its air and water, an environmental activist engaged residents of a Black neighborhood close to the manufacturing facility, as well as elderly white residents who valued the manufacturer’s importance to the local economy.

And in a rural area with little access to broadband, an organizer tried to build an internet network owned by the community, with support from youth.

“The project really shows how going into a space thinking you have one project and really listening to community members to see what are the most pressing needs, and then adapting based on that, is a way to sort of address these other issues, but in a way that meets community needs directly,” she said.

Carlson said successful coalitions must bring those most marginalized, the poor, elderly, young, disabled, people of color, migrant workers and more into the public conversation.

“They are the ones that are most directly impacted or most deeply impacted by these problems,” she said. “When they’re not represented, their needs aren’t heard.”

Carlson said the expertise community members possess is often overlooked in favor of technical insights from lawyers or engineers.

The “Hauled Away” manuscript is expected to be completed in 2025.

Nonprofit To Redevelop Putnam County Manufacturing Plant

West Virginia nonprofit Advantage Valley received more than $4 million in federal and local funds to redevelop a manufacturing plant near the town of Poca in Putnam County.

Newly granted federal and local funds will allow an economic development nonprofit to redevelop a manufacturing plant in the Kanawha Valley.

Advantage Valley purchased the Putnam County building — previously known as the Vossloh Track Building and the Union Boiler Plant — in 2023. The nonprofit works with local governments to develop jobs and economic growth in nine southwestern counties.

The project moved one step forward Tuesday when Advantage Valley was awarded a $3.4 million grant from the United States Economic Development Administration (EDA). These funds were also matched by $857,750 in local funds.

With the funds, Advantage Valley will renovate and repurpose the building, located near the town of Poca. The project is funded through disaster relief funds administered by the EDA to areas affected by natural disasters like flooding or wildfires in 2021 and 2022.

The project as a whole aims to create new jobs and investment opportunities in the region, according to a Tuesday EDA press release.

Federal officials also expressed their hopes for the renovation project in the press release.

“This EDA investment will support infrastructure improvements at the former Vossloh Track Building that will grow economic opportunity, support job growth and spur private investment in Charleston,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., echoed Raimondo’s support for the project.

Capito said that she would “look forward to the positive impact it will have on the Charleston area for years to come.”

“The EDA continues to be a strong partner for bolstering West Virginia’s economy and this announcement is proof of that,” Manchin said. “Renovating the former Vossloh Track Building will create good-paying jobs and spur economic opportunity throughout the entire Metro Valley.”

$1.2 Billion Grant To Expand Broadband Coverage To All W.Va. Homes

The U.S. Department of Commerce has granted West Virginia $1.2 billion for affordable broadband services. More than 300,000 West Virginia households were underserved by broadband in 2023.

Spotty internet access has long proven an issue for the mountainsides of West Virginia.

In 2023, more than 300,000 households across the state were unserved or underserved by broadband coverage. This month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found that coverage in the Mountain State ranks second-worst nationally, besting only Alaska.

But a new federal grant aims to address current gaps in coverage, ensuring that every household can receive broadband internet services.

On Thursday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) granted West Virginia more than $1.21 billion for high-speed internet services based on a plan first announced in 2023.

The funding comes from the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program — part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into effect in 2021.

These funds will go toward the creation of new broadband internet infrastructure in regions with low internet download and upload speeds.

West Virginia residents can anticipate improvements to their internet services between one-and-a-half and five years after funds are distributed, according to Evan Feinman, BEAD program director.

Specific timelines vary from region to region based on “proximity to existing infrastructure,” he said during a virtual press briefing Thursday.

State grants were determined based on current broadband coverage needs, and were finalized through a collaboration between state and federal officials, Feinman said.

This meant coordinating with the West Virginia Department of Economic Development’s Office of Broadband.

After an initial figure for the state’s grant was set by NTIA in 2023, state officials had to develop specific plans for how grant dollars would be spent, according to Kelly Collins Workman, the office’s director.

This included crafting a five-year plan for how improvements would be implemented, plus strategies for promoting digital equity across the state, she said.

When the “historic opportunity” to participate in the BEAD program came along, Collins Workman said her office “poured our heart and soul” into the application process “to secure $1.2 billion for our state.”

“We jumped in with both feet,” she said. “We worked as hard as we could, as fast as we could.”

Mitch Carmichael, cabinet secretary for the department, said the collaboration was crucial to expanding economic resources for West Virginians.

“When we connect people in every corner of our state — and every hill and every valley and every region — the world becomes a better place,” he said.

Carmichael emphasized that changes provided by the program would be sweeping. “This program will reach every address. Every single address,” he said.

The BEAD grant comes during a particularly tenuous moment for affordable internet services nationally, as funding for a federal internet subsidy program used widely in West Virginia is set to lapse this month.

Since 2021, the FCC has provided broadband internet subsidies to low-income households nationwide through the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

More than 127,000 West Virginia households rely on the program for support. But a renewal of the program’s funding has failed to receive bipartisan support in Congress, despite pushes from Democratic lawmakers.

Feinman said ACP’s goals differ from those of the BEAD program. Where ACP provides households financial support to afford internet services, BEAD creates infrastructure so that it is possible to access the internet in the first place.

Still, Feinman said the two programs have overlapping missions, and that NTIA officials were “disappointed” by the program’s imminent expiration.

“A kid who grows up in a house with a reliable internet connection has a higher GPA, [and is] more likely to go to postsecondary education,” he said. “Elderly folks can age in place safely. There’s such tremendous benefits to having folks get online.”

Feinman said that the existence of subsidy programs like ACP gave way to the development of new broadband infrastructure programs like BEAD.

With more residents able to afford internet services, companies were encouraged to spread their infrastructure projects nationally, he said. This includes the rural and low-income communities targeted by programs like BEAD.

“The program going away is going to make it more expensive to build these networks,” Feinman said. “That said, we are still going to be able to get them to every single West Virginia home and business.”

While ACP’s renewal struggled to receive bipartisan support on the Senate floor, state officials’ praise for the BEAD program stretched across the aisle.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said that the BEAD program has provided important resources to residents across West Virginia. In a Thursday statement, he renewed his commitment to ensuring the state can “deliver broadband service to every West Virginia family and business.”

Likewise, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said in a Thursday statement that the new grant would “better connect homes, businesses and classrooms across the state.”

“While there is still a long road ahead to getting more West Virginians connected, we are well on our way,” she said.

Tax Credits Available For Huntington-Area Housing Developers

Real estate developers who construct housing units in the Huntington area are now eligible for a tax credit through a West Virginia Department of Commerce program.

Updated on Thursday, April 25 at 2:57 p.m.

Real estate developers who construct homes in parts of Cabell and Wayne counties are now eligible for a tax incentive.

Last week, the greater Huntington area — including eastern Cabell County and northern Wayne County — was designated a BuildWV district by the West Virginia Department of Commerce.

Since its creation in 2022, the BuildWV program has granted developers state tax credits for creating new housing options in West Virginia.

A 2024 report on housing needs in Huntington found that many local housing units are considered substandard in quality or burdensome in cost. The report also found a particular need for the construction of affordable family and multi-unit homes throughout the city.

Developers who build six or more housing units in the region are now eligible for the program’s incentives, with additional incentives for developers renovating single-family homes for first-time home buyers. To apply, communities must submit an application alongside a $5,000 application fee to the West Virginia Department of Economic Development.

“It basically makes it more profitable for developers to build new housing within the county because it allows them to apply for and receive a tax credit that they normally would be paying the state of West Virginia,” Cathy Burns, executive director of the Huntington Municipal Development Authority, told The Herald-Dispatch last week.

With the program now established, local officials are hopeful for the new housing options it could bring.

“The establishment of the [BuildWV] district in Huntington and the surrounding region is indicative that we are taking a critically important step forward,” Steve Williams, mayor of Huntington, said Thursday. “We are now moving beyond tax policy and infrastructure development. We are now preparing our communities … to welcome the population growth that demands adequate and appropriate housing.”

**Editor’s note: This story was updated to include a comment from Steve Williams, mayor of Huntington.