The $14.7 million in grants will be split among 15 recipients statewide.
West Virginia will receive nearly $15 million in grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
The $14.7 million in POWER grants will be split among 15 recipients statewide.
POWER stands for Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Development.
According to the ARC, the $47 million in awards for the entire region is the largest under the program since its launch in 2015.
Awardees include the Summers County Commission, the Boone County Community and Economic Development Corp., Grow Ohio Valley, the Marshall University Research Corp., the Bluefield Economic Development Authority, the Mountain State Educational Services Cooperative and the City of Elkins.
The program is intended to assist areas that have lost jobs in coal mining and power plants by creating or training workers for new jobs in tourism, broadband and entrepreneurship.
Last week, the ARC awarded another $4 million in grants to West Virginia.
The town of Oceana, in Wyoming County, will receive about half the total funding, according to U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito.
The Oak Hill Sanitary Board, the Marshall University Research Corp. and the West Virginia Rural Water Association will split the rest.
The funds will be used to update water and wastewater systems, as well as remove or renovate abandoned buildings.
The ARC also said last week that it will offer funding to Local Development Districts throughout the region. The grants of up to $100,000 will help communities hire staff to leverage opportunities from last year’s American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Special consideration will be given to distressed areas, coal and power plant communities and historically marginalized populations.
The rise of entrepreneurship in West Virginia is one of the top 5 trends shaping our state in 2018.
Coalfield Development Corporation is helping young West Virginians get ready for the new economy. The social enterprise is teaching entrepreneurship, and it is entrepreneurial itself – using a combination of grants and earned income to support itself.
It’s been a big year for West Virginia – what trends started in 2017 that will shape our lives in 2018?
The Front Porch podcast crew sees five big trends – listen or read below and let us know what you think!
1. Inequality grows, leading toward more oligarchy (Rick Wilson)
“The new tax bill will increase inequality,” Wilson said. “I think we’re heading toward dynasties.”
Wilson pointed out that, “Our entire delegation except for Sen. Manchin voted for this tax bill.” He believes it is a Trojan Horse that will lead to cuts in Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security that would b particularly damaging to West Virginia.
2. White nationalism continues to rise (Rick Wilson)
“This is the moment in the sun for white supremacy,” Wilson said. “Fascist-type movements feel validated by the political events of the last year,” including rallies last summer in Charlottesville, not far from our state.
West Virginians have some of the most anti-immigration attitudes in America, while having the lowest percentage of foreign-born people living here.
Wilson said there is an uneasy alliance between white nationalists and some wealthy folks, but it may not last.
“Sooner or later, the white nationalists are going to get screwed,” he said.
Credit Governor Jim Justice/Twitter
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The famous bull crap press conference.
3. One-party rule continues (Scott Finn)
Nationally, there’s fierce competition between the parties. But in West Virginia, we quickly went from a state dominated by Democrats to one controlled almost exclusively by Republicans.
This year, a former Republican-turned-Democrat became Governor, and then switched back to the GOP during a rally with President Donald Trump this summer.
“There must be something in the water that makes people in West Virginia desire a one-party state,” said Scott Finn, CEO of WVPB and host of “The Front Porch” podcast.
Jessi Troyan of the free-market Cardinal Institute says the trend toward one-party rule shows the outsized role government plays in West Virginians’ lives.
“That strikes me as indicative of the amount of power the government is able to wield in everyday life, that the stakes are so high,” she said. Someone has to be part of the “winning” party to receive jobs, contracts and other benefits.
4. Entrepreneurship grows (Jessi Troyan)
Troyan sees hope in the West Side of Charleston, which has seen a small boom in small business, focused on services, the arts, and restaurants.
She says West Virginians need to move past looking for solutions from big government and big business.
Finn pointed out that a handful of young business leaders took a risk on the working-class West Side, with help from a state tax credit for historic renovation and the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority.
“Even in a struggling economy, if you have vision and are willing to be entrepreneurial, good things can happen,” Finn said.
5. Education (finally) becomes an issue (Jessi Troyan)
After years of receiving relatively little attention from state leaders, Troyan thinks education will become a major issue in 2018.
In the past few years, West Virginia has fallen near the bottom of rankings of teacher pay. Graduation rates are up, but an increasing number of students (31 percent) need remedial courses in college.
“There is something we can do. Granted, it involves some serious courage by policymakers,” Troyan said. “West Virginia is one of only a handful of state without school choice programs.”
Even without state-funded school choice, competition from homeschooling and private schools improves public schools in West Virginia, according to a WVU study cited by Troyan.
BONUS TREND – Using colorful props at news conferences (Rick Wilson)
“What we have is nothing more than a bunch of political bull you-know-what,” Gov. Justice said in a Spring press conference, while pulling the cloche off a plate of authentic bull manure.
“This could be the year of scatology, not to mention eschatology, the end of the world as we know it,” Wilson said. “Poop and apocalypse, basically.”
Welcome to “The Front Porch,” where we tackle the tough issues facing Appalachia the same way you talk with your friends on the porch.
Hosts include WVPB Executive Director and recovering reporter Scott Finn and liberal columnist and avid goat herder Rick Wilson, who works for the American Friends Service Committee. Guest host this week is economist Jessi Troyan of the free-market Cardinal Institute.
An edited version of “The Front Porch” airs Fridays at 4:50 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s radio network, and the full version is available at wvpublic.org and as a podcast as well.
Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @radiofinn or @wvpublicnews, or e-mail Scott at sfinn @ wvpublic.org
The Front Porch is underwritten by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Gazette-Mail. Find the latest news, traffic and weather on its CGM App. Download it in your app store, and check out its website: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/
It’s the inaugural year of the Governor’s Entrepreneurial Academy at Marshall University. The hope is to influence high school students to be entrepreneurs. Irene Jonathan will be a 10th grader at Charleston Catholic in the fall.
“We were put into groups and we’re each supposed to be designing a product, so my group is making all-natural sunglasses from repurposed wood and the company is called montes and it’s Latin for Mountains because we wanted to keep our roots in West Virginia,” Jonathan said.
Her group is just one of many that’s working on unique ideas that could turn into businesses. For the past three weeks they’ve worked in teams on different ideas while also attending sessions where administrators working with the academy interview entrepreneurs from all over the state of West Virginia.
Some of the ideas include, Jonathan’s repurposed wooden sunglasses, silicon bracelets that hold medicine and cookie dough popsicles.
We can train artists and train math, scientists and all that, but if they don't have a place to go for a job it's useless. –Jonathan Butler, Director of Marshall's Entrepreneurship Program
Jonathan Butler is the Director of Marshall’s Entrepreneurship Program and an assistant professor in the School of Business. He said as industries and jobs become harder to come by, being able to start your own business gains importance.
“We can train artists and train math, scientists and all that, but if they don’t have a place to go for a job it’s useless,” Butler said. “So the economy of West Virginia is dependent on entrepreneurs and I think this is the key.”
Butler said the hope is that by giving these students the basics on coming up with an idea and starting their own business, they’ll know how hard it can be to be an entrepreneur and the rewards of starting and owning their business.
He said throughout the three-week session one of the main messages was that it’s possible for someone, even students, from the state to start their own business.
“We’re trying to give them as much exposure as possible to real life entrepreneurs from this area who have done well that can show them that this isn’t set for a few lucky people or few rich people,” Butler said.
The Governor’s School of Entrepreneurship joins three other similar programs. The Governor’s Honors Academy, Governor’s School for the Arts and Governor’s School for Math and Science.
Students will present their products during the West Virginia Made Festival in Huntington this weekend, July 22nd through 24th.
On a sultry summer evening, three women are killing harlequin beetles in an effort to save the greens at the SAGE micro-farm on Rebecca Street that they landscaped themselves.
Last year, Kathy Moore, Jenny Totten and Meg Reishman completed 18 agriculture and business classes through SAGE, which stands for Sustainable Agricultural Entrepreneurs. Kathy says she loves getting to take home an unlimited supply of fresh vegetables each week.
“Oh my goodness, the green zebra tomatoes were absolutely my favorite. They are just absolutely luscious!” says Kathy, who works a day job, like most of the other growers, outside the SAGE micro-farm. She and the other SAGE growers also earn a few hundred dollars apiece at the end of the year based on the group’s produce sales.
The food is grown on Charleston’s West Side, in a high-crime area with many vacant lots. Over the past two years, the SAGE program has transformed two of these lots into working micro-farms.
New this year is the Rebecca St. garden, with its unusual swirling starburst shape. At the center of the beds of squash, kale and tomatoes is a bright circle of sunflowers, zinnias, basil and cilantro. Kathy is surprised that the garden’s design has been so successful.
“I had no idea that it would be so inviting. So, yeah. It’s a really nice design, and people are excited just to come and look at it.”
Credit Roxy Todd
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Rainbow chard and collard greens have been some of SAGE’s best sellers this year
Credit Roxy Todd
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SAGE sells edible flowers to a local restaurant in Charleston called Mission Savvy. The flower and herbs are grown in a circle at the center of the Rebecca Street garden.
Credit Roxy Todd
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The SAGE program teaches growers like Meg Reischman how to make a business plan and how to choose the most profitable types of produce.
“I was having a difficult time sitting down and figuring out what my break even price was, and whether it was worth growing it or not, making a plan,” Meg says.
Many of the students struggle with these questions, says SAGE instructor Dr. Dee Sing-Knights, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics with West Virginia University’s extension services. She teaches the SAGE growers how to manage small businesses and how to market their produce. She tells the growers to make sure the public knows that SAGE’s organic produce might cost a little more than supermarket vegetables, which often come from larger, more mechanized farms.
“I always tell them, you have to tell your customers that listen, the reason this costs more is I squashed my bugs by hand!” says Dr. Singh-Knights. The SAGE growers are also learning to educate more potential customers about the value of spending money inside the community, versus sending the money out of state by buying food at a chain store.
Even if the 18 SAGE graduates never become full time farmers, this morning for breakfast they are probably all making food using at least one ingredient they grew themselves.
This year, the group has seen an increase in the sales of produce and flowers at their local Saturday markets, as more customers are enjoying the fruits of their labor, too.
Concord University students are reaching out into the community to inspire young entrepreneurs. Earlier this week students from Melrose Elementary in Mercer County set up a lemonade stand on Concord’s campus.
The children sold fresh lemonade to University faculty, staff and students after months of marketing and preparing. The event is part of a nationwide effort sponsored by Google Entrepreneurs that started in 2007 to inspire youngsters by assisting with stands across the country.
Concord University Students initiated the project through its Entrepreneurship Club. Prep-work for the event was part of a fourth grade class project at Melrose that focused on marketing techniques. Concord students hosted the fourth graders’ opening day at the Athens campus to help ensure success.
Concord students also offered guidance and feedback the day of the event in hopes to inspire a future business leader.
While the lemonade was sold for play money, organizers says the fruits of their labor was the excitement for education.
More lemonade stands are expected to pop up across West Virginia in July as about 3,000 individuals representing more than 20 counties have already signed up to the national initiative this year.
