Fairmont Story Archives - Page 2 of 7 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Fairmont Becomes The 18th City In W.Va. To Pass A Fairness Law

The laws protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations.

Fairmont joins 17 other cities statewide to have passed a Fairness Law. The vote on Monday was 7-2.

Monongah, also in Marion County, enacted its ordinance in September. Bolivar, in Jefferson County, enacted one in April. Keyser and South Charleston enacted theirs last year.

The laws protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations.

West Virginia has no statewide anti-discrimination law for its LGBTQ residents.

The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ rights organization, scores seven of the state’s cities on its equality index.

Fairmont is not one of them, but nondiscrimination laws carry the most weight of the factors it considers.

Huntington and Morgantown scored a perfect 100. By contrast, Parkersburg, which does not have a Fairness Law, scored 13.

Fairmont State BOG Votes To End President’s Contract Early

Just one day after Fairmont State University President Mirta Martin announced she would not renew her contract with the school at the end of the year, the school’s board of governors met and voted to end it even earlier.

Updated on Thursday, May 19, 2022 at 12:30 p.m.

Fairmont State University’s Board of Governors (BOG) voted Wednesday afternoon to end its contract with President Mirta Martin – months earlier than what was first announced by the university president.

Just one day after Martin announced she would not renew her contract with the school at the end of the year, the school’s board of governors met and voted to end it even earlier.

Martin’s contract will now end on July 18, rather than Dec. 28, which was when her contract was initially set to end.

The vote by the board was not unanimous, according to a news release. Staff representative Jon Dodds and student representative Maiya Bennett voted against ending Martin’s contract.

Fairmont’s BOG Chairman David Goldberg abstained from the vote.

“Fairmont State University has a longstanding history of strong and transformative leadership,” Goldberg said. “Each of our 26 presidents has left a unique and distinct mark on the Falcon family and President Martin is no different. Through her passionate and energetic leadership, Dr. Martin achieved all of the goals set before her by the board.”

The board also voted to transfer all presidential powers and responsibilities to current Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Dianna Phillips. The BOG said it will immediately launch a national presidential search.

Martin served as president of the university for almost five years and said she began to consider her decision to leave over the winter holiday. She said while the choice “was a tough and emotional decision to make,” she thinks it’s the right one for her and the university.

“I am so incredibly blessed to have already served in this role for nearly five years. During this time, Fairmont has become my home, and the Falcon family, my family,” Martin said in a campus-wide email on Tuesday. “It is an honor and an absolute privilege to serve all of you. It is also my honor to serve this institution and the state of West Virginia as your president, as president of the Council of Presidents, and as president of the Board of the Mountain East Conference.”

While Martin has received some criticism for her leadership on social media, the school’s board praised work completed while under her leadership.

“[Fairmont State University] has returned to a strong financial position,” Goldberg said. “More than 36 certificate, major, minor or concentrations at the undergraduate and graduate levels have been created and enrollment is trending up for the fall semester. As we look ahead to the future, the board stands ready to ensure a continuity of leadership and support for our students, faculty and staff.”

Original Post by the Associated Press:

Fairmont State University President Mirta Martin plans to step down from her position later this year.

Martin, who was named president in 2018, said in a letter Tuesday that she won’t seek an extension of her contract when it ends in December, news outlets reported.

She told WV News that she made the decision recently after months of reflection and conversations with family. She said she felt she had “achieved the goals that were set for me when I arrived and that I set for the university.”

Financial stability and sustainability have been restored, the school has successfully emerged from the coronavirus pandemic and it has stronger ties to the community, Martin said.

“I’ve acted in the best interest of our students and this institution always, and we’ve established programs of distinction that have made us a destination,” she said.

Martin said she would help make a smooth transfer to the next president.

Fairmont State University Board of Governors Chair David Goldberg thanked Martin for her service and said the panel would meet to review her letter and decide on next steps.

WVU To Spend $110 Million Rebuilding Fairmont Medical Center

A hospital that almost shut down last year is now expanding under new ownership. West Virginia University Health System announced Friday that it would invest $110 million in the Fairmont Medical Center.

Over the course of about five years, WVU plans to completely rebuild the Marion County hospital “in place”, which was originally built in the 1930s.

“Every window in this facility needs replaced, every roof needs replaced, just about every pipe needs replaced,” said Albert L. Wright Jr., president and CEO of the West Virginia University Health System and West Virginia University Hospitals.

Albert L. Wright Jr., president and CEO of the West Virginia University Health System (left), shakes hands with Gov. Jim Justice in Fairmont.

More than 60 beds will be added, totalling 110 when work is done. Hundreds more employees will be hired, said Wright, speaking at a Friday news conference.

The hospital will provide comprehensive care to the county of more than 50,000 people. Wright said the hospital currently serves about 55 patients a day.

The announcement comes roughly one year after WVU took over operations of the struggling hospital. The Times West Virginian reports that the hospital closed in March 2020 under California-based former owner Alecto Healthcare Services LLC. The company said the hospital was hemorrhaging money.

WVU reopened the hospital in June 2020 as a 10-bed emergency room, operating as a satellite of J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital.

Gov. Jim Justice joined Wright today in making the announcement. He said saving the regional hospital was a heroic feat for all those involved.

“It would have been a shame beyond belief that you wouldn’t have had a community full-service hospital in Marion County,” he said. “This is a wonderful story of how good people worked really, really hard… these people deserve so much credit.”

August 10, 1920: Rocket Plane Pilot General 'Pete' Everest Born in Fairmont

General “Pete” Everest was born in Fairmont on August 10, 1920. A pioneer pilot of rocket planes, Everest once earned the nickname of “the fastest man alive.”

During World War II, he first flew in the European Theater, completing 94 combat missions. Everest later flew 67 combat missions in the China-Burma-India region. During this time, he destroyed four Japanese aircraft before being shot down in May 1945.

He spent the last few months of the war as a Japanese prisoner of war.

After the war, he logged more than 10,000 hours in about 170 aircraft types as an Air Force test pilot. Everest piloted both the Bell X-1 and X-2 rocket planes, set an X-1 altitude record, and, in 1953, broke the world speed record of the F-100A at more than 750 miles per hour. In 1956, he flew the X-2 at Mach 3, exceeding 1,900 miles per hour and breaking the record of his rival and fellow West Virginian, Chuck Yeager.

Pete Everest became a brigadier general in 1965 and retired from the Air Force eight years later. He died in Arizona in 2004 at age 84.

July 30, 2006: Aviator Rose Agnes Rolls Cousins Dies at 86

Aviator Rose Agnes Rolls Cousins died on July 30, 2006, at age 86. The Fairmont native had entered West Virginia State College in 1932, when she was 16. The school’s new pilot training program, introduced in 1939, rekindled in her a childhood desire to fly planes. She became the first black woman trained as a solo pilot through the college’s Civilian Pilot Training Program. West Virginia State was the first of six historically black colleges in the nation authorized to establish one of these federally funded programs.

In the training, Cousins learned to put her plane into a spin, fly upside down, and land with the engine off. She also completed a cross-country flight alone, guided only by sight and a compass. In 1941, she went to Tuskegee Institute, with the first group of 10 male students from West Virginia State College, and tried out for the Air Force training program for black combat pilots. However, she was denied because of her gender. Disappointed by the rejection, she moved back to her hometown and spent much of her remaining life managing records at Fairmont Clinic.

Fairmont Hospital Closing In 'Days,' Owner Says In Letter

The Fairmont Regional Medical Center is shutting down ahead of schedule and will cease operations over the next several days, the hospital’s owner said in a letter Monday.

Alecto Executive Vice President Michael J. Sarrao wrote that the hospital will complete its winding down of services and will stop admitting patients over “the next several days.” Hospital officials said on Feb. 18 that the facility would close within 60 days.

The letter comes after last week’s announcement that West Virginia University Medicine would take over portions of the facility while constructing a new hospital in the area. Gov. Jim Justice and Albert L. Wright Jr., CEO and president of the WVU Health System, said Fairmont Regional Medical Center would be closed for around a month to allow for administrative turnover at the facility.

Sarrao wrote that the decision to shutter in the coming days was “based on Governor Justice’s and WVU Medicine’s announcement.”

“In other words, the plan announced by Governor Justice and WVU Medicine on Friday specifically calls for FRMC and its emergency room to be closed for a period of time before WVU Medicine commences operations at the FRMC location,” he wrote.

Wright last week said he anticipated that the Fairmont Regional Medical Center would be closed from the end of March to around early-to-mid May while preparations are made for WVU Medicine to operate there. He said he planned to have resources to transport patients to different facilities while the Fairmont hospital is temporarily closed, acknowledging potential problems that could emerge as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.

“We might have a bumpy couple months here but long term we’re going to get it right,” he said last week.

The new WVU Medicine hospital will be about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away from the shuttering Fairmont Regional Medical Center and is expected to have 100 beds and about 500 employees, Justice said. It is expected to be open within 18 to 24 months.

The California-based Alecto has drawn severe local criticism over its decision last month to close the hospital. Hospital officials said they could not find a buyer for the facility.

State Del. Michael Angelucci, who operates an ambulance service in Fairmont, shared Sarrao’s letter with The Associated Press.

The announcement followed several other hospital closures or health care cutbacks in the region.

Pleasant Valley Hospital in Point Pleasant recently announced it was cutting 53 full-time jobs and ending obstetrics services. Hospitals in Bluefield and Richwood have closed. Williamson Memorial Hospital filed for bankruptcy in October, and a nonprofit system that operates hospitals in Charleston and South Charleston announced last month that it planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but would remain open.