The Appalachian Regional Commission is launching a new program that encourages states to apply for grants together to bolster the region’s economy.
The Appalachian Regional Commission is launching a new program that encourages states to apply for grants together to bolster the region’s economy.
It’s called ARISE: Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies.
It comes with $73 million from President Joe Biden’s signature Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. And it’s intended for states to work with each other instead of going it alone.
Gayle Manchin, the federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, said when she first started the job, she noticed that the 13 states in the region were writing grant proposals individually.
In an interview, Manchin said the region has a population of 25 million. If Appalachia were a state, she said, it would be the third largest in the country behind California and Texas.
“So if you think about it that way, about what an impact we could have if we were truly united as an Appalachian region, there’s a lot we could accomplish,” Manchin said. “There’s power in that number.”
For example, six states – Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia – have already started a regional partnership for recreational equipment manufacturing. Think kayaks or mountain bikes.
Southeastern Ohio, north-central West Virginia and western Pennsylvania could form an energy partnership, Manchin said. Or, other states could work together to improve broadband access.
“At the end of the day, what we’d like to accomplish is we don’t want to see communities merely survive,” she said. “We want to bring our region into where it is actually competitive. With not only the states around it, outside the Appalachian region, but globally.”
The effort could get an additional boost from the Inflation Reduction Act, an energy, climate and health care package Biden just signed. It, too, has provisions that could benefit economically distressed communities in Appalachia.
With that level of support from the White House, Manchin added, the region needs to seize an opportunity that may not come again.
Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the former West Virginia state health officer, was joined by Gayle Manchin Thursday during a second day of roundtable discussions about the severity of the opioid and addiction crisis in West Virginia.
Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the former West Virginia state health officer, was joined by Gayle Manchin Thursday during a second day of roundtable discussions about the severity of the opioid crisis in West Virginia.
Local business, faith, health and law enforcement leaders offered up their individual wish lists to stem addiction and substance use disorder (SUD).
Most conveyed their concern about the need for follow up services to help people reentering the community following addition treatment. One of the most pressing needs included transportation.
Sen. Joe Manchin’s wife Gayle filled in for her husband who was absent for reasons related to surgery. The federal Co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), she talked about $15 million invested in 49 INSPIRE projects to support a continuum of care, including rehab and recovery programs, as well as business and community collaborative efforts.
Manchin talked of her husband’s efforts to secure funding for abuse and addiction and recognized Gupta for spearheading efforts to fight the drug epidemic.
“Doctor Gupta, thank you; for being most importantly, who you are. And that is a caring, passionate, caring individual that understands Appalachia, understands rural America, but like me you are impartial and you are serving our country at a very critical time” she said.
Gupta announced $12.4 million has been awarded in grants for 99 new community coalitions across the country as part of the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program. Three are in West Virginia. The additional $375,000 in funding from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will be used to mobilize communities to prevent and combat youth substance use. The money will be divided between The Martinsburg Initiative, Jefferson Berkeley Alliance, and Logan County Prevention Coalition.
“This is a syndemic which means there are so many other problems related to this, we have to look at this more holistically,” he said.
Earlier this week U.S. Sens Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito announced four grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support first responders and address substance use disorder treatment, prevention, and mental health needs.
Dr. Matthew Christenson, director of West Virginia’s Office of Drug Control Policy, also said recent CDC numbers show West Virginia is one of only six states that has shown a 4 percent decrease in 12 month addiction numbers since the peak of the overdose crisis during the pandemic. The national average is 9 percent.
West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is the senior Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and is a lead negotiator on infrastructure legislation. No matter who controls the Senate, West Virginia has perhaps more influence in Washington since the days of Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, decades ago.
To Manchin, who grew up in Beckley, West Virginia, it’s about time.
“I think sometimes West Virginia has always felt that it was behind the eight ball or never quite getting its fair share,” she said in an interview about a week into her new job. “And I would say right now, the stars have just lined up in our favor.”
Curtis Tate
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Gayle Manchin, center, shares a laugh with first lady Jill Biden, left, and actress Jennifer Garner, right, at an event to promote COVID-19 vaccinations in Charleston, West Virginia.
West Virginia lost 60,000 residents in the most recent Census count. It has struggled to keep young people from leaving and to attract industries. Its historic dependence on coal mining has left the state pockmarked with abandoned mine sites and hollowed-out towns. As the struggle continues in Manchin’s home state, the commission she now leads could help turn things around.
Human Infrastructure
The Appalachian Regional Commission was established in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. It encompasses 420 counties in 13 states, including all 55 of West Virginia’s counties. The agency consists of a federal co-chair and the region’s 13 governors.
It is the only lasting federal component of the War on Poverty.
Biden nominated Manchin as the top federal official at the commission in March, and the Senate confirmed her unanimously in April.
For decades, the ARC was best known for building a 3,090-mile network of improved highways throughout the region. The system is complete except for a few hundred miles.
Some of the toughest, and most expensive segments yet to be built are in West Virginia, such as Corridor H in Grant, Tucker and Hardy counties.
Manchin said the highways are a priority. However, she brings a background in human infrastructure to her job. She served as president of the state board of education and secretary for education and the arts.
ARC
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Gayle Manchin is the new federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission.
“One of my priorities, of course, going back to my past is education and education being the foundation if we want to strengthen communities, and build economic vitality and build the workforce,” she said.
In one example of how the commission’s work extends beyond the region’s highways, an ARC grant provided computers for every middle school student in McDowell County in Southern West Virginia. McDowell, where a third of residents live in poverty, according to Census data, is the state’s poorest county.
The work doesn’t stop there. Manchin said the ARC should help expand broadband internet throughout the region so those students are connected at school and at home. When they graduate, they need the appropriate job training and workforce development opportunities.
That’s where the commission comes in, too: Helping young residents get the right job skills so they’ll stay in West Virginia. And if they stay, that will help reverse the state’s population decline.
“So whether it be at a career tech center, a community college,” Manchin said, “(it) does not have to be a four year college degree but they need training and job skills. And we need to fit those job skills to what is available in that area.”
Eller said in the beginning, the governors wanted to build physical infrastructure so they could cut ribbons and show that the region looked like other parts of the country. They didn’t pay as much attention to human capital: education, health care, housing and economic empowerment.
University of Kentucky
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Historian and author Ron Eller.
“In the last 20 years, however, we’ve begun to see that infrastructure and human capital go hand in hand in economic development,” Eller said. “It takes much longer to develop human resources and human capital.”
That kind of infrastructure has become even more important throughout Appalachia with the long-term, structural decline of the region’s coal industry.
The ongoing loss of jobs at coal mines and power plants will mean that communities will need something to fill the void.
Eller said Manchin’s background makes her well-suited to take the commission in that direction.
“Frankly, I think that’s a direction that the commission needs to take,” Eller said. “There’s a lot of promise for that within the region.”
Working Together
In addition to her education credentials, Manchin was West Virginia’s first lady from 2004 to 2010. She knows most of the senators and governors.
Her current state co-chair is Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. Northam’s term as governor ends this year, and the 13 governors rotate the state co-chair role every year.
One of those governors is West Virginia’s Jim Justice, a Republican.
Justice appointed Manchin as secretary of education and the arts, a cabinet-level position, in his first term in 2017.
Then things went sour. Justice, who ran as a Democrat with Joe Manchin’s endorsement, switched parties. Their relationship deteriorated. There were rumblings that Joe Manchin would challenge Justice for the governor’s mansion. Justice fired Gayle Manchin in 2018.
Now, Manchin said they’ve moved on.
“Governor Justice certainly wants what’s best for West Virginia,” she said. “I certainly want what’s best for West Virginia, and that we know that working together, we can make some great things happen.”
Manchin’s mission extends beyond West Virginia, as far north as southern New York and as far south as northeast Mississippi. Manchin said she’d like to think of the region as one big state.
She said she plans to first visit the states within driving distance, and eventually work her way to every part of the region, something that was not possible during the height of the coronavirus.
“I have not traveled to all these areas,” she said. “One of the first things I want to do is to travel and visit and listen.”
Manchin said she wants to bring the states together on a single project that could benefit the entire region. The tour will be the first part of that effort.
“I want to hear what their issues are specifically, and what are their ideas?” she said. “I mean, you can talk on the telephone and you can do a Zoom call, but it’s not like going and shaking hands and walking down the street of these little towns.”
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“The most important thing we can do is get this virus behind us,” said Garner, who attended crosstown rival George Washington High School. “And in order to do that, we have to get anyone with vaccine hesitancy into these chairs.”
Biden tried to address the hesitancy problem.
“Now, there’s a fair amount of misinformation out there, and some of my friends have asked me, ‘Is the vaccination safe?’” she said to a small audience of state and local officials. “And you all know, the answer is yes. I got my shot, and I promise it didn’t even hurt, and I hate needles.”
Biden also met separately with West Virginia first lady Cathy Justice.
Gov. Jim Justice has attempted to woo more West Virginians to get vaccinated by offering a $100 savings bond to anyone up to age 35 who receives or has received a shot. Earlier in the year, the state led the nation in vaccines, but demand has dropped.
West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice says he has fired Secretary of Education and the Arts Gayle Manchin ahead of his decision on whether to veto legislation to reorganize the agency.
Justice announced the move in a news release Monday. Manchin is a former state school board president and is the wife of Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin.
The Educational Broadcasting Authority, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, is an agency within the Department of Education and the Arts.
Lawmakers on Saturday passed a bill to dismantle the department. The statement says the governor has not decided whether to veto or sign the bill.
Gayle Manchin had sought the department’s preservation.
The department’s agencies include Culture and History, Public Broadcasting, the Center for Professional Development, the Library Commission, Rehabilitation Services and Volunteer West Virginia. Those would either be absorbed by other departments or continue as separate agencies within the executive branch.
Justice’s full statement: Gov. Jim Justice today has terminated the employment of Gayle Manchin, Secretary of Education and the Arts.
“We have not made a decision yet on legislation (HB 4006) to reorganize the Department of the Education and the Arts,” Gov. Justice said. “Earlier today, Secretary Manchin asked the Chief of Staff, Mike Hall, about how she should approach this. She was told by the Chief of Staff to do nothing based upon my public comments this morning, and that my decision to veto or sign this bill has not been made. Later in the day, she decided to defy the Chief of Staff’s instructions and issued a press release. In her press release she offered to resign and remove any political cloud. If there weren’t any earlier political cloud, now there surely is one. She was very critical, made it political, and put me in a very, very bad position.
“She was told that we accepted her resignation, she refused, and we terminated her.
“As I have been saying for the last several days, we are continuing to examine this legislation looking for cost savings, how to preserve and promote the arts, and to make absolutely, positively certain that none of the programs or our citizens will be harmed in any way. And we will continue to do exactly that.
“I sincerely appreciate the years of service Secretary Manchin has given to the State of West Virginia.”
Manchin’s full statement, which preceded Justice’s:
Today, Secretary Gayle Manchin issued the following statement in regards to HB 4006:
“In an obvious rush to score partisan points, the Republican state legislature passed dangerous and destructive legislation to eliminate the Office of Education and the Arts on a mostly party-line vote. This is a cabinet post that reports directly to the governor and serves thousands across our state; it helps the disabled, provides summer programs for our children through federal funding, and many others that touch families all over West Virginia.
I call on the Governor to veto this reckless and politically motivated legislation that the state legislature passed, or work with me to dissolve this agency, if that’s what he wants to do, in a responsible and compassionate way. It’s obvious that there aren’t any significant financial savings here; we need to get the politics out of this.
I do not believe that a partisan fight is in the best interest of West Virginia. In fact, I know that signing this legislation will hurt our children, seniors, veterans, the disabled, and disaster response training. In addition, it eliminates a statewide advocacy for the arts.
I want to sit down with the Governor, and if it helps, I’ll resign to remove any political pressure to save all of these important programs for West Virginians.”
Mountain Stage with Larry Groce, the long-running live event and radio program produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and distributed by NPR Music, was recognized with the Governor’s Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement at a ceremony held at the Culture Center Theater Wednesday, March 7.
Founded in 1983 by Groce, producer Andy Ridenour and engineer Francis Fisher, Mountain Stage is currently in its 35th season of live performance radio. The show is heard on over 240 public radio stations across the country each week and is also a popular podcast.
Credit Steve Brightwell/WV Division of Culture and History
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Chief of Staff for Governor Jim Justice, Mike Hall, with Executive Producer Adam Harris at the Governor’s Arts Awards.
Chief of Staff for Governor Jim Justice, Mike Hall, presented the award which was accepted on behalf of Mountain Stage by the program’s Executive Producer Adam Harris, who came into his current role when co-founder Ridenour retired in August 2012. The awards were hosted by Commissioner of the WV Division of Culture and History Randall Reid-Smith.
“Mountain Stage has worked under eight Governors since 1983, and many Arts Commissioners since Arch Moore,” said the program’s host and artistic director Larry Groce, who was visiting family in Texas on the day of the ceremony. “We appreciate the support and are grateful to the legislature for continuing to be a part of the funding equation for Mountain Stage. I want to thank West Virginia Public Broadcasting and its members, anyone who has ever picked up a ticket, our many underwriters and supporters. Most of all we thank our radio listeners, for always having the desire to hear a show like ours. It’s a wonderful honor to receive the Lifetime Achievement recognition, and I share it with the folks who have helped us make the show and those who continue to work to keep it going.”
Credit Steve Brightwell/WV Division of Culture and History
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Mountain Stage Executive Producer Adam Harris, Cabinet Secretary of the Office of Education and the Arts Gayle Manchin, and Commissioner of the WV Division of Culture and History Randall Reid-Smith.
Mountain Stage is the longest running radio program of its kind. Each week nearly 200,000 listeners tune in for the show on public radio stations across the country. In 2017 Larry Groce was named a Southerner of the Year by Southern Living Magazine and in January 2018 Mountain Stage was named a Best WV Attraction in the 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards from USA Today.
For a list of stations that carry Mountain Stage click here. Visit our Live Show Schedule for a list of upcoming performances.
