Tag: General James Hoyer

W.Va. Elementary, Middle Schools To Reopen For In-person Learning Jan. 19

Citing lessons learned from the fall semester, Gov. Jim Justice announced Wednesday at his regular news conference that West Virginia elementary and middle schools will open to in-person learning on Jan. 19.

High schools will continue to be subject to the color coded map with counties in red required to use virtual learning.

Schools will continue virtually from the start of school on Jan. 4 until Jan. 19, 2021, with that time frame being used to prepare classrooms for the return of students to in-person learning. Students who choose to remain on virtual learning after Jan. 19 can still use that option.

The governor added that his new directive for schools was not an order, and that local school systems will retain local control.

“I don’t think I have the authority, and I don’t want the authority, to make that an order,” he said.

Justice indicated that there are several reasons for the return to school despite the increasing numbers of Covid infections across the state. He said one-third of students are failing at least one of their core classes using the virtual learning method.

“We all know that we are failing at virtual learning,” he said. “It does not work without consistent live engagement.”

He also indicated that child protective services referrals are down 50 to 55 percent, meaning that students in troubled environments are not being protected.

Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus czar, indicated that in-class transmission is rare. Children under 15 years old are less likely than high-schoolers to contract the virus, which explains the reason for his announcement being limited to the younger grades.

“Children under 15 years old are 50 percent less likely to catch and 50 percent less likely to spread COVID-19 than children over 15,” he said.

To protect faculty, staff and service workers in the schools, Justice announced that all school personnel over 50 years old will be offered access to the vaccine over the next two to three weeks. Once everyone in that initial round who wants it is vaccinated, the state will then vaccinate those below 50.

Additionally, the start of winter sports will be delayed until March 1, 2021.

In related news, Justice also announced that as of this morning, the effort to vaccinate the residents and staff at all 214 long-term care facilities in the state is now complete.

Recognizing that the largest percentage of those who die from the coronavirus is among the elderly, Justice said that the general population of West Virginia, over 80 years old, will be the next priority in receiving vaccinations..This will take place at national guard armories and other locations around the state beginning immediately. .

Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard, indicated that they will be reaching out through local health departments and clinics to contact 80 year olds. Essential service workers, including grocery store employees, will also be contacted by their employers and business associations.

“This is bold and aggressive, but we have people that are dying. We know we are going to save lives,” Justice said.

This effort will be on a first-come, first-served basis. He said to watch the DHHR website for more information.

W.Va. Officials Begin Tallying Flood Damage

State officials and emergency responders are beginning to tally up the damage from flooding that hit northern and north central communities late last week and over the weekend.

The Division of Highways said Tuesday its assessing road damage in 11 counties in the region. The agency estimates 200 roads suffered some kind of damage in the July 28 and 29 storms, totaling nearly $7 million.

The hardest hit counties in terms of road damage include Wetzel, Ohio and Marshall Counties respectively, which each experienced more than $1 million in damage. They’re followed closely by Tucker and Harrison counties that each received more than $500,000 worth of damage.

Major General James Hoyer of the West Virginia National Guard said five schools were impacted and so far, between 600 and 700 homes have been damaged, but that number could increase.

Eight counties are under a state of emergency, but Hoyer said Tuesday he’d like to see that number expanded to 11.

WEBHoyer.mp3
Listen to an extended interview with Major Gen. Jame Hoyer.

The latest high water comes just over a year after devastating floods in southern and central West Virginia that killed 23 people. Hoyer said the state is still recovering from that event in the midst of new damage.

“We’ve still got people focused on that devastating, epic event we had last June, but it doesn’t matter to someone whose home was damaged over the last couple of days. That’s the primary focus,” he said. “So, we from a state perspective have to be able to manage all those things together.”

Hoyer said Tuesday, National Guard members are focused on clean-up efforts and helping communities restore their infrastructure, like water and sewer lines. 

West Virginia American Water Lifts Ban Zone-by-Zone

West Virginia American Water began the long-awaited flushing process yesterday afternoon for residents who have been without water since Thursday.

Residents in the nine counties began the flushing process using an interactive online map. The chemical leak has left residents without the use of water since Thursday. Residents have been instructed to follow a detailed process once their area is in the blue zone on a map at amwater.com. Jeff McIntyre is President of West Virginia American Water. He said it’s a three-step process.

  1. Turn on all your hot water taps and flush for 15 minutes and shut those taps back off.
  2. Turn on your cold water taps and flush for five minutes and then turn those off.
  3. Go outside and then go to your outside taps, any fixtures you have outside and flush for five minutes.

The press conference was held Monday afternoon at the capitol where McIntyre and others outlined the next step. McIntyre said residents need to follow the precise instructions located on the website for additional outlets that the public may have such as appliances.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6w6HVVbTOI

“There’s the flushing and then it’s your appliances and fixtures, so if you have a dishwater and an icemaker there are additional steps that you may have in your house, but once you finish our protocol that’s laid out on several pages, once you’re done you’re done,” McIntyre said.

McIntyre did not offer a time table for how long it would take to get all zones through the flushing process. The first zone yesterday afternoon focused on the downtown Charleston area and included local hospitals in the region.

With the focus turning to how to prevent any future instances of chemical leaks into the water supply, Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Randy Huffman says they’re already working on legislation to help prevent accidents like this in future.

“We’re also at the governor’s request developing some proposals for how we might more properly regulate these facilities in order to minimize the risk of a spill,” Huffman said.

Huffman said they are looking into ways to more closely pay attention to sites that are storage-only such as the Freedom Industries site where the leak occurred. Sites such as Freedom’s are not regulated like facilities that house the production of the chemical at issue.

McIntyre said from the perspective of West Virginia American Water it’s not time to look at risk assessment until they have got the water once again available to all its customers.

“We’re not doing anything of that work at this time, there is no risk assessment going on at this time, our focus is singular to getting the customers back into water as early as possible,” McIntyre said.

Major General James Hoyer of the West Virginia National Guard said it may have taken a few days, but the group has been doing its best to deliver accurate information to people in the region.

“Every member of the inter-agency team that’s doing the testing and analysis and working this process has family members and loved ones that live in this area, so one of the over-arching things in addition to the science of what our folks are doing is the fact that we owe a responsibility to the citizens of the state and our families to provide the best information we have,” Hoyer said.

Members of the public seeking information on flushing process, should visit West Virginia American Waters site. 

Technicians returning to work, but National Guard still facing challenges

A majority of the furloughed West Virginia National Guard members and support staff are returning to work this week because of a movement in Congress to extend military pay to reserve members.

But the state’s top-ranking Guard official said a return to work doesn’t mean those members, and the overall safety of the state, won’t continue to be affected by the federal government shut down.

“The Guard in West Virginia will overcome obstacles and we’ll make things happen to take care of our people in this state, but we shouldn’t have to operate this way.”

Adjutant General James Hoyer made his plea to Congress during a press conference at the West Virginia National Guard headquarters in Charleston, saying its time to put an end to the federal government shut down.

“We are starting to experience degraded readiness in the West Virginia National Guard as a result of this. There are 53 other National Guard organizations across the country that are experiencing the same problems,” Hoyer said Tuesday, “so if you look a that in a holistic approach, we’re starting to really effect our ability to protect our nation and our homeland.”

Money, he said, is a major part of that problem. Money to pay for employees, facilities and supplies.

As Congress prepared for the federal shut down last week, they passed House Resolution 3210 to continue to fund the military; however, Hoyer said the resolution was interpreted by the Department of Defense to mean only active duty members.

In order to keep some 389 military authority employees working, or state employees whose salaries are reimbursed by the federal government, Hoyer and his team began postponing infrastructure maintenance projects around the state and shifting the money to cover those salary costs. Those costs have added up to around $300,000 a week.

 “I’ve only got a $16 million dollar state budget and the longer they go, the longer I wait for the reimbursement,” he said. “So, we can only to a certain threshold of pain.”

“Right now we can go to the 16 at noon unless we sit down and come up with another project that we push back.”

After the 16 and without another source of funding, should the federal shut down continue, Hoyer said the state may have to furlough those workers.

As for the 1,150 federally funded civilian technician positions who were furloughed beginning October 1, Hoyer said nearly 1,000 of those returned to work this week. That return came after Congress lobbied for the federal Department of Defense to loosen the restrictions on that same House Resolution.

Guard and reserve employees will now also receive pay for their return to work that began Monday, but Hoyer said, again, until a budget is passed, he has no idea how long it will take for that money to actually come.

On top of salary issues, Hoyer said his Guard members haven’t been able to train, keep up with vehicle and air craft maintenance, and provide services to active duty families and veterans.

Without keeping up on all of these, he said should an emergency occur, it will take the Guard longer to prepare and respond.

“One way or the other, West Virginia Guardsmen will be where they need to be to take care of the people of West Virginia,” he said. “Now, it might be in a different fashion and it’s going to be a hell of a lot more painful for us in the Guard to get to where we need to be.

“Is that fair to the men and women who go out and do that? That we have to put them in a position that they have to go the extra above and beyond when we don’t have to be in this position?”

Hoyer added there are three new military helicopters for the Guard that should have been picked up on October 1 to replace aging state equipment.

As of now, there are no funds to move those helicopters, leaving the Guard in short supply should there be an emergency.

That and similar issues, Hoyer said, will lead to delays in response as they try to come up with new ways to deliver supplies or conduct rescue missions.
 

Exit mobile version