Huntington Story Archives - Page 5 of 38 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Remembrance Events Honor 9/11 Victims

Events are set to take place across West Virginia this weekend in remembrance of the victims of 9/11. 2022 marks 21 years since the attack, which claimed the lives of at least five people with ties to the state.

One event being held in Princeton Sept. 10 is a memorial stair climb up 110 stories, organized by the Princeton Fire Department. It’s the second annual climb, with the first organized for the 20th anniversary last year. For first responders like Lt. Rick Shagoury, the event carries personal weight.

“We lost 343 firefighters and all these first responders. And being a first responder, it just hits home,” Shagoury said.

Registration for the climb is from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., with the climb itself starting at Hunnicutt Field at 9 a.m. and continuing until 1 p.m.

In Huntington, a vigil at the Healing Field at Spring Hill Cemetery is set up through Tuesday. Huntington native Paul Ambrose, who was on the flight that was crashed into the Pentagon, is buried there. Cemetery operations manager Eldora McCoy said these vigils have meaning for every local community affected.

“As other communities do theirs in their own way, this is our way to remember,” McCoy said.

Flags can be purchased at the cemetery for $35, with proceeds going to the cemetery’s Memorial Bell Tower fund. The vigil is also next to the site’s World Trade Center Artifact Memorial, which was constructed in 2017 from steel rails found at the site of the attack in New York. A ceremony is also set to take place at the cemetery at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Educational assemblies are also scheduled at schools around the state this week, including one at Westwood Middle School.

“Our students weren’t born yet when 9/11 occurred, so this opportunity is about raising awareness and bringing to life for them a very important moment in American history,” Westwood Principal John Conrad said in a news release.

Sen. Joe Manchin recognized the anniversary in a statement Friday.

“Each American grieved and felt the shock of our national vulnerability following the attacks, but we also experienced something else as a nation – our country learned of the great strength, bravery and character of our heroes who inspire us to this day. In the aftermath, we came together as a nation, showing we were united, resilient, and courageous in the face of tragedy,” Manchin said.

Alongside Ambrose, four others connected to the state died during the attacks, including Mary Lou Hague, Chris Gray, Jim Samuel and Shelly Marshall.

Huntington Receives Grant To Curb Substance Use Disorder, Create Support Network

The grant was awarded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and will fund a network that will help case navigators improve outreach to those who have fallen out of care.

The city of Huntington will receive a $2 million dollar grant to help curb the substance use epidemic.

Director of Huntington’s Council on Public Health and Drug Control Policy Jan Rader says the project will help the city cast a broader net and help those slipping through the cracks.

“We have a lot of wonderful people doing wonderful work. But we’re not able to keep up with people who drop out of the system,” Rader said. “We want to be able to capture that person again, and maybe plug them in somewhere where they feel more comfortable.”

The project, called the Training Responders to Assess, Initiate, and Navigate project, or TRAIN, is also set to help train first responders and other community agencies on how to treat substance use disorder.

These agencies include the Huntington police and fire departments, the Provider Response Organization for Addiction Care and Treatment (PROACT), the Quick Response Team (QRT), the Cabell-Huntington Health Department and Harmony House, a Huntington-based group that provides housing and services for the homeless.

“There are a lot of new first responders who haven’t had extensive training. And we want to provide that training for them. But not only for them, but for people in the public,” Rader said. “You know, it might be on just Naloxone administration, but also like on things like motivational interviewing, and ways to get people engaged in a program that can assist them with their substance use disorder.”

TRAIN plans to train more than 550 people within the next four years.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Marshall Students Launch Digital Archive For Forgotten Appalachian Writer

Students studying Digital Humanities at Marshall University build archive for historical documents relating to forgotten writer, Tom Kromer.

Tom Kromer was a prolific writer best known for his semi-autobiographical 1935 novel, “Waiting for Nothing.” Kromer’s work is heavily inspired from his experience with homelessness during the Great Depression.

Now, students studying digital humanities at Marshall University have developed an online archive of the forgotten work.

Kromer was born in 1906 in Huntington, where he studied journalism at what was then Marshall College.

“You didn’t know that an author, that papers at the time compared to Hemingway, lived here,” said Stefan Schöberlein, director of digital humanities at Marshall University, “There’s no marker to Kromer at his birthplace, no statue or sign for him anywhere in town, and no street bearing his name.”

Students designed the Tom Kromer Digital Archive in an effort to restore his visibility. Students put four variations of Waiting for Nothing in the archive, including a German translation, an annotated edition, and an audiobook.

kromerarchive.org

Annotated Edition of, “Waiting for Nothing.”

Kristen Clark helped produce the Waiting for Nothing audiobook.

“The way the work is written it’s kind of like Kromer speaking to you about his experience,” she said. “Having somebody read it to you embodies that affect really well.“

The archive also features transcribed book reviews from the time the book was published, a student developed podcast, and virtual tour using the external history website, Clio.

Michael Martin said the Kromer Clio tour focuses on locations of personal significance to Kromer in New Mexico, Virginia, and West Virginia. Students chose locations like the Keith-Albee Theatre (now known as the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center) in Huntington, which relates to his time at Marshall. Martin said, “He had a small experiment for the journalism major that he wrote about, where he panhandled in that little area.”

kromerarchive.org

“Waiting For Nothing,” Newspaper Reviews

During the early 20th century, Kromer was part of a growing American socialist movement. He spent time writing for socialist newspapers in Appalachia and around the rest of the United States.

“It was a great piece of culture to read about to really give the other side of the sentiments at the time, because of course, when you’re learning about the Cold War, you learn about America as being super anti communist, when in reality there was a huge movement,” Krys Smith explained.

Students working on the archive interviewed one of Kromer’s nephews, Steve Barnhill. Although Barnhill was young when he knew his uncle, he recalls that his family suspected Kromer of being a Russian spy.

Stephen Schöberlein

Marshall University

Marshall University Students Interviewing Steve Barnhill Over Video Call

Although Kromer’s work has a wider scope than Appalachia, Michael Martin says the influence is present.

“Kromer very specifically writes from a proletariat perspective,” Martin said. “It’s something that you wouldn’t get in a lot of other places that didn’t have the specific economic conditions Huntington had and still has.”

Despite students archiving a great deal of documents, many of Kromer’s writings are lost forever as a consequence of the Red Scare.

As an example, Schöberlein said, “his literary agent was Maxim Lieber, who was then accused of being a Soviet spy, so he fled the country and burned most of his correspondence.”

Despite the loss of historical documents, students are still optimistic about what they can find, as many documents are left to be discovered in the physical archives of newspapers and libraries, and private storage; what scholars refer to as The Great Unread. The students are looking to expand the Tom Kromer Digital Archive with more podcasts and more documents.

“Living history through this single man and his writings throughout the country was probably my favorite part about this whole experience,” Smith said.

Kromer is buried in Springhill Cemetery in Huntington, West Virginia.

You can find the Tom Kromer Digital Archive at kromerarchive.org.

Jan Rader Discusses Her Career And The State Of Public Health In Huntington

After 27 years of service, Huntington’s Fire Chief, Jan Rader, is stepping down and transitioning to another role with the city. After officially becoming Huntington’s Fire Chief in 2017, Rader gained global recognition for her approach toward overcoming the opioid epidemic. She spoke with David Adkins to discuss her career serving the public.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

David Adkins: With redefining the role of a first responder, you once said it needs to change from cavalry to something else. In what ways has that role been redefined during your tenure?

Jan Rader: Any first responder role is going to evolve over time because the world evolves, and we have to keep up with that. We need more education, when it comes to what addiction really is and how it affects people. We need more education on how we can refer people to services, things of that nature, and we also need education on mindfulness and keeping ourselves healthy mentally. Because people working today in the first responder role, they’re seeing overdoses of their friends, people they went to high school with, maybe family members, so it affects them in a very deep way versus not going on overdose calls.

David Adkins: With the introduction of COMPASS, which is a wellness program for first responders, how do you think that has helped?

Jan Rader: It’s been amazing and I actually got to be a part of that on the ground level. I’ve seen a need for years and I think that we’re showing first responders throughout the country in the world that it’s okay to take care of yourself even though you know you’re kind of like a superhero without the cake. But if we’re not safe, physically and mentally, then how can we help others?

David Adkins: There’s been a lot of collaboration interdepartmentally, with the fire department, the Huntington health department, and quick response teams. That’s a group of people with different fields that are collaborating together. What is the importance of that collaboration going forward?

Jan Rader: What we’re doing is working, we are making a difference, and that started with the leadership of Mayor Williams. He has guided us and shown us how great it can be to collaborate and partner with other agencies. We’re all in this together. It’s going to take all of us working together. And we have to be able to guide people to the programs that they need to get help. No one department, no one organization can do it alone. So we must work together, and we have and we involve the faith community in everything, and that’s amazing as well.

David Adkins: And having that community involvement for responding to the opioid crisis, that gives people the support system they need.

Jan Rader: It’s so needed. It’s so needed. We have people come here to see what we’re doing from all over the country, and even from other countries, to see how it’s working, and they all comment on the collaboration and the partnerships that we have formed.

David Adkins: A lot of people, when they think about our city, they think of some sort of infamy.

Jan Rader: But look at us West Virginians now. We’re working together and we’re making headway in a very difficult situation. We’re the city of solutions.

David Adkins: How does it feel to be the city of solutions, kind of more of a beacon of positivity and innovation?

Jan Rader: It feels good. You know, it doesn’t take a lot of energy to do the right thing, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re doing the right thing.

David Adkins: Greg Fuller was announced as the new chief. What are your thoughts?

Jan Rader: Greg and I have been friends for years. In fact, he was my chief for 10 years on the fire department. And I was very sad when he decided to retire. He’s a gentleman who has many connections. He has an incredible amount of knowledge when it comes to leadership and dealing with budgets, and he has many connections in the federal government and the state government. He’s just a great guy. He’s a good fit.

David Adkins: You gave your life to public service. What has that been like?

Jan Rader: I feel good about it. I think that I was raised by two very caring parents who taught me that you help those who can’t help themselves. Even if you are not rich yourself, you help others. And that’s how we grew up, and I think we’re all here to help each other, lift each other up. And you know, I think we make a difference when we do that. So I feel good about it. It’s surreal coming to the end of a 27 and a half-year career. It’s a very odd feeling, but it’s time and I love the Huntington Fire Department. I will continue to be their biggest cheerleader, they do amazing things day in day out, sometimes with very little sleep or not the right equipment, but they are my second home. And I’m very grateful for the 27 and a half years I’ve had and I know that they will continue to be superstars in the first responder world.

David Adkins: What are your thoughts on the future of public health in Huntington?

Jan Rader: I think that as long as we keep an open mind, and we collaborate, that we’ll be okay. I think time will tell what we’re going to see in the future.

Note: Jan Rader stepped down as Huntington’s Fire Chief on Friday, February 11, to assume a new role as director of Huntington’s Council on Public Health and Drug Control Policy. Fire Chief Greg Fuller assumed the position Monday, February 14.

Gayle Manchin Tours Old Huntington Factory Turned Community Hub

Gayle Manchin, Appalachian Regional Commission Federal Co-chair, toured a defunct factory last Wednesday that’s been turned into a community space in Huntington.

The West Edge factory was once a clothing factory that shut down in 2002. It was purchased by the nonprofit Coalfield Development in 2014 and has since become a space for community events, artist studios, and a work space for developing enterprises.

In partnership with Solar Holler, The West Edge is also home to the largest solar installation for a non-profit in West Virginia.

Jacob Hannah, Coalfield Development’s Director of Conversation, Presenting Solar Energy Produced

While on a tour of the building, Gayle Manchin noted the importance of the old building to the local community. She said, “it was their grandmother’s that worked in this building. I think it helps build pride in families, that the generations later see the rebirth of something else in a place that they were familiar with.”

The West Edge is home to Coalfield Development’s revitalization enterprise groups. These enterprise groups include Mountain Mindful, Refresh Appalachia, and Revitalize Appalachia.

Mountain Mindful produces self care products and uses upcycled materials to build furnishings, Refresh Appalachia is a distributor of fresh food and produce, and Revitalize Appalachia works to construct homes for unemployed and underemployed people in Wayne, Mingo, and Lincoln counties. Each enterprise offers job training.

Marilyn Wrenn, Coalfield’s Chief Development Officer, said their training program offers mentorship and certification opportunities to sometimes struggling students. She added that the training can be applied as credit hours toward an Associates degree at Bridge Valley, Mountwest, and Southern West Virginia community colleges.

Wrenn noted that, “about a third are in recovery for substance use disorder. Another third, and there’s a lot of overlap but not completely, are justice [system] involved.” She added that, “everyone that we’ve hired has been unemployed.”

“It’s inspired me to hopefully start my own business someday,” said Amanda Whitlock, a member of the woodshop crew. She said she came to the training program after graduating from recovery treatment. Whitlock is a full time student and a mother of a 2-year-old son.

Whitlock says she’s grateful for the opportunity to build a career for herself. Whitlock told Manchin that she feels, “like I’m just really off on the right foot as far as going to school and working full time. And this place has just really fostered a lot of growth for me.”

Gayle Manchin, Appalachian Regional Commission Federal Co-chair, meets the Workshop crew

Jacob Hannah, Coalfield Development’s Director of Conversation, presented to Manchin ways that Coalfield Development is utilizing Appalachian Regional Commission grants to expand their recycling and upcycling programs.

By collaborating with local organizations such as Marshall University and the Wayne County Economic Development Authority, recycled and upcycled materials are used to fill niche needs. For example, sawdust and scrap fabrics can be reused as farming materials.

“The idea is like, how can we sort of look at those low hanging fruits and tie them all together, and so it’s sort of been growing and growing throughout these different counties, to where we identify partners and communities and organizations that could be a part of this conversation,” said Hannah.

To expand on the recycling and upcycling programs, Coalfield purchased the Black Diamond property next door. Just like the West Edge factory, the Black Diamond building has had a long industrial history and the area and has long sat vacant.

Brandon Dennison, Coalfield Development’s CEO, and Coalfield Jacob Hannah, Development’s Director of Conversation, present to Gayle Manchin the Black Diamond project.

Brandon Dennison, Coalfield Development’s CEO, said that instead of thinking of economic development as attracting outside companies to locate in the region, the non-profit is taking a different approach. He said, “I think the more we work with who we have here already, and what we have here already, and start where we are, even if it’s an empty building, it’s got great bones, it’s got soul and character, and I think the more we do that from the bottom up, that will naturally organically attract.”

“The thing that I want each and every one of you to realize is that ARC does not go around handing out money. That’s not what we do. It’s not who we are,” said Manchin at the end of the tour. “What we are, is that federal agency that is there waiting for the local communities to realize their challenges, come up with solutions, working together with the community, with your elected officials, with your educational leaders.”

Manchin added, “we can help communities start to thrive. But the ultimate goal is we want our communities to be able to compete. I look to people like Brandon and others across the state that truly is going to bring to the surface ideas and proposals that can transform this region.”

Gale Manchin and Coalfield Development Team

Coalfield Development is one of the 60 finalists in the first stage of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge from the United States Economic Development Administration. The final stage of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge 25 million to 100 million dollars in funding.

Huntington's New Police Chief Talks Goals For Department And Tackling Opioid Epidemic

On Nov. 22, 2021, Huntington’s new police chief, Karl Colder, took the oath office, becoming the first Black police chief in the city’s history. Chief Colder served as a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. He spoke with David Adkins to discuss the beginning of his tenure and his upcoming plans for the Huntington Police Department.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

David Adkins: Mayor Williams has said that you’re “unbelievably qualified”. He said he knew you from your work in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and that you’re a familiar face to Huntington. What is your familiarity with the city?

Chief Colder: I saw the limited resources that were afforded to West Virginia at the federal level concerning the opioid issue, being the highest overdose death rate per capita in the country. So I had to bring in resources.

Part of that responsibility was to unite with Health and Human Services, the health department, other federal, state, and local agencies, to come together to join forces in dealing with substance use disorders and the opioid epidemic.

My area of responsibility was vast at that point in time. Still, you have to have that coordination between agencies, even bringing that skill set to the federal government working with our federal partners, our state partners and even the surrounding police departments within the area, or region to deal with police issues. To deal with the drug problem.

David Adkins: Do you find that your time working as a consultant and instructor has given you insight into how best to improve upon the Huntington Police Department?

Chief Colder: Policing in general has changed, it has gone from a more, I would say, hands on approach to a more analytical approach, and so a lot of what I did in my consulting was bringing analytics tools from different companies into the federal government system for law enforcement, and even in state and local systems. So when, for example, police chiefs need to know how to dedicate their resources. Well, now with analytical tools, they can better do that job, because now they can pinpoint where problem areas are, and dedicate resources to it. So that’s where the analytics comes in. So now what took agencies and public police departments months to solve in terms of cases, or even years, could take weeks.

Right now, I could say where we’re right at the beginning to mid levels in dealing with analytics. There’s different tools that we’re using now that can put us in the forefront of that, but now working with the US Attorney’s Office, working with the Fusion Center in Charleston, creating our own fusion center, and Task Force oriented policing here in the Huntington area. That’s really important, getting agencies to deconflict, and that means sharing information, and so we have several task forces here in the Huntington surrounding area. How can we get them all at the same table at the same time, sharing information, unifying to really deal with issues and problems?

David Adkins: The Deputy Police Chief position was created within the department, and former Lt. Phil Watkins was chosen for the position. What factors went into creating the position?

Chief Colder: I think that was one of the first things that the mayor and I spoke about, early on, when I accepted the position, and one of the reasons we looked at that, we wanted to really provide administrative support to what we were doing in terms of the police department.

For example, we had one captain, who may have been responsible for community outreach, recruitment, professional standards, and really, what we wanted to do is separate that out . So now there’s direct oversight over this committee, community policing, which is really important, as we all know, from what’s going on across the country, in terms of social injustice and other issues that have gone on. You have your professional standards, which is the integrity component of your whole agency. And that shouldn’t be included in other operations, you know, that should be separated out and controlled through the police chief and deputy chief.

Note: Huntington City Councilwoman Teresa Johnson will host a meet-and-greet with Police Chief Karl Colder at 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 11, at the A.D. Lewis Community Center. The meet-and-greet aims to introduce Police Chief Colder to the community of Huntington’s Fairfield District.

David Adkins: Huntington has had a long troubled history with race relations. With you being the city’s first black police chief, how does it feel to be part of our evolving history?

Chief Colder: Policing has not always been on the right side of the people, and it’s been that way in any African American community. I really think that understanding that as an African American police chief, I can better prepare our officers for those questions, and how to police in that setting. I think that is really important, that we understand culture, that we become culturally adroit to the African American community, as well as the white community. We have to be that face of America, well, we need officers who are African American. My job is to be the face of the agency, and also the face of the community. I think that’s important, me serving as the role model for the community. I think bringing my credentials to the table, sharing that with the community, whether that’s the white community or black community, I think that’s a great thing for people to see that people of color are successful.

My teaching experience, I think that taught me a whole lot about young people, and oftentimes we don’t get to hear their voice. They don’t see things the way that we see it as adults, and there’s a reason for that, but that’s where we can cultivate leaders, get young people to understand that there are differences, because a lot of issues that we deal with are subjective. Our young people have to do their own research, they have to understand what’s really going on, and they can’t depend on the media and adults to really tell them what’s going on, because adults have a hard time talking to each other; young people, they see it differently. I had the opportunity to spend the last two years or so understanding young people.