Kearneysville Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Berkeley County Okays Correctional Program Transfer, But Concerns Remain

Jefferson County officials were left scrambling this month after a local rehabilitation program for low-level criminal offenders with substance use issues announced it would cease operations. But a new decision from a neighboring county may provide participants a lifeline.

The Berkeley County Commission voted Thursday to accept the transfer of Jefferson Day Report Center enrollees to the publicly operated Berkeley County Day Report Center in Martinsburg.

Unlike its peer in Martinsburg, the Kearneysville-based Jefferson County center is a nonprofit organization. While it partners with the county government and magistrate court to provide services, the center operates independently. This month, its board of directors resolved to close in June.

County officials say the sudden decision comes as a shock, and brings risks to participants who depend on the program as a way past addiction and the criminal justice system.

“It wasn’t a little bit unexpected,” Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey told West Virginia Public Broadcasting Wednesday. “It was 1000% unexpected.”

West Virginia magistrate judges can divert offenders with substance use issues away from prisons via day report centers. Pictured is the Jefferson County Courthouse in May 2024.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

An important service interrupted

Day report centers operate across the United States. Under the West Virginia Community Corrections Act, county magistrate courts can assign people convicted of certain offenses to day report centers. This diverts them away from the prison system, which can be costly to run and comes with a high rate of recidivism — or repeated convictions down the road.

The centers in Berkeley and Jefferson counties are nonresidential, offering participants rehabilitation services and transitional support as a form of supervised release that does not uproot their daily lives.

The Jefferson Day Report Center currently supports roughly 190 active participants, and completed services for nearly 400 people between July 2022 and June 2023, the Spirit of Jefferson previously reported.

Given how many “vulnerable” people depend on the program, Harvey found its plans to close troubling.

The decision “could have impacted everyone that’s coming through the court system,” he said.

Harvey said the board of directors for the Jefferson Day Report Center told him over email that the planned closure boils down to funding issues, because difficulties securing grant funds has made it harder to extend services to the public.

Harvey said he found that reasoning “hypocritical” because the center receives significant state and county funding.

According to its most recent publicly accessible tax reports, the center received nearly $1.1 million in “government grants” in 2023, which comprised roughly 64% of the center’s total revenue that year. That figure also outpaced the center’s reported grant funding in 2022, 2021 and 2020 by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer of the Jefferson Day Report Center’s current board of directors filed to create a separate Kearneysville nonprofit named “Generations Haven” with the West Virginia secretary of state’s office in April 2024.

The Jefferson Day Report Center did not respond to multiple phone call and email requests for comment on this story regarding the reasoning behind its closure.

Lending a hand

Harvey discussed the facility’s imminent closure with members of the Jefferson County Commission last week. At their March 20 meeting, the commission voted to adopt a plan to transfer active and future participants to the day report center in Berkeley County.

On Thursday, the Berkeley County Commission adopted a memorandum of understanding that okays the plan for one year.

“It’s not going to affect the Berkeley County taxpayers,” said Commissioner John Hardy, who represents the Tuscarora District immediately bordering Jefferson County. “I believe it’s very important for us to be able to work with our surrounding counties … [and] to protect these people that have been going through this program.”

While helping more people access services will take “extra work” from staff, Jefferson County will fund participation and transportation costs for its enrollees without cost to the Berkeley County government, said Tim Czaja, director of community corrections for Berkeley County.

Czaja, who oversees local correctional services like the day report program, feels confident staff members will be able to sustain the additional demand. Previously, residents of Berkeley and Jefferson counties shared a joint day report center that was initially located in Martinsburg, then moved to Jefferson County.

“We’re prepared to take it on, and there’s state grant funds that are available from Justice and Community Services,” Czaja told WVPB after the meeting Thursday. “We can see about having those funds allocated to us next year to help directly meet the need for Jefferson County residents.”

The Berkeley County Day Report Center is located in Martinsburg, roughly an 11-mile drive from the Jefferson Day Report Center in Kearneysville.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Keeping participants afloat

While the Jefferson County facility may be closing, Czaja said county demand for rehabilitation and transitional services remains.

“The day report center’s closing doesn’t mean the problem is gone. Those folks are going to need some assistance,” Czaja said. “They asked us if we could help, and we’re happy to do that. We’ve put a plan in place.”

Meanwhile, Harvey said members of the county commission are considering opening and financing a new, public day report center within county lines.

Harvey said he is grateful that participants will not be left without options, but still worries the facility transfer could come with risks. The move will require people in sensitive situations to familiarize themselves with the new facility, and travel a greater distance to access support.

“It creates logistical challenges,” Harvey said. “Just generally, you want to limit friction as much as possible when you’re serving a population that’s vulnerable and marginalized. Transportation is oftentimes the number-one obstacle to recovery.”

The Berkeley County Day Report Center is a roughly 11-mile drive from the Jefferson County facility, and located even further away from Jefferson County’s easternmost towns, which the day report center also services.

“We do have a plan. We have vehicles ready to go to be able to transport people. But, in an ideal situation, you want to treat people where they’re at, either emotionally, mentally or physically,” Harvey continued. “And Jefferson County would be the place.”

Jefferson County’s Day Report Center Closing This June, Plans To Transfer Participants

Jefferson County’s day report center is slated to close this summer — a decision local officials say came as a shock.

West Virginians struggling with substance use issues who are convicted of certain crimes, mostly nonviolent offenses, can be assigned to day report centers by magistrate court judges instead of incarceration.

The nonresidential facilities require residents to participate in regular rehabilitation and transitional programming as a form of supervised release.

The Kearneysville-based Jefferson Day Report Center’s administrative board made the decision to close earlier this month, Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey told members of the Jefferson County Commission during their regular meeting March 20.

Harvey said the decision was sudden, and has left county officials struggling to ensure services remain accessible to active participants after the June 30 closure.

“It has been a scramble to make sure that the services are not interrupted for those who are currently in the court system,” Harvey said.

The Jefferson Day Report Center is a corporation that receives public funds but is functionally independent from the county government. Harvey said the center plays an important role in helping residents struggling with addiction access recovery resources.

In light of the closure, the commission voted to approve a plan that would transport Jefferson County participants to the Berkeley County Day Report Center in Martinsburg to continue services. The plan is scheduled for a final review from the Berkeley County Commission during its regular meeting Thursday, March 27.

Berkeley County IRS Data Center Will Transition Away From Fossil Fuels

A national data hub in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle will soon transition away from fossil fuels and toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Located in the Berkeley County community of Kearneysville, the Enterprise Computing Center (ECC) is one of the largest Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data centers, processing data for taxpayers across the United States.

Running the 1,800-kilowatt facility requires major energy usage. New federal funding at the site aims to help it become more energy efficient.

On Oct. 29, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the facility received a $2.2 million grant to begin its transition away from fossil fuels. It marks an early step toward a larger $23 million project that will take place at the site in the coming years.

The federal investment will allow the facility to electrify its heating and hot water systems, and later implement heat pump cooling technologies, according to a DOE project description. The department estimates these changes will “reduce utility energy consumption by 34 percent, saving $1.3 million annually.”

Groundwork for the project was laid in 2020, when the DOE issued the facility a $500,000 grant for a study on the project’s implementation and effects, according to Tyler Harris with the DOE Federal Energy Management Program.

Harris serves as director of the Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) Program, which selects grant recipients like the ECC and distributes their funding. Since its founding in 2014, Harris said the AFFECT program has led a national effort to help federal facilities pursue cheaper and more efficient energy resources.

“If a building needs fuel oil, natural gas and electricity to keep it running, suddenly you need to back up three different fuel sources,” Harris said. “But if you can turn the whole building so it’s 100 percent electricity, then you only need to back up one source of fuel.”

By streamlining energy consumption, protecting a facility’s energy reserves could be as simple as using batteries or on-site solar panels, Harris said.

Other projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies program include solar panel installations.

*Photo Credit: United States Department of Energy*

“Changing buildings to all electric is something that the federal government is really pushing, because it really allows agencies to meet their mission long term, and provides resiliency that they need,” he said.

Harris said the $2.2 million grant is “the base project” for a facility-wide energy transition at the ECC. The wider project is privately funded, but receives millions in additional funds for the energy costs it saves by transitioning to a cheaper energy source, he said.

The ECC was one of 67 federal facilities that received AFFECT funding this year around the country. Other projects ranged from wind energy installations to geothermal heat pumps, with the goal of turning sites into “all-electric buildings,” Harris said.

The AFFECT program awarded a total of $149.87 million to projects in 28 states and six international sites this year. It was funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021.

Federal administrators hope it can promote energy security in light of emerging environmental concerns.

“It is imperative that federal facilities are able to operate in the face of increasingly intense extreme weather events,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in the Oct. 29 DOE press release.

While no other projects in West Virginia received funding this year, the DOE Legacy Management Business Center in Morgantown previously received funding for its own study on how to transition the building toward electric energy.

Harris said positive impacts from the ECC project can extend beyond the facility itself.

“Allowing this project to happen in this particular facility will not only improve air quality in the direct area, but it also provides jobs,” he said. “Not only for construction, but long-term maintenance of these new and emerging technologies.”

A timeline for the project’s implementation has not yet been announced. Harris said processing funding can take up to 18 months, and that completing the project could take up to an additional two years.

Eastern Panhandle Celebrates Decade Of Inpatient Hospice Care

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Hospice of the Panhandle’s inpatient campus in Kearneysville. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., delivered a speech to commemorate the anniversary.

For patients with terminal illnesses, hospice care is a form of health care that provides enhanced comfort and quality-of-life resources when few medical options remain.

But ensuring a hospice patient’s comfort and happiness can be tricky in a traditional hospital setting, according to Maria Lorenson, development director of Hospice of the Panhandle located in Jefferson and Berkeley counties.

Crowded medical settings often come with loud noises and fewer lifestyle supports, she said. But that’s where inpatient facilities come in.

Inpatient facilities like Hospice of the Panhandle’s campus in Kearneysville provide a residential health care setting.

Here, patients continue to receive support, but also experience a level of normalcy harder to access in a traditional hospital, Lorenson said.

“It’s very quiet, peaceful (and) serene.”

While Hospice of the Panhandle has operated since 1980, this year marks the 10th anniversary of its current inpatient facility. To celebrate, residents of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle and beyond visited the campus Monday.

During the celebration, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., delivered remarks regarding her parents’ history undergoing hospice care, as well as the importance of supporting end-of-life health care facilities.

“This is a real soft spot for me, hospice care,” she said.

Hospice of the Panhandle CEO Nikki Bigiarelli welcomes guests to a celebration of the inpatient facility’s tenth anniversary.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

“The way to care for either life-ending illnesses or folks with dementia — or whatever the issue is — is something that I think all of us… will live,” Capito continued. “Every tender touch, every warm and friendly smile, every professional engagement is so absolutely important.”

Capito’s sentiments were echoed by Patti Maerten Hicks, whose husband, Dan, was admitted to the facility after receiving a pancreatic cancer diagnosis at age 47.

As her husband’s condition worsened, Maerten Hicks said that staff members volunteered to host an impromptu ceremony at the facility that would allow her husband to take part in their children’s high school graduation.

Maerten Hicks said that seeing facility staff and the local community rally around the ceremony brought joy to her husband and family during a particularly challenging period of time.

“Our family experience is just one story, one experience, that demonstrates how important the inpatient facility is to our community,” she said.

Hospice of the Panhandle is a health care facility located in Kearneysville, Jefferson County.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Lorenson said that operating an inpatient facility can be costly, which has limited the prevalence of inpatient care nationwide.

But residents can access hospice care using Medicare or Medicaid benefits, which prevents any financial burden from falling on the facility’s patients themselves, she said.

Plus, with the creation of the inpatient facility 10 years ago, Lorenson said that she and her colleagues feel they have enhanced medical resources available to the rural community surrounding the facility.

In a speech to the celebration’s guests, Hospice of the Panhandle CEO Nikki Bigiarelli said that the facility remains committed to continuing to serve residents like these in the years ahead.

Since opening 10 years ago, the inpatient facility — which can serve up to 14 individuals at a time — has admitted more than 3,000 patients for care, she said.

“I was born and raised here in the Panhandle, and taking care of our own people is very near and dear to my heart,” Bigiarelli said. “We’re going to continue to find ways to serve and take care of the deserving people of this Panhandle.”

All 5 W.Va. Public Charter Schools On Track To Open In Fall 2022

All five of West Virginia’s public charter schools are on track to open in fall 2022, despite a location issue for one of the brick-and-mortar schools. Nitro Preparatory Academy, one of the state’s three physical charter schools, hit a snag recently and is searching for a new building in Kanawha County.

All five of West Virginia’s public charter schools are on track to open in fall 2022, despite a location issue for one of the brick-and-mortar schools.

Nitro Preparatory Academy, one of the state’s three physical charter schools, hit a snag recently and is searching for a new building in Kanawha County.

“Our plans to locate Nitro Preparatory Academy at 302 21st Street [in Nitro] have changed due to a zoning challenge pertaining to the number of parking spaces available on-site,” Courtney Harritt, spokesperson for ACCEL Schools, said in an email. “At this time we are reviewing alternative locations in Nitro and throughout Kanawha County.”

Harritt said they hope to have a new building secured by mid-May.

ACCEL Schools is the education service provider for three of West Virginia’s five charter schools: Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy in Kearneysville, Nitro Prep and Virtual Preparatory Academy of West Virginia.

Harritt said interest has been strong at both Virtual Prep and Eastern Panhandle Prep with more than 100 applications at each school. Both schools will offer grades K-10.

Virtual Prep, along with another virtual school, West Virginia Virtual Academy, are the state’s two virtual charters.

West Virginia Virtual Academy will offer grades K-12, and its education service provider is a company called Stride.

Another brick-and-mortar charter school, West Virginia Academy, will be located in Morgantown and offer K-9. Its founder, John Treu, said in an email that the school will open in August.

“Our opening day is in early August because we have a modified term schedule with longer breaks between terms than traditional public schools,” Treu said. “We’ve hired most of our faculty and staff and over 400 students have applied and been admitted.”

Treu said the school has reached about 80 percent of total capacity with a couple grades nearly full. He said the majority of students are coming from Monongalia and Preston counties, with a few students enrolled from Marion County.

In related news, the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board met Friday. Prior to the meeting, Chairman Adam Kissel told West Virginia Public Broadcasting in an email that the board would have an “executive director discussion.”

However, this issue wasn’t brought up in the meeting. The board entered executive session for a “personnel matter” and then promptly adjourned.

The board has been searching for an executive director for some time. In October, the board had received at least six applications.

Leveling The Playing Field, Video Games Empower People With Disabilities

For people with disabilities, video games can help them feel more included and accepted in social circles.

“In a video game, you don’t know that I have a disability,” Mark Barlet, the founder of The AbleGamers Charity in Kearneysville, Jefferson County, explained. But not everyone with a disability can play video games with a traditional controller.

Founded in 2004, AbleGamers is an organization that helps people with disabilities play video games with specially made video game controllers.

“I’ve seen where a profoundly disabled person mentions that they play a game and all the sudden, while that person was being completely ignored in a crowd, the person next to them says, ‘I play that game too!’ and all of a sudden, they’re friends,” Barlet said.

Take the game system Xbox One, for example. A traditional controller is held with both hands, and your thumbs and pointer fingers are used to make the character or object on the screen move and interact.

AbleGamers’ employee Greg Haynes uses an Xbox One adaptive controller to play a game called Rocket League.

An adaptive controller, allows someone who can’t hold a traditional controller to navigate a video game in a way that’s comfortable for them. The Xbox One adaptive controller, looks like a white, plastic pad with large black buttons built into the device, and outlets along its side to connect it with other external buttons.

“One thing that people don’t think of when they hold a traditional controller is that about 60 percent of your digits are used just to hold the controller,” AbleGamers employee Greg Haynes said. “And for some players with disabilities, based on a number of things, that may not be a reality. So, something like the Xbox adaptive controller, [it] allows you to essentially take the controller, flatten it down, and have it be on a surface, so that you have access to a potential layout of buttons.”

AbleGamers has only six employees. Four are full-time, two are part-time, and then there are a few volunteers. But they work with game developers and engineers to develop these specialized controllers. In some cases, they help people get more complex devices that respond to eye movements, foot taps, breath or finger taps. These kinds of controllers aren’t sold in stores.

This adaptive controller called the Adroit Switchblade was created by AbleGamers and Evil Controllers. It can be used with an Xbox.

Some of the devices are made in-house at AbleGamers, but most are either purchased or made elsewhere.

In 2018, AbleGamers said they helped more than 1,400 people with disabilities get back into or start gaming. About 8 percent of those people required intricate, specially made controllers.

Demand for these controllers is high, though, and AbleGamers said they’re only able to help about 30 percent of the requests that come in at any given time.

But some experts are concerned that relying on video games for social interactions (or technology in general) could be more negative than positive.

“You can’t replace [in-person] social interaction,” Shepherd University associate professor of psychology Heidi Dobish said.

Dobish specializes in child, adolescent development and lifespan social psychology.

“Those that are spending a lot of time on Facebook, research is showing that they tend to have lower self-esteem, because we are seeing an increase in anxiety, depression, loneliness, isolation; those sorts of things.”

Dobish said access to video games for folks with disabilities can help a person feel empowered and create inclusion, but she cautions this shouldn’t replace in-person interactions – especially for young people.

This adaptive controller made for the Xbox One game system was modeled after AbleGamers’ Adroit Switchblade adaptive controller.

Inclusive socialization is one of the main benefits of video games for Jane Timmons-Mitchell, though, a clinical psychologist and senior research associate at the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

She said video games, especially those with educational or social components, can be a great thing for children and adults. In the case of someone with a disability, playing video games with others can help them feel connected.

“One of the things that is pretty well established is that those can really increase cooperation and social skills,” Timmons-Mitchell said.

Both Dobish and Timmons-Mitchell agree finding balance is key, though, and that encouraging in-person social interactions and time spent outside, away from screens, is hugely beneficial to a person’s mental and physical health – for those with disabilities and for those without.

This life size power armor from the Fallout video games hangs out here in one of the hallways at the AbleGamers headquarters in Kearneysville, W.Va.

AbleGamers founder Barlet agrees that moderation and monitoring video game consumption is good. But he said he believes there is still great power through video games – that they can create an avenue where everyone is on the same playing field.

“That’s the power of this world that we live in now – that I don’t have to be defined by my race, my creed, my LGBT status, [or] my disability. We have those shared spaces, we have those connections,” he said.

From his perspective, getting to play video games gives people the chance to run, jump, create and be anyone they want to be.