The Mine Safety and Health Administration published a preliminary report on the death of 38-year-old William Richards at the Tunnel Ridge Mine in Valley Grove.
Federal investigators released more details about a coal miner who was killed last week in Ohio County.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration published a preliminary report on the death of 38-year-old William Richards at the Tunnel Ridge Mine in Valley Grove.
Richards, who had 13 years of experience, fell off a supply car and was pinned between the car and its coupler.
His death is the third in a West Virginia coal mine accident this year and the seventh nationally. An eighth coal miner died on Tuesday in New Mexico, according to MSHA.
The Tunnel Ridge Mine is owned by Alliance Resource Partners of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
According to a company press release, it saw its revenue increase 70 percent to $616 million in the second quarter of 2022 from a year earlier on high coal prices and strong sales.
There were five coal mine fatalities in 2020, the lowest number on record going back to 1900. As the industry recovered from the pandemic, 10 miners were killed on the job in 2021.
A new program launched by West Virginia’s Supreme Court that uses technology to promote safety and access in cases involving sexual assault and domestic violence is expanding to Ohio County, officials said.
The new system allows victims of domestic violence and sexual assault to file petitions for protective orders without going to a courthouse. Officials plan to test it Wednesday in Judge Heather Wood’s courtroom in Wheeling, a statement from the Supreme Court said. The system is expected to be operational in Ohio County beginning on Oct. 4.
Ohio County is the second community to pilot the program, which was introduced last month in Cabell County as a way to address safety concerns. The only option before the program was for victims to appear in person at the courthouse.
“This new system will provide an option to victims to help keep them safe from the people they allege assaulted them. We also are ensuring every person’s constitutional rights are protected,” Chief Justice Evan Jenkins said.
At least six local health departments in West Virginia have now reported coronavirus outbreaks related to churches.
As of Wednesday, the state reported 34 positive cases of COVID-19 at the Graystone Baptist Church in Greenbrier County, four positive cases at the First Baptist Church in Ohio County and four active cases at the Church of Christ in Bloomingrose, Boone County.
All three churches are closed, and Gov. Jim Justice said one person has been hospitalized. Earlier in June, Hampshire, Jefferson and Marshall county health departments notified the state of outbreaks associated with one church each. The state said those cases are no longer active.
“While church is surely the most sacred ground, it is the spot where we’re singing and where we’re projecting our voices, and we’re closer together,” Justice said in a virtual press briefing, “there’s more elderly there, and all of the things that make it just right for an outbreak, a potential problem.”
Justice urged people to wear masks while they worship. He said he would support requiring people to wear masks in theory, but waffled on whether he’d actually enforce such a rule. To the east, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has been requiring people to wear masks in indoor public spaces since late May.
“To be perfectly honest, I am a proponent,” he said, adding later, “I want good West Virginians to be all together. And I don’t want to start mandating things on West Virginians that could potentially divide us. It’s a tough call.”
In Ohio County, most churches reopened earlier in May with policies urging people to bring face masks, and with seating arrangements that encouraged social distancing, said county health officer Howard Gamble.
“We tell people, this is a virus,” Gamble said Wednesday. “The more ways you give the virus to spread, it will find it.”
In Greenbrier County, Graystone Baptist Church Pastor Youel Altizer told the Beckley Register-Herald members weren’t wearing face masks. Church officials declined several requests for an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Both Ohio and Greenbrier health departments urge people who attended those churches, or anyone who has had contact with infected churchgoers, to get tested.
Wheeling Hospital offers drive-thru testing to patients with symptoms or anyone who has been exposed to the virus.
On Friday, June 19, the West Virginia National Guard will help facilitate free coronavirus testing at the Exley Center on Hil-Dar, a housing community in Wheeling, and again on Saturday, June 20, at the North Wheeling Dream Center. Testing is free and no proof of symptoms or insurance is required, although the Guard does require proof of residency, like a driver’s license. Testing is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In Greenbrier County, the Guard wrapped up four days of testing on Monday. According to Justice, more than 800 people were tested, and at least eight came back positive. Most tests have been processed at this point.
Coronavirus czar Dr. Clay Marsh said church outbreaks and cases associated with West Virginians who have traveled out of state account for an increase in positive cases. The Preston County Health Department is investigating a cluster of positive COVID-19 cases all linked to recent trips to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a popular tourist destination for West Virginians. Three people have tested positive. The department said in a news release that it expects more.
The state has recorded 2,376 positive cases of COVID-19 and 88 deaths. Justice said nearly a tenth of the population has been tested.
During the Wednesday press briefing, Justice said there are still 13 active coronavirus cases at four jails and two prisons in the state. He also said the state’s unemployment rate has dropped 3 percent from May to 12.9 percent, below the national average of 13.3 percent.
West Virginia state and county health officials will host free coronavirus testing for residents of Ohio, McDowell and Harrison Counties on Friday and Saturday, June 5-6.
Testing will be available both days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. No insurance is required, and you don’t have to be symptomatic.
Identification, or proof residency, however, is required.
In Harrison County, testing will be available at the Monticello Playground at 518 Monticello Avenue in Clarksburg.
In McDowell County, testing will be held at two locations. On Friday, there will be testing at the Tug River Health Clinic in Gary. On Saturday, testing will be at the city hall building on Coal Heritage Road in Keystone.
This round of free testing is the latest as part of an initiative from the state to test more high-density population areas and West Virginia’s minority communities, which are disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. According to data from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Tuesday morning, nearly 7 percent of the state’s positive cases were from black West Virginians, and almost 15 percent were from other minorities and those who don’t identify as white.
Meanwhile, African Americans only accounted for 3.6 percent of the state’s population in 2018 census estimates.
With guidance from the COVID-19 Advisory Commission on African American Disparities, the West Virginia National Guard, the DHHR and local county health departments have hosted free testing over the last month in communities in the Eastern Panhandle, the Southern Coalfields, in and around Charleston and Morgantown.
Only eight months after launching West Virginia’s first family treatment court, Boone County Judge William Thompson said the coronavirus pandemic caused some drastic changes to the program.
Family treatment court is a “problem solving court.” Instead of punishing parents in the abuse and neglect system for their addiction, it connects them to treatment options and resources to improve their parenting.
The goal, Thompson said, is to help parents reach recovery and get their kids back. As parents progress through the program, which consists of weekly meetings with himself and daily contact with a county case coordinator, they get more visits with their kids, until they’re ready for reunification.
Boone County had reunited its first family and was almost ready to reunite others, when COVID-19 hit West Virginia, causing the state to end most in-person court hearings and visitations for families with children in foster care.
“We had one young mother today who’s doing wonderful in the program and is at the point to be considered for reunification,” Thompson recalled from one of his weekly meetings, which he now conducts over phone and video conferencing. “And probably, but for the coronavirus, she would have had her child back with her at this point.”
In one meeting, the mother talked about learning her child had crawled for the first time.
“You could tell that for the mother, it was great that the baby crawled,” Thompson said, “but you could also tell it was breaking her heart that she didn’t get to see it.”
Hearing From The First Court
Thompson’s court was the first of five to launch family treatment court in West Virginia.
Advocates for the program say it could reduce the number of children in the state’s overwhelmed foster care system, who often are removed from their homes due to issues related to substance use disorder.
The programs were showing promising results, but now that the coronavirus crisis has restricted in-person gatherings, these five courts and their participants have been forced to adapt quickly. Inpatient treatment options are limited, and most outpatient appointments have moved to telehealth.
“While not perfect, and not ideal, we are doing the best we can in these circumstances,” said Thompson.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
West Virginia Public Broadcasting visited the Boone County Courthouse in August, before the first family treatment court in the state was launched.
On March 20, the state Department of Health and Human Resources began advising virtual visits instead of physical visits, for families involved with Child Protective Services. Many parents with children in foster care haven’t been able to see their kids since then.
Some families whose children are in kinship placement, either with a family member or family friend, have been allowed some visits with the court’s permission.
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals issued an order on March 22 declaring a judicial emergency, which halted all nonessential, in-person hearings until May 15. The supreme court issued another order on Wednesday, allowing in-person hearings to resume on or after Monday, May 18.
Parents, Kids Face Digital Divide
In normal circumstances, family treatment court functions best when parents can maintain regular visits with their kids. According to Chautle Haught, who leads family treatment courts for the state supreme court, the strength of this program hinges on developing healthier, more nurturing relationships.
“We require these participants to be involved,” Haught said. “We want them at every doctor’s appointment, every school function. We want them present in their childrens’ lives, as much as they can, as long as there’s no safety concerns.”
She compared family treatment court to other problem-solving programs, like the adult and juvenile drug courts that already are active in West Virginia, helping people avoid incarceration for addiction-related crimes.
“The difference with us is that our courts are involved in the civil proceedings, not the criminal proceedings that your adult drug courts and juvenile drug courts are,” Haught said. Instead of jail or prison time, she said, parents in family treatment court risk losing custody of their children.
Even in a pandemic, Haught said parents have made excellent progress in their recovery from addiction.
With school events and appointments on hold, courts are increasing the number of video visits parents have with kids.
“We’re doing lots of telephone visits, we’ve got some of our foster parents equipped with the same type of technology for Zoom and Skype platforms,” said Judge Thompson in Boone County. “But that’s been by far the most difficult part. I have a participant who’s doing everything they’re supposed to be doing. And I can’t get them the in-person physical visits that they deserve.”
Roane County Judge Anita Harold Ashley, who launched her family treatment court in January, agreed her four participating families struggle the most with not seeing their kids — especially since many Roane County residents have a hard time regularly tuning into video calls, due to unreliable broadband access.
“With the fact that there’s really poor internet service, and most folks have bad cell service, it just breaks my heart if they’re not seeing their kids,” Ashley said.
An Inconvenient Time For A Global Pandemic
These challenges come just as family treatment courts were starting to show some promising results. The supreme court reports there are 50 adults involved in Boone, Nicholas, Ohio, Randolph and Roane counties, with roughly 100 to 150 children between them.
Boone County has 16 adult participants and roughly 25 children involved.
Other, newer courts have said they hope to have the same success. Like Nicholas County, which was the fifth in the state to launch a family treatment court in late February.
Stephanie Smith is the Nicholas County family treatment court case coordinator. Like Boone and Roane counties, she said the Nicholas County program is different now than the one they planned for earlier this year.
“We’ll be excited when we can safely get back to doing things like normal,” Smith said. “But until then, we’re just chugging along and everybody’s hanging in there, making it work right now.”
Smith still conducts home visits with adult participants every week. Sometimes, she brings others from the family treatment court team with her.
“I talk to them [the participants] every day, multiple times a day, phone calls, text, whatever,” Smith said of the parents. “When I went out there, I mean, you could just tell that they really enjoyed that face to face contact … It really made a difference.”
Recovery ‘Difficult Enough’ In Normal Time, Challenging During COVID-19
Most of the resources parents are connected to — namely, those for addiction treatment and parenting skills — have moved online or become remote. Sweat patches that last two weeks have replaced regular drug testing, for example.
When the patches need to be changed in Nicholas County, the participants can visit the local Day Report center, which is still open to those in family treatment court and the criminal justice system, dealing with addiction.
“It’s difficult enough when it’s a normal time, trying to keep people sober and making sure they don’t OD [overdose] or anything like that,” said Nicholas County Day Report Center Director Gary Jarrell.
Individuals reporting to the center who are involved with the criminal justice system check in on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Jarrell said.
For them and family treatment court participants, the center has a recovery specialist on staff, who holds video meetings every week.
For those who need intensive inpatient care, Haught at the state supreme court said she’s in touch with probation services and their connections throughout the state.
The situation isn’t perfect, but there’s still evidence that families are benefiting from this program, according to Ohio County Family Treatment Court Coordinator Erin Jordan.
“There are some things that may not quite be able to happen,” Jordan said. “But they’re still going through their milestones. Some people have still advanced during all of this.”
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Judge William Thompson sits behind his desk in August.
In Boone County, Thompson noted parents are opening up more, and supporting each other in their weekly calls.
“They have sort of formed their own support system where they’ll depend on one another,” Thompson said. “It’s a stressful time, but they understand each other.”
Ohio County has even found a way to make family calls work, Jordan said, using money from grants that went to the five pilot counties, to support participants and provide incentives for their recoveries.
“We’ve ordered books, one for the child, one for the parent,” she said. “That way, with a video chat, the parents can read the book and the child can have the same book in their hands, looking at the pictures at the same time.”
Gov. Jim Justice is seeking a federal disaster declaration for a dozen counties in northern West Virginia hit by flooding in late July.
Justice sent a letter to the White House on August 10 requesting the disaster declaration, according to a news release from the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.
Justice outlined a preliminary flood-damage assessment in the letter. 161 homes were destroyed or suffered major damage in four of the twelve counties. Another 557 homes received minor damage.
Justice is requesting both individual and public assistance for Harrison, Marion, Marshall, Ohio, and Wetzel Counties, and public assistance for Doddridge, Monongalia, Preston, Randolph, Taylor, Tucker and Tyler Counties.
The letter specifically asks for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Individuals and Household Program, crisis counseling, disaster legal services and unemployment assistance, and programs from other agencies like the Small Business Administration and the Federal Highway Administration.
The late-July storm also closed or damaged more than 20 roads in the northern part of the state after at least 3 inches of rain triggered flash floods and mudslides.
West Virginia’s federal congressional delegation also wrote a letter to the president in support of Justice’s request.
