Tag: Pendleton County

Sugar Grove Naval Base to Become Health Care Campus

A former Navy base in Pendleton County has been sold and is going to be repurposed as a health care campus for active-duty military personnel and West Virginia residents.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the General Services Administration announced in a statement Thursday the sale of the Sugar Grove base to Robert Pike.

Pike topped 14 other parties with a high bid of $4.01 million in a sealed-bid auction for the 123-acre facility, which ended Dec. 1.

Pike, whose address was not listed by the GSA, is working with Mellivora Partners, of Birmingham, Alabama, to begin the conversion.

The sale followed an online auction for the property that ended in July, when an $11.2 million bid was received but the anonymous bidder was unable to complete the transaction.

Company Continues Effort to Acquire Sugar Grove Base

A health care company is continuing its effort to acquire a Navy base in Pendleton County after the facility closes.

KVC Health Systems has proposed converting the Naval Information Operations Center in Sugar Grove into a community college that would serve young adults emerging from the foster care system.

KVC spokeswoman Jenny Kutz tells the Daily News-Record of Harrisonburg. Virginia, that the company will continue to partner with community and state leaders to make its vision a reality.

Earlier this month, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin turned down the federal government’s offer to transfer ownership of the 122-acre base to the state. State corrections officials had suggested that the base be used as a women’s prison.

The Navy plans to close the base at the end of this month.

Pendleton Lawmaker Criticizes Governor For Turning Down Base

A lawmaker says Pendleton County will lose several hundred jobs as a result of Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s decision to turn down the federal government’s offer to transfer a Navy base to the state.

State corrections officials had suggested converting the Naval Information Operations Center in Sugar Grove into a prison. Female inmates would have been transferred to Sugar Grove from the Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County.

Delegate Isaac Sponaugle tells the Daily News-Record that the prison would have employed about 250 people. The Pendleton County Democrat says there also would have been numerous indirect employment opportunities for support services.

Tomblin’s office said proposed upgrades and operating costs at Sugar Grove would cost far more than those at Lakin.

West Virginia Still Hopes to Turn Ex-Navy Base into Prison

  West Virginia officials say plans are moving forward to convert part of a soon-to-be closed Navy base in Pendleton County into a state prison.

Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein told legislators Thursday that the state has submitted a formal application to the federal General Services Division to use part of the 122-acre Sugar Grove military base.

The Charleston Gazette reports that the Navy announced plans in 2012 to close the Naval Information Operations Command base.

State officials say in addition to a 600-plus bed correctional facility, the joint application also calls for the state National Guard to develop a Wounded Warrior assisted-living center on the base, and for the state Department of Agriculture to use some of the acreage for farmland to be maintained by inmates.

Jobless Rates Fall in 27 W.Va. Counties in November

Unemployment rates fell in 27 of West Virginia's 55 counties in November.WorkForce West Virginia says jobless rates rose in 22 counties and were unchanged…

Unemployment rates fell in 27 of West Virginia’s 55 counties in November.

WorkForce West Virginia says jobless rates rose in 22 counties and were unchanged in six others.

Mingo County’s unemployment rate at 10.4 percent was the only one in double digits. That’s down from 10.7 percent in October.

Monongalia County had the lowest unemployment rate at 3.2 percent, followed by Jefferson at 3.8 percent at Pendleton at 4.0 percent.

The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point to 6.3 percent in November.

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