Tag: Putnam County

Coalfields To Receive $7 Million For Job, Infrastructure Growth

Federal grants of about $10 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce were awarded to four West Virginia projects Monday to help with infrastructure maintenance and economic development in the state.

Two of those projects are in the southern coalfields where the need for a more diversified workforce remains crucial.

“These projects will support business growth in West Virginia, diversify the state’s economy, and create new jobs for West Virginia residents,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.

The largest award, $5.2 million, will go to the Huntington Stormwater Utility to repair the Huntington Floodwall, which officials said was structurally damaged in the 2015 and 2018 floods.

The goal for this project is to reroute sewer and storm drainage systems to protect downtown businesses, according to a press release. The project is expected to create and retain 750 jobs, the commerce department said.

The Coalfield Development Corp., a nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing coalfield economies, will receive a federal grant for nearly $1.7 million. Three buildings in Matewan will be renovated to create a job-creation and training facility.

In 2019, West Virginia had the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the country. The new Matewan facility will specifically be geared toward unemployed coal miners – ideally creating 90 new jobs.

The Putnam County Public Service District and the Benedum Airport Authority also received federal grants for increasing water capacity to serve industrial needs and to renovate airport facilities, respectively. 

Listen: W.Va. Speech Pathologist Shares Her Experience Reaching Students In Time Of Coronavirus

Christine Nichols is a speech pathologist at Winfield Elementary School in Putnam County. In this audio postcard she talks about the challenges of trying to do speech therapy remotely with young kids who may not have access to the internet – even if they have caregivers who can help them. 

When Gov. Jim Justice issued a stay at home order in late March, teachers across the state rushed to set up ways to continue teaching, despite students being unable to come to the classroom.

Nichols was one of those educators.

“We made packets for all of our kids,” she said. “And we were under the gun a little bit because we only had a day to do it, and then we weren’t allowed to be back in the schools at all.”

In addition to making paper packets, Nichols and her colleagues were given other options to keep working with students, including talking by video chat and over the phone. But video chat only works if both parties have reliable internet, which can be a challenge in parts of West Virginia. The video platforms also need to comply with federal health privacy laws.

It also soon became apparent that not all students would be able to approach remote learning in the same ways.

“Some parents don’t have access to the internet, so that would make teletherapy impossible,” she said. “Some of our kids are staying with relatives that we didn’t know that they were with, or foster families — that made it difficult.”

As a speech pathologist, Nichols works with students to help them learn to better communicate. She said she often relies on visually assessing clients in order to help them, and that’s hard to do over the phone.

“Like if a child has trouble saying the ‘S’ sound, that could sound like the ‘F’ sound over the phone,” she said. “If I can’t see what that kid’s doing with their mouth, then I can’t give the feedback to say, ‘Oh, you need to put your teeth together.'”

Nichols said she also knows some parents are juggling working from home and teaching multiple kids.

“So, it’s a little bit unrealistic for me to say, ‘OK, you need to sit down with your one child for 30 minutes twice a week and do this,'” she said. “I want to be compassionate with our parents, and I want to make sure I’m not giving them something that [they] can’t handle, but I’m also trying to stay within the [Individualized Education Program] guidelines.” (IEPs are developed for each student receiving special education.)

 

She said, overall, some learning is still happening. Educators, parents and students are adapting as best they can, but the coronavirus pandemic unleashed a set of circumstances few could have imagined.

“We’re just now starting to get a handle on this and we will make it work,” she said, “but it’s just going to look really different than anything we’ve ever done.”

December 26, 1917: Instrument Maker Harold Hayslett Born

Harold Hayslett was born in Putnam County on December 26, 1917. After serving in France during World War II, he worked as a pipefitter for Union Carbide in South Charleston. He retired in 1980 after 33 years of service.

While working at Carbide, he started a side hobby—making violins, cellos, and other instruments. His reputation spread quickly—first locally, and then worldwide. The Violin Society of America honored Hayslett on several occasions.

And one of his cellos earned the society’s prestigious gold medal for tone. In 1996, filmmaker Robert Gates took an in-depth look at Hayslett’s life and work in the documentary Building a Cello with Harold.

Hayslett continued making instruments well into his nineties. He finally closed his shop at the end of 2013—at the age of 96. During his career, he made 86 violins, 14 violas, 65 cellos, and one double bass.

Harold passed away in February 2018 at age 100.

Today, Hayslett instruments are played by some of the world’s great classical musicians as well as bluegrass and old-time fiddlers. They often compare his instruments to those made by Antonio Stradivari and other great instrument makers of the past.

November 13, 1923: Attorney Virginia Mae Brown Born in Putnam County

Attorney Virginia Mae Brown was born at Pliny, in Putnam County, on November 13, 1923. After graduating from the West Virginia University College of Law, she forged a pioneering career in government. In 1952—before she’d turned 30—Brown became the first woman to serve as assistant attorney general in West Virginia history.

In 1961, Governor Wally Barron named her West Virginia Insurance Commissioner, the first woman to hold that post in any state. The next year, Brown became the first woman ever appointed to a state Public Service Commission.

In 1964, she again broke new ground when President Lyndon Johnson appointed her as the first woman to serve on the Interstate Commerce Commission. Dubbed the “First Lady of Transportation” by a trade magazine, Brown served on the commission until 1979. After stepping down from the ICC, she returned to West Virginia and served on the board of a Putnam County bank and as chief administrative law judge for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Charleston.

Virginia Mae Brown died of a heart attack at her Charleston home in 1991. She was 67 years old.

July 11, 1902: Historian John P. Hale Dies

Historian, physician, and businessman John P. Hale died on July 11, 1902, at age 78. The great-grandson of the legendary Mary Draper Ingles, Hale was born in present Virginia before moving to the Kanawha Valley in 1840.

  

He earned a medical degree but decided that medicine wasn’t as lucrative as the booming salt business. By 1860, his salt works, located between Charleston and Malden, was possibly the largest in North America.

When the Civil War began, Hale organized a Confederate artillery battery that fought at the Battle of Scary Creek in Putnam County. He also served as a surgeon in the 1862 battles around Richmond.

After the war, Hale started the first mechanized brick-making in the Kanawha Valley, helped found a bank, and formed Charleston’s first gas company and steam ferry.

He played a major role in getting the state capital moved from Wheeling to Charleston in 1870—after which, he served as mayor and built Charleston’s first luxurious hotel.

He also was an important historian, documenting the Kanawha Valley’s early history and founding a historical society that would evolve into the State Archives and Museum.

January 17, 1918: Engineering Firm Hired to Build Plant at Nitro

On January 17, 1918, the U.S. War Department hired a New York engineering firm to build a nitrocellulose plant along the Kanawha-Putnam county border. The DuPont Company had previously chosen the site to manufacture munitions for World War I.

However, there were political objections to one company receiving such a large contract, so DuPont abandoned its plans, and the federal government picked up the task.

Within 11 months, workers—including a young Clark Gable—had built the town of Nitro, containing a large munitions plant, a civic center, a hospital and worker houses, which were segregated by race and nationality.

In November 1918, just as Nitro was nearing completion, World War I ended. The munitions plant had been in partial operation for only a week. The army inventoried and sold off the plant to the Charleston Industrial Group, which marketed the facilities to chemical companies. In 1937, one of these companies, American Viscose, built the largest staple rayon plant in the world at Nitro. Over the years, Nitro was home to at least 17 different chemical companies, including Ohio Apex Chemical, Monsanto, and Fike Chemical.

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