The fourth annual West Virginia art and writing contest aimed at raising awareness of prescription painkiller abuse has ended, with a student from the southern region named as the winner.
Fourth grader Taylor Wright of Lashmeet/Matoaka Elementary School in Mercer County was selected as the statewide winner in the ‘Kids Kick Opioids’ contest, according to a press release from Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. The southern coalfields, including Mercer County, have been impacted especially hard by the epidemic.
The winning design is a drawing, showing people trapped inside a pill bottle with the message, “Don’t bottle up your family over your addiction.” It is a reminder that opioid abuse goes far beyond a person using drugs, the statement said.
The entry was chosen from among more than 3,500 students statewide and will appear in newspapers across West Virginia as part of Morrisey’s public service announcement.
Runners up were Rivesville Middle School eighth grader Dakota Niebergau in Marion County and St. Paul Catholic School eighth grader Mia Pietranon in Weirton.
Regional winners will have their work displayed at the state Capitol in Charleston this fall.
This story was updated on June 16, 2020, at 4:50 p.m. to include a statement from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The rain poured down for hours on Sunday, slamming the valleys of Fayette County with water. As the earth became saturated, local streams swelled.
Minden resident Marie Collins said the water washed out the underpinning of her house.
“We had to sleep in the car last night,” Collins said on Monday.
Weather experts estimate nearby Oak Hill received roughly 5.5 inches of rain in six hours. Minden is just a few miles away and lies in a valley.
“I was too scared to come in the house, because I was afraid my house would come off the foundation,” she said.
The next day, several feet of water surrounded the Collins home. Marie Collins said she noticed an oily substance floating on top that she could smell from inside her home.
PCB has contaminated the soil in Minden, the EPA has said, and residents fear that the chemical is flushed out every time it floods, much like Sunday night.
“I’m scared of [the] water now. I’m just so scared,” Collins said. “And then I have got three boys, a 13-year-old, an 11 and a seven-year-old. I don’t want them to have cancer.”
Credit Marie Collins
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Marie Collins
The floods on Sunday, June 14, in Fayette County washed out the underpinning of the Collins’ house in Minden.
On Tuesday, the EPA said initial inspections “indicate no significant damage” to the cap structure encompassing the dump site, or other structures the EPA has put in place to separate PCB oil from the Minden community.
“There is no indication that capped site material was transported away from the site,” the EPA stated in a press release.
Gov. Jim Justice issued a state of emergency for Fayette County Sunday night, deploying state highway workers to the area to free up debris from the roads and begin repairing some of the more long-lasting damage.
A local state of emergency from the county commission that afternoon specifically named Oak Hill, Scarbro, Minden and Whipple.
Justice said in a virtual press briefing Monday morning there were no known deaths or injuries from the flooding. There were, however, nearly 20 home and car rescues by the local swiftwater rescue team.
Credit Marie Collins
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A rescue boat in Minden, W.Va., helping people with the aftermath of Sunday’s flooding.
Not A First-Time Flood
Annetta Coffman, another lifelong local, recalled a disastrous flood to the area 19 years ago. Every time the water levels rise for smaller, more regular floods that happen every summer, Coffman said residents are afraid to drink locally sourced water or do much outside.
“With oil, it travels because it attaches to mud. Right now, it’s mud and sand everywhere, so it’s hard to tell exactly what the people right now are walking in,” Coffman said of the flood damage Sunday night.
Coffman’s home also flooded several feet high Sunday night, but she said it wasn’t as devastating as the flood in 2001, when she lost her first home and all of her possessions.
“You work so hard. It’s a poor community anyway, and you work to try to have things, and then, something like that can be gone within 30 minutes,” she said.
In addition to the oil, and the expensive loss of having to repair one’s home or find a new one, Coffman said flooding also tends to free up raw sewage.
“And so that now is in our homes,” she said. “People are trying to figure out how to clean up their home. You take the risk of getting Hepatitis A.”
Minden and the surrounding area has also been ravaged by sewage contamination, which the EPA addressed in 2016. According to the report, this was the result of failing and downright non-existent systems to manage human waste. In 2017, a $23 million sewage and water drainage project began in efforts to prevent future contamination by flooding.
But Coffman said many of her neighbors’ houses were flooded with at least two feet of contaminated water Sunday night.
A Developing Response
The Division of Highways entered Fayette County Sunday evening, and will continue working from the area for the next week and a half. Deputy State Highway Engineer Greg Bailey said Monday staff are prioritizing repairs in areas where there are no alternative routes.
“We’re focusing a lot on areas where people are completely blocked and don’t have a way out,” Bailey said Monday.
During his virtual press briefing, Gov. Justice said he anticipated the DOH will have most repairs finished within a week and a half.
Warm Hands From Warm Hearts, a local outreach ministry operating the Center of Hope in Oak Hill, has set up cots in case anyone needs a place to stay. Director Mike Bone said the center also has a shower and a kitchen for anyone in need.
The Red Cross and Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, or VOAD, were gathering buckets of cleaning supplies to donate Monday morning, and assessing the best way to provide assistance, given restrictions from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
As for Marie Collins, whose home sustained permanent damage in 2001 and now again Sunday night, she said she plans to eventually use lime, a powder chemical for flooding, to help battle the smell of oil and sewage in her front yard.
“I’m just so ready to move,” Collins said. “If I had the money to move, I would move.”
This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.
The West Virginia Public Service Commission has opened a general investigation into the quality of water service provided by the Page-Kincaid Public Service District in Fayette County.
As of May 18th, the entire service district is under a boil water advisory for an unspecified amount of time. It serves more than 600 Fayette County customers.
In an evening statement on Wednesday, May 20th, chairwoman Charlotte Lane said the commission has received a petition with about 400 signatures, complaining about poor service and high rates.
“Many of those residents specifically requested the water system be taken over by a responsible utility,” Lane said. “The commission had been promised that these problems were being resolved.”
In June 2019, Page-Kincaid applied through the public service commission to rehabilitate the Fayette County treatment plant, which would have amounted to a potential 10 percent increase in customers’ rates. The intent of the $3 million project was to install three new water filters and upgrade dilapidated infrastructure, partly in response to a deterioration in water quality in 2018, including high levels of iron, manganese and aluminum.
Upon negotiations with West Virginia American Water [WVAW] in the fall of 2019, the commission granted Page-Kincaid’s withdrawal of its application with the understanding that an alternative plan would come to fruition, such as an acquisition by WVAW.
After Page-Kincaid rejected WVAW’s proposals in early 2020, rehabilitation of the treatment plant did not make substantial process.
Aside from the general investigation, the West Virginia Public Service Commission will require Page-Kincaid to provide requested acquisition information to WVAW.
“The boil water advisory heightens the necessity to explore all available alternatives,” according to the commission’s petition. “It is imperative that Page-Kincaid move quickly to develop a plan to improve the quality of water and water service provided to Page-Kincaid customers.
The petition also requested that a “responsible” utility take over the Page-Kincaid provider.
Now that the commission has declared a general investigation, it will host a status conference at the Public Service Commission’s main room in Charleston on July 16 at 9:30 a.m.
Across the U.S., some states, including West Virginia, are beginning to loosen restrictions meant to reduce the spread of coronavirus, allowing for some non-essential businesses to reopen.
On Monday, May 4, West Virginia entered the second week of Gov. Jim Justice’s six-week reopening plan, “The Comeback.” During week two, businesses with fewer than 10 employees, salons and barber shops, dog grooming services, and outdoor dining restaurants are allowed to reopen. Churches and other places of worship are allowed to conduct funerals and other services with limited gathering sizes.
The coronavirus has taken a large toll on the economy, especially businesses. While some West Virginia establishments are eager to reopen, others are still wary, fearing the resurgence of a second wave of COVID-19 infections in the state. The hard choices West Virginia business owners are now facing will soon be shared by many in neighboring states, which are also slowly reopening. In Ohio, retail shops will be able to partially reopen on May 12. Beginning on May 20, Kentucky’s retailers will as well.
Projections for daily coronavirus cases and deaths have increased since states across the country have announced a variety of reopening plans. According to internal documents obtained by the New York Times, the Trump administration has increased its projected daily death toll by 70 percent, reflecting 3,000 daily deaths in the country beginning June 1. White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere has denied the report.
For business owner Lori Whited in Boone County, W.Va., those increased projections are enough to keep her doors closed, by choice. Whited owns The Boone Magnolia Boutique, a store that features clothes, homegoods and accessories made by regional artisans.
“We’ve really taken a loss; some of my artisans cannot sell online or on a webpage,” she said. “But, I do not want to risk exposing us to a lot of the people that would come in. A lot of our customers work in the health field, and they’re traveling from all over the state, in the tri-state area to come and see the store.”
Credit The Boone Magnolia Boutique Facebook Page
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The Boone Magnolia Boutique prepares orders to be shipped while the storefront is closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whited said she does not expect to open before July, adding that she would like to see if COVID-19 cases spike in the region after the six-week reopening plan in the state.
“I was prepared, you know, to be closed for at least three months,” she said.
In Charleston, homegoods and apparel boutique Kin Ship Goods is also electing to keep its storefront shuttered, despite the economic toll the closure is taking.
The shop has furloughed its employees and owners Dan Davis and Hillary Harrison are not taking a salary. Harrison said she does not feel there is enough guidance from public health officials to protect her employees or customers if the store were to reopen.
“It doesn’t feel like there’s the protocols in place in the country yet,” she said. “There’s not testing or contact tracing in place, we would need to see the numbers here remain low and not increase once things start reopening.”
Wheeling-based restaurant Later Alligator is taking a similar approach. Despite being able to increase service to include outdoor seating, the eatery will remain carryout and delivery only for the time being.
“I’m not prepared to put our staff in more harm’s way in the name of dollars,” said spokesperson Mitchell Haddad.
Eager To Reopen
However, not all businesses are prepared to remain closed voluntarily.
In Mercer County, the Heart Strings Gift Shop is hoping to open as soon as Wednesday, May 6, said co-owner Tammy Crews. The business is family-owned, but located inside the Princeton Community Hospital, so reopening is a more extensive process.
“We can’t just reopen our doors automatically because two-thirds of our business is coming from outside the hospital, not just from hospital employees,” Crews said. “We bring a lot of traffic to the hospital, which is not a bad thing under normal circumstances, but at this time, we’re trying to make arrangements to be able to service those people in other ways.”
But, Crews said even with curbside delivery and online orders, her business has taken a significant financial hit that is not sustainable. As soon as the hospital approves the reopening of the gift shop, Crews said she plans to open and practice social distancing guidelines with customers.
For Chad Stradwick, owner of Stradwick’s Fade Cave, reopening his barber shop in Wheeling is less a matter of choice, and more a matter of survival.
“Everyone is telling us that we need to social distance, however I need to work because I have not had income since March 18. I qualified for absolutely no financial help at all,“ Stradwick said.
Although Stradwick is reopening, he said he is taking certain precautions including only allowing one customer in his shop at a time and requiring his customers to wear masks.
He added that his major fear in reopening is the health of his family.
Stradwick said he would feel guilty if he got his immunocompromised wife and son sick, but felt that financially he had no choice but to return to work.
“Family safety is the most important thing. But my family has to eat, you know?” he said. “Do I want them to be safe, or I want them to eat? Like why should I have to choose that?”
This story was reported in part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.
Just outside Fayetteville, West Virginia, there’s a 42-acre farm that has just about everything — chickens, lambs, sheep, produce and dogs. The latest addition is a litter of Great Pyrenees puppies, who will become guardian dogs for the sheep.
Christine Weirick owns and operates Deep Mountain Farm with her husband Chris Jackson and their two young daughters.
The couple has been operating Deep Mountain Farm for four years now. They live mostly off what they produce, putting them in a unique position during the pandemic, where leaving the house, even for necessities, is not encouraged.
And they are not alone – West Virginia has 23,000 farms, mostly family-owned, that survive off what they produce, according to Farm Flavor. In fact, a lot of West Virginians who are not even farmers, have started returning to practices like sewing, gardening and baking.
Credit Deep Mountain Farm
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The Great Pyrenees puppies born on the farm in early April. They will grow up to be working farm dogs.
Activities like that are just a day in the life of Chris and Christine, although they have less help than usual because of the pandemic. Christine said they typically hire on a couple of helpers through the WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms network, or “WWOOFers,” which draws people from all across the world willing to exchange labor for food and housing and knowledge of Appalachian farming.
“A lot of people come here wanting to learn how to butcher a chicken. So I always make sure that we have a chance to learn that skill,” Christine said. “But I also do it so that I can expose people to Appalachia, and they can have a positive experience.”
So without volunteers this year, she said the farm work, which does not stop for a pandemic, is going to be much more extensive.
Deep Mountain Farm is a regenerative farming operation, meaning they work the land with an eye toward improving and enriching the soil. Practices include everything from using cover crops rather than tilling the land, not using pesticides and livestock grazing rotation.
Chris and Christine both grew up in Kanawha County, with limited knowledge on farming, so much of what they have learned has been in their adult life. In fact, Christine volunteered as a WWOOFer in the Eastern Panhandle.
“We’ve ended up crossing paths with really incredible people who are very enthusiastic about sharing everything they know. And that’s just the only way this stuff’s going to get preserved,” Christine said.
She said the rich traditions and knowledge of old farming practices, and the willingness to share it with a younger generation, is what makes farming in West Virginia unique.
One practice Christine learned was how to grow a full garden — one that a family can live off of and then some — and also, how to can vegetables and fruit to eat in the off-season, a common practice on early farms in Appalachia.
And this year, Christine said they are growing a garden larger than ever before.
“I had like 400 kale plants and was like, ‘This is way too much.’”
Their hope is to have leftover produce to sell to those trying to social distance and stay away from grocery stores — and to donate some to homeless shelters. Christine usually cans with her mother, her grandmother and her aunts.
“We fill the house with people and jars and pots of food boiling away, and now it’s just going to be me,” she said. “I won’t be able to put up as much food as we usually do. So, I feel obligated almost, to make sure that the food ends up in the hands of people who really need it.”
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Christine home makes soap out of leftover lard. She is a big supporter of the benefits of lard.
Christine also makes 100 percent lard soap, sometimes with a splash of raw milk from the cow. She is a firm believer in using all parts of an animal.
“I have probably like 150 pounds of fat in my freezer right now because people don’t know what to do with it, which is a shame because it’s really easy to render lard and then you don’t need to buy any oils from the store,” she said. “It’s really good for you, like full of vitamin D, it’s really good for your skin — I could go on forever about lard.”
Another good use for lard is lots and lots of pies, Christine said.
When the the pandemic is less of a threat, she said she hopes to celebrate with a large cookout with fellow farmers and people who have been purchasing their goods, helping them keep afloat during these uncertain times.
This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.
This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts, and culture.
This time of year, the Hatfield McCoy trail system in southern West Virginia usually is buzzing with ATVs. In fact, Jeffrey Lusk, director of the Hatfield McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, said he makes almost half of his permit sales for the year from March 1 to April 30.
But for towns and local businesses along the trail system, things are pretty quiet these days. The Hatfield McCoy trails have been closed since March 20, by an executive order from Governor Jim Justice to enforce social distancing and public health recommendations from the federal government.
This includes Bramwell, in Mercer County, where the Bramwell Corner Shop would normally be enjoying traffic from the nearby Pocahontas Trail.
“Our sales are just very, very low right now,” manager Mandy Fink said on Tuesday, April 21.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
From A Hatfield McCoy ATV trail head in Logan County, in October 2019. The trails have been closed since March 20, 2020, due to efforts to promote social distancing.
The Corner Shop, like most restaurants throughout the state, is serving takeout orders only.
“We have a lot of local people that love the corner shop and they eat here,” Fink said, “but we also have a lot of revenue that comes off the trails, and with the trails closed right now none of that’s happening.”
For many locally owned businesses in southern West Virginia, warmer months bring in the majority of revenue, because it is when out-of-towners are most likely to visit.
On Monday, Gov. Jim Justice shared plans to reopen various operations on a six-week schedule, assuming the state continues to keep its cumulative COVID-19 positive test rate under 3 percent for three consecutive days. Still, local businesses will remain impacted by their time offline and the uncertainty around when they will reopen, and the restrictions they will continue to face.
Take Adventures on the Gorge, a rafting and outdoor tourism company based in Fayette County, which is so popular in late summer that the CEO Roger Wilson described their peak season as a “100-day war.”
“It starts on June 15, and runs through roughly September 15,” Wilson said. “That’s when the majority of our people are coming here.”
Wilson’s company employs some 400 workers every year. Normally by April he would be training new guides, but this year he said he is depending on returning senior guides to save money and avoid overcrowding.
Local Businesses, Tourism Typically A Much Needed Employer
To help with paychecks for existing employees, Wilson said Adventures on the Gorge received a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, through the first relief package passed by Congress.
“If we had not gotten that one, there would be about 34 people laid off immediately,” he said. “It would have made opening up for us really hard.”
Credit Caitlin Tan / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A group river rafting on the New River through Adventures on the Gorge in summer 2019. CEO Roger Wilson said he expects raft trips to operate around half capacity to encourage social distancing.
But, according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the country’s largest small business association, about 80 percent of small businesses in the U.S. had yet to hear back about the loans they applied for, as of April 20.
That included the corner shop in Bramwell. Manager Fink said they applied in early April, and as of April 27, the shop still had not heard anything back.
“We definitely have so many employees that cannot work at all,” Fink said, adding that the shop usually hires more people during its busier summer season. “And those of us that are working [we’re] working at least half the hours that we typically would.”
Congress passed a fourth relief package on April 23, including $321 billion for a second round of PPP loans. This was after the $349 billion Congress gave the program initially, which ran out less than two weeks after its allocation.
By Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Small Business Administration had processed nearly 476,000 loans, according to SBA spokesman Chris Hatch. He added that the loans approved so far total more than $52 billion, which is being administered by 5,200 banks and other lenders.
Director Lusk at the Hatfield McCoy Regional Trails Authority said his organization is helping businesses that partner with the trails — mostly lodging and ATV rentals — access as much capital and assistance as possible.
Many of the businesses by the trail are family-owned with small payrolls, meaning they would benefit more from an Economic Injury or Disaster Loan, or EIDL, which are geared more toward overhead costs, and less toward pay checks. Those loans have also been difficult for some to get.
The trails authority has had to temporarily lay off 51 of its own full-time and part-time employees, who normally would sell permits at trailheads and keep paths clear. Lusk said as soon as the trails are allowed to reopen, all 51 employees could return to work.
Credit Chuck Roberts / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
ATV-riders drive down a road in Gilbert, Mingo County, in July 2017. With the nearby Hatfield McCoy Trail system closed since March 20, 2020, businesses throughout southern West Virginia are noticing less revenue than previous springs.
Missing out on permit sales in late March and much of April has amounted to a roughly $1.1 million loss, he added.
“We’re optimistic that as the state begins to reopen, we’ll be in one of those early stages of reopening,” Lusk said.
The Main Street Struggle
Just outside Fayetteville at the Arrowhead Bike Farm, co-owner Rich Ireland said most of his workers are receiving unemployment.
But like Adventures on the Gorge, the Bike Farm, which has a bike shop, restaurant, beer garden and camping sites,also secured a small PPP loan which can be used for paychecks and some overhead costs.
Although they are not in peak season yet, Ireland said he is concerned about how many people will be vacationing this summer.
“I think we’ll have a season. I don’t know how good it’ll be — I don’t know if we’ll meet our expectations. But hopefully it’ll be you know, one of those where we just took a growth year — a pause,” Ireland said.
At the Meadow Bridge Drive-In in Fayette County, owner Howard McClanahan is usually open from May to October, the first three months of which are the most important for revenue.
“We’ve just been taking our time this year because we know we’re not going to get open,” said McClanahan, who added they did not apply for a loan. “I don’t see us opening before the first of June.”
It is expensive to run a drive-in theater. McClanahan said when he first took over in the 80s, each year he needed around a couple thousand dollars just to open.
“This past year it’s gone up to almost, say, around $9,000 just to get open,” he said.
There is a risk the pandemic will hurt them years from now. Not only is the Meadow Bridge Drive-In a longstanding business, open since the 1950s, but it is one of only a few drive-ins left in the state.
Ireland, co-owner of the bike farm, is one of those concerned about the lifespan of the small businesses, new and old, that give West Virginia so much character, and draw tourists from around the region.
“I think it’s going to be a shame if all are left are going to be big chain restaurants or big stores,” Ireland said.
Reports indicate that quite a few nationwide chain businesses did qualify for the small business loans, but at least a few have returned them.
Teena Merlin owns a tattoo shop in Madison, Boone County, and she was preparing to open a coffee house before non-essential businesses had to close. She said last week she was unsuccessful applying for the loans.
The pandemic could hurt shops like her own in communities that have been trying to rebuild since the decline of coal, Merlin said.
“Main Street, in little towns like this, there are lots of little things like that, and they’re trying to revitalize communities,” she said. “This is really bad for small, struggling towns who are trying to rebuild.”
Several of the small businesses interviewed that did not qualify for a loan said they plan on re-applying again for a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars Congress has allocated in the new relief package.
This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.
