Southern West Virginia Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Nicholas County Solar Project Receives $129 Million Federal Grant

The Nicholas County Solar Project will generate 250 megawatts of electricity on two former coal mines.

A southern West Virginia solar project received a big grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Nicholas County Solar Project will generate 250 megawatts of electricity on two former coal mines.

It will receive the largest federal cost share – $129 million – out of five demonstration projects nationwide on current or former mine property.

It is projected to create 400 construction jobs and four operations jobs as well as $18.5 million in property taxes.

The solar facility will be built by Savion, a Kansas City, Missouri, company that’s part of Shell.

Just across the border in Martin County, Kentucky, Savion is building a 200 megawatt solar facility on a former coal mine. Half its power will go to Toyota.

The Energy Department also announced Thursday an $81 million grant for a pumped storage power project in Bell County, Kentucky.

The largest solar facility currently in West Virginia is Mon Power’s Fort Martin site, which began operating in January and generates 19 megawatts.

One megawatt can power roughly 750 homes at one time.

FEMA Offers Guidance To Residents Seeking Flood Aid

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided guidance to residents seeking federal aid after floods ravaged several counties in southern and central West Virginia in August.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has distributed letters to some residents of Boone, Calhoun, Clay, Harrison and Kanawha counties affected by flooding in August 2023.

These letters were distributed to residents who applied for federal relief funds. They outline applicants’ eligibility for funds, and next steps to claim them.

Last summer, flash floods swept southern and central West Virginia, damaging homes and businesses across the counties.

On Jan. 30, President Joe Biden officially declared the flooding incident a major disaster, opening the region and its residents to federal recovery funds. The funds can be applied to home repairs, property loans and more.

Since the disaster declaration, FEMA has allocated more than $1 million to the West Virginia counties. FEMA supplied residents an additional $72,000 cumulatively for other disaster costs like childcare and medical expenses.

FEMA has encouraged individuals affected by the flooding to file insurance claims immediately. Costs not covered by insurance can be covered through FEMA funds, and an end date for the application period has not yet been announced.

For residents who have already submitted their applications, letters from FEMA regarding next steps should have already come, or soon be on their way.

The letters will state if residents need to submit supplemental information to complete their claims, like proof of insurance, proof of occupancy in a house affected by the flooding and proof of ownership of said property.

FEMA encouraged residents to promptly submit necessary supplemental materials and to follow guidance provided in the letters. FEMA also encouraged residents who have not yet filed a claim to do so as soon as possible.

For more information on the eligibility letters, residents can contact FEMA’s Disaster Assistance Helpline at (800) 621-3362, or visit disaster recovery centers in Boone, Clay, Harrison or Kanawha counties.

For more information on the disaster declaration and submitting a federal aid claim, residents can visit fema.gov/disaster/4756.

Senate Approves New I-73 Corridor Economic Commission

The West Virginia Senate unanimously approved an economic commission to identify funding and development opportunities tied to an interstate highway corridor that would span southern West Virginia.

The I-73 highway corridor is currently under construction in southern West Virginia and legislators are looking to parlay the project into an economic opportunity.

West Virginia’s portion of I-73 would connect the state to highways stretching from Michigan to Myrtle Beach. With the region opened to more out-of-state travelers, lawmakers hope economic opportunities will roll in with them.

On Thursday, the West Virginia Senate unanimously approved SB 354. The bill would create an economic commission to advise local industry leaders on development and federal funding opportunities available to them following the project’s completion.

Sen. Mark Maynard, R-Wayne, said the commission hopes to turn the highway’s construction into an economic opportunity for McDowell, Mercer, Mingo and Wayne counties, which the new corridor will intersect.

He added that the highway construction project would qualify the region for new funding opportunities.

“There’s some federal funding out there available for this that currently the state of West Virginia doesn’t get for highway programs,” he said. “Hopefully we can go after some of that.”

Receiving approval from the Senate, the bill now awaits review from the West Virginia House of Delegates.

“Just by making this [corridor] a real thing, it will solve the economic issues because it will allow interstate commerce,” Maynard said. “At the exit ramps, it will allow development, fast food restaurants and truck stops.”

“The bounds are limitless,” Maynard said.

Mental Health Issues In Southern W.Va. And Mushroom Hunting Growing In Popularity, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginians are experiencing mental illness at rates higher than the national average. And it’s even worse in southern West Virginia.

On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginians are experiencing mental illness at rates higher than the national average. And it’s even worse in southern West Virginia. Emily Rice has more.

Also, in this show, mushroom hunting has been popular for years, but lately it seems to have really caught on. Folkways Reporter Wendy Welch spent time with foragers in Virginia and West Virginia and brought us this story.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Caroline MacGregor produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Online Academic Resources Now Available For Southern W.Va. Students

Students in some southern counties will soon have access to online academic help.

Students and their families from Mercer, Monroe, Summers, Raleigh and Wyoming counties currently enrolled in 7th or 8th grade can now access 24/7 academic support via Tutor.com. Students and parents can connect with a live tutor during sessions, drop off writing samples or assignments to get direct feedback on assignments, prepare for tests and more.

The online resources are made available to students via a partnership between Tutor.com and GEAR UP Southern West Virginia (SWV).

Program Director Kristen O’Sullivan, said GEAR UP is a national Department of Education program to help young people in economically challenged areas to reach post-secondary education.

“GEAR UP Southern West Virginia is a grant that, through Concord University, we just received in 2022-2023,” she said. “We work with a cohort of students that started with the sixth and seventh grade last year, and now they’re in seventh and eighth grade. We will follow them all the way through until their first year of post-secondary education, whether that be a four-year school, a two-year degree, the military, and we just do everything possible with them to help them be prepared and to believe that they belong and have a plan for the future.”

Tutor.com is also a resource to help parents gain confidence while helping students with schoolwork. As a native of southern West Virginia, O’Sullivan said she would have loved this kind of support when raising her own children.

“I can just remember those nights when they were struggling with something in math or struggling with certain pieces of papers they were working on, where I didn’t feel I had the capacity to be able to help them much,” she said. “Parents will no longer have to worry about that, they will have those experts right there at all times to be able to help.”

O’Sullivan said that teachers will also benefit with access to the same resources, as well as reports on what the students have been getting tutoring on.

“A teacher, let’s say in a math class, may want to be able to look back and see what are the areas the students are continuing to have questions about, so that they can then address them again in the classroom,” she said.

O’Sullivan acknowledged that internet access continues to be an issue in southern West Virginia and across the state, but implementation of COVID-19 era strategies can help to bridge the gap.

“I can tell you that Tutor.com is fully accessible from cell phones as well as from computers,” she said. “I know a lot of families, that is their internet is using their cell phone, they don’t have internet services in their homes. There’s also the things that we have learned through COVID to help people in our rural communities. They can access internet in our community libraries, in the schools, a lot of times this program will be used not just at home, but will be used in after school programming, lunchtime programming sometimes before school.”

Students younger than 13 must submit a signed permission slip before accessing the online resources.

DHHR To Host Community Listening Sessions On Health

The listening sessions will be held from Oct. 13 to Nov. 9 around the state. DHHR’s Dr. Mathew Christiansen says the information gathered will be used to develop a five-year-plan to address public health issues.

The 2023 state health assessment is underway, and the Department Of Health And Human Resources (DHHR) will be asking state residents to fill out online assessments, collecting health data from partnering community and health institutions, and hosting eight community listening sessions to gather insight on health issues around the state.

The listening sessions will be held from Oct. 13 to Nov. 9 around the state. DHHR’s Dr. Mathew Christiansen says the information gathered will be used to develop a five-year plan to address public health issues.

“These listening sessions are really to provide a physical location where people can come and talk and brainstorm and think about what health improvement means to them here in West Virginia, and how we can improve their health,” he said.

The listening sessions will be held in Wheeling, Huntington, Charleston, Parkersburg, Berkeley, Morgantown, Buckhannon, and Mineral County.

Despite having the lowest life expectancies in the state McDowell, Boone, Logan, and Wyoming County will not have DHHR listening sessions.

“We are under a tight timeline to get this turned over and get this out the door,” Christiansen said. “Just because we’re not having a listening session in that region, doesn’t mean that the assessment won’t be responsive to those issues that we certainly understand.”