United States Department of Agriculture Story Archives

25 Projects Support Rural W.Va. Communities

Twenty-five communities in West Virginia will receive money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development program to lower energy costs, improve basic infrastructure and strengthen resilience.

USDA Rural Development State Director Ryan Thorn said the program is investing more than $8.7 million in the state.

“Whether it’s helping a rural small business cut utility costs or helping a rural community provide clean and reliable drinking water, modern infrastructure creates good-paying jobs and supports opportunities for rural West Virginians to build brighter futures,” Thorn said. “Helping our rural communities and small businesses grow and prosper is what we’re all about at Rural Development, and the investments announced today are a testament to that commitment.”

The investments announced Thursday are made available through the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program, and the Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant Program.

In total, Rural Development is investing $8,753,907 in 25 projects across West Virginia. A few examples include:

River Riders, an adventure resort in Jefferson County, will use a $201,658 REAP grant to purchase and install an 84 kilowatt (kW) solar array. The project annually is expected to save the business $3,587 per year and will replace 97,022 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, enough electricity to power eight homes.

In Mingo County, the City of Williamson will use a $4.9 million low-interest loan through the Water and Waste Disposal Program to upgrade its water treatment, storage, and distribution systems. This project will benefit approximately 3,191 rural West Virginians.

The Southern Appalachian Labor School, in Fayette County, will use a $24,720 Community Facilities Grant to repair the roofs for two of its community center facilities. The organization owns and operates two 911/Red Cross Emergency Shelters located at the historic Oak Hill School and Beards Fork School.

Funding for these programs is made possible, in part, by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

For more information about USDA Rural Development in West Virginia, visit www.rd.usda.gov/wv or contact your local Rural Development office.

USDA Offices Reopening After Closure Due to Security Threat

The Agriculture Department says all its offices will be open Thursday after facilities in five states were briefly closed due to an unspecified email threat.

USDA spokesman Matthew Herrick says offices in Hamden, Connecticut, and Leetown, West Virginia, will reopen Thursday with security enhancements. Offices in Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina and Kearneysville, West Virginia, reopened Wednesday after being closed Tuesday.

Herrick said Tuesday that several USDA employees had received an email that raised concerns about the safety of personnel and facilities.

He says the department is continuing to work with the FBI and other law enforcement to investigate the threat.

The facilities that were closed include offices for eight USDA agencies, including the Forest Service and the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

USDA Closes 2 W.Va. Offices, 4 Others after Threats

Updated at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 30:

Six U. S. Department of Agriculture offices were closed Tuesday after receiving anonymous threats. Two of those six facilities are located in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department first got the news about the threats Monday afternoon. Jefferson County Sheriff Pete Dougherty says the threats were made through email, but did not release any more information about those threats. Dougherty did say it was clear that the person who sent the email intended to do bodily harm to personnel at the six USDA facilities.

One of the six is a fruit research center in Kearneysville, West Virginia, just outside of Shepherdstown. It’s down the street from both the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and a state police detachment.

“It’s probably as safe a facility from a law enforcement standpoint as any – if anything started, it would take us about 15 seconds to be there,” Dougherty said.

Employees at a USDA building in Leetown, just down the road, were also threatened Monday.

Both West Virginia facilities are part of the Agriculture Research Service. The FBI is investigating the credibility of the threats, and the buildings remain closed until further notice.

Original Post:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has closed six offices nationwide, including two in West Virginia, after receiving anonymous threats Monday.

USDA Director of Communications Matt Herrick said in a statement the offices in five states will be closed until further notice after concerns for the safety of agency personnel.

Those offices are located in Kearneysville and Leetown, West Virginia; Fort Collins, Colorado; Hamden, Connecticut; Beltsville, Maryland; and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Herrick said the USDA is working closely with the Federal Bureau for Investigations and other federal and local law enforcement to determine whether the threats are credible.

The closures affect the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), Forest Service (FS), National Agricultural Library (NAL), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Office of the Inspector General, and USDA Departmental Management.

Summer Program Brings Free, Nutritious Meals to Children

During the fall and spring school sessions, thousands of West Virginia schoolchildren are fed both breakfast and lunch as part of the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs. But when school is out for the summer, these meals end. This is why the West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Child Nutrition started their Summer Food Service Program.

At the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Charleston, twenty-five children attended the first day of this year’s Summer Food Service Program, a program that, according to summer food coordinator, Amy Burner, ensures children eighteen years and under in lower-income areas continue to receive free, nutritious meals during the summer months.

“The program is designed to help families be able to find a summer feeding site,” said Burner, “where a child can receive a breakfast and a lunch, or a lunch and a snack, so that the parents don’t have to worry about where that meal is going to be coming from.”

Four of the twenty-five children who attended the celebration, proudly show their participation on the Summer Food Service Program promotional brochures.

Feeding sites can include schools, churches, pools, parks, housing complexes, and summer camps, but Burner says that just about anywhere could be a summer feeding site, and she hopes the program keeps expanding.

The kick-off celebration featured three guest speakers, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, Reverend James Patterson, and Diana Limbacher, a representative from the United States Department of Agriculture.