Month: December 2019

Morgantown’s LGBTQIA+ Community Continues to Push for Greater Diversity and Acceptance

By Emmy Rinehart

Senate President, Mitch Carmichael, stated he is in favor of a nondiscrimination bill to better protect the LGBTQIA+ community. This bill would prevent evictions or firings based on sexual identity or orientation. We recently saw its impacts in Morgantown when the Morgantown Public Library scheduled a children’s book reading on November 16 called Drag Queen Story Time where local Queens would read to children in the community. 

In WV, 4% of the adult population identifies as LGBT, and 29% of them are raising children. While these numbers are not strikingly high, they are significant, and the state needs to show more support to this community. 

The debate on LGBTQIA+ rights is a long one, and it is still going today. Once the Morgantown community heard of the planned Drag Queen Story Time event at the library, heated arguments erupted with some saying the community shouldn’t allow this because they need to protect their children. Others were confused as to what they were supposed to protect them from. 

These arguments were expected, but what wasn’t were the violent threats that followed. Police were made aware of one threat Thursday night. The event was cancelled to ensure the safety of everyone involved, but the threats continued on Facebook.

Some news outlets claim that it was cancelled because one of the Queens was discovered to have a criminal record, but the library’s official statement clearly says it was to ensure everyone’s safety.

Soon after, an event was made to have a rally to push back against the hate, that would be held Saturday morning. Over 100 people stood in front of the library to show their support for the cancelled event. The rally was already planned, even when the event was still on, because there had been talk about protestors coming with pepper spray and bullhorns to prevent people from attending the event. The rally was going to help those who wanted to participate in the event make it into the library safely. 

Not all was lost through this event. The Drag Queens’ fighting spirit shone through as they worked to find an alternative way to continue this initiative. According to a piece submitted to the Daily Athenaeum by Queens Robin Hearts-Love and Dimitria Blackwell, they have started a YouTube channel where they will read children’s books so that the community can still benefit from this idea. 

Morgantown’s Queens understand how important it is to foster a love of reading in children that they can take into their adult years, so they quickly put in the work to set this solution into motion. This approach would shield children from the protestors, as well as allow parents to screen the content first to make sure they felt it was appropriate for their children. 

They currently have four videos posted, and I hope there are many more to come. Other areas of the country have had Drag Queen Story Times with great success, like Stonewall Sports’ Drag Queen Storytime at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, N.C. 

https://www.pexels.com/photo/lgbt-flag-1317534/

It’s time WV recognizes that this community is resilient and is not going anywhere anytime soon. Events like these are crucial for increasing diversity and helping end the stigma around the LGBTQIA+ community not only in Morgantown but across the state and nation. 

Morgantown Municipal Airport gets approval for runway extension

by Michael Griffith

The Morgantown Airport has been granted approval for an extension of their runway which is set to begin in the fall of next year. 

At the beginning of November, it was announced that Morgantown Municipal Airport will begin the construction of extending its runway. This comes after many years of city officials appealing for funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The project will cost around $50 million and will take anywhere between five to ten years to complete.

WVnews.com included this quote from their story on the extension from Morgantown City Manager, Paul Brake. “It is truly rewarding to see this come to fruition,” Morgantown City Manager Paul Brake said. “Having a professional airport director, along with the new CEO of the Morgantown Area Partnership, we can move this aviation facility and the commercial park forward adding strong, sustainable economic vibrancy to the community.”

Currently the runway is 5,199 feet long, making it the shortest runway in the state among commercial carrier airports. The extension is set to add 1,001 feet making the new length around 6,200 feet.

Morgantown Municipal Airport included a public environmental assessment draft that citizens may review and comment on. This assessment fully explores the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the proposed runway extension. 

This graphic from Morgantownwv.gov shows what the runway will look like after construction.

According to a WBOY story, Paul Brake said there were three steps involved in the approval process from the FAA. The first was the justification of why the runway was needed, then an environmental assessment, and lastly the funding phase. 

This runway extension will be beneficial to the city and is showing that it is supported by all communities in Morgantown. 

One result of the extension is the development of the I-68 commerce parkway. Brake says it will be the most significant economic development in the city of all time. 

“The side benefit to this project is where the dirt is coming from to build because in essence at the end of the runway it’s a considerable drop off we have to move 4.4 million cubic yards of dirt and that will be coming from a hilly area that will be flattened out and become a commerce parkway,” Brake said.

Currently, the airport sees about 50,000 flights in and out of the airport. This project will give the opportunity for that number to increase.

Can WV Small Businesses Survive the Shift to Renewable Energy?

By: Emmy Rinehart

The proposed $100 million budget cut for WV is still up in the air. The Justice administration suggested this cut because of falling numbers associated with coal and gas tax collections. On the flip-side, while the coal and natural gas industry is losing money, small businesses in WV are showing that they can thrive regardless. 

Last year, Small Business Saturday in Bridgeport, WV brought in a whopping 108 million consumers, generating $12 million in revenue. These types of events in WV are crucial for the economy, but many small businesses currently require natural gas to simply remain open. 

This September, the utility that serves the Rockaway Beach section of Queens, Natural Grid, refused to turn on natural gas service for a soon-to-be local business owner. The company instituted a moratorium on new natural gas hookups after an application for a new pipeline was denied this May. 

Other states like New Jersey and Massachusetts have also instituted moratoriums on natural gas hookups, stating that the current pipelines cannot handle the demand. 

Environmental groups in New York beg to differ, stating that NY is meeting its demand just fine, and it will need even less natural gas if the state is able to reach the legally mandated target to producing no greenhouse gas emissions whatsoever by 2050. These groups also worry that a new pipeline could cause tons of polluted sediment to return to the waters in Raritan Bay and undo decades worth of work to improve the environmental damage in this area from pollution. 

In WV, similar environmental concerns are present along with the prospect of even worse ones as the state tries to fill the void coal left with natural gas. 

The local resident in NY had been planning to open a BBQ restaurant along the water, but he needed natural gas to fuel his fryers. Without it, over a year of hard work seemed to be down the drain, but does it have to be this way for small businesses in the wake of the push towards renewable energy sources? Is there a way to prevent this from happening in WV?

By 2035, it is predicted that renewable energy will be more cost-effective than oil and natural gas. By 2045, a mere 3 percent of expected fuel use from future gas-fired power plants will be economic in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Southeast and New York, according to reports released in September of this year by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). 

To off-set the move to renewable energy for small businesses, The Department of Energy, has released info on a Small Business Vouchers pilot program. This program would give access to the Department of Energy’s labs for small businesses working on alternative energy source projects in the U.S.

These intellectual and technical resources would allow these businesses to tackle important technology challenges for advanced energy products and secure a global competitive advantage. Eight of these national labs have gotten funding to join with 38 small businesses across the States.

This program and these partnerships could help feed small businesses that fuel economies worldwide, including in our beloved state of WV. By encouraging small sustainable energy companies to use this resource, renewable energy will become more affordable for all small businesses. This presents a unique opportunity for WV to jump into the world of renewable energy and help their small businesses thrive too.

Job Participation is Up, Unemployment is Down

by Ciara Litchfield

Job participation is up by 19,000 people in the state of West Virginia and is the best figure the state has seen since January 2009. The total number of people in the workforce grew from 744,000 in October 2018 to 763,000 from October of 2019.

Photo by Chevanon Photography from Pexels

Dr. John Deskins, Bureau of Business and Economic Research director, said, “West Virginia will never be able to achieve a level of economic prosperity that is on par with the nation with a labor force participation rate that is a full 10 percentage points below the national average.”

While the labor participation rate has gotten better, increasing up to 54.8% from 53.9%.The state still has the lowest labor participation rate in the country at 53% below the national average which is 63.3%.

https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LASST540000000000003?amp%253bdata_tool=XGtable&output_view=data&include_graphs=true

Along with growth in participation in the labor force, the state is also seeing a decrease in unemployment. In September, the state had seen an unemployment rate of 4.7 percent. This is a full percentage away from the unemployment national average of 3.6%.

In the October 2019 jobs report it shows that W.Va. had seen employment gains in manufacturing, construction, education and health services. It also showed that W.Va. had a decline in employment in the mining, logging and retail trade fields. Retail trade decline isn’t surprising as we see stores unable to compete with online websites and stores.

This workforce participation rate is determined by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and is calculated by the sum of employed and unemployed active job seekers divided by total working able population. This is used to measure the state’s active workforce.

The incomparable culture of West Virginia

By: Jared Jorden

West Virginia has the Appalachian culture, which originated during the American Civil War. This is seen mostly through its old folk music, brought by the Irish and Scottish settlers. Blues is also an important part of West Virginia’s culture, as is bluegrass and old-time country music. For more than 20 years Elkins WV, has hosted the annual Augusta Heritage Festival, which celebrates the Appalachian culture in West Virginia.

Scene, Wild West, Usa, America, West

Roughly 98% of our population speaks English only however, if you’re not from here, you’ll have to pay a bit of extra attention to the dialect. West Virginians have an unmistakable Appalachian accent, which comes from the Scotch-Irish who settled here in the 18th century. It’s a twangy accent that will include phrases you’ve never heard of. 

Here are some easy tips from Appalachian native Rick Wilson about how to speak the dialect. First, use redundant pronouns. “Those people, they’re all crazy.” It’s for emphasis. Proudly say the plural “y’all”. Appalachian speech even has the double plural you – “all y’all” – as in “All y’all better get off my lawn right now.” Also, make sure you pronounce “pin” and “pen” the same.  

Another common theme to come across is the simplicity of life in The Mountain State. For the most part, no one here is rushing, and you won’t find any bragging attitudes among fellow West Virginians. It’s all just one big, happy, laid-back community. And the large number of small towns here help contribute to that friendly feeling, too.

Woman, Meditating, Buddhism, Zen

Since we’re nestled right inside the Appalachian Mountain range, there’s definitely no shortage of nature-lovers. People love West Virginia to take full advantage of the scenery and mountain air. Some of the favorite pastimes include: fly fishing, whitewater rafting, skiing, golfing, camping, and mountain biking.

And all the West Virginians love their state and will defend it to the end. Locals have described their Mountain State neighbors have a “strong sense of community,” and that they are “unpretentious” and “humble.” Others even said West Virginians are pretty much the “nicest people on the planet,” and even though their state pride runs deep, they’re very welcoming to outsiders.

Choosing to Work Rather Than Retire?

By: Alayna Degenhardt

Charleston Gazette-Mail reported last week that only 400 public employees filed for retirement compared to the usual 1,000. Why has this sudden change occured? 

During the 2018 and 2019 year, public employees across West Virginia saw a pay increase of around 5%. Consolidated Public Retirement Board executive director, Jeffrey Fleck, says this could possibly be the reason public employees are choosing not to retire quite yet. 

Is this something good for West Virginia? 

Well, if we continue to have public employees choose to keep working instead of retiring what does that say about us? We had to increase the pay of public employees to get them continue working instead of retiring. 

On the other hand, it is nice to see that a pay increase has motivated public employees to stay working, but that does mean that people who retire at the correct age have a longer retirement than those that do. 

Think about this too. What if you continued to work past your retirement age and once you do decide to retire, you die two years later? What would all those years working past retirement do for you? Nothing besides make you money and over-work you. 

For three years now, the United States life expectancy has been on a decline and according to The Denver Post if you want to look at why, just look at WV. 

The Denver Post stated, “West Virginia is 94 percent white. That makes it a telling indicator. Nearly 80 percent of the Americans who die each year are white people, and death rates rose in white men and women last year but were flat or falling in blacks and Hispanics.”

At some point, people need to leave the workforce behind. Regardless of the money situation. According to a USA Today post, the number one rule on why you should retire early is because putting off retirement could be risky. Meaning, you never know how long you will live, what your health might be in a year, or how active you will be. 

With that being said, West Virginia public employees may need to reconsider their priorities when choosing not to retire. Many factors can weigh into deciding to retire, but it is important to start early when planning to retire.