Author: Michael Griffith

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.

More and more children in WV are going without health insurance

By Michael Griffith

West Virginia ranked fourth-best in the nation in 2016 for providing health care insurance to its children. But in 2018, that ranking dropped to 14th.

Picture from Public News Service

According to a report by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, for the first time in a long time, the number of uninsured children has risen in West Virginia and the country overall. In fact, this was the first time ever that no state had shown an increase in the number of uninsured children. In 2017, the number increased by over 250,000 in America. While WV’s numbers aren’t as high as other states, this is just another thing negatively affecting the children of WV and their well-being. 

Health insurance coverage is very important for children by providing access to basic health needs. Routine checkups, medication, and better access to a usual source of care. Not to mention, an uninsured child could mean medical debt for a parent or family. If an uninsured child falls on the playground and breaks an arm at school, their parents are going to be in for a rude awakening when it comes to the hospital bill.

According to an article by Diane Bernard of WV Public News Service, the same report finds that about 4,000 more children are uninsured compared to only two years ago. This is also despite WV leaders adopting Medicaid in 2014. While the country as a whole had an increase of about 400,000 children who became uninsured between 2016 and 2018, bringing the total in America to over 4 million, WV’s numbers have continued to fall.

WVCHIP was introduced in 1997 and is helping to combat the number of children who are uninsured.

CHIP did announce their new maternity services for new mother’s and their newborns. earlier this month.

Although 52 percent of U.S. children are covered by private insurance plans, 43 percent are covered by government-sponsored services, with Medicaid and CHIP being the highest. While in West Virginia around 49 percent of children are insured by government programs. 42 percent of these children are insured by Medicaid and CHIP.



The natural tourist attraction that helps keep West Virginia afloat

By Michael Griffith

There aren’t many places better for whitewater rafting than the rivers of West Virginia. Not only does this thrilling adventure bring money into the state, but it also allows people from the entire world to experience the natural beauty of West Virginia.

WV Senator Joe Manchin’s personal Twitter

With more than 50,000 new rafters visiting West Virginia every rafting season, it’s no question that the rivers of WV are one of the top reasons people visit. 

250,646 thrill-seeking customers were guided down West Virginia’s five commercially run rivers in 1996. That number had decreased by almost 50,000 people by 2006, with the decline becoming more steady throughout the years. 150,00 in 2012, 140,000 in 2014, and then only 130,000 paying customers the year after that. 

Now, after a 15-year decline of customers, West Virginia rafting companies are experiencing an upswing in numbers. This increase followed a season that brought the number of rafters to the state’s rivers to its lowest ever. According to Rick Steelhammer of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, a total of 134,082 people paid to take trips down the Cheat, Gauley, New, Shenandoah, and Tygart rivers last year. A number up by 3,870 from the year prior.

Along with bringing people to the Mountain State, commercial rafting brings a great deal of money in as well. For anyone on campus looking for a way to try rafting for the first time, or just go again, the Adventure WV office located in the Student Rec Center at WVU helps students go on rafting trips. Check them out here.

Planetware.com recommends where to go rafting in West Virginia as well as a description of what each river brings to the customers, respectively, for anyone looking to go rafting. You should try it if you’ve never been, it’s awesome.

Coal in WV needs to be on the forefront once again

By Michael Griffith

West Virginia is known worldwide for the production of coal. Furthermore, the usage of coal produced here is what makes coal so important.

President Trump took office in 2016, and despite him taking credit and claiming that he and his team have “ended the war on beautiful, clean coal” and “put our coal miners back to work”, statistics show that coal use has actually been on a steady decline. Brittany Patterson wrote an article for WV Public Broadcasting that showed graphical statistics of national coal mine employment, as well as statistics for the three states of Ohio, Kentucky, and WV respectively.

The first graph shows the decline in total employment in the coal industry in the states of West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, while the second shows the national numbers.

Patterson notes that the reported numbers from mine operators and independent contractors revealed record-low employment at 80,778 active coal miners in 2018.

Now let’s talk more numbers. For West Virginia, coal equals dollars. In an article written by Chris Hamilton of The Montgomery Herald he says that despite the coal industry being in a state of rebounding, its impact on the economy of West Virginia is still prominent. Coal supports around 17 percent of all of the state’s GDP.

According to John Deskins, director of the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research, the coal industry and coal-fired power generates a total of $13 billion in overall economic activity in West Virginia. For context, total economic output for the state as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) was around $77 billion in 2017.

On top of the currential impact to the economy, coal has an impact on local business as well. Hamiltion states that all of the state’s 100-plus mining operations purchase supplies and use contractors who are local, as well as supporting around 25,000 jobs across the state. 

Standardized testing scores among West Virginia public schools show a need for attention.

Education in West Virginia has many things that need fixing in order to help our students and teachers be more efficient during their time in the classroom. One outstanding and continuously declining issue is that of standardized test scores. 

While some schools in the state show proficiency in their testing, a majority of schools throughout all grade levels continue to produce poorly scored test results. The WV Board of Education released the results of the state-wide scores from the 2017-18 academic year in September 2018. According to this story from Ryan Quinn of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, only around 37 percent of students from public schools in West Virginia earned a proficient score in Mathematics. Only 45 percent of those same public-school students met the requirement for the English section. Along with the testing results, the WVBOE also released their new “balanced scorecard” which shows the subgroups of all grade levels and whether or not they are meeting the standards in not only testing but also attendance and even behavior for the middle and elementary level.

About one year later, Quinn reported the same exact story for the Charleston Gazette-Mail with the 2018-19 testing scores, reporting that the number of students meeting proficient scores for Math and English had only risen by one percent each. Science proficiency actually showed a decline, though the percentage wasn’t reported state-wide. Quinn includes the scores for Kanawha and Putnam counties in his article, however. 

Jim Justice addressing the WVBOE/Photo Via WikiCommons

Mitch Carmichael, President of the West Virginia Senate, was quoted in an interview with Morgantown’s own, Hoppy Kercheval from WVMetroNews, saying, “Our students enter in at fourth grade the first time they’re tested, 37th or 38th in the nation—which is not good, but it’s not horrible. By the time they’re in the 8th grade, they’re 46th or 47th, and then upon 11th-grade testing, they’re near last.” 

It may not be fully clear as to why the test scores from the public schools in West Virginia continue to show a lack of proficiency from students in the state. What is clear, however, is the fact that something needs to be done in order to identify what is happening whether it be a lack of motivation among students or lack of teachers that can prepare the students to perform better on their tests. Certainly, some things like attendance can be attributed to the preparedness of students, which is a good place to start to search for a solution.