WV MetroNews
The Voice of West Virginia
(Photo gallery by Teran Malone)
GRANVILLE, W.Va. — After being swept last weekend at Texas Tech, the Mountaineers rebounded in the best way possible in their penultimate conference home series of the season. West Virginia defeated Baylor, 13-4 on Sunday to take all three matchups against the Bears while improving their Big 12 record to 14-7.
“We didn’t sugarcoat it last weekend. We were awful. Sometimes that’s what you need. Everybody needs a good slap in the face occasionally to wake you up. That’s what that sweep last weekend did. Baylor threw some good arms at us. We weren’t the same team this weekend as we were last week,” said WVU head coach Randy Mazey.
“It is so hard to sweep anyone. But to sweep people in the Big 12 is extremely difficult.”
“It happens in baseball,” said WVU center fielder Skylar King. “You just have to pick your head up and get going to the next.”
“You go out to West Texas on the road where it is tough to play,” said WVU right fielder Benjamin Lumsden. “It is easier to play at home. It is baseball. You can go out and win or lose any day. This week, we prepared really well. We had a great week of practice. It showed this weekend.”
West Virginia collected a dozen hits and they also benefitted from some charity by the Baylor pitching staff. Seven Bears combined to walk eleven batters and they hit five WVU batters.
Baylor’s (19-23, 9-12 Big 12) first three runs came by a pair of home runs from Cole Posey. His two-run homer in the second was followed by a solo shot in the fourth. Those home runs were sandwiched around a two-run blast from Parkersburg South High School graduate Grant Hussey.
Trailing 4-2 in the fifth inning, the Mountaineers scored the final eleven runs in the game with three in the fifth, five in the seventh and three more in the eighth.
Aidan Major collected the win on the mound for the Mountaineers. He moved from his usual Friday night starting spot and allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings of work.
“It would be nice to settle on something but as I stand here right now, I can’t tell you what we would do next weekend just yet,” Mazey said. “We have to see how everybody feels and evaluate everything. But we pitched good enough to win three games.”
WVU’s bullpen secured the final ten outs from Gavin Van Kempen, Max Yehl and Hambleton Oliver.
Hussey went 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Hedgesville High School graduate Kyle West, Lumsden and King each had multi-hit games.
West Virginia (26-16) will face the Pittsburgh Panthers at PNC Park Tuesday night.
“It is something our kids will remember the rest of their lives, getting to play in a major league park and one of the most beautiful ones at that, and play against Pittsburgh in their home city,” Mazey said. “They had a bye weekend in the league this weekend. So there’s a good chance they are going to line up some weekend pitching for us on Tuesday.”
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The state Department of Agriculture is working to increase food production, maintain forests and waters and create jobs.
State Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonhardt said they have used abandoned mine lands in many cases to establish businesses like Buzz Foods in Charleston. The company operates the Appalachian Abattoir, distributing locally produced meats to area consumers.
Also, Appalachian Botanicals produces a wide range of lavender-based products made by West Virginians and grown on abandoned mine lands.
“The largest lavender farm is east of the Mississippi River, and part of that is on abandoned mine lands as well, and these are all agriculture businesses,” Leonhardt said last Friday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Morgantown-based Mountaintop Beverage, a maker of shelf-stable dairy products, moved into a 330,000-square-foot facility last year that currently employs more than 200 people. CEO Jeff Sokal said the location for the facility is ideal with access to markets and raw products, but the workforce has been extremely productive.
“There are really good business reasons in terms of logistics for the types of products we produce, but really it’s the people,” Sokal said. “We’ve got a fantastic team of people.”
For Leonhardt, this is a type of business that can sustain farms and industry while providing a wage to raise a family and a tax base for the state and local community.
“Manufacturing in the agricultural world is actually a recession-proof business,” Leonhardt said. “This economy we’re in has been pretty great, but we know it’s not sustainable. But these businesses that the West Virginia Department of Agriculture has been working on since I’ve been there have been producing recession-proof jobs.”
Starting up a manufacturing facility with state-of-the-art aseptic equipment is no easy task. According to Sokul, the local workforce has taken ownership of the work and has made the start-up a relatively smooth process.
“We have a level of talent here we have not seen in other places. People are as dedicated to what we’re doing as we are,” Sokal said. “Providing careers for these folks and not just jobs is important.”
The arrival of Mountaintop Beverage at the Morgantown Industrial Park is also gaining attention from outside the state.
Part of the agreement to bring the company to the park was to add access from I-79 at Harmony Grove to remove truck traffic from surface streets in Westover. When the project got bogged down in federal red tape, the state stepped in to fund a new crossing over the Monongahela River for interim access until an interstate exit was constructed. The new access is expected to be complete by 2027.
“That upper part of the industrial park has opened up because of our project, with the exit coming and the bridge coming,” Sokal said. “There are several other businesses of large size that are looking to locate in that industrial park; we’re going to have to start creating more employees.”
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West Virginians — let’s say quintessential state residents Toby and Edith, for example — have gotten a jump toward improving broadband connectivity after the state became one of the first three approved to unlock millions of federal dollars.
That doesn’t mean state residents with poor or zero internet access will gain it right away. But this week’s announcement that West Virginia can start drawing down $1.2 billion is a major step toward progress in a state where connectivity has been an uphill battle.
“It is somewhat dependent on where you live, the applications that will address that target region and target project area,” West Virginia Economic Development Mitch Carmichael said this week.
“But without this funding, you could be Toby and Edith and never have broadband access. So this does enable it, and we’re within a very fast timeframe.”
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has approved Kansas, Nevada and West Virginia’s initial proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Internet for All” initiative.
The designation will enable the states to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program.
Of the three initial states, West Virginia will draw down the most:
- Kansas: $451.7 million
- Nevada: $416.6 million
- West Virginia: $1.2 billion
The BEAD program is a $42.45 billion state grant program authorized by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The states were allocated funding to deploy or upgrade high-speed internet networks to ensure that everyone has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service.
So there is still a lot more work ahead, but officials celebrated the milestone.
“It’s a huge deal,” said Evan Feinman, director of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program with the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
“There’s no two ways about it. This has been a problem that has really made economic development, has made education, has made access to healthcare, a real challenge to folks who work in urban centers in West Virginia. This is the day that we’re going to start to really solve that problem, close the digital divide and make sure we can get every West Virginian online.”
In a conference call with reporters, Feinman described the hard work, motivation and organization of West Virginia officials. “Everybody we talked to was extremely motivated to get this problem solved for West Virginia,” he said, focusing his comments on the state Office of Broadband.
“It is the case that it’s one of the finest broadband offices in the country, and they just consistently do really, really excellent work.”
Feinman said West Virginia “took a pretty unique approach that it took me a while to get my head all the way around — target regions comprised of different sub-target areas and a really aggressive approach toward making sure low-income folks in West Virginia were going to be able to take service and afford it.
“So it really required a lot of thinking, hard work and late nights and a clear understanding that this was a shared endeavor.”
Kelly Workman director of the state Office of Broadband, acknowledged this is a major step but availability won’t be immediate.
“With a $1.2 billion program, you can imagine that there must be a very detailed plan for execution. So the plan is approved,” she said. “The second part of this is we have to detail the budget.
“There’s a deployment phase. Once we ensure that we can reach all the unserved locations in West Virginia, we can move on to non-deployment activities. So, we’ve proposed some non-deployment activities related to workforce. We’ve proposed $50 million for workforce development related to the broadband industry to carry out this massive infrastructure program.”
Carmichael emphasized that as the program is carried out, “It will reach every address, every single address or you don’t get any of it.
“This is a monumental leap forward to get every single address. And we’re doing it post-haste. As fast as you can move it.”
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HAMLIN, W.Va. — A baseball dugout and a storage facility at Lincoln County High School were set on fire sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
According to the Hamlin Volunteer Fire Department, the structures are considered to be a total loss. The storage facility was used to store lawn care equipment.
State Police and the State Fire Marshall’s Office are now investigating the blaze.
Anyone with information that could lead to identifying who set the structures on fire is encouraged to contact local authorities.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Republican candidates for state Attorney General say that would appeal a federal court’s decision on the state’s trans students sports law to the U.S. Supreme Court like current Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says he’ll do.
State Auditor J.B. McCuskey and state Senator Mike Stuart, a former federal prosecutor, disagree with the recent opinion from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that says the state’s law banning transgender girls from participating on girls sports teams unfairly discriminates against Harrison County student Becky Pepper-Jackson.
Stuart, who has two daughters, said if the fight isn’t taken to the U.S. Supreme Court transgender groups will push for the appeal court’s opinion to be recognized statewide and not just in the Pepper-Jackson case.
“All these radical trans groups, all of these radical lefty groups, what are they going to do? They’re going to force us to apply this across the state,” Stuart said last week on MetroNews “Talkline.” “We’re going to set precedent for the rest of the country on this issue because we were frankly on the front end.”
McCuskey, who also has two daughters, said he wants them and other girls across the state to experience the positive and negatives of sports but not the unfairness that allowing biological boys to play girls sports would bring.
“To be able to participate in sports in a way that they learn the invaluable lessons of fair play, competition and that losing can truly be the best way to learn how and why you need to advance,” McCuskey said during a recent “Talkline” appearance.
Clean Power 2.0
Morrisey promised last week the state would fight the federal EPA’s newly-approved Clean Power 2.0 plan that says coal fired power plants have to capture their emissions or close.
McCuskey and Stuart have both made it a point of their campaigns to criticize the federal government for its policies on clean air and other issues.
Stuart has said his legal experience, especially as U.S. Attorney, that will help him stand against Washington.
“You need somebody like me who can fight back against these guys, who knows how to win, who knows how to get injunctions and fight back,” Stuart said. “When they punch you need someone who punches back harder.”
McCuskey goes as far as to say that Washington doesn’t want West Virginia to grow and prosper.
“If they really wanted to see West Virginia to succeed they would have figured out a way to say, ‘Look, we’re going to help you build three new gas power plants. We’re going to help you mine more coal to help you fuel your coal-fired power plants and we’re going to make you a partner in this,'” McCuskey said.
He said he, like Morrisey, won’t hesitate to take take the federal government to court.
“I will sue any bureaucracy that looks down at West Virginia’s economy and says ‘We want to arbitrarily change the way you make money and the way that your people live,'” McCuskey said.
Down the stretch
Stuart said he’s being outspent by McCuskey in the campaign but he said that’s nothing new. He said he defeated incumbent state Senator Ron Stollings two years ago after being outspent. Stuart said there’s no bigger race in the May 14 election than the race for Attorney General.
“This is important. The most important spot on ballot,” Stuart said. “It’s not governor, it’s attorney general.”
McCuskey said he’s held statewide office for the last eight years and state residents know what he’s been able to accomplish in the state Auditor’s Office. He said it will translate down the the hall at the AG’s office.
“I have a track record of building an office that is tax-payer centered and understands the exigent needs of people as they call into state government,” McCuskey said.
Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva and Former South Charleston Mayor Richie Robb are seeking the Democrat Party’s nomination in the attorney general’s race.
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CROSS LANES, W.Va. — A West Virginia coach says she’s proud two of her gymnasts have qualified for the USA Gymnastics championships scheduled for next month.
“For West Virginia, just like any sport, our population is smaller here in our state so when we can athletes to this level, it just shows the dedication of the athlete,” Susan Brown, owner of Revolution Gymnastics in Cross Lanes, told MetroNews.
Sophia Fala, a junior at George Washington High School, will compete in the 2024 Women’s Development Program Level 9 Eastern Championships in Myrtle Beach, SC from May 2-5.
Emma Mason, a senior at Teays Valley Christian School, will head to the 2024 Women’s Development Program Level 10 National Championships in Daytona Beach, FL the week after that from May 10-12.
Brown said Abby Rice, a senior at Hurricane High School, qualified for the national championships last year. She placed second on the uneven bars during a competition at State College, PA earlier this month.
The gymnasts train about 20 hours a week in addition to outside cross training, Brown said.
“They’re super dedicated. They’ve basically been doing this all their lives,” she said. “Every aspect about their life is so goal-oriented from their academics to their cross training to their injury prevention. Gymnastics is not seasonal. It’s a tough sport and it takes a special kind of kid to be dedicated.”
Mason has been doing gymnastics since she was 18 months old. Fala hit the mats at 8-years-old.
Both girls will have routines they’ll perform at their national competitions next month.
“This is artistic gymnastics. They’re competing in the All-Arounds, so it’s the traditional Olympic events you would know: the vault, the bars, the balance beam and a floor exercise,” Brown said.
Mason plans to compete with the University of Georgia next season.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A man was killed in a two-car crash Saturday afternoon in Charleston.
According to Charleston police, Stanley Burkes, 63, of Charleston, was driving east on Kanawha Boulevard near the area of the Moose Lodge at 4:52 p.m. when he turned left on East Point Drive into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
Burkes died at the scene, police said.
The driver of the oncoming vehicle suffered minor injuries. A passenger in that vehicle was uninjured.
The investigation into the crash continues.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — FirstEnergy subsidiaries Mon Power and Potomac Edison are proposing a customer refund, including interest, due to miscalculated costs from a previous base rate case and misapplied overhead costs.
The proposed $2.5 million refund is for a misallocation of costs from the 2013 test year in the last base rate case filed by First Energy. The company will also refund $54,000 due to incorrectly applied administrative, general, and overhead costs to capital project expenses from 2020 to 2022.
First Energy will submit an updated filing to the state Public Service Commission with an updated calculation for the one-time credit that will be disbursed in July 2024.
The credit will be identified on the bill as ”Refund for Noneligible Costs.”
Officials said the refund amounts will vary widely based on average kilowatt-hour consumption per household.
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HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Public safety, homelessness and the drug epidemic are among the top issues candidates who are vying to become the next mayor of Huntington say they want to work on if elected.
There are six candidates on the Primary Election ballot including three Republicans, two Democrats and one Independent. One of them will replace Mayor Steve Williams who is running for the Democratic nomination for West Virginia governor this year.
U.S. Air Force Veteran Patrick Farrell is running against combat-wounded Vietnam Veteran Andy Battista and Westmoreland resident Richard Luther for the GOP nomination.
Farrell, a Huntington native, told MetroNews he has a lot of experience that makes him qualified to lead the City of Huntington.
“As a veteran, I have a lot of military leadership experience including in combat. As a business owner, I’ve lead multimillion dollar companies through economic ups and downs. As a leader at the Marshall Board of Governors, I’ve helped make difficult decisions that were instrumental in reversing decades-long enrollment decline and now we’re paving the way for the university to grow again,” he said, referring to the construction of a new Cyber Security Center.
The Democratic candidates are former police officer and Cabell County Magistrate Judge Dan Ferguson and former Huntington City Councilmember Jennifer Wheeler.
Ferguson said he knows about the drug problem from working as a magistrate.
“I spend the last seven years as a magistrate and when I would arraign someone and I’d ask them where they’re from, they’d say Huntington and then I’d have a genuine talk with them and find out they’re really not from Huntington. They just developed an address here and came here for help,” Ferguson said.
Many people come to Huntington for drug treatment and recovery services, but Ferguson said the city will need to “get back to the basics” in order to create real change for those who want to improve their lives.
“I want to help these people, but there’s only so much you can do,” he said. “We have to change and shift gears. The homeless people are not criminals, but they commit crimes in order to live.”
Wheeler said she’s already been working with other city leaders across state lines who are making progress on housing issues.
“There are several cities that have experienced a decline in the homeless population and one of those cities is Columbus, Ohio, so I’ve already been meeting with prominent leaders from Columbus to determine what they’re doing that we can emulate,” she said.
Farrell said he believes the city needs to work with Marshall University and Cabell Huntington Hospital in order to tackle the ongoing opioid epidemic.
“I think the three of our anchoring institutions — the city, Marshall and the hospital — need to come together to solve our biggest problems,” he said.
Infrastructure is also top of mind for candidates following the most recent flooding along the Ohio River earlier this month.
“Nobody dreams of living in a home where the basement floods every time there’s heavy rain. We need to fix the infrastructure and fix the recurring flooding problems that we have,” Farrell said.
A big part of Wheeler’s campaign to address public safety and infrastructure focuses on Walkable Illuminated Neighborhoods or what she calls “WIN.”
“One of the things that I want to do is dedicate resources to making sure that we have paving in the neighborhoods, adequate sidewalks. We want to change out the high-pressure sodium bulbs so that they’re LED lights,” she explained.
Ferguson said his goal is to also make neighborhoods safer by improving the city’s police department.
“We need to bring our city back, clean it up and take a look at the police levels. We need more police officers in order to do the effectiveness on the streets that we need,” he said.
Jay Michaels is running on the Independent ticket. He will automatically be on the general election ballot in November.
Primary Election Day in West Virginia is May 14.
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GRANVILLE, W.Va. — A combination of small ball and a sterling pitching performance led West Virginia to a second consecutive win over the Baylor Bears, 5-2 in front of a crowd of 4,223 fans at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
The Mountaineers scored four of their five runs on plays where the ball didn’t leave the infield. Southpaw Derek Clark improved his pitching record to 5-1 by tossing eight innings of 5-hit ball. He struck out eight batters and walked three.
“He wasn’t as sharp as normal I didn’t think. One thing you can count on that dude is that he is going to compete on every pitch of the whole game. It is OK to give up runs with him on the mound because you know he has done everything right to prepare himself for that position he’s in,” WVU head coach Randy Mazey said.
“He came off the field in the seventh and as he was running off the field, he looked at me and said, ‘I’ve got one more in me. I’ve got one more in me’. When a guy like that says that, I trust his opinion.”
“I didn’t realize how many pitches I was at,” Clark said. “It didn’t really feel like that [127 pitches]. I understand. I just went as long as I could.”
Hedgesville High School graduate and University of Charleston transfer Kyle West opened the scoring by connecting for his team-leading 11th home run of the season on the first pitch of the second inning.
“Not only is he a better hitter, he is a better runner and a better thrower,” Mazey said. “He’s a better eater and a better sleeper. He has dived into our resources and our culture. That’s why he is doing what he is doing because he is using everything we offer these kids.”
Baylor (19-22, 9-11 Big 12) evened the score in the fourth inning with a run-scoring single from Cortlan Castle.
However, the Mountaineers (25-16, 13-7 Big 12) scored three runs in the fifth inning on a wild pitch and a pair of RBI groundouts from Parkersburg South High School graduate Grant Hussey and Brodie Kresser.
A successful safety squeeze pushed WVU’s fifth run across in the seventh inning. Kresser’s bunt allowed West to score his third run of the game.
Baylor drew closer in the eighth inning on a solo home run from Hunter Teplanszky, making the score 5-2. The Bears brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning before JJ Wetherholt ended the game by making a diving catch at shortstop. The game-clinching play was confirmed after a lengthy video review.
“I have said in the past that has turned into the most exciting play in baseball — waiting for the umpires to come out of the video room,” Mazey said. “You never know. I wasn’t too happy the amount of time they spent in there. It looked pretty cut and dried to me that JJ caught the ball.”
As part of Alumni Weekend, dozens of former players were on the field during pregame ceremonies.
“We’ve got a bunch of kids back that we on that first team of ours in 2013. That team really set the tone for what we are doing now,” Mazey said.
“It is nice to make them proud of what we are doing now. I have always tried to reach out to them and let them know how much I appreciate what they have done for this program. Without them, we are not where we are.”
West Virginia will play for a second consecutive home series sweep Sunday morning in the series finale. First pitch is set for 11 a.m.
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