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Editorial

City is right to want to expedite police hiring

The City of Morgantown has proposed some needed changes to the police hiring process. It doesn’t seem to be looking to cut corners, but rather to cut through some of the red tape. Under West Virginia Code, the city is required to have a three-member police civil service commission that sets procedures for hiring and promotion. In the current hiring process, a candidate must satisfy the commission through a number of exams and evaluations before being presented to the appointing officer (city manager) as eligible for hire. This includes a written exam, a physical agility test, an ...

Preston BOE, yes, introduce the levy

The Preston County Board of Education is exploring the worthwhileness of putting another education levy on the ballot come May. There’s an exploratory committee, and an online survey for the community just wrapped up. Our advice: Instead of a million committee meetings to decide whether or not to introduce the levy, just do it. Put the levy on the ballot. It never hurts to try. No one really likes paying more taxes, but many people understand that if everyone puts a few dollars towards education, they aren’t just investing in the local schools, they are investing in a better ...

There’s something we’d like to add to Hoppy Kercheval’s below commentary, “West Virginia’s food conundrum,” so we recommend reading that first. Now that you’ve read Hoppy’s piece, here’s what we’d like to add: A food desert isn’t necessarily a lack of food. Food deserts, according to the Food Empowerment Project, are “geographic areas where residents’ access to affordable, healthy food options (especially fresh fruits and vegetables) is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance.” These are ...

Before #MeToo, there was RDVIC

This October is the 37th Domestic Violence Awareness Month — and the 50th anniversary of north-central West Virginia’s Rape and Domestic Violence Information Center. As one would expect from an organization that helps survivors of assault and abuse, RDVIC’s origin story isn’t a happy one. As Virginia Hopkins tells it, she was a young, idealistic attorney, working for the North Central West Virginia Legal Aid Society in Morgantown in 1972. A young woman came to her for help: She’d been gang-raped months before and became pregnant but decided to keep the baby. She came to ...

Mon Commission’s not-panhandling ordinance unlikely to work as intended

Today, the Pedestrian and Vehicle Safety Ordinance will once again be up for public comment and possibly for passage at the Monongalia County Commission meeting. The current draft ordinance can be found at monongaliacounty.gov under the “county ordinance” link. Also known as the panhandling ordinance (because that’s who the law targets), if passed, the ordinance would make it illegal not only to be in the median or other rights-of-way for a purpose other than crossing the road, it would also make it illegal for anyone in a vehicle to hand something off — like money — to ...

Dear DOH, neglecting is abdicating

The season is changing, the weather is cooling, the days are shorter and the leaves are putting on their autumn colors. Yet one thing remains the same: The state-maintained roads are still in terrible condition. Medians are overgrown, ditches haven’t been cleared, potholes are popping up like spring dandelions and some stretches of pavement have more ripples and waves than the Mon River after a storm. And that doesn’t seem likely to change anytime soon. Local officials, including members of the Monongalia County Commission and municipal governments, have repeatedly tried to ...