Breaking News

Local Government

Manchin lights out for the frontier

A day after announcing he will not run for re-election for U.S. Senate, Joe Manchin was in the spotlight at a symposium on political civility. His appearance at the civility symposium is in step with Manchin’s stated goal of traveling America in search of political middle ground. During his opening remarks, Manchin called back to an earlier political decision he had to make: whether to run for Senate in 2010 after the death of Robert C. Byrd, a Democrat who had held the seat since 1959. Manchin, who was in his second term as governor at the time, calculated that the state was on ...

Justice to push for pay raises for state workers

Gov. Jim Justice says he’ll advocate for a 5% pay raise for state employees and educators who are experiencing increased insurance costs. “I’m absolutely going to put forward another 5% pay raise,” Justice said during a news briefing today in response to a question by reporter Charles Young of West Virginia News. “It should more than offset any raises in PEIA, and we need to do that. We need to accomplish that. Without any question that’s what I’m going to do. “I hope that will just sail right through because at the end of the day we want people to not be hurt by ...

Haws: City still exploring locations for winter warming shelter

MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Manager Kim Haws said Wednesday the city is “absolutely” seeking other location options for a winter warming shelter.  Haws has become central to the warming shelter conversation as the only location proposed thus far, Sabra United Methodist Church, ...

Tunnelton asks commission to help fund water line extension

KINGWOOD — The town of Tunnelton is seeking funding for the Fortney Road water line extension. If funded, the extension will add seven new customers to the town’s water service. David Watson, an engineer with Civil & Environmental Consultants Inc. from Bridgeport, said the extension will cost approximately $143,000. He said the town is asking for $33,000 from the commission for engineering, legal, permits and other costs. Tunnelton Town Clerk Rita Nicholson said some of the wells at homes that could connect to water service have iron in the water, and other wells have gone ...

SWA shares information to help trash problem

KINGWOOD — During a Tuesday evening meeting of the Preston County Solid Waste Authority (SWA), SWA President Don Smith, shared information he received while attending a recent Solid Waste Education Conference. Smith said a program in Wheeling called the House of Hagar is helping with the city’s trash problem. He said the local homeless population has started cleaning up the trash in town. “They are doing something like a business,” Smith said. “They will come and clean out garages or buildings for people. This is helpful because instead of all of the stuff they clean out ...

Mon County QRT awarded $1M federal grant

The Monongalia County Quick Response Team (QRT) plans to use a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to employ a full-time data improvement coordinator, increase data collection efforts and create stronger relationships with other community organizations. The data improvement coordinator “will be looking at the systems we have in place and working to improve our data collection and analysis,” said Brittany Irick, Monongalia County QRT coordinator. “Our QRT has a lot of data coming in and it is going to take an in-depth look at what we are collecting and ...