05/29/2025 The Dave Allen Show on 580 Live - Jason Moss, Johnny Rutherford, Susannah Barr, Ben Salango

We examine Wonderschools, plus more on FestivAll, we will talk Nitro pickleball and Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango stops by.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:15):
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(00:40):
eighty Lives and your host.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
What we've got here is failure Milka.

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Out at a fall out of bubbling Dave Allen, there's
aday morning to you.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Senior Producer Ryan Nicholson in charge of things across the
way this morning, Big Lee Pigley Wiggly Hotline three zero
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(01:25):
by West Virginia's finest men's store, Tony the Taylor, Virginia Street, Charleston.
Visit Bestmaster Taylor dot com. We are loaded up this morning.
Canawa County Commission President Ben Selango is going to be
stopping by. It's been a while since we've had any
news about the Kanawa County Judicial Annex. Well, we're going
to get into that with the Commission coming up a
little bit later on fest of All is underway and Charleston,

(01:46):
we'll talk about that. Plus some pickleball is about to
be played in Nitro, And in addition to this world
class pickleball event with some of the top players in
the world coming in, they're also going to cut the
ribbon on the new indoor Pickle All complex there. So
we're going to get into all that. Plus your calls
and text are welcome to Bigley Pigli Wiggly Hotline three
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Speaker 5 (02:07):
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Speaker 3 (02:13):
All right, so I'm going to introduce you to a
concept this morning, something called Wonder School. And you know,
we've heard, we all hear about the crisis that we
have in our daycares centers in West Virginia, really around
the country, but especially here in West Virginia. We're known
for having the lowest workforce participation rate in America, and sadly,

(02:36):
one of the reasons we have that. One of the
reasons is the fact that we don't have we don't
have quality childcare. People got nothing to do with the kids.
So there's some folks that are trying to work on
that situation. We want to bring in Jason Moss to
the show. Jason, Welcome to the show.

Speaker 6 (02:52):
Hello, I'm glad to be here.

Speaker 5 (02:53):
All right, So what.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Are we talking about this morning? Do you give us
this whole concept of what you folks are doing. We'll
get into the particulars later, but give us the overall
view of this concept of what you're trying to do.

Speaker 6 (03:05):
As you just said, West Virginia has a childcare crisis.
There's sixty five percent of the state's residents are in
a childcare desert and the labor workforce participation rate US
fifty four point eight percent. That's the lowest in the country,
and it points to sort of the lack of available

(03:26):
childcare and affordable childcare as a reason for that crisis.
What I mean is that we've got to figure out
how to ensure that there's more available childcare so that
parents don't need to reduce their hours, they don't need
to leave the workforce, and they can they can stay
in work. And so Wonder School has been asked by

(03:49):
the state to come in to help to address this problem,
and one of the ways we're doing it is through
something very innovative called try Share.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
All right, break break that down for try Share. I
love the titles Wonder School and try Share. I love
the titles.

Speaker 6 (04:05):
Try Share is a great concept. It's it's basically saying
that the the way to make childcare more accessible is
if you share the cost three ways between uh an employer,
the state of West Virginia, and the employee and so
the and that and that's and that's the gist. It's

(04:26):
it's it's free for businesses. And the way that It
works as an employer would say, I am uh invested
in this particular employee, I'm going to help contribute towards
a portion of their childcare costs. Whatever amount that that
employer decides. The state is then going to match that

(04:47):
amount on a slide and scale, and then the employee
tastes the difference.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
You know this, it's a very interesting concept. Go ahead
and continue. I'm sorry, didn't mean to cut you off.

Speaker 6 (04:57):
Go ahead, no, no, no, and and and what one
and under school is sort of kind of the technology
in the background that makes it super easy for employers
to do it and make sure that the providers are
getting paid on time so that they can continue to
operate their businesses.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
So how much work has gone into this and what
does it take to put together, Jason, a model like this, Well.

Speaker 6 (05:25):
The model itself originated in Michigan a few years ago
and it has since also we now see it happening
in Kentucky, North Carolina, so the model is there. Our
job is to work with the Small Business Development Center
and a variety of different partners around the state, the

(05:47):
Chamber of Commerce, the Charleston Area Alliance, et cetera, to
figure out how do we take that model and adapt
it here to West Virginia. And so we've just started
to do this. We're just starting to put sort of
all the pieces in place, but it is, it is live,
and we are bringing on our first employers and our

(06:08):
first providers, and the first employees are benefiting from those
contributions and those matching funds. They're benefiting right now.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Sright to begin with with Jason Moss, Let's get back
to this term childcare deserts. As I said at the top, Jason,
you hear that term thrown out there a lot, and
I don't think you.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
Know, it's easy for us.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
I'm sitting in the studio in Charleston, West Virginia right now,
and those that are listening to us, primarily in the
Kanal Valley, we don't have enough childcare. But what we
do okay here, Okay, I mean, I'm just kind of
throwing it out there. Maybe I'm wrong, but you start
getting into some of these other areas to say, to
West Virginia, some of the smaller counties, and I'm not
you know, we're not gonna pick on any but I'm

(06:53):
just throwing some of the small counties out there. Maybe
a Work County or a Clay County or some of
these other counties. I'm going to go ahead and imagine
that that's kind of where you're looking at when you
talk about childcare deserts.

Speaker 6 (07:07):
Yeah, that's that's that's you're you're exactly right. I mean,
the childcare desert is where the need for care far
exceeds the available providers. And and here's the here's the
challenge is that it's it's it's often a very unrealistic
solution to say we're going to build a brand new center. Uh.

(07:28):
In these communities, it's just the cost is too high,
the population density is there's not it's too low. But
what you can do, what's often overlooked is a very
creative solution is what's called family childcare or in home childcare.
And that's where entrepreneurial individuals say, hey, I can open

(07:49):
up where I live and run a childcare program in
my house. Uh. And it's all licensed, that follows the
state regulations, et cetera. But it is a much easier, way,
faster way to create childcare. It helps individuals work and
earn a great living, and it can be very targeted

(08:10):
to those areas where childcare is needed most and part
of what Wonder School is also doing in the state,
not only launching the Treasure program I mentioned, but we're
also sort of working locally to help to create more
in home family childcare.

Speaker 5 (08:27):
It's a fascinating concept. I mean, it really is.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
And when you talk about West Virginia's low workforce participation,
invariably somebody will reach out to me. I'll get a
text or something like that, and somebody will say something
to the effect of, well, we're also the oldest state
in the nation, and I completely understand that. Usually when
you're talking about low workforce participation, Jason, you're talking about
able bodied people that just for one reason or another

(08:53):
don't work. Childcare is an issue, whatever, that's what we're
talking about here primarily, right.

Speaker 6 (09:00):
Yeah, that's that's that's exactly right. That's exactly right, and
we want and we want it for those individuals. We
want to eliminate the very painful decision to say, hey,
I would love to be working, but the economics don't
make sense for me to work or for me to
stay at my job because I have to deal with childcare.

(09:21):
I have to have a solution in place, and so
if through try share and creating more you know, more
in home programs, we can we can eliminate reduce that
very painful decision. That's a win for everybody. That's a
win for the parents. That's a win for those providers

(09:42):
because they're going to see more business. It's a win
for employers because it helps them to recruit talent, it
helps them to repain talent, and that's a win for
the state.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
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US Department of Health and Human Services. All Right, I'm
gonna give you a scenario here, Jason, Okay, I am
going to start.

Speaker 5 (10:07):
I have a company.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Uh and off the top of my head, we're gonna
call it Jones and Jones.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
That's the name of the company. Okay. Uh. I want
to get involved in this.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
I need people and I and what I'm hearing when
I interview people is I would love to take the job,
but I can't do it because childcare is an issue.
As an employer, what can take us through the process
of how that would work, because it's a multifaceted as
you said, So take us through.

Speaker 5 (10:32):
I'm an employer, lay it out for us. How does
it work?

Speaker 6 (10:35):
Yeah, I'm I'm I'm at Jones and Jones, And what
I'm going to do is say, all right, for for
for my employees, I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna let
every I'm gonna let them know that I'm going to
contribute one hundred dollars two hundred dollars a month towards
their towards their childcare, and the state is going to

(10:56):
match that based on that family's annual householding them and
therefore that individual is now going to be saving two
hundred dollars three hundred dollars four hundred dollars a month
on their childcare, which over the course of a year
is very significant. So that's the promise and the commitment

(11:17):
that Jones and Jones can make to employees or or
future employees people are trying to recruit operationally, it's as
simple as going to Wonder School, dot com forward slashed
West Virginia dash trishare and it is a very quick
application process. You essentially fill out a brief application. You

(11:41):
let us know that you want to participate. We follow
up with you. We then ask you to let us
know what employees or employees and how much you're going
to contribute for a month. We validate with them the
household income. We talk to the provider where the child
will be going, We get them signed up, and then

(12:02):
we sort of and then you just we set up
that the there's a monthly department essentially debit need and
it's as easy as that. You can then sort of
step back and know that your employee employees are being
benefited through this program.

Speaker 5 (12:16):
It's fascinating.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
It's a fascinating concept and I was doing some reading
about it last night. A fascinating concept and a fascinating
business model. We're gonna have you on again to talk
about this a little bit more at another time. But
give us that website again for more information right now.

Speaker 6 (12:31):
Yep, it's Wonderschool dot com, forward slash, West Dash Virginia
Dash try share or you can google search West Virginia
try share and it'll be the probably the first thing
that comes.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Up with All Right, hey, Jason, fascinating stuff. I appreciate
you being here. We'll talk soon.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
Thanks a lot, Thank you very much.

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Speaker 5 (16:10):
All right, let's talk about Festival. Malori Richards is here.
How you doing, Mallory?

Speaker 8 (16:14):
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Now you kind of got I mean, yeah, you're you're, you're,
you're the face the voice of fest of all as
of right now.

Speaker 5 (16:22):
But you kind of stepped up to the plate as
an interim director. Is that right?

Speaker 13 (16:25):
Not interim director but interim marketing production specialists. Brittany Javens
stepped up as the interim CEO.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
I got you.

Speaker 8 (16:32):
But yeah, we're working with.

Speaker 13 (16:33):
Kate, who is our full time employee of Festival right
now to present our twenty first year of events here
in Charleston.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
All right, let's talk about what we got going on,
because you're already underway. Well, what has already happened and
what's to come?

Speaker 13 (16:45):
Last night we kicked everything off with our speaker series
Three Things, which is three guests talking about their first
favorite and future as.

Speaker 5 (16:53):
I actually did that last year and it was awesome. Yeah,
I had a great time.

Speaker 8 (16:56):
It's so fun. It was it was rainy, but the
sky's clear.

Speaker 13 (16:59):
You did a yeah, and Magnuson was there, Jason Young
and Nlita Sanchez.

Speaker 8 (17:05):
We had a great time.

Speaker 13 (17:06):
But that was our first event that kicked everything off,
and that was celebrating the tenth year of three things,
so ten seasons under our belt. As part of festival tonight,
we will continue everything with a community drum circle down
at Hadad Riverfront Park at six pm. And we also
have a cool thing called live music Bingo thanks to
Arts Amplified here in Charleston, which we'll start at seven

(17:27):
pm at five Street Brewing and Shane Mead will be
the performer there tonight.

Speaker 5 (17:32):
So give us the whole concept behind festival.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
I mean, because we hear it's one of those things
in Charleston, you know, along with Regatta and we had
all these things going on. You hear it thrown out there,
But what was the concept behind fest?

Speaker 8 (17:42):
Of all the concept behind festival.

Speaker 13 (17:45):
So a few heavy hitters here, Larry Gross being one
of them, who you all are probably familiar through Mountain stage,
Daniel Jones and Vic Grigaracci, they all got together and said, hey,
we need something like Sple, which is in Charleston, South Carolina.
It's a major arts festival, multi day, multi media, everything

(18:07):
you could possibly imagine, and they wanted to build that
up here in Charleston, West Virginia. And so they thought
that you know, wine and jazz was happening. They build
everything around that, and they wanted to create this event
where everyone could access the arts, maybe not necessarily in
a building, but outside for free, so it's accessible to everyone.
And it grew from a three day festival all the

(18:29):
way to a fifteen day festival on our fifteenth year.
But now that we're back in our or now that
we're approaching our twenty first year, we're scaling things back
to go back to the basics and really focus on
what festival does well.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
And I love the fact when you talk about the
arts again, that you're not there's various ways for people
to enjoy arts, and you're not necessarily going to look
at it in a quote unquote museum right now.

Speaker 5 (18:50):
Is anything wrong with that?

Speaker 3 (18:51):
But you're actually you're actually outside for the most part,
and you're actually being able to take part in all these.

Speaker 8 (18:55):
Yeah, live music, theater, dance.

Speaker 13 (18:57):
You are able to enjoy those in theaters, and we
do have ticket at events when you're in the Clay Center,
which is a state of the art performance center, or
you can walk down the Carriage Trail and enjoy.

Speaker 8 (19:05):
Those same things in a much different atmosphere.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Talking Toboli, Richard's about festival to Day of Island show
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Husbandsizza dot com and put you on the spot here, Mallorr,
what's your favorite part.

Speaker 8 (19:24):
Part of festivals?

Speaker 13 (19:26):
I may be biased because I've been the producer of
this thing for a while, but it's the Capitol Street
Art Fair. It's one of the biggest events of festival,
and we have artists from all over both locally, regionally
out of state that come in. We have over sixty
five artists that will join us this year. There's live
music and performance stage stages at the Children's Art Fair

(19:47):
by the Library. Also in front of Taylor Books, roaming
street performers. It's a very all encompassing festival experience.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
Well for what it's worth. Someone just texted and said
that's their favorite part too.

Speaker 8 (19:58):
Oh awesome. We love that.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
There you go, there you go.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
And for the people. I mean, let's talk about I'm
the ultimate capitalist. I'm always talking about money and bringing
people in. We just came off of the bike event
in Charleston, which was absolutely huge.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
We got regatta coming.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Up this weekend, among the other things. We got a
bunch of people. I know it's not Charleston, but it's
the Kanaal Valley. We got all these people, which we're
going to talk about in our next segment, coming in
from literally all over the country for this pickleball event
in Nitro. We got to Charlie West Music Festival going on.
I mean, the thing I like about all these things,
and I know it's all about art, okay, but it
also puts heads and beds, and it also puts money.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
In the till you.

Speaker 13 (20:36):
Took the words out of my mind, Heads and Beds
Festival has an annual average income or what am I
trying to say here, one point.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
Eight million dollars economic impact.

Speaker 13 (20:49):
Our impact is one point eight million dollars, which is
over double our budget. So if you're thinking about money
coming in to us to produce these things and money
coming into the city to enjoy these things, it's well
worth your time if you are a supporter of festival.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
And it looks like at least today we're going to
get a little bit of a break and all this
rain that we've had, oh yeah, right now, we're just
trying to get people into Charleston. Because I don't know
if you follow this story or not, but there was
and I understand it's getting better. There was a traffic
issue coming on I sixty four into Charleston today. I
drove over it literally because there was gravel all over
the interstate and I thought to myself, Okay, well there's

(21:24):
there's gravel, and I'm like, and I'm driving over it.
But they did shut down the interstate for a while.

Speaker 5 (21:30):
Because of that.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
But I do believe that they're starting to get back
to normally.

Speaker 5 (21:33):
That's what I heard Jeff say in the news.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
And we are going to get a little bit of
a break they tell us from the rain today. But
it looks like tomorrow we got more rain back in
the forecast. So where is the best place though for
people to learn more and get and then because there's
so many things Mallory that are going on, what's the
best spot to go to so people can just get
a schedule.

Speaker 13 (21:53):
The best spot to get the schedule is online at
festival Charleston dot com, which is Fest of All with
two l's. You can also so go to one of
your local businesses Taylor Books, five Street Brewing. They all
have our printed schedules where everything is in there. I
will say the drum circle tonight at six pm used
to be at Slack Plaza, but we had to change
the location there. It'll be at how Ad Riverfront Park tonight.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
I also don't want to forget that we have live
on the levee.

Speaker 8 (22:19):
So yeah, we're so excited.

Speaker 13 (22:21):
Nobs Brass Band so incredible Magnolia Boulevard there bluegrass band
and Nobs Brass Band is obviously a giant brass band,
lots of high energy.

Speaker 8 (22:30):
It's a great time.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
We also have this schedules available here in our studios.
I am told from sales weasel extraordinary.

Speaker 8 (22:36):
Bobby Sprye, I did see those upstairs.

Speaker 5 (22:38):
Yeah, at at.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Eleven eleven Virginia Street. You can stop Bier Studio during
business hours and pick one up if you'd like to.
Before we let you go, I want to talk about
the buy in from the businesses here in Charleston, because
without the businesses getting involved in this and saying we
love this, it ain't happening.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
Talk about that we have.

Speaker 13 (22:56):
So Fest of All is a group effort. Teamwork makes
the dream work. We get some from everyone all over
the city. And like I said, our economic impact is
pretty large compared to what we are spending on our end.
I've talked to a few local businesses on Capitol Street.
They say that during festival they sometimes make more money
during festival than they do during the holiday season. So,

(23:19):
especially with the Capitol Street Art Fair, people are spending
time downtown. They're not just going to our events, but
they're also visiting these businesses.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
All right, yeah, again, there's a We've got schedules available here,
they're available online.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
You guys do a great job at your social media
as well, so get involved and enjoy Fest of All.

Speaker 8 (23:36):
Awesome.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Thank you so much, appreciate you being here. It is
twenty nine minutes away from Tan Bigley Pigley Wiggly Hotline
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Speaker 5 (23:57):
We'll take the break just a little bit early.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
We're going to talk some pickle all coming up here
momentarily and also Knaw County Commission, President of Bensolanga, will
stop buy. It's a Dave Allen Show on the Voice
of Charleston WCCHS.

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Speaker 5 (26:37):
Welcome back to the show.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Twenty six minutes away from ten Bigley Piggley Wiggly Hotline
three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
Tony the Taylor Text three zero four nine three five
five zero zero. Do have a couple of news notes
here before we continue with the show, and you can
read more about these at wv metronews dot com. The
Supreme Court has affirmed the murder conviction of Joshua Phillips.
He was the guy that shot Charleston police officer Cassie

(26:59):
Johnson in December twenty twenty. Phillips was claiming self defense.
The Supreme Court of Appeals disagreed, and we're going to
talk to Attorney General JB. McCuskey about that on Metro
News Midday with thirteen News in tonight live anchor Mande
Baron and myself powered by Selango Law coming up at
noon today. Also, this bizarre shooting story from the sheets
in Kanas City early Tuesday morning got a little bit

(27:20):
more bizarre yesterday as an eighteen year old Jacob Fields
of Charleston has seen the charges of wanton endangerment and
involuntary manslaughter upgraded to first degree murder. That story posted
at wv metronews dot com and Kanaw County Prosecuted Attorney
Deb Rusnik will join Meadows and Wilson on talkline during
the ten o'clock hour to discuss tech says. The one

(27:44):
textra ask why is it society's responsibility also known as
taxpayers to raise someone else's child probably claims to be Christian.
Imagine if we as a society just let children suffer
because their parents are crappy and we're too stingy to
use taxes to help them. Let's talk a little pickleball.
We'll go for we transition from one to the other.

(28:04):
Johnny Rutherford to see it for Metro nine one one.
How you doing, man?

Speaker 4 (28:07):
Good?

Speaker 5 (28:07):
How are you retired now?

Speaker 9 (28:08):
Right?

Speaker 4 (28:08):
I am retired. I'm still helping Metro out with a
pickleball tournament. We got some great pros in and a
great tournament, right all right?

Speaker 5 (28:13):
So what are you doing other than playing pickleball in
your retirement?

Speaker 4 (28:16):
I got a great wife and we spent a lot
of time taking walks, a little bit of golf and
taking care of family.

Speaker 5 (28:21):
How long were you How long were you there?

Speaker 4 (28:24):
Well, with the county for forty six.

Speaker 5 (28:26):
Ye years in various role sheriff and so on and
so on.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Yeah, it's sheriff for thirty some years now with Metro
for twelve.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Okay, and we're getting ready for this big pickleball event
in Nitro. And you've been on several times over the
last couple of years talking about this and to use
the average advertising cliche.

Speaker 5 (28:42):
It does get bigger and better every year.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
It's great. The Nitro has done a great job. They
put a great facility in for us. I have a
lot of team people that help us put this tournament on.
It's grown every year. We're up to almost three hundred
people this year. We've got some great pros coming in.
It's just great. And one thing we want to make sure,
I want to say before we get started here is
it's free. We have some great players, some of the
best in the country, in the world come into play,

(29:05):
and we want to make sure people come down, enjoy themselves,
walk around and watch his play is really exciting.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
And pickleball itself, I mean again, people have heard you
talking about it, and we're going to talk to some
pros that are here, but describe pickleball.

Speaker 5 (29:17):
To people that may not understand it complete.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
I'm as Susannah, Okay, she is the pro and she
has been playing. He's great at this, all.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Right, Susanna Barr. And you've been on the show before,
but you were always on the phone. This first time,
I think we've had you in person. I think yes, yeah.

Speaker 17 (29:29):
Last year I called in from Idaho, which is where
I live.

Speaker 12 (29:33):
Uh, huh.

Speaker 17 (29:34):
But now we're here, we're going to be running some
clinics today and then obviously playing this weekend.

Speaker 12 (29:39):
But yeah, pickleball is.

Speaker 17 (29:40):
A combination of tennis, badminton, and ping pong. I heard
one person say once it was like, you're playing ping pong,
but you're standing on the.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
Table, okay, which is generally frowned upon in most most
most establishments. Now we have Dominicque Catalano. I pronounce that right, Dominique.
Let's h what's your love of pickaball? What's your story?
What's your story?

Speaker 18 (30:01):
Oh gosh, so I've been in pickaball for twenty four
years now. I started in pick a ball in two
thousand and one. I was a high school pe and
health teacher in suburbs of Chicago. But I also to
live in Boise, Idaho now and I work for the
Association of Pickleball Players the app Professional Pickleball Tour. I
do the commentary and work with ESPN and CBS Sports
as the playby or color analyst for those networks and

(30:25):
for the pro Tour.

Speaker 5 (30:27):
So how does one prepare for do? I mean?

Speaker 3 (30:29):
I've done some play by play in color commentary on
various sports I've never done pickleball, how do you imagine
the preparation is about the same, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
It's pretty much the same.

Speaker 18 (30:37):
I have had pros asked me if I would step
away from my iPad so that they could see my
scouting reports on players, and I refuse to do that,
but pretty much the exact same thing. I prep the same.
I watch a lot of pickleball when I'm not on
the venue and on site, so I have a lot
of notes and a lot of scouting reports on probably
over two hundred players.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
I want to talk about, if we could, the growth
of pickleball and how it has become so popular. Johnny
and I've been talking about this for the last couple
of years, and Sarah, I mean this, I don't know
what there has been a sport or an activity or
for some people, it's a hobby. For you, guys, it's
your life that has grown ass as quickly as what

(31:22):
pickleball has. I mean, people just can't get enough of.

Speaker 12 (31:25):
It, that's true.

Speaker 17 (31:26):
I mean it's so it's easy to learn, it's hard
to master, but it's just a lot of fun. And
I think that's the biggest appeal is you can go
out and play with your grandparents, you can play with
your friends. You laugh a lot. Now there might not
be as much laughing in a tournament. People are are
there to win and do their best, but overall it's

(31:49):
just a really fun game and it's just a great
way to be social and healthy and get some exercise.
And so, you know, we love it. We've been playing
for a lot time and we still love it.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
And Nitro has just done such a great job John,
in kind of becoming the pickleball capital of not only
of West Virginia, but I mean literally, man, I mean
like this probably this part of the country.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
They've done a great job. It's covered nine great courts,
indoors and outdoor courts. We have people coming from fifteen
different states to play in this tournament this year, so
it's encompassed in the area without you know, outside of
West Virginia and all the way to Idaho. And we
have quite a few pros coming in this year from
home over the country.

Speaker 5 (32:33):
And you always are really good.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
And Sarah, I know you've done this in the past
about about offering these clinics where you I mean, it's.

Speaker 5 (32:40):
Not in John and I talked about it.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
I think when you were on the phone with us
last year, we said, this is the equivalent to saying,
I want to be a golfer and I'm taking lessons
a few years ago from Tiger Woods. You know, I'm
gonna I'm gonna learn. I'm gonna learn basketball, and I'm
gonna learn it from Michael Jordan. I'm gonna learn from
Lebron or somebody like that.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
We call Susannah the Michael Jordan's Michelow.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
That's a that's a pretty big title. Susannah. You good
with them?

Speaker 12 (33:07):
Oh, I mean it's kind of become an ongoing joke.

Speaker 17 (33:10):
And part of the joke is is it the MJ
So is it Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson.

Speaker 12 (33:14):
We don't really have But no, it's super fun.

Speaker 17 (33:18):
Last year, you guys made me a huge banner and
it's hanging in my garage. I have to see it
every day when I drive in at the Michael Jordan
or the MJ of Peockleball.

Speaker 5 (33:27):
I put it up the day we moved in.

Speaker 17 (33:29):
But no, I mean, yeah, you know, we love coaching,
and so we're excited to be able to come back
here and share some of our knowledge with the players
and just help grow everybody as players, and we try
to make it a lot of fun as well. And
then we'll be around to you know, the players that
take our clinic, we'll be there watching their matches all
week and two, putting a little pressure on them.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
But Dave Island showing five any Live is broad to
you in part by your hometown baseball team, the Charleston
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out their social media. So when you are instructing these people,
what are some of the things either one of you,
because I know you do this well, what are some

(34:09):
of the things that how does that work? I mean,
do you just one on one? Do you do it
in groups? Combination of both?

Speaker 18 (34:15):
So it's kind of a combination of both. Depends on
what the area we're going to, because we do this
all over the country, so it depends on the area
what they're looking for. Mostly we do groups, and we'll
do clinics where we'll have eight to sixteen people and
we bounce back and forth from court to court. Sometimes
we'll do what we call three and me's or play
with a pro where I'll play or Susannah will play
and they'll have three other amateurs and we'll play points

(34:38):
with them. And a lot of times they'll have us
come in and do some private lessons where you want
a one on one lesson. So it all kind of
depends on the area, what the people are looking for,
what they want. But we've been doing this for so
long it's a lot of it's rinse and repeat, But
when we come back to places multiple times, it's got
to keep changing it up. So we're doing a clinic
from one to three today and then three to from

(35:01):
five to seven in the evening for you know, the
working class people that have to work and can't get
off in the middle.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
Of the day, people that aren't retired exactly. Not mentioning
any name.

Speaker 18 (35:09):
Not mentioning any names in the studio, but yeah, so
we're doing that in the evening. One is a tournament
prep clinic where a lot of the players are coming
with their partner and so we'll get them into you know,
what it takes to play in a tournament, kind of
that mindset aspect of it as well.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Talk about the tournament mindset a little bit, and when
when you folks are entering tournaments and things of that nature,
because obviously this is a fun sport. It's just like golf.
I mean, you know it's a it's a fun sport,
but it's also ultra competitive. You said that earlier about
how you laugh and joke until it's tournament time and
then it's serious biz.

Speaker 12 (35:41):
Right, Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 17 (35:44):
I mean, you know, the Nitro Tournament, the Metro Tournament
has a great prize pool. It is twenty thousand dollars
this year. I mean that's quite a bit of money.
So we're all you know, that's.

Speaker 5 (35:54):
Why you get people coming from all these different states.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
How many states you say, John, fifteen different states, fifteen
different stats are coming in for this, but go ahead.

Speaker 17 (35:59):
Yeah, so we have our eyes on the prize.

Speaker 12 (36:02):
But you know, we definitely prep ahead of time.

Speaker 17 (36:05):
I mean, the pros that are coming in have been
scouring the list to see which players are coming.

Speaker 12 (36:09):
So we have our own notes. We're studying their.

Speaker 17 (36:11):
Games, having some game plans about what we're going to
be doing against our competitors, how we want to play.

Speaker 12 (36:18):
It was nice that we got out yesterday.

Speaker 17 (36:20):
Got here a little early and we're able to hit
because in fact, the conditions are different everywhere you go.
The way the ball bounces is different depending on where
you go. The humidity affects the game as well, So
kind of having a little bit of time to make
some of those adjustments that we need to make to
our game. Yeah, I mean we take it seriously. It
is for the pros it is there. For most of them,

(36:41):
it's their career and so they want to come out
and play their absolute best. But on top of that,
all the amateurs are out there. It's their chance to
shine as well, and so you know, just for them,
they're going to be having those mental talks with their partners.
How do we you know, communicate with each other, how
are we successful on the court, how we support each other,

(37:01):
and so all of that goes into play, just like
any sport.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Also, I do want to throw this out there. Per
friend of the Show Joe Stevens from the City of Nitro,
there is a ribbon cutting at the city's new indoor
pickleball complex as part of the Nitro Athletic Complex that's
set for tomorrow at eleven thirty at the Athletic Complex
sixteen fifty Park Avenue in Nitro, So I told Joe
I would definitely get that on there.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
In the season, and the tournament will start right after
that at noon with the singles division.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Before we let you get what's your all impressions of
West Virginia.

Speaker 18 (37:33):
Oh my gosh, Like last year, we didn't know what
to expect coming here. As soon as we land. We
were talking on the way here. When you land at
the airport in Charleston, you look like you're coming in
and going to land on top of the trees. And
last year we were coming in, We're like, is there
a runway or are we just gonna land on the
top of the trees, And then all of a sudden,
the runway comes out of nowhere. And so this year
we anticipated it. We were watching it, but you know

(37:55):
last year and then coming in this year, as soon
as we get here, it's almost like a breath of
fresh air. Everyone here, from John and and and Matt
and everyone who runs the tournament, and how they host
us and how they've kind of reached out to us
and taken care of us is above and beyond what
we can expect. And it was, you know, last year

(38:16):
we came here and we're like, Okay, you know we're
gonna go this year and we'll see before we left,
we went to lunch when you guys dropped us off
at the airport last year, and we looked and we're like,
just tell us what the date is next year, we'll
be here. But it's just it's just so nice. It's
refreshing and pickleball to have an event that does have
a good prize pool, but it also gets that old
school pickleball feeling where it's a community.

Speaker 4 (38:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
And uh and we're kind of welcoming sorts here in
West Virginia. We we like to we like to have company,
as as my grandma would say.

Speaker 6 (38:46):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
And hopefully while you're here, you'll get to visit tutors
and you'll get to you get you some uh, get
your Pepperoni role while you're here as well. Make make
sure because I know you guys train, but you know
you gotta have there's got to be room for Mary
b every now.

Speaker 5 (38:58):
They've got to have those cheap days. Yeah, exactly, John,
go ahead.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
I just want to thank them for coming. They've been great.
They're great people. Not they're great pickleball players, but beyond that,
they're great people. I want to thank the City of Nitro.
I want to thank the Metro nine one one employees
who save lives every day. All of our sponsors and
especially Ohio Valley Bank and three or four at Valley
Point are big sponsors. But we want to thank them all.
We appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Yeah, without sponsors, nothing happens, nothing happened, nothing happens. And again,
this is a great event for Metro nine.

Speaker 5 (39:28):
One one as well. We don't want to we don't
want to leave that part out.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
John, Yes, thank you. Yeah, our employees are great employer and.

Speaker 5 (39:34):
Give us the timeline again.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
What starts the opening tomorrow is with the city is
eleven thirty. Tournament starts at noon and then Saturday and
Sunday we have tournament doubles eight to four Saturday and Sunday,
maybe even in the six or seven o'clock. So come
out and play, like I said, or come out and watch.
It's free. It's it's a wonderful time. It's the most
social event you'll ever see.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
Be honest with you, all right, guys, welcome to Wes,
Welcome back to West Virginia, and John always pleasure to
have you and keep doing great things out there.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
Man. We love it.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Good to see you.

Speaker 5 (40:05):
All right, We'll take a.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
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Speaker 5 (42:25):
Welcome back to the show.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
A little bit, it's away from Tim and Dave Islands
Show and five any Live is brought to you a
part by Live Healthy West Virginia presented by WVU Medicine,
tackling pressing health issues of all types. Jack Avalatest episodes
We Metronews dot com. The podcast menu start your journey
towards better health Today. Got a texting battle going on
between two textures here, I'm the and I'm the guy
in the middle. It says, no, I'm not a Christian,

(42:47):
just a guy that earned and paid for me and mine.
Just wish everyone else would. Tech said, remind him they
need to get a spring Hill pastry hot dog while
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Speaker 5 (43:08):
So you a pickleball player player, you know what.

Speaker 20 (43:10):
I bought a paddle and I have a pickleball shirt,
and somebody bought me pickleball socks.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
But I have not officially played pickleball yet.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
So you're that guy that on the golf course goes
out and gets the best clubs and gets the best
shoes and everything, but but just hangs out in the
in the clubhouse.

Speaker 20 (43:27):
Listen, I hit my drive like seventy five yards on
the ground, and it's always the club's fault.

Speaker 5 (43:33):
It's never my fault.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
We TJ.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Meadows is coming up a talk on he's their resident
golfer up here, so we'll bring Meadows. Meadows has been
trying to get me to go out and play.

Speaker 5 (43:41):
Golf with him. We could do that.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
Let's let's all go and our boss here, the new
boss here, Jared, is also a very avid golfer and
we got plenty of golf.

Speaker 20 (43:51):
Listen, Sean Meyer, if you're in the fair way when
I'm playing your safe. If you're in the woods. You're
in trouble if you're because I will hit you in
the world and then you.

Speaker 5 (43:59):
Have to insult and attorney and those are hard to find,
all right. So I'm going to talk about.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
The Judicial Annex. Yeah, we haven't talked about that in
a while. So what you got for you know what
it was? You remember, Gosh, we've talked about this a
few times. Kind of turned in the saga of the
Judicial Annex at this point. But it was one of
those projects that was very concerning for the County Commission
because we didn't really know exactly where the bids were
going to come in. You know, we were dealing with

(44:28):
a lot of what I've been calling the post COVID
construction money that was just flowing in everywhere. So a
lot of the contractors were able to come in and
just kind of name their own price on Unfortunately, when
the bids came in initially back in October twenty twenty four,
we were two point eight million dollars over budget, and
we tried and tried to work it out with the contractors,
simply couldn't and so we made the tough decision to

(44:50):
basically break the project up and rebid it, and we're
actually we actually reduced the price by five point five
million dollars, so we saved five point five million dollars
tax payer money by breaking the project project up and
rebidding it. So we're officially two point eight million dollars
under budget now by doing that.

Speaker 5 (45:09):
Which is not something you hear very often in the
world of government.

Speaker 20 (45:12):
Man, Well, when the bits came in yesterday and we
had five, so we broke it up into floor, so
the fifth floor came in around two million dollars, and
then we broke it up broke out the first floor remodel,
which is much more complex that Prey Construction, who actually
is also doing the Shawnee Sports Complex project right now,

(45:32):
doing a great job. That came in at eight point
one eight million, one hundred and forty six nine to
fifty three, which they were the lowest bidders. And so
we had five bidders yesterday for the first floor remodel
and it ranged from around eight million to twelve million,
and Prey was the lowest bidder. And so if you
add that to the fifth floor, that comes in around
a little over ten million dollars and it was sixteen,

(45:55):
so we save five point five million dollars by redoing that.
It was it was a gamble, but it paid off
nine to fifty three of a day.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
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So take us back through the process. Why do we
need a judicial annex to begin with?

Speaker 20 (46:14):
Well, we needed a remodel of the current annexts because
the legislature added additional matterstrates and judges, and we also
have wanted upgrade security. So the fifth floor, which is
where the additional circuit judge is going to go, was
not a very complicated remodel. We just went in and basically,
and I'm not saying it was just paint and you know,

(46:35):
some flooring, because it was more complex than that, but
it was we didn't have to build onto anything but
the first floor when you're adding three additional magistrates and
staff and courtrooms, and that was a bit more complex.
And so that's where the trouble has been as far
as the financial issues, because when when the bid first

(46:56):
came back it was it was nearly sixteen million dollars.
Because they love everything in together. We didn't get a
breakdown of the bids. We didn't have that many people
bidding on the projects because there was so much again
post COVID money was out there and the construction companies
could just pick their projects. And now that's kind of
drying up and things are a lot more competitive, and

(47:18):
so that was what we hoped we would see. That's
kind of what we had seen kind of the trend
over the last six to eight months. And so when
I met with Commissioner Wheeler and I think at that
time Commissioner Slotnik, who was sitting in temporarily, we made
the tough decision to rebid it. Now it could have
come back more, and that was a gamble we were

(47:39):
going to have to take, and if that happened, we
were going to have to come up with planed C
and which was not going to be a very good
option potentially, you know, splitting up the annex into two
different parts of town. But Plan B worked out and
we're happy to report that we say five and a
half million dollars to taxpayer money.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
But Dave Alan showing five eighty Live is broad parted
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com for details. We've had a text here totally unrelated
to this. I'm want to read this to you and said,
I asked this yesterday, but think it should be opposed

(48:18):
to a county commissioner. A lot of these activities and
we were talking about, you know, the different activities going
on to the Charleston area.

Speaker 5 (48:24):
The activities are.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
Nice, but a lot of us like other things like
amusement marks and beach boardwalk parties old Myrtle beach style.
Why not bring back the Kenaw County Fair. Possibly hold
it at the Shawnee Sports Complex or some of the
empty lots at South Ridge. Kind of a beach boardwalk
block party on the boulevard or Capitol Street during regatta
with things like shag or twist contests, boardwalk game shacks, oldies, music,

(48:47):
et cetera.

Speaker 5 (48:48):
By the way, I'm a gen xer, but the stuff
was so much fun, you know what.

Speaker 20 (48:53):
First of all, we'd looked at bringing back the county
Fair and doing at Shawnee. But I do remember those
old little beach parties. This was what fifteen plus years ago,
but I think it was a charitable organization that did it,
but I don't remember which one. And they were a
lot of fun. They had bands and you know, the
live music and a lot of different things going on.

(49:13):
I mean, I like the idea. It's something that I
know that the commission Wheelers looked at as well. So yeah,
it's not outside the realm of possibility. I think it's
probably probably would be a good idea. And now to
hold it up the same time as Regatta would be
a logistical nightmare.

Speaker 5 (49:28):
Yeah, we're already bursted at the seams here.

Speaker 20 (49:31):
Yeah, we would probably need to do it on a
weekend when nothing else's schedule.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Let's talk about some things going on out at Shawnee.
I mean we've got I got an email this morning
about a I think there's a ribbon cutting, grid opening
something going on.

Speaker 5 (49:45):
What do you got out there? Yeah? So today we're
is it today? Yeah?

Speaker 20 (49:48):
It's today we're cutting the ribbon at Shawnee on the
new playground. And that was that's something that's been in
the works for a long time. And you know, those
are incredibly expensive, and we appreciate rodnel loftice he donated
his time, went out there and tore down the old
playground and the County Commission and I forget exactly how
much the project costs, but it's it's going to be

(50:10):
nice and so it's in the front part of the park.
And I know we've had a pretty significant effort over
the years trying to upgrade all of our playgrounds. I mean,
some of them were simply not safe. You couldn't play
on them, and so we were doing that with the
Shawnee Sports Complex. That's going to happen today, so if
you want to come out and check it out, bring
the kids. I think that's at two PM, so we'll

(50:31):
be able to to unveil that today. Then in August,
we're cutting the ribbon on the new Shawnee Sports Complex
Entrance Center, which is about a five million dollar project.
Thanks to our US senator's former Senator Mansion Senator Capito
and also current Senator former Governor Jim Justice, who helped

(50:55):
us get a million dollars. But they help with the
tune of about three million dollars and so we wouldn't
have been able to build that new building without their help.

Speaker 5 (51:02):
And we're very apprecive. Chech says it was the Big Brothers,
Big sisters, Martle beach back. That's exactly right, that's right.
How many that's been a long time ago, but it
was a blast.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
And I do know I'll give a shout out to
the CAMC Foundation folks. I know that they have a
like a lu al type of event usually every year at
the Clay Center or something like that. So Robbie Queen
and his folks, so yeah, I always do a great
job with that. Before we let you go, any updates
on the Capitol Sports Center, you can give.

Speaker 20 (51:26):
Us, you know, not right now, we're waiting. I know
we've each put in some earmark requests the city and
the county.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
You know, hopefully that will go through.

Speaker 20 (51:36):
I think if if that's in there and Congress passes
a budget, then we're back on track.

Speaker 4 (51:42):
You know.

Speaker 20 (51:42):
That was that's a big project for the city, for
the county, for the entire state, and we've got the
right people in place. Hopefully we'll be able to make
it happen. And if not, then we'll have to try
to scale it back some. But you know, it's just
one of those things where it was an unusual turn
of events. Believe, when you get an Earmark award, it

(52:02):
goes through. This is one of the rare instances where
it didn't. And not just ours, it was all over
the country, so it's not like, you know, they focused
on us.

Speaker 5 (52:10):
But uh, we're we're hopeful it will. It will happen,
all right.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
We got to leave it there, Ben, I appreciate you
being here. Thanks, thanks a lot. Do you want to
remind you that the state softball tournament continuing.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
Out at Little Creek Park.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Audio available at wvmetronews dot com. We Go Wilson Medal's
coming up with talk Line at ten o six. Coming
up on this show tomorrow another loaded up the show.
We'll talk with the ag give a watter from the
Humane Association on the show. Loading Scott from V one
hundred is on the show tomorrow. Talk about a big
car show going on in Winfield and more. That's on
tomorrow's show. We'll see you then. Until then, have fun
and love somebody.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Hsam Mainty six point five, then Charleston one oh four
point five, Cross Langues WVRC Media Station. We're proud to
live here too.