August 22, 2025 • 35 mins
Erin Clemmens from Literacy Volunteers of Monongalia and Preston Counties on their upcoming classes.
Morgantown Mayor Danielle Trumble on downtown construction, volunteer clean up efforts, and the MMMPO suvey
Director of the Miracle Kids Network Taylor Griffith on the WVRC Media Cares for Kids Radiothon for WVU Medicine Children's Hospital.
Morgantown Mayor Danielle Trumble on downtown construction, volunteer clean up efforts, and the MMMPO suvey
Director of the Miracle Kids Network Taylor Griffith on the WVRC Media Cares for Kids Radiothon for WVU Medicine Children's Hospital.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Down to Clarksborough. If it's happening, we're talking about it.
Call the show toll free at one eight hundred seven
sixty five eight two fivey five. Now Here is your
host for the Talk of the Town, Mike noting.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, good Friday morning. It is nine oh six some
clouds seventy one degrees in the University City metro Newsaki
Weather says today we'll burn these clouds off with some
sunshine and a high temperature of eighty three degrees today.
Welcome to a Friday edition of Talk of the Town
and also welcome to the doorstep of the weekend. One
(00:40):
did a great job getting to the end of what
turned out to be quite a busy week. And don't
forget that today is day two of the WVRC Media
Cares for Kids radiothon with WVU Medicine Children's Hospital. You
can get involved by calling eight seven seven seven nine
(01:01):
five four three seven now that translates into eight seven
seven seven one nine kids. Now. If you would prefer
to text, you can text WVU Kids to three four
nine eight four. Let's take a look at a couple
of headlines and then we'll get the low down on
the program. Today, oh the governor is preparing a four
(01:24):
point plan to modify pei. A Metro News statewide correspondent
Brad mcilhanney has that full piece at wvmetronews dot com,
but he says there are talks about taking up a
proposal during a special session coming up next month. They
have a variety of parts, four parts to be exact,
(01:45):
and you can take it. Look at all four of
those at wvmetronews dot com. A sentencing is set for
this morning in Taylor County Circuit Court for Kelly Moore
of arthur Dale. She's accused of using insulin to murder
her mother in twenty twenty three. More killed her mother,
Ethel Moore, by giving her insulin that she did not need.
(02:08):
We'll have an update later on in the day on
that case. A Marion County driver has now been charged
with hit and run after hitting a school bus. This
comes after speaking with Mont County Sheriff Todd Forbes about
some of the things that have been going on here
in mont County. At least one person cided for passing
(02:29):
a school bus illegally on Beach churcht Avenue. In this case,
in Marion County, authorities say the driver the pickup kept
going after the after the collision that happened Thursday afternoon
near Whitehall. The bus is security cameras. They produced information
that helped police track down the driver. That's one thing
(02:50):
I know that that was new I think about four
or five years ago, and we've talked about it every year.
We've even had the folks from the school in and
talk about it. Remember, I think it was three years
ago that they put state troopers on the buses with
the bus drivers. They would ride the roots and with
the cameras and they made a few stops that way too.
(03:13):
Those security cameras are they can catch everything happening around
the bus. Think of it that way. Stop arms, the back,
the front, the sides. So you're not going to get
away with a violation like that. And keep in mind
it does come with an immediate suspension of driver's license
thirty days on the first offense. As a matter of fact,
(03:36):
no students were on the bus at the time. I'm
sorry there were students on the bus at the time,
but there were no injuries. The alleged leader of the
Pagans motorcycle gang chapter it's on trial in connection with
the twenty twenty two murder of Henry Silver. That's thirty
seven year old Ryan Lane. He is in Marion County
(03:58):
Circuit Court this week now. He is accused of it
being part of the group, a member of six members
of that gang that tracks Silver down that day and
shot him. The ACLU of West Virginia is filing a lawsuit.
They're attempting to prevent members of the West Virginia National
(04:19):
Guard from participating in the President's public safety campaign in Washington,
d C. They claim Governor Morrissey is overstepping his authority.
Coming up on the program today, we're going to be
speaking with Aaron Clemens. Aaron Clemens is with the Literacy
Volunteers of Montagelly and Preston Counties and they've got some
(04:41):
classes coming up that start next week on Monday, I
believe as a matter of fact. But we'll get that
clarified with Aaron, and also maybe some ways that you
could either participate if you'd like to, or if you
have some time and you would like to volunteer that
time to help others literacy issues. We'll talk with Aaron
(05:02):
about that. At nine thirty Morgantown Mayor Danielle Trumpell will
join us, and I'm going to get an update on
the Walnut Street construction project. The last time that we
talked to think that the contractor was supposed to return
to that area. We've got a laundry list of topics
that we'll speak about the mayor this morning. That is
(05:24):
at nine thirty. Right now, it is nine eleven, some
clouds seventy one degrees and just a traffic note I
seventy nine southbound at mile marker one. Forty one vehicle
fire has been reported there and there is quite a
backup that is developing there in the oh Smith Town area.
(05:47):
I guess just in northern Marion County southern Mond County,
So be sure and watch that area. Vehicle fire mile
marker one for one I seventy nine southbound. We'll be
back to get the program have started right after this
on Am fourteen forty f M one oh four point
five w AJR.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now back to the talk of the town.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Well good Friday morning. Clouds seventy one degrees now West
Virginia five to one. One's now reporting at least one
lane I seventy nine southbound closed in the area of
mile marker one. Forty one. That's Marion County and the
backup is now extending into southern Mond County, So if
you're in that area, you might want to avoid that
(06:43):
area possibly try to find another route to get to
where you're going. On the phone, we've got Aaron Clemens.
Aaron Clemens is with the Literacy Volunteers of Montagilia and
Preston Counties. Aaron, welcome to the program. How are you
today doing?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Fantastic min Thank you so much for having me this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Absolutely, it's a pleasure to have you on board.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Eron.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I guess let's start right here. Tell us about Literacy
Volunteers of Mind and Preston Counties and how long you've
been around what you guys do in those kind of things.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Absolutely, so we're actually approaching I think we're actually almost
upon forty years now. We've been here for a good
long while, and we started out just kind of like
a volunteer led and run program, and our primary focus
is working on adults who want to develop their basic skills.
So what we're known for is kind of our one
on one tutoring and that's in basic literacy. So working
(07:38):
with adults who are struggling with functional literacy challenges or
maybe are working on their GDS or kind of want
to improve their job or employment skills or digital literacy skills.
And we also work with English as a second language learners,
so we do citizenship classes, computer classes, and I will
say computer classes has become a bigger thing in recent years.
So we actually have a collaboration with WVU now with
(08:02):
a program called Country Roads where you work with individuals
with physical and mental processing challenges and we will help
them kind of integrate into workplace, into society and the
ways they would like to do. So we've been around
for a long time. We do a whole lot of work.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Aaron Clemens is with a shoes with the Literary Literacy
Volunteers of Montagilli and Preston Counties. I was looking at
your website. It says you have classes for everyone from
infants all the way to senior citizens. So I guess
when you get down into the infant and preschooler and
student range, is that maybe kind of a boost to
get people up and ready to read and learn that
(08:40):
way early?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Absolutely, so that program in particular it was called Baby
book Bag Club and now it's called Family book Bag
Club because it's on something that's called like a parent's
Teachers model. So it's that how we do it as
we work with the parents and we give them kind
of like you know, training and literacy skills and literacy
supports that they can do at home with their own children,
and we do it from our mobile library. That's another
one of our programs. And through that one we do
(09:05):
is we do playdates. We do book deg distributions, like
they're free. Everything is totally free in our programs, and
the parents can come to a playdate where we teach them,
like you know, how to focus on certain skills, like
you know, give them the materials and resources. The book
bags come with like at least one high quality teacher
and chosen board book as well as like additional extension
activities and materials, so kind of fun things to do
(09:27):
with your kids and your family. And that program starts
at like, you know zero, so like you know, do
borns all the way up? So you're like, you know,
we're looking at third grade scaling up that far, and yeah,
they kind of cover a big range there, right Yeah,
well no.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
No, no, you do. But I guess I was just
wondering that. You know, I guess that maybe reading comprehension
comes as a young person when you're comprehending what you
just saw as a picture, and you know, very true. Yeah,
you duplicate that mind exercise, only it's reading and not
looking at a picture.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Oh that's so much true. And you know, they actually say,
and this is so funny to me, but like the
greatest factor in determining how old kid's going to do
in school later on in life is their mother's reading level,
how often she reads to them when they're little. So
that's part of why we have that program with six
families and the kids, because it's like, you know, as
many books as we can get into as many little
hands as possible. You know, that's a great investment for
(10:23):
our kids in West Virginia as a whole.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yes, I could couldn't agree more. Now, Aaron, you're starting
some classes coming up on Monday, and I was looking
at the course catalog, if you will, and English one
oh one is one of the classes that you offer.
But I guess why English one oh one is that
in demand because I can tell you I write for
(10:46):
a living and I can tell you that and I'm
sure that all the listeners that read my stuff will
tell you that, you know, Mike could use a little work.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know, I could use a little work myself, and
suns right, you couldn't Yes English on one. It's actually
one of our most popular classes because you know, like
everybody could use a little health, a little distance. And
then sometimes even for like you know, people who are
confident have gone through the school system, maybe they've not
spent so much time practicing like professional English, and now
some situation their life is kind of requiring that level
(11:19):
of skills, so it might be like you know, a
new job, or maybe navigating stuff for their kids, or
even like you know, bank documents, financial paperwork, things like
that when they're getting closer to retirements. So that's kind
of what that's geared towards. Is like those kind of
beginning English classes you see on like campuses everywhere, So
it teaches those skills, and it also like you know,
it works with our ESL learners as well, like they're
coming in and maybe trying to like you know, find
(11:40):
a place of New West Virginians and our communities and
integrate that way too, and that's helping them, like you know,
figure out what the system looks like here and how
to do everything correctly.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
You know, another thing that I'm picking up on all
this is that when you do give people these skills,
you're also giving them some level of independence as well.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Absolutely, I'm so glad you mentioned that. That's you know,
honestly in West Virginia, Like this is the example I
always give. Is what we see a lot with like
the functional literacy struggle with West Virginia tends to be
people who are very like self sufficient, you know, That's
who we are, that's our identity. But as they get
a little older or like you know, like other life
considerations creep in, like you know, they could use a
little support to maintain that sufficiency. And that's exactly the
(12:21):
system we use. We don't lecture, we don't have teachers
coming in, and it's not like a traditional classroom style.
All of our classes are online their drop in, drop
out or as you want to like you can come
to as many classes as you want, whenever you want.
It's all based on what our learners want and the
goal of the tutors. Because we also have one on
one individual tutoring too, is kind of just to support
the learners. So the learners tell us what they want
(12:42):
to study, what they want to do, what their goals are,
and we create individual lesson plans form because you know,
again independence and self sufficiency. We want us to were
that up and sustain it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And now the website is LVMPC dot org. That is
the Literacy Volunteers of Mind and GILT in Preston County.
So I'm going to ask this question, even though I
think the title of your organization kind of spells it out,
but I don't have to take out a student loan
to learn with you, do.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I absolutely not. We're one hundred percent free. We're a
community based on profit and all of our classes are
volunteer led, so there's no cost to join. We never
make you pay for materials anything like that, and absolutely free.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And I might add that here in the course materials
it tells it says that all the classes like English
one oh one is taught by a professional English teacher certified.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Absolutely. Yes, we're so lucky being in Morgantown kind of
based there, and also like you have spread throughout Mode
and Preston that's kind of our main demographics. But we're
so lucky to have so many high quality like educations volunteers,
We've got like retired teachers, We've got WV professors, We've
got students that are still learning and are trying to
become teachers. And so every bit of our program is overseen.
(14:00):
I qualified a certified K through twelve instructor adult ed instructor.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Okay, Now, one of the things I did want you
to address directly is what is the English Conversation table
that now that happens Fridays at eleven am. It sounds
sounds interesting, but I'm not sure I understand what it is.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Absolutely, So this is actually one of our most award
winning programs. We've won multiple awards for and what is
It's just a way for people to practice English conversations.
It was originally design for people from other countries. But
I'll be honest, like I started that program actually myself
many years ago, almost two decades ago now, And it
started out with the ESL students just in the Morgantown
area like coming in and trying to like, you know,
(14:43):
practice conversational English speaking skills. But at the same time,
we have a bunch of basic literacy students like Native
West Virginians who want to meet people from other places.
A lot of those students tend to be kind of
older and a little like, you know, with the diminished
social circles, so we integrated those two populations. So what
it is we have a bunch of native West Virginians
talking about the places they love and the things they
love about West Virginia and introducing that with new friends
(15:05):
from other countries and everybody's you know, benefiting from that experience.
You have these West Virginias who have this wealth of
knowledge and information that they can absolutely share with new people,
new West Virginias to bring that into the folds, and
they're feeling like experts themselves, sometimes maybe even for the
first time in their lives, having somebody look at them
as a teacher, and so it builds their own confidence
and their own like independence and their self sufficiency at
(15:28):
the same time that they're bringing in new friends into
the fold.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
So well, we've got Aaron Clemens with the literacy Volunteers
of monta, Gilly and Preston Counties, and you know, as
we have this conversation, have got so many things rolling
around in the gray matter, but one of the things
that just came to the top was you mentioned that
your classes are all online, and maybe not all, but
this particular battery of classes are all online. Did the
(15:54):
pandemic help you maybe perfect that.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
You know, it actually is what caused that our classes
were primarily in person. We did have like one or
two that were offered like distance learning kind of like online,
but during the pandemic, we couldn't meet in person anymore.
Just wasn't safe. And then we found out, as you
might imagine from like you know program working with adults,
like a lot of our learners have a lot of
things going on in their lives. They've got jobs, they've
got work, they've got heavy schedules, they've got kids, they've
(16:19):
got responsibilities, so it's not always easy for them just
to kind of drop into a classroom and like make
that space and like you know, go to a central
location to do that. So we've actually found that the
distance learning actually increases enrollment and it really helped the
health to our learners. So we're going to keep with
that for a while. But we also know some people
prefer to learn the old fashioned way, face to face,
and so we offer that option through our one on
(16:40):
one tutoring, which could also be distance if that works better.
I think probably the best takeaway that I would share
with that is that all of our programs are very
customized aage learner. So no matter how busy you are,
what you've got going on in life, like, we'll work
with you. You don't have to you know the cost anything,
you have to pay for it, but we'll find a
way for you to learn what you want to learn.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Now, Aaron, of course this is all through support from
the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. It wanted to give you
an opportunity to talk about that as well.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Absolutely, so, we're all entirely grant funded. We've got a
lot of granturs like Interarra Foundation, United Way of Modern
Preston Counties. Dollar General really really supports and health community
literacy programs. It's one of their priorities. And not only that,
but like we also like, without Dollar General, it'll be
hard for us to buy the resources for programs like
our family Literacy program, our Baby book Bag Club, our
(17:28):
library and all. So they haven't been a continual funder
over the years for us and have given us so
much support in offering these programs.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah, so thankful now, Aaron. On the way out, I
would like for you to address maybe your need for
volunteers and what kind of people you're looking for that
can continue to help you with your mission.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Well, thank you so much for asking for that, Mike,
I appreciate that. As you can imagine, we've got scores
of volunteers because we have, like we have about two
hundred bus learners at any any given time, like you know,
going through all our programs and doing all of our
classes or all of our event based activities and such,
and that's not even counting like you know, the families
and the friends that we visit through the mobile library.
(18:09):
So we have a huge need for volunteers regularly, and
we provide all the training, all the resources of all
the support. Like we would never expect you just to
come in on the groundsmore and try to figure it
out yourself. We'll give you every bit of what you
need and we'll help you like lesson plan with your
learner and do like you know, anything, And we have
every kind of volunteer opportunity imaginable, like for the family,
our family literacy programs at the Books Bag Club, Like
(18:31):
we just need people periodically just a couple of times
a year, you know, on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon
or something like that for a couple of hours to
help us do the events we all the way up through,
like you know, the one on one tutoring, And that's
a perfect volunteer opportunity. You need community service where it's like,
you know, you're maybe like a retired teacher or somebody
who's interested in literacy or learning. You want to share
that with somebody else. So if this is like, if
(18:52):
any of these like possibilities appeal to you, we have
a place for you in our organization. We would love
for you to join us.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Okay, Eron Now, that website is LVMPC dot org. Again,
that is LVMPC dot org. Man, that was painless, wasn't it, Erin?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
It absolutely was. Hey, you're wonderful to talk to you.
Thank you so much for being so well educated and
caring so much about literacy.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Absolutely, Erin, I do appreciate that compliment. I appreciate you
being with us today, and I hope you have a
great day.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I actually I am camping in West Virginia in the
mountains and it is a beautiful day. Okay, you have
a lovely day too.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Absolutely, thank you, Erin. Take care of yourself. Pleasure, pleasure
to speak with you. Coming up next, we'll speak with
Morgantown Mayor Danielle Trumpell. Lot's going on in the city.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
We are talking about your town. Now back to the
talk of the town.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Well, good Friday morning. I'm Mike Nolting. This is talk
at the town and West Virginia five one one shows
that it looks like now I seventy nine southbound Exit
one for one. At least one lane is closed there
and that backup is deepening into southern Mond County. The
site of the fire is actually in Marion County mile
(20:21):
marker one for one, so definitely avoid that area if
you can. In studio, we've got Morgantown Mayor, Danielle Trumbell Mayor.
Good morning, How are you?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Good morning, I'm doing well. All of the traffic must
be on I seventy nine. I made it here in
record time from Mond Health This morning. I was over
at the United Way Community Breakfast. Got here early.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Hey, tell us about that breakfast. How was it?
Speaker 4 (20:45):
It was? Really that's one of my favorite events that
the United Way does. I've been invited for a few
years now. It's the Community Leader's breakfast that kind of
kicks off their fundraising campaign for the year. The CEO
of Clear Mountain Bank is going to be acting as
the chair of their campaign this year, and one of
the keynote speakers this morning was Mark Kellogg, the WU
(21:09):
women's basketball coach. So it was a fun event. I
love that one. And mon Health also always graciously hosts
that for them, so nice, nice event.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Sounds like a very nice event. Danielle. Let's start here
because I know there are a lot of people that
have questions about downtown construction. You know, it's that time
of year when the population grows and we should be
able to start buttoning up some streets, and it sounds
like we're going to be able to do that.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
I hope that's the case. When I was here last week,
I said, they say they're going to be back to
work on Walnut Street next week, but I'm not going
to hold my bret. They're back to work on Walnut Street.
Blue and Gold is on site. They were there early
this week starting back. They are full speed ahead. I
heard this morning from one of their partners.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Well good, and I'm sure that in that construction mindset,
those guys know that you know what, they've got two
or three months, snow's going to start flying.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
The clock is ticking for all of these construction projects,
for sure. The same group, Blue and Gold Development, is
doing a lot of the work over there in Westover,
and I was told this morning that they are intending
to start paving Holland Avenue next week. So that'll alleviate
a lot of congestion throughout town and throughout Westover too,
(22:28):
So we're we're moving in the right direction. Finally, it's
been a tough summer.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
You know what, I appreciate you sharing that. I mean,
that is not the City of Morgantown, but anybody who
has either traveled a detour or Holland Avenue can tell
you they're the ones. No better than the other.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
No, And when that gets backed up, when that's under construction,
it pushes a lot of traffic into downtown. So we're
happy to see that project moving forward.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Hey you know another area over there behind the Iron Horse,
that parking lot.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah, the parking Authority has been renovating that parking lot
for most of the summer. I think it closed down
in mid June. It was my understanding that substantial completion
was supposed to be done this week, but as with
most projects and this torrential rain season that we've had,
I think it got delayed a little bit. But it's
my understanding that the intention is to get that paved
(23:23):
next week, so it should be open pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Okay, good, Now, let's see there are some public engagement issues,
specifically some surveys.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Yeah, I wanted to bring up earlier this week. I
don't remember which day. Now you know how it goes.
I attended a public input session with the MMMPO. They
are in the process of updating their Metropolitan Transportation Plan,
which kind of helps define what our area's priorities are
(23:55):
for road working construction, and we work with the DOH
to kind of get that on their tiered list. So
there are a couple of input sessions that will happen
throughout the fall, but right now, on their website plantogether
dot org, there is a survey that you can fill
out online. So I encourage everyone to go and take
(24:16):
a look at that plan and give your input there.
It's they are very interested in public feedback.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Okay, good deal. Now I know that there are some
maybe some community clean up projects coming up, and you know,
a couple of months ago, there might have been some
people that when the weather was in the load to
mid nineties and high humidity, they were probably kind of like,
you know, well thanks, but no thanks, I'll pass. But
(24:42):
the weather's really getting better and it's certainly a lot
better for maybe more people to volunteer.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Yeah, we've certainly been doing our projects all summer, but
like you said, it's hard to convince a volunteer to
come out when it's ninety five degrees in high humidity.
But on September fourteenth, the city is going to be
hosting a cleanup of downtown. Stay tuned to the city's
social media for some more details on that. It's the
day after the pit game. We find that, you know,
(25:11):
there's usually a little extra trash aft or some of
those big games. But this weekend, specifically, the volunteer group
that I helped to organize, we're doing another project under
the South high Bridge. We're going to finish cleaning up
the trash. You know, where the old Boe building was.
It's a cliff and it's just been a cliff of
trash for years. Earlier this summer we started this project
(25:34):
and we had some people repelling under the bridge and
kind of tossing the trash to the bottom. So now
everyone's vacations are over, we planned this weekend we're going
to go and collect the rest of that trash and
paint the pillar that's on that side of the creek.
So Saturday morning we'll be doing the trash cleaning and priming.
Sunday morning we will be doing the painting of that pillar.
(25:55):
So nine am each day, just meet under the South
high Bridge along the Days Creek trail there. We'd love
to have anyone.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
So you've got the new mural on the other side,
and then you clean that up, paint that pier, you know,
kind of maybe setting the standard for the future in
that area.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Absolutely. That's that area we've been focused on as a
volunteer group for the last year or so. You know.
We built the mushroom trail that I was talking about
for so long back in June and July, and we
started this bridge painting in the trash cleanups. We think
this is probably the last weekend for this area, and
then we have some big ideas for making a lot
(26:35):
of the same improvements around the area of the Stanley
Spot Dog Park just a little closer to the Saberton
end of the Deckers Creek trail. So after this weekend
we hope to move some of our efforts over there
and work on some more trail building and some brush
clearing and some painting there.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Okay, now let's talk PODA because you know our population
is now double what it was. We're in the fall
football season, You've got the holidays coming. Are there any
PODA events coming up?
Speaker 5 (27:08):
So?
Speaker 4 (27:08):
PODA happens every day of the week, Monday through Friday.
It's four pm to ten pm, and on the weekends
it starts earlier for the brunch crowd. But we have
eight or ten businesses that are licensed downtown to sell
to go drinks, and we have a variety of businesses
(27:30):
that will allow you to bring a drink into their establishment.
You know, you can go and visit River Fair Trade,
you can visit hoot and how, you can visit the
Morgantown History Museum will allow you to bring a drink in.
Even the aptometrist at the top of High Street says,
you know when we were when we were marketing the program,
he said, well, when I'm done with work, I'm gonna
(27:51):
go grab a drink and wander around. It would be
hypocritical of me if I didn't let someone wander in.
So if you want to, if you're looking for a
pair of glasses and you've got a drink in your hand,
you're good to go. But we're excited. The city is
about to start doing another push on that. There was
we started out slow, and we started out slow intentionally
last year in May, we wanted to make sure there
(28:13):
were no issues, try to address things as they came up.
Now that we're a year in, MPD says no major
issues the Ambassador's report, no major trash or anything like that.
So the city is about to do another push with
some of the downtown businesses to kind of market that
program and make sure everyone's aware of it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
That is very good to hear. Now Main Street they're
going to be hosting an opportunity tour.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Yeah, next Wednesday, the twenty seventh, I believe, four pm.
They are going to meet right outside of Permanty Brothers
area on the top of High Street and they're doing
a They're gonna walk around look at some of the
vacant storefronts that are available. They did this a year
(29:02):
or two ago and people came and said, you know,
I'm looking for a space that would be conducive for
a restaurant of this size, or if I'm looking to
open a doughnut shop, or and they walk around and
kind of take a look at spaces, go in tour
some of the buildings. We had really great feedback when
the Economic Vitality Committee of Main Street did this before,
(29:25):
so we planned another one again Wednesday, the twenty seventh,
four pm. It's going to end at the Amphitheater of
the Morgantown Area Partnership and Main Street Morgantown are hosting
a joint business after hours Slash Merchant mixer from five
point thirty to seven at the Amphitheater, so you can
(29:46):
go tour some of the downtown properties and then go
and have some snacks and drinks. A network at that event.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Very nice. Wednesday it was the Battle of the Badge's
Blood Drive between the Police and five No, I'm not
going to ask you who you dedicated your donation to.
I'll leave that up to you, but I think that
listeners would like to know who won.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
So they had I believe a total of forty nine
people donate and they got sixty units of blood so
it was a very successful event with thirty of the
forty nine donors, the IAFF local three one three the firefighters.
One that I will say, I put my drop on
(30:33):
the the FOP. I put mine on the MPD side,
and you know, I caught a little bit of flak
from some of the firefighter One of them took a
picture of me putting mine on the on the police
department side and posted it around a lot of firefighters.
I got a couple of cranky texts, but happy to
support that that program. They've done that in the past.
(30:55):
It's always successful. And they asked me to make sure.
I gave a shout out to the new city manager
who also came and participated and donated blood for them
that day. So it was a great events.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
That's great to hear. And now I will add the
firefighters they're back to back.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Now, that's true. They won last year. I think the MPD,
the Fraternal Order of Police, is going to have to
step it up next year. Okay, all right, start planning now.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Hey, Danielle, appreciate you coming in today.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Absolutely thanks for having me. I look forward to it
every week now, Mike.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
You bet, you bet. Clouds seventy one degrees. When we
come back, you know, the WVRC Media Cares for Kids
radiothon for WVU Medicine Children's that's going on at this hour,
And when we come back, we're going to go up
to the tenth floor of the hospital and the Hosteler
Family Resource Center and I believe going to spend a
(31:51):
minute or two with Taylor Griffith. She's the director of
the Children's Miracle Network. That's coming up next on Talk
of the Town AM fourteen forty f M. One oh
four point five w A Jr.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Join the conversation at one eight hundred seven six five
eight two FIY five. This is the Talk of the Town.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Good Friday morning. At this minute, the WVRC Media Cares
for Kids radiothon with a WVU Medicine Children's is going
on right now now. The numbers that you need are
eight seven seven seven one nine five four three seven
now that's eight seven seven seven one nine kids. Or
if you would prefer to text, you can text WVU
(32:47):
Kids to three four nine eight four. Last year, this
effort raised just a little more than a one hundred
ninety one thousand dollars in this year, we've got thirty
radio stations broadcasting from Morgantown to Elkins, Martinsburg, Beckley, Fairmont, Kaiser,
and Charleston. We're going to top that total this year.
(33:08):
On the phone, we've got the director of the Children's
Miracle Network, Tiffany or Taylor Griffith. Hey Taylor, good morning, ma'am.
How are you?
Speaker 5 (33:17):
Good morning. We're full of energy up here and ready
to raise some money for the last day of the
radios on.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Okay, well, now tell us let's see wv YOU Medicine
Children's You and I spoke on Miracle Blizzard Day, Miracle
treat Day. I think it was on July thirty first. Certainly,
this is a very worthy cause and you never know
when you or someone that you know needs the services
of WVU Medicine Children's.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Yes, sir, we're up here fund raising right now for
the w Medicine Children's Radios on. And it's really important
to be broadcasting live on the tenth floor because it's
still open for patients and families to come up here
and visit. And right now during this hour, we're money
for gas cards and patients and families that are over
fifty miles away can come up here and get a
twenty five dollars gas card. So it's really important that
(34:07):
we're raising those funds during this hour to be able
to provide those for our patients.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
You know, Taylor, if you would just take a minute
and talk about some of you brought up gas cards,
but talk about some of the little things that WVU
Medicine Children's does for families that people might take for granted,
but they're very important.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Yes, So our Child Life Team, we're able to give
out clothing, gas cards, hotel days, mill vouchers for even
a breakfast here, we're able to give out eight dollars
mill vouchers for the families to get up breakfast, lunch,
or dinner. Phone charges. That's something that when you get
a call that you have to get to the hospital
really quickly, sometimes you don't think to get those things.
(34:48):
So we're able to use the radios on funds to
purchase things like that or just something to make sure
the child is having a relaxing common environment in the hospital.
Yesterday morning, we were able to purchase four brand new
iPads for Child Likes to use throughout the hospital, which
is so exciting because using an iPad in here for
a child just takes their mind away and lets them
be a kid, and it's really hard time. This morning
(35:10):
we were able to purchase some xboxes, so we're just
really trying to make sure that the kids have a calm,
relaxing atmosphere while they're here, but also just get to
be a kid because in these moments they don't really
have a say in what's happening, but being able to
play on that iPad or play with the slime that
we're going to purchase, this allows them to take a
moment and be a kid.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Now. You can help out by calling eight seven seven
seven one nine kids, or you can text WVU Kids
two three four nine eight four Taylor. Really do appreciate
your time and keep up the good work.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Absolutely, thank you and have a great day.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yes, ma'am, you take care
Down to Clarksborough. If it's happening, we're talking about it.
Call the show toll free at one eight hundred seven
sixty five eight two fivey five. Now Here is your
host for the Talk of the Town, Mike noting.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, good Friday morning. It is nine oh six some
clouds seventy one degrees in the University City metro Newsaki
Weather says today we'll burn these clouds off with some
sunshine and a high temperature of eighty three degrees today.
Welcome to a Friday edition of Talk of the Town
and also welcome to the doorstep of the weekend. One
(00:40):
did a great job getting to the end of what
turned out to be quite a busy week. And don't
forget that today is day two of the WVRC Media
Cares for Kids radiothon with WVU Medicine Children's Hospital. You
can get involved by calling eight seven seven seven nine
(01:01):
five four three seven now that translates into eight seven
seven seven one nine kids. Now. If you would prefer
to text, you can text WVU Kids to three four
nine eight four. Let's take a look at a couple
of headlines and then we'll get the low down on
the program. Today, oh the governor is preparing a four
(01:24):
point plan to modify pei. A Metro News statewide correspondent
Brad mcilhanney has that full piece at wvmetronews dot com,
but he says there are talks about taking up a
proposal during a special session coming up next month. They
have a variety of parts, four parts to be exact,
(01:45):
and you can take it. Look at all four of
those at wvmetronews dot com. A sentencing is set for
this morning in Taylor County Circuit Court for Kelly Moore
of arthur Dale. She's accused of using insulin to murder
her mother in twenty twenty three. More killed her mother,
Ethel Moore, by giving her insulin that she did not need.
(02:08):
We'll have an update later on in the day on
that case. A Marion County driver has now been charged
with hit and run after hitting a school bus. This
comes after speaking with Mont County Sheriff Todd Forbes about
some of the things that have been going on here
in mont County. At least one person cided for passing
(02:29):
a school bus illegally on Beach churcht Avenue. In this case,
in Marion County, authorities say the driver the pickup kept
going after the after the collision that happened Thursday afternoon
near Whitehall. The bus is security cameras. They produced information
that helped police track down the driver. That's one thing
(02:50):
I know that that was new I think about four
or five years ago, and we've talked about it every year.
We've even had the folks from the school in and
talk about it. Remember, I think it was three years
ago that they put state troopers on the buses with
the bus drivers. They would ride the roots and with
the cameras and they made a few stops that way too.
(03:13):
Those security cameras are they can catch everything happening around
the bus. Think of it that way. Stop arms, the back,
the front, the sides. So you're not going to get
away with a violation like that. And keep in mind
it does come with an immediate suspension of driver's license
thirty days on the first offense. As a matter of fact,
(03:36):
no students were on the bus at the time. I'm
sorry there were students on the bus at the time,
but there were no injuries. The alleged leader of the
Pagans motorcycle gang chapter it's on trial in connection with
the twenty twenty two murder of Henry Silver. That's thirty
seven year old Ryan Lane. He is in Marion County
(03:58):
Circuit Court this week now. He is accused of it
being part of the group, a member of six members
of that gang that tracks Silver down that day and
shot him. The ACLU of West Virginia is filing a lawsuit.
They're attempting to prevent members of the West Virginia National
(04:19):
Guard from participating in the President's public safety campaign in Washington,
d C. They claim Governor Morrissey is overstepping his authority.
Coming up on the program today, we're going to be
speaking with Aaron Clemens. Aaron Clemens is with the Literacy
Volunteers of Montagelly and Preston Counties and they've got some
(04:41):
classes coming up that start next week on Monday, I
believe as a matter of fact. But we'll get that
clarified with Aaron, and also maybe some ways that you
could either participate if you'd like to, or if you
have some time and you would like to volunteer that
time to help others literacy issues. We'll talk with Aaron
(05:02):
about that. At nine thirty Morgantown Mayor Danielle Trumpell will
join us, and I'm going to get an update on
the Walnut Street construction project. The last time that we
talked to think that the contractor was supposed to return
to that area. We've got a laundry list of topics
that we'll speak about the mayor this morning. That is
(05:24):
at nine thirty. Right now, it is nine eleven, some
clouds seventy one degrees and just a traffic note I
seventy nine southbound at mile marker one. Forty one vehicle
fire has been reported there and there is quite a
backup that is developing there in the oh Smith Town area.
(05:47):
I guess just in northern Marion County southern Mond County,
So be sure and watch that area. Vehicle fire mile
marker one for one I seventy nine southbound. We'll be
back to get the program have started right after this
on Am fourteen forty f M one oh four point
five w AJR.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now back to the talk of the town.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Well good Friday morning. Clouds seventy one degrees now West
Virginia five to one. One's now reporting at least one
lane I seventy nine southbound closed in the area of
mile marker one. Forty one. That's Marion County and the
backup is now extending into southern Mond County, So if
you're in that area, you might want to avoid that
(06:43):
area possibly try to find another route to get to
where you're going. On the phone, we've got Aaron Clemens.
Aaron Clemens is with the Literacy Volunteers of Montagilia and
Preston Counties. Aaron, welcome to the program. How are you
today doing?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Fantastic min Thank you so much for having me this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Absolutely, it's a pleasure to have you on board.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Eron.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I guess let's start right here. Tell us about Literacy
Volunteers of Mind and Preston Counties and how long you've
been around what you guys do in those kind of things.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Absolutely, so we're actually approaching I think we're actually almost
upon forty years now. We've been here for a good
long while, and we started out just kind of like
a volunteer led and run program, and our primary focus
is working on adults who want to develop their basic skills.
So what we're known for is kind of our one
on one tutoring and that's in basic literacy. So working
(07:38):
with adults who are struggling with functional literacy challenges or
maybe are working on their GDS or kind of want
to improve their job or employment skills or digital literacy skills.
And we also work with English as a second language learners,
so we do citizenship classes, computer classes, and I will
say computer classes has become a bigger thing in recent years.
So we actually have a collaboration with WVU now with
(08:02):
a program called Country Roads where you work with individuals
with physical and mental processing challenges and we will help
them kind of integrate into workplace, into society and the
ways they would like to do. So we've been around
for a long time. We do a whole lot of work.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Aaron Clemens is with a shoes with the Literary Literacy
Volunteers of Montagilli and Preston Counties. I was looking at
your website. It says you have classes for everyone from
infants all the way to senior citizens. So I guess
when you get down into the infant and preschooler and
student range, is that maybe kind of a boost to
get people up and ready to read and learn that
(08:40):
way early?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Absolutely, so that program in particular it was called Baby
book Bag Club and now it's called Family book Bag
Club because it's on something that's called like a parent's
Teachers model. So it's that how we do it as
we work with the parents and we give them kind
of like you know, training and literacy skills and literacy
supports that they can do at home with their own children,
and we do it from our mobile library. That's another
one of our programs. And through that one we do
(09:05):
is we do playdates. We do book deg distributions, like
they're free. Everything is totally free in our programs, and
the parents can come to a playdate where we teach them,
like you know, how to focus on certain skills, like
you know, give them the materials and resources. The book
bags come with like at least one high quality teacher
and chosen board book as well as like additional extension
activities and materials, so kind of fun things to do
(09:27):
with your kids and your family. And that program starts
at like, you know zero, so like you know, do
borns all the way up? So you're like, you know,
we're looking at third grade scaling up that far, and yeah,
they kind of cover a big range there, right Yeah,
well no.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
No, no, you do. But I guess I was just
wondering that. You know, I guess that maybe reading comprehension
comes as a young person when you're comprehending what you
just saw as a picture, and you know, very true. Yeah,
you duplicate that mind exercise, only it's reading and not
looking at a picture.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Oh that's so much true. And you know, they actually say,
and this is so funny to me, but like the
greatest factor in determining how old kid's going to do
in school later on in life is their mother's reading level,
how often she reads to them when they're little. So
that's part of why we have that program with six
families and the kids, because it's like, you know, as
many books as we can get into as many little
hands as possible. You know, that's a great investment for
(10:23):
our kids in West Virginia as a whole.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yes, I could couldn't agree more. Now, Aaron, you're starting
some classes coming up on Monday, and I was looking
at the course catalog, if you will, and English one
oh one is one of the classes that you offer.
But I guess why English one oh one is that
in demand because I can tell you I write for
(10:46):
a living and I can tell you that and I'm
sure that all the listeners that read my stuff will
tell you that, you know, Mike could use a little work.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know, I could use a little work myself, and
suns right, you couldn't Yes English on one. It's actually
one of our most popular classes because you know, like
everybody could use a little health, a little distance. And
then sometimes even for like you know, people who are
confident have gone through the school system, maybe they've not
spent so much time practicing like professional English, and now
some situation their life is kind of requiring that level
(11:19):
of skills, so it might be like you know, a
new job, or maybe navigating stuff for their kids, or
even like you know, bank documents, financial paperwork, things like
that when they're getting closer to retirements. So that's kind
of what that's geared towards. Is like those kind of
beginning English classes you see on like campuses everywhere, So
it teaches those skills, and it also like you know,
it works with our ESL learners as well, like they're
coming in and maybe trying to like you know, find
(11:40):
a place of New West Virginians and our communities and
integrate that way too, and that's helping them, like you know,
figure out what the system looks like here and how
to do everything correctly.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
You know, another thing that I'm picking up on all
this is that when you do give people these skills,
you're also giving them some level of independence as well.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Absolutely, I'm so glad you mentioned that. That's you know,
honestly in West Virginia, Like this is the example I
always give. Is what we see a lot with like
the functional literacy struggle with West Virginia tends to be
people who are very like self sufficient, you know, That's
who we are, that's our identity. But as they get
a little older or like you know, like other life
considerations creep in, like you know, they could use a
little support to maintain that sufficiency. And that's exactly the
(12:21):
system we use. We don't lecture, we don't have teachers
coming in, and it's not like a traditional classroom style.
All of our classes are online their drop in, drop
out or as you want to like you can come
to as many classes as you want, whenever you want.
It's all based on what our learners want and the
goal of the tutors. Because we also have one on
one individual tutoring too, is kind of just to support
the learners. So the learners tell us what they want
(12:42):
to study, what they want to do, what their goals are,
and we create individual lesson plans form because you know,
again independence and self sufficiency. We want us to were
that up and sustain it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And now the website is LVMPC dot org. That is
the Literacy Volunteers of Mind and GILT in Preston County.
So I'm going to ask this question, even though I
think the title of your organization kind of spells it out,
but I don't have to take out a student loan
to learn with you, do.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I absolutely not. We're one hundred percent free. We're a
community based on profit and all of our classes are
volunteer led, so there's no cost to join. We never
make you pay for materials anything like that, and absolutely free.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And I might add that here in the course materials
it tells it says that all the classes like English
one oh one is taught by a professional English teacher certified.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Absolutely. Yes, we're so lucky being in Morgantown kind of
based there, and also like you have spread throughout Mode
and Preston that's kind of our main demographics. But we're
so lucky to have so many high quality like educations volunteers,
We've got like retired teachers, We've got WV professors, We've
got students that are still learning and are trying to
become teachers. And so every bit of our program is overseen.
(14:00):
I qualified a certified K through twelve instructor adult ed instructor.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Okay, Now, one of the things I did want you
to address directly is what is the English Conversation table
that now that happens Fridays at eleven am. It sounds
sounds interesting, but I'm not sure I understand what it is.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Absolutely, So this is actually one of our most award
winning programs. We've won multiple awards for and what is
It's just a way for people to practice English conversations.
It was originally design for people from other countries. But
I'll be honest, like I started that program actually myself
many years ago, almost two decades ago now, And it
started out with the ESL students just in the Morgantown
area like coming in and trying to like, you know,
(14:43):
practice conversational English speaking skills. But at the same time,
we have a bunch of basic literacy students like Native
West Virginians who want to meet people from other places.
A lot of those students tend to be kind of
older and a little like, you know, with the diminished
social circles, so we integrated those two populations. So what
it is we have a bunch of native West Virginians
talking about the places they love and the things they
love about West Virginia and introducing that with new friends
(15:05):
from other countries and everybody's you know, benefiting from that experience.
You have these West Virginias who have this wealth of
knowledge and information that they can absolutely share with new people,
new West Virginias to bring that into the folds, and
they're feeling like experts themselves, sometimes maybe even for the
first time in their lives, having somebody look at them
as a teacher, and so it builds their own confidence
and their own like independence and their self sufficiency at
(15:28):
the same time that they're bringing in new friends into
the fold.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
So well, we've got Aaron Clemens with the literacy Volunteers
of monta, Gilly and Preston Counties, and you know, as
we have this conversation, have got so many things rolling
around in the gray matter, but one of the things
that just came to the top was you mentioned that
your classes are all online, and maybe not all, but
this particular battery of classes are all online. Did the
(15:54):
pandemic help you maybe perfect that.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
You know, it actually is what caused that our classes
were primarily in person. We did have like one or
two that were offered like distance learning kind of like online,
but during the pandemic, we couldn't meet in person anymore.
Just wasn't safe. And then we found out, as you
might imagine from like you know program working with adults,
like a lot of our learners have a lot of
things going on in their lives. They've got jobs, they've
got work, they've got heavy schedules, they've got kids, they've
(16:19):
got responsibilities, so it's not always easy for them just
to kind of drop into a classroom and like make
that space and like you know, go to a central
location to do that. So we've actually found that the
distance learning actually increases enrollment and it really helped the
health to our learners. So we're going to keep with
that for a while. But we also know some people
prefer to learn the old fashioned way, face to face,
and so we offer that option through our one on
(16:40):
one tutoring, which could also be distance if that works better.
I think probably the best takeaway that I would share
with that is that all of our programs are very
customized aage learner. So no matter how busy you are,
what you've got going on in life, like, we'll work
with you. You don't have to you know the cost anything,
you have to pay for it, but we'll find a
way for you to learn what you want to learn.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Now, Aaron, of course this is all through support from
the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. It wanted to give you
an opportunity to talk about that as well.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Absolutely, so, we're all entirely grant funded. We've got a
lot of granturs like Interarra Foundation, United Way of Modern
Preston Counties. Dollar General really really supports and health community
literacy programs. It's one of their priorities. And not only that,
but like we also like, without Dollar General, it'll be
hard for us to buy the resources for programs like
our family Literacy program, our Baby book Bag Club, our
(17:28):
library and all. So they haven't been a continual funder
over the years for us and have given us so
much support in offering these programs.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah, so thankful now, Aaron. On the way out, I
would like for you to address maybe your need for
volunteers and what kind of people you're looking for that
can continue to help you with your mission.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Well, thank you so much for asking for that, Mike,
I appreciate that. As you can imagine, we've got scores
of volunteers because we have, like we have about two
hundred bus learners at any any given time, like you know,
going through all our programs and doing all of our
classes or all of our event based activities and such,
and that's not even counting like you know, the families
and the friends that we visit through the mobile library.
(18:09):
So we have a huge need for volunteers regularly, and
we provide all the training, all the resources of all
the support. Like we would never expect you just to
come in on the groundsmore and try to figure it
out yourself. We'll give you every bit of what you
need and we'll help you like lesson plan with your
learner and do like you know, anything, And we have
every kind of volunteer opportunity imaginable, like for the family,
our family literacy programs at the Books Bag Club, Like
(18:31):
we just need people periodically just a couple of times
a year, you know, on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon
or something like that for a couple of hours to
help us do the events we all the way up through,
like you know, the one on one tutoring, And that's
a perfect volunteer opportunity. You need community service where it's like,
you know, you're maybe like a retired teacher or somebody
who's interested in literacy or learning. You want to share
that with somebody else. So if this is like, if
(18:52):
any of these like possibilities appeal to you, we have
a place for you in our organization. We would love
for you to join us.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Okay, Eron Now, that website is LVMPC dot org. Again,
that is LVMPC dot org. Man, that was painless, wasn't it, Erin?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
It absolutely was. Hey, you're wonderful to talk to you.
Thank you so much for being so well educated and
caring so much about literacy.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Absolutely, Erin, I do appreciate that compliment. I appreciate you
being with us today, and I hope you have a
great day.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I actually I am camping in West Virginia in the
mountains and it is a beautiful day. Okay, you have
a lovely day too.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Absolutely, thank you, Erin. Take care of yourself. Pleasure, pleasure
to speak with you. Coming up next, we'll speak with
Morgantown Mayor Danielle Trumpell. Lot's going on in the city.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
We are talking about your town. Now back to the
talk of the town.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Well, good Friday morning. I'm Mike Nolting. This is talk
at the town and West Virginia five one one shows
that it looks like now I seventy nine southbound Exit
one for one. At least one lane is closed there
and that backup is deepening into southern Mond County. The
site of the fire is actually in Marion County mile
(20:21):
marker one for one, so definitely avoid that area if
you can. In studio, we've got Morgantown Mayor, Danielle Trumbell Mayor.
Good morning, How are you?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Good morning, I'm doing well. All of the traffic must
be on I seventy nine. I made it here in
record time from Mond Health This morning. I was over
at the United Way Community Breakfast. Got here early.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Hey, tell us about that breakfast. How was it?
Speaker 4 (20:45):
It was? Really that's one of my favorite events that
the United Way does. I've been invited for a few
years now. It's the Community Leader's breakfast that kind of
kicks off their fundraising campaign for the year. The CEO
of Clear Mountain Bank is going to be acting as
the chair of their campaign this year, and one of
the keynote speakers this morning was Mark Kellogg, the WU
(21:09):
women's basketball coach. So it was a fun event. I
love that one. And mon Health also always graciously hosts
that for them, so nice, nice event.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Sounds like a very nice event. Danielle. Let's start here
because I know there are a lot of people that
have questions about downtown construction. You know, it's that time
of year when the population grows and we should be
able to start buttoning up some streets, and it sounds
like we're going to be able to do that.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
I hope that's the case. When I was here last week,
I said, they say they're going to be back to
work on Walnut Street next week, but I'm not going
to hold my bret. They're back to work on Walnut Street.
Blue and Gold is on site. They were there early
this week starting back. They are full speed ahead. I
heard this morning from one of their partners.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Well good, and I'm sure that in that construction mindset,
those guys know that you know what, they've got two
or three months, snow's going to start flying.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
The clock is ticking for all of these construction projects,
for sure. The same group, Blue and Gold Development, is
doing a lot of the work over there in Westover,
and I was told this morning that they are intending
to start paving Holland Avenue next week. So that'll alleviate
a lot of congestion throughout town and throughout Westover too,
(22:28):
So we're we're moving in the right direction. Finally, it's
been a tough summer.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
You know what, I appreciate you sharing that. I mean,
that is not the City of Morgantown, but anybody who
has either traveled a detour or Holland Avenue can tell
you they're the ones. No better than the other.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
No, And when that gets backed up, when that's under construction,
it pushes a lot of traffic into downtown. So we're
happy to see that project moving forward.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Hey you know another area over there behind the Iron Horse,
that parking lot.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah, the parking Authority has been renovating that parking lot
for most of the summer. I think it closed down
in mid June. It was my understanding that substantial completion
was supposed to be done this week, but as with
most projects and this torrential rain season that we've had,
I think it got delayed a little bit. But it's
my understanding that the intention is to get that paved
(23:23):
next week, so it should be open pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Okay, good, Now, let's see there are some public engagement issues,
specifically some surveys.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Yeah, I wanted to bring up earlier this week. I
don't remember which day. Now you know how it goes.
I attended a public input session with the MMMPO. They
are in the process of updating their Metropolitan Transportation Plan,
which kind of helps define what our area's priorities are
(23:55):
for road working construction, and we work with the DOH
to kind of get that on their tiered list. So
there are a couple of input sessions that will happen
throughout the fall, but right now, on their website plantogether
dot org, there is a survey that you can fill
out online. So I encourage everyone to go and take
(24:16):
a look at that plan and give your input there.
It's they are very interested in public feedback.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Okay, good deal. Now I know that there are some
maybe some community clean up projects coming up, and you know,
a couple of months ago, there might have been some
people that when the weather was in the load to
mid nineties and high humidity, they were probably kind of like,
you know, well thanks, but no thanks, I'll pass. But
(24:42):
the weather's really getting better and it's certainly a lot
better for maybe more people to volunteer.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Yeah, we've certainly been doing our projects all summer, but
like you said, it's hard to convince a volunteer to
come out when it's ninety five degrees in high humidity.
But on September fourteenth, the city is going to be
hosting a cleanup of downtown. Stay tuned to the city's
social media for some more details on that. It's the
day after the pit game. We find that, you know,
(25:11):
there's usually a little extra trash aft or some of
those big games. But this weekend, specifically, the volunteer group
that I helped to organize, we're doing another project under
the South high Bridge. We're going to finish cleaning up
the trash. You know, where the old Boe building was.
It's a cliff and it's just been a cliff of
trash for years. Earlier this summer we started this project
(25:34):
and we had some people repelling under the bridge and
kind of tossing the trash to the bottom. So now
everyone's vacations are over, we planned this weekend we're going
to go and collect the rest of that trash and
paint the pillar that's on that side of the creek.
So Saturday morning we'll be doing the trash cleaning and priming.
Sunday morning we will be doing the painting of that pillar.
(25:55):
So nine am each day, just meet under the South
high Bridge along the Days Creek trail there. We'd love
to have anyone.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
So you've got the new mural on the other side,
and then you clean that up, paint that pier, you know,
kind of maybe setting the standard for the future in
that area.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Absolutely. That's that area we've been focused on as a
volunteer group for the last year or so. You know.
We built the mushroom trail that I was talking about
for so long back in June and July, and we
started this bridge painting in the trash cleanups. We think
this is probably the last weekend for this area, and
then we have some big ideas for making a lot
(26:35):
of the same improvements around the area of the Stanley
Spot Dog Park just a little closer to the Saberton
end of the Deckers Creek trail. So after this weekend
we hope to move some of our efforts over there
and work on some more trail building and some brush
clearing and some painting there.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Okay, now let's talk PODA because you know our population
is now double what it was. We're in the fall
football season, You've got the holidays coming. Are there any
PODA events coming up?
Speaker 5 (27:08):
So?
Speaker 4 (27:08):
PODA happens every day of the week, Monday through Friday.
It's four pm to ten pm, and on the weekends
it starts earlier for the brunch crowd. But we have
eight or ten businesses that are licensed downtown to sell
to go drinks, and we have a variety of businesses
(27:30):
that will allow you to bring a drink into their establishment.
You know, you can go and visit River Fair Trade,
you can visit hoot and how, you can visit the
Morgantown History Museum will allow you to bring a drink in.
Even the aptometrist at the top of High Street says,
you know when we were when we were marketing the program,
he said, well, when I'm done with work, I'm gonna
(27:51):
go grab a drink and wander around. It would be
hypocritical of me if I didn't let someone wander in.
So if you want to, if you're looking for a
pair of glasses and you've got a drink in your hand,
you're good to go. But we're excited. The city is
about to start doing another push on that. There was
we started out slow, and we started out slow intentionally
last year in May, we wanted to make sure there
(28:13):
were no issues, try to address things as they came up.
Now that we're a year in, MPD says no major
issues the Ambassador's report, no major trash or anything like that.
So the city is about to do another push with
some of the downtown businesses to kind of market that
program and make sure everyone's aware of it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
That is very good to hear. Now Main Street they're
going to be hosting an opportunity tour.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Yeah, next Wednesday, the twenty seventh, I believe, four pm.
They are going to meet right outside of Permanty Brothers
area on the top of High Street and they're doing
a They're gonna walk around look at some of the
vacant storefronts that are available. They did this a year
(29:02):
or two ago and people came and said, you know,
I'm looking for a space that would be conducive for
a restaurant of this size, or if I'm looking to
open a doughnut shop, or and they walk around and
kind of take a look at spaces, go in tour
some of the buildings. We had really great feedback when
the Economic Vitality Committee of Main Street did this before,
(29:25):
so we planned another one again Wednesday, the twenty seventh,
four pm. It's going to end at the Amphitheater of
the Morgantown Area Partnership and Main Street Morgantown are hosting
a joint business after hours Slash Merchant mixer from five
point thirty to seven at the Amphitheater, so you can
(29:46):
go tour some of the downtown properties and then go
and have some snacks and drinks. A network at that event.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Very nice. Wednesday it was the Battle of the Badge's
Blood Drive between the Police and five No, I'm not
going to ask you who you dedicated your donation to.
I'll leave that up to you, but I think that
listeners would like to know who won.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
So they had I believe a total of forty nine
people donate and they got sixty units of blood so
it was a very successful event with thirty of the
forty nine donors, the IAFF local three one three the firefighters.
One that I will say, I put my drop on
(30:33):
the the FOP. I put mine on the MPD side,
and you know, I caught a little bit of flak
from some of the firefighter One of them took a
picture of me putting mine on the on the police
department side and posted it around a lot of firefighters.
I got a couple of cranky texts, but happy to
support that that program. They've done that in the past.
(30:55):
It's always successful. And they asked me to make sure.
I gave a shout out to the new city manager
who also came and participated and donated blood for them
that day. So it was a great events.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
That's great to hear. And now I will add the
firefighters they're back to back.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Now, that's true. They won last year. I think the MPD,
the Fraternal Order of Police, is going to have to
step it up next year. Okay, all right, start planning now.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Hey, Danielle, appreciate you coming in today.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Absolutely thanks for having me. I look forward to it
every week now, Mike.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
You bet, you bet. Clouds seventy one degrees. When we
come back, you know, the WVRC Media Cares for Kids
radiothon for WVU Medicine Children's that's going on at this hour,
And when we come back, we're going to go up
to the tenth floor of the hospital and the Hosteler
Family Resource Center and I believe going to spend a
(31:51):
minute or two with Taylor Griffith. She's the director of
the Children's Miracle Network. That's coming up next on Talk
of the Town AM fourteen forty f M. One oh
four point five w A Jr.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Join the conversation at one eight hundred seven six five
eight two FIY five. This is the Talk of the Town.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Good Friday morning. At this minute, the WVRC Media Cares
for Kids radiothon with a WVU Medicine Children's is going
on right now now. The numbers that you need are
eight seven seven seven one nine five four three seven
now that's eight seven seven seven one nine kids. Or
if you would prefer to text, you can text WVU
(32:47):
Kids to three four nine eight four. Last year, this
effort raised just a little more than a one hundred
ninety one thousand dollars in this year, we've got thirty
radio stations broadcasting from Morgantown to Elkins, Martinsburg, Beckley, Fairmont, Kaiser,
and Charleston. We're going to top that total this year.
(33:08):
On the phone, we've got the director of the Children's
Miracle Network, Tiffany or Taylor Griffith. Hey Taylor, good morning, ma'am.
How are you?
Speaker 5 (33:17):
Good morning. We're full of energy up here and ready
to raise some money for the last day of the
radios on.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Okay, well, now tell us let's see wv YOU Medicine
Children's You and I spoke on Miracle Blizzard Day, Miracle
treat Day. I think it was on July thirty first. Certainly,
this is a very worthy cause and you never know
when you or someone that you know needs the services
of WVU Medicine Children's.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Yes, sir, we're up here fund raising right now for
the w Medicine Children's Radios on. And it's really important
to be broadcasting live on the tenth floor because it's
still open for patients and families to come up here
and visit. And right now during this hour, we're money
for gas cards and patients and families that are over
fifty miles away can come up here and get a
twenty five dollars gas card. So it's really important that
(34:07):
we're raising those funds during this hour to be able
to provide those for our patients.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
You know, Taylor, if you would just take a minute
and talk about some of you brought up gas cards,
but talk about some of the little things that WVU
Medicine Children's does for families that people might take for granted,
but they're very important.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Yes, So our Child Life Team, we're able to give
out clothing, gas cards, hotel days, mill vouchers for even
a breakfast here, we're able to give out eight dollars
mill vouchers for the families to get up breakfast, lunch,
or dinner. Phone charges. That's something that when you get
a call that you have to get to the hospital
really quickly, sometimes you don't think to get those things.
(34:48):
So we're able to use the radios on funds to
purchase things like that or just something to make sure
the child is having a relaxing common environment in the hospital.
Yesterday morning, we were able to purchase four brand new
iPads for Child Likes to use throughout the hospital, which
is so exciting because using an iPad in here for
a child just takes their mind away and lets them
be a kid, and it's really hard time. This morning
(35:10):
we were able to purchase some xboxes, so we're just
really trying to make sure that the kids have a calm,
relaxing atmosphere while they're here, but also just get to
be a kid because in these moments they don't really
have a say in what's happening, but being able to
play on that iPad or play with the slime that
we're going to purchase, this allows them to take a
moment and be a kid.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Now. You can help out by calling eight seven seven
seven one nine kids, or you can text WVU Kids
two three four nine eight four Taylor. Really do appreciate
your time and keep up the good work.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Absolutely, thank you and have a great day.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yes, ma'am, you take care
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.