December 9, 2025 • 36 mins
Monongalia County Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell on his presentation to stete lawmakers on proposed changes to state education code.
Delegate Evan Hansen, D, Monongalia, 79, on the future of base load power
Delegate Evan Hansen, D, Monongalia, 79, on the future of base load power
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is the Talk of the Town from Morgantown to Klucksburg.
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 Nolting.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good Tuesday morning.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It is nine oh six, plenty of clouds, twenty four
degrees in the University City. Good Tuesday morning, and welcome
to Talk of the Town. I'm Mike Nolting. You'll find
me out on X as your news guy. I certainly
hope to run into you there. Producing the program today,
we've got Kyle Wiggs. You'll be able to get Kyle
(00:49):
at eight hundred seven six five eight two five five.
And of course the text line it is open and
available that number three oh four talk three four.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Today on the program, we're going to be talking a
lot about what's coming out of interim legislative meetings this week.
At nine fifteen, going to spend a few minutes with
Eddie Campbell, Superintendent mon County Schools, and we're going to
talk about his testimony about maybe some proposed changes that
he would like to see in the state education Code.
(01:23):
We've heard other lawmakers talk about the volume, the very
large Code eighteen and Code eighteen A that make up
West Virginia state code that has been steadily added to
over the years and now is several inches thick and
very difficult to understand and for many isn't serving the
(01:46):
smaller to mid size districts. But we'll get Superintendent Eddie
Campbell's vision of what he would like to see changed
in the state education code. Also Charlotte Lane making an
announcement of no play to close any coal fired power
plants in the near future. Well, we're going to talk
(02:07):
with Delegate Evan Hansen here from Mont County, who took
issue with those comments from the Chair of the Public
Service Commission, Charlotte Lane, about the future of coal fired
power in the state of West Virginia. So we'll visit
with Delegate Evan Hanson coming up at nine to thirty
this morning and speaking of energy and Energy Transmission next
(02:32):
Era Energy Transmission and accelera on announced on Monday that
they have now new plans to it's not approved yet
by the PJM aboard. They're going to vote on this
proposal in early twenty twenty six. But they released an
(02:52):
information about it. Proposed two hundred and twenty miles seven
hundred and sixty five kilovolt high voltage line that would
go through portions of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Now, the
transmission line would connect to substations that supply electricity to
residents and businesses across the region. It's a big difference
(03:13):
I see in this proposal as compared to the previous
proposal of the mid Atlantic Resiliency Link. Now for West Virginia,
next Era says this would support Governor Morrissey's fifty gigawatts
by twenty fifty planned to invest in cold natural gas
and workforce development. And for Pennsylvania, it says it supports
(03:35):
their ninety two billion dollar investment in new power generation
across the commonwealth that was announced earlier this year by
President Trump, Senator David McCormick at is US Senator David McCormick,
and Governor Shapiro over in Pennsylvania. But pjm's board they
will hold their final vote on this proposal coming up
(03:58):
in early twenty twenty six. Let's hit a couple of headlines,
dive right into the program. Could be some movement in
the future to the base of the spousal surcharge for
PEI eight coverage. Looks like that spousal surcharge increases by
two hundred dollars across the board beginning on July first.
That will certainly impact that will impact those across the
(04:23):
payscale much differently, and to account for that, the Ohio
County School Board they passed a two thousand dollars healthcare
cost stipend for their workers a meeting last night. Certainly
there will be more on PEIA coming up in the
very near future. One of the plaineiffs challenging the establishment
(04:44):
of public charter schools in the state, that would be
longtime Mond County educator Sam Burnett came to Metro News
talk Line on Monday to talk about what he would
like to see. What he would like to see is
some more public involvement when it comes to the approval
of charter schools, and maybe not just one central board
(05:05):
that is disconnected from the communities that the schools would
be located in. You'd like to eliminate that step. Have
folks cast ballots for that situation. Last thing that we'll
get to, certainly the investigation into an officer involved shooting
(05:26):
continues in Montagelia County today. Just after midnight ed Dunn Road.
Suspect pulled the firearm engaged police. It looks like by
the charging documents we can just about guess that there
were four.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Sheriff's deputies there.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Suspect unidentified still at this point, charged with four counts
of attempted murder one count of wanton endangerment in that situation.
No names have been released, but we're going to stay
on it and we'll pass what we know onto you
as soon as we get it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
It's nine to twelve.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
When we come back, We've got Mind County School Superintendent
Eddie Campbell. I'm going to be talking about proposed changes
to the State Education Code eighteen and eighteen A. It's
next on Talk of the Town AM fourteen forty FM
oneh four point five WAJR.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Now back to the Talk of the Town.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Look good Tuesday morning. It is nine seventeen. Welcome back
to the program.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
On the phone.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
We've got Mind County School's superintendent Eddie Campbell.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Good morning, Eddie. Hope you're doing well.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Doing well, Mike, thanks for having me on this morning.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Absolutely well.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
First off, congratulations squad a state champs, and some cross
country honors as well.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Absolutely, we're really proud of our Morgantown High School football program.
The coach is just an excellent job all the way around,
well deserved for those young men.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Okay, good deal, now, Eddie, you recently testified before state
lawmakers about some changes that you might propose to state
education code that would be chapters eighteen and eighteen A.
Before we let you tell us what you think, I'd
just like to take you back to October when the
president of the State Chamber of Commerce, Steve Roberts, addressed
(07:30):
the lawmakers, and this is a quote from his testimony.
He said, we fooled around this for a very long
time now, and I can name governor after governor after
governor who has introduced legislation to improve our public schools
and to work on chapters eighteen and eighteen A of
the West Virginia Code. But it's not getting done. So
(07:51):
to start there, what would you like to see get done?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Well? I really think that the big message that my
colleagues and I were trying to share with the legislators
on Sunday evening was that you're really providing public schools
with some flexibility in certain areas, certain specific areas would
(08:17):
really be beneficial to that task of improving what it
is that we do for our students. And you know,
I think our approach to that was to be very
specific in the way that we laid things out. You know,
state code is extra I mean, if you've ever looked
(08:38):
at that codebook, the state of West Virginia public education
is the most regulated state in the country when it
comes to education law. And Chapter eighteen and Chapter eighteen
A our massive, massive code sections. But what we tried
to do was to drill down into specific actions of
(09:00):
code and provide specific alternative language so that legislators didn't
have to really undergo that task of picking that code apart.
And so that was really our approach on Sunday evening.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Well, I'll tell you what you did them a favor
because I did some homework in eighteen and eighteen A
total up to be about thirteen hundred pages. So I
guess providing them with a cliff notes version is a
good thing. Tell me what some of your key areas
of concern or key areas of change that you'd like
to see.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
We focused on that idea of flexibility, especially in graduation requirements.
You know, we're basically a one size fits all and
we don't give our kids a lot of opportunity to
explore passions, to explore different pathways. UH and young people
(10:02):
today need to be exposed to a multitude of subject areas.
And because of the way the graduation requirements are set
up now, our students really only get the opportunity for
four electives or four choices of a class that they
can they can experiment in, or that they can experience.
(10:24):
And this is really really applicable when we talk about
our CTE students and the requirements that they're that really
limit them because of other graduation requirements. So that that
was one thing that we talked about. The second thing
we talked about was was personnel and the giving giving
(10:46):
school systems, school boards, superintendents the ability to have some
flexibility from a personnel standpoint as far as transferring people,
transferring teachers, aids, moving people around where you need them
when you need them there. We are so legislatively driven
with the transfer process and timelines and very restrictive, and
(11:11):
those timelines and the restrictions that we have don't always
let us meet the needs of our students at the
time that we need to meet those needs. And so
that was the second area. And then the third area
was fiscal in nature and making some adjustments to the
school aid formula that would again allow us to meet
(11:36):
the current needs. That formula has not been adjusted for many,
many years, and it was the original intent of the
formula was to create a funding system that was growth oriented,
so the more students that came into your school system,
the more money you've got because you needed that money.
(12:01):
And as you know, schools in West Virginia, we're not growing,
we're losing students, and so the antiquet the formula itself
is just it's antiquated. And we offered some specific suggestions
and tweaks to the formula that would allow us to
fit more of the modern approach to financial schools.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Superintendent Eddie Campbell's with us, and Eddie, you've just echoed
the concerns of I guess uh Sean Dilly and Barber County,
Eddie Vincent and Randolph County, donnah Heston, Marion County, Brad
Martin and Preston County. What what is that tweak? How
do you make a formula that can serve a district
(12:45):
with eleven thousand students plus as opposed to smaller districts
across the state.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Well, you know a lot of people look at the
system and say the finance system, and say it's very,
very complicated. But our suggestion was very simple in nature.
And if you just tweaked the number of employees that
school systems were permitted to be funded for, if you
just tweaked that per one thousand students and added three
(13:18):
to that, you would see school systems find a lot
of relief in their staffing needs. You know, your budget
is comprised of probably somewhere between eighty five and ninety
percent of your funds go towards go towards staffing, and
those numbers have not been adjusted, and so there are
(13:38):
more needs for people in your school systems than there
were ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, but the numbers haven't
adjusted and haven't aligned with that, and so we're being
funded for less and less people. And so just a
small tweak of three per one thousand would provide significant
relief to school is all across the state.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
You know, the other thing that I think reading between
the lines, and sometimes it's not so subtle. If you
look at some comments made by Delegate Joe Statler about
the school funding formula, he'll tell you that this dive
into possible changes could lead to maybe finding out that
we're not spending enough money.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
Period. Well, I think he's right. I mean, Delegate Statler
is is a huge proponent of public education. He's obviously
one of our biggest supporters here in Montgeia County. It
was a pleasure to be in the room with him
on Sunday night, knowing that, you know, he is such
a big supporter of it. But you know, Delegate Statler
(14:46):
is a smart guy. He's been around a long time,
he's been involved with education a long time, and you
know he can he can see down through the weeds
to see what we might be getting into, and you know,
and he understands understands those things.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
You know, Eddie, I guess talking about this new system,
or maybe a system that's not based on growth in
terms how to dictate funding kind of makes me think
a little bit about the Renaissance Academy where maybe funding
is based on innovation, quality of education.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
How does that what does that look like?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Well, again to me, I mean, school has we're asked
to do more and more for the children in our community.
I often teach people, I'll say, you know, the days
of teaching a little English and a little math, those
days are over. We're still going to teach those things,
(15:49):
but we've got a whole laundry list of other things
that that we do. From we feed our kids, we
we clothe our kids. Uh, you know, we're providing mental
health and social pieces to their lives. And so school
has become much much more complicated. And when when school
systems have those requirements really to modernize, you know that
(16:16):
really it demands that we take a new look at
the way that we are funding our school systems. And
I don't think we just haven't kept up with it.
I mean, the schools have been asked to change, but
we haven't kept up with how we fund schools so
that they can meet those needs appropriately for all of
(16:38):
our students in the state.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Superintendent of Mine County Schools, Eddie Campbell's with us and Eddie,
last thing I got for you leading up to the
legislative session begins in January.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I'm sure that you'll.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Have a legislative priority meeting with lawmakers. Any plans for
superintendents to band together to address legislators in mass Joe
Statler has told me that when they've asked for input,
there really hasn't been an organized response from your side
of the aisle.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Well, it hasn't been until recently that we've been given
the opportunity. And I can tell you that that we
as superintendents, uh, we have been in front of the
state legislature on two occasions now within the last month
or so. UH, and we did promise delegates Thattler at
(17:31):
the meeting on Sunday, that we certainly want to be
a partner and will be a partner as they take
a hard look at at pre K through twelve public
education in West Virginia. We want to support them, we
want to help them, and we want to be a partner.
We want to we want to we want to seat
at the table, and that hasn't happened for many, many years.
(17:54):
And so we are thrilled as superintendents that that uh,
those education folks and the legislature have reached out to
us and have said what can we do to help
you all improve public education in West Virginia.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Superintendent Eddie Eddie campbell Mont County Schools. Eddie, congratulations once
again on the state championship.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Great work and keep up the good work. We'll talk
again soon.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Thank you, Mike. I appreciate you giving me some time
this morning.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Absolutely, you take care of yourself, Eddie, appreciate it. Let's
see clouds and twenty four in the University City. When
we come back, we're going to be speaking with Delegate
Evan Hanson from Monte Gaelia County. Delegate Hanson certainly a
long proponent of renewable energy, whether it be in the
(18:44):
form of community solar where solar arrays can be set
up and then accessed by more or less kind of
a co op system, all the way up to the
industrial arrays that we've seen First Energy and other companyanies
construct throughout the area. We're going to talk about the
future of base load energy, and we'll do that, of course,
(19:08):
with the backdrop of criss crossing transmission lines all across
Pennsylvania and West Virginia. And I'm sure that this latest
transmission line, the route of that has not yet been released,
so that's not yet a topic of discussion, but I'm
sure that as the weeks get closer and they'll probably
(19:30):
release that route as soon as the PJM board would
approve that two hundred and twenty mile transmission line seven
hundred and fifty thousand volt transmission line that was announced
just yesterday. The PJM board set to vote on that
proposal coming up at the early part of twenty twenty six.
(19:54):
We'll keep an eye on that for you.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
We are talking about your town. Now back to the
talk of the town.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Well, good Tuesday morning. It is nine thirty five. Legislative
interim meetings continue today in Charleston. On the phone, we've
got delicate Evan Hanson, representing the seventy ninth district here
in Montagelia County.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Good morning, Evan, how are you good.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Thanks for having me on the show.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Absolutely, it's a pleasure to have you on. Evan.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
You know, I'm a little frustrated because stories like these,
you know, we have to tell using sound bites. But
I think that there's certainly a lot more in between
the sound bites, and I'd like for you to take us,
maybe in depth into that conversation between you and the
PSC chair Charlotte Lane about the functional life of coal
(20:57):
firepower plants.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
This is a discussion we had in the Energy Committee yesterday,
and what the chair said is that she won't allow
the Public Service Commission to let a cold plant close
in West Virginia, even if that would result in lower
electric rates for you and me. And that was a
(21:21):
pretty remarkable thing for the PSC chair to say. Number one,
there's just a policy consideration, like do you think it's
appropriate to keep the coal plant open even if it's
going to cost West Virginians extra on their electric bills.
So there's a policy question, but there's an ethical question too,
because the commissioners act essentially as judge and jury when
(21:44):
the utility brings a case to them, and they need
to act impartially based on the facts that are presented
to them, and they need to impartially apply to law.
And by saying how you're going to rule in a
case before the facts are even presented to you, that's
an ethical issue and she's going to have to accuse
herself from many cases that are related to this.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Delegate Evan Hanson is with us, So I guess take
us in maybe a little bit more detail and explain
how closing one of these plants could save consumers money.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
Well, what the coal plants in West Virginia are very old,
and compared to the newer generation of coal plants, they're
inefficient and often they don't run because it's cheaper to
get electricity from other sources. And that's why I've been
such an advocate for all the above energy strategy. You know,
(22:41):
coal is going to continue to be a part of
our mix in West Virginia. That natural gas fired power
is a lot cheaper now, and wind and solar and
battery storage you need to play a role as well.
And that's how we're going to be able to reduce
our electric rates by going for an all the above strategy.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I'm not sure, and you know, maybe you can help
me with this, but I don't think that functional all
of the above strategy is inside a five to seven
year window, is it.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Well, we could certainly build renewables a lot faster than
we have been doing here in West Virginia. Those technologies
are available today and they could be deployed relatively quickly.
And like, here's an example of what can happen if
you aggressively pursue renewables. Appalachian Power that provides electricity to
(23:36):
half of our state, also provides electricity to Virginia a
portion of Virginia, and they made a filing just a
couple of months ago in Virginia to lower their electric
rates because of how much wind and solar they had
installed in Virginia. So that can work, and that could
work relatively quickly. It's going to take a little bit
longer for natural gas fired power plants to come online,
(23:58):
and even longer if we're going to build nuclear plants.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I think though, isn't it important to point out though
Virginia they kind of they get a lot of electricity
from other places, i e. The transmission lines we've been
talking about here of things.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Like that they do, but they've they also have had
a different approach to the generation in state, and they've
moved aggressively toward renewables and that's led to a lowering
of their electric rades.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Now, tell me about the window to make renewables effective
in terms of being able to contribute to electrical demand.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Well, their renewables work better and better and are cheaper
and cheaper, and you know, there are states that are
providing twenty thirty, forty fifty percent of their electricity through
renewables now. And I'm not saying that need to move
to that level or renewables in West Virginia in the
short term. But it does show that it's possible, and
(25:06):
it's it's one tool in our toolbox to stabilize our
electric grades.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
You know, one of the things that got brought up
during the debate about the Brandonville solar array. Are you
familiar with that particular project. Yes, Okay, they said that
that particular area of the country is really only good about,
you know, anywhere from forty to forty of the year
in terms of the ability to deliver solar power. However,
(25:37):
you know, they back that up and they say, we've
got better batteries, now, we've got better storage capacity, things
like that.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Talk about that if you can.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Yeah, solar developers know how much electricity they're going to
generate in a year, and that's based on how much
sunlight there is, and so that's that's already baked into
their calculations of whether the project's going to be profitable.
So I don't buy that argument. I mean, everybody knows
that soldar is intermittent, but it still helps the grid
(26:07):
and tends to produce electricity when electric demand is highest.
And on top of that. Battery storage technologies are improving
tremendously fast, and we should be proud of forum energy
that we have here in West Virginia that's producing batteries
that are starting to be sold to electric utilities in
(26:29):
other nearby states. These are batteries that could store electricity
for four days that they could play a big role
in the future in terms of having more renewables on
the grid.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Delegate Evan Hansen is where US represents the seventy ninth
district here in Mond County. I guess, when you take
a look at the cold plants across the state, do
you have an idea in your mind of which ones
would be targeted to be shut down?
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Well, I think a sign of which ones would most
likely shut down the scenest is how often they run,
because the percent of time that they run is an
indication of how cost effective they are. So that's what
I would do, and look at those plants that are
being run the least amount of time. You know, some
of them are being run way less than half the
(27:22):
time now, and that would be an indication that they
may be the first one slated for closure. But I
wouldn't just go ahead and close the plant. The question
is what are you going to do instead, and is
it possible to repower that site maybe with a natural
gas generator or with renewables to create some jobs to
replace those that are lost by closing a coal plant.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
So I think we can both agree here that we're
talking about a phased in operation where you know, maybe
you would construct that gas fired power generation facility alongside
the coal fire facility and then phase that coal fire
facility out once the gas fired is online.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Is that Do I have that right?
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I think that type of solution would work really well
for West Virginia to consider be a way to preserve
jobs while making our electric generation more efficient and mowing
our electric rates.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Evan Hanson, Delegate from the seventy ninth district. Evan, anything
else on your mind this morning from legislative interims, It's
just this, okay, all right, well, Evan, really do appreciate
your time this morning. Thank you very much. All right,
thank you absolutely you take care. Delegate Evan Hanson representing
(28:40):
the seventy ninth District. We'll be back on Talk of
the Town after this on AM fourteen forty FM one
four point five w AJR.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Join the conversation at one eight hundred seven sixty five
eight two fivey five. This is the talk of the town.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
A good Tuesday morning. It is nine forty seven. The
text line three oh four Talk three oh four, and
certainly the more than thirteen hundred page state Code that
dictates education in the state of West Virginia will likely
get a good hard look. Chapters eighteen and eighteen A. Now,
(29:33):
part of that code, of course, addresses the fiscal operation
of schools that Superintendent Eddie Campbell addressed, and you know,
we addressed that with Delegate Joe Statler, and Joe Statler
told us that he has been looking at school funding
formulas from across the country. I think the three states
(29:53):
that he brought up were Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And I think that he.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Was relatively partial to the Tennessee formula that is used
there in the volunteer state. And one of the things
that he mentioned, as well as the president of the
State Chamber of Commerce, Steve Roberts, did, is that they
suspect that once they dive into this, they're going to
determine that they have not been spending enough money for
(30:24):
public education here in the state of West Virginia in
many areas. Now that doesn't mean a blanket statement of
we just need more money to make things better. No,
not at all, because I think we can all agree
that the state of public education is certainly it is
changing right before our eyes as we see the demand
(30:46):
for trades skyrockets, and of course, not only is the
demand for the trades skyrocketing, but also those wages are
also increasing at a very high rate as well. Now,
along with this debate about Chapters eighteen eighteen A school
(31:07):
funding formula and how the state treats public schools, well,
there's a debate out here happening about the Hope Scholarship,
and about homeschooling, and about increased accountability for those families
and about I guess the readout of why those families
are leaving public education. Well, coming up next on Metro
(31:30):
News talk Line, they'll be addressing part of that. They'll
have State Treasurer Larry pack On and he'll be providing
a Hope Scholarship report. I think that the superintendents that
I've been talking to Heston, Martin, Dilley, Vincent, now Campbell,
(31:51):
I think they would all tell you that, you know,
the Hope Scholarship. Homeschooling are not necessarily bad things, but
maybe they're things that need to be looked at and
need to be evaluated, and we need to refocus on
public education. And I think I sense that they're especially
(32:12):
upset when we start to talk about money state money
going to Pennsylvania or.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Ohio as part of the Hope Scholarship.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
But Larry Packill have the Hope Scholarship Report coming up
next on Metro News talk Line now coming up on Thursday.
The Morgantown Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board that will
be meeting at noon. They meet in the conference room
at the Morgantown Public Safety Building. They're in the three
(32:44):
hundred block of Spruce Street, and of course they're Statistics.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And Reporting committee.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
They'll be providing an update on their interaction with the
police in order to be getting some more information about
to their statistics and things. And then also the get
a report on the update of the commit from the
Community Outreach Committee. They have been working and planning on
(33:14):
a survey in order to get that out to the
residents to I guess inventory, provide a critique an initial
critique of a baseline if you will of what the
police department how they're doing in the eyes of the community.
That survey has not yet gone out. I think they've
(33:35):
had a couple of focus groups and they've met with
some people. I think that the big policy review among
the Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board is the body
cam policies with law enforcement agencies across the region, and
that also is on the agenda. They'll also be talking
(33:58):
and providing an up date on their efforts to make
the citizens complaint process more accessible. If you remember, I
think a couple of months ago, there was a talk
as to why there wasn't maybe a button on the
front of the website or maybe a more forward facing
effort to get that information from the public. So they'll
(34:22):
be meeting at noon on Thursday at the Public Safety Building,
and of course all those meetings are open to the public.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Now.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Coming up tomorrow night, it'll be another parade day in
the city of Morgantown.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Just a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
This is a Christmas parade and the Mountaineer Area Council
of Scouting America is behind this particular parade. They're going
to be lining up at five pm at the top
of High Street near Willie and Spruce Street.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
You can look.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
They're going to have a trailer up there and on
the side of it it's going to say scout me
in if you would. If you're participating in the parade,
you'll want to look for that. The parade will step
off at six pm. You can get more information about
the parade at scouting event dot com, and of course
(35:17):
if you just go to the Mountain Mountaineer Area Council
of Scouting America, they'll have some information there. But we're
working on getting a guest to talk about that event
coming up tomorrow on the program. Is certainly, you know,
looking at the weather, it looks like we're going to
(35:37):
dodge the bulk of this snowfall. But if you look
at the weather for Wednesday night, looks like it's going
to be a perfect night for a Christmas parade. It
looks like a mixed precipitation, but there could be some
snow in a low temperature of just about twenty five degrees.
So certainly the weather for a Christmas parade tomorrow certainly
(36:01):
looks just about ideal. Now today it's not too bad either.
Certainly got a cold start. I don't think it's got
quite as cold as what Metro News acu weather had forecast. However,
mostly cloudy today and hid thirty eight degrees
This is the Talk of the Town from Morgantown to Klucksburg.
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 Nolting.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good Tuesday morning.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It is nine oh six, plenty of clouds, twenty four
degrees in the University City. Good Tuesday morning, and welcome
to Talk of the Town. I'm Mike Nolting. You'll find
me out on X as your news guy. I certainly
hope to run into you there. Producing the program today,
we've got Kyle Wiggs. You'll be able to get Kyle
(00:49):
at eight hundred seven six five eight two five five.
And of course the text line it is open and
available that number three oh four talk three four.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Today on the program, we're going to be talking a
lot about what's coming out of interim legislative meetings this week.
At nine fifteen, going to spend a few minutes with
Eddie Campbell, Superintendent mon County Schools, and we're going to
talk about his testimony about maybe some proposed changes that
he would like to see in the state education Code.
(01:23):
We've heard other lawmakers talk about the volume, the very
large Code eighteen and Code eighteen A that make up
West Virginia state code that has been steadily added to
over the years and now is several inches thick and
very difficult to understand and for many isn't serving the
(01:46):
smaller to mid size districts. But we'll get Superintendent Eddie
Campbell's vision of what he would like to see changed
in the state education code. Also Charlotte Lane making an
announcement of no play to close any coal fired power
plants in the near future. Well, we're going to talk
(02:07):
with Delegate Evan Hansen here from Mont County, who took
issue with those comments from the Chair of the Public
Service Commission, Charlotte Lane, about the future of coal fired
power in the state of West Virginia. So we'll visit
with Delegate Evan Hanson coming up at nine to thirty
this morning and speaking of energy and Energy Transmission next
(02:32):
Era Energy Transmission and accelera on announced on Monday that
they have now new plans to it's not approved yet
by the PJM aboard. They're going to vote on this
proposal in early twenty twenty six. But they released an
(02:52):
information about it. Proposed two hundred and twenty miles seven
hundred and sixty five kilovolt high voltage line that would
go through portions of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Now, the
transmission line would connect to substations that supply electricity to
residents and businesses across the region. It's a big difference
(03:13):
I see in this proposal as compared to the previous
proposal of the mid Atlantic Resiliency Link. Now for West Virginia,
next Era says this would support Governor Morrissey's fifty gigawatts
by twenty fifty planned to invest in cold natural gas
and workforce development. And for Pennsylvania, it says it supports
(03:35):
their ninety two billion dollar investment in new power generation
across the commonwealth that was announced earlier this year by
President Trump, Senator David McCormick at is US Senator David McCormick,
and Governor Shapiro over in Pennsylvania. But pjm's board they
will hold their final vote on this proposal coming up
(03:58):
in early twenty twenty six. Let's hit a couple of headlines,
dive right into the program. Could be some movement in
the future to the base of the spousal surcharge for
PEI eight coverage. Looks like that spousal surcharge increases by
two hundred dollars across the board beginning on July first.
That will certainly impact that will impact those across the
(04:23):
payscale much differently, and to account for that, the Ohio
County School Board they passed a two thousand dollars healthcare
cost stipend for their workers a meeting last night. Certainly
there will be more on PEIA coming up in the
very near future. One of the plaineiffs challenging the establishment
(04:44):
of public charter schools in the state, that would be
longtime Mond County educator Sam Burnett came to Metro News
talk Line on Monday to talk about what he would
like to see. What he would like to see is
some more public involvement when it comes to the approval
of charter schools, and maybe not just one central board
(05:05):
that is disconnected from the communities that the schools would
be located in. You'd like to eliminate that step. Have
folks cast ballots for that situation. Last thing that we'll
get to, certainly the investigation into an officer involved shooting
(05:26):
continues in Montagelia County today. Just after midnight ed Dunn Road.
Suspect pulled the firearm engaged police. It looks like by
the charging documents we can just about guess that there
were four.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Sheriff's deputies there.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Suspect unidentified still at this point, charged with four counts
of attempted murder one count of wanton endangerment in that situation.
No names have been released, but we're going to stay
on it and we'll pass what we know onto you
as soon as we get it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
It's nine to twelve.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
When we come back, We've got Mind County School Superintendent
Eddie Campbell. I'm going to be talking about proposed changes
to the State Education Code eighteen and eighteen A. It's
next on Talk of the Town AM fourteen forty FM
oneh four point five WAJR.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Now back to the Talk of the Town.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Look good Tuesday morning. It is nine seventeen. Welcome back
to the program.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
On the phone.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
We've got Mind County School's superintendent Eddie Campbell.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Good morning, Eddie. Hope you're doing well.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Doing well, Mike, thanks for having me on this morning.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Absolutely well.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
First off, congratulations squad a state champs, and some cross
country honors as well.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Absolutely, we're really proud of our Morgantown High School football program.
The coach is just an excellent job all the way around,
well deserved for those young men.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Okay, good deal, now, Eddie, you recently testified before state
lawmakers about some changes that you might propose to state
education code that would be chapters eighteen and eighteen A.
Before we let you tell us what you think, I'd
just like to take you back to October when the
president of the State Chamber of Commerce, Steve Roberts, addressed
(07:30):
the lawmakers, and this is a quote from his testimony.
He said, we fooled around this for a very long
time now, and I can name governor after governor after
governor who has introduced legislation to improve our public schools
and to work on chapters eighteen and eighteen A of
the West Virginia Code. But it's not getting done. So
(07:51):
to start there, what would you like to see get done?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Well? I really think that the big message that my
colleagues and I were trying to share with the legislators
on Sunday evening was that you're really providing public schools
with some flexibility in certain areas, certain specific areas would
(08:17):
really be beneficial to that task of improving what it
is that we do for our students. And you know,
I think our approach to that was to be very
specific in the way that we laid things out. You know,
state code is extra I mean, if you've ever looked
(08:38):
at that codebook, the state of West Virginia public education
is the most regulated state in the country when it
comes to education law. And Chapter eighteen and Chapter eighteen
A our massive, massive code sections. But what we tried
to do was to drill down into specific actions of
(09:00):
code and provide specific alternative language so that legislators didn't
have to really undergo that task of picking that code apart.
And so that was really our approach on Sunday evening.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Well, I'll tell you what you did them a favor
because I did some homework in eighteen and eighteen A
total up to be about thirteen hundred pages. So I
guess providing them with a cliff notes version is a
good thing. Tell me what some of your key areas
of concern or key areas of change that you'd like
to see.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
We focused on that idea of flexibility, especially in graduation requirements.
You know, we're basically a one size fits all and
we don't give our kids a lot of opportunity to
explore passions, to explore different pathways. UH and young people
(10:02):
today need to be exposed to a multitude of subject areas.
And because of the way the graduation requirements are set
up now, our students really only get the opportunity for
four electives or four choices of a class that they
can they can experiment in, or that they can experience.
(10:24):
And this is really really applicable when we talk about
our CTE students and the requirements that they're that really
limit them because of other graduation requirements. So that that
was one thing that we talked about. The second thing
we talked about was was personnel and the giving giving
(10:46):
school systems, school boards, superintendents the ability to have some
flexibility from a personnel standpoint as far as transferring people,
transferring teachers, aids, moving people around where you need them
when you need them there. We are so legislatively driven
with the transfer process and timelines and very restrictive, and
(11:11):
those timelines and the restrictions that we have don't always
let us meet the needs of our students at the
time that we need to meet those needs. And so
that was the second area. And then the third area
was fiscal in nature and making some adjustments to the
school aid formula that would again allow us to meet
(11:36):
the current needs. That formula has not been adjusted for many,
many years, and it was the original intent of the
formula was to create a funding system that was growth oriented,
so the more students that came into your school system,
the more money you've got because you needed that money.
(12:01):
And as you know, schools in West Virginia, we're not growing,
we're losing students, and so the antiquet the formula itself
is just it's antiquated. And we offered some specific suggestions
and tweaks to the formula that would allow us to
fit more of the modern approach to financial schools.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Superintendent Eddie Campbell's with us, and Eddie, you've just echoed
the concerns of I guess uh Sean Dilly and Barber County,
Eddie Vincent and Randolph County, donnah Heston, Marion County, Brad
Martin and Preston County. What what is that tweak? How
do you make a formula that can serve a district
(12:45):
with eleven thousand students plus as opposed to smaller districts
across the state.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Well, you know a lot of people look at the
system and say the finance system, and say it's very,
very complicated. But our suggestion was very simple in nature.
And if you just tweaked the number of employees that
school systems were permitted to be funded for, if you
just tweaked that per one thousand students and added three
(13:18):
to that, you would see school systems find a lot
of relief in their staffing needs. You know, your budget
is comprised of probably somewhere between eighty five and ninety
percent of your funds go towards go towards staffing, and
those numbers have not been adjusted, and so there are
(13:38):
more needs for people in your school systems than there
were ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, but the numbers haven't
adjusted and haven't aligned with that, and so we're being
funded for less and less people. And so just a
small tweak of three per one thousand would provide significant
relief to school is all across the state.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
You know, the other thing that I think reading between
the lines, and sometimes it's not so subtle. If you
look at some comments made by Delegate Joe Statler about
the school funding formula, he'll tell you that this dive
into possible changes could lead to maybe finding out that
we're not spending enough money.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
Period. Well, I think he's right. I mean, Delegate Statler
is is a huge proponent of public education. He's obviously
one of our biggest supporters here in Montgeia County. It
was a pleasure to be in the room with him
on Sunday night, knowing that, you know, he is such
a big supporter of it. But you know, Delegate Statler
(14:46):
is a smart guy. He's been around a long time,
he's been involved with education a long time, and you
know he can he can see down through the weeds
to see what we might be getting into, and you know,
and he understands understands those things.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
You know, Eddie, I guess talking about this new system,
or maybe a system that's not based on growth in
terms how to dictate funding kind of makes me think
a little bit about the Renaissance Academy where maybe funding
is based on innovation, quality of education.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
How does that what does that look like?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Well, again to me, I mean, school has we're asked
to do more and more for the children in our community.
I often teach people, I'll say, you know, the days
of teaching a little English and a little math, those
days are over. We're still going to teach those things,
(15:49):
but we've got a whole laundry list of other things
that that we do. From we feed our kids, we
we clothe our kids. Uh, you know, we're providing mental
health and social pieces to their lives. And so school
has become much much more complicated. And when when school
systems have those requirements really to modernize, you know that
(16:16):
really it demands that we take a new look at
the way that we are funding our school systems. And
I don't think we just haven't kept up with it.
I mean, the schools have been asked to change, but
we haven't kept up with how we fund schools so
that they can meet those needs appropriately for all of
(16:38):
our students in the state.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Superintendent of Mine County Schools, Eddie Campbell's with us and Eddie,
last thing I got for you leading up to the
legislative session begins in January.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I'm sure that you'll.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Have a legislative priority meeting with lawmakers. Any plans for
superintendents to band together to address legislators in mass Joe
Statler has told me that when they've asked for input,
there really hasn't been an organized response from your side
of the aisle.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Well, it hasn't been until recently that we've been given
the opportunity. And I can tell you that that we
as superintendents, uh, we have been in front of the
state legislature on two occasions now within the last month
or so. UH, and we did promise delegates Thattler at
(17:31):
the meeting on Sunday, that we certainly want to be
a partner and will be a partner as they take
a hard look at at pre K through twelve public
education in West Virginia. We want to support them, we
want to help them, and we want to be a partner.
We want to we want to we want to seat
at the table, and that hasn't happened for many, many years.
(17:54):
And so we are thrilled as superintendents that that uh,
those education folks and the legislature have reached out to
us and have said what can we do to help
you all improve public education in West Virginia.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Superintendent Eddie Eddie campbell Mont County Schools. Eddie, congratulations once
again on the state championship.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Great work and keep up the good work. We'll talk
again soon.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Thank you, Mike. I appreciate you giving me some time
this morning.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Absolutely, you take care of yourself, Eddie, appreciate it. Let's
see clouds and twenty four in the University City. When
we come back, we're going to be speaking with Delegate
Evan Hanson from Monte Gaelia County. Delegate Hanson certainly a
long proponent of renewable energy, whether it be in the
(18:44):
form of community solar where solar arrays can be set
up and then accessed by more or less kind of
a co op system, all the way up to the
industrial arrays that we've seen First Energy and other companyanies
construct throughout the area. We're going to talk about the
future of base load energy, and we'll do that, of course,
(19:08):
with the backdrop of criss crossing transmission lines all across
Pennsylvania and West Virginia. And I'm sure that this latest
transmission line, the route of that has not yet been released,
so that's not yet a topic of discussion, but I'm
sure that as the weeks get closer and they'll probably
(19:30):
release that route as soon as the PJM board would
approve that two hundred and twenty mile transmission line seven
hundred and fifty thousand volt transmission line that was announced
just yesterday. The PJM board set to vote on that
proposal coming up at the early part of twenty twenty six.
(19:54):
We'll keep an eye on that for you.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
We are talking about your town. Now back to the
talk of the town.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Well, good Tuesday morning. It is nine thirty five. Legislative
interim meetings continue today in Charleston. On the phone, we've
got delicate Evan Hanson, representing the seventy ninth district here
in Montagelia County.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Good morning, Evan, how are you good.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Thanks for having me on the show.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Absolutely, it's a pleasure to have you on. Evan.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
You know, I'm a little frustrated because stories like these,
you know, we have to tell using sound bites. But
I think that there's certainly a lot more in between
the sound bites, and I'd like for you to take us,
maybe in depth into that conversation between you and the
PSC chair Charlotte Lane about the functional life of coal
(20:57):
firepower plants.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
This is a discussion we had in the Energy Committee yesterday,
and what the chair said is that she won't allow
the Public Service Commission to let a cold plant close
in West Virginia, even if that would result in lower
electric rates for you and me. And that was a
(21:21):
pretty remarkable thing for the PSC chair to say. Number one,
there's just a policy consideration, like do you think it's
appropriate to keep the coal plant open even if it's
going to cost West Virginians extra on their electric bills.
So there's a policy question, but there's an ethical question too,
because the commissioners act essentially as judge and jury when
(21:44):
the utility brings a case to them, and they need
to act impartially based on the facts that are presented
to them, and they need to impartially apply to law.
And by saying how you're going to rule in a
case before the facts are even presented to you, that's
an ethical issue and she's going to have to accuse
herself from many cases that are related to this.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Delegate Evan Hanson is with us, So I guess take
us in maybe a little bit more detail and explain
how closing one of these plants could save consumers money.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
Well, what the coal plants in West Virginia are very old,
and compared to the newer generation of coal plants, they're
inefficient and often they don't run because it's cheaper to
get electricity from other sources. And that's why I've been
such an advocate for all the above energy strategy. You know,
(22:41):
coal is going to continue to be a part of
our mix in West Virginia. That natural gas fired power
is a lot cheaper now, and wind and solar and
battery storage you need to play a role as well.
And that's how we're going to be able to reduce
our electric rates by going for an all the above strategy.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I'm not sure, and you know, maybe you can help
me with this, but I don't think that functional all
of the above strategy is inside a five to seven
year window, is it.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Well, we could certainly build renewables a lot faster than
we have been doing here in West Virginia. Those technologies
are available today and they could be deployed relatively quickly.
And like, here's an example of what can happen if
you aggressively pursue renewables. Appalachian Power that provides electricity to
(23:36):
half of our state, also provides electricity to Virginia a
portion of Virginia, and they made a filing just a
couple of months ago in Virginia to lower their electric
rates because of how much wind and solar they had
installed in Virginia. So that can work, and that could
work relatively quickly. It's going to take a little bit
longer for natural gas fired power plants to come online,
(23:58):
and even longer if we're going to build nuclear plants.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I think though, isn't it important to point out though
Virginia they kind of they get a lot of electricity
from other places, i e. The transmission lines we've been
talking about here of things.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Like that they do, but they've they also have had
a different approach to the generation in state, and they've
moved aggressively toward renewables and that's led to a lowering
of their electric rades.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Now, tell me about the window to make renewables effective
in terms of being able to contribute to electrical demand.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Well, their renewables work better and better and are cheaper
and cheaper, and you know, there are states that are
providing twenty thirty, forty fifty percent of their electricity through
renewables now. And I'm not saying that need to move
to that level or renewables in West Virginia in the
short term. But it does show that it's possible, and
(25:06):
it's it's one tool in our toolbox to stabilize our
electric grades.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
You know, one of the things that got brought up
during the debate about the Brandonville solar array. Are you
familiar with that particular project. Yes, Okay, they said that
that particular area of the country is really only good about,
you know, anywhere from forty to forty of the year
in terms of the ability to deliver solar power. However,
(25:37):
you know, they back that up and they say, we've
got better batteries, now, we've got better storage capacity, things
like that.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Talk about that if you can.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Yeah, solar developers know how much electricity they're going to
generate in a year, and that's based on how much
sunlight there is, and so that's that's already baked into
their calculations of whether the project's going to be profitable.
So I don't buy that argument. I mean, everybody knows
that soldar is intermittent, but it still helps the grid
(26:07):
and tends to produce electricity when electric demand is highest.
And on top of that. Battery storage technologies are improving
tremendously fast, and we should be proud of forum energy
that we have here in West Virginia that's producing batteries
that are starting to be sold to electric utilities in
(26:29):
other nearby states. These are batteries that could store electricity
for four days that they could play a big role
in the future in terms of having more renewables on
the grid.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Delegate Evan Hansen is where US represents the seventy ninth
district here in Mond County. I guess, when you take
a look at the cold plants across the state, do
you have an idea in your mind of which ones
would be targeted to be shut down?
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Well, I think a sign of which ones would most
likely shut down the scenest is how often they run,
because the percent of time that they run is an
indication of how cost effective they are. So that's what
I would do, and look at those plants that are
being run the least amount of time. You know, some
of them are being run way less than half the
(27:22):
time now, and that would be an indication that they
may be the first one slated for closure. But I
wouldn't just go ahead and close the plant. The question
is what are you going to do instead, and is
it possible to repower that site maybe with a natural
gas generator or with renewables to create some jobs to
replace those that are lost by closing a coal plant.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
So I think we can both agree here that we're
talking about a phased in operation where you know, maybe
you would construct that gas fired power generation facility alongside
the coal fire facility and then phase that coal fire
facility out once the gas fired is online.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Is that Do I have that right?
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I think that type of solution would work really well
for West Virginia to consider be a way to preserve
jobs while making our electric generation more efficient and mowing
our electric rates.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Evan Hanson, Delegate from the seventy ninth district. Evan, anything
else on your mind this morning from legislative interims, It's
just this, okay, all right, well, Evan, really do appreciate
your time this morning. Thank you very much. All right,
thank you absolutely you take care. Delegate Evan Hanson representing
(28:40):
the seventy ninth District. We'll be back on Talk of
the Town after this on AM fourteen forty FM one
four point five w AJR.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Join the conversation at one eight hundred seven sixty five
eight two fivey five. This is the talk of the town.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
A good Tuesday morning. It is nine forty seven. The
text line three oh four Talk three oh four, and
certainly the more than thirteen hundred page state Code that
dictates education in the state of West Virginia will likely
get a good hard look. Chapters eighteen and eighteen A. Now,
(29:33):
part of that code, of course, addresses the fiscal operation
of schools that Superintendent Eddie Campbell addressed, and you know,
we addressed that with Delegate Joe Statler, and Joe Statler
told us that he has been looking at school funding
formulas from across the country. I think the three states
(29:53):
that he brought up were Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And I think that he.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Was relatively partial to the Tennessee formula that is used
there in the volunteer state. And one of the things
that he mentioned, as well as the president of the
State Chamber of Commerce, Steve Roberts, did, is that they
suspect that once they dive into this, they're going to
determine that they have not been spending enough money for
(30:24):
public education here in the state of West Virginia in
many areas. Now that doesn't mean a blanket statement of
we just need more money to make things better. No,
not at all, because I think we can all agree
that the state of public education is certainly it is
changing right before our eyes as we see the demand
(30:46):
for trades skyrockets, and of course, not only is the
demand for the trades skyrocketing, but also those wages are
also increasing at a very high rate as well. Now,
along with this debate about Chapters eighteen eighteen A school
(31:07):
funding formula and how the state treats public schools, well,
there's a debate out here happening about the Hope Scholarship,
and about homeschooling, and about increased accountability for those families
and about I guess the readout of why those families
are leaving public education. Well, coming up next on Metro
(31:30):
News talk Line, they'll be addressing part of that. They'll
have State Treasurer Larry pack On and he'll be providing
a Hope Scholarship report. I think that the superintendents that
I've been talking to Heston, Martin, Dilley, Vincent, now Campbell,
(31:51):
I think they would all tell you that, you know,
the Hope Scholarship. Homeschooling are not necessarily bad things, but
maybe they're things that need to be looked at and
need to be evaluated, and we need to refocus on
public education. And I think I sense that they're especially
(32:12):
upset when we start to talk about money state money
going to Pennsylvania or.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Ohio as part of the Hope Scholarship.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
But Larry Packill have the Hope Scholarship Report coming up
next on Metro News talk Line now coming up on Thursday.
The Morgantown Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board that will
be meeting at noon. They meet in the conference room
at the Morgantown Public Safety Building. They're in the three
(32:44):
hundred block of Spruce Street, and of course they're Statistics.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And Reporting committee.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
They'll be providing an update on their interaction with the
police in order to be getting some more information about
to their statistics and things. And then also the get
a report on the update of the commit from the
Community Outreach Committee. They have been working and planning on
(33:14):
a survey in order to get that out to the
residents to I guess inventory, provide a critique an initial
critique of a baseline if you will of what the
police department how they're doing in the eyes of the community.
That survey has not yet gone out. I think they've
(33:35):
had a couple of focus groups and they've met with
some people. I think that the big policy review among
the Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board is the body
cam policies with law enforcement agencies across the region, and
that also is on the agenda. They'll also be talking
(33:58):
and providing an up date on their efforts to make
the citizens complaint process more accessible. If you remember, I
think a couple of months ago, there was a talk
as to why there wasn't maybe a button on the
front of the website or maybe a more forward facing
effort to get that information from the public. So they'll
(34:22):
be meeting at noon on Thursday at the Public Safety Building,
and of course all those meetings are open to the public.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Now.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Coming up tomorrow night, it'll be another parade day in
the city of Morgantown.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Just a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
This is a Christmas parade and the Mountaineer Area Council
of Scouting America is behind this particular parade. They're going
to be lining up at five pm at the top
of High Street near Willie and Spruce Street.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
You can look.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
They're going to have a trailer up there and on
the side of it it's going to say scout me
in if you would. If you're participating in the parade,
you'll want to look for that. The parade will step
off at six pm. You can get more information about
the parade at scouting event dot com, and of course
(35:17):
if you just go to the Mountain Mountaineer Area Council
of Scouting America, they'll have some information there. But we're
working on getting a guest to talk about that event
coming up tomorrow on the program. Is certainly, you know,
looking at the weather, it looks like we're going to
(35:37):
dodge the bulk of this snowfall. But if you look
at the weather for Wednesday night, looks like it's going
to be a perfect night for a Christmas parade. It
looks like a mixed precipitation, but there could be some
snow in a low temperature of just about twenty five degrees.
So certainly the weather for a Christmas parade tomorrow certainly
(36:01):
looks just about ideal. Now today it's not too bad either.
Certainly got a cold start. I don't think it's got
quite as cold as what Metro News acu weather had forecast. However,
mostly cloudy today and hid thirty eight degrees
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