Talk of the Town November 4, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
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 five five. Now Here is your host for the
Talk of the Town, Mike Nolting.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, good Tuesday morning. Faris guys, and forty four degrees.
Glad that you're with US Metro Newsaki Weathers says today
plenty of sunshine and high near sixty degrees. Well, welcome
to Talk of the Town and happy Tuesday. Have you
looked at your gas bill? Have you looked at it
closely lately? Well, we're going to talk about that. We're

(00:39):
going to talk about Mountaineer Week. Take some time to
address the local hunger issue as we approach the Friday
Cans for Community event at the University of Town at
the University Town Center, Giant Eagle. I'm Mike Nolting over
on X you'll find me as your news guy. Ethan
Collins has the control rooms today. He is at eight

(01:01):
hundred seven six five eight two five five. The text line,
well that number three oh four talk three oh four.
Certainly hope to hear from you. Throughout the course of
the program today. Lots of serious things to talk about today,
but we're going to start with Mountaineerweek. It is going
on right now on the campus of West Virginia University.

(01:22):
A time for the students to get maybe a little
bit more a little bit more familiar with the Appalachian
heritage of this area. And yesterday was a matter of fact,
the longest running contest as a part of Mountaineerweek.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
That would be the Beard Growing Contest.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
And just to show you a little bit about how
important or maybe how coveted this title is, the winner
was actually the runner up last year. His name is
Eli Klavo. He's from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He was picked
by a panel of four judges as having the best
beard and to celebrate he was an awarded a one

(02:05):
hundred dollars cash prize plus a beard shaving kit. And
that was the Beard Contest. It's part of Mountaineer Week.
That happened on Monday on campus. Now Mountaineer Week that
continues all week, and coming up at nine thirty this morning,
we're going to spend a few minutes with the director

(02:25):
of Executive the executive director of Strategic communication SHAWNA.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Johnson.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Easy for me to say. We're going to talk with
Shauna coming up at nine to thirty this morning. We'll
get a preview on the rest of the week and
a recap of the Beard contest. I think Shawna served
as the MC for that event. The government shutdown now
enters day number thirty five. The Trump administration now says
that they will partially fund SNAP benefits this month. Now

(02:54):
you put that, of course, we don't know what how
much partial is, but we do know that the government
has established a thirteen million dollar matching program. He's authorized
one point one million dollars to be expedited to food pantries,
plus another two and a half million dollars on top
of that. Now, that still leaves a gap of about

(03:15):
twenty four million dollars before you can get to the
fifty million dollars.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
They say that West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Will receive in a month's time in SNAP benefits, So
we'll have to see how that works out. Talking with
some local people that are hooked into the food distribution networks,
we're finding that the deployment of the National Guard is
certainly a great asset in the community and will certainly

(03:42):
bear fruit for those.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Who are hungry.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
No pun intended, but I think that getting started, there
have been just a little bit of growing pains as to,
you know, who is going to provide what resource and
when that resource will be provided. And I think another
kink that's being worked out in that system is exactly

(04:06):
who do I contact for what I need and what
can I expect in what kind of timeline can I
expect it on? And I think those situations are getting
worked out. At the WVU Faculty Senate meeting on Monday afternoon,
some members of the faculty express some security concerns. It

(04:26):
talked about non standard classrooms, to doors some lock, some don't,
some shut, some don't, the lack of furniture inside the
classrooms that could be used to barricade a door in
the event of an active shooter. Professors also asking for
more surveillance cameras. Now, the good news about all this is,

(04:48):
you know, you can go back about eighteen months, eighteen
to twenty four months, maybe longer. WVU has added metal
detectors and they have the discretion to deploy those anywhere
on campus that they see fit. They've also deployed the
Live Safe app and they're moving away from the blue phones,

(05:08):
although there still are blue phones on campus. Nevertheless, there
have been a lot of steps made forward. And remember
the Jonathan Ramirez case and how they caught him, Well,
it was through the use of surveillance cameras. But more
surveillance cameras are coming and University Police Chief Sherry Sinclair

(05:30):
told the members of the faculty that surveillance cameras were
in fact a priority to her. So I'm sure that
we'll see some movement coming up on that end. Big
hearing last night public hearing in Charleston at the PSC,
more than twenty testified over about a ninety minute period

(05:51):
about the Hope Gas proposed increase that could take effect
next year. The PSC has said that they will push
off any decision on that increase until February of next year.
But we're going to dig into some of that testimony
when we come back. Have got a couple of points
I think that are worth providing just a little bit

(06:15):
more detail with in terms of this increase that maybe
some haven't thought about. I didn't think about it until
I heard some of these folks bring up these concerns.
That's next on top of the town AM fourteen forty
f M one oh four point five WAJR.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
We are talking about your town. Now back to the
talk of the town.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Because Tuesday morning, Fair Skies and forty four degrees West
Virginia five to one one is now reporting a crash
at mile mark one ten southbound I seventy nine. They're
saying that one lane of the interstate is closed in
that area. That's also the side of a fatal semi
crash that happened on Sunday. I believe it just about

(07:10):
eleven thirty in the morning. Now this morning, at nine thirty,
the bottom of the hour in Charleston, the PSC will
be holding the evidentiary side of the hearing. Last night
was the public hearing. Today we've got the evidentiary hearing
that starts at nine point thirty. If you go to
the PSC website, you'll find a link to be able

(07:30):
to view that event.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
But let's see it's about nine seventeen.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
You might want to go now because that website's just
a little bit clunky, So you want to allow a
plenty of time so you can find your way around
that website in order to be able to find a
link to that meeting once you get there, and I
do believe they're also on YouTube, so you might be
able to search the West Virginia PS on YouTube and

(07:55):
get to it there. Once you get there, the connections
are good, the sound quality is good. You'll have no
issues whatsoever as long as your connection is sound. Now,
last night, for just about ninety minutes, members of the
commission and attorneys on both sides, they heard the concerns
of the community from one end of the state to

(08:16):
the other. All of those residents were opposed to the increase. Now,
the proposed increase comes after Hope Gas has acquired different
smaller systems throughout the state, and in the process of
acquiring and assessing those systems, Hope Gas has determined that
in many cases, some of these systems are not sound

(08:41):
and they can no longer be operated efficiently, and they
are making or taking the steps to upgrade those systems
to make them operational and usable for them in their
current system. Now, those I believe are the costs that
are Those are the costs that are being passed on

(09:03):
to the rate payers. Now, the proposed increase could be
an estimated twenty five percent for some up to forty
percent for others. The increase for the residential customers that
could range from twenty one dollars a month all the
way up to about thirty dollars a month. It just

(09:24):
obviously depends on your level of usage.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Now, there was a.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Marian County resident made the trip to Charleston, Josephine Ward.
She is a retired widow on a fixed income, and
she talked about put this into the context of Josephine
and one of her friends, who is also a retired
widow on a fixed income, happens to be just a

(09:49):
little bit older than Josephine. But Josephine, she talked about
the wider well. First, she questions. She brought up the
fact that what's happening here is also going to be
passed on to commercial customers, and by doing so, these

(10:10):
rate increases could have a wider impact on communities, the
individual communities in which Hope Gas operates. And we've heard
Morgan O'Brien say that they want to provide good paying
jobs in those communities in order for people to be
able to take the jobs work for Hope and be

(10:31):
able to live in these communities and make a good living.
At the same time they wanted to provide an affordable
utility for the customers. This is Josephine Ward's reaction during
the hearing on Monday evening at the PSC.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Let's have a quick question to put the audience, if
I may, by a show of hands, who received a
forty percent pay increase this year? No one yet. Somehow,
Hope Gas seems to believe that we can all tolerate
to forty percent increase along with all the inflation that
we are seeing in groceries and electricity bills in every

(11:08):
other aspect of our lives. And it's not just the
it's not just our domestic use that's affected. Hope Gas
wants to raise prices to all the commercial you know,
goods and services providers that we all need and patronize,
and so those costs will also be passed on to
us as consumers.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Chad Minemaier addressed the PSC as well. Chad seemed like
just an everyday West Virginia lives in the Tay's Valley,
works in a factory there, and he tried to put
this into the perspective of he and his co workers
on the floor of that factory. And this is part

(11:49):
of the experience that he wanted to share with the
PSC and the attorneys for Hope Gas and the public Advocate.

Speaker 5 (11:57):
I can't believe that these these youtility companies are thinking
themselves worthy of almost a half increase of their profit.
That's just unacceptable. It's downright criminal when our state is
as poor as it is. I've grown up in this,
I've seen this. I know exactly how poor our state is.
I've been out there with the people. I grew up
with kids that didn't have you know, they had the

(12:19):
same pair of shoes all the way through high school,
or you know, they never had new clothes. Like this
poverty that exists in our state is so abject, and
we just we can't let these big utility companies come
in here and run rough shot over us like that.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
That's just not right now.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
The mayor of Pennsburg, Robert Riggs, he provided a little
demographic information to the PSC and the attorneys before he
got started. He told those folks that his residence largely
an elderly population that do live on a fixed income,
and he talked about how this transaction could affect Hope

(13:00):
Gas customers in his area. And now this in just
a matter of months. He talked about how service fees
on bills have increased just since this summer, since July.
This is Mayor Robert Riggs from the City of Pennsboro.

Speaker 6 (13:20):
First off, something that I've not heard mentioned yet, Hope
Gas took over Consumers Gas in our area approximately four
months ago. At that time, there was a service charge
on our gas bill from consumers at nine dollars and
eighty cents. Since Hope took over, that was increased to
sixteen dollars in eighty cents, which with consumer customers that

(13:42):
is a fifty nine thousand, six hundred dollars increase that
does not go through the Public Service Commission. They can
pass that on as a meter charge without anybody else's
approven Now.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Also at the same time, in the city of Pennsboro,
this happens to be one of those communities where Hope
Gas gobbled up in a small gas distribution system that
needed a lot of work. Now some of that equipment
is showing up in the city and the mayor took
notice of that and wondered who's paying for that equipment
and wanted more justification on the rate increase that Hope

(14:17):
is asking for. And said that because of this increase,
if this does go through, and keep in mind that
the PSC will not rule on this until February of
next year, so it means that this could be the
last year for the youth basketball program for the one
hundred kids that participate in it in the city of Pennsboro.

Speaker 6 (14:40):
In the town of Pennsboro, we have a gymnasium that
the city has owned for a number of years. In
the winter, we use that gym for youth basketball. We
have over one hundred young kids from all over the
county to participate there. That gas bill runs the city
now in the winter use a sixteen hundred to two
thousand dollars. With a thirty three percent increase is going

(15:03):
to take that closure to three thousand dollars. The city's
not going to be able to keep that gymnasium available
for our youth. And that's what we need to be
concerned with, is keeping youth in West Virginia instead of
trying to run everybody out with these large utilities coming
in taking over and then just increasing UH with no justification.

(15:27):
I've not seen anything really showing what they're wanting to
do with this. All these millions of dollars that this
is going to generate. I haven't seen that explain, so
I would like the pup.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Now that's Mayor Robert Riggs talking about the effect that
this increase would have on the gymnasium and the youth
basketball program in the city of Pennsboro. But I think
the larger question here is you would have to go
back to some of the folks in Fairmount that brought
up the the case of churches in rising gas bills
for church at different organizations. What about Myland Park? You know,

(16:03):
we already know that they have a marathon or I'm sorry,
a fund raising event in the month of February to
raise money to cover their gas bill that before this
increase is I understand it could be as much as
sixty thousand dollars a year. Now in their information, Hope

(16:24):
Gas has made it clear that none of this rate
increase money is going to the Colosseum naming, right, so
the work that they've announced to be done on the
water tower in Evansdale. But nevertheless, that was the eight
hundred pound gorilla in the room and Marion County resident

(16:44):
Jason Harris addressed.

Speaker 7 (16:46):
That like this especially coming after the nice donation that
Hope Gas is given WDU to help with the nil
and the sport teams. I feel like that they're just
passing this down to the residents to pay the seven

(17:07):
figure number over a ten year period, and I think
it's very unfair for all the presidents of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
That's Jason Harris, a Marion County resident who described himself
as a guy who really has a hard time paying
his gas bill as it stands today without the forty
or more percent increase that the people in Fairmount are
preparing for. I think that the mayor of Pennsboro. He

(17:35):
also brought up the naming rights situation. Every person that
testified in some way addressed the relationship between this increase
and naming rights opportunities that Hope Gas has taken advantage of.
And another resident brought up and trying to come up

(17:57):
with the list here, but what was brought up last night,
It was obviously the coliseum and the water tower in
the Evansdale area. There was also a twenty thousand dollars
donation to a playground, and another person brought up which
this got away from me, and I'm surprised that it
did what the recent construction of the ice arena at

(18:19):
Miland Park that will be used for WVU club hockey
as well as the Morgantown Hockey Association, and it will
also support support traveling tournaments. Now, Hope Gas has made
it clear that the shareholders are the ones that have
paid for those naming rights opportunities, and none of these

(18:39):
rate increase revenues are going to go to satisfy those situations. Now,
it's awfully difficult to make that stick. When you're talking
to the room full of people that were in the
hearing room last night. They always talk about being able
to read a room, and if you could have read
the room last night, I don't think that they would

(19:02):
have been satisfied with being told that the shareholders are
going to pay for that. I think there has to
be a way for them to provide maybe a little
bit more oh comfort in the form of proof rather
than just a mere statement. But the evidentiary hearing gets
underway in just about thirty seconds. It will be available

(19:24):
on YouTube and also a stream provided by the PSC.
You'll just have to go to their website. And like
I said, it's a little bit antiquated and clunky, so
you'll probably stumble around for just a little bit. Don't
get frustrated. You'll find it. Maybe just search for a link. Well,
there's a lot going on across the great state of

(19:46):
West Virginia, and to find out what is happening, we'll
head to the Metro news anchor desk on the Voice
of Morgantown WAJR.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Join the conversation at one eight hundred and seven sixty
five eight two fivey five. This is the talk of
the town.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
Good Tuesday morning.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
It's nine thirty five, forty four degrees and fair skies
in the University City. It is a mountaineer week on
the campus at WVU. And on the phone, we've got
the executive director of Strategic Communications, SHAWNA.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
Johnson. SHAWNA, good morning. How are you?

Speaker 8 (20:37):
Good morning, Mike, how are you hey?

Speaker 3 (20:39):
I'm doing good.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
I would like to ask you a question off topic
if I may, Okay, When you when you call into
a show like this and you hear Jeff Jenkins doing
the news, do you maybe have a flashback.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Of some kind.

Speaker 8 (20:53):
I do get twitchy as a former longtime newsperson, and
you never really grow out of it. Right, Oh God,
I know exactly how he's going to hit the postak.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
Okay. Good deal.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Well, Shana, it's a pleasure to have you on the
program today. And if we could start with the events
of Monday. I believe you served as the MC for
the beard Growing Contest and now that is the longest
running contest as part of Mountaineer Week. Why don't you,
I guess, fill in all the gaps there.

Speaker 8 (21:24):
Yeah, the beard Growing Contest is really the kickoff event
for Mountaineer Week. So we got started Monday. Today's day two.
We'll go all the way through Sunday. And we had
nine competitors who showed up yesterday to get judged. What
happened was at the end of September, Classic Cuts came
in and gave him a clean shave, and then they
came back to get their beards judged, and there were

(21:46):
three winners. The top minister was a student named Eli Colavo.
Eli is from Bethel Park majoring in medicine. And the
great thing about Eli is he placed second last year
and he came back to things a little bit differently
and ended up in first place yesterday. So he won
one hundred dollars from University apartments plus the shaving kit.

(22:08):
That event dates back to nineteen forty nine. To give
you a little bit of history about Mountaineer Week, this
is the seventy eighth annual Mountaineer Week. The events change
a little bit every year, but things like the beard
growing competition they run through all the years and through
all the different generations of student.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Now, when it comes down to physical performance, I think
we all understand how we can gain the upper hand
in any kind of competition that's through practice. But when
it comes to beard growing, I'm not sure what those
secrets could be.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Can you tell us? Can you maybe shine a light
on what that could be?

Speaker 8 (22:41):
Now I was the MC I'm not the judge, but
there were four judges there and they were looking at
a lot of different factors like length and thickness and
how it was coming in and how the beard is maintained.
So basically Eli had like a full beard that was
shaped well, that looked like it had been moisturized. So

(23:02):
there are a lot of different factors that the judges
were weighing.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
He was that perfect Christmas tree.

Speaker 8 (23:08):
Yeah, it's just something like that.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (23:10):
The thing was a lot of the students who are competing.
They will tell you, like it felt weird for them
to be clean shaven anyway, because going into winter, you know,
they don't like the cold air on their faces. But
it's a really fun event and it's neat to be
in the Mountain Air food court because we really are
taking Mountaineer Week to students, you know, going to class
or going to pick up lunch. We were right in

(23:31):
the middle of it all and at the same time,
there were some Appalachian arts demonstrations underway, so Catherine Robinson
is actually back on campus again today doing a weaving demonstration,
so that was happening in the Mountain Lair, and then
outside you have food vendors set up, so you're smelling
kettle corn as you're walking to class, or you can

(23:52):
get you know, any number of Appalachian dishes. So that's
what it's really fun to be on campus now, especially
because the leaves are changing, the weather's great, and you
have all of these different activities that really tap into
the traditions of what it is to be in Appalachia,
which some of our students maybe don't have a full
understanding of.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
What are the highlights moving through the remainder of the week.

Speaker 8 (24:14):
So today we have a couple of things going on today,
I said the weaving demonstration. Every day there's a different
Appalachian food sampling at the Mountain Lair and today is
Pepperoni rolls. We've all had some of those. We have
Mountaineer Week music every day, so the Two Sides and
Al andersoner up today. We also have starting tomorrow wood

(24:36):
carving demonstrations by the Mason Dixon Boys, so they're going
to be set up outside the Mounta Lair doing wood
carving for our students. Will also have printmaking. The really
big event of the week, the draw for me every year,
and I know it is for so many people in
the community, would be the Arts and Craft Fair. The
Arts and Craft Fair gets started on Friday at the

(24:57):
Mountainlair and it also it runs all the way through Sunday.
So you have the arsen Craft Fair with juried artists
upstairs at the Mountain Lair and at the same time,
the quilt Show is going on at Eymore Hall, which
is across the street. If you haven't been to the
quilt show, I recommend it. It's a great little family
trip after the football game and you get to see

(25:20):
just what you what we consider artistry now but was
a necessity at a different time, right, the quilting, all
of the things like that, So that I highly recommend.
If you haven't been to the Arsen Craft Fair, you
can knock out some holiday shopping and then the quilt
show is always a good place to go as well.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Okay, now what about some maybe Appalachian cuisine.

Speaker 8 (25:42):
It's all about the food for you, Mike, isn't it, Yes, ma'am,
so I mentioned the pepperoni rolls today. Yesterday, let's see,
so outside of the Mountainlair there are different vendors if
you want to stop by there. But in terms of
Appalachian food sampling, yesterday was apple cobbler, so you miss that.
Today's pepperoni rolls. Tomorrow is chicken and dumplings with biscuits.

(26:05):
The sixth will be venison stew, and the seventh is
pinto beans and corn bread, which all sounds amazing to make.
And outside in front of the Mountain Lair from the
seventh through the aceh which is Friday and Saturday, there
will be an apple butter demonstration, so you know it's
going to smell amazing. This is a demonstration and sale
by the Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church. It goes from

(26:28):
eight until four o'clock on Friday and Saturday, and then
everyone is invited to join us for community brunch. That'll
be November eighth at the Mountain Lair. That's Saturday at
Hatfields from nine to two. That menu includes biscuits and gravy,
cinnamon rolled bread, pudding, and much much more. So we
will really want the community to come to check out

(26:50):
the arts and crafts fair, grab something to eat, and
to celebrate Appalachian heritage with us.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Now, help us understand why do we do all this
for the students.

Speaker 8 (26:58):
It's about tradition. It's really about tapping into what makes
West Virginia west Virginia. And today's students maybe don't know
someone who made apple butter or somebody who did quilting.
So this really takes the foundational aspects of what it
means to be from West Virginia and puts it right
in front of them and exposes it to them.

Speaker 6 (27:20):
You know.

Speaker 8 (27:20):
It's really a celebratory week.

Speaker 7 (27:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Well, and I'm glad you brought it up like that
because what I was going to tell you is a
couple of years Ago. I spoke to a student and
they compared this with Welcome Week and they said that,
you know this like Welcome Week, like we got to
know places and you know, what people do in Appalachia.
And then during Mountaineer Week, we really got to learn

(27:44):
like a lot of the heritage and tradition and the
why we do what we do.

Speaker 8 (27:49):
Yeah, and it's really it's part of the educational process.
So like the maybe you haven't been to the Art
Museum of WVU, Well they're hosting Appalachian Art Making on
November fifth, from five to seven. You know, there's on
November six, we're going to have storytellers on campus who
are going to talk about West Virginia cryptids. That's at
six at the Mountain Air Gluck Theater. So we're tapping

(28:10):
into storytelling traditions. You know, all of our artisans have
some kind of skill, whether that be knitting or pottery
or jewelry. So there's so many different things and there's
really something for everyone, and it's not just for the
university community, it's for the entire community.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Executive director of Strategic Communications for West Virginia University SHAWNA Johnson, Shawna,
thank you for all you do for us.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
Really do appreciate it.

Speaker 8 (28:36):
Thanks Mike, We'll see you on campus.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
Absolutely take care of yourself. It is nine forty three.
Thanks to Shawna for her time. Right now fair Skies
and forty four degrees in the University city.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
We'll be back.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Take a quick break Talk of the Town AM fourteen
forty FM one oh four point five WAJR.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Now back to the Talk of the Town.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Good Tuesday morning. Former Vice President Dick Cheney dies at
the age of eighty four overnight. A lot of people
think of Dick Cheney around nine to eleven and his
service as vice president for George Bush. However, you know,
Cheney got his political career started in the I guess

(29:36):
in the fallout of the Watergate era, working for another
vice president who was unelected. That would be Vice President
Spiro t.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
Agnew.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
With Cheney and both Donald Rumsfeld were hired by Agnew
back in that tumultuous time about nineteen seventy two, and
they certainly made their mark in politics and went on
to have very long political lives and establish many milestones.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
And I believe that.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
David TJ will be talking with Fairmont State University political
science professor Robert Bolton about the life of Dick Cheney
coming up during a Metro News talk line later this morning.
Later today, the members of Morgantown City Council, they'll be
gabbling into their regular meetings at seven o'clock tonight on

(30:30):
Spruce Street.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
You'll also be.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Able to view that meeting at their YouTube page. They'll
be holding public hearings on the Morgantown Mosaic Neighborhood initiative
and also some of the zoning things that they have
been talking about. Those zoning items will be in New

(30:53):
Business and then they do have an executive session for
a couple of items on that agenda for tonight once again,
Morgantown City Council they'll get together at seven o'clock tonight.
Now coming up on Friday, it will be Cans for
the Community will be at the Giant Eagle University Town Center,

(31:14):
the Giant Eagle at the University Town Center from six
am until six pm, and we would love for you
to stop by and make a donation of some non
perishable food, maybe some peanut butter, jelly, canned vegetables, canned meat,
some granola bars, something of that nature. If you'd like
to make a cash donation, you're certainly encouraged to do that.

(31:37):
But we will be there from six am to six pm.
We will be broadcasting Talk of the Town from that
location that day. Also joining us will be some personalities
from WVAQ and WKKW. And I'll tell you what this
morning here in the building, we've had a six foot
tall turkey running around in the building, running up some

(32:00):
support and excitement. So we certainly look forward to seeing
you there.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
Now.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
If that weren't all enough an opportunity for you to
come out and help your neighbor. As the government shut
down Lingers into day thirty five, snap benefits only partially
funded this month, and we really don't know when that
partial funding is going to come. But we do know
that the West Virginia National Guard, I guess they are

(32:25):
the cavalry in this situation, because two hundred of them
have been activated and they're finding their sea legs and
beginning to establish connections with the community in order to
get food and support in order to move food around
for some of these local organizations. But Titan Roofing our

(32:46):
partner in this endeavor. The owner, James Sanders, has put
up one thousand dollars cash prize in this event, and
you don't have to make a donation. All you have
to do is stop, buy and register. And James on
the program earlier, I believe Monday yesterday. Boy, how time flies.

(33:06):
But James says that they will award that one thousand
dollars at the end of the night on Friday night.
So if you want to really improve your Friday night,
you can come by enter to win that one thousand
dollars and they will hold that drawing after the event. Now,
so far, James has committed a truck and a trailer,

(33:28):
and I believe that there is another truck from the
United Way that's also going to participate in the event.
And as I alluded to earlier in the broadcast, I'm
hearing some things from the local community that you know,
the National Guard and the governor, they're out there doing
everything that they can to make sure that the effort

(33:51):
that they're pouring into helping these people actually gets to.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
The people that need to be helped.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
But looks like maybe there's a couple of speed bumps
between here and the objective, which certainly isn't uncommon, and
those I think speed bumps are getting smoothed out as
these community partners are able to work with the National
Guard personnel and the people with the Governor's office. We

(34:17):
don't know how much the Trump administration will partially fund
the SNAP benefits, but we do know that that number
is fifty million dollars. They say that comes from the
federal government every month. Now, let's see the governor has
allocated thirteen million in a matching program that could be

(34:38):
twenty six million. Then you've got the partial funding and
you have events like we're doing on Friday. Those events
are going on all over the state and they're raising
money that is helping in.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
All of those corners of the state.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
But you know, it's kind of striking that the number
of people that are living in poverty in Man and
Preston Counties, and I believe, if I've got my numbers straight,
it's about eighteen percent of households in Monongalia and Preston
County that are living below the poverty line. But once again,

(35:17):
your opportunity to help, it's going to come up on Friday,
November seventh, out at the Giant Eagle in the University
Town Center.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
Will be there, Bright.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
And early six am and will stay there until six
o'clock in the evening taking your donations, and then those
donations are going to stay right here in the man
and Preston County area in order to help those people
that are number one, experiencing food insecurity, but also the

(35:47):
people that have lost their SNAP benefits due to no
fault of their own. It's all due to the government
shut down that lingers in today. Number thirty five. There's talk,
at least from Congressman Riley Moore that possibly the Democrats
have been waiting out the election and the results of
that election in order to end this shutdown. Well, well,

(36:10):
we are hours away from being able to find out
if Congressman Moore was right about that. We'll be back
to wrap things up coming up after this on Talk
of the Town AM fourteen forty FM one zero four
point five WAJR.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
West Virginia Out. We are talking about your town. Now
back to the Talk of the Town.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
A good Tuesday morning, fair skies and forty four degrees.
Metro NEWSACI Weather dials up a nice fall day today,
mostly sunny skies and a high near fifty degrees, so
it looks like it is going to be a nice one.
The death of Dick Cheney will be the focus of
the interview right off the top of talk Line ten

(37:08):
o six, TJ and Dave will be talking with Fairmont
State University political science professor Robert Bolton to get his
reaction to get the death of to the death of
former Vice President Dick Cheney, who passed away at the
age of eighty four overnight. That's coming up next on

(37:29):
Talkline with Dave and TJ. Make it a great Tuesday.
We'll see you tomorrow on the Voice of Morgantown one
oh four point five FM and AM fourteen forty WAJR.