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Tag Archive: The Dominion Post

  1. Harmony Grove construction to begin in 2025-’26 fiscal year

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    MORGANTOWN — Gov. Jim Justice and the West Virginia Division of Highways have already said construction of a $70 million bridge across the Monongahela River will begin in spring 2024.

    It now looks as if construction of the new $30 million Harmony Grove interchange could begin as early as July 2025.

    During Thursday’s meeting of the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board, three Transportation Improvement Program amendments were approved.

    All three pertained to the Harmony Grove project, including: $3.7 million in engineering work to be done in the current fiscal year; $550,000 in right-of-way acquisition in FY 2024-’25; and $25 million in construction in FY 2025-’26.

    Both the new bridge and Harmony Grove projects, totaling $100 million based on current estimates, are intended to provide better interstate access to Mountaintop Beverage and the wider Morgantown Industrial Park area.

    MPO Executive Director Bill Austin said the TIP amendments were being made at the DOH’s request.

    Inclusion in the TIP is mandatory for use of federal transportation dollars. The TIP process serves as a mechanism to ensure local support for federally funded projects.

    “For the DOH to use federal funds, they need to be approved by our policy board in the transportation improvement program. If the policy board doesn’t approve it, they cannot use federal funds,” Austin explained.

    However, unlike most transportation projects, a majority of the funding for the Harmony Grove interchange will ultimately be generated locally.

    The process was spelled out in a September 2020 memorandum of understanding between the Monongalia County Commission, Enrout Properties, and the West Virginia Department of Transportation.

    The MOU explains that in addition to extending infrastructure into the expanded industrial park, increment from the creation of the MIP Harmony Grove TIF district will be used to reimburse the state for the interchange.

    This is the same process the county and developer WestRidge used to construct I-79’s Exit 153. That project was completed for $22 million in 2016 and paid off by mid-2020, according to The Dominion Post archive.

    County Commissioner and policy board member Sean Sikora said the county and the developer will have to iron out the details of the Harmony Grove repayment with the state.

    Joe Statler, representing Blacksville on the policy board, requested the parties do so sooner rather than later.

    “I would hope that question and conversation won’t slow this project up,” he said. “Don’t stop this project for anything.”

    Original Article

  2. $20 Million Small Format Hospital Approved – Fairmont

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    Mon Health CEO says project will be finished by the end of 2021.

    Mon Health System received its Certificate of Need from the West Virginia Health Care Authority to proceed with plans to construct a $20 million, small format hospital in Fairmont. Mon Health CEO David Goldberg said the next step is to put the project out for bid. Construction, he said, should take 16 months to complete.

    We’ll be open by the end of the year 2021,” he said. The 10-bed hospital, dubbed Mon Health Marion Neighborhood Hospital, will be constructed on land the health system already owns along Interstate 79 near Fresenius Kidney Care in Pleasant Valley. Small format hospitals are accredited by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to offer hospital-based services that include inpatient and outpatient medical beds, diagnostic imaging and lab services and full-service emergency services. The hospital will not have an operating room, a Cath lab or offices, Goldberg said. When it is up and running, it will be the first small format hospital in West Virginia, several of which already exist in the Greater Pittsburgh area. More than 100 people are expected to work at the facility, Goldberg said.

    The Fairmont area has been without a full-service hospital since the 207-bed Fairmont Regional Medical Center was closed in March by its California-based owner, Alecto Healthcare Services, after it could not find a buyer for the facility. Alecto said the hospital lost $19 million in three years. West Virginia University Medicine will begin using a portion of the shuttered Fairmont Regional later this year after it receives its separate CON from the state Health Care Authority. That facility will act as an arm of J.W. Ruby Memorial, WVU Medicine’s flagship hospital. WVU Medicine also filed for a second CON from the state to construct a 25-bed, full-service hospital next to its Urgent Care Center at the Gateway Connector, a $35.3 million project estimated to take 18 to 24 months to complete.

    Article by Suzanne Elliott, The Dominion Post

  3. Dominion Post: Black Diamond Realty LLC opens new residential arm, White Diamond Realty

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    Melissa Berube, formerly of Howard Hanna, tapped to head company.

    For David Lorenze and Mark Nesselroad, principals of commercial real estate company Black Diamond Realty LLC, starting a residential brokerage was a no-brainer for the pair. “We grew to be the commercial bridge with national [commercial real estate] firms and had formed a great team,” Nesselroad said. “We saw an opportunity to serve the residential market.” Our outreach makes us different.” Lorenze agreed. “We are excited to utilize Black Diamond Realty’s presentation, process and people to develop a new organization focused on residential brokerage services,” Lorenze said. “Securing a well-respected, strong leader was a critical first step.

    The result of that opportunity is the recent formation of White Diamond Realty LLC, Black Diamond’s new real estate arm. And to lead their new residential venture as its broker, the principals tapped Melissa Berube, a veteran Morgantown area realtor who was the 2019 president of the Morgantown Board of Realtors.

    Melissa brings to the table a strong reputation, a charming demeanor and an unwavering work ethic, which we are confident will lead to tremendous results. … We are excited to see what the future holds and appreciate the community’s support,” Lorenze said.

    At White Diamond, Berube, who has been selling homes for nearly two decades, is being tasked with recruiting and building a team of seasoned agents who know the local real estate market and are tech savvy. The White Diamond agents will be based at Black Diamond’s Stewartstown Road headquarters.

    I am excited to be building something new,” said Berube, who was previously with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services Cheat Lake office. “I am working on the foundations now,” she said. “Our goal is to become a boutique agency that emphasizes quality over quantity.

    Berube said she is looking at recruiting more than a dozen agents at White Diamond, a goal she hopes to accomplish by spring. She sees White Diamond’s niche mostly as second-time home buyers, or transition buyers who are new to the area. “Experience is always good, but I would consider a newbie,” said Berube, when asked about the kind of residential agent she hopes to recruit. The agents who join White Diamond will be incentivized and encouraged to work together as a team — a concept important to Black Diamond, she added.

    For us, it’s all about team building,” said Nesselroad, who also serves as the chief operating and legal officer of developer Glenmark Holding LLC. “Starting a residential company has been in the backs of our minds for a while.” It also helps to have Berube as its residential broker, he said. “We have full faith and confidence in Melissa Berube to lead our team.

     

    Article By: Suzanne Elliott, The Dominion Post 

  4. Possible new interstate exit

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    Westover mayor seeks support for possible new interstate exit

    Westover Mayor David Johnson encouraged citizens of Westover and council members to attend an upcoming Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting to show support for a possible new exit coming out of the Industrial Park.

    Johnson informed Westover council members about the meeting at the Westover city council meeting Monday. The MPO meeting will be from 4-7 p.m. Thursday, September 20th. “This Thursday, we have an MPO meeting at the council chambers,” he said.What they are going to discuss is the possibility of another way in and out of this Industrial Park out hereThe first initial idea was to go on past, out to where the overpass goes over the interstate and make that a full-fledged exit.

    Second ward council member Leonard Smith said, “I thought that’s what they were going to do.” Johnson said with studies on various possibilities, alternative routes and ways of doing things are necessary in case of problems arising, but the exit would be a good thing for Westover and its residents.

    The first option that we discussed was coming out where the Master Graphics Road is,” he said. “Just before you get to the overpass, there’s a road that turns down to your left. They want to come out of the Industrial Park and come out about where that road comes out because that Industrial Park comes clear out almost to the interstate, with the exception of a few properties between the two. They would have the off and on ramp there.” The significance of this is that we would be able to get about 90 percent of this big truck traffic out of Westover because about 90 percent of it will be able to get off and on at that exit, and we’d never see them on Dupont Road or on our streets, making the turns down there by the bank. You’d still have some local traffic, but you wouldn’t have the traffic like the big garbage trucks, especially the sand trucks from the oil and gas industry. They could all use that exit, and they’d be right on the interstate.

    Johnson said another benefit would be for the residents that live near the Industrial Park. “That coupled with the fact that everyone who lives out that way will not have to come all the way down by the school, all the way out Dupont Road, all the way down to the interstate,” he said. “They can get on the interstate right there and switch on and off. It will be very successful.” Johnson said funding would be the main issue to work through. “The exit at Star City is going to be completely redone in the next year and a half or so, and that money, that’s going to be funded by TIFF money. They already have the money for that” he said. “The problem with this new exit, or whatever alternative route we decide on, there’s no funding for it yet.” I do know this much, the MPO is going to put in whatever we decide on, they are going to put in for a—they have to change their long-term control plan and get that approved by the federal government. It’s going to be a process.

    After the meeting, Johnson issued a statement requesting residents to attend. “The meeting on Thursday is very important,” he said, “and I’d like to reach out to a lot of people that live on River Road and in that area, and everybody in Westover because we are being impacted by the trucks here in Westover. Not only do the people of River Road have to come through Westover and deal with that truck traffic as well, so they can just jump on the interstate.” I think the important thing is to have a good showing and have people here to voice their opinions to the MPO, and the people at the MPO will listen. They’re open-minded. Several of us think this interchange is the best option we have to look at.

    Rachel Ellis, For The Dominion Post

  5. WVU Medicine Children’s Neurodevelopmental Center

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    Doctors and administrators gathered at WVU Medicine Children’s newest facility – a Neurodevelopmental Center on Baker’s Ridge Road – to celebrate its opening Thursday.

    Neurodevelopmental Center Photo 2Neurodevelopmental Center Photo 3
    It’s unbelievable,” Dr. Jodi Lindsey, center director, said of the 9,000 square foot space on Baker’s Ridge Road. Lindsey said there’s always been a need for this type of service in West Virginia and her dream, even before medical school, was to build a center like this. The center brings all levels of child neurodevelopmental disability treatment under one roof including diagnosis and evaluation, medical workup and treatment and therapy services she said.

    Albert Wright,president and CEO of the West Virginia University Health System, said the center was designed for a very specific purpose – helping pediatric patients with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Those disabilities include Autism Spectrum Disorder, developmental delay, cerebral palsy, and Tourette Syndrome. The best treatment is “intensive and early behavioral intervention,” Nikki Shriver, an applied behavior analyst (ABA), said.

    There are 10 individual rooms where ABA’s can work with their patients one-on-one and help build skills. Shriver said helping improve communication skills is a big focus because the ability to ask for what one wants and needs is important. The early part of “intensive and early” refers to the age patients start treatment. Shriver said the best time to work with kids is between the ages of 2 and 6 when their minds are still growing. She said anyone can learn, but the younger treatment starts the better. Intensive refers to the amount of time patients spend at the center. Some patients spend the equivalent of a school day in treatment – five days a week, Joseph Shane, ABA, said.

    The goal of treatment is to prepare patients for the next environment they will be in and for most that means getting them ready for school he said. The center also has a large play area where kids can work on group skills such as sharing and taking turns, Shane said. Kids will also eat lunch in the play area during their treatment and lunch is another opportunity to work on skills. If treating patients is the primary goal, one that’s almost as important is training the next generation of care providers.

    There are two assessment rooms used by pediatric psychologists connected by an observation room. Jenna Wallace, pediatric psychologist, said the observation space is about double the size of the previous space. Lindsey said she hopes that this center becomes a model used across the state where a team based approach is used in treatment.

    By William Dean, The Dominion Post

  6. Area Hotel Occupancy on the Rise

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    Monongalia, Preston enjoy hotel occupancy spike that beats even state’s solid year
    Hotel Occupancy Photo and Stats

    As West Virginia tourism officials celebrate increases in hotel occupancy, the numbers in Monongalia and Preston counties outpace even the state’s rise. Gov. Jim Justice recently touted a 16.1 percent increase in statewide hotel occupancy comparing June 2018 to June 2017. The local area has enjoyed a 17.9 percent hike in that same comparison, said Susan Riddle, executive director of the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau.

    We put a pedal to the metal since the beginning of last year, and we haven’t looked back,” Riddle said, adding that she can look at any month and see an upward trend in bookings. Justice also said there was a 20 percent revenue increase in a year-over-year comparison to June 2017. In Mon and Preston, revenue was up 20.2 percent June over June. Every region of the state has seen increases, Justice said, with the first two quarters of 2018 showing hotel occupancy up 11.7 percent, with revenue growth of 14.9 percent.

    One of my first decisions in office was to launch a new tourism campaign that would spread that message like never before,” Justice said July 25. “West Virginians should be proud of what we’ve done here, because it takes all of us, telling our story and rolling out the welcome mat, to make this happen.

    From day one, the governor had a vision for what could happen with West Virginia tourism,” said state Tourism Commissioner Chelsea Ruby. “The success we’ve seen this year is a direct result of that vision and the governor’s commitment to growing our tourism industry. Tourism means jobs, and the numbers that the governor released today translate into more West Virginians working in a sector that still has enormous room to expand.

    STR, a global hotel research company, reported the statewide hotel occupancy rates. In Mon and Preston counties, there has been a significant increase since January 2017. Riddle said that means jumps in all categories from occupancy to revenue to demand. Mon and Preston have 28 lodging properties combined, resulting in 2,600 rooms available daily. Filling up those rooms with travelers generates sales tax dollars.

    We target everything we do. Our mission is one more night, one more dollar. It’s as simple as that. We don’t need to make it any more complicated,” Riddle said. “For every $100, CVB receives $3. It’s not just about people spending the night to go ahead and generate lodging tax, it’s what are they doing while they’re here.

    That entails looking at the four types of tourists Riddle claims frequent this area:

    Adventurers and explorers (the largest group),
    attendees,
    planners
    and relaxers.

    For us, our big draw, we have a synergy that is the combination of a lot of different benefits,” Riddle said. “We sell our region. We connect our local area with our audience.

    BY AMANDA SAVAGE DEPROSPERO The Dominion Post

  7. Legislators Updated on China Energy Deal

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    Commerce Secretary Hopes China Energy Project Will Begin This Year.

    CHARLESTON – Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher offered legislators a few new tidbits — though still no specifics — on the $83.7 billion China Energy agreement. Thrasher addressed a Jan. 9 joint meeting of the interim Natural Gas Development and Energy committees. Answering a question if this is a deal to simply sell off our resources, he said no. “It is bricks and mortar facilities for the purpose of generating value-added products in the petrochemical industry.”

    The immediate goal is a single project, though he wouldn’t say what it is. “We are working actively on that project one step at a time.” He continued, “Our goal is to expedite the initial project as quickly as we can for a variety of reasons. And I’m hopeful that the details of that begin to unfold in the next few months.” He hopes to see some construction by the end of this year, he said.

    Most people guess that the unspecified projects are some sort of manufacturing facilities that would use the products generated from cracker plants being developed for the region. Thrasher speculated that the majority of the market for the China Energy-related projects would be overseas, predominately China. But the focus is on employing local residents in businesses that pay taxes to West Virginia, and selling the products those businesses produce. “It makes sense from a business model.”

    Thrasher said he had no specific timeframe for any aspect of what’s unfolding, but during three visits with the people from China Energy, he’s seen a “great sense of urgency.” He’s heading back to China on Saturday, he said, to meet the company’s new board. “These are big projects. They’re significant.”

    Thrasher said last week’s announcement from Appalachia Development Group – a subsidiary of Charleston-based high-tech firm MATRIC – provides an important step forward. The group announced on Jan. 3 that it was invited to submit a Part II Application for a $1.9 billion U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee to support the development of infrastructure for the Appalachia Storage & Trading Hub, which would store natural gas liquids for a regional plastics industry.

    The group said that the American Chemistry Council believes the hub would serve as a catalyst for the creation of an estimated $36 billion in follow-on petrochemical investments and more than 100,000 new long-term jobs, drawing resources from Marcellus, Utica and Rogersville shale deposits.

    Thrasher said that the Department of Energy’s action “has significant impact in terms of the risk level of folks coming in.” Jim Crews, vice president of business development for MArkWest Energy Partners, offered the legislators additional prospective on the region’s potential.

    “The United States, and the Appalachian Basin, is the Saudi Arabia for the production of natural gas liquids,” he said.

    Colorado-based MarkWest is a midstream gas processor with three West Virginia facilities. It’s Sherwood plant in the Doddridge County is the nation’s fourth largest and will soon be expanded to become the largest. He offered a somewhat technical slideshow on how the gas liquids – ethane, propane and butane – are separated from the methane and sent on for further production.

    The wet natural gas in this region, he said, contains enough ethane – used in light plastics – to feed six cracker plants. Some of it now gets shipped south to the Gulf for processing, but most goes to waste because it’s too expensive to ship and there’s no industry here yet to process it.

    Article By David Beard, The Dominion Post

  8. Crossings Construction Continues – The Dominion Post

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    Luxury Living

    Construction continues on a new senior living community on Point Marion Road.

    Scheduled to open in fall 2018 near The Pines Country Club, the 8.9-acre Crossings at Morgantown will include 175 senior living units — 84 of them independent, 59 units of assisted living and 32 secured units of memory care. The Crossings at Morgantown will be operated by Harmony Senior Services, a management services company with experience in senior living based in Roanoke, Va.Construction_Continues_The_Dominion_Post_2

    The Dominion Post reached out to the company to find out if anyone has yet expressed interest in the community, but representatives from Harmony Senior Services declined to comment, noting that advertising for the Crossings hasn’t begun yet.

    According to the Crossings’ website, the community’s amenities will include an on site fitness center, a pub, beauty/barber shop, library, and a computer lab. According to Black Diamond Realty, this $35 million development will create about 45 full-time-equivalent jobs initially. The Crossings at Morgantown is expected to generate 100-130 part-time and full-time jobs over time. 

    View additional photos at The Dominion Post.