West Virginia Focus - November/December 2014 by West Virginia Focus

November/December 2014

A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. Henrik Ibsen

Making change happen means breaking patterns, building bonds, and standing strong against resistance.

FBI Fingerprint Repository King Coal Highway

volume 1 | issue 6

published by

New South Media, Inc. 709 Beechurst Avenue, Suite 14A Morgantown, WV 26505 1116 Smith Street, Suite 211 Charleston, WV 25301

304.413.0104 | wvfocus.com publisher & Editor

Nikki Bowman nikki@newsouthmediainc.com designer

Becky Moore becky@newsouthmediainc.com Managing Editor

Pam Kasey pam@newsouthmediainc.com Contributing editor

Laura Wilcox Rote laura@newsouthmediainc.com staff writerS

Katie Griffith, katie@newsouthmediainc.com Shay Maunz, shay@newsouthmediainc.com Mikenna Pierotti, mikenna@newsouthmediainc.com Web Manager

Elizabeth Roth liz@newsouthmediainc.com Office & Circulation Manager

Sarah Shaffer sarah@newsouthmediainc.com Advertising

Christa Hamra, christa@newsouthmediainc.com Bekah Call, bekah@newsouthmediainc.com Photographers

Nikki Bowman, Elizabeth Roth, Carla Witt Ford, Shay Maunz, Katie Griffith, Pam Kasey, Laura Wilcox Rote contributors

Ed DeCosta, John Deskins, Brian Lego interns

Jack Baronner

Editorial inquiries

Email info@newsouthmediainc.com. West Virginia Focus is published by New South Media, Inc. Subscription rates: $20 for one year. Frequency: 6 times a year. Copyright: New South Media, Inc. Reproduction in part or whole is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher. ÂŠ New South Media, Inc. All rights reserved

Focus November/December 2014

Editor’s Letter

ow do we turn our towns around? It isn’t easy, that’s for sure, but we’re trying to figure that out. It’s been almost one year since we launched this magazine. Our goal was to look at the issues facing our state and to be a conduit for the creation of an action plan that moved West Virginia forward—one town, one issue, and one business at a time. In our first issue we launched a transformative campaign—something that had never been done in West Virginia—our Turn This Town Around initiative. Our goal was to ignite communities to embrace creative problem solving, to rally towns with sets of goals and deliverables, to identify challenges, to figure out what works and what doesn’t, and to document the successes and failures. Grafton and Matewan were chosen by our readers as our first towns, and the experience has been enlightening. We’ve learned many things: how to get community buy-in, what ingredients are necessary to sustain momentum, how to bring stakeholders to the table, and that there are similar projects and goals every community shares and aspires to. The stories we’ve told have been about community pride, economic development, sustainable growth, and the inevitable roadblocks. And there are roadblocks. Sometimes elected leadership doesn’t step up and embrace change; sometimes residents don’t follow through with their responsibilities; and sometimes the larger businesses and banking institutions aren’t vested in projects like they should be. But sometimes the right groups of people unite with a common goal and the results are nothing short of miraculous. The B&O train station in Grafton, one of the cornerstones of the town that has been closed for years, is on the verge of opening again for community use. The town’s iconic Manos Theater utilized mini grants to start a movie licensing fund to purchase movies to show to the community and to purchase a new heating and cooling system to make the theater more inviting. In Matewan, the old jail that once imprisoned the infamous Hatfields and McCoys is on its way to becoming a tourist attraction. Towns can be turned around. It won’t happen overnight. But it will happen. Let the possibilities inspire you and and act as if they are realities. Sometimes it’s hard, I know, to see a brighter future when the present is so gloomy. Each new announcement of layoffs and mine closures feels like another nail pounded in southern West Virginia’s coffin. It is easy to get overwhelmed. But don’t write off the South quite yet. There’s a road map, literally, for the area with a grandiose vision for economic development that just might work. When our managing editor Pam Kasey traveled south to work on the feature about the King Coal Highway (page 40), she had a few pre-conceived notions. But after spending time with the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority, driving the Red Jacket section, and talking with West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Cabinet Secretary Randy Huffman,

High School Students are Turning Their Town Around! Recently I joined a group of leaders in the state and visited Wirt County High School to celebrate the completion of the students’ first Turn This Town Around project, a classroom project initiated by business teacher Deb Hartshorn using West Virginia Focus as inspiration. What an amazing day! The students drew up a business plan to replace ugly trash receptacles at the courthouse and received a $500 grant from WVU’s BrickStreet Innovation Center matched by the Wirt County Commission and the town. Then welding teacher Jeff Hartshorn taught students in the welding class to design and fabricate new metal trash bins. TOP Kay Goodwin, Deb Hartshorn, myself, Booth Goodwin, and Steve Cutright Middle Steve Cutright, Chasity Smith, Brian Duncan, Deb Hartshorn, and Miranda Dennis Bottom Chasity Smith and Miranda Dennis

she came away with a different opinion. What she once thought was “a road to nowhere” is now “a road to somewhere.” In fact, she’s hopeful that the small group of visionaries leading the charge on development along the King Coal Highway will pull it off. When I asked her about her experience, Pam said, “They have the right spirit. They are realistic, creative, and energetic—irrepressible. All the traits you want in leadership. They’ve already done some improbable things, and it makes you think maybe they can do the impossible. Who are we to say they can’t? What we need to be saying is, ‘How can we help?’” How can we help? That’s a question every one of us should ask ourselves. As we close out yet another year, I challenge you to ask yourself, how do we become better West Virginians? How do we become more active participants in our communities? Let’s be possibilitarians. Together we can make possibilities reality.

nikki bowman Publisher & Editor Follow us on... facebook.com/westvirginiafocus twitter.com/WVfocus Focus wvfocus.com

Dialogue

Feedback

Women’s Health

I just got my hands on the (September/October) issue of West Virginia Focus. First I want to congratulate you on this issue. I am so proud to have the WVU National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health included in this issue of Wonder Women. Second, I love, love, love the article. Thank you so much! Betty Critch, National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, via email

Objective and Honest

I enjoyed (September/October) West Virginia Focus. It is great to see a magazine that is objective and honest about West Virginia. I liked your forthright letter and the comment about pink! Gayle Manchin’s page was so progressive, but I want to ask her why Jorea Marple was fired without warning. Whose idea was it? It was grossly handled. Bettijane Burger, retired journalism teacher and past president of WVNOW, via email

Millennials

I am a born and raised West Virginian who has been living outside the state for almost 10 years now. I am one of the millennials who took your survey and had to leave the state to be able to see what West Virginia has to offer. Your (May/June) piece on millennials really hit home and I just had to contact you to say thank you for capturing what I and many of my friends feel about our home state. Please pass my thanks on to the author, Katie Griffith, as well. My fiancé (an Ohio native who attended WVU) and I are currently living in Colorado, but have recently started tossing around the idea of moving home (and somehow, West Virginia will always be home). Seeing West Virginia Focus and reading about your work with the Turn This Town Around program is very inspiring and lends weight and real possibility to the idea that we could make a nice life in West Virginia.

Talk To Us! 4

Focus November/December 2014

I want to thank you and your team for what you’re doing. West Virginians need this publication to inspire them and to show each other that real change is possible. Keep doing what you’re doing, and on days when you feel like nobody is listening, please know that at least two far-off expats heard you and are paying attention to what you have to say! Christina Hunt, via email

Visit us on the web and let us know what’s on your mind. wvfocus.com facebook.com/westvirginiafocus twitter.com/WVfocus

Correction We incorrectly stated in our September/October 2014 issue that Natalie Tennant was the second woman to serve as West Virginia secretary of state. She was the third.

Nominate your community in one of our two categories â&#x20AC;˘ population under 1,500 â&#x20AC;˘ population between 1,501 and 6,000 For more information and to access the simple nomination form go to ttta.wvfocus.com. Deadline for nominations is Nov. 22, 2014. On Dec. 2, we will announce four towns in each category that will then be subject to an online voting process to determine our 2015 participants. Results will be announced in our January/February 2015 issue.

Contents FOCUS ON 14

Big Idea

Education

A veteran looks to ATV racing to fight PTSD. 15

Energy

Legislation is needed to streamline natural gas development. 17

Artpreneur

Lori McKinney and friends transform the face of Princeton through art and music. 20

Money

Teach your kids ageappropriate money skills. 24

Noteworthy Launch

Vixen Vodka sets out to prove women have good taste. 26

Philanthropy

The Mollohan Foundation is committed to education in West Virginia. 28

Innovation

Yet another patent is a common event at Touchstone Research Laboratory. 30

Founders

Valerie Evanoff uses CrossResolve to advance biometric technologies.

Focus November/December 2014

The Transition to Teaching Program puts experts in empty teaching slots. Why donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t more counties use it? 36

Connections

Ever wonder which West Virginians are most popular on Facebook? 38

Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Stepping Up

Ken Allman gives back and looks forward to the future of his hometown of Hinton.

Focus [ November/December 2014 ]

TOOLKIT 62

Lessons Learned

Mission Savvy cooks up vegan food that’s full of heart in Charleston. 64

10 Things

The Greenbrier’s Jim Justice talks tips for success. 66

Pitfalls

The trials and treasures of internship programs. 68

B2B

Frontier is on a mission to streamline services while getting broadband into hard-to-reach places. 70

Economy

The economy is looking up, according to the Mountain State Business Index. 76

How We Did It 40

Movin’ On Up

Does the King Coal Highway represent a second—higher—chance for southern West Virginia? 48

Identification Central

Clarksburg is home to the largest criminal fingerprint repository in the world. 55

Turning the Tide

Grafton and Matewan face the challenges to turning around.

The family behind Fruth Pharmacy keeps the business going more than 50 years later. 78

Leadership

Author and management consultant Ed DeCosta shares his keys for leadership in the home and at work. Editor’s Letter

Dialogue 4 Power Points

Focus wvfocus.com

“Make not little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized.”

Daniel H. Burnham, architect (1846-1912)

Culture

Breakfast: It’s the most important meal of the day, and maybe the most personal. A 2014 poll reported that 60 percent of Americans eat breakfast alone—which means we have no one to please but ourselves. So what should you be eating? Take our quiz to find out.

The alarm clock goes off. I … A. Destroy alarm clock. B. What alarm clock? I rise according to my body’s natural rhythms. C. Grab my iPhone off the pillow and frantically scroll through all the emails that piled up while I slept. D. Open my eyes, smile wide, and leap out of bed. Say, “Good morning!” aloud, to no one in particular.

Time for coffee! How do you take it? A. Who has time for coffee in the morning?

Mostly As, you’re having cereal You are not a morning person and couldn’t care less about a balanced breakfast. It’s likely that box of cereal is the only item in your pantry, and your morning reading material is on the back of it.

Mostly Bs, you’re having a green smoothie You started drinking these three years ago as part of a 30-day cleanse but liked them so much you never stopped. You gag at the sight of buttered white toast.

B. Are you kidding? I only drink organic, decaffeinated, all natural, unsweetened tea. That stuff will kill you, you know. C. Black, like my power suit. D. I wake up a few minutes earlier so I have time to make a latte. Sometimes it takes me a couple tries to froth the milk just right—but it’s so worth it.

Mostly Cs, you’re having just coffee You only need five hours of sleep a night, and have only gotten four hours all week. You could really use a vacation, but couldn’t imagine ever taking one.

How do you prepare for the day? A. What are you talking about? I’m already 25 minutes late. I don’t even have time to take this quiz. B. Meditation followed by yoga followed by daily affirmations in front of the mirror.

Carla witt ford; elizabeth roth

C. Double-booked phone meetings while I shower, a conference call while I floss my teeth. D. I start with my morning stretches, follow that with some singing in the shower, then watch the sunrise and have a few minutes of “me time.”

Spilman Thomas & Battle looks back in The First 150. pg. 22

King for a Day

Huntington’s Bryan Chambers thinks outside the box. pg. 12

Science

A West Virginia native answers all of your science questions on FOX. pg. 12

Travel

Know where to go on your Morgantown business trip. pg. 16

Money

Your kid may turn into an entrepreneur with this book. pg. 20

Money

Mostly Ds, you’re having pancakes, sausage, eggs over easy, and some lightly buttered toast, made from scratch You’re a morning person. Everyone you come into contact with before noon thinks you are completely intolerable, perhaps borderline psychotic. After noon you’re quite pleasant.

Discover who in West Virginia makes the most moolah. pg. 20 Top Issues West Virginia wildlife are vulnerable to climate change. pg. 34

Focus wvfocus.com

Community

Competing for the Future Some of America’s Best Communities are going to get a boost. Written by Shay Maunz

americasbestcommunities.com Science

A Mountaineer in Space A Morgantown native hosts FOX’s space exploration show. Written by Katie Griffith | Photographed by Elizabeth Roth

She’s launched high-altitude balloons, colonized Mars, and reported on the space tourism industry. This is no futuristic blockbuster movie plot, it’s Emily Calandrelli’s first year hosting Xploration Outer Space on FOX. At 27, she is one of the state’s most visible budding scientists, though she never expected a career in space journalism as a Morgantown High School student. Calandrelli entered WVU’s Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources to study civil engineering and become an architect, but when she saw photos of students in zero gravity she was enthralled and chose to pursue aerospace engineering instead. “I wanted to be able to fly like they did.” After graduating

Focus November/December 2014

from WVU—with honors ranging from Goldwater Scholar to Ms. Mountaineer—Calandrelli went to MIT for a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics. She also picked up a second program developed to teach people with STEM backgrounds how to explain new technologies to policy makers. Her concentrations proved fruitful when the producers of Xploration Outer Space invited her to be part of an educational show. Filming began in spring 2014. Episodes have focused on everything from a research habitat in the Utah desert where researchers simulate life on Mars to soaring space balloons. The space balloon episode was filmed with WVU’s high-altitude balloon team in Harpers Ferry. Today Calandrelli says she’s proud of the show and its unexpected benefit: “Young girls don’t really have a lot of role models in science and technology,” she says. “This show has offered me the opportunity to do that.” Xploration Outer Space can be seen on hulu. com and on local FOX stations.

King for a DAY Bryan Chambers is the City of Huntington’s communications director. He was previously a reporter for The Huntington HeraldDispatch for 10-plus years. He is a lifelong resident of Huntington and a graduate of Marshall University. If I were king of West Virginia for a day, I would: Force Marshall and WVU to play football in my front yard. That makes getting beverages easier. Color the Ohio River kelly green.

Make all Huntington residents realize the vast potential that our city has. Our citizens have been a driving force behind the positive change in our city, but we need more on board. Eat bacon. Lots of bacon.

courtesy of Bryan Chambers

Soon, some small American towns are going to get a lot of money—money to help them revitalize their communities. The good news is, one of those towns could be yours. That’s because of a $10 million America’s Best Communities competition from Frontier Communications and DISH Network. Over the next three years the companies will invest $4 million in small communities across the country to help them implement economic development plans. Cities with populations between 9,500 and 80,000 are eligible, and smaller towns can join together to meet the population requirement. Applications are due January 12, 2015, and from that first pool of cities judges will award $35,000 to 50 communities. Towns will use that money to further develop their plans and, in 2016, eight finalists will get $100,000 to bring their plans to life. Finally, in October 2017 the competition’s three winners—judged on innovation and effectiveness—will get $6 million in prizes. As of early November, no application from a West Virginia community was apparent on the competition’s website.

the power lunch

Questions, Questions

Veggie Friendly

There’s only one item on the menu listing fish tacos, but there are a ton of variations: Do you want a corn or flour tortilla? What kind of fish? Jamaican jerk or Cajun blackening seasonings? “It’s a lot of questions, but we have a lot of options,” says owner Keeley Steele.

Vegetarian options abound on the menu, from tofu tacos to soybased hot dogs. “I’ve been a vegetarian for 27 years, and it’s always shocking to me when I go into a restaurant and there’s nothing for me to eat,” Steele says. “People are always thankful when they come in and see that we have options—we sell a ton of tofu tacos.”

Margaritaville Seating Options

In the front of the restaurant is a cooler brimming with bottled beer, but the real prize is in the back, where the margarita machines are. A classic margarita is always an option, but there’s usually also a special second option on tap, just for fun.

A large outdoor deck practically doubles the size of the restaurant and offers some of the best outdoor seating in town. On warm days Charlestonians flock to it at lunchtime and happy hour.

Three Popular choices

Pulled Pork Taco $4.25

Hush Puppies $4.50

Mahi Mahi Taco $5.75

When she first opened Tricky Fish seven years ago, Keeley Steele thought it would be a hot dog joint. “We just sort of threw in fish tacos for good measure,” she says. “But it quickly became clear those were going to be the backbone of the menu.” Today this Charleston favorite serves up an eclectic mix of hot dogs, hamburgers, pulled pork, and fish tacos of all shapes and sizes. “It’s kind of ironic that we built this sort of a beach shack in the middle of a landlocked state, but we go through a lot of fish so it’s as fresh as can be,” Steele says. Don’t let the laid-back beach vibe fool you—the eatery sits less than a block from the state capitol complex and is a favorite lunch spot for politicos and anyone looking for a quick and delicious midday meal. It benefits from its affiliation with the more upscale Bluegrass Kitchen across the street and the bakery Frütcake a block away, both also owned by Steele—Bluegrass is offers a slightly more formal experience, and Frütcake supplies the baked goods. Last summer, for example, the restaurant served vegetarian gumbo in bread bowls made at the bakery. “It was just fantastic,” Steele says.  1611 Washington Street East, Charleston, WV 25311, 304.344.FISH, trickyfish.net

written By Shay Maunz | photographed by Nikki Bowman

“With this type of

Big Idea

Vigilant Vets

racing, you’re not really competing with others out there, you’re competing with yourself.”

One West Virginia veteran turns to ATV racing as a way to combat PTSD. t’s been called an invisible wound. Of the more than 2.5 million Americans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, an estimated 460,000 may have returned with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), though not all seek treatment. Nightmares, flashbacks, severe anxiety, and emotional detachment—PTSD can disrupt lives and tear apart families, and it contributes to addiction, depression, suicide, and violence among veterans. “Once you start to have things taken from you, things you used to love that you can no longer enjoy, it’s depressing to say the least,” says Rick Proctor, a Taylor County native and former member of the West Virginia Army National Guard. Proctor spent a decade in the military, deployed to Iraq in 2004, and was diagnosed with PTSD after he returned. Like many sufferers, he soon found he couldn’t enjoy the things he used to, like sports. Large crowds, loud noises, and unpredictable spaces made him anxious and hypervigilant. “The anxiety levels were through the roof,” he says. But he missed the camaraderie and companionship—two things he’d had in both the military and in sports—not to mention the physical and emotional benefits of a more active lifestyle. Then, in 2012, a friend convinced him to attend a Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) event, one of the premier off-road racing series. And everything changed. “When I got there, I was nervous. I honestly didn’t know what to expect.” What he found was a completely different landscape.

Focus November/December 2014

Rick Proctor, founder, vigilant vet racing

Competitive off-road races occur over acres of rugged terrain. Crowds are spread thin, and with the roar of the motor coupled with the extreme physical and mental challenge of the route ahead, racers become absorbed in the experience rather than the pressure to perform. “They call it America’s toughest sport for a reason. You have to be very physically fit to compete,” he says. Proctor bought an ATV and started racing right away, reveling in the untamed backcountry and the wide-open skies. “You go out and you ride and you don’t see anyone for several miles. There’s no feeling of being watched, no pressure. It was a relief but at the same time it was a rush. With this type of racing, you’re not really competing with others out there, you’re competing with yourself,” he says. Coupled with off-road racing’s welcoming atmosphere, the sport helped him focus on reconnecting—with other veterans who raced, with his family, and with his passion for helping others. “I knew then that I had really found something.” But Proctor wasn’t content to keep it to himself. “I wanted to use the sport and my story as a means of raising awareness about PTSD and about veterans’ affairs,” he says. So in May 2013 Proctor started Vigilant Vet Racing (VVR), an organization dedicated to improving the lives of veterans with PTSD,

their families, and their caregivers. His approach is two-pronged. With the help of volunteers he works to dispel myths about PTSD, educating veterans and the larger public at GNCC, high school, and other events. And he takes action, providing resources so that disabled veterans of all kinds are able to find and access potentially therapeutic recreational opportunities. Thanks to generous sponsors, Proctor has been able to gather a regular team of racing veterans who compete in the GNCC, attract other veterans to the sport, and help spread awareness. He’s facilitating the organization of veterans’ ATV racing and riding groups across the country, and his organization spearheaded the effort to customize an ATV for a veteran in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, who’d lost both legs in combat. He says his next hurdle will be to raise money to register as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, which will allow VVR to apply for grants and potentially organize other ATV customizations for veterans. “What we’re doing, it helps me, too. Helping other vets is therapeutic for myself,” he says. “It’s nice to compete, but the benefit is getting out there—me, my friends and family, the machine, and the outdoors.”

facebook.com/vigilantvetracing

courtesy of Vigilant Vet Racing

Written by Mikenna Pierotti

Energy

Time to Dive In Lack of a state pooling statute for oil and gas wells in shallow formations has created an entire economy in legal workarounds. Written by Pam Kasey

Yes!

Nope.

Yes!

he horizontal drilling oil and gas producers have used over the past decade to extract natural gas from shale formations brings some benefits— among them, the ability to drain large areas from single wellpads. But a large area usually means many mineral owners, and some may be impossible to locate or unwilling to participate. “Anyone refusing to participate can hold up development for the vast majority who do want it,” says Allison Farrell, who heads up Steptoe a & Johnson’s Litigation Department. Until the state Legislature passes “pooling” legislation to address this problem, producers and mineral owners are left with expensive legal workarounds. “With modern horizontal wells, you need a mile of land in order to get a 5,000foot lateral well drilled,” says Kenneth Tawney, leader of Jackson Kelly’s Oil and Gas Industry Group. That’s a common length; widths vary with geology, he says, but a 1,500-foot example would come to 172 acres—an area that can include many mineral parcels and many dozens of mineral owners. One or more owners blocking development for everyone else is common. How common? There’s no way to know, Tawney says. “I can say that, in talking to oil

Yes!

and gas operators, more than one has said it’s the single biggest issue they have in West Virginia.” Farrell says such cases make up her entire practice. “I’ve been doing specifically this for a couple years now, so probably 100-plus cases.” The cases take two forms about equally, in Tawney’s experience. Partition sale or allotment—chapter 7, article 4 of state code In the case of a mineral parcel with multiple owners, some of whom are missing or unwilling to lease, a willing owner can bring a partition suit. The court may order the entire parcel sold, in which case all owners lose their ownership interests. More commonly, the court may allot only the holdout interest to the producer and set the level of compensation, a solution that preserves the ownership interests of the other mineral owners. Lease and sale—chapter 55, article 12(A) In the case of missing owners, the producer may ask the circuit court to appoint a special commissioner to sell a lease—not the mineral interest itself, but a lease. “It has problems,” Tawney says, including a six-month waiting period after the petition is filed. If this action is pursued, any signing bonus and royalties are held by the county for seven years, Farrell says, at which time the mineral interest and accrued monies go to the surface owner.

The legal expenses can spread far and wide. Tawney recently worked with one mineral parcel that had four single-spaced pages of identified owners. “In a partition suit, you have to join all of the people as defendants, even those who want to lease the property. That requires them to hire lawyers if they want to protect their interests.” Yet the actions may ultimately resolve very little. “One gentleman didn’t care if a well got drilled or not but simply wasn’t willing to sign anything. He owned a fractional interest in the property and, when we sent him a check for the value of his interest, it was less than the cost of the stamp we put on the envelope—but we had spent thousands of dollars to get to that point.” Ultimately, no existing legal mechanism solves all the problems, Tawney says. The state has pooling mechanisms already in place for deep formations, for coalbed methane, and for secondary recovery of oil, he says, and needs a similarly comprehensive solution for shallow wells, which would include the Marcellus Shale. Legislation introduced in 2014 by thenHouse Speaker Tim Miley and then-Senate President Jeff Kessler has the endorsement of both the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia and the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (mineral owners’ groups did not return messages for this story). “What the proposed legislation does is provide that, when operators representing 85 percent of the acreage to be in a unit for a well agrees that they would like to commit the risk capital to drill and 65 percent of the royalty owners agree that a well should be drilled, then they can go before a commission that would supervise the terms of how the deal can be structured so the well would be drilled,” says Bowles Rice Partner George Patterson, who helped draft the legislation. “No one loses title to anything, and you have a third party to determine the terms on which drilling would occur in the unit.” The legislation did not pass in 2014 but will be reintroduced in 2015, Patterson says. “It’s in West Virginia’s interest to get this legislation in place in order to get the minerals produced and the severance taxes generated and people to have the benefits of natural gas.” Focus wvfocus.com

CHEERS & JEERS

Travel

Navigating Morgantown Make your Morgantown business trip a success with these suggestions on where to stay and eat.

organtown is full of life. Traffic buzzes up and down Patteson, Beechurst, and University avenues, while little blue and gold cars full of students whiz by overhead on the PRT—the Personal Rapid Transit system of West Virginia University. The drive-thru line at Starbucks wraps all around its parking lot. This North Central West Virginia city has a population of—technically—31,000, while the Metropolitan Statistical Area included approximately 130,000 people as of 2013. The city also has a burgeoning corporate community that brings in quite a few business travelers. Finding a good place to sleep, eat, and sometimes take a deep breath is important in this, one of West Virginia’s fastest-growing cities. If you’re in town on business, you’ll want a good meal and a comfortable hotel room at the end of a long day. Fortunately Morgantown has high-end hotels and restaurants conveniently located downtown, near Cheat Lake, and close to the interstates. Word to the wise: Book early if you’re staying on a game day.

The Chestnut Boutique Hotel 345 Chestnut Street, 304.777.4100, chestnuthotel.com Proximity to downtown, dining, and nightlife Eurosuites 501 Chestnut Ridge Road 800.678.4837, euro-suites.com Newly renovated, free breakfast, proximity to football stadium, hospitals, and dining Fairfield Inn & Suites 2500 University Town Centre Drive, 304.598.5006, marriott.com Proximity to shopping, dining, and interstates, free breakfast Hilton Garden Inn 150 Suncrest Towne Centre Drive, 304.225.9500 Proximity to shopping, dining, football stadium, and hospitals Lakeview Golf Resort & Spa One Lakeview Drive, 304.594.1111, lakeviewresort.com Two championship golf courses, more than 30,000 square feet of meeting space, proximity to Interstate 68 Residence Inn 1046 Willowdale Road 304.599.0237, marriott.com Free breakfast, proximity to football stadium, hospitals

Focus November/December 2014

Waterfront Place Hotel Two Waterfront Place 304.296.1700, waterfrontplacehotel.com Connected to Morgantown Event Center, proximity to interstates, downtown, rail-trail, and fine dining

The number of homeless West Virginia children attending public schools increased by about 9 percent since last school year, according to a Charleston Gazette report. Meanwhile, West Virginia’s educational attainment numbers are dropping. #ThereIsNoFutureWithoutTheKids

Where to Eat* Sargasso 215 Don Knotts Boulevard 304.554.0100, sargassomorgantown.com Fusion cuisine in an upscale setting, Vast wine selection Stefano’s 735 Chestnut Ridge Road 304.581.6930 stefanos.us Authentic Italian and changing menu of specialty drinks, reservations recommended Vintage Room 467 Chestnut Street 304.225.9595, bwvintageroom.com Small plates, wood-fired pizzas and an extensive wine selection, proximity to downtown nightlife The Montmartre 127 High Street 304.292.8200, montmartrewv.com Fine dining, rooftop patio Table 9 40 Donley Street 304.554.2050, dinetable9.com Fine dining, riverside deck *Lists are not comprehensive.

As a reverse scholarship, investment executive and West Virginia University graduate Fred Tattersall committed $1 million to help WVU’s business students pay off student debt. #AffordableEducation #CreatingAStrongerWorkforce

We’ve been ranked last again, this time as least happy and second poorest state by WalletHub surveys. The surveys reinforce an earlier GallupHealthways poll measuring wellbeing. #TimeToReverseTheSpiral #WestVirginiaHappinessDay?

elizabeth roth

Where to Stay*

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin on West Virginia’s legalization of gay marriage: “Our state is known for its kindness and hospitality to residents and visitors alike. I encourage all West Virginians —regardless of their personal beliefs—to uphold our statewide tradition of treating one another with dignity and respect.” #It’sAboutTime #SecuringTheBlessingsOfLiberty

Artpreneur

courtesy of Kate Moore; courtesy of RiffRaff Arts Collective (2)

Riffing on Progress Lori McKinney is making art work for her—and her community—in Princeton. Written by Shay Maunz

ori McKinney doesn’t have any trouble defining herself: She’s an artist—a musician, mostly— who is interested in all things creative. She has a harder time explaining the RiffRaff Arts Collective. That’s where McKinney lives, works, and makes art. It’s also a base of operations of sorts for McKinney’s continued efforts to bolster the arts community in the small town of Princeton, near West Virginia’s southern border. And it plays a central role in the story of the town’s overall renewed vibrancy in recent years. Superlatives aside, the RiffRaff Arts Collective is a series of three downtown buildings—two side by side, the third across the street—that house a lot of things, including an art gallery, artists’ studios, a performance space, and a music school. That still doesn’t get to the heart of the RiffRaff though, so McKinney tells the story from the beginning. “I grew up here in Princeton, and I was always really hungry for creative outlets— I found choir pretty early on, in church, and then was on my way quickly to any creative program that my school had,” she says. “But I had big-city longings.” When

A view down Artists’ she graduated from Alley, one of the high school she went community mural on to a music theater projects in Princeton. This one features 22 program at James artists—all volunteers. Madison University Princeton’s arts in Virginia. “It’s an community comes out abnormal college in force for the 2014 All group because Together Arts Parade, organized by McKinney pretty much all and now in its sixth year. the kids there are on a straight track to Broadway,” she says. She played the lead in some school shows and thought maybe she’d go the Broadway route, too. But then, during her senior year, she studied in London for a semester. “That’s the thing that changed everything,” she says. In London the arts scene is different, weirder—think less jazz hands and more free-form poetry. “I was exposed to so much arts and culture that it just kind of popped my head open,” McKinney says. “I did a lot of walking around on my own and I noticed these arts organizations right on our block where people were always streaming in and out,” she says. “It really clicked that that was why the whole city of London was so vibrant.” She realized that Focus wvfocus.com

Lori’s Tips on Art and Community Identify Your Resources Just start making an inventory of the nuts-and-bolts resources you have because it’s probably more than you realize. There are probably resources out there for you that you won’t even think of unless you deliberately sit down to list them, and list where the gaps are.

Consider a Gathering

Find Allies You have to know who else shares the spark. That’s not just the passion and the ideas but the drive to execute the ideas. There are some people who want to be involved and will come to events and be very supportive, but they can’t do more— and that’s OK. The people who can actually dedicate the energy to move the idea forward—that’s a much smaller group of people. And you need at least one other person who is really able to go after that idea with you.

Ask for Help I love to have my brain picked by other people who want to make this happen. I think there’s a nutsand-bolts approach to it that can help develop the whole creative community, and then the larger community, and if you keep it going then the circle will go on and on.

Focus November/December 2014

she didn’t have to go to Broadway to be an artist and left London with a model for a community that can both foster creativity and hold its own in the real world. Years later, after McKinney came home to Princeton, she would drive hours with musician friends to open mic nights in larger cities. “Then one day we were getting ready to go to an open mic in Beckley, and we were driving up this road where you can see the whole river. We decided to pull off and look at the beautiful view,” she says. “And that’s when we were like, ‘Wait a minute. Why are we driving to Beckley? There should be an open mic night here.’” So they started one, rotating among coffeehouses and restaurants—any space that was available. “And it just exploded right away,” McKinney says. “There were surges of people. There are so many artists in this area and nowhere for them to go.” McKinney met her husband, Robert Blankenship, at one of those open mic nights, as well as countless friends and collaborators. Through those open sessions the artists and creatives in and around Princeton began to come together to form a

cohesive arts commu- This mural in downtown Princeton by Charleston nity, and pretty soon artist Rob Cleland is one McKinney decided of eight big professional murals McKinney has they should start worked with the town an arts festival, too. to facilitate. “I’d been to a music festival in Tennessee and loved it. They had a sushi vendor and I was like, ‘This is awesome. I can have sushi and music at the same time—we need that,’” she says. That festival, called Culturefest, started in 2004 and has expanded exponentially. It’s now held annually for four days at the Appalachian South Folklife Center in Pipestem. Riding the wave of that success, and now backed by a large, active community of artists, McKinney and Blankenship formed the RiffRaff Arts Collective in 2006. McKinney’s dad bought them the first building, saying he was “interested in adventurous real estate,” she says, as well as the work they were doing in Princeton. That 10,000-square-foot building gave them a regular space for open mic nights—they’re every Monday from 7 to 11 p.m.—plus room for artists’ studios and performance space. McKinney and Blankenship live there, too.

Laura Wilcox Rote

I’m a firm believer in organizing an open event held every week—it helps you identify collaborators. It’s like a magnet that draws people in.

“When we did the

mural project the RiffRaff kind of spilled out onto the street, and people started to really notice what we were up to.” Lori McKinney, co-founder, riffraff arts collective

In 2008 McKinney’s sister Melissa moved home from North Carolina and started Stages Music School across the street—she now has more than 200 students. “Melissa’s like a magnet for this crazy talent and there are these kids and they are living like rock stars,” McKinney says. McKinney has also orchestrated the painting of dozens of murals throughout Princeton, which has helped to put a new face on the once struggling downtown. “When we did the mural project the RiffRaff kind of spilled out onto the street, and people started to really notice what we were up to,” she says. McKinney and the RiffRaff have also been an integral part of the Princeton Renaissance Project, a program backed by the West Virginia Community Development Hub and designed to help rejuvenate Princeton’s downtown. One of its centerpieces is to restore the historic Lavon Theater, and when it’s finished in 2025 the theater will be yet another feather in the hat of this small community that has been reinvigorated through creativity and the arts. McKinney channels her creativity to help her community instead of just herself. She’s less interested in talking about how she and Blankenship technically make a living with their art—through gigs, organizing events, writing songs, and doing sound production, mainly—than she is in talking about how the work she does is helping Princeton. “It’s not just an obligation, it’s a passion that comes from a really deep place,” she says. “We’ve poured so much time and soul and effort into this that we pretty much can’t stop now.” Focus wvfocus.com

Financial Futures money

Making the Cut

Written by Mikenna Pierotti

eggy Caruso, author, entrepreneur, and life coach, believes all children have the capacity to be successful “kidpreneurs,” and in her 2014 book, Revolutionize Your Child’s Life: A Simple Guide to the Health, Wealth, and Welfare of Your Child, she outlines several key ways for parents to guide them. Want to get started? Try these easy-toimplement techniques. Ages 3 to 5: Money Lessons Teaches charity, ingenuity Give your child money and encourage him to increase it rather than spend it. Caruso started by giving her 4-year-old grandson $50 and challenging him to double it in one year and triple it in two. She then helped him divide it into jars for saving, spending, and sharing or giving to charity. Ages 6 to 10: Money Choices Teaches goal setting, decision making Take an active role in monitoring how your child uses the money in her “spend” jar. Asking money conscious questions like “Is that really something you need?” will help her differentiate wants from needs. Along the way, remind her that once the money is gone she must start all over again to buy more things. Ages 11 to 14: Saving Teaches long-term vs. short-term goals Explain the concepts of saving and interest by having your child save a certain amount each year. Have him start with the money in his “save” jar. You can then set up a makebelieve (or real) savings account and explain

Focus November/December 2014

to him how the interest rate can increase his money. Together, calculate how much he would have at age 65 if he left the money alone. Lastly, have him brainstorm a list of small jobs he could perform to earn more money—think weeding or car washing. Ages 14 to adult: College and the Financial Mindset Teaches debt awareness, building credit Introduce the idea of college debt using net-price calculators on college websites. Together, research other ways to pay for college—from financial aid to part-time jobs to scholarships and grants. Explain how getting good grades and participating in extracurricular activities in high school can pay off in the form of big scholarships. This is also a good time to teach your child about credit and debt—the good kind and the bad kind. Explain how her credit score will factor into major financial opportunities such as buying a house or a car. Finally, encourage her to research fun part-time jobs that could turn into entrepreneurial ventures. Together, create lists of potential sources of income—tutoring, babysitting, even blogging or helping local businesses with their social media. Find stories of other successful “kidpreneurs” and help her create vision boards for inspiration.

he Forbes 400 list of America’s richest men and women is out again and the bar has risen to $1.55 billion. Two West Virginia billionaires— Christopher Cline and Jim Justice, II—are rubbing virtual elbows with billionaire philanthropists like Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey. Number 346 on the list, mining entrepreneur Cline was born in McDowell County, the descendant of coal miners, and is currently worth almost $1.9 billion. A more than 30-year veteran of the coal industry, he is the majority owner and principal strategy officer of Foresight Energy, a leading thermal coal producing company. Both Cline and Foresight are based in the Palm Beach, Florida, area; however, Cline also owns a 150-acre property in Beckley. He’s been called a philanthropist for his multimillion dollar donations to West Virginia University and Marshall University. Lewisburg resident and Raleigh County native Justice, owner of the luxurious Greenbrier resort, made the list at number 378 with a net worth of nearly $1.7 billion. The business tycoon also has financial interests in coal, timber, and other industries. In 2009 he bought The Greenbrier, which was facing bankruptcy, and later launched The Greenbrier Classic, part of the PGA tour. According to Forbes, Justice has invested close to $400 million in resorts and hotels in the state, including The Resort at Glade Springs in Raleigh County. He focuses much of his philanthropic efforts on youth sports and donated $25 million to the Boy Scouts of America to help fund the construction of the 10,600-acre Summit Bechtel Reserve. forbes.com/forbes-400

carla witt ford

Encourage your child’s inner entrepreneur in a few simple steps.

Focus wvfocus.com

A 20th century southern gentleman, Robert S. Spilman, Sr. was the only law student at the University of Virginia to complete a two-year program in one year, was highly sought after for his courtroom skills and meticulous drafting of legal documents, and became a respected voice both locally and nationally on issues ranging from politics to public education.

culture

Written in History Spilman Thomas & Battle reflects on a century and a half of legal service in The First 150.

Written by Mikenna Pierotti

ore than two decades ago, if you’d stopped by then-partner Charles B. Stacy’s office at Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, you might have found him at his desk, hunched over piles of century-old letters, yellowed photographs, dusty memoirs, and dog-eared books. But he wasn’t digging through the firm’s archives for a case. Like an archeologist brushing away layers of

Focus November/December 2014

earth, Stacy was slowly uncovering more than a century of the firm’s history—a history of counsel and thought leadership that began in the turmoil of the Civil War and still shapes the legal community and economy of the region today. From founders Benjamin Harrison Smith and Edward Boardman Knight and their influential role in the formation of the state of West Virginia and its Constitution to Robert S. Spilman, Sr.’s 60-year trail-blazing career, few organizations can boast such a

long and diverse background. And in 2014 the firm, headquartered in Charleston, celebrated its 150th year by unveiling its first historical biography—The First 150: Spilman Thomas & Battle’s History of Service—completed after Stacy’s death by former Associated Press reporter and gubernatorial press secretary Jill Wilson. “We wanted to demonstrate to others how a law firm can be involved in positively engaging and impacting communities, helping to form the political state, and building the economies of a particular region,” says Eric W. Iskra, a member of Spilman’s management committee. The book chronicles the years leading up to Spilman’s founding in 1864 through many of its landmark cases and most powerful members—from the coal mine wars of the 1920s to a U.S. Supreme Court case establishing the state’s boundary with Maryland to a sometimes violent labor

Courtesy of Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

Edward Boardman Knight became instrumental during the West Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1872 and was the primary author of an article governing taxes and voting rights.

The EdVenture Group offers customized professional development programs, courses and coaching for the business, healthcare and education communities. Areas of Expertise • Consulting (personal and professional) • Certified Corporate, Executive and Leadership Coaching • Change Management • Culture and Climate • Project Management

• Leadership Development • Entrepreneurship • Corporate and Community Wellness Education Programs • Health Coaching • Facilitation and Planning • Public Speaking and Keynotes

Courtesy of Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

CONNECT WITH US 304.296.9021 | theedventuregroup.org info@edvgroup.com

Benjamin Harrison disagreement. The firm has counted Smith was appointed among its ranks masterful orators, U.S. Attorney by President Lincoln and influential politicians, brave soldiers, was a strong advocate and high-ranking judges. “Spilman of remaining in the was founded as a very small firm in one Union and seceding from Virginia at the state but has grown to become a player Wheeling Convention on the regional scene, with a footprint of 1861. throughout the mid-Atlantic,” Iskra says. Where once the firm had just two lawyers, it now employs nearly 140 licensed in roughly 20 states and assists clients all over the country and across the globe. In 2014 it has diverse litigation and corporate departments covering everything from high-stakes trial work to public policy, advocacy, and reform with offices in seven cities and four states. Although Spilman of the antebellum era bears almost no resemblance to the firm today, Iskra says the client-focused culture, passion for a cause, and professional integrity of its founders continues to serve it well. “Everything we do is about the folks we work with and serve. It’s written in our history.”

800.967.8251, spilmanlaw.com/flipbook.html Focus wvfocus.com

Noteworthy Launch

High Spirits

There’s a new vodka company in town, and this one is for the girls.

or some reason, most companies that make alcohol aren’t owned by women. The spirits market is highly saturated, filled with a ton of businesses that make, bottle, and sell liquor that is, more or less, the same—but for the most part, they’re all owned by men. That’s what makes the story of Vixen Vodka, which is owned by two women—one of them a West Virginia native—so remarkable. The company launched in West Virginia and five other states in fall 2014, after a yearlong pilot period in Georgia, and it’s seeing success. The bar at The Greenbrier featured the vodka all October, and it’s already been awarded a gold medal in one taste test. Vixen Vodka started, like so many good things do, with a cocktail on the beach. It was 2010 and LeeAnn Maxwell, who grew up in South Charleston and is now the company’s CEO, decided to get away from her job in Atlanta, Georgia, to spend a weekend vacationing with a few girlfriends, including Vixen’s marketing director and cofounder, Carrie King. “We basically packed bathing suits and alcohol and went down to sit on the beach, drink, and read trash magazines,” Maxwell says. Everybody tossed their favorite liquor into their suitcase for the trip, but mainly they stocked up on vodka. “We women like our clear spirits,” Maxwell says. Between lounging on the beach and taking a dip in the pool, the women got to talking about the drinks in their hands. “We started talking about how these cocktails speak to us,” Maxwell says. “And how these companies market

Focus November/December 2014

to us, or don’t market to us.” The women realized that even though they love to drink vodka, and they each had a go-to brand for their suitcase, none of those brands was going out of its way to speak to them—to women. Most of them were catering to men. And the few alcohol companies that were addressing women were doing it in an almost condescending tone, with pre-mixed cocktails and low-calorie versions of everything—as though a woman wouldn’t dare walk up to a bar alone and simply order vodka on the rocks. “In the liquor industry women are looked on as either sex objects or arm candy,” Maxwell says. “We realized there was no brand out there speaking to a woman who could go out and hold her own at the bar.” Naturally, someone suggested that the women assembled start one themselves. “Carrie turned to me and said, ‘We could call it Vixen,’” Maxwell says. “We all laughed it off and went back to whatever we were doing, but I couldn’t let it go, even after we left the beach.” When Maxwell got home she went online and bought 25 domain names—everything that had anything to do with the words “vixen” and “vodka.” Back in 2010 Maxwell was working in the financial field and King was immersed in the corporate world, but both of them were up for a passion project and intrigued by the idea of this new venture. They decided to keep their jobs for a while, but to work on Vixen on the side. Maxwell called her ex-husband, another West Virginia native named Eddie Snyder. “The whole husband thing didn’t work out, but he’s a brilliant creative director,” Maxwell

Courtesy of Vixen Vodka

Written by Shay Maunz

says. The women wanted his input and his help defining Vixen’s identify. They started with the logo—a woman’s legs, standing tall in heels to form the “x” in “Vixen.” Those legs belong to a woman Maxwell and King knew from their gym. “We wanted it to be strong legs, an athlete’s legs,” Maxwell says. “And there was no Photoshop, no airbrushing, no making something skinnier or fatter. Those legs are what they are, just like we women are what we are.” They developed the rest of Vixen’s brand around that philosophy, too. “And then Carrie and I met in a nail salon and said, ‘I wonder how you make vodka,’” Maxwell says. For that they went to Mile High Spirits, a private distillery in Denver. After a day of sipping vodka the women chose a formula. It’s gluten-free, made from corn and Rocky Mountain spring water, and distilled five times in a glass still. “It makes a super clean, super refreshing, almost light-tasting vodka,” Maxwell says. “It doesn’t give you that sharp feeling at the end, what I call the vodka wince.” Mile High makes the vodka. Vixen launched in Georgia in November 2012 and used 2013 as a pilot period. In September it launched in West Virginia, and the company is now in seven states. Maxwell and King both work on Vixen full-time, and Maxwell says the company is in “expansion mode.” They hope to add more states in the coming years and to gain more loyal customers, male and female alike. “I think if we’d known when we started how hard it would be, we would have looked at each other and said, ‘Oh, that’s a great idea,’ and gone back to our lives,” Maxwell says. “I’m really glad we didn’t know.”

Courtesy of Vixen Vodka

"Women are an ignored demographic in the spirits industry, and when they do pay attention to us they use this pink-itand-shrink-it approach— it's almost condescending," Maxwell says.

vixenvodka.com Focus wvfocus.com

Philanthropy

The Mollohan Foundation has supported college education and community nonprofits for more than a decade.

Written by Katie Griffith

he Robert H. Mollohan Family Charitable Foundation, a scholarship organization supporting interests as wide and varied as West Virginia’s students can conceive, has donated more than $1 million to kids and community organizations since its founding 14 years ago. “The focus was and still is on education and community projects that are typically underfunded—to empower these causes with financial support,” says foundation vice president and former U.S. Representative Alan Mollohan.

Focus November/December 2014

Established in 2000 in honor of Mollohan’s father, who throughout his life was supportive of educational causes, the foundation offers scholarships and summer internships in subjects ranging from journalism to business to high-tech education. The motivation, Mollohan says, is to highlight the opportunities that exist in West Virginia for students who want to live and work in-state after graduation. “It’s important for economic diversification to fill, for example, the high-tech sector of our economy and to fill it with West Virginia’s youngsters,” Mollohan says. “When I first

got elected to Congress, one of the principle concerns for parents was that our children have to go out of state to find a job. In these areas youngsters need to know that there are job opportunities here.” In addition to the scholarships, the organization offers $2,000 need-based college loans that are forgiven if the student lives and works in West Virginia after graduating. Grants for community nonprofits are available up to $5,000, evaluated on need and impact. The organization has also taken on the responsibility of managing multiple scholarships and family donations. “We found that there were lots of folks whose loved one or inspiration had passed away and they wanted to honor their memories with a scholarship fund,” says Teresa Seymour, executive director of the foundation. “But it’s hard to administer a scholarship, and if you only have a little bit of money, it doesn’t go far.” The foundation takes on the

Sherry Carr, WVHTC Foundation; Courtesy of On Eagles’ wings; Courtesy of westside robotics

A Foundation of Education

West Virginia students, educational organizations, and community organizations have received more than $1 million from the Robert H. Mollohan Family Charitable Foundation since its founding.

“When I first got elected to Congress, one of the principle concerns for parents was that our children have to go out of state to find a job. In these areas youngsters need to know that there are job opportunities here.” Alan Mollohan, Mollohan Foundation Vice President administration of a scholarship and matches a donor’s scholarship money up to $10,000 for two years. Since its founding it has given more than $520,000 in grants, $440,000 in scholarships, and $335,000 in loans, most of which have been forgiven. In October 2014 the Mollohan Foundation held a fashion show fundraiser to benefit the dozens of programs it supports each year. The show constituted the foundation’s only fundraiser for 2014 and Seymour says organizers were still counting donations even a week after the fundraiser. It was expected to have raised $20,000 or more. “Generally we spend about $30,000 in scholarships, $10,000 in loans, and around $12,500 in community grants a year,” she says. That money aids students and communities across West Virginia. For the coming award season the foundation is readying a new scholarship dedicated to children of veterans. “We had started it for Wounded Warriors and now that folks have come back from Iraq we haven’t had anyone apply for it in a number of years,” Seymour says. The foundation adjusted the scholarship’s eligibility requirements, and now all high school-aged children of veterans can apply. Among recent grants, the foundation supported a small Marion County cemetery in digitizing its records and provided funding for a therapeutic horse program for individuals with special needs. The Disability Action Center, SteppingStones, community arts programs, and more have benefited from the grants. “There’s a group called Heartwood in the Hills that’s a great arts program in Calhoun County promoting dance and theater,” Mollohan says. “That’s the kind of program that needs support and that I’m particularly proud of supporting.” mollohanfoundation.org Focus wvfocus.com

A Patent Factory A history of irrepressible innovation is taking Touchstone Research Laboratory to a new level.

written by Pam Kasey

iling a patent application is a big deal: concrete recognition that an idea is novel enough to protect, and might even make money. But how about a patent application every month? Touchstone Research Laboratory east of Wheeling kept up that pace for 10 years. That foundation is about to launch the three-decades-old company to a new level. Touchstone got its informal start in 1980 when President and CEO Brian Joseph bought an electron microscope and rebuilt it in the basement of Wheeling’s Mount Carmel Monastery. He’d earned a degree in biology from then-West Liberty State College and had done a year in biophysics at Ohio State University, but decided to quit school and make something happen.

Focus November/December 2014

He incorporated in 1983. “I never got a job,” he quips. Early on, Touchstone mainly did failure analysis for clients: figuring out why a paint wouldn’t stick on the bumper of a car or why bolts broke and caused an industrial accident. Success brought growth and, in 1989, Touchstone moved into the Millennium Centre technology park in Triadelphia. Experimenting there with composites and other materials, the company hit its stride. In 1999 it applied for the first in a long string of patents for CFOAM, a coal-based carbon foam—not an entirely new concept, but a lighter-weight version that was just as strong. The first patents for the material rolled in in 2003, and then came multiple follow-on patents, year after year: methods for varying the strength, density, and

From raw coal (above), porosity throughTouchstone Research out the material. Laboratory makes Reinforcement with its polished, almost stiffeners. Documen- sculptural CFOAM molds for carbon fiber tation of a range of parts (left). properties and uses. Improvements in production processes. CFOAM puts West Virginia’s industrial staple to high-tech use in composite tooling—molds for carbon fiber components. “When you make a carbon fiber part,” Joseph says, as the airline, automotive, and other industries do for the strength-toweight and other advantages over conventional materials, “you buy the carbon fiber and it’s going to look like fabric. And then you need a mold.” The mold can’t shrink or expand too much with temperature. “You can’t use steel, you can’t use ceramics—there are very few materials that match carbon fiber’s coefficient of thermal expansion, and CFOAM does almost perfectly.” Coupling CFOAM with expertise in fabrication, Touchstone found itself in demand. “We’ve invented the best way to make carbon fiber composite parts for airplanes, period,” Joseph says. The company makes parts for Boeing and Airbus and for drones used by the U.S. military, as well as for many other purposes.

Courtesy of Touchstone Research Laboratory

Innovation

“The goal here is to have

diversity of ideas and the way you have that is to bring in people of different backgrounds.” Brian Joseph, president and ceo, touchstone research laboratory But CFOAM’s properties suggest a vast range of other uses, too. “We can make fireproof walls and doors,” Joseph enthuses. “We can make it absorb radar and make a stealthy ship. You can use it for furnace insulation. A certain very high-end audio company is using it for every one of its speakers. It has space shuttle tile applications and it’s gone into space.” He loves adding value to a West Virginia raw material. “Right now, we sell coal for 4 cents per pound. In three manufacturing steps, I can increase its value probably a thousand-fold. Don’t we want to do that instead? I think CFOAM may change everything in the world of coal and many things in the world.” Today Joseph holds a couple dozen patents. Touchstone has more than 50 in the U.S. and some in other countries, for CFOAM and other technologies. The company has quadrupled its business in two years and, for the moment, employs 42. “We hired a guy this morning, we made an offer this afternoon— we’ll add about 10 by the end of the year,” he said in mid-October. Staff include chemists, physicists, biologists, mechanical and civil engineers, and other technical specialists. Like Thomas Edison’s research lab and few others, Joseph says, Touchstone’s research environment is unfocused by design. “If you set up to be the world’s best stainless steel anti-corrosion materials laboratory, you’re not going to find a cure for cancer,” he says. “But if you put a biophysicist next to a mechanical engineer next to a welder, all of a sudden you’re doing something you never thought of. The goal here is to have diversity of ideas and the way you have that is to bring in people of different backgrounds.” He capitalizes on the region’s deep pool of talent in fabrication. “Some of my smartest people don’t have college degrees, but they can build anything. It’s how you blend all these resources together that makes you the place that can get things done.” Touchstone is spinning out two companies: CFOAM, for manufacturing the material itself, and Touchstone Advanced Composites for making the molds. Joseph also envisions spinoffs in a proprietary fiber-reinforced aluminum. He expects to outgrow the company’s 40,000 square feet at the Millennium Centre in 18 months. “The focus now is primarily to build manufacturing plants, preferably here in West Virginia,” he says. “Big stuff’s going to happen.” trl.com Focus wvfocus.com

Founders

I enjoy and am successful at is helping connect the dots, helping translate science to non-scientists in a way that really helps both sides.â&#x20AC;?

courtesy of Valerie Evanoff

â&#x20AC;&#x153;One of the things

Valerie Evanoff Founders

CE O, CrossR esolve | I n terviewed by Shay M au n z

In 2012 Valerie Evanoff founded CrossResolve to advise government agencies and private companies on their use of biometric technologies—things like DNA matching, fingerprints, and face, iris, and voice recognition. Before that Evanoff worked at the FBI and was the CEO of Biometric Services International, a Morgantownbased subsidiary of the National Biometric Security Project. We caught up with Evanoff to talk about business, science, the way they interact in the real world, and her experience as an entrepreneur.

»» My dad is actually an artist, but he’s also a very science-minded person. He always thought like a scientist and explored and asked a lot of “Why?” questions. So that was always a presence when I was young.

»» Biometrics is a great mixture of two things I’m very

interested in: One is science and the other is protecting the United States and the people of the United States.

»» I’m a mom. I have an 18-year-old son in college at

West Virginia University and it’s important to me that we continue to work toward a safer place to live for him.You have to go beyond stockholders; you have to try to communicate with stakeholders. There’s real value in trying to develop a way for companies to try to communicate with their near neighbors.

»» There wasn’t another company doing what I wanted to do, so when I founded CrossResolve I wasn’t trying to imitate anyone. I wasn’t coming out and saying, “I want to be a billion dollar company and I’m going to follow XYZ path to get there.”

»» You can’t forget the “bio” part of biometric—there’s

always a person involved. And it’s exciting, because we are at the forefront of where humans meet technology.

»» I’m OK with not being in the white lab coat anymore. One of the things I enjoy and am successful at is helping connect the dots, helping translate science to non-scientists in a way that really helps both sides. »» I can help the government more from outside of it. It gives me the opportunity to have more flexibility.

»» There is a certain reverence with which people are

sometimes afraid to approach someone—I’ve never had that. That requires presuming that people, regardless of their title or their stature within a company or within government, they’re just people like everyone is a person.

»» I don’t really know how to do anything halfway,

so when I’m with my family I’m with my family, and when I’m working I’m working. My son’s away at college so that really helps with the maternal guilt.

Focus wvfocus.com

Education

Teachers for Hire

Transition to Teaching Program in West Virginia

This statewide education program is effective, uncontroversial, and beloved by education officials—so why aren’t more counties using it? Webster

Written by Shay Maunz

ast summer, the Kanawha County school system had a problem: It didn’t have enough qualified math teachers for all the kids in the county who needed to learn math. School systems across the state and the country are facing this problem. Teachers are retiring at an alarmingly high rate these days—the American Federation of Teachers has estimated that as much as half of the state’s teaching force will be eligible to retire in the next decade—at the same time that the number of education majors in West Virginia is decreasing. “Unfortunately we have a teacher shortage, and it’s going to be chronic for the next few years,” says Carol Hamric, human resources director for Kanawha County Schools. According to numbers from the state Department of Education, West Virginia was short nearly 685 positions for the 2013-14 school year. Luckily, Kanawha County officials found another option, a resource that could connect them with professionals who have deep backgrounds in specific subject areas, both academically and professionally. Sometimes candidates even have advanced degrees in their fields, and they’ve often worked in a related profession for years. That’s quite

Focus November/December 2014

Kanawha

Lincoln

Logan

Summers

Counties using the Transition to Teaching program for the 2014-2015 school year

McDowell

a boon for positions classified as highneed—that is, positions that administrators have posted at least twice without receiving applications from anyone qualified for the spot. The catch? These candidates aren’t fully certified teachers just yet. They get that certification online, at night, during their first year of teaching, after taking some tests and proving they meet some initial criteria. In the meantime, mentors guide them through those first months as rookie teachers. It’s called the Transition to Teaching Program, and Hamric loved the idea. “You have to do all sorts of creative things to stay ahead of the game when it comes to recruiting teachers,” she says. “This is a wonderful, viable option.” In the fall of 2014, six of Kanawha County’s new hires were part of the Transition to Teaching program: Five are teaching secondary math, one is in special education. “And the proof is in the pudding,” Hamric says. “The principals all seem really happy with them so far.” West Virginia’s Transition to Teaching

Program started in 2010 with $600,000 in federal funding. That money has since run out and the program is now funded by the state. It’s one of two programs available to people who want to become teachers in West Virginia without going through the traditional, lengthy route required by law— that is, an education degree in college, plus time student teaching. The other is Troops to Teachers, a federal program that recruits military veterans with an interest in education. There are other, larger programs that funnel alternatively certified teachers into high-need areas across the country— Teach for America is probably the best known—but West Virginia has effectively, if not roundly, rejected efforts to bring them here. A provision in Govrnor Earl Ray Tomblin’s 2013 education reform bill that would have loosened up the state’s certification guidelines, allowing programs like Teach for America to operate here, was met with such vehement criticism from teachers’ unions and others that it was eventually dropped from the bill.

“Our objective is

to keep someone in West Virginia classrooms until retirement age—it’s not a temporary solution.” Monica Beane, executive director, Department of Education’s Office of Professional Preparation

Transition to Teaching hasn’t been nearly as controversial. That might be because, while programs like TFA tend to recruit bright young college graduates, Transition to Teaching is going after the older professional crowd, people with years of experience under their belts. Plus, unlike some other alternative certification programs, even though Transition to Teaching participants don’t have education degrees when they start in the classroom, they still have to have degrees in the subjects they’ll be teaching. “These individuals don’t have the pedagogic knowledge you learn with an education degree, but they have the content knowledge already,” says Robert Mellace, a teacher quality coordinator for the state. It might also have something to do with the program’s focus on providing mentorship to new teachers. “We really concentrate on the induction and support component,” says Monica Beane, executive director of the Department of Education’s Office of Professional Preparation. “And that’s often the difference between people starting out and then leaving immediately, and people staying in the classroom for years. Our objective is to keep someone in West Virginia classrooms until retirement age—it’s not a temporary solution.” The retention rate for Transition to Teaching’s beginning teachers is 81 percent. Among West Virginia teachers who get certified the non-alternative way, retention rates average between 33 and 50 percent. So here’s the question: Why aren’t

more school systems using this program? Since Transition to Teaching started in 2010, 118 teachers have made it through the program and into West Virginia classrooms. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but there are still a lot of empty teaching positions. Even in Kanawha County, with its Transition to Teaching success story, those six new teachers were just a drop in the bucket: This year Kanawha County hired 274 new teachers overall; 215 retired. Hamric has managed to hire enough teachers to ward off a shortage in her county, but it’s getting harder and harder. And that job is even tougher in more rural school systems. Berkeley County, for example, was short nearly 80 teachers in the 2013-14 school year. This school year, the Transition to Teaching program is only being used by eight of West Virginia’s 55 school districts. And there are plenty of professionals who have expressed an interest in the Transition to Teaching program and have posted resumes in a database available to school systems looking for new job candidates, but haven’t been approached by a school system about a job. That might have something to do with the cost involved to the district: They pay for all the support and mentoring for the new teachers, usually around $5,000. Geography might also play a role, on the job candidates’ end: They’re already considering changing careers and don’t always want to move to rural parts of the state to do it. Still, officials think it’s possible to do a better job matching these qualified, prospective new teachers with the schools that need them. And the more teachers who retire, the larger the teacher shortages in West Virginia, the more important it is that that happens. “These are people who have practical, relevant knowledge that they can bring into the education field as teachers,” Mellace says. “And they’re able to go in on day one and start teaching right away. If someone wants to go through the traditional route to certification it can take up to two years and sometimes longer before they get into a classroom. So this is a way to meet the immediate need for teachers.”

County school systems with the greatest teacher shortages Logan

68 positions out of 479: 14.2%

McDowell

39 positions out of 282: 13.8 %

Wyoming

33 positions out of 330: 9.7%

Boone

39 positions out of 403: 9.5%

Calhoun

7 positions out of 92: 7.7%

Subject areas with the greatest teacher shortages, statewide Multi-Categorical Special Education (learning disabilities, behavior disorders, mentally impaired) 105 positions out of 386: 27.2%

Preschool special needs 14 positions out of 81: 17.3%

High School Language Arts 8 positions out of 51: 15.69%

High School Foreign Language 44 positions out of 323: 13.7%

School Nurse 38 positions out of 295: 12.8% (Source: West Virginia Department of Education)

wvde.state.wv.us/transitiontoteaching Focus wvfocus.com

What will climate change mean for wildlife in the Mountain State?

written by Pam Kasey

s the climate warms, researchers expect West Virginia to get wetter—and also drier. “If we’re looking 30 to 40 years out into the future, we’re probably expecting to see an increase in heavier precipitation,” says state Climatologist Kevin Law. “But at the same time we’ll probably see more drier spells. In other words, more variation in the precipitation—wetter years and drier years.” That means more flooding, for one thing. “Having more moisture is going to change biogeochemistry: how much nitrogen is released through a watershed, how much phosphorus is released,” says Nicolas Zegre, a forest hydrologist at West Virginia University. More of these nutrients in streams can cause blooms of algae that choke out oxygen supplies for fish, as well as other effects. “We’re implicitly changing conditions for the smallest level of organisms. We can

Focus November/December 2014

also expect an increase in erosion and sediment, because we’re increasing the energy, the power of that water moving through the system. This is going to place huge stresses on streams.” Add to that the intermittent dry periods, and it’s going to create challenges for some West Virginia wildlife.

Which Wildlife?

Elizabeth Byers, a natural heritage ecologist with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, set out a few years ago with colleague Sam Norris to answer that. They worked with experts across the state to enter detailed information on 185 of the state’s species into NatureServe’s Climate Change Vulnerability Index. “Say you were doing the Cheat Mountain salamander. You would put in its range—it’s endemic to West Virginia, we have its entire range— then you’d rank it related to 23 different factors. Like, is exposure to sea level rise

Extremely vulerable going to impact that to cimate change salamander? No. Is its in West Virginia: the distribution relative to redfin shiner. barriers going to impact it? Yes, because it won’t cross a road.” The index then rates each species’ climate change vulnerability. Most at risk, according to the results Byers and Norris reported in their 2011 report “Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment of Species of Concern in West Virginia”: amphibians. “The vulnerability is related to the barriers, like for the Cheat Mountain salamander, because many have small ranges and they have a lot of trouble crossing anything that’s not moist.” Next are some fish, mollusks, and rare plants. In general, Byers says, species that have trouble with drought are especially at risk. Species that live at high elevations are at risk, too. “If you’re already on the top of a mountain, there’s no place to go,” she says. In all, 16 species were rated “extremely vulnerable,” meaning their number or range is likely to decrease substantially or disappear by 2050. The beloved native brook trout, which requires cool streams, will fare better in some stream segments than in others. “Those places that are less sensitive to the increase in air temperature—places that are dominated by groundwater—will be the future trout habitat,” explains Nathaniel Hitt, a research fish biologist at the United States Geological Survey’s Leetown Science Center in Kearneysville. Research so far shows that Shavers Fork of the Cheat River and the Upper Greenbrier system of the New River, both flowing largely through the upland Monongahela National Forest, may be some of the last best

Fredlyfish4, Wikimedia

Protecting Species Top Issues

“We’re implicitly changing conditions for the smallest level of organisms.”

From top: Wikimedia; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region

Nicolas Zegre, Forest Hydrologist, West Virginia University

places for native brook trout. The resiliency provided by groundwater in some streams Extremely vulnerable: the elktoe mussel. is good news, Hitt says, but he notes that the higher precipitation that’s predicted could spell trouble for trout. High winter storms lead to lower brook trout populations the following year, presumably because the storms scour overwintering eggs from the streambed. “If that occurs in sequential years it could really impair the size classes or age classes for brook trout and make populations much more vulnerable,” he says. Extremely vulnerable: the Cheat Mountain salamander, the entire range of which lies in West Virginia.

Conservation Action Plan

The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has begun the process of a 10-year update to the state’s 1,000-page Conservation Action Plan, a document required in order to receive wildlife grant funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It’s not so much a plan for DNR’s activities as a resource document for any entity that can help address the needs of species, says Steve Brown, manager of DNR’s stream restoration program. The first plan, created in 2005, looked at more than 500 species and placed a high emphasis on learning more about many species than was then known, Brown says. This second document is directed

less toward inventory and more toward habitat and land conservation activities. “The one that’s coming will identify areas, not individual properties but areas of the state that should receive special attention because of the species and habitats that are represented there,” he says. “It’s basically going to drive things more in the direction of actual habitat conservation: some on public land, some on private land, some maybe through conservation easements, some through cooperative agreements with landowners, that sort of thing.” And this coming plan will, for the first time, include consideration of climate change as one of the stressors species face. Climate change is not at this time the biggest problem for wildlife in West Virginia, Byers says—things like development and pollution pose more immediate challenges. “But as it turns out, in terms of action we would take, it’s the same kinds of things we’re already trying to do.” That includes increasing habitat connectivity, protecting water quality and streamflow, and reducing any other stressors that can be reduced. “We’re trying to think in terms of scenarios for the future so we’re not taken totally off guard.” The DNR will work with experts and the general public over the coming year and will submit the updated Conservation Action Plan to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in September 2015. Focus wvfocus.com

connections

But Hey, Who’s Counting? Meet some of your favorites, according to Facebook. One hundred likes. Fifty shares. A dozen comments. A million friends. OK, not many of us have a million friends, but there’s almost no escaping the social media popularity contest that is Facebook. So, we’re curious: Who are some of the most popular—and not so popular—West Virginians on Facebook? And what are they saying? Here’s a look as of mid-October.

Who has the most? 1. Brad Paisley 2. Steve Harvey 3. Jennifer Garner 4. Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. 5. Tudor’s Biscuit World 6. Morgan Spurlock 7. Senator Joe Manchin III 8. Pepperoni Roll 9. WVU Mountaineer 10. Powell’s Mountain Goat 11. Homer Hickam

Brad Paisley 7,306,729 likes Musician/band page

“I’m a pretty popular goat and can be seen on Powell Mountain along Route 19 in central West Virginia. People stop on the highway to take my photo. I don’t mind at all!”

Powell’s Mountain Goat 4,718 likes

Public figure page

Steve Harvey 2,476,370 likes Public figure page

“It’s not every day you play Catch Phrase with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Questlove and John Mulaney, but I wish it was.” October 6, 2014

Jennifer Garner Public figure page

Focus November/December 2014

shutterstock

328,203 likes

Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. 39,524 likes

Musician/band page

Pepperoni Roll 12,763 likes

Food/beverages page

Senator Joe Manchin III 21,675 likes

Government official page

“Tag with my kid at the playground turned full contact when the monkey bars attacked me. Now at Cornell w/ a broken nose— stitches on the way.” september 28, 2014

Recent posts include photos of kittens and books by Homer Hickam.

Homer Hickam 3,181 Followers Personal page

courtesy of Allen Media Strategies; elizabeth roth; carla witt ford; elizabeth roth

Morgan Spurlock 32,193 Followers Personal page

WVU Mountaineer 5,717 likes

Public figure page

Tudor’s Biscuit World 38,285 likes

Food/beverages page

Focus wvfocus.com

A Prodigal Return A Hinton native and web CEO returns to help rebuild his hometown in Summers County. Written by Katie Griffith

en Allman is a well-known name around certain parts. Medical service providers know him as the founder of PracticeLink—a nationwide online resource for job-hunting physicians. In Hinton, he’s a hometown hero who came back and helped to rebuild a flagging city. But for a job provider and a man who’s renovated half of Hinton, his most striking quality isn’t his forward thinking. It’s his humility. In the early 1990s, Allman was living in St. Louis, Missouri, a 30-something trying to make his way in various fields like management consultancy and physician recruiting. He had graduated

Focus November/December 2014

from Alderson Broaddus University in Philippi with a bachelor’s in biology and political science and had planned to go pre-med, but life and multiple interests decided otherwise. By 1994, as the Internet boomed, Allman saw an opportunity and took it. “Physician recruiting was an industry and a profession that had not yet been touched by information technology. At the time information was still exchanged by fax,” he says. PracticeLink began out of a single computer picked up at Best Buy. Allman would find job listings and post them online, keeping everything as up-to-date as possible. As time went on the idea took off. “As my business grew, I didn’t have a great deal of resources, financial or otherwise,” he says. “I decided to bring the business back to Hinton where the cost of doing business was substantially less than in St. Louis.” Since returning to Hinton, a halfhour outside Beckley, Allman hasn’t just expanded his business into an awardwinning leader in physician recruiting, he’s helped to reinvigorate a town passed over by industry and interstate highways. “Growing up here was a wonderful experience. It was a vibrant community with a vibrant downtown and a very beautiful place to live,” he says. In just a decade the town he had known as a child had changed as I-64 passed Hinton by and surrounding cities began to soak up the town’s resources. “When I came back in 1999, a lot of things

I grew up with were gone,” Allman says. “We had maybe a dozen restaurants, a dozen clothing stores, two department stores, two drug stores, two banks, a movie theater—all those things were gone from the downtown.” Today, thanks to his efforts, some of those things are coming back. Six months after returning to Hinton, PracticeLink hired about 20 people and completely renovated Hinton’s historic Loyal Order of Moose lodge for corporate offices. Allman’s work in community revitalization began with the needs of PracticeLink in mind, but those needs weren’t much different from those of the community. After the lodge renovation, Allman purchased and renovated what is now The Guest House Inn on Courthouse Square in 2007 as a place for PracticeLink’s out-oftown guests to rest their feet. Today the boutique tourism hotel gets high marks on TripAdvisor from travelers looking to explore Hinton’s historic downtown near the confluence of three rivers. Since 2000 there’s only been a brief period that Allman and his team haven’t been involved in a major restoration project. At times, they’re working on two or three simultaneously, including the creation of a premium sandwich shop and upscale gift store, the renovation of a historic theater, and the restoration of a historic hotel. In 2007 Allman created another venture, MountainPlex Properties, to take over PracticeLink’s real estate acquisitions. MountainPlex Media was formed in 2010 to revive the local radio station. Today, between MountainPlex and PracticeLink, he employs more than 60 people in Hinton working in everything from the service industry to PracticeLink recruitment. “What we ended up doing was nothing that we planned to do. The most important element of this whole effort is the team that came together to make this possible.” That team has been comprised of a number of people over the years. It’s PracticeLink, it’s MountainPlex, and it’s Allman’s family, friends, and fellow community members. “This town has come together over the last years in a very significant way,” he says. “It’s not a Ken Allman effort. It’s not a PracticeLink effort. It’s a community effort.”

Courtesy of Practice Link

Who’s Stepping Up

Movinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; On Up

The King Coal Highway is an audacious plan to remake southern West Virginiaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1,200 feet up.

Written and photographed by

Pam Kasey

Focus November/December 2014

Focus wvfocus.com

courtesy of Mingo County Redevelopment Authority

Focus November/December 2014

devolve to an epic battle between environment and jobs. But, like many such stories, it may not have to.

Momentum from the Mind How the King Coal Highway came to be is a study in how necessity begets inventiveness, and how inventiveness can beget pavement. It goes back to the 1970s. Looking for an economic boost, the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce hit on the idea of a better road to Huntington. Two-lane U.S. Route 52 along the southwestern flank of the state meandered beside river banks and snaked up and down mountainsides, a four-hour drive to go just 110 miles as the crow flies. The Bluefield group eventually found success by joining interstate transportation corridor efforts. In 1991 Congress recognized the value of an I-73/I-74 North-South Corridor connecting the Great Lakes and upper Midwest with the coast of the Carolinas, traversing West Virginia along U.S. 52, explains Mike Mitchem, who’s directed the state’s King Coal Highway Authority since soon after it was established in 1999. And in 1995 the corridor was designated the number five high priority corridor in the National Highway System. Funding for study and route design came in several chunks. Since then? Not a lot. Given two national recessions and a general dearth of infrastructure funding, the most significant stretch that’s been built is 80 miles in North Carolina. The National I-73/I-74 Corridor Association disbanded in ’99, then formed again in 2007 to reinvigorate the project. Efforts continue: A meeting of a Virginia Senate committee on the Virginia portion was scheduled for November 10, 2014, in Martinsville, for example. Efforts continue in West Virginia as well, where the corridor, conceived in two sections, would cut travel time between Bluefield and Huntington almost by half. The proposed 55-mile north-south Tolsia Highway between Huntington and U.S. Route 119, or Corridor G, near Williamson has three interchanges and a couple short stretches built now. And then there’s the proposed 95-mile King Coal Highway between Corridor G at its western end and I-77 at Bluefield to the east. One might think a project bearing the charisma of King

courtesy of Mingo County Redevelopment Authority

magine a farm with strong, suntanned workers plucking vegetables from long rows and placing them in crates. Behind a distant fence, pink and black pigs root and grunt. Row crops, in another direction, give way to fruit trees. It might make you think of California—but now, set it down in hardscrabble Mingo County, West Virginia. “People don’t think of Mingo County as an agriculture-based economy—and rightfully so, because our land is on the side of a mountain,” says Steve Kominar, executive director of the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority (MCRA). “But Mingo County is the warmest county in West Virginia, so our season is extended somewhat. With some flat land and a few organic ingredients— cattle waste, hog waste, and all that—we can develop some tillable soil so we can grow crops. And that goes in concert with the mindset we’re trying to change for a healthy lifestyle.” Southern West Virginia, in one frustrated view, should just be evacuated. The coal jobs the communities developed around have been drying up for years: Mines close one after another, and county unemployment rates hover stubbornly above the state average. The lush and dramatic landscape, more vertical than horizontal, isn’t even all that habitable. Most of the flat places big enough to build on are taken, and they’re only flat because they’re in the floodplains. Dank, airless downtowns cling to the lower hillsides. Roads sidle between stream banks and slopes. Getting water and sewer service to homes out in the hollows has been an expensive, many-decades undertaking, and it’s still not complete. Truth be told, a passive evacuation is already well under way. The most coal-dependent southern counties have lost a quarter, a third, even half their populations since 1980. But giving in to evacuation disregards how deep roots can grow over generations. Residents feel attached to their homeplaces, challenges and all. What if, instead of defaulting to diaspora, they could pull off something entirely different? “Road to nowhere” may come to mind as you read this story. Or, “If we flatten it, they will come.” But to talk with the proponents of the King Coal Highway is to hear the people of a down-and-out region dreaming together a huge and vivid opportunity to thrive. Like many stories of development in West Virginia, this story could

OH I

O 77

Huntington Charleston

ia Tols osed ay Prop Highw

IR TV ES

GIN

52 64

119

Kin

oal

Hig

hwa

Bluefield

Steve Kominar and Leasha Elliott of the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority. Old Route 52 snakes between a rock and a wet place.

Bottom right: courtesy of WVDOT-DOH

Together, the King Coal and Tolsia highways would cut travel time between Huntington and Bluefield almost by half.

VI R

GIN

Coal could charm anything it needs from West Virginia’s coffers, but the recessions have taken their toll here, too. So far, the Bluefield originators of the concept have an interchange, a bridge, and a couple short sections. And in Mingo County, there is proponents’ shining prototype of what this highway could do for southern West Virginia: the “Red Jacket” section of about 12 finished miles of breezy, sunny mountaintop thoroughfare.

Let’s Take a Drive The Red Jacket section is best experienced by first driving the old valley road, along Pigeon Creek. Heading south out of Delbarton on two-lane U.S. 52, we see after three or four miles where the new road comes down off the mountain at the right. We follow 52 to the left for now, heading east through the valley. The narrow, shoulderless road winds between the creek, just below us on the right, and the hills that push up steeply beside the westbound

lane. Homes dot the creek’s floodplain, some across small bridges that might be called “makeshift.” We’ll have to slow down—we’ve caught up with a log truck and there’s no way to pass. To see this in Google Maps, search for Delbarton, then zoom out far enough to also see Gilbert to the east. Google labels this valley road 252/57 and the new, southerly parallel section 52 and King Coal Highway. In reality, locals call the valley road 52, as they’ve always done, and the mountaintop road the King Coal Highway—or, actually, the Mike Whitt Memorial Highway. More about Mike Whitt further down. After about 10 winding miles, we turn right to take new pavement up Horsepen Mountain. The wide road curves gently upward and soon comes to a stop sign. To our left, construction to complete a three-mile extension of the Red Jacket section. We turn right onto the King Coal Highway itself: two broad lanes, with a roadbed already in place for another two lanes and a utility corridor down the center. We drive west past dramatic roadcuts, then enjoy expansive views over the central Appalachian hills and well into Kentucky. After a few miles we whiz by an athletic complex on our left, then Mingo Central High School, a 2011 consolidation of four high schools. These structures are clearly visible in Google Maps satellite view. A Focus wvfocus.com

Consolidating four little farther on, a descent and a right turn high schools to take us back to Delbarton. one large, centrally There may be roads like this in other places located school was impossible before. but, for valley-bound southern West Virginia, it’s a revelation. “It’s gorgeous. It’s very panoramic. I’ve been across it a thousand times and I’m still in awe,” says Kominar. The Mike Whitt Memorial Highway has reduced travel time between Gilbert and the county seat of Williamson from as much as an hour to 30 to 40 minutes, says MCRA Deputy Executive Director Leasha Elliott, and it’s much safer. Take note: On that entire stretch, there are no bridges. “It’s unique for mountainous terrain, but that’s where the valley fills come in,” Kominar says proudly. “And when you talk about bridges you talk about a maintenance problem forever. It just works out so well.” The Red Jacket section opened in 2011 and the school is the only active enterprise up there so far. But, luxuriating as they do on 90 flat acres the likes of which didn’t exist anywhere around before this land was mined, the school and its athletic complex have energized the county’s vision for post-mine flat-land development.

Mike Whitt, Maverick And that goes back to Mike Whitt. “Mike had a vision for Mingo County that was simplistic, but so true,” says State Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman. He encountered Whitt in the late 1980s, when he was relatively new at the DEP and Whitt was a Mingo County delegate. “Mike’s premise was, ‘We cannot begin to revitalize the economy of Mingo County as long as it’s nasty,’” Huffman recalls. “‘The first thing we’re going to do is clean up the garbage.’ If you traveled in Mingo County in that period, you’d appreciate what he was up against. I helped with landfill tipping money, and he cleaned up over 400 illegal garbage dumps in Mingo County and it has stayed relatively clean. There was a change of mindset that had to take place.” Changing mindsets was one approach Whitt brought to economic development. Spending OPM was another. “That’s Other People’s Money,” Huffman says. Whitt became the first director of the MCRA in 1990 and, as the King Coal Highway concept developed over the following decade, he put OPM to work. “Mike hooked up with Don Nicewonder, a coal guy,” he says. “They wanted to move all this material to mine coal. Mike’s point was, why move it twice?” Whitt and Nicewonder worked with landholding company Pocahontas Land and the permitting agencies to get the Red Jacket section permitted as a highway project, with permission to mine the coal that incidentally became available to offset the cost. Nicewonder would leave the surface as rough road grade and the state would come through and pave. “When Federal Highway Administrator Mary Peters visited in May 2004 for the groundbreaking, she said it was one of the most innovative partnerships in transportation she’d ever seen,” MCRA’s Elliott says. “The cost to the state of West Virginia and the federal government of constructing and paving the 12-mile section of the King Coal Highway under that public-private partnership was $65 million, which represented a savings of about $290 million.” There’s not enough public money anywhere to cover the $28 to $32 million it takes these days to build new highways in this topography, Kominar says. “Public-private partnerships are a unique way of doing it, and that’s exactly

Focus November/December 2014

what Mike Whitt pulled off.” Whitt succumbed to a long illness in 2011, not many weeks after the Red Jacket section opened to traffic. He’s remembered for his cleanups and for his instrumental role in creating the Hatfield-McCoy off-road trail system, but he’s probably most dearly remembered for the section of road now named for him. Coal mine companies and county economic developers don’t always work so well together, Huffman says. “The way that gets done is to have a maverick like Mike Whitt.”

Few economic development officials inspire this kind of recognition.

Building on Whitt’s Legacy Figuring prominently in the county’s plans is the TransGas Development Systems plant that was proposed in 2008 to turn regional coal to 18,000 barrels of gasoline per day. Permitting challenges and the slow economy have put the plant behind its 2013 and revised 2015 opening dates, but Kominar says the developers are moving forward. Located on a post-mine site near the Red Jacket section, the plant would employ thousands during construction and perhaps 300 permanently, in a county where 800 or 900 are currently out of work. Related enterprises would locate in the surrounding area and employ hundreds more.

Mingo County unemployment in Sept. 2014 — highest in the state

Where would all those workers live? The MCRA thinks a nearby 1,300-acre post-mine site is perfect for a planned community. “It’s going to have some nice apartments, lowerpriced starter homes for younger married folks, workingclass housing for the middle incomes, and I think some more expensive housing out on some of the edges,” Kominar says. The community would be unified through walking trails, greenspace, and a central shopping district. This would be a place where people could move up out of the floodplain, he says, and where children educated out of the area could return, and where workers at new enterprises could live. “There’s not a demand for this now,” he says, “but if this coal-to-liquids plant was announced tomorrow, we’d be behind.” The MCRA is also excited about the potential for distribution. A new industrial runway built recently on post-mine land near the highway could work well with the Heartland Intermodal Gateway that will serve doublestack trains some 50 miles away at Prichard beginning in 2015—and, of course, with the entire I-73/I-74 corridor. But what gives all this real power is that the MCRA isn’t alone in envisioning solutions to the county’s problems. “We have a lot of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, all those factors, and we started identifying stakeholders and assets in the county and ways to work

together,” says Donovan Beckett. A Williamson native who went away to West Virginia University and the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, Beckett felt called back home a decade ago to make a difference. He started a free clinic in 2011 and later expanded it into a Federally Qualified Health Center. Collaborations Beckett has helped instigate have brought about a farmers’ market in Williamson that expanded in each of its first four seasons and, in 2014, added a mobile market that visits other parts of the county; they’ve established a community garden that has 42 beds and a waiting list. Their Lunch Walk Program for getting people moving has been adopted by a clinic in Marin County, California, and their monthly 5K that at first attracted 20 or 30 people now gets 300. This is what Kominar meant when he referred to farming as part of a healthy lifestyles vision for the county—it’s not lip service, it’s a many-faceted effort that has real momentum. “We plan on developing our economy based on agriculture as much as we can,” Beckett says. “We’re working with veterans to start getting them some agricultural training on these sites next year and develop entrepreneurship skills and create ways for them to make a living.” He mentions an earlier pilot program that developed a grape, peach, and apple orchard on post-mine land. “It’s a perfect case study of what we want to do—turn agriculture into an economy.” The three-mile leg of the highway that’s still under construction will open access to a post-mine section where these leaders envision bee-friendly species on the steep slopes, orchards on the walkable slopes, and animals and crops on about 2,000 acres at the top. “We can build an agricultural park there second to none,” Kominar says. The highway, and the developable spaces near it, are fundamental to that vision.

But It’s Gotten Much Harder So far, the Red Jacket section sits in isolation, 12 miles of opensky road across a puckered landscape. Consol Energy is willing to build five or six of the 10 miles between the western terminus of the Red Jacket section and Corridor G at the conclusion of its proposed 15-year Buffalo Mountain mining operation, but it’s hitting permitting roadblocks. “For the past six years it’s been a miserable, painstaking process to get that road done,” says DEP’s Huffman. “But here’s the problem. Without that section being built, what’s the point? If you can’t connect the road to Corridor G, it’s a dead end. The Buffalo Mountain permit is critical.” A lot has changed since the early 2000s, when the Red Jacket Focus wvfocus.com

“

The biggest tragedy that could happen if this road is ever built is to not have land along the corridor to develop.” Randy Huffman, Cabinet Secretary, Department of Environmental Protection

leg was permitted as a mountaintop removal highway project with incidental coal mining. Since that time, mountaintop removal and the associated valley fills have become the subject of sit-in protests, national criticism, and scientific study of air and water pollution. Among the most damaging pollution is high stream conductivity— essentially, salinity. “It has devastating impacts on native macroinvertebrate insect communities. And in the last year, two studies have come out showing it also has devastating effects on salamander populations,” says Peter Morgan, a staff attorney with the national Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. Morgan has been involved in preparing technical comments on the Coalfields Expressway in Virginia, which includes significant surface coal mining; he is careful to note that he has not been involved directly with the King Coal Highway and can speak only generally. “Once the fill material is placed in a stream in Appalachia, we know two things: It’s going to give off high conductivity pollution, and it’s very difficult to treat.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ramped up its scrutiny of proposed mountaintop mining projects, requiring engineering that minimizes downstream effects. But building highways by this method can actually increase the effects, depending on topography, Morgan says. “One concern with these coal-synergy highway projects is, they often involve fills in a lot of headwater streams in the same watershed—meaning much more cumulative impacts downstream,” he says. It’s related to the very lack of bridges Kominar noted as a maintenance boon. “Whereas traditional highway projects make extensive use of bridges and culverts when they have to cross streams, these mining projects instead fill the streams with the mine spoil—again, with downstream impacts,” Morgan says. There’s another hurdle. Consol is seeking variances to keep about 800 acres alongside the proposed roadbed flat, rather than meeting the legal requirement of returning it after mining to a natural contour—those buildable spaces that, for local development officials, are much of the point. But the EPA, Kominar says, doesn’t believe all that flat land is needed. It’s true there are thousands of acres already near the Red Jacket section and Corridor G that haven’t been developed yet—though not all in Mingo County. Is

Focus November/December 2014

any amount too much? “You can’t have enough land,” Kominar protests. He ticks off again the MCRA’s agriculture, manufacturing, and housing aspirations, and then irrepressibly mentions another hope. “We’re working on ideas for commercial kitchens where individual farmers or producers can take their goods to a central co-op that would buy them and market them to grocery stores or what have you—or make products with them. We have a lot of people who make great salsa, breads, those kinds of things.” Ideas like these might seem pie-in-the-sky if the MCRA and its partners hadn’t already accomplished quite a lot. Huffman complains that federal permitting agencies keep raising the bar: After the usual Environmental Impact Study, regulators wanted a supplemental Environmental Impact Study, and then a study of the northern long-eared bat, which is under consideration for “endangered” status. But he’s most frustrated with the possible loss of the side tracts. “The biggest tragedy that could happen if this road is ever built is to not have land along the corridor to develop,” he says. He notes an irony. “The government talks about migrating away from coal and going to a less coal-dependent economy and society—this is it. Put your money where your mouth is.”

Minimizing Stream Impacts It may be possible to get past the typical “environment versus jobs” battle. More than likely, any mine plans proposed for the corridor could, at least, be improved. Morgan Worldwide Consultants of Lexington, Kentucky, has a track record of creating alternate mine plans that meet a broad range of project goals. “We’ve looked at a number of projects that try to minimize stream impacts at the same time as recovering the same amount of coal for a project,” says company founder and Vice President John Morgan—not to be confused with the Sierra Club’s Peter Morgan. John Morgan describes a project for James River Coal in which his company created an alternate plan for a mine-highway project that ultimately would extend Kentucky Route 680 in Floyd County. “There was concern that it was going to cause problems at the EPA,” he says. “We looked at the road orientation and alignment

Flat Land, Fat Profits Southern economic development authorities have only to look around to find support for the idea that large enterprises on post-mine lands could boost their economies.

The Highlands

Since nationwide outfitter Cabela’s opened there in 2004, the 1,000-plus-acre Highlands development in Ohio County has turned a former Rayle Coal Company mine to a destination shopping center. The site now hosts a 14-screen Marquee cinema complex, automobile showrooms, four hotels, and dozens of small and large restaurants and retail shops.

Pete Dye Golf Club

and at other disposal areas for the excess spoil. Our plan retained the amount of coal recovery and the amount of developable land originally proposed, and minimized the stream impacts.” Morgan Worldwide helped cut the number of stream miles buried by Patriot Coal’s Hobet 45 mine in West Virginia from six to three several years ago, and has worked on a number of mine-highway projects. The first design is not always the best one, Morgan says. “Questioning it can often result in a better project.”

Whether for highway or mine, mountaintop removal looks like this.

courtesy of Federal Highway Administration

End to End When it comes to mountaintop removal mining, the lines are pretty well drawn: Either you’re for it, or you’re against it. There’s not a lot of nuance in the discussion. And a mine plan that minimizes stream damage doesn’t address every question about the King Coal Highway. What about mountaintop removal mining’s particulate air pollution, which can cause respiratory problems for residents nearby? Would this highway help the region’s downtowns—Matewan, Pineville, Welch, Williamson—or hurt them? Is there going to be enough market for coal to finish much more of the highway? If there is, can we find a way to be OK with losing dozens more mountains, in addition to the ones that have already been cut down in the name of coal and economy? But it does, in part, address another question we have to ask: If the people of Mingo County have a constructive idea for pulling themselves out of this intractable situation, and their example could be extended to similarly hardup McDowell and Wyoming counties, how can the rest of us help? Asked if he believes the King Coal Highway will ever be built end to end, Kominar says, “That’s going to be a push, to be honest with you. We can only take care of Mingo County, and we’re working diligently for that.” The King Coal Highway Authority’s Mitchem gives a stunningly optimistic estimate of 10 to 15 years—sooner than Buffalo Mountain would be mined out if it were permitted today. Asked what’s realistic, he pushes back just a little to 15 to 20 years. Huffman, in his long experience, takes comfort in the knowledge that politics change. “In the case of the King Coal Highway, that will be a good thing,” he says. “I’d like to think this road is going to get built some day before I die. I’d like to drive from 64 in Huntington to 77 in Bluefield—that’s what it was for.” He adds, “Southern West Virginia can be an economic boon with this highway. Without it, it will be a liability to the state. There’s no middle ground.”

This 250-acre course in Harrison County incorporates elements throughout of the mine that preceded it. It ranked 46th in Golf Digest’s 2013–14 America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses and number 9 in Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses 2014. The club boasts membership in 23 states and six countries and hosted an annual PGA TOUR event from 2004 to 2009.

Mylan Park

Many tens of thousands of people visit this 320-acre indoor-outdoor recreational and educational campus in Monongalia County each year. Built on a former Anker Energy mine, the park has grown since 2000 from four baseball and softball diamonds to include turf that can be configured for football, soccer, rugby, lacrosse; professional-class lighted horseshoe pitching courts; a 78,000-square-foot sports training facility; the largest expo center between Charleston and Pittsburgh; and local offices of nonprofit organizations such as the Girl Scouts and Big Brothers Big Sisters. It hosts the MountainFest motorcycle rally and numerous smaller events each year. These sites and others across the state— the Federal Correctional Institution in McDowell County, the FBI complex in Harrison County, and the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in Fayette County, to name just a few—put formerly mined lands to economically productive use, creating hundreds or thousands of permanent jobs after construction. They raise property values and quality of life, generate state and local taxes, and in some instances work as magnets for tourists.

Focus wvfocus.com

Identification Central The largest criminal fingerprint repository in the world operates at the FBIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s facility in Clarksburg, West Virginia. More than a century old, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only getting bigger and better.

Written by Pam Kasey | Photos courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation cjis division

ust about every criminal in the United States, and just about every crime, lives on in infamy in one well guarded data center in North Central West Virginia. Housed 30 feet down and protected by a continuously patrolled nine-mile perimeter, the data center stores the FBI’s fingerprint database— the largest criminal fingerprint repository in the world. It may seem an unlikely location for one of the most high-tech, prime time icons of our times. The database is here because, in the 1980s, then-West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd knew the FBI’s collection of tens of millions of criminal fingerprint cards had outgrown its space in the J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington, D.C. Byrd persuaded the agency it could have space and security and quality of life just over the hills in North Central West Virginia. In 1995 it established its Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS, “see-jis”) division on 1,000 rolling acres off of Interstate 79 outside Clarksburg, a one-hour flight or less than four hours’ drive from D.C. CJIS makes an Olympic sport of fast and accurate searching of massive crime datasets. When you buy a gun from a retailer, the seller checks your eligibility on CJIS’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System—a system that’s referenced 60,000 times a day, usually returning a “proceed,” “delay,” or “deny” response within minutes. When you’re pulled over and an officer takes your license and registration back to his cruiser, he’s accessing CJIS’s National Crime Information Center to discover whether your vehicle is stolen or you yourself are wanted for a crime; that database turns around 12 million queries a day almost instantly. Those are just two of many CJIS datasets law enforce-

Focus November/December 2014

The 360,000-square-foot Biometric Technology Center will put training, conference, office, and development facilities for the FBI’s and Department of Defense’s joint biometric research all under one roof in 2015.

ment nationwide relies on for speed and certainty. “It’s all about providing criminal information to state and local agencies and our law enforcement community,” says CJIS Assistant Director Stephen Morris. That fast search capability is applied with dazzling success to CJIS’s biometric identification services: the datasets that connect physical characteristics with identities with events. The division launched its first truly automated fingerprint database at its Clarksburg data center in 1999. The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) started out with about 40 million “tenprint” criminal fingerprint sets submitted by law enforcement agencies across the U.S. It fielded 40,000 queries each day from agencies seeking to confirm identities and criminal histories of arrested suspects, and to identify latent fingerprints left behind at crime scenes. IAFIS was also created to store and search civil prints, primarily of government workers, and to perform background checks on people who apply for visas and citizenship, government work, and jobs at day care centers and other positions of trust. Because fingerprint matching has proven extraordinarily effective for confirming identity and solving crimes, CJIS’s biometric identification activities have grown from year to year. Today the division’s criminal fingerprint repository holds 76 million tenprint sets, nearly double its size in ’99, and receives quadruple the queries at more than 160,000 each day. That’s just the beginning. As new biometric modalities approach the level of accuracy, convenience, and affordability of fingerprints, the agency is incorporating those into its services as well.

At CJIS’s secure underground Systems Management Center, FBI analysts monitor the functioning of Next Generation Identification and other biometric repositories that serve law enforcement nationwide.

Next Generation Identification To take advantage of advancements in computing power and biometric technologies, CJIS is finishing up a years-long transition to its Next Generation Identification system (NGI). Prime contractor Lockheed Martin rolled out the first increment of NGI in 2010 and is making upgrades in successive increments. Early NGI increments replaced obsolete hardware, boosted accuracy, and slashed response time, among other improvements. IAFIS was 92 percent accurate with, ultimately, an average halfhour turnaround time on criminal fingerprint checks and an hour and a quarter on civil checks. “That’s pretty good when you’re processing millions of fingerprints,” Morris points out. But today, he boasts, with NGI, the accuracy on “lights-out” matches—that’s computer matching with no human intervention—is 99.6 percent, with five-minute turnaround time on criminal checks and under an hour on civil checks. But to really move the database into the next generation, the buzz concept is multiple modalities, or the use of more than one biometric characteristic for identification. Multiple modalities make biometric identification far more accurate, Morris explains. “If you submit fingerprints, we can say we’re 99 percent sure who that is,” he says. “If we also have a facial image, that’s the extra 1 percent we need to close the gap. With that, we can definitely say who it is.” It’s a challenge for CJIS, though. While some individual law enforcement agencies and networks with limited numbers of users are already working with more than one biometric modality, CJIS’s real strength lies in the sharing of information among the more than 18,000 local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies nationwide—so for CJIS to move to multiple modalities depends on new technologies not only being developed, but becoming standardized and affordable. NGI is ready as that takes place. In its Increment 3 rollout in 2013, it added palm print matching capability. About 30 percent of the prints left at crime scenes are palm prints, and the National Palm Print System now offers law enforcement nationwide new opportunities to identify suspects. The technology most requested by state and local law enforcement—facial image recognition—is up next. Following a 2012 Interstate Photo System Face Recognition

An early increment of the Pilot program with a half dozen upgrade from IAFIS to agencies, NGI Increment 4 made facial NGI moved the fingerprint repository from superdomes recognition available nationwide for to these more compact the first time in 2014 to agencies that blades. CJIS’s 50,000-squarehave the technology to participate. It foot, temperature-controlled data center holds aisles and also added national-level searches of aisles of blades. photos of scars, marks, and tattoos. And capability to search iris scans is built in, but that isn’t expected to be widely available for years. Increment 4 expanded CJIS’s biometric capabilities on the civil side, too. A new subscription service the division calls Rap Back will eliminate the need for repeat civil background checks by allowing schools, nursing homes, and others employing people in positions of trust to receive notifications if their backgroundchecked employees are ever arrested. Focus wvfocus.com

Facial Recognition The summer 2014 rollout of NGI Increment 4 included facial recognition, a capability that has been clamored for by law enforcement. As the agency was preparing to move from pilot to full operation, CJIS Information Technology Specialist Brendan Forst demonstrated the Universal Face Workstation interface CJIS developed to provide to state and local law enforcement partners. “The user will be able to drag and drop a photo into a new case file, with a short description about what the case pertains to,” Forst says. “They’ll have access to some image enhancement tools—here we can rotate it, or crop it down to just the face. You notice as I do this it’s recording the image history so, if there’s ever a question of, ‘What did you do to the image to get your candidate list?’ they’ll have that.” The user can also narrow the search by age range, gender, hair color, and height, although Forst recommends searching first without filters. When the user finishes and clicks “submit,” the software packages it and sends it off to CJIS in West Virginia. Once the system receives the query, it’ll process the image using face geometry—keying in on the position of the eyes and mapping various points off of that—as well as skin tone and texture and other algorithms, and return a candidate list, each one with an FBI Universal Control Number that ties it to the agency’s fingerprint record. Conceived as an investigative and not an identification search, the system will return two or more candidates with a target turnaround time of 15 minutes. The facial recognition system kicked off with about 19 million criminal mug shots in its database, but it’s expected to grow quickly. “Make no mistake—this will catch fire,” says Nick Megna, unit chief of the NGI Program Office. “States are saying, ‘Please, we need this capability.’ We expect to get a lot more mug shots submitted soon.”

Biometric Technology Center As its biometric identification services expanded, CJIS outgrew the 530,000 square feet of facilities it occupied in 1995. A new, 360,000-square-foot Biometric Technology Center set to open in 2015 on the Clarksburg campus anticipates the direction of the division’s work in biometric identification. That direction includes a deep level of collaboration. The Biometric Technology Center will place CJIS’s biometric work under one roof with that of the Department of Defense’s Biometrics Identity Management Activity (BIMA). It’s a recognition of the growing mutual support of the biometric databases developed separately by the Department of Justice, through CJIS, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security. “If someone comes to us from a law enforcement agency and says, ‘Hey, we’re looking at this guy and we want to know if he has a criminal history,’ as they do thousands of times a day, we’ll search our holdings on that guy,” Morris says by way of example. “And they might also say, ‘We also believe he’s from another country and may have traveled here 12 years ago under

Focus November/December 2014

this name.’ Now we have the ability to send a query about that to Homeland Security. Seven or eight years ago that could only be done in a one-off way, but not in the automatic, lights-out way we can do it today.” Similar reciprocities are becoming more and more common among all three departments. By hosting BIMA in CJIS’s Biometric Technology Center, Morris expects both departments to gain efficiencies. “Whenever you can put people who share a common task physically together in one location, the synergy you get from that generates success a lot faster,” he says. The future direction also includes trying new ideas: The facility will house the FBI’s Biometric Center of Excellence (BCOE). “Building on our legacy expertise with the fingerprint program, we’re looking at research and development,” Morris explains. “What technologies could do the same thing for facial recognition and other biometric modalities? We’re working with private industry, with academics, with other government agencies, and more importantly with the 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies out there to see what they need—what really has application for our law enforcement and national security missions.”

“Whenever you can put

people who share a common task physically together in one location, the synergy you get from that generates success a lot faster.”

The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services’ Fingerprint Repository

Stephen Morris, CJIS Assistant Director

Storage The Next Generation Identification system holds prints and criminal histories for 76 million subjects—more than one-fifth of the U.S. population, and growing by 12,000 sets of prints every day—along with more than 600,000 prints lifted from crime scenes in its Unsolved Latent File. It also maintains a database of more than 40 million civil fingerprints, mostly of government workers, and more than 73,000 prints of known and suspected terrorists.

The Future NGI’s built-in readiness for emerging technologies leaves the future of CJIS’s biometric identification activities wide open. Increment 5 introduced an Iris Pilot Project, for example. Widespread use of iris recognition awaits generally available technology, but CJIS and its software developers see that on the horizon. And voice recognition is among the modalities undergoing research at the BCOE. Locating in Clarksburg was a good move for CJIS, Morris says. Turnover among the division’s 2,500 or so employees is just 2 to 3 percent each year, compared with 25 percent in Washington, D.C. The agency recognized West Virginia University’s prime position in biometric research in 2008 by naming the university its lead academic partner for biometrics, and Morris says the agency maintains a close relationship with the university and targets local graduates for recruitment. He only sees biometrics expanding in West Virginia. “I wasn’t in California in the early ’80s, but I have to believe the growth and expansion we see here generated from biometrics and national security is similar to what was going on in Silicon Valley in the ’70s and ’80s,” he says. “Twenty years from now, if not sooner, when people think of biometrics and identity management, they’re going to see this I-79 corridor as the birthplace of all that.”

Processing CJIS receives more than 160,000 identification and criminal history queries every day. About half are criminal checks and about half are civil.

Turnaround Time Criminal prints, 5 minutes. Civil prints, less than one hour.

Focus wvfocus.com

Turning the Tide

Making change happen means breaking patterns, building bonds, and standing strong against resistance. Written by Shay Maunz | Photographed by Nikki Bowman

The floodwall that protects Matewan from the waters of Mate Creek is covered in illustrations depicting the town’s history.

“L

et me explain it to you,” says Dave Hatfield, of Matewan. “Have you ever been around someone who has lost everything they have and they’re at rock bottom and the only thing they have left is death, and then all of a sudden they grab onto something and they pull themselves out of it? Well, that’s what this is.” He’s talking, in part, about himself, and his turn to physical activity a few years ago to deal with his destructive, possibly deadly weight problem. “You get to the point where you have to do something, so I did something,” he says. He started running, and he didn’t stop— today Hatfield is in great shape, runs often, and is in charge of the Hatfield-McCoy Marathon, a hugely popular event he founded in Matewan 15 years ago. But Hatfield isn’t just talking about himself—he’s also talking about his town and about the can-do attitude he thinks could save it. “If you take U.S. Route 52 from Bluefield to Williamson, you pass by all these little towns, all these little communities,” Hatfield says. “Over 25 years I’ve seen so many of them just crumble to the ground, and I don’t want to see Matewan be next. It’s kind of like the floodwater is coming down the river and we don’t want to be next, so we have to stop it before it gets to us.” We all know about the problems that bring a small community to the brink of extinction—industry pullout, population loss, brain drain, a bad economy. It’s happened to a lot of West Virginia

towns in the last 30 years. But here’s the thing: At some point, there’s a fork in the road. At some point, some communities reverse the slide, divert the floodwaters, find a renewed vibrancy. In Grafton everyone talks about what’s going on one county over, in Clarksburg and Bridgeport. The Marcellus Shale boom is bringing new jobs, money, and people to the area, and the towns are buzzing at a higher frequency because of it. Couldn’t Grafton get a boost like that? Or create one of its own? In Matewan they’re still talking with wonder about what happened a few years ago, when the History Channel aired a three-part miniseries on the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, inspiring a renewed interest in the saga and in Mingo County. Tourists started streaming into the area, and a smattering of new small businesses opened to cater to them. It was great. It was like a breath of fresh air for the small town. And the people of Matewan want more of that now. “If we had had a crystal ball to tell us what that miniseries was going to do and had already had things in place to take advantage of it, then the economic boom would have been instantaneous,” Hatfield says. “As it is, now we’re trying to play catch-up.” The people of Grafton and Matewan have big ideas they think can catapult them into a better, more vibrant future. Of course, the bigger the idea, the greater the challenges, and the people of Grafton and Matewan are as aware of their limitations as anyone is. But now is the time to start running—before it’s too late.

Grafton has been a railroad town for as long as it’s been a town at all. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad came to the area in 1852, and by 1853 the area was emerging as a hub along the line—in 1856 the town was officially chartered and named for John Grafton, the civil engineer who laid out the B&O’s route. That rail system would be the lifeblood of Grafton for more than a century. It made the city a strategically important place during the Civil War, laying the groundwork for an early Memorial Day celebration that would go on to be the longest ongoing celebration of its kind in the country. At the turn of the century, it helped make Grafton a center of retail and industry, a position it enjoyed for decades. Even as some important manufacturing plants pulled out of the area in the 1950s and 60s, the railroad remained a reliable economic driver in the small town. “Everyone in Grafton has some connection to the railroad—their father worked there, or their uncle did, or their mother took the train to New York in 1967 or something,” says Laura Kuhns, president and CEO of the Vandalia Heritage Foundation, the historic preservation nonprofit that now owns Grafton’s historic railroad station adjacent Willard Hotel. But the industry was changing and, in the early 1980s, the railroad relocated hundreds of jobs to Jacksonville, Florida—dealing an economic and emotional blow that the people of Grafton still haven’t fully recovered from.

Focus November/December 2014

Two projects center on Around that time the railroad company Grafton’s historic train was also divesting a lot of property in and station, including one that around Grafton. And that’s where the story would revamp the plaza in front of the station. of Grafton’s B&O station begins—for our Eventually, it could look purposes, at least—because that’s when something like it did in this rendering done by it gets complicated. The train station is the Vandalia Foundation historic and grand—it was built in 1914, years ago. with 15,000 square feet and some elegant architectural details—but by the 1980s the B&O didn’t need it anymore. “The railroad didn’t want this building,” Kuhns says. “The building didn’t have the meaning to them that it did to the community.” The station sat empty for a while—long enough that it became a problem. “Where the railroad was once new technology that built the town, newer technology eliminated the need for work to be done there. So this building was kind of a monument to the railroad, but at the same time it represented both good and bad to the local community,” she says. “In some communities with these deteriorating buildings, it becomes, ‘Oh, gosh, maybe we’d be better off with that torn down, because it’s a symbol of our failures.’ And then you never get it back—and you never get a building of that structure and stature again.” In 1998, to prevent that from happening, the Vandalia Heritage

courtesy of Vandalia Heritage Foundation

All Aboard

courtesy of west virginia community development hub

Foundation was formed to manage that property, as well as the historic commuter hotel next door. The group poured almost $1 million into the building to remove asbestos and other contaminants. It spent around $600,000 more to stabilize the building and work on the roofs. “All of that was sort of remedial work,” Kuhns says. There was more: They restored the windows, repaired the outside of the building, and devoted a lot of attention to the first floor, saving work on the two remaining levels until after the first one is complete. In 2006 Vandalia cut the ribbon on the Grafton B&O Railroad Heritage Center, and a recent project to install an industrial kitchen is nearing completion. But here’s the thing: Restoring the railroad station has been a painfully slow process, and it’s still not finished. The Vandalia Foundation was formed in 1998, and work on the B&O station began even before that—so all these restoration projects have taken more than a decade to unfold, and the community still isn’t getting much use out of the grandest building in town. “All these things take longer than you would like,” Kuhns says. “I always joke that some of these projects may outlast me.” She points to some nasty setbacks as explanation: There was a fire in 2002, for example, and an issue with a water line. “Those challenges are not always easily understood by the community. They’re just like, ‘Darn it, those buildings are just sitting there.’ We become kind of a lightning rod for all those complaints about, ‘Why isn’t more happening?’” she says. “Every day I feel that pressure, honestly. If you’re in this business you take it seriously, and you are earnest about wanting to have an impact. But at the same time it’s tough dealing with the complexity of making these things work. It’s real estate, it’s preservation, it’s community development—it’s not simple. We don’t have the tax base, we don’t have the population, we don’t have the economic drivers to make it easy here.” That said, community members in Grafton are anxious to take matters into their own hands. There are two Turn This Town Around projects dedicated to the B&O station. One is a smaller, mini-grant funded project to build out the plaza in front of the station so it can serve as a useful public space for the community. That project is under way already—an architect has been hired to design the plaza. The other is a larger project that falls under the West Virginia Community Development Hub’s category for “transformational” projects, and is dedicated to trying to get the B&O station up and running and open to the public. They’re not sure exactly what that will look like yet—ideas for the main floor include a restaurant, a reception and events center, and a store that sells memorabilia related to railroad history, and in the end the building might house any combination of those things, or any number of others. Steve Cutright is the director of West Virginia University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and, together with a group of students, he’s doing community development assessments for both Grafton and Matewan. “We’re looking

“

Those challenges are not always easily understood by the community. They’re just like, ‘Darn it, those buildings are just sitting there.’ We become kind of a lightning rod for all those complaints about, ‘Why isn’t more happening?’” Laura Kuhns, President and CEO, Vandalia Heritage Foundation

at the viability and feasibility, we’re not looking Volunteers paint the historic train caboose at the emotional attachment the cities have to that sits on display in these things,” he says. They haven’t finished their Grafton, a remnant of the town's long connection to assessment yet, but Cutright says the question the railroad industry. with the B&O station isn’t whether the building could be a good home for a business—it’s whether that business would be able to support itself. “We see the B&O building as an iconic structure in Grafton that really reflects the rich history of Grafton and would really be the hub for Grafton to help it move forward,” he says. “The structure is capable of housing businesses, but our issue is whether the cost involved with leasing those facilities and then renting them out is going to be profitable and sustainable—they have to at least break even. So we’re asking if it’s feasible to market these kinds of businesses in the community. Will the community embrace it?” Focus wvfocus.com

Remaking History

In modern-day Matewan, history feels uniquely close at hand. Take the Matewan Massacre: The 1920 shootout between local coal miners and detectives hired by mining companies left 10 people dead and sparked the mine wars that eventually led to unionization of mine companies. If you stand on the spot where the shooting started, by the train tracks downtown, you can still see bullet holes in the brick facade of a downtown building that now houses the new West Virginia Mine Wars Museum. Then there’s the endlessly fascinating feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. It happened more than a century ago, but it still seems like every other person you speak to in town is descended from one side or the other. These days, the idea in southern West Virginia is to take that bloody legacy and put it to good use. Cutright and his team of WVU students are also working on an assessment in Matewan, for a project headed up by Dave Hatfield—and yes, he’s descended

Focus November/December 2014

Clockwise from those Hatfields, and proud of it. The Matewan Depot Hatfield wants to turn Matewan into a chronicles the especially rich history of this little hub for historic tourism akin to Colonial town. Matewan’s history Williamsburg or Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. is bloody, but locals think He pictures a downtown filled with well they can use that to their advantage now. Bullet marked historic landmarks, restaurants, holes from the Matewan and hotels and bustling with tourists, plus Massacre are still clearly visible downtown. a robust schedule of outdoor plays and historic reenactments. To do all this, Hatfield formed a company called the Matewan Development Corporation Team, secured one investor and enough money to make a down payment on three buildings in town, and is in the process of closing the deals to buy that real estate. The idea is that the company will manage a variety of properties and businesses that fall under the historical tourism umbrella, and also provide services that other business owners in town can

“ It’s a big change,

a big turnaround from what’s been tried in the past.” Dave Hatfield, Matewan Development Corporation Team

use—one idea is to provide all businesses online booking at little to no cost through a central Matewan tourism website— and market the town as a whole, especially online. He also wants to restore many of Matewan’s historic structures, many of which haven’t been touched in decades. It’s a big project. “It’s going to take about $25 million,” Hatfield says. “That’s a conservative estimate.” Cutright and the WVU students are just getting started with their analysis of this project, but he says that even at the outset one challenge is clear. “All of the objectives they have in Matewan are capital intensive—to navigate their entire vision they’re going to need a lot of money,” he says. “They will have to identify and engage investors and substantial funds to make this happen.” Cutright also stresses that, if this massive vision is ever going to come to fruition, the entire community is going to have to be engaged in the process. “This will be a community effort, not the efforts of one individual.” It’s on that front that Hatfield’s project is seeing mixed results. The project is supported by TTTA and the Hub and has been embraced by local groups like the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority, but some community members seem wary. They’re worried he’s trying to take over the town, or that this big, unwieldy project won’t be so good for Matewan in the end. “It’s a big change, a big turnaround from what’s been tried in the past,” Hatfield says. “I think a lot of people don’t believe in themselves enough yet to say this can really happen, but I think if they would just open their eyes and see we’ve got everything we need— it’s been given to us, it’s just sitting here, all this history, all these great people,” Hatfield says. “I’m just an average, everyday working person, and I don’t have thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to work at this. All I have is time and passion and vision, but I won’t stop. The only way I would leave this project is either if I die or if I get tarred and feathered and run out of town.” Focus wvfocus.com

Seven Keys to Leading

Introducing the

Mountain State Business Index

at home and at work pg. 78

pg. 70

Season’s Greetings How not to embarrass yourself or your company during the holiday season.

he holiday season has arrived— that confusing time between mid-November and the New Year full of office holiday parties, year-end sales lulls, and, of course, the holiday card exchange. Whether you’re chilling by the water cooler with a mug of mulled cider or making a last ditch effort to push into the black, now is not the time to forget your manners. “It’s nice that a company takes the time and effort to send a card. You want to share your gratitude for your business relationships,” says Charleston business etiquette expert Pam Harvit. “There’s nothing more important than building strong relationships with clients—and from a marketing perspective, you get your name in front of them again.” Harvit explains there’s a fine line to walk between budget-minded giving and personalization and between creativity and business associate. “The one thing you ill-thought-out humor. She offers a few tips: want to be cognizant of is sending anything that can be misconstrued,” she says. Keep it non-denominational. “One of “I’m all about humor, but what might be the most important things to consider is funny to Company A might not be funny that not everyone celebrates Christmas,” to others in the corporate world.” Creative Harvit says. “When you make your card too organizations shouldn’t be afraid to flex narrowly focused on just ‘Merry Christmas,’ those imaginative muscles, she says. Just you risk offending people who don’t celkeep the drunk elf jokes at home. ebrate that holiday. I recommend sending a more generic season’s greeting or just Personalized is best. Keeping messages celebrating the new year itself.” short and sweet is a good thing, as long as they’re not too short. “Any way you can Not all humor is appreciated equally. make the card as personalized as possible Harvit laughs about sending naked Santa is better,” Harvit says. “I’m a big proponent holiday cards to friends and family, but of the handwritten envelope because those cringes at the idea of one being sent to a are always the ones opened first. If it could

When we think of the great things about being in our business, we think of our association with great customers like you. Thanks for giving XYZ Company the opportunity to work with you. Wishing you the best in 2015.

be handwritten, it’s probably a better thing. If it’s a smaller business and each employee could write their name or a short message, that says a lot.” Timing is everything. “You would want those cards to arrive by December 15 at the latest,” Harvit says. “Employees take holiday breaks. The earlier the better, before people start taking time off.” Harvit also recommends differentiating your business by sending out cards for Thanksgiving, a holiday most of the country celebrates. Card-giving at that time gets your name back in front of clients or associates earlier and you’re less likely to get lost in the shuffle.

Learning to

Evolve Vegan eatery Mission Savvy has carved an unexpected niche for itself in Charleston.

utli-colored concoctions sporting names like Panda Pear or Vitamin Sea line the refrigerator shelves of Charleston’s Mission Savvy. The city’s first and only raw vegan eatery, offering raw juice blends and meat- and animal-product-free fare, would seem more at home in suburbia of the Eastern seaboard. In

Timeline 62

Focus November/December 2014

West Virginia, the terms “juice detox” or “vegan café” can still inspire double takes. But with a dedicated dreamer motivated by the desire to help animals at Mission Savvy’s helm, the business has carved out a niche for itself in our capital city and continues to evolve. “As a little girl my parents took me to a commercial farm and slaughterhouse and that’s when it hit me: I don’t want to eat

2010

Mission Savvy launches as a clothing store.

animals. They’re my friends,” says Mission Savvy founder Jennifer Miller, who, for more than 20 years, has led a vegetarian/ vegan lifestyle. Miller later went to school for animal rescue and for five years before launching Mission Savvy worked as an emergency animal relief responder, traveling the world to establish shelters for animals affected by mudslides, earthquakes, and hurricanes. “In doing these responses it really opened up my eyes to how much we don’t care about livestock. They don’t have a place on this earth except to be slaughtered for human consumption. That brewed inside me for a long time as I tried to think of something I could do on a large scale,” Miller says. At the time, she didn’t feel that she was making enough of an impact with her rescue work. She began thinking of ways she could use the consumer dollar to save animals, and Mission Savvy was born. Miller launched her business in 2010, originally as an eco-friendly fashion store, but it soon evolved into something else entirely. “In Charleston there just aren’t many vegetarian options. There’s really nothing in West Virginia for vegetarians and vegans,” Miller says. Months later fashion was out, and after a total renovation to her store, the vegan café moved in. “When we first opened it was a dream come true. It was very foreign to this community and people didn’t really know how to welcome me. I got a lot of ‘Good luck with that,’ but it didn’t discourage me at all.” Business was slow at first. Her client base came primarily from her mother’s business as a nutrition educator. “But very quickly I got a lot of foot traffic,” Miller says. “People want to be healthy, but if it’s not available to them, it’s more difficult to put in the effort. It was important to me to establish this place as a healthy option.” Miller’s food and beverages are 100 percent organic and nearly 100 percent raw. She uses no preservatives, and nothing is processed. Her menu spans salads, small plates, wraps, juices, smoothies, specialty

2011-2012

The store rebrands and is renovated to become a juice café and vegan eatery.

2013

Business picks up and Mission Savvy launches Plant Lab.

Lauren Stonestreet

Lessons Learned

written by

Katie Griffith

“The café is my happy place,” Miller says. “If I’m in Charleston, I’m nowhere else. I love opening my doors in the morning to customers coming in.” “The food we prepare is really good food. We don’t do a garden salad or peanut butter and jelly— we put our heart and soul into everything. Our refrigerator is the most expensive part of our retail space so whatever is in there needs to be moving. We make sure it’s good.”

Jennifer Miller’s

courtesy of Mission Savvy

Words of Wisdom: drinks, and sweet treats. It took a few months of customer observation, trial and error, and an empty café to perfect the menu—particularly what a seasonal menu should constitute for customers in Charleston—but today customers from across the state rave about everything from kale chips to cashew cheese. “We started very small because I wanted to grow with what I had,” she says. “When I had consistent foot traffic through the door then I would be comfortable growing the business. We didn’t have the fancy seating or fancy coolers. All these things were on my radar, but we had to wait for the right moment.” In addition to the café, Miller now runs a commercial kitchen hosting workshops and classes, a catering business, some retail, and a food truck. The café continues to function as the main money maker, but the commercial kitchen, Mission Savvy’s Plant Lab, is where Miller experiments with projects that help the business grow. In addition to hosting workshops and classes, Miller uses

January 2014

Charleston water crisis. “Even though we were able to reopen in a matter of days, a lot of people were afraid of going out to eat,” Miller says. “It was a good two months for people to be ready to come back in.”

Plant Lab as an international branding tool. “I advertise an agricultural culinary kitchen, an agricultural culinary tool, and people from all over the U.S. are interested in what we’re doing here,” she says. Between the Plant Lab and the café, Mission Savvy processes about 100 individual bottles of juice a day—with two staff assigned to man the Omega juicer all day, carefully separating the vitamins and nutrients from the fiber of exotic and more common fruits and vegetables. Five percent of the business profits go to animal rescue projects. The day Mission Savvy opened as a food vendor, Miller had herself, her mother and business partner, and her chef on staff. Now Mission Savvy employs five people on payroll and two staff who work on a volunteer basis. “You can create something you think will work, but if it’s not working you’ll have to change it,” Miller says. “Being open to evolving is key to becoming successful.”

Spring 2014

Business picks up as the water crisis wanes. Mission Savvy sells about 100 bottles of juice per day.

I’m much more a dreamer than I am pragmatic. It was important for me to align myself with people who were inspiring because of their success in business. I watched what other people were doing so I could simulate that and be on the right track. It’s important to decide what your purpose is in running the business. You have to love what you do because you’re going to do it all day forever. I don’t take anything on unless I know it’s something I will love putting on my to-do list. Don’t get caught up so much in what isn’t going well. There are times we don’t know how we’ll pay our bills and there are days where we’re OK and catching up. That’s the natural evolution, especially in the first five years. Stay true to your purpose. It’ll be OK. My SBA would scream, but never be 100 percent committed to a business plan. They’re great for planning and making projections, but plans lock you into a certain way of performing. I wouldn’t have been successful in Charleston if I had followed my business plan.

Focus wvfocus.com

10 Things

Interviewed by

Elizabeth Roth

Jim Justice’s 10 Tips for Success “There are three things I know I can do and do well: I can shoot a shotgun, I can coach a basketball team, and I can make a business deal,” says Jim Justice, head of Justice Family Group, LLC. Best known for his purchase and revitalization of The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, it’s no secret that Justice has found the key to success: Forbes identifies him as the second wealthiest person in West Virginia. “I’ll promise you this: If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it the best I can possibly do it,” he says. “I’m going to do it with all I’ve got.” Justice’s career not only spans multiple decades, but multiple industries—from farming to coal mining to hospitality and tourism. Yet he still finds time for hobbies like hunting and golf, not to mention coaching two high school basketball teams. We asked Justice to share some advice for finding success in life and business.

Stay humble. There’s a lady in Beckley who used to say, “Jim’s as common as an old shoe.” It’s not real flattering, but that’s really all I want to be. If I’m walking through the woods with my bird dog, that’s it for me.

Remember where you came from. My dad grew up in a coal company house. We come from really humble beginnings. I take so much from my mom and dad, and it started when I was just a child. They taught me the principles and values that I carry with me today.

Things don’t always turn out as expected. Go with it. The first things business-wise that I was involved in myself was that my dad and I started Bluestone Farms—I came out of Marshall with a business degree, and then I end up becoming a farmer. We grew Bluestone Farms into what it is today.

You have to have resources, but money isn’t everything. In describing what I think about myself, I think I’ve really got passion, and a positive enthusiasm, and surely some creativity.

Focus November/December 2014

Lastly, you’ve got to have some level of resources. A lot of people think if you’ve got money, you make money. That’s anything but the case. My family is surely a testimony to that, from starting with really humble beginnings to where we are today.

Be grateful for the talents you have—and use them. There’s a lot of people who say, “Why are you involved in all of these things? Why don’t you just retire? You love to hunt, love to fish, love the outdoors. Why don’t you just do that?” This is the end of the story with me: I was made Jim Justice for a reason. That reason was to do all I could do to create jobs and do all of the things that I think are important.

Find your passion. If you don’t have a real live passion, you can’t make it in business as an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs don’t take vacations. I’ve never in my life been on a vacation, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had tons and tons of fun. I would surely advise anyone that we all need our battery recharged, but if you’re going to be an entrepreneur, you’re not ever going to put it down.

Leadership starts with caring. You’ve got to be the one who brings the best out of those who work with you. I’m a real believer that if you were to go to my company and see my employees, for the most part you would be really pleased with how they feel about me. They’ve got my back because they know I’ve got theirs. When you’ve got that going, you’ve got really powerful stuff going.

You have to want the ball. It doesn’t really matter to me if you’re running a lemonade stand or if you’re running General Motors. You’ve got to want the ball. You’ve got to believe that you can make the play. If you don’t you surely can’t do my job, and I don’t think you can run that lemonade stand either.

We should all celebrate success. I celebrate people winning. That’s one thing in our state that we do too much of the wrong way. We too often want to see people fail. We shouldn’t be that way. We should celebrate when someone does good and we should strive to do better ourselves.

Courtesy of The Greenbrier

Pitfalls

Solving the Internship puzzle How a little planning can make the difference between a great intern and a terrible one.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers estimated that

61% T

hey’re a blessing and a curse, interns. Kind of like children. It’s a convenient analogy because, when it comes to business savvy and professional experience, not to mention age, they usually are. While hundreds of thousands of young people today are taking on internships, the position is still a gray area: They’re not quite employees, not quite student shadows, and few employers know what to do with them. We’ve heard more internship horror stories than fairy tales—from both

Focus November/December 2014

the employer and the young, not-quite employee—from, “The intern is lazy” to, “The company never gave me anything meaningful to do.” Turns out, those complaints are often connected. When done right, internships are a great way for companies to liven up the office with energetic talent and new ideas. But according to internship directors and site supervisors, internships that don’t go so well tend to be a consequence of poor planning. “Companies that take the time to do pre-planning do best,” says Brian Ballentine, internship coordinator of West

Virginia University’s professional writing and editing track. “This comes from a perspective of managing interns myself. If I spent a bit of time identifying tasks and figuring out where that intern could make a realistic contribution, it was much easier for both of us to have a good experience.” West Virginia’s own Fortune 500 company, Mylan, claims an internship program satisfaction rate of close to 100 percent, but when the generic drug manufacturer began accepting interns decades ago, executives admit the experience had to be refined. “We had a lot of people who brought on interns and they were doing copying or administrative-type work,” says Beth Pratt, Mylan’s senior vice president of global human relations. It was a waste of time and talent, and everyone knew it. Managers today are required to have a business justification and a list of the types of projects an intern will work on. Mylan offers internships across the

shutterstock

of the class of 2014 had an internship or similar experience.

written by

“We can see how well someone can make copies or answer phones, or we can really challenge their brain power and see how they can contribute to the work we do today and in the long-term.” Leah Summers, vice president of global talent management, Mylan

company, from human resources to product research and development, and for each one the company creates a job description and a job posting and goes through an interview process. When an intern is hired, Mylan begins with an orientation, sitting down with the young person to discuss objectives and goals. “A mistake a company makes when approaching internships is thinking only, ‘Oh, what a great opportunity we’re offering someone,’” says Leah Summers, Mylan’s vice president of global talent management. She suggests looking at the internship as a way to learn about connecting with a younger workforce and generating new ideas for customers. “We can see how well someone can make copies or answer phones, or we can really challenge their brain power and see how they can contribute to the work we do today and in the long-term.” Throughout the program, interns are provided with feedback from a manager and, at the end, they’re given performance reviews. Mylan ramped up its internship program in summer 2014 and, of the 114 interns brought on, 50 returned as employees. “We took a focused approach over those three months to make sure those interns were engaged, and we provided not just the work that was initially proposed but other important opportunities as well,” Summers says. Intern meetups gave the young employees opportunities to network with and support each other. An idea summit gave young minds a chance to brainstorm solutions to business issues. Senior Mylan leaders met

regularly with the interns to encourage them with advice from their own careers. Perhaps not all small businesses can realistically take such time grooming interns, but Ballentine suggests, at the very least, modeling the behavior you want to see from your intern. “If it’s common practice for your staff to meet at the end of the week to do a recount of business or forecast the future week, try to make sure the intern can be part of that discussion.” According to Ballentine, an intern’s success can be hampered by unease with the new work environment. After all, for some this is the first real foray into a professional workspace. “For some students it takes a bit longer to adjust and they hang back to take things in. Sometimes barriers to their success are issues of not knowing the right protocol.” Without such structure and mentorship, internships can backfire. “The issues we’ve seen historically, and I suspect it’s common, is an intern feeling lost and disconnected. They don’t get a chance to really interact and see how they fit into the big picture,” Pratt says. What are the symptoms? Interns don’t show up on time, or ever. They’re sloppy in their work. They complain to other interns. Encouraging that same intern, providing a mentor or a regular supervisor, assigning meaningful tasks, and offering feedback can make a world of difference. “It comes through in a lot of different ways,” Summers says. “Their enthusiasm and commitment is obvious every day. There aren’t absentee issues. They attend events. You see attentiveness and participation.”

Katie Griffith

Top Tips Advertise and promote the job honestly. “It helps to give a quick snapshot of what an intern’s week will look like. As much as possible, a company should be up-front about the experiences and expectations, including insight into corporate culture,” Ballentine says. Visit campuses and career fairs. If students don’t know about a company or if they have little understanding of what a company does, simply advertising your internships on social media or your website won’t do much good, says Jennifer Brown, program manager for internships at Marshall University. “The biggest thing is really being visible on campus so students will see you and know what you offer.” Consider timing. “It can be challenging for companies to work on the academic timeline. Sometimes there’s not much you can do with an intern starting in August, or whatever the situation might be,” Ballentine says. Unless you can think of a good reason to bring someone on at that time, Ballentine suggests it would be better to hold off on accepting an intern. Give them a desk, not a closet. “Give interns a space in your office so they’re not floating around,” Brown says. “Make them feel like they have a spot in your company.” If possible, pay your intern. “I know it’s not always possible, and when it’s not, try to think of other ways to compensate them—reimbursement, parking, lunch,” Brown says. “A lot of students have to work while going to school and though they know the internship experience is important, it’s a fact of life that they need that monetary push.” It also helps to stay up-to-date on legal issues. There are legal requirements for paying your intern. Focus wvfocus.com

B2B

A New Frontier The largest provider of broadband in West Virginia is streamlining service while reaching more people.

Focus November/December 2014

Circles represent current highspeed Internet sites—some new service, some increased speed, and some to come by end of year.

expand broadband access to 85 percent. At the time, just over 60 percent of customer households within the Verizon footprint had access, Waldo says. “We exceeded that well before our deadline,” he says. “In some markets we’re well into 90 percent access.” Small businesses have benefited. Robin Hildebrand, owner of Blue Smoke Salsa, has

been with Frontier for years and says she’s seen direct growth as a result of working with the communications company. Her Fayette County-based business uses the provider for everything from the Internet to hosting a toll-free number. “Every aspect of the business, whether it’s someone calling, faxing an order, emailing an order,

courtesy of Frontier

hen Frontier acquired all of Verizon’s property in the state less than five years ago, West Virginia was one of the least wired states in the country. “Our commitment is to make it one of the most wired states,” says Dana Waldo, senior vice president and general manager for Frontier in West Virginia. Frontier acquired the Verizon property in West Virginia in June 2010 and began to build out the network right away. “That has been an ongoing process to build the core network, to expand broadband capabilities across the state,” Waldo says. But the company isn’t just trying to make a buck, it’s investing in the future of the Mountain State, getting broadband access into some of the most rural areas. It not only helps residents, it helps business owners, educators, and health care professionals, too. “Frontier has stepped up. This is huge for the state,” says Michael Shaffer, chief information officer for Community Care of West Virginia (CCWV), based in Upshur County. CCWV is the largest school-based health provider in West Virginia and has nearly 50 medical sites that also include clinics and pharmacies across the state. If CCWV has a patient who needs broadband to access telehealth services, Frontier says it will reach them, Shaffer says. “It does not matter where they’re at,” he says. “That’s speaking to a huge commitment on their part for building out lines.” When Frontier acquired Verizon, the agreement included the commitment to

written by

courtesy of Frontier

Frontier went from 60 switches when it acquired Verizon’s property in the state in 2010 to more than 450 in 2014.

or using the website, Frontier meets those needs,” she says. “It’s helped my business tremendously. I’m nestled in Ansted right in the mountains. The coverage has been great. It’s almost like Frontier has taken our mountains and, just like a rug, straightened them out.” Hildebrand says her website is faster and easier to navigate than ever, and her e-orders are up at least 25 percent. “I attribute it to good Internet service,” she says. Waldo calls Hildebrand the poster child for possibility, as she originally relied on storefronts to sell her salsas and jellies and was somewhat restricted geographically. “If you’re selling your product on the Internet, the world is your market,” he says. “You no longer have to have that access to interstate highways. You don’t have to be in a large metropolitan area. You can be in the Ansteds of West Virginia.” The first thing the solutions-based company does is assess need. “We’re not selling products, per se. We’re solving problems and helping businesses be all they can be,” Waldo says. It’s what their new Business Edge portfolio package is all about. The package offers everything from high-speed Internet, wireless hot spots, and transport—an Ethernet product—to specialized phone systems, voice and data systems, structured cabling, video conferencing, backup and recovery, and more. Frontier works with everyone from

“For us to provide these type of business services using the Ethernet technology, it requires us to have specific types of switches around the state. When we acquired the property in 2010, there were 60 of those type of switches around the state. Today there are 459.” Dana Waldo, senior vice president and general manager, Frontier West Virginia

small businesses to major corporations. The company provides for the massive Amazon facility in Huntington and the Macy’s fulfillment center in Martinsburg. “If we can serve Macy’s and Amazon the way we have, we can serve anybody,” Waldo says. Frontier has vastly improved the way employees communicate and services are delivered across CCWV. “When I came in it was a mess,” says Shaffer of his early days at the health center. “We had so many different Internet service providers and different solution providers. That just doesn’t work when you’re as big as we are and as spread out as we are.” Shaffer says CCWV’s biggest problem was the number of networks it inherited after buying other health care providers.

Laura Wilcox Rote

“We had this hodgepodge of solutions. Every office had a different phone system,” he says. A CCWV clinic might be short-handed one day, but sending a nurse from one site to another meant that employee had to learn a new phone system. That changed when CCWV moved all of its services to Frontier. “It gives us uniformity. When a person sits down at their desk, their workspace will be identical no matter where they sit,” Shaffer says. All of the clinics now work off of the same big network. And it doesn’t matter if someone on staff isn’t certain which site one of the traveling doctors is working at one day. “Everybody in the state will be a four-digit extension away.” Waldo says the opportunity to share medical records is great for doctors, too. “I’ve got a friend who’s a urologist. He can look at x-rays and do consulting work through his iPad through our system.” Schools across the state also benefit from fast Internet and distance learning capability. Frontier provides service for all of West Virginia’s schools, and they all have broadband capacity. The playing field is being leveled. “You can take a world-class science teacher and put them in every classroom in every school in the state,” Waldo says. “You can now have that everywhere.” Frontier also offers a satellite product so that, theoretically, anyone anywhere in the state could get broadband. “There are some locations in the state, as in other states, where it’s just not economically feasible to have a terrestrial based line,” Waldo says. “We have a satellite product where, as long as you have a line of sight to the sky, you can have broadband services. We have sold over 14,000 of those satellite products in West Virginia.” Frontier’s extensive transport network around the state connects to two of the main national Internet hubs—one in Chicago and one in Virginia. Frontier’s network is also a redundant network, meaning that even if a problem arises in part of the network, service continues. “We are constantly looking at new technology opportunities, bringing those to the workplace, and bringing those to our customers,” Waldo says. “The future is—who knows?” frontier.com Focus wvfocus.com

Economy

Mountain State Business Index A West Virginia economic look-ahead 114

Index, 2000=100

Mountain State Business Index

112

110

108

Oct. 2014

112.5, +0.2% m /m

106

104

102

100

Note: Shaded region corresponds to U.S. recession as determined by the NBER

ow does one really know how well West Virginia’s economy is likely to perform in coming months? Anecdotal accounts often represent just one industry or region, and weekly and monthly data releases often appear to conflict—but comprehensive reports can be time-consuming to read, and are typically produced only annually. Trying to grasp the economic picture can quickly become overwhelming.

Focus November/December 2014

This summer we at West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business & Economic Research created the Mountain State Business Index. The MSBI combines leading economic indicators into a single index and provides a convenient way to gauge the likelihood of coming swings in economic activity. We constructed the index retroactively back to 2000. It’s released monthly in various media outlets throughout West Virginia and should serve as the first stop in the

process of understanding West Virginia’s economy. The index comprises seven economic indicators that we determined lead expansions or contractions in the West Virginia economy by approximately four to six months. Each indicator makes a positive, negative, or no contribution on a monthly basis to the overall index. The seven indicators are related to the following factors: • building permits for new single- family homes; • initial unemployment insurance claims; • the value of the U.S. dollar; • stock prices related to West Virginia employers; • interest rates; • coal production; and • natural gas production.

written by

John Deskins and Brian Lego

Signals of a coming contraction in the state’s economy can be identified if the index declines by at least two percent on an annualized basis over a six-month period and a majority of the individual components also decline over that same time period. While the MSBI was flat for much of the year between mid2013 and early 2014, it has grown rapidly over recent months. This growth points to continued economic growth in our state for the remainder of this year and into early 2015, likely accelerating over the near term. Based on consistent growth in the overall index and broad growth among the various components, chances of a recession in the coming months appear remote. Nearly all of the seven components have made positive contributions to the index in recent months, with natural gas production providing the largest positive contribution. Natural gas output continues to surge thanks to highly productive Marcellus Shale wells in the Northern Panhandle and North Central West Virginia. Initial claims for unemployment insurance have declined significantly in recent months and are around the lowest level observed since before the recent recession, also adding to the index. Building permits for new single-family homes are estimated to have increased as of late, and stock prices for the state’s major employers have edged higher. Coal production has also helped drive the MSBI in recent months, as power plants worked to replenish lean stockpiles of coal after the recent harsh winter. In these pages in coming months we will update you on the MSBI overall and each issue will feature a focus on a particular aspect of the index. In the next issue we will examine the largest recent driver of the index—and our state’s economy overall: natural gas production.

John Deskins serves as director at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at WVU, leading the bureau’s efforts to serve the state by providing rigorous economic analysis and macroeconomic forecasting. Deskins holds a Ph.D. in economics from The University of Tennessee. His research has focused on U.S. state economic development, small business economics, and government tax and expenditure policy. Brian Lego serves as research assistant professor at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research. Lego holds a master’s degree in agricultural and resource economics from WVU and specializes in economic forecasting and applied economic research.

Focus wvfocus.com

elizabeth roth

Fermenting tanks at Greenbrier Valley Brewing Company.

10 Things

written by

10 Things Observed While Starting Breweries

West Virginia has hit its craft beer stride. As this issue

goes to press, four new breweries are recently open or preparing to open across the state. We asked the owners to share some inside observations about what it takes to get the fermentation going.

Realism Everyone will tell you: If you’re interested in starting a microbrewery, you’ll need to approach it very systematically—by doing as much research and talking to as many people with brewery experience possible, building a solid business plan with milestones, building a core group of supporters who will laugh when you laugh and cry when you cry, having 50 percent more money than you think you’ll need, and developing a list of reasons why you shouldn’t start a brewery. If you’re still interested after all this, then you can move on. — Wil Laska, Greenbrier Valley Brewing Company

Paperwork I’ve had to do lots of

paperwork and learn my way around the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and West Virginia’s Alcohol Beverage Control Administration. — Chad Hill, Wheeling Brewing Company

More paperwork There’s a LOT of it. — Bill Rittenour, Chestnut Brew Works

Passion for brewing It’s a good thing I have a passion for what I do, because if I spent this much time working on something I didn’t care for, I’d be a miserable person. — Rittenour, CBW

Money Our biggest problem was

getting financing, so if that is something you need, then plan on spending a long time gathering that first and adjust your expectations accordingly. — Matt Kwasniewski, Big Timber Brewing Company

People love beer I’m not really sure if it’s a small business thing, or if people would really like to see a new small local brewery, but I can’t tell you how many offers I’ve had to help move stuff, paint, remodel, etc., from both individuals and other small business owners in Morgantown. It has been really refreshing. — Rittenour, CBW

Patience Brewing has a lot of red tape, and your business will be at the mercy of others. Have patience and treat others with respect. At the end of the day be able to relax and enjoy a beer, and think about something other than what you had to do to make it. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure your head will explode. — Kwasniewski, BTB

Camaraderie The craft brewing world

is extremely non-competitive, at least in West Virginia and at least on the surface. I’ve made friends with pretty much every single other brewer in the state, and we all enjoy drinking each others’ beers. They’ve been very open and helpful when I’ve had questions about opening the new brewery. The guys at Big Timber even invited me down to show me how they did things and answered all of my questions. It’ll be interesting to see if this continues as more craft breweries open in the state. — Rittenour, CBW

More patience It’s taken us almost

two years of hard planning, work, and just plain sweat to get to where we are today: a production brewery with real customers. — Laska, GVB

Reward Running a business

and building relationships with other small businesses is rewarding work. — Hill, WBC

Pam Kasey

Tap These BTB: Big Timber Brewing Company Matt Kwasniewski, co-owner, head brewer • On tap across the state • Tap room open Wednesday through Sunday at 1210 South Davis Avenue in Elkins • Blonde, Pale Ale, ForestFest Oktoberfest, IPA, Porter, Wild Wonderful West Virginia Wet Hop Ale, Bourbon Barrel Porter; Winter Ale • Plans to begin canning in 2015 bigtimberbrewing.com facebook.com/bigtimberbrewing @bigtimberbrew

CBW: Chestnut Brew Works Bill Rittenour, founder, head brewer • Brewery and taproom coming soon at 444 Brockway Avenue in Morgantown • On tap across the state: Halleck Pale Ale, Wits Virginia, South Park Porter, specialty styles chestnutbrewworks.com facebook.com/chestnutbrewworks @chestnutbrews

GVB: Greenbrier Valley Brewing Company Wil Laska, co-owner • Production brewery in Maxwelton • On tap across the state: Mothman Black IPA, Wild Trail Pale Ale • Plans to begin canning in November 2014, possible taproom 2015 gvbeer.com facebook.com/ greenbriervalleybrewingcompany

WBC: Wheeling Brewing Company Chad Hill, CEO • Brewpub opening in November at 2247 Market Street, Wheeling • McColloch’s Wheat, Moon Dog IPA, Nail City Porter, Old Reymann Amber Ale, Panhandle Pale Ale • Plans for a brick oven menu facebook.com/wheelingbrewingcompany @wheelingbrewing

Focus wvfocus.com

Marketing

Daniel Pauley, Dan Lohmann, and Tony Caridi show off several Emmy Awards earned by Pikewood Creative.

“Mountaineer Football 2010” appear on screen. They’re immediately followed by “Ready? We are.” And then it ends with the United Bank logo. It’s simple, clean, and, for a college football-obsessed state, it’s gripping. “They’re nontraditional banking commercials to say the least,” says Tony Caridi, co-founding member of the commercial’s creator, Pikewood Creative of Morgantown. “People know those football spots as the United Bank football spots. It’s left that lasting impression.” Visual marketing company Pikewood Creative began in one small studio with one window, overheated from the number of computers and equipment lying around. Two media gurus, Caridi and business partner Dan Lohmann, launched the business as an in-house visual component of West Virginia Radio Corporation and Greer Industries. Today the small, barely maneuverable room has given way to gleaming office space and a soon-to-come 20,000-square-foot office building in the heart of downtown Morgantown. Emmys sit on the wall. “You have to build a trust with customers,” Caridi says of Pikewood’s growth. “That’s something we’ve had despite the fact that we’re only 11 years old. A lot of people feel more comfortable with us when they hear me, my voice, they know who I am, they know I’m not just some guy who’s trying to hustle them.” As WVU’s

Beyond Morgantown’s Pikewood Creative takes visual marketing to the next level.

t begins with the punchy staccato of a marching band drum line, both upbeat and full of attitude, as clouds pass over a set of stadium lights out for the off-season. Then, a quick cut to practice prep. Ankles are expertly wrapped. Cleats are drilled into the soles of a running shoe. The tempo picks up and the visuals turn to the crisscross of legs running drills over

Focus November/December 2014

West Virginia University’s Mountaineer Field. It’s a warm-up, not just for practice or a game, but the coming football season. Close-ups, details, a wide-angle shot, plenty of running and power lifting, and, at the end, a near perfect synchronization of drumbeats with footsteps. This Emmy Award-winning commercial is called “Anticipation.” In the last 10 seconds of the 30-second spot the words

Katie Griffith

Filling a Need

written by

Katie Griffith

“We were telling people’s stories in a different way than they were used to seeing.”

courtesy of Pikewood Creative

Dan Lohmann, Pikewood Creative co-founder

play-by-play announcer on Mountaineer Sports Network since 1997, Caridi’s is a recognizable voice on radio across the state. “Mountaineer Sports Network was always very high level,” he says. “We were kind of established before we were really established.” With Caridi’s radio expertise and Lohmann’s video experience as a shooter, editor, and producer for international sporting events like the Olympics, Pikewood launched in 2003. Six months later Caridi and Lohmann began taking on external work. “It wasn’t our intention to get into the business to do 30-second video spots, but we found there was a need,” Lohmann says. “The production level was pretty low back in those days.” Memories of grainy video and fuzzy sound bites behind local television commercials aren’t far from West Virginians’ memories, and while the days of commercial spots starring grandchildren are far from gone, quality has arrived. Images are vibrant. Sound is sharp. Pikewood’s efforts to up the visual ante have been noted. Over the years the company has had a hand in telling West Virginia’s story on a national level through significant projects with state development and tourism offices. One of its most notable productions, that United Bank football spot, won Pikewood one of its two Emmy awards. Pikewood’s work has been aired nationally, while its client list has gone national, too— from California to Washington, D.C. Word spread quickly about the company in the early days, Lohmann says. “We were telling people’s stories in a different way than they were used to seeing.” The two founding members spent a lot of time learning about their customers’ companies, digging into their stories. They soon realized they needed

help with motion graphics and hired a freelancer. By 2007 they hired a motion graphics designer full-time. The work piled on. Today with eight full-time employees and one part-timer, Pikewood Creative works with customers on video spots, web design, web development, and print, and the company is dipping its toes in the design and development world. “Sometimes we have clients come to us and say, ‘I need a video and I need it to be this long,’ and sometimes we’ll tell them, ‘No, that’s not what you need. You need to go in this direction and try something else,’” Lohmann says. “We try to be extremely honest with them about what their strengths are and where they can best make an impact. If that happens to be video, great. If it’s a TV spot, fine. If it’s radio advertising, we’ll point them in that direction.” Caridi and Lohmann are always looking

With the use of motion into the potential graphics and video, future of video and Pikewood Creative’s visual marketing, marketing spots push the norm. prepping for what they see as a wild ride to come. “Technology has allowed everyone to become their own video editor, video producer, video shooter,” Caridi says. “It has forced everyone in this business to amp up their game to succeed. You have to do something that’s constantly new, surprising, and different.” But marketing at its heart is about telling the story of a business or organization in a compelling way. It’s more than technology. “Technology isn’t going to stop evolving,” Lohmann says. “But a strength we have is the execution in telling a story. It’s hard work to really nail it. We break the stereotype all the time.”

pikewoodcreative.com Focus wvfocus.com

How We Did It

Fruth for Life

ynne Fruth can’t sit still for long in a Fruth Pharmacy—she has to get involved. A halfhour into our interview, in a back corner of the Teays Valley Fruth, near the pharmacy counter, she had to excuse herself for a moment to call the front desk. There were customers lining up to fill their prescriptions, and she wanted another employee to come help speed things up. “I always do this,” she says, pulling out her cell phone. “Sometimes I’ll be driving by a store and call to tell them there’s a long line at the drive-thru pharmacy.” That’s what happens when the person who is a company’s president and chairman of its board is also so deeply invested in the company that its stores feel like home to her. “It’s funny because when

Focus November/December 2014

most people say, ‘I’m going to the store’ they mean the grocery store. When I say I’m going to ‘the store’ I mean I’m going to Fruth,” Lynne says. “That’s how we’ve always referred to it in my family, since we were there so often. It was really an extension of our home.” The first Fruth Pharmacy was founded in Point Pleasant by Lynne’s parents, Jack and Frances Fruth, in 1952. It’s been family owned and operated ever since, even as the company has expanded to include 25 stores and more than 600 employees throughout West Virginia and Ohio, plus a corporate office and warehouse complex in Point Pleasant. When they were kids, Lynne and her siblings practically grew up in the pharmacy—they’d ride their bikes there after school to see their father and

chat with the staff, maybe sit in the corner and read a comic book. Often they’d help out with the business, so there would be a gaggle of kids dropping flyers on every doorstep in the neighborhood, or an assembly line of children in the back room, filling Easter baskets the pharmacy sold to customers. But as they became adults, just one of the Fruth kids became a pharmacist—Lynne’s older brother Michael, now a vice president at Fruth Pharmacy. Lynne became a teacher. “People have a gift for different things and I had a gift for teaching, especially kids who struggled,” she says. “That was a good fit for me and I never really anticipated working with the business.” In addition to her time in the classroom Lynne also did consulting, traveling to other schools to help them implement new curricula and teaching methods. Then, in 2005, Jack Fruth passed away unexpectedly. He had a succession plan in place, so the company’s upper management shifted around some to account for his loss, and the family assumed that all at Fruth Pharmacy was well. “But a few years later I went up to my dad’s office just to clean it out and take care of things,” Lynne says. “And just talking with people there, listening to people, digging into things, I realized that things with the business might not be very good.” The people running the company were good people her dad trusted, Lynne says, but they lacked his vision. “There seemed to be a lack of leadership,” she says. “And over the course of a few years I think that became a crisis

Shay Maunz

After five decades, Fruth Pharmacy is stronger than ever.

written by

Shay Maunz

photographed by

Nikki Bowman

“When you’re in a slide and you need to right the ship— make unpopular decisions, change things, drive compliance, sever relationships with some suppliers and things like that— you have to have a stomach for it.”

top left: courtesy of Fruth Pharmacy

Lynne Fruth, Fruth Pharmacy president

of leadership.” So Lynne had a talk with her mother, and they decided that the family needed to get more involved. “When I started down that path it never occurred to me that I would be part of that end solution,” Lynne says. But when they started narrowing down the pool of Fruth family members who could take the top job at the company, it became increasingly clear that she was the right choice. A cousin had health problems and lives too far away, one brother “doesn’t want to be in charge of anybody,” and another brother was deemed “too nice” by their mother. So in 2009 Lynne became president and chairman of the board overseeing Fruth Pharmacy. It was important that the new president not be “too nice” because there was a lot to do at Fruth, and not all of it was pleasant. “When you’re in a slide and you need to right the ship—make unpopular decisions, change things, drive compliance, sever relationships with some suppliers and things like that—you have to have a stomach for it,” Lynne says. “I don’t know if anybody ever totally has a stomach for it, but I said to myself that there is no person, no supplier relationship, no company that is more important than the survival of Fruth Pharmacy as a business.” That was especially essential because of what this business means to Lynne and her family— it’s her parents’ legacy, after all. “My dad

spent his entire life doing this,” she says. “I wasn’t going to let it go to heck.” She set to work rebranding Fruth, returning the logo to its original red, white, and blue color scheme—“At some point somebody had made the decision we were going to go with rose and sort of an off green. What were we thinking?”—and remodeling a lot of the stores. And, even more importantly, she started digging into paperwork, looking for redundancies and slip-ups, trying to spot any deal that was mediocre or find any new procedure that could save time or money. She saved $10,000, for example, just by reevaluating their contracts for trash pickup at each pharmacy. She also looked at wholesale agreements and dropped one company they’d been working with for 57 years. “That was the hardest one,” Lynne says. “But we

When Lynne Fruth took weren’t getting the the top job at Fruth best prices and we Pharmacy, she was deterdon’t have the luxury mined to save her family business with modernof having a mediocre ization, a new image, contract—we need a and improved efficiency. “I had to,” she says. “I good contract.” have such a tremendous It worked. In respect, love, and admiration of both my parents Lynne’s first year and what they built.” as president, the company saved $1 million in operating costs. By the end of her third year, they’d saved $2 million. These days Fruth is even expanding—in the last two years the company has opened two new pharmacies, and it’s open to expanding even more in the future. “That’s the thing about a family business,” Lynne says. “There’s no one who is going to rally and step up to the cause more than family will.” Focus wvfocus.com

Leadership

Written by

The Seven Keys to

L.E.A.D.I.N.G.

at Home and at Work What’s the difference between inspiring your employees to perform at their best at work—and your kids to do likewise at school? Surprisingly, not much, except that you won’t get very far by rewarding employees with just a candy bar. The fact is, whether you’re in the office or in your living room, your behavior affects those around you in more significant ways than most imagine. That’s why it’s so important to embrace your leadership role and develop your skills. Here are my seven vital keys to LEADING at home and at work. ead yourself. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi said it and we should all live it. The greatest leaders start by leading themselves, not by putting out the message, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Own your behavior if you really want to earn the respect and trust of others.

ncourage and be positive. You get back what you put out. When you’re down about something, others soak up that negativity and use it for a second skin. On the other hand, optimism inspires. Even if you’re not feeling all that confident on a given day, try to not just look on the bright side, but also bring it to life.

lways be authentic. Recently I was asked to help a severely underperforming executive—who was, I discovered, the son-inlaw of one of the owners, and uninterested in improving. I told senior management, “You can polish a rock all you want, but it’s not going to turn into a diamond.” Although the message stung a bit, they got the point. That kind of straight talk has attracted hundreds of clients that appreciate authenticity. It’s extremely important to be who you are and not who you think people want you to be. You’ll lose some fans along the way, but gain a whole lot more in return.

on’t disregard the truth. Authenticity and candor go hand-in-hand. When my wife asks if I like her dress and I don’t, well, I’m careful, but honest. I might say, “That’s not my favorite” or “I love your red one.” She understands my message and I don’t

Focus November/December 2014

get put outside for the night. You must find a way to be honest, but respectful. Remember, if people can’t trust what you say, they can’t trust you.

nspire and include. This is a tricky one. On one hand, leaders shouldn’t manage solely from survey results. On the other hand, leaders need to be open to other opinions. Here’s what it comes down to: When you’re strong and decisive, you inspire—but only if you include others in your decisionmaking. A great example of how to balance decisiveness with inclusiveness? The movie Lincoln, where the Great Emancipator forged consensus and demonstrated the strongest leadership skills America has ever seen.

Ascending to New Heights For Ed DeCosta, personal and professional achievements aren’t the result of luck or circumstance. They come from things like visualization, determination, and attitude. They are products of the mind rather than products of the world around us. “If you’re like most people, you’re not really thinking big. Most people are stuck in small-mindedness, limiting themselves to that which is realistic, doable, practical, or some other selflimiting word. They like to live in the world of ‘ordinary’ rather than ‘amazing,’” DeCosta says in his 2014 book Ascend: A Coach’s Roadmap for Taking Your Performance to New Heights. His first book, Ascend tackles major social and psychological hurdles to success through humor and sound practical advice. From building self-esteem to overcoming failure, DeCosta outlines accessible steps and simple changes in thinking aimed at steering individuals toward becoming their best possible selves.

ever stop learning. Are you satisfied with what you know? Then your leadership skills are simply “running out the clock.” The best leaders want, and need, to be better than they were last week. It’s not about being dissatisfied with who you are, it’s about becoming the best version of that person—and the only way to pull that off is to continue to grow and learn.

ive credit where credit is due. Ego too often gets in the way of true leadership. Weak leaders feel diminished when someone they work with, or even a family member, accomplishes or contributes something significant. The fact is, when you don’t celebrate others’ achievements, you look smaller in everyone’s eyes. A great leader empowers and encourages—and enjoys—others’ successes.

A former leader of corporate sales and marketing teams, Ed DeCosta is an ICF-certified professional coach and teaches in the Maxwell Leadership Development Program and WVU’s College of Business and Economics. He is president of Catalyst Associates executive coaching and management consulting firm in Morgantown.

Courtesy of Ed DeCosta

Ed DeCosta

Jon A. McBride POWER POINTS

INTERVIEWED BY Pam Kasey

Jon McBride visited with Japan’s first astronaut, Mamoru Mohri (left), and China’s first astronaut, Yang Liwei, at the Astronaut Center of China outside Beijing in September 2014.

» On keeping one’s head Astronauts get to go in

space, be on TV, and meet dignitaries, but there are about a thousand people behind each and every one of us. I don’t think there’s anybody so superior to anybody else that they can’t stay on the same level. You’ve got to be a team player.

» On leading a team Don’t wait until a stressful

situation arises—expect it, train for it, be prepared. We spent up two years practicing ascents, landings, and all the things that could fail. By the end of that you could throw anything at us, and we were ready. Think about failure cases and practice responses so, when a situation arises, you’ve got an answer for it.

Former astronaut and venture capitalist Jon McBride now works as director of Astronaut Space Programs at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the space shuttle Atlantis is displayed.

Charleston native Jon McBride has taken risks throughout his career. McBride graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley in 1960, then attended West Virginia University and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. He flew combat missions in southeast Asia for the Navy. But McBride wanted to fly higher: He became an astronaut in 1979. Among other missions, he piloted an eight-day space shuttle Challenger mission in 1984. He retired from NASA in 1989 to serve as president and CEO of Lewisburg-based Flying Eagle venture capital corporation. Among its investments were the still-inoperation Greenbrier Technical Services in Lewisburg and Silver Creek Resort on Snowshoe Mountain. Now director of Astronaut Education Programs at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida, McBride coordinates the training and activities of 32 visiting astronauts, one of whom gives a “Lunch with an Astronaut” talk each day to center visitors. He visits West Virginia regularly, working sometimes with the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium’s Aviation Camp for middle schoolers held each summer at WVU. We asked him to share some of what he’s learned about success, glamor, and investing.

Focus November/December 2014

It’s a delicate balance between the project and the capabilities of the people who are going to run it. If I had my choice, I’d take super people with an average idea over a super idea and people who don’t know what to do with it.

» On succeeding in a competitive field You’ve got to

know your competition inside and out. You and your organization have to have an established mission objective, everybody has to know what course you’re going to take, and it has to be fully and completely articulated by the leadership at the top and all the way down to the bottom.

» On pride Let’s be proud we’re Mountaineers—and

I’m talking about Marshall grads, too. There’s not a person in my Navy and NASA career who doesn’t know how proud I am to be a West Virginian. If you go off to other places, the reason you succeed is probably the values and community we shared in our little towns in West Virginia.

delaware north companies; Courtesy of Jon McBride

» Fighter pilot, astronaut, venture capitalist—

» On succeeding in a venture capital investment