CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – A family from Charleston took a trip to the Paris Olympics. Nikki Boggs, her son Parker and sister Tawney have a scenic view of the Eiffel Tower from their hotel room, and they’ve noticed increased security for the Olympic Games.

“There’s been security everywhere, like on every street corner. There’s a very heavy police presence, like even now it’s 11:40 at night and there’s four armored guards on the corner right below our balcony.” Parker Boggs said.

Nikki Boggs said her family always asks if she feels safe when traveling outside the country, but she hasn’t let those worries get to her.

The family was traveling by train from London when France’s railway network was sabotaged. The delays caused them to be late to the opening ceremony. A trip that was supposed to take two and a half hours took more than six hours.

“Yeah, it was a little unsettling, ‘cause there were moments that we were at a complete stop for maybe 10 minutes out in the countryside. It wasn’t really communicated too much as to why we were stopped,” Nikki Boggs said.

Although the family has enjoyed the Olympic events, they said the locals have been impacted.

“Our taxi driver today was telling us a lot of folks have left town. It has disrupted their city, no doubt,” Nikki Boggs said.

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CHARLESTON, W.V.a. — The Charleston Dirty Birds will soon be hosting its fifth straight installment of African American Heritage Night at GoMart Ballpark.

The Dirty Birds will host the celebration next Monday, August 5, and Tuesday, August 6. The two-day event will feature a Monday reception where Roberto Clemente Jr., son of Major League Baseball Hall of Fame member Roberto Clemente, will speak. The Monday portion of the event will be sponsored by the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau, and James Beard Award-winning Chef Paul Smith will do the cooking.

Tuesday will highlight a nationally known dancer as Kida the Great will perform before the Dirty Birds welcome the Lexington Legends into town. Gates will open on Tuesday at 5 o’clock, and a pre-game showtime is set for 5:30, with a number of performers taking the field before Kida the Great begins.

Charleston Dirty Birds owner Andy Shea says this will be a big two days, but the planning process for the event spanned across the year.

“These two days are a gigantic celebration, and kind of an explanation point, but it is 365 days, on the field, off the field, in the community, pertaining to baseball, not baseball, so it is a gigantic mission of ours,” Shea said Monday afternoon.

In addition to the performances and speeches, several Dirty Birds players and manager P.J. Phillips will be leading a baseball clinic to introduce the game to the youth of Charleston. The YWCA Charleston will sponsor the clinic and is purchasing a baseball glove for each participant.

Shea says he loves that kids will get introduced to the game and see how people have made a living in baseball.

“I love that people and kids get a chance to see these guys that are playing professional baseball, that have played in the big leagues, that have played in AAA, that have made a great career and living from it, that they did it through baseball,” Shea said.

Shea also said that he had spent a multitude of years in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, and in that time, he saw a couple of reasons why some youth in the African American community didn’t fall in love with the game of baseball.

“I think that accessibility and introduction to it was certainly part of it, but I also think a gigantic part of it was that the guy next to them wasn’t playing,” Shea said. “The older cousin didn’t play, the older brother didn’t play, so then they didn’t play.”

Shea said that Charleston took a big step forward in bringing kids across the city to the knowledge of baseball with nice, accessible fields.

“I think as a community, we took a major step forward, in terms of all the artificial turf fields that are within Charleston now because accessibility is a giant one,” Shea said. “Being able to have these artificial turf fields that are very accessible and that are useable pretty much 24/7, 365, that is a gigantic step.”

Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin was on hand for the conference announcing the 5th African American Heritage Night and says the team’s outreach for the youth in the community is why she always supports these events.

“Every single thing that this ballpark is now doing is centered around children,” Goodwin said. “That’s why I’m always in.”

Jennifer Pharr, a Charleston City Council member and early supporter of the team’s African American Hertiage Night, says baseball is for everybody.

“Baseball is important to everyone,” Pharr said. ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re red, green, purple, black, or with pink polka dots. It matters to everybody.”

West Virginia — In the latest sign that West Virginia’s tourism industry is booming, two new gondolas are coming soon to its state park network.

The first new gondola is coming to Pipestem Resort State Park. Beginning in 1971, the state park was home to a scenic tramway. This system only had twelve cabins, each able to accommodate four people. If winds exceeded 24 miles per hour, the lift had to be shut down.

With the old tram in disrepair, West Virginia decided to replace it with a new pulse gondola. The $12.4 million gondola is more efficient and provides greater capacity than its predecessor. It will have a length of 3,410 feet and a vertical drop of 1,200 feet as it will drop into Bluestone Gorge and conclude next to the Mountain Creek Lodge. The gondola will be able to operate with winds up to 54 mph. This new gondola is expected to open this fall.

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice explained in the press conference why they decided to add a new gondola:

“When I heard the old tram was in disrepair, I didn’t think twice about replacing it. This tramway has been an iconic spot in West Virginia for many, many years. It’s a place where hundreds of thousands of folks have created memories over the last 50 years, and I’m just thrilled that we’ve found a way to bring it back better than ever before. I’ve ridden it down into the gorge to fish more times than I can remember, and I plan to be among the first to ride it down again this fall.”

The other gondola replacement is coming to Hawks Nest State Park. First opened in 1970, the aerial tram connected New River Gorge on Hawks Nest Lake and the Hawks Nest Lodge. However, it also became inoperable and thus needed replacement.

This month, the state announced that it will be replaced by a $8 million gondola. These new cabins will be able to hold six people each. This gondola project is expected to open in late spring or early summer 2025.

The investment comes as tourism in West Virginia continues to grow. These gondola investments are part of the $250 million the government has invested in its state park systems over the past seven years. The result of these investments is an increase in visitation and revenue. In the past fiscal year, West Virginia’s state parks brought in over $50 million in revenue.

West Virginia Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby described the growth of this sector to WCHS ABC 8:

“I’ll tell you the added benefit that you might not know, which is this is changing the way people think about our state. If you think back to where we were 10 years ago people were not thinking about West Virginia as a popular destination. It wasn’t that we weren’t. It wasn’t that the state’s gotten prettier in 10 years, but we weren’t telling that story. We weren’t putting the funds behind telling that story.”

Image/Video Credits: West Virginia Department of Commerce, Office of the Governor, WCHS, West Virginia State Parks

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