CHARLESTON, W.Va. — On Thursday, Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin and GAI Consultants held a media briefing at the Kanawha County Library to unveil a first look at a draft concept of the Capital Connector Project.

The Capital Connector is a project that aims to connect Charleston’s East End and West Side by enhancing the area by the Kanawha River, specifically the Kanawha Boulevard Walk and Bikeway.

The project will begin at Magic Island on Charleston’s West Side and will go for over three miles to the base of the 35th Street Bridge. Upgrades will also come to parts of Greenbrier Street connecting the East End and the West Virginia State Capitol Complex.

Mayor Goodwin says plans are coming to fruition and just now becoming available for the public, but the work to get this project started goes back to the beginning of her time in office.

“Five and a half years ago when I first became mayor, we started on this,” Goodwin said Thursday. “We started going after the funding to do this type of planning. This is something that, for five and a half years, we’ve been working on, but honestly, the city has been asking for this for decades.”

Charleston received a $25 million RAISE grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in late June after receiving over $1 million in 2023 to do an initial study.

Kanawha County resident Heidi Talmage says she was surprised at how much funding is going towards the project.

“I was stunned at how much funding is going to be available for this project,” Talmage said. “It sounds like they are really expecting to be able to do something very meaningful and not just a little band-aid on a long-term problem.”

Talmage also says she thinks this project bringing in more people to the city.

“I think this is going to be a big benefit to the town and to make it more attractive to a bigger variety of people,” Talmage said.

One of the ways the Capital Connector Project may attract more people to the city is the vision to enhance commuter trails along the Kanawha Boulevard. To make the Kanawha Boulevard Walk and Bikeway better, the City of Charleston and GAI Consultants want to reduce four to five 12-foot traffic lanes, allowing for expansion of the pedestrian pathway. In addition, the concept has intersection signal modifications, lighting upgrades, and better stormwater management.

James Yost, Landscape Architect manager for GAI Consultants, says this project means a lot to him and is worth the long days and late nights.

“I’ve lived in Charleston my entire life,” Yost said. “At 36 years old, I’m able to do my most important project that I’ve ever had to do to date. I’m very excited every day I get to work on this. We’ve had many late nights, and it doesn’t matter because I’m enjoying every minute of this.”

Yost was the main presenter at the hearing Thursday night, and he answered questions from community members about the plans.

Community members were able to write in public comments Thursday evening to help expand the vision and can do so until September 14.

Goodwin says it’s the citizens that need to make their voices heard so the project can be catered to them.

“We can come up with what we think would be really great for the city, but it’s you,” Goodwin said. “It’s the public telling us, ‘Hey, I saw this when I was traveling to this city,’ so obviously there’s great inspiration you’re going to see from different cities, but it’s coming from our public.”

Goodwin says there are so many ideas for the project, that some may be put on the backburner to fit the budget.

“The construction grant is $25 million, that’s the funding that we have,” Goodwin said. “We also have to look at what we actually can do within those budget restraints.”

Yost says GAI and the city are keeping their eye on future projects that might not be within the budget.

“We are also looking at even future projects as well,” Yost said. “We’ve highlighted a few areas along the trail that might not be within this first round of money that we get, but it’s something else that we can add on to because the $25 million is going to go so far and then there’s always the future as they continue to add on to the space and then expand into the communities as well.”

There will be another meeting regarding the Capital Connector Project in the coming months that will focus on design development.

A summer 2025 groundbreaking is the goal for the Capital Connector.

CHARELSTON, W.Va. — Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power customers continue to display their opposition against a $265 million rate increase.

Four organizations, West Virginians for Energy Freedom, WV Citizens Action Group, People’s Action Institute and 350 Network Council came together for a ‘Bills Too High Rally’ in front of the AEP Office in Charleston Thursday afternoon to address the increasing power bills.

However, the event was not only a way to address their concerns of the rising energy costs, but advocate for locally-owned and renewable energy solutions. 

Emmett Pepper is an attorney who has been representing various organizations going before the state Public Service Commission on the matter. He said the company’s aim to raise customers rates by 15.4% is very concerning.

“Of course I’m wearing the city council hat too, I’m concerned about the constituents as well, a lot of low-income folks are going to be affected by this,” Pepper said.

Another spokesperson of the event, Tyler Blake last week started an online petition called ‘AEP Stop the Hike’ after he felt something needed to be done. He said the petition has now reached nearly 500 signatures.

Blake said the petition reflects a resounding sense of anger from all who are living pay check to pay check and on a fixed income as it is.

“People in West Virginia who are current rate-payers of AEP or Appalachian Power are aggravated, they’re upset and they cannot afford these rate hikes,” Blake said.

He said he also took the petition door-to-door around different communities from Princeton to Huntington.

The power company filed the request for the increase with the PSC a couple of weeks ago and Thursday’s rally marked a series of several pushback events that have been held in West Virginia since then. If approved, it would increase the average residential bill by approximately $28.72 a month.

Blake said he doesn’t understand how the utility company has the audacity to raise the bill by such an extreme amount considering many are relying on disability checks and social security.

“When I went to the public hearing on Monday at the PSC in Charleston, I was sitting there and I was listening to the stories that people were giving and I mean, they’re absolute tear jerkers, you had people there, mothers there who were crying and begging and pleading to the PSC and to AEP not to allow this rate increase,” he said.

At the same time, AEP is also in the middle of another rate hike and fuel cost case where they are seeking a rate increase of $20.4 million under what’s called the Expanded Net Energy Cost. They held a hearing on Monday for that as well.

Pepper said what’s not being publicized much about that particular case is the fact that it will significantly increase rates for small businesses, churches, and schools by 25 to 30%.

In addition, he said there’s also another concern where the company is not letting those trying to be more energy efficient off the hook either.

“The other thing that may have not been as well publicized that’s concerning is that if an individual looks at a big rate increase like that coming and says ‘well, gosh maybe I should just buy some solar panels so I can cut some of my cost,’ according to the proposal, they actually are making it harder for people to even go solar, slashing the amount of a credit that you get if you have solar panels,” Pepper said.

According to the organizations that were host to Thursday’s rally, West Virginia has some of the highest growing electricity rates in the country due to the state’s dependency on privately owned power companies that prioritize profits over affordable energy solutions.

However, it’s part of a movement across 17 states to secure more affordable energy as well accountability from for-profit utilities. There are currently over two dozen similar events taking place across the country this week.

Blake said people can still sign the petition by going to his ‘AEP Stop the Hike’ Facebook page as well as get up-to-date on the movement.

He encourages everyone to sign it to help remind the power company that they don’t accept the hikes.

“Your voice needs to be heard, you deserve to be heard, you’re the one paying the bill,” Blake said. “We want your voice to be heard, AEP needs to know that you can’t afford these rate increases.”

He said you can also test him at (304)908-0089 and it will automatically send you a link to the petition to sign online.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The letter was signed Thursday that will reduce the state’s personal income tax by another 4% on Jan. 1, 2025.

The letter, signed by state Auditor J.B. McCuskey and state Revenue Secretary Larry Pack, acknowledges the trigger mechanization for the tax cut was met.

Legislation approved by state lawmakers in 2023 establishes a process by which the personal income tax can be reduced annually if certain marks are met.

The trigger measures general revenue collections in a fiscal year minus severance collections compared to 2019 as a base year, adjusted for inflation. If collections are ahead of the base year, that would activate the trigger. That’s what happened in the most recently completed fiscal year. The cuts, according to the trigger, can go no lower than 10%.

State lawmakers passed and Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill last year to reduce the tax by 21%. Pack said Thursday the additional 4% will begin coming off next year.

“It’s effective Jan. 1, 2025. We just made it official. We’re very thankful for the governor’s leadership and legislature to allow us to continue to cut the tax burden of West Virginians,” Pack said during an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.”

Pack said the the new cut will be about a $100 million savings for taxpayers, Pack said.

“That’s on top of the over $800 million tax cut the governor pushed forward and the legislature passed last year,” Pack said.

MORE see letter here 

Meanwhile, Justice has said on more than one occasion that he plans to ask lawmakers to cut the personal income tax by another 5% during a special session either later this month or in September.

“We’ve done the right thing growing this economy; we’ve done the right thing keeping this budget flat. Why in the world would we now do the wrong thing? For people who want to sit on the sidelines and do nothing, then at the end of the day we will get exactly, ultimately, in the end — mark it down because I’m not going to be here very much longer — in all honesty we will get exactly what we deserve,” Justice said in early July.

But there doesn’t appear to be any widespread agreement on Justice’s proposal. He said as recent as this week that his office continues to talk with lawmakers.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, has been one of the critics.

“Either you’re going to have to go in and reduce spending that is so bloody that you can afford that — bloody by, I mean, it is going to be politically challenging and it will be citizen uproar on some of those services because we’ve been catching infrastructure up, we’ve been getting sewer and water done, we’ve been getting roads done, we’ve been getting broadband down. You want to stop all that then go ahead and throw another $100 million in expenses there for perpetuity before we get the opportunity for revenue growth for the things we’ve done,” Tarr said last month on 580Live with Dave Allen.

Pack said what is known is the personal income tax is going down another 4% on Jan. 1.

“We’re able to let people to keep more of their money while at the same time we’ll able to run government efficiently,” Pack said.