West Virginia University's efforts in Harpers Ferry, Weirton and Charleston's West Side are aimed at not only helping revitalize those communities, but also at developing templates that can be used to assist others, including Montgomery, said WVU President Gordon Gee.
"The problems facing our state and world are too big for any one person, department, institution or sector to solve alone," Gee said in his Oct. 5 State of the University address. "Boundaries within the university must not be boundaries on our ingenuity."
Gee's initiative first gained widespread attention after four historic Harpers Ferry buildings were destroyed by fire on July 23. Gee said that shortly afterward, state Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, visited his office.
"When he visited me I was not aware that 30 percent of the historic district had burned down and they have a volunteer mayor and a couple of volunteer council people and they were just without purse or scrip," Gee said. (He was quoting the Bible. In Luke 22:35 Jesus said, "When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything?")
"They just didn't have any ability to deal with it," Gee said of the town. "So we went over the next week and visited with the mayor and the city council and brought a number of people including our extension services and some folks from our law school, etc. We determined we could make a difference and we would do so immediately."
Chad Proudfoot, a WVU Extension Service historian and archivist, said the initial meeting, on Aug. 5, included Gee; Vice President Sharon Martin; Assistant Vice President Ann Berry; Extension Service Dean Steve Bonanno; Jefferson County's extension agents; Katherine Garvey, director of the College of Law's Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic; Mayor Greg Vaughn; and town council members.
Also in early August, Hota V. GangaRao and P.V. Vijay of the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources' Civil and Environmental Engineering Department conducted a structural engineering assessment of the fire-damaged buildings.
"They prepared a report which was distributed to town officials and the property owners which has been useful in the upcoming permitting process as well as for the owners dealing with contractors," Proudfoot said.
Garvey, along with Kelly Nix, a community and leadership development specialist with WVU's Extension Service, and Judy Matlick, the families and health extension agent for Jefferson County, helped organize a community visioning meeting on Sept. 3.
"The meeting was well attended by town and area residents and enabled community members to examine their existing vision and comprehensive plan and prioritize what projects and issues should be addressed in the wake of the fire and beyond," Proudfoot said.
He cited other actions including:
n The WVU Extension Service's Community Resources and Economic Development Program provided Mayor Vaughn with a scholarship to attend its Community Leadership Academy in Morgantown Sept. 30 to Oct. 2.
n Charles Yuill, an associate professor of landscape architecture in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design's School of Design and Community Development, is working with the town to design a streetscape project for its historic High Street.
Proudfoot said he has been spending about three days a week serving as a liaison between the town and the other WVU personnel and has been providing direct help in the areas of historic preservation and public administration.
As a result of discussing options regarding historic preservation policies, procedure and funding, Proudfoot said property owners affected by the fire have hired a contractor to partially demolish non-historic additions and to begin planning with the town for historic rehabilitation.
Proudfoot also said he:
n Worked with the Harpers Ferry Historic Landmarks Commission to apply to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for emergency funding for planning and to help organize a seminar by Jennifer Brennan of the state Historic Preservation Office on the use of historic preservation tax credits.
n Helped the mayor secure about $20,000 worth of assistance from the Jefferson County Commission.
n Assisted in efforts to have the town become a participant in the West Virginia Agency for Surplus Property to help it obtain needed vehicles.
n Studied the town budget with the mayor and town treasurer and made a presentation to the town council. As a result, the town has decided to apply to become a participant in the state Municipal Home Rule Pilot Program.
"If home rule is approved, it will, among other things, allow for Harpers Ferry to enact a one percent municipal sales tax which should help to provide for the town's long-term financial stability while providing only a minimal increase in the tax burden to residents," he said.
Unlike Harpers Ferry, which suffered a calamitous event, Weirton and Charleston's West Side have declined over decades. They are longer-term projects, Gee said.
Rochelle Goodwin, senior associate vice president for academic and public affairs, is among the WVU personnel planning to assist Weirton.
"We're still evolving," she said, explaining that resources at WVU and Weirton are still being identified.
"This is a cooperative effort," Goodwin stressed, adding that Gee "has charged us with an approach that will put in all of the resources that make sense."
As for Charleston's West Side, Gee called Pastor Matthew Watts "a wonderful friend of the university."
Watts is senior pastor of the Grace Bible Church and, since 1997, has led the HOPE Community Development Corp., a nonprofit he describes as being focused on "empowering the inner city through spiritual renewal, education, employment and training and economic development."
"He has asked for help and we think that there's not an area in the state in which we could have a greater impact almost immediately in the urban setting," Gee said.
David Fryson, vice president of WVU's Division of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, is the university's point person for efforts on the West Side.
"With the West Side project, in some ways we might be farther along (than the Weirton project) because we've been trying to put some of the foundational pieces together over a little longer period of time," Fryson said. "Operationally, there are still a lot of decisions to make."
"This actually started a few years ago when I was deputy general counsel (of the university)," he said. "I have a long-term connection with the Kanawha Valley. I'm originally from the Kanawha Valley. I grew up in the Dunbar area.
"I was in Charleston up until 2007. When I was still in Charleston, I had been working with HOPE and trying to see how we could provide some exposure, not only to the decimation of the West Side area, but also some exposure to the people who on a day-to-day basis on the West Side work very diligently to right some of the challenges that are there such as the housing, crime and drug challenges.
"On a day-to-day basis, many of the leaders on the West Side have done a tremendous job - many times without true governmental support in terms of trying to move the needle for the recovery of the area."
The West Side has one of the highest concentrations of African-Americans in the state and has a high concentration of children, Fryson said.
"I remember the West Side when it was a burgeoning area," he said. "It was somewhat of a bastion for the black middle class."
Fryson recalled when he was director of Charleston's Opportunities Industrialization Centers, or OIC, in the late 1990s. The organization was established by the late Dr. Leon Sullivan, a Charleston native.
OIC provides job-seekers with job- and life-skills training and matches its graduates with employment needs based on a self-help philosophy. OIC no longer has a presence in Charleston, although it continues in many communities.
"I think we need to get back to making those kinds of investments," Fryson said. "Those kinds of educational, uplift organizations are so important."
Asked if there are plans to hold a town hall meeting or focus groups, Fryson said, "I think the challenge is there has been so much talk over the many years that we really need to follow the lead of the local, grass-roots leaders.
"Something I've dedicated myself to as long as I am involved is we will run alongside the local leaders who have invested their lives as opposed to an organization that is trying to lead from the top down. My true philosophy is that we lead from the bottom up. So we have been in close contact and collaboration with Pastor Watts and Pastor (James) Ealy," a Charleston city councilman who runs the 2nd Avenue Community Center on the West Side.
Ealy "has done a wonderful job of making much out of little, providing after-school programs," Fryson said. "If you go by there you'll see this is a well-entrenched, community-based project."
In addition, "The Charleston NAACP has been a partner," Fryson said. "So there are a multitude of voices there. What I think is very important is for us to take main street to our street because if not, we still have the kind of structure where others are dictating the direction to the community. That often happens in under-represented communities, particularly African-American communities where people will not allow local leadership to have a true voice - they want to dictate how things will be. That's a decimating thing in terms of the community and it's also not the right way to go. You can throw a lot of assets at something but if the assets are not in conjunction with the people who are there, it doesn't really work."
Fryson said numerous WVU experts have come to the West Side over the past several years to marshal resources, including Gypsy Denzine, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, and Gregory Hand, dean of WVU's School of Public Health.
Gee said that if WVU does well in Harpers Ferry, Weirton and the West Side, "we can set up a template which, through volunteer services and the university's efforts, we can use as a way to develop strategies for other communities."
"If we tried to solve every problem in the state we would solve none," Gee said. "If we can solve a few of the issues and set a standard in doing so, then we can start to really focus on a wider set of efforts.
"I do believe our efforts in terms of health care - focusing on obesity and diabetes and drug abuse - has to be a statewide effort led out of our academic medical center in conjunction with Marshall, the Osteopathic School and the (state Bureau of) Public Health. In certain instances we can convene stacked hands to help make that occur.
"Remember, this is not just about the university serving the state," Gee said. "It's about educating our students and others to their possibilities.
"Each one of these has a very strong educational component. So it's a 360-degree effort. We're really blessed to have very able students and faculty who, through extending the work of the university, are also extending their ability to do wonderful things and teach and learn from each other."
In late August, Gee and WVU Tech President Carolyn Long said WVU Tech will move from Montgomery to Beckley. The move spells big changes for Montgomery, where WVU Tech is the heart of the community.
Some may say it is nice WVU is helping three communities but what about Montgomery?
Gee said, "The answer is this: The university has no intent on abandoning anywhere. We have the intent as we make tough decisions to also be partners in the revitalization effort of Montgomery and the Upper Kanawha Valley.
"We've already met with leaders - I've had several conversations with leaders there, as have our team, and we're putting together a plan," he said. "We're very aggressively pursuing ways to be of great help.
"It's not about us closing a campus or moving a campus," Gee said. "It's about us doing what's in the best interest of the people of the state and our students.
"But it's also not about saying 'therefore we're leaving.' We belong to 1.8 million West Virginians. We belong to the people of Montgomery and the people in that area and we have the responsibility to do what is most helpful to create precisely the kind of response that we're doing in these other communities."