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I have no problem when high-profile politicians decide to pay our region a visit. In fact, I would encourage more to do so. For many years, much of our area has appeared to be forgotten, especially in the Northern Panhandle where major campaigns and projects seemed to stop at Wheeling.
We have people here, too, though, and the more opportunities to get in front of the people who are supposed to making decisions on our behalf, the better, right?
Gov. Patrick Morrisey was in town just a couple of weeks ago, making a series of funding announcements, including what is expected to be paving of the final few miles of Washington Pike in Wellsburg, more than $1 million in paving of city streets in New Cumberland, and a half-million-dollar grant for CHANGE, Inc.
It didn’t bother me that the governor visited the Northern Panhandle to make these announcements. He’s certainly made himself more visible in our region than some previous heads of state, and, this time, he even brought his Goldendoodle, Rhody, with him.
There’s still a month before the general election, so the timing can’t be questioned too much (maybe?). The problem wasn’t the money or the visits, but the other message as, with each of the three stops for which I was on hand, the governor took up a substantial amount of time promoting the actions of our local legislators. At least, I should say, the local legislators who are set to appear on the upcoming election ballot. At those three stops, there was some combination of Laura Wakim Chapman, Pat McGeehan, Jimmy Willis, and Mark Zatezalo in the room. Apparently, Shane Stack, who was appointed to represent the Fourth District in the House of Delegates just a few months ago, also was at some of the visits. The Fourth District includes portions of Ohio and Marshall counties, for those who didn’t know.
Again, I appreciate the visits, and I know those benefiting from the announcements appreciate the funding set to come to their communities or operations.
Let’s just try not to make it too much of a political campaign.
It makes me think back to some other visits from big-time politicans in the past; those who, typically, can’t be bothered to make their way out of Charleston or Washington until the election season is in full swing.
There have been quite a few over the years. There also have been some who tend to never be seen again once in office.
There also are those big announcements.
That thought came to mind earlier this week when the early news cycle was filled with word of plans for a new steel plant in Iowa. The White House announced the project to build a $15 billion plan to build "the largest steel plant in U.S. history," for Mesabi Metallics. The company is part of the India-based Essar Group. Those of us in the Ohio Valley are acquainted with them, as Essar attempted to purchase Esmark shortly after that company acquired Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel in 2007 and 2008.
While there is projected to be 6,000 construction jobs for the project, its permanent operational staffing is excpted to have only around 1,750. Our area once knew steel manufacturers with much larger employee rolls, so maybe they’re talking production capacity instead of employment when saying "largest in U.S. history."
Supposedly, production is set to begin in about four years.
This is big news if it all comes about, and I’ll be happy to see people employed, even if I would prefer it to be in our region. But I’ve learned long ago not to fully invest in a politican’s promises for jobs in election season.
Too many game-changer economic development efforts end up with a sputter instead of a boom.
Remember the Virgin Hyperloop project originally announced in October 2020? That was canceled three years ago. The carbon storage hub, which was set to include several sites in West Virginia and Ohio was announced in 2024. We haven’t heard much about that in the last two years, have we?
Locally, Boston Metal was expected to set up shop within the Frontier Crossings development. That wasn’t quite an election year promise, but it certainly fell because of politics.
We all get excited when word comes around of such projects. Just keep in mind how the announcements are made, and keep an eye on the calendar.
(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is part of the news staff of The Weirton Daily Times. He can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @CHowellWDT)