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Tonight
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How many struggling water or sewage systems in West Virginia would appreciate a $50,000 or $100,000 grant — not a loan, but a grant from our state government?
At least weekly, one of our local news outlets has a story about undrinkable water of variable colors and tastes, dying streams, malfunctioning sewage systems, boil-water advisories, etc. So, imagine my amazement when reading a story in the Gazette-Mail that the West Virginia Water Development Authority is so flush with cash that it is giving, not loaning, but giving the College of St. Joseph the Worker, in Steubenville, Ohio, $5,000,000.
The fact that the authority is giving this college $5 million was surprising. That this was more than double any other grant provided by the WVWDA for the year was also surprising. That this college had been open for one month and had only 31 students when the grant was approved was beyond belief. (The enrollment figure comes from an article in the National Catholic Register. The school’s web page doesn’t provide enrollment information nor does it identify faculty members, or include a catalog of courses or what courses are available if one wanted to register for a course in the January 2025 term — such lack of detail is unusual.)
But the most shocking fact about this $5,000,000 act of Mountain State largesse is that the college is in Ohio.
How can the West Virginia Water Development Authority send cash to a fledgling church-based, seemingly aspirational college in Ohio, especially when the gift has nothing directly to do with water? Where are the other logical donors to an Ohio Catholic college? Does Ohio not have the money? Do none of the parishes or dioceses in Ohio have the money? Is the Vatican too poor to help? Is Steubenville lacking any wherewithal to cough up a few coins? Are we so wealthy that that the state WDA can fund an out-of-state college which might or might not have a campus or students or faculty in a year or so?
This grant seems incredibly half-baked, if not rotten, on so many levels that the mind boggles. The Gazette-Mail article indicated that the college intends to open a facility in Weirton and subsequently in the Teays Valley area. Everyone knows where good intentions lead, and I’m not even convinced this scheme is based on good intentions.
Probably every county in the state has stories of development projects that advantaged the originators of the projects or the contractors which built them. West Virginia is strewn with the shells of economic development parks, buildings and campuses which benefitted a few and generated no jobs or at best just temporary jobs. This $5,000,000 gift seems a lot like prior actions in which someone higher in the pecking order wanted an ally to receive a windfall, and subordinates acquiesced.
Naturally, we West Virginians foot the bill.
James Oxendale is a retired faculty member from West Virginia University Tech.
