Residents of Summers and Monroe counties face a lack of transportation, housing and job options

UNION — Monroe County native Nick Dalton is working the register inside Kittles Hardware and Supply, a shop on Main Street with wooden floors and a green awning over the front door. Between scanning codes and ringing customers up, he says that not much is different in the county from when he was a kid.

“Monroe County hasn’t changed in years and years and years,” said Dalton, an 8th-generation native.

When asked by Mountain State Spotlight what he wanted to hear the candidates for his district talk about in the upcoming election, Dalton said the need for affordable housing and lack of public transportation are issues he’s witnessed first-hand.

“Transportation for elderly people is needed,” Dalton said. “It’s hard for, like my grandmother per se, who can’t drive, to get to doctor’s appointments up in Lewisburg or Princeton or Harrisburg and anywhere outside of the county.”

Even with those challenges, he still described his grandmother as “lucky” because she lives within walking distance of the local health clinic, so she can get help if she needs it.

“But other than that, it’s pretty hard,” Dalton said.

Monroe County is fairly rural, which has exacerbated the transportation problem for those living in more isolated areas as they struggle to run the most basic errands. Of the county’s more than 12,000 residents, roughly a quarter of them are 65 years and older .

Assessing the transportation needs

This past summer, the newly formed county transportation committee — created after community organizations identified transportation as a significant need — was tasked with assessing the full extent of the problem, which they did with an informal online survey.

Throughout July, 149 Monroe County residents answered the questions on the online form. Those who couldn’t go online to fill it out called a summer intern at the 911 call center to get help with the questionnaire, and some others got help from workers at local food pantries in the county. The 11th person to fill out the survey each day won a $50 gift certificate to Jewel’s IGA in Union.

“Transportation has been an issue in our county for many years,” said Michelle Groves McFall, executive director of the Monroe County Coalition for Children & Families.

The survey found that some residents pay friends and family between $20 and $100 for rides to the grocery store or doctor’s office. And while residents aged 55 and older made up a larger portion of those needing transportation, there was a notable need among the younger generation.

“There was also a significant number of folks between 21 and 51 who were needing to go to places like work and to the grocery store or to pay other bills,” said Beth Massey, threat preparedness coordinator at Monroe County Health Department. Massey helped spearhead the effort.

She said that some people who had their own vehicles still needed help because they couldn’t afford gas, car insurance or maintenance. The committee is now working on a report of the results with recommendations, which they hope to deliver to the Monroe County Planning Commission by the end of the year.

“It’s just going to take a little while, but frankly, I think we’re moving pretty fast,” Massey said.

Nearby, in Summers County, residents are wrestling with the very same issue.

“Transportation is a real problem,” said Doris Selko, executive director of the Summers County REACHH-Family Resource Center . Her organization is dedicated to addressing the needs of the community from providing counseling to basic necessities like food and clothes to those in need.

“Transportation is going to come up. Anywhere you go, it’s going to come up,” she said. “It’s always in the top three of issues and problems and things like that.”

For Selko and her organization, the issue goes beyond access to vehicles. It is also a question of access to some of the most remote parts of the county.

“We deliver Christmas gifts to fields. No roads. You just go through the field,” Selko said. “Those people can’t get out in the winter. They can’t go to doctor’s appointments. They can’t attend the meetings with the teachers and things like that.”

Selko and her staff have taken it upon themselves to take some residents back and forth to appointments and to run other urgent errands. While the organization would ideally like to offer transportation services, Selko said the need goes well beyond their limited resources.

About 21% of people in Summers County live below the poverty line — more than 2,500 of the county’s nearly 12,000 residents. Selko’s organization works with the county’s most vulnerable populations, including children and those with lower incomes, but the needs are overwhelming.

“We don’t have the funds or the staff,” she said. “It’s a real challenge.”

Affordable, available and safe housing

Beyond transportation, residents in the two counties spoke about the need for affordable housing. They said there are few housing options, either to rent or buy, and the ones available are in need of repair, too expensive or both.

In early 2022, Jordan Casey opened Botany Tropicals , a plant shop in Hinton that sells various unique knick-knacks and offers do-it-yourself art classes as well as a Plant 911 service. At that time, the average cost of rent was $842, right around the state’s average $850 despite the county’s median income being about $43,000, nearly $13,000 below the state’s, according to U.S. Census data .

Since then, Casey has watched local housing costs balloon as available inventory dwindles.

“That’s one of the huge issues here – like a massive issue,” Casey said. “And then the housing that is here is not necessarily safe or affordable.”

While he lives above his store in the building he owns, housing is an issue that the Kentucky native has worked on with the Summer’s County Huddle , a local advocacy group dedicated to serving the community.

Casey said high rent and the poor condition of available rentals keep families from coming to the community and putting down roots.

A diversified economy

Once a rail-based economy, Summers County, which is home to Pipestem and Bluestone state parks, has transitioned to focus primarily on tourism . It’s the self-proclaimed “southern gateway” to the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in neighboring Fayette County.

But Summer County’s focus on building up its tourism industry has contributed to a rising cost of living in a place where folks already struggle to find well-paying jobs — often needing to travel to neighboring counties or even cross over the state line into Virginia for higher wages.

“I just don’t think we get a lot of attention with things that are basic needs,” said Debbi McNeer, a longtime Summers County resident. “Most of the attention for employment and industry and economic development goes into the northern part of the state.”

Back in Monroe County, Bill Shiflet, a local Nationwide insurance agent, is heavily involved in the community through regional and local organizations, including the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation and the Monroe County Planning Commission. Shiflet wants to maintain the county’s current employment base while also attracting more industry and jobs to the region.

“We’ve been very blessed that we don’t have a lot of empty storefronts like some of our neighboring towns and other counties,” he said. “Whatever we can do to keep the storefronts here is great.”

And while the county has several well-paying industry jobs, there’s a need to “diversify” and bring in more jobs.

“So many parents wish their kids could stay,” Shiflet said. “All of our best and brightest go somewhere else.”

The school system is one of the county’s largest employers along with Collins Aerospace, which provides the county with around 400 jobs, according to Shiflet. The county is also home to a few other well-paying heavy industry jobs, including the Audrina Mill in Union. Still, those jobs can’t always compete.

“There’s opportunities here if you’re willing to work at it,” Dalton said. “But you’re not going to be able to afford the same lifestyle as if you were to go outside the state to work.”

For his own lifestyle, Dalton works two jobs. In addition to working at the local hardware shop, he also surveys land. But that’s just the way it is.

“Honestly, Monroe County is a great place to live,” he said. “You gotta usually have a dual thing going to live a moderately decent life and not just be constantly trying to make ends meet.”

Residents of Summers and Monroe counties face a lack of transportation, housing and job options appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight , West Virginia's civic newsroom.