St. Marys: Working together to address community needs

ST. MARYS — Jennifer White is sitting at her desk typing away at the Pleasants County Neighbor Network Thrift Store in St. Marys, as volunteers set up a window display.

White, 51, has lived in St. Marys all her life. She’s the executive director of the organization, which provides clothing and organizes aid for St Marys residents. There are more people in need than there used to be, she said.

“I can tell you that numbers are way up,” White said. “But I can also tell you that people are meeting those needs. So it’s amazing to watch that happen.”

St Marys is a small town — only one square mile and home to about 2,300 people, according to 2022 data from the U.S. Census Bureau . But White says two persistent challenges are housing and transportation. And even though it’s a small town, Allen Thacker says it’s not immune to the drug crisis that has gripped the state.

“If you were to tell me 50 years ago that there’d be a drug problem, I’d laugh at you,” he said. “But then again, if you’d tell me 50 years ago that marijuana would be legal, I’d laugh at you too.”

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Thacker, 74, a retired WVU and Marshall University professor, and current chairman of the Pleasants County Democratic Party, was working the polls earlier in the day, making sure everything was running smoothly.

“That’s what I do, I’m a smoother-over,” he said.

Another challenge for St. Marys is employment, he said.

“We used to have an oil refinery up here on the hill that’s been gone for 30 years now, so there’s a cut back,” he said. “The oil and gas industries are very cyclical… compared to 10 years ago.”

But both Thacker and White said community leaders are actively trying to address these challenges. White says the low cost of living, combined with neighbors helping each other, makes St. Marys a great place to live.

“Relatively speaking, our prices here are pretty low,” she said. “So I think our people here look out for one another, and try to help one another and are more likely to compromise on things like, ‘well, I’ll knock $20 off the rent if you mow the grass.’”

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