Congressman gets Marion County coronavirus update

FAIRMONT — U.S. Rep. David McKinley, (R-W.Va.), stressed Wednesday that businesses need to get back to normal as soon as possible amid the pandemic.

He said his ultimate goal in Wednesday’s visit was to stress the importance of getting passed the coronavirus pandemic, so the people affected financially could return to a life similar to before the virus outbreak.

“What we’re trying to do is show we’ve got to get back to normal as soon as we can,” McKinley said. “Business can’t operate when they’re trying to operate at 50 percent. We’ve got to get our schools open again so parents can feel more comfortable about going back to work again.

“The whole idea I think is show some leadership.”

McKinley’s first stop was at the Marion County Commission office, where he spoke to Commission President Rick Garcia and Commissioner Randy Elliott. The congressman asked about the revenue streams available to municipalities, and how the pandemic has cut down on these streams.

“The thing I was trying to feed from it was, ‘What happens if we lose the energy base in West Virginia, particularly Marion County?’” McKinley said. “One thing that’s going to come out of this pandemic is we have learned some lessons about.”

Elliott told McKinley the small businesses of the area got hit hard with lost revenues in the pandemic, which in turn, affected employees and business owners’ profits.

“The smaller businesses I think suffered more than the big ones,” Elliott said. “But everybody suffered, and the people that worked there suffered.”

Lloyd White, administrator of the Marion County Health Department, and Chris McIntire, director of Marion County Homeland Security and Emergency Management, talked to McKinley about the county’s response to the pandemic. The two agreed they had prepared Marion County as best they could by stockpiling emergency materials, and acting quickly when COVID cases began showing up in the county.

McKinley said he wants to see the state follow safety guidelines to combat the pandemic, in order to get through it safely.

“We’ve got to get our society back operating again, but we’ve got to do it in a safe way,” McKinley said. “Make sure that people are wearing their masks, that they’re keeping their social distancing and they’re washing their hands. If we can do that, we’ll continue to lick this problem.”

For Elliott, the interaction between McKinley and White and McIntyre was one of the most productive parts of the meeting, because the locals were able to provide information to McKinley that could be useful in legislation.

“It was nice to see him interact with our health director and our Homeland Security director,” Elliott said. “It was a good meeting, it was productive. I hope that he’ll go back to D.C. and be able to take opinions on what’s happening here in one of the rural counties of West Virginia.”

Elliott also said he respected McKinley for listening to people on the county government level. Because the coronavirus hit so many people in different ways, Elliott said he hopes McKinley will use the information gathered to produce legislation relating to revenue and finance.

“I thought he was dead on target with wanting to get our opinion,” Elliott said. “Coronavirus, it has affected everybody. We’re all in this together and I’m glad that he wants to see if he can help out, wants to know if the CARES Act worked OK for us.”

After meeting with commissioners, McKinley took a walking tour of Downtown Fairmont with members of the Marion County Chamber of Commerce. Chamber President Tina Shaw said McKinley’s office asked to visit Fairmont and its local businesses to learn about the pandemic’s effect.

“I think he specifically wanted to talk to people that had applied for (Paycheck Protection Program),” Shaw said. “This pandemic has affected their business, so he wants to hear those stories.”

Jonathan Board, president of the chamber board of directors, said he was grateful for the congressman’s visit.

“In this time of physical distancing it’s kind of challenging to do these types of events,” Board said. “I actually chatted with his team up in Wheeling and they were excited about this opportunity, because it’s something they can do comfortably, confidently. They don’t have to worry about the larger crowds but they can still be in district and they can still talk with people that are constituents.”

McKinley said Congress has been working on financial aid bills that would help people affected by the pandemic. He said by hearing from people on a local level, he can get information on what specific needs people have.

“We were trying to do everything bipartisan and we were very successful with that,” McKinley said. “I want to be able to take back ‘Here are some unique things that I have been hearing about in the district.’”

Chamber board member Nick Fantasia said these meetings can lead to tangible change on the local level if McKinley puts his words into motion through legislation.

“As his staff are taking notes with each discussion, each discussion will then follow with a series of phone calls and a series of communications for historic tax credits or for small business development funds,” Fantasia said. “So there is a connectivity that happens a week, a month, a year after.”

Board said he believes getting these stories to McKinley can put plans in motion, because the representative may not have thought about certain issues plaguing people on a local level.

“It’s real,” Board said. “In D.C., and I spent a lot of time there, there is an organic disconnect. You can’t avoid it. You have to be there to vote... I appreciate the fact that they want to see what they’re doing there in practicality as it actually works.”

McKinley said that although he has traveled across the country to learn about issues the American people face, the stories from his home state of West Virginia are important because they come from the people he represents. The rural communities of West Virginia, he said, are different from other cities throughout the country, so gleaning information from Fairmont is useful to him.

“I want to see what people have learned from it,” McKinley said. “Things are different in Marion County and Fairmont than they are in Chicago, in New York. I want to hear how rural America handled itself, how did it come through.”