Wood County Commission agrees to fund Henderson Hall field trips
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PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Commission approved up to $10,000 for local students to be able to visit Henderson Hall next spring through an initative by the Wood County Historic Landmarks Commission to teach area students local history.
Mickey Hess, chairman of the Wood County Historic Landmarks Commission, appeared before the commission Thursday to request the funds.
The Landmarks Commission was reactivated about a year-and-a-half ago after going inactive for a few years. They have been working on getting back up and running with the necessary paperwork and other things in place as well as evaluating structures and more for national nomination and listing and working with Downtown PKB on a Downtown Parkersburg Historic District, Hess said.
The West Virginia History and Archives Commission provides the opportunity to be listed as a Certified Historic Preservation Community, which requires having an inventory list of sites and having finances open for review and audited. The commission is working on opportunities for Wood County middle school history students to visit Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park and the Blennerhassett Museum.
Through the use of public/private partnerships, they have obtained funding for Blennerhassett Middle School students to do that in the latter part of the 2023-24 school year for Blennerhassett Middle School. Next year will be Edison Middle School, with others to follow.
After submitting the idea to Wood County Schools, some officials wanted something where all of the students could participate during the 2023-24 school year.
"We worked with Henderson Hall to work up a quote where we could send each class there and do a tour," Hess said. "This would help adquaint them with Wood County history and how it ties into the larger part of West Virginia history."
Henderson Hall informed him the group rate would be $5 a person and the cost for all of the students and appropriate accompanying staff would be more than $9,000.
"We wanted to come to you to see what options we had in providing a little bit of support for that opportunity," Hess said.
They have around $12,000 in funds in their own accounts, but most of that money will be used toward the Blennerhassett Island visit.
Officials wanted to be sure the landmark commission's finances were made available to include in the regular county audit since the county provided them with around $2,500 as part of the yearly budget.
Commissioners reviewed the state code regarding historic landmarks commissions and initially said such a trip was not part of their duties, which is primarily to designate historic landmarks, buildings, structures and so on.
Hess said they are working through the West Virginia Archives and History Commission to become a certified Historic Preservation Community and one of the requirements to do that is provide educational opportunities to local students.
Commission President Blair Couch said he thought was a good thing, but felt the county commission needed to able to sign off on it so they can be prepared when funding requests, like this one, come in.
Hess said he is not asking for the money now. They wouldn't need it until April or May 2024.
Officials asked for the Landmarks Commission to send the county the invoice it receives from Henderson Hall so they can pay it.
Commissioners asked if the Landmarks Commission could get donations between now and then to offset the cost for this trip, the Blennerhassett Island trip and others. Couch estimated it would cost around $60,000 to send all the eighth-grade students in Wood County to Blennerhassett Island.
"All of these things are better when there is collaboration," he said.
Hess is asking for the funding for the Henderson Hall trip for this year. He feels public/private partnerships could provide the funding for future trips.
Commissioner Bob Tebay liked the idea of the trips.
"It will help educate the students in the county," he said.
The commission unanimously approved the request.
In other business:
* The commission signed the paperwork for $294,800 to go to the waterline extention project in the Mineral Wells/Pond Creek area. The money will come from money the county received from the American Recovery Act.
Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com