By Stephen Smoot
West Virginians, no matter where they live, at least west of Berkeley Springs, have very similar identities of what the image and ideal of their state is, what living in the state looks like.
Ask most to draw a picture and one would likely see the same results. A cabin nestled in the woods or perched atop a hill or mountain, perhaps a small farm attached or at least as a neighbor. Our state’s official song “West Virginia Hills” and unofficial “Country Roads” reinforce the image that the best life in the Mountain State is one of rural quiet, far from the noise of the city and mostly out of view of neighbors.
Indeed, many moving in from out of state or seeking to move out of West Virginia’s own cities see this as a dream lifestyle.
Last month, we had a family party. My in laws were mostly born in New York City, but they feel much better now, having moved out into smaller urban areas. When hearing our garbage bill, one who recently escaped from New York was flabbergasted at how much more expensive it is and asked why.
I explained that “in the city, each garbage truck has a pretty compact route and hits a residence maybe every few seconds to a minute. Here, you can go a few miles between houses and you also have to go up the hollers where people live even farther apart. Lots of dead miles that eat up gasoline and time.
He understood immediately, but a number in the West Virginia State Legislature seem to have the same lack of understanding about the special problems posed by sparse populations. In a number of areas, the distance between towns, residences, businesses, and government institutions is significant. Then one adds in the rugged terrain and the sometimes unforgiving road network serving these areas.
State Senator Walt Helmick (D-Pocahontas) and Delegate Harold Michael (D-Hardy) decades ago served as Finance chairs for their respective committees. They saw that the sparsity issue created grave problems for county school systems in that the funding from the state aid formula could not compensate for the extra expenses incurred when vast distances converge with small populations.
With help from Pendleton County Schools Treasurer J. P. Mowery, they devised the 1,400 floor formula that helps to mitigate that issue for systems such as Calhoun, Pendleton, Pocahontas, and a number of other systems with tiny student populations, lots of miles to travel, and mountains, hills, and hollers with which to contend.
While some school systems still face significant budget problems, this has helped to give them a fighting chance to maintain healthy budgets in line with State of West Virginia financial expectations.
That said, other areas also fight to keep their heads above water, budget-wise, sometimes without the same understanding of the effects of sparse populations.
Last session, the Legislature passed EMS funding that should provide some boost to local services especially in funding. One requirement that also came out of the 2026 session lay in requiring that county commissions provide at least one ambulance service for every 18,000 residents.
As Mike Alt, Training Officer for Pendleton County Emergency Rescue, has noted during county commission meetings in his area, a far more radical proposal was floated, that only one ambulance per 6,000 people was necessary.
Calhoun County has approximately 6,000 residents. Within the county one of the most distant towns from Minnie Hamilton Health System, and its heliport, in Grantsville is Stinson, a 36 minute drive one way in optimal conditions. Optimal conditions include good weather, normal flow of traffic, and decent road conditions. They also include winding main highways, backroads extending deep into hollers, and other obstacles.
Pendleton County has the same population, twice the square miles, and three valleys bisecting the county divided by 3,500 foot ridges. One ambulance could never cover that much ground.
In Charleston, a good response time on an urgent EMS call is about 10 minutes.
Another challenge lies in broadband expansion in these same rural areas. A decade ago, the cost of one mile of broadband fiber was approximately $30 to $35,000. Those costs accelerate in remote areas with miles between potential customer homes in some locations.
One could dismiss these rural residents and suggest easier living closer to urban areas. That said, Calhoun County has those working and doing business in natural gas and timber. Another example, Hardy County, has a maze of rural roadways, high ridges, and deep valleys are the home of some of the most productive poultry farmers anywhere. Pendleton County farmers raise ample numbers of cattle and sheep. One of its most remote communities boasts a bustling sawmill whose product is even sold internationally.
Yes people live there because they want to, but these out of the way areas happen to serve vital roles in the West Virginia economy. Natural gas, coal, timber, adventure tourism, all types of agriculture, and other fields of endeavor pump money into the state economy from some of the most hard to get to areas.
West Virginia’s leaders in every field where it matters need to understand the special challenges facing counties with sparse populations. They should not do this thinking of rural residents as looking for a subsidy for a carefree country life, but support for the important work done in these counties, the people who do it, and the families that support them.
And these residents do pay the higher cost of living there. Sheila Burch, director of the Little Kanawha Area Development Corporation cited the poor condition of local highways as a serious barrier to regional economic development in Wirt and Calhoun counties. It has spurred her to explore developing a regional drone freight facility to address the burdens of truck traffic on the roads.
Support need not be only financial. It can take creative forms, but that requires the willingness to explore solutions with the goal of reducing costs related to sparsity and geography.
In the Potomac Highlands, gasoline is about 60 cents more per gallon in Franklin than Keyser, the second largest city in the Eastern Panhandle, usually 10 cents higher even than neighboring Petersburg or Moorefield. Electric outages and snow covered roads take longer to address. For many years, most rural West Virginians battled with Frontier’s unreliable copper line internet.
Yes Charleston, Huntington, Clarksburg, Morgantown. Martinsburg and so on are wonderful places with wonderful people.
But those are not what people think of when they envision West Virginia, resident or not. Because remote regions of the Mountain State are not just beautiful places to live, but vital parts of the state’s economy and identity.
