BUCKHANNON – A local student at Buckhannon-Upshur Middle School earned an honorable mention award in the statewide 2022 West Virginia County Government Essay Contest.

Patrick Cadle, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia, attended the Thursday, June 16 Upshur County Commission meeting to present a certificate and a $50 check to B-UMS student Lila Wright.

“This is an essay contest that we do on an annual basis for eighth-graders around the state, and it is about, ‘What my County Commission does to make life better for me,’” Cadle said. “We feel like this is an important topic to work on with our educators because local governments are facing some problems in the future, and having citizens – especially young citizens – who are going to be our future leaders well aware of what county commissioners do is something that I think will do well for West Virginia and its future.”

Normally, there is a first, second and third-place winner and five honorable mention awards.

“In the last couple of years, due to some of the things that were going on like COVID and students not being in school all the time, we’ve expanded that, so there was a first, second, third and 10 honorable mentions this year,” Cadle said. “We’re here for one of the honorable mentions today and that is Lila Wright and your teacher Lisa Crites.”

Cadle said there were about 60 students who participated in the 500-word essay contest this year.

Prior to adjourning, commissioners also took the following actions:  

• Approved and signed a letter of support for the City of Buckhannon’s Greenway Engineering and Property Acquisition project.

• Approved and signed a letter of support for the City of Buckhannon’s Elizabeth J. “Binky” Poundstone Riverwalk Trail Extension for the construction phase of a 980-linear-foot extension to the existing trail system.

• Approved a request from Judith L. Williams, director of James W. Curry Public Library, asking for approval of the expenditure of $175 payable to Skateland for rink rental on August 9, 2022. This is for the grand finale event for the “Read Beyond the Beaten Path” 2022 summer reading program.

• Approved Lewis-Upshur Animal Control Facility Volunteers Beau Bunton and Susan Rice.