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WVU’s Lyons headlines Upshur banquet

The Inter-Mountain photos by Amanda Hayes From left, WVU athletic director and guest speaker Shane Lyons accepts a picture of WVU taken by Buckhannon city councilman and emcee at Thursday night’s banquet Robbie Skinner.

BUCKHANNON — The sport West Virginia University Athletic Director Shane Lyons is most often asked to consider adding at the state’s flagship university? Softball.

“I love women’s softball,” he said at Thursday’s Buckhannon-Upshur Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner. “It’s a fast-paced game; you see it on TV and it’s very popular. It’s a great sport.”

So, what’s stopping him? Money and West Virginia weather.

The WVU baseball team spends the beginning of every season on the road to avoid West Virginia’s late winter weather. There’s also the financial end.

“If you want to be competitive, you are probably going to need a $15 million stadium and you are probably going to need $3 million a year in operating budgets,” Lyons said.

From left are Emiel Butcher, accepting the Business of the Year Award for Micrologic; Rev. Alicia Rapking, Sarah Carr, Kristi Wilkerson and Dr. Marvin Carr accepting the Organization of the Year Award for the Upshur Parish House; Business Man of the Year Bob Skinner; Business Woman of the Year Amberle Jenkins; and Duwane Squires, who accepted the Citizen of the Year Award for his late wife, Tappan Squires.

Managing a $93 million budget, Lyons must carefully balance 17 or 18 sports – only one, and possibly two, of which make money for the university.

But Lyons said that is OK because that is the model that allows the university to give competitive opportunities to its student-athletes.

Lyons does want to see new facilities for West Virginia athletics to be competitive in recruiting.

“You look at our facilities and it’s just OK,” he said. “We don’t want to be just OK; we want to be the best.”

For example, Lyons said some pieces in the football stadium are nice but they need to be completed.

He pointed to numbers coming from recent study that show the economic impact of WVU athletics is almost $303 million including $246 million in visitor and fan spending.

Lyons also talked about how West Virginia University’s reach is statewide, not just in Morgantown.

“This isn’t my athletic department; it’s our athletic department,” he said. “It’s our university. West Virginia University and its athletics program is the state program. We fly the WV all over the state regardless if you have ever been in Morgantown or not.

“I tell our coaching staff each and every day that we are playing for the state, we are playing for the people in the state and that we continue to represent at the highest levels. When we win, everybody wins and it makes everybody in the state feel good.”

Buckhannon City Councilman Robbie Skinner, past president of the chamber, served as emcee for the evening and introduced the award winners.

Micrologic Inc. was named the Business of the Year.

“They are passionate about their ability to say ‘yes’ to solving the connectivity constraints this community faces,” Skinner said. “Since 1993, our honoree has exhibited unmatched service, while raising their hand to take on sometimes difficult projects that truly matter despite the hard work and road blocks involved. Passionate about serving the heart of rural West Virginians, our honoree is always looking to make lasting partnerships and create custom solutions for their customers. Through cutting edge innovation, this growing company connects thousands of people daily, providing internet, security and networking solutions, accomplishing more year after year.”

Some of those projects include connectivity in both Audra and Watters Smith State Parks, partnering with the City of Buckhannon and the Upshur County CVB to install a speaker system along Main Street and partnering with the Grant County Development Authority to extend their services and install wireless internet for businesses who operate in Grant County’s Industrial Park.

Perhaps their biggest project lately is initiating the Community Connect Grant, a 1,000 square mile broadband expansion project to bring broadband to over 3,000 unserved homes at affordable rates. Micrologic was contracted to build 26 new towers and upgrade three existing towers spread across Upshur, Barbour and Randolph counties as part of the multi-million dollar project.

Emiel Butcher and Mike Sherill, co-owners, accepted the award for Micrologic Inc.

The Upshur Parish House was designated the Organization of the Year. A designated mission project of the West Virginia United Methodist Conference, the Parish House is committed to offering outreach ministry with the United Methodist congregations in the area. Through the work of Crosslines, Inc., established after the 1985 flood, the Parish House offers emergency aid for utilities, food, clothing, medical needs, rent, prescriptions, personal items and cleaning supplies, layettes for newborns, school supplies, home repair, community gardens and more. There are hot meals served at noon Monday, Wednesday and Friday provided by volunteers. The Clothes Closet raises almost $60,00 yearly for administrative costs with limited staff and a multitude of volunteers. A housing repair ministry began in 1996 and summer work teams from several states help repair homes in the area.

The Parish House and Crosslines provides approximately 600 holiday meal baskets for families at Thanksgiving and again at Christmas. The Rev. Alicia Rapking is the current director while Kristi Wilkerson will take over as director July 1. Sarah Carr served as director of the Parish House from 1992 until 1999 and she and her husband, Dr. Martin Carr were instrumental in founding Crosslines.

Amberle Jenkins, director of finance and administration for the City of Buckhannon, was named the Business Man Woman of the Year. As the chief budgetary officer for Buckhannon. Jenkins oversees all accounts for the General Fund and the city’s four Utility Boards, serves as human resource manager and has long been one of the primary points of contacts for all municipal operations for the City of Buckhannon for many years, according to Skinner.

“She is well known as being the first person to the office every morning and the last one to leave in the evening,” Skinner said. “She demonstrates impeccable character and favors no person over another. She embodies fairness, empathy, honesty, friendliness, while steadfastly demonstrating the most excellent work ethic.”

Jenkins has been particularly supportive of the city’s efforts to restore the Colonial Theatre and the new multi-use building for Stockert Youth Council. Her 43 years of employment with the city began after high school and Jenkins advanced until she was appointed to her current position in 2016.

Skinner’s father, Bob Skinner, was named the Business Man of the Year. Since 2019, Bob Skinner, or Mr. Wesleyan as he is known, has served as vice president of advancement. But before that, he held roles as director of campus activities , sports information, housing, Greek Life and director of admissions.

Under Bob’s leadership, Wesleyan secured a $33 million capital campaign, focused on enhancing the school’s tradition and empowering its future. He also led the advancement team that recently helped Wesleyan meet the required $2 million Title III endowment challenge to help grow the college’s endowment by $4 million.

“His success at the college, and in life, can be attributed to his gift of creating, building and fostering relationships,” Skinner said. “No one knows Wesleyan, or its people the way Bob Skinner does.

“As Chris and I’s dad, he taught us the value of relationships, tried to teach us the value of a dollar — even though he thinks he failed in that department, how to be gracious, how to win with class and lose with that same class. He taught us to be good stewards of our communities, to always look for ways to give back.”

The Citizen of the Year Award was awarded to the late Tappan Squires, who is Skinner’s aunt. Squire’s husband, Duwane, and her children accepted the award. Squires worked at Buckhannon-Upshur High School from 1985-2018 and was named faculty member of the year twice — during the 1999-2000 and 2017-2018 school years. She was faculty chair of the health and physical education departments, served as student council advisor, prom advisor, was active with the tennis teams, was an assistant girls basketball coach and an assistant swim coach.

Squires was also a founding member of the Buckhannon-Upshur High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

For many years, she served on the Upshur County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, was an assistant youth league soccer coach, a board member of the Buckhannon Swim Club and a member of the Buckhannon Chapter A of P.E.O.

“Tappan bravely and courageously battled breast cancer, diagnosed in the spring of 2016, until the end of her life on Dec. 31, 2018,” Skinner said. “Tappan showed an entire community how to live life to the fullest, with grace, passion, encouragement, power and finesse. Few people have touched lives like Tappan. She has a way with everyone — young and old, rich and poor, athletically gifted, or not.”

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