By Esteban Fernandez
For Times West Virginian
Fairmont — Fairmont City Council appointed Donna Wade to its vacant district 5 at its regular meeting on Tuesday.
Wade replaces Chuck Warner, who passed away last month.
“I am the assistant chief at Marion County Rescue Squad here in Fairmont,” Wade said. “So, I feel my career has always been serving the community. I feel like this is just taking it to the next step to be more directly involved with planning and the direction of where the city is going.”
District 5 elected Warner in 2022. Wade will serve out the remainder of Warner’s term, which expires this year. Wade was one of six candidates who put their name forth for consideration. She said she stepped forward after seeing the call for candidates on Facebook. Wade said she intends to earn her seat by election later this year.
Wade added now that she’s on council, she wants to focus her attention on the city’s abandoned structure program.
Council also pushed through the city’s desired changes to its business licensing structure. City Manager Travis Blosser said the city reduced the number of licenses it had from 90 to 14, and streamlined the amount of paperwork businesses need to submit in order to operate in the city. The city also reduced its business license fee from $15 to $10.
The Fairmont Human Rights Commission also voiced their concerns around the immigration crackdown carried out by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
“West Virginia may not have a large immigrant population, but we do have immigrant families living and working in our towns,” James Spadafore, commissioner and Secretary of the HRC, said. “Attending our schools, worshipping in our religious facilities and contributing to our local economy. These are our friends and neighbors.”
Spadafore said the HRC was deeply concerned about the growing impact of immigration raids and detentions on human rights and civil liberties. Spadafore said when federal enforcement actions become aggressive, unpredictable and carried out without transparency, it doesn’t just impact undocumented individuals, it also destabilizes entire families and communities.
Immigrants work in a variety of industries that keep the state running, Spadafore said, such as health care, construction, agriculture, restaurants and other small business and service industries.
Spadafore said the HRC was in direct contact with one family who was impacted by a raid. He said the family owned a local, long-standing and well established business. One of their members was detained while taking out the trash at his business. His most recent known location was the Lewisburg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania.
“He is constantly moved and the family is told every day when they call that ICE agents just don’t know where he is,” Spadafore said. “The charges they’re claiming to justify his arrest are extremely dated, more than 15 years old and for which he has already paid his time. He is legally a resident of West Virginia and has an active driver’s license and business license through the state. Therefore, there should not have been any grounds to deport him.”
Spadafore said when people live in fear of being detained, they avoid hospitals, schools and other public spaces, as well as avoid reporting crime.
“That makes everyone in our community less safe, not more safe,” he said. “This is not a partisan issue. It’s a human rights issue.”
Read more from Times West Virginian, here.
