By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter
—
For only the second time in its history, Beckley is rolling out the welcome mat to a sitting president, and this time, the occasion is a solemn one — a public memorial service for the 29 coal miners who perished April 5 in an underground explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County.
When he takes the podium this afternoon at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center, President Barack Obama will join his predecessor, George W. Bush, as the only presidents to visit Beckley while occupying the White House.
Bush came here in 2004 on a campaign swing. Obama visited Beckley as a candidate back in 2008.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden headline the 3:30 p.m. program, hosted by Gov. Joe Manchin and first lady Gayle Manchin, as a means of honoring the latest victims of one of the more perilous occupations known to mankind.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., the patriarch of West Virginia political leaders, perhaps is more familiar than any of them with the inherent dangers of mining.
A coal miner’s son who married a miner’s daughter, Byrd is making the trip for the memorial service, one that took on an added dimension of sadness late in the week with the death of another coal worker at an International Coal Group mine at Eccles.
“I am flatly heartbroken to learn about the death of yet another young coal miner in Raleigh County,” the senator said Saturday.
“I am praying for these lost miners and their families.”
Given his background in a mining family, Byrd pledged to do “everything possible to see that no more West Virginia miners will suffer death, injury or illness due to lax safety practices or toothless oversight.”
“I also know that my resolve in this regard is being amplified by the efforts of thousands of men and women in our mining industry — efforts that grow stronger day by day. God bless the coal mining families of West Virginia and all of Appalachia. My heart is heavy with your loss, but my resolve to fight for you has never been stronger.”
Byrd doesn’t plan to offer any remarks at the service but intends to speak with families of the 29 victims.
For days, law enforcement agencies in the region, working in tandem with the Secret Service, have been honing security.
“It looks good,” State Police Capt. Scott Van Meter said Saturday. “Everything is tight. Everything is ready. We’re ready.”
About 50 state troopers, including those assigned to Special Operations, others working with canine units and many in plainclothes, are assigned to the presidential detail.
Airport Road will be closed, as well as Interstate 64 down to the center, while motorcades are heading to the event and leaving it, Van Meter emphasized, but will be reopened during the event to maintain routine traffic flow.
Tight safeguards likewise are being taken within the city by Beckley police and the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department.
Beckley Police Chief Tim Deems says side streets within the immediate area around the convention center will be closed while the motorcades are in progress before and after the service, but traffic will be reopened during the 90-minute ceremony.
“The only really restricted areas are just going to be around the convention center,” the chief said.
“Once the motorcades make it to their destination, whether to or from, then we’ll open those back up and traffic will flow normally from then.”
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
