By Beth Christian
Broschart
The Parsons Advocate
DAVIS – Walt Helmick, W.Va. Commissioner of Agriculture, told those attending Thursday’s Tucker County Chamber of Commerce Awards Dinner to take advantage of growth and exciting opportunities in the county, and spoke about the possible advantages to the county if a cannery located in Tucker County.
“It is a pleasure to be here and be a part of what is happening here in Tucker County,” Helmick said. “Tucker County is one of the few counties in West Virginia where we see activity – we see things happening and you can look and say, ‘Wow – Tucker County has a beautiful future.”
Helmick said when Corridor H is completed, Tucker County will be two and a half hours drive to Washington, D.C. and products can be delivered the day it is harvested. “That is the movement – that is the movement of the land – eating something fresh.”
He said in working with U.S. Foods, and asked them the biggest product they deliver to W.Va. “They told me it is potatoes – three railroad boxcar loads a week. They get them from Idaho and it takes eight to 14 days to get them to W.Va. and it costs more for the transportation to W.Va. than it does for the potatoes.”
“West Virginia used to grow potatoes in the Northern Counties,” Helmick said. “They grew potatoes all over the state. In Tucker County, you have a unique opportunity because of Corridor H. We see that positive happening. We are looking at some of the product – namely Blue Lake green beans. We are looking at trying crops in the higher elevations and the road will lead into Washington where you have a significant population base consumers. It is our full intention that we will build a cannery in Tucker County. We are pricing the equipment now, so we will know what size building to put it in. It will be big – we will start the process in Tucker and Jackson counties.”
Helmick said he believes the canneries will be identical. “In Tucker County, we hope to can a product that will lead to many people many people in the area growing that product.” He said many surrounding counties will also feed into the Tucker County cannery – as well as flash freezing.
“We are trying to reinvent something that happened many years ago in W.Va.,” Helmick said. “West Virginia changed from an agricultural state to industry. The Northern counties used to grow everything they ate, but Weirton Steel came to town and employed 14,000 people. You did not have to milk the cow, you did not have to get up early – and then we started importing. The glass industry moved into Clarksburg and Weston hiring 8,000 to 10,000 people. Down in the Kanawha County, 35,000 people were employed by the chemical industry.”
Helmick said those jobs are all gone today. “There were 125,000 coal miners and today there are 17,000. We still have a major need for agriculture. W.Va. has $7.3 billion in food consumption and we grow less than $1 billion – and 53 percent of what we grow in W.Va. is poultry.”
“We see this as an opportunity,” Helmick said. “It is also a major challenge, but what an opportunity. We know if we take advantage of this opportunity if we get the right structure together with the right people.”
“The road is long in coming but it’s on its way,” Helmick said. “Be prepared for it. We are going to be ready for it. We are going to push forward. We want to be competitive and we look at the challenge and we know we can do it. It happened before and we are going back and do that. The opportunity is there and we need to be part of the diversification of W.Va.’s economy. This growth will cause the number of students to rise – here Tucker County sits on the threshold of an increase. It’s left up to the people in this room. Next year we intend to have some growers.”
Helmick said he challenged the people in the room to look at the opportunity and take it to the next level. “That opportunity is truly there.”
Helmick is from Minnehaha Springs and was elected Commissioner of Agriculture Nov. 2012. He and his wife, Rita, operate a spring water bottling company at Allegheny Lodge.
He was elected to the W.Va. House of Delegates in 1988, appointed to the W.Va. State Senate in 1989 and elected to the Senate in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010. While in the Senate, Helmick served 20 years on the Finance Committee, serving eight of those years as the Chair. He also served as Chair of other committees including Banking and Insurance, Military and Natural Resources. For 15 years, he served as Chair of the interim Forest Management Review Committee and served 24 years on the Agriculture Committee.
Helmick attended Marshall University and West Virginia Institute of Technology. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute, Hobart Technical Center, Lincoln Welding School and Mendenhall School of Auctioneering. He taught welding for five years at Pocahontas County High School before being elected to the Pocahontas County Commission in 1976. He then served nearly 10 years as President of the Pocahontas County Commission.
Helmick was born April 25, 1944, a son of Dock and Cleo Helmick. On June 1, 1991, he married Rita Fay Hedrick. Their children are Sam, Tim, Brian and Shelly.
Helmick is a Presbyterian by faith and a member of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture; Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture; Chairman, West Virginia State Conservation Committee; Board member, West Virginia Farmland Protection Authority; West Virginia Housing Development Fund; State Fair of West Virginia; West Virginia Agriculture and Forestry Hall of Fame; Capitol Market; Member, Huntersville AF&AM Lodge; Scottish Rite Masons; York Rite Masons; and the State Democratic Executive Committee.