The map of West Virginia's metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas changed last month, with perhaps the biggest surprise being the move of Putnam County out of the Charleston MSA to Huntington-Ashland.
The changes were announced in a bulletin from the federal Office of Management and Budget. OMB determines which counties are in metro and micropolitan areas based on data supplied by the Census Bureau.
"We did have concerns. We've been in the Charleston area for many years," Brian Donat, county manager of Putnam County, said.
The main concern Putnam County has with the change is traffic, Donat said. Most traffic in Putnam County, particularly at rush hour, flows toward Charleston in the morning and out of Charleston in the evening, he said.
Delphine Coffey of the West Virginia Development Office said Putnam County was moved from the Charleston MSA to the Huntington-Ashland MSA because of the distribution of its population.
The Census Bureau counted 22,547 people in the part of Putnam County that it considered the Huntington urbanized area, 13,084 in the Charleston urbanized area and 19,855 people in the not urban, or rural, area, Coffey said.
Because more people live in the Huntington urbanized area than the Charleton urbanized area, Putnam County was moved from the Charleston MSA to Huntington-Ashland, Coffey said.
Donat said Putnam County wants to make sure its needs are met when planning studies are done for the Huntington-Ashland metro area, which includes one county in Ohio and two in Kentucky.
"We want to make sure any traffic studies, any congestion studies, that we're included in the Charleston area," he said. While there have been no formal documents signed to provide for that, planning agencies have reached a handshake agreement to make sure Putnam County's commuting patterns toward Charleston are included in future studies, Donat said.
Lincoln County also was moved from the Charleston MSA to Huntington-Ashland.
"Lincoln County was moved because of commuting patterns," Coffey said. "If a county does not have any urbanized areas, which Lincoln county does not, the next criteria is to look at the commuting patterns. In this case, Lincoln county residents make up 1 percent of the Huntington-Ashland work force while only 0.9 percent of the Charleston MSA would be Lincoln County residents. Therefore, Lincoln County is moved to the Huntington-Ashland column," Coffey said.
Other changes in metropolitan and micropolitan areas in West Virginia:
- The Beckley (Raleigh County) and Oak Hill (Fayette) micropolitan areas are combined to form the Beckley metropolitan area.
- Pleasants County and Washington County, Ohio, are removed from the Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna metro area, now renamed Parkersburg-Vienna, with Wood and Wirt counties remaining.
- Morgan County is removed from the Hagerstown-Martinsburg metro area, with Berkeley County and Washington County, Md., remaining.
- Elkins (Randolph County) and Logan (Logan County) become new micropolitan areas.
