HUNTINGTON — As data from the 2020 census could force the redrawing of boundaries for metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), talk of the possibility of merging Charleston and Huntington into one has been reignited throughout the region.
It’s not a new idea — in 2005, then-West Virginia senator and local developer Brooks McCabe proposed that some counties and municipalities should merge into larger MSAs, a proposal that never came to fruition — since the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) delineates metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas according to published standards that are applied to U.S. Census Bureau data.
When it comes to that regional concept, Bill Bissett doesn’t mince words.
“Simply put, we’re far stronger together,” said Bissett, president and CEO of the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce, adding that he’s given the issue of regionalism a lot of thought as potential new MSA boundaries loom.
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