Center debuts

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin was on hand this month for the opening ceremony of American Public University System’s Financial Center in Charles Town. The new environmentally friendly, 105,000-square-foot building will serve as office and meeting space for more than 400 staff members at the school. Manchin, who was in the Eastern Panhandle to mark Constitution Day, also spoke at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies at Shepherd University, where he presented Director Raymond Smock and university officials with a Congressional Record statement about the center’s efforts.