Published: September 12, 2009 08:10 pm      

Coal Show comes together

BLUEFIELD — At 2 p.m., this afternoon, the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce will officially switch its telephones from its office on Bland Street in Bluefield, and open up shop at the National Guard Armory/Civic Center in Brushfork.

“This tent they are erecting (Friday) evening is absolutely amazing,” Marc Meachum, president and chief executive officer of the Bluefield Chamber said. “It is a single-span structured tent with no poles inside. The exhibitors are going to be absolutely amazed.”

Meachum was at the Armory Friday, helping orchestrate the first steps of helping exhibitors get the huge machinery in place, as well as helping contractors set up the demonstration tents. “They put the food tent up early, but it’s only 40x60 feet,” Meachum said. “It’s about the smallest tent they fool with.”

In the meantime, Karen DeHaan, Chamber administrative assistant and Elizabeth Burton, a Chamber volunteer, were working the office phones on Friday. “We’ll be at the armory bright and early at 8 a.m., on Monday morning,” DeHaan said. “Frontier will be switching our phones to the armory at 2 p.m. (today),” she said.

Meachum said in addition to the tents, mine machinery manufacturers including Joy, Fairchild and others were bringing machinery in on Friday afternoon. “This is really just the calm before the storm,” Meachum said. “They’ll all be coming in on Monday and Tuesday. It will get pretty busy around here.”

P.T. Spangler and a veteran crew of volunteer electricians, including Calvin Shoemaker, Gary Pennington, Jim Money and Sonny Wiley, were busy Friday setting up the Pemco load centers to provide power to all the mine machinery manufacturers.

“We really miss our friend George Law, who passed away about three weeks ago,” Spangler said. “George had been with us a long time. You miss people ... You don’t forget them. We’ve had some great guys work on our crew through the years ... guys like John Looney, Red Robinette and others. We miss them all, but we continue their legacy.”

This year, Roy Pruett, an assistant professor of electrical engineering technology at Bluefield State College, brought a group of engineering students to the Coal Show on Friday to help the electricians. “When Marc mentioned that Bluefield State was sending out 8 or 9 volunteers, I didn’t know how that was going to go, but we split them up with the other volunteers and it all worked out great!” Spangler said.

“We worked together, got to know each other and had pizza for dinner,” Spangler said. “It was good having the extra help. It made the work go faster.”

Meachum said additional volunteers from the Mercer Fellowship Home also pitched in to help put the show together. “The volunteers make this show what it is,” Meachum said. “We wouldn’t be anything without our volunteers.”

Spangler said he wonders how the show can keep growing. “I think this will be a good Coal Show, but I ask myself, ‘How can we continue to grow?’ It’s an amazing process.”

The “Coal Show for Coal People” starts Wednesday morning, Sept. 16, and runs through mid-afternoon on Friday, Sept. 18.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com