Published: December 29, 2007 07:33 pm      

Year brought economic growth

BLUEFIELD — Despite several challenges, the year 2007 proved to be another positive year for southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia in terms of new economic development and growth.

Following years of waiting, construction finally resumed in late 2007 on the local King Coal Highway corridor in Bluefield. A contract was awarded and construction began on the new $16.3 million King Coal Highway bridge that will span over Route 19 connecting the existing K.A. Ammar Interchange in Bluefield with Stoney Ridge. The first of two piers that will house the twin interstate bridges above Route 19 was erected in late 2007.

The first bag of trash was tossed into McDowell County’s new 175-acre Copper Ridge Landfill in 2007. The new $24 million landfill will eventually accept out-of-state waste by rail. However, it is currently open just for waste from McDowell County. The facility is capped at 50,000 tons a month. A bid by lawmakers to increase the size of the facility to 100,000 tons a month died in the House Judiciary Committee earlier in the year.

In another long-awaited development for McDowell County, the Indian Ridge segment of the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Trail opened in early 2007. The trail now spans more than 580 miles across southern West Virginia. It will be expanded into Mercer County in the future.

In another major development for McDowell County, U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., announced the release of more than $189 million in federal dollars in mid-2007 for the long-awaited start of construction on the new federal prison project at the Indian Ridge Industrial Park in Welch.

Byrd said the Bureau of Prisons is obligating the final construction funding — more than $189 million — for Clark Design/Build LLC’s work to construct the medium-security facility.

The total project cost is estimated at $232 million. The prison will include 1,280 beds for inmates, including 1,152 at the medium-security facility and 128 at an adjacent work camp, and will employ more than 300 people. The facility is expected to help pump $35 million annually into the economy of McDowell and Wyoming counties. Construction on the prison is now underway.

Also in McDowell County, years of planning for new school construction came to fruition in 2007 with the near completion of the new Southside K-8 School. It was constructed adjacent to the existing Big Creek High School, and is expected to open for students in January. The new consolidated Big Creek-Iaeger High School, and a new elementary school near Bradshaw, also was advertised for construction in late 2007.

Progress also continued in 2007 on the multi-purpose equestrian park project in Mercer County planned in conjunction with the cities of Bluefield and Princeton and the Mercer County Commission. The gh2 Gralla Architects firm of Norman, Okla., which was hired by the Mercer County Equine Committee to pursue the equestrian center development, continued its work on the project in 2007.

Tazewell County officials also finalized their plans in late 2007 for the Bluestone Regional Business and Technology Park project planned near Bluefield, Va. The project also was awarded a $1.8 million grant in late 2007 from the Virginia Tobacco Commission for the phase one infrastructure development, which is scheduled to be advertised for construction in March.

The 680-acre Bluestone Regional Business and Technology Center planned near Bluefield, Va. proposes to incorporate a workforce training center, offices, hotels and a conference center, retail stores, residential units and a nine-hole golf course — all within a single development.

Also in Tazewell County, the cells to the new Pocahontas State Correctional Center were opened as invited officials and guests got their first look at the new $68.6 million security level three facility in mid-2007. The first inmates arrived in late September. The prison is expected to employ about 300 people after reaching full capacity.

The correctional center includes four-celled housing buildings containing a total of 1,024 beds, as well as a multi-purpose building including food service, a laundry, an administrative building and a warehouse/maintenance building, according to earlier information provided by the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Also in Tazewell County, the region’s new high-speed fiber-optic backbone was officially activated in mid-2007. U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., joined officials with the town of Bluefield, the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors and area lawmakers on August 8 in officially “lighting” a “significant portion” of the high-speed broadband backbone, which travels from Claypool Hill along U.S. Route 19/460 through the towns of Tazewell and Bluefield, and an eight-mile corridor of Mercer County in West Virginia before connecting with the Interstate 77 corridor in Bland County.

– Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com