While Mercer County struggles to create jobs, McDowell and Wyoming counties seem to be having some success.
The coal business is doing well. A massive new preparation plant located near Marianna is almost complete. The modern structure may be viewed from Route 97. It is impressive. The Massey-owned plant will provide much needed employment for the region.
The new plant will have the capability to process 700 tons per hour and will feature two 10,000-ton clean coal silos and a 25,000-ton raw-coal stockpile area at an estimated cost of $65 million. The project should be complete by this fall.
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The construction of the new Pioneer Community Bank building in Iaeger is also going well. The building appears to be about 75 percent complete. The new facility is located on Route 52. Pioneer Community Bank was chartered on Dec. 31, 1930, as The Bank of Iaeger and began operations on Aug. 26, 1931. It has operated continuously in McDowell County since its inception. The name was changed to Pioneer Community in 1999.
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The scenery along the Guyandotte River near Simon in Wyoming County is breathtaking. The pristine river meanders through natural rock cuts that are nearly vertical and bubbles along rolling rapids through what is basically a canyon. The spring flowers are bursting through and in a few days the area will be even more vibrant with the freshness of spring and a palate of color. The remote area is east of and upstream from the R.D. Bailey Lake. It is a beautiful place. The Division of Highways is replacing several bridges that span the river.
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The old school building near Powhatan in McDowell County is being razed. The brick structure had fallen into disrepair and had not been used as a school facility in recent years.
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Congressman Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., is not happy with the efforts in the House of Representatives to cut Federal Aviation Administration funding. Rahall contends that the move will decrease air passenger safety, destroy American jobs and diminish aviation and economic options for rural communities. He believes the move could have dire consequences for our nation’s infrastructure, jobs and economy.
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On the Virginia side, Congressman Morgan Griffith is not happy with the EPA. “Coal is a vital domestic natural resource that powers the U.S. economy,” he said recently. “More than 50 percent of the U.S. electric supply comes from coal-fired power plants. This obviously translates into a lot of jobs.”
Griffith added, “But I don’t think the folks at the Environmental Protection Agency care very much about all that. I believe that, through numerous rules and regulations, EPA is trying to kill this industry; mostly, it seems, to appease far-left environmentalists.
“But what will that mean for the rest of us? As more coal-fired power plants are retired, electricity prices will naturally rise.”
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Griffith also pointed out that although the president’s cap-and-trade system failed in Congress, his EPA is pursuing, through regulations, a similar plan that will make energy prices skyrocket. More specifically, there are several multi-billion-dollar EPA regulations in various stages of the rule-making process which, if implemented, will be extremely harmful to the coal industry. Each one alone would hurt the industry, but the cumulative impact would be devastating.
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Personally, I am tired of exorbitant energy costs. Especially with the CEO of APCO receiving more in compensation over the last two years than the amount APCO claims customers are behind in their payments.
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There you have it, a few comments on items of interest to the area. It looks like sunny skies may return. Please have a blue sky day. Down in McDowell and Wyoming counties the Bradford pears and Japanese plums are in full bloom.
Wilson Butt, a resident of Bluefield, is a retired Department of Highways official.
Columns
April 3, 2011
Coal spurs growth, jobs
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