Mayor: Plans for large-scale transportation project progressing

By CHARLES OWENS

BLUEFIELD — Linda Whalen will continue to serve as the mayor of Nature’s Air-Conditioned City.

The newly elected members of the Bluefield Board of Directors met Monday morning to select a new mayor. Following a closed-door executive session that lasted for about an hour, Mike Vinciguerra, Pete Sternloff, Dr. Tom Blevins, Mary Frances Brammer and Whalen emerged from the closed-door meeting and confirmed that Whalen would continue to serve as the mayor of Nature’s Air-Conditioned City.

“I’m excited to continue to be able to serve the city in this capacity,” Whalen said. “I think we have a very good board that is interested in working together as a team. We just hope we can continue to move the city forward as a team with economic development and greater community participation. I think everyone brings different talents in different areas. I think we have great variety on the board.”

Whalen said U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., notified the city Monday that plans for a large-scale transportation project for Princeton Avenue are moving forward. Whalen said Rahall is hoping to secure federal funding for the architectural and design phase of the project as early as this fall. The project envisioned for Princeton Avenue is being compared to the Beckley Intermodal Gateway, or BIG project, in Raleigh County, but on a slightly smaller scale.

Whalen said officials hope construction on the project could begin as early as 2010.

While it will focus on transportation, Whalen said the city hopes that new businesses, restaurants and shops can be developed along the project.

“This has been a community project from the onset,” Whalen said of the BIG vision for Bluefield. “We hope there will be shops and restaurants. The whole idea for this is to spur economic development and foot traffic to the downtown.”

The new board members will be sworn in before August, and will conduct their first city board meeting in August.

“I’m really encouraged about Bluefield’s potential,” Whalen said. “I think we have a great leadership team in place. Every board member brings new visions and ideas.”

A canvassing of votes from the June 2 municipal election in Bluefield was completed Monday, and there were no significant changes to the outcome of the council races, according to City Clerk Helen Mitchell.

– Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

Text Only