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WVVA: New McDowell County restaurants bolstered by traffic from area trails

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By James McDowell, Multimedia Journalist

If you’ve lived in the area long enough, you’re familiar with the economic struggles that some folks in McDowell County have been going through. But… there are encouraging signs of commerce in one town.

Over the past six months, two new restaurants have opened along Northfork’s portion of Route 52. Mayor Carol Sizemore says there’s no doubt as to what is fueling the demand for more eateries… Hungry tourists riding the Hatfield-McCoy Trail.

Sizemore says, “It evidently has bolstered it 100%. I’ve noticed the riders will come in on Thursday afternoon, and they will leave on Sunday afternoon. They DO spend their money in McDowell County, and they do spend a lot here in Northfork…”

Read the full article on the WVVA website »

The Register-Herald: Former Pritchard Mine site has new life as a lavender farm

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by Andrea Lannom, Register-Herald Reporter

A small plot of budding lavender overlooks a mostly barren, partly-reclaimed mountainside, contrasting the old and new.

“That’s what it all used to look like before it was reclaimed,” Aaron Smith, of Charleston, said as he pointed to the mountainside.

Smith started out as an intern and now works full-time for the Green Mining Model Business Program, which aims to turn the reclaimed area of the former Pritchard Mine site into “purple mountains.”

As Smith drove his pickup truck over the winding, rough, gravel road to what he and others with the program call the “demo site,” he talked about the company and what he’s learned about lavender.

He mentioned that he uses a ratio of 60 percent sand and 40 percent dirt to grow the plant and said the lavender thrives in a rockier environment, which is why he said the former mine site provides a surprising environment for it to thrive.

“People ask me what I do and I say I grow lavender on a mine site,” he said. “They always respond with ‘what?’”

The demo site alone features about 14 varieties of lavender…

Read the article + watch a video about the project at The Register-Herald website »

The Lincoln Log: Small Business Workshops Coming to Lincoln County

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by Kimberly Donahue

Free small business workshops are coming to Lincoln County in August and September, 2017.  All workshops are free and open to the public, whether you currently have business, are interested in potentially opening one or just want more information.

Registration is not required but strongly requested.  The workshops are offered as part of the Lincoln County Entrepreneurial Community Project, a community effort led by local citizens to create more community prosperity through better support of local entrepreneurs.  This effort is assisted by the West Virginia Community Development Hub and the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship.

Read the full story at The Lincoln Log »

Mountain Messenger: Local Artist Reimagines Once Vacant Lewisburg School

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Lewisburg by Connie Manchester (2014) – Source

by Reporter for Mountain Messenger

Nowadays, finding someone that inspires you can truly be a challenge. Coming few and far between, these are the kind of people that one wants to surround themselves with to feel motivated, on top of the world, able to handle anything.

Michael Christie, a local artist, is one of those people. Bruce Schweizer, Bob Worley, John Hirt, and Christie are all in a partnership to undertake some massive renovations at the old Lewisburg Elementary School campus.

Where some see nothing, Christie sees a blank canvas; where others see a burden, he sees a project. This mindset is what led him to being one of the four people involved in the complete overhaul of the site on Lee Street.

Sprawling over almost five acres of land, the seven old school buildings haven’t been in use for years, and have sat mostly untouched after being purchased by the New River Technical College Foundation when Lewisburg’s new elementary school opened in 2012. The grounds are a familiar spot for many, with thousands of local kids passing from grade to grade, growing and learning in the old halls like so many before. Over the next few years, however, it will be nearly unrecognizable.

Already, the “E” building that many remember as the gym has begun to turn a new leaf, housing the brand new Lee Street Studios Centre for the Arts…

Read the complete article on the Mountain Messenger website »

The Record Delta: Buckhannon to Transform Historic Downtown Theater into Arts Center

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Source: Flickr

by Katie Kuba/Staff Writer

The City of Buckhannon has received more than $100,000 in grant funds to turn an old theater into a modern arts center.

Buckhannon learned Monday that it had been awarded an $102,000 grant from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History to continue transforming the historic Colonial Theatre, at 48 E. Main St., into a multi-purpose space/arts center, according to a city press release. The grant was made possible through the National Endowment for the Arts and the state legislature. Built in 1924, the historic structure operated as the Colonial Theatre from 1924 to 1973 before morphing into the Cinema Theatre from 1973-1980. Then, in 1980, it seesawed between functioning either as a restaurant or bar until its closure in 2014.

In January 2017, the city purchased the structure from Catherine Cuppari for $60,000.

City officials couldn’t be happier about the news, although they weren’t completely surprised, mayor David McCauley said Monday. The primary preparer of the grant application — city architect Bryson VanNostrand — had seemed hopeful that the city would be awarded at least some funding, although he wasn’t sure how much, McCauley said.

Read the article at The Record Delta website »

Demand for the Hatfield-McCoy ATV Trail Brings New Business Opportunities

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Over the past year plus with our work helping to foster entrepreneurship in communities throughout West Virginia here at The Hub, we’ve seen energy around new business in the recreation and tourism sectors skyrocket.

This has been due in large part to the Hatfield McCoy ATV trail. As people come to ride the trail, they are also looking for other recreational activities. So, communities with natural assets like waterways are creating these recreational opportunities for visitors in places like Lincoln County.  We have also seen land-based trail projects around hiking and biking from our previous Innovation Acceleration program in communities from Boone County to Wyoming County.

There are also economic opportunities directly related to the Hatfield McCoy trail itself, and one of our top partners, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, is working to help people in southern West Virginia take advantage of those opportunities.

Last year, they launched a Powersports Technology program to teach students to service, repair, and maintain a variety of powersports equipment like motorcycles, ATV’s UTV’s and personal watercraft. Program graduates are prepared to be entry-level technicians and most often work as service technicians, but may also find employment as service writers, parts department personnel and sales staff.

For more information about this program, reach out to technology@southernwv.edu.

With an uptick in resources available to communities as well through things like the Appalachian Regional Commission’s POWER program, which has put $92 million within the past year into the region for economic development, it is important for residents here to know about what is available and be able to connect with these opportunities to grow not only their local economy but their own prosperity.

Just last month at a convening of POWER grantees in Huntington, Jeff Lusk, director of the Hatfield McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, which operates the Hatfield-McCoy Trails system, said the ARC’s $1.3 million POWER grant to their organization will be used to help expand tourism-related business opportunities along the Hatfield McCoy Trail.

We look forward to seeing what additional helpful resources are on the horizon for our region when it comes to growing our recreation and tourism economy.

Charleston Gazette-Mail: WV Neighborhood Using Public Art to Drive Economic Growth

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by Anna Taylor

Down an alleyway known as Jarrett Court in the Elk City historic district of Charleston’s West Side is a faded 1900s-era commercial mural. The ad was once a promotion for Gold Medal Flour.

It lives on the side of the building that houses Elk City Records, one of the area’s newest businesses.

Local artist Kayleigh Phillips, 26, is in the process of restoring the sign, but updating it with a focus for the community so it’s not just an old ad. The effort is one component of transforming the area into a revitalized, art-friendly community.

Charleston Urban Renewal Authority is working on a West Side Community Development plan — which includes rehabilitation of existing structures, visual elements of streets and infrastructure improvements — and a strategic urban renewal plan for Downtown Charleston near the East End and West Side districts. The latter includes creating a West Side Square between Indiana and Bigley avenues along Washington Street West, according to CURA plan documents.

Advocates for Charleston’s West Side are leading the efforts to bring public art to the area…

Read the article on the Charleston Gazette Mail website »

Have a great business idea? Pitch it at WV’s Shark Tank

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By now most of the civilized world has seen an episode of Shark Tank, the ABC show where an entrepreneur is launching a new business or posing the next great invention to a panel of judges, hoping one of them will approve of the concept and invest in the venture.

A team from the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Council (MOVRC) is developing a business pitch contest called Launchpad with a prize of $5000 for the winner.  The MOVRC is a regional agency comprised of elected officials and economic development professionals who come together to work on regional concerns that affect all communities in an eight-county region. New business development is one of the MOVRC’s key goals.

To enter you must be a new business start-up (in idea phase) or have been in business for less than two years. You must be located within the MOVRC’s eight-county region:

  • Calhoun
  • Jackson
  • Pleasants
  • Ritchie
  • Roane
  • Tyler
  • Wirt
  • Wood

Entrepreneurs must complete a short three-page application by July 31 to qualify.

Find all of the details on the Pleasants Area Chamber of Commerce website »

7 Steps to Turn a Vacant Lot into a Community Treasure

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Do you ever dream that the vacant lot down the street will be transformed into a dog park? What about an outdoor performance venue?

Stop dreaming. Make it happen.

Lots to Love is a Pittsburgh-based organization that provides step-by-step instructions for those of you looking to transform the vacant lots in your communities.

  1. Engage your community throughout the process. It’s important that your community helps determine and is on board with the design idea. If they’re engaged, neighbors will be a great source of volunteers.
  2. Determine the design (e.g. tool library, community garden, etc.). Take into consideration your community’s goals, capacity to complete hands-on work to transform the lot, and the funding your community will need to implement a specific design.
  3. Identify a lot that’s suitable for the design selected. For example, if you’re looking to grow food, you’ll need to select a lot that has access to water, sunshine, and quality soil.
  4. Raise funds for your lot’s transformation through crowdfunding, grants, donations, or sponsorships.
  5. Get permission from the lot’s owner. This is key! The owner may grant short or long-term access to the lot, or the lot may need to be purchased before beginning work.
  6. Build your project with the help of volunteers.
  7. Celebrate and maintain your lot!

Check out Lots to Love’s website to dive deeper into the nitty gritty of the above instructions and to check out a few of their ideas for lot transformations.

And if you’re hungry for more, click here to check out “200 Ideas for Vacant Lots,” developed by Opportunity Space, Urban Design Studio, and MKSK.

Yes! Magazine: Kentucky Community Joins Forces to Rebuild Economy

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All join hands for a round of square dancing at the Carcassonne Community Center. Photo credit: Lafayette College. Source.

By Peter Slavin

Nearly 50 years ago, on a presidential campaign swing through eastern Kentucky, Sen. Robert Kennedy promised to help a disabled coal miner build a community center in the tiny mountain town of Hemphill to give idle youth and others a place for recreation and meetings.

James Johnson used the brick-making machine and VISTA workers that Kennedy supplied to create community space and built a park and area for horseback riding.

Years later Johnson developed black lung disease and couldn’t keep the center going. After he died, his widow, Mabel, helped establish a new Hemphill Community Center in this mountainous region in the heart of Appalachia.

Now the Johnsons’ daughter, Gwen, is trying to save this piece of family legacy by opening a catering business inside the center, which saw operating funds diminish as tax revenues from the coal industry declined.

The network of local organizations that helped get Hemphill Catering up and running is part of an unusual form of grassroots economic development underway in this community, staggered by the collapse of coal.

It’s known as the Letcher County Culture Hub, a broad and growing collaboration of arts and media groups, for- and non-profit outfits, community organizations, and government agencies that help one another survive and grow…

Read the full story at Yes! Magazine »