Whitesville is changing.
While it would be premature to stay that this town has been turned around, what is undeniable is that since Whitesville began its Turn This Town Around campaign just a few short months ago, it is a visibly different place.
They are small improvements. Some new planters in the main street. A bit of landscaping at the local park. A touch-up at the entrances to town. But they are the real and tangible manifestations of an excitement for community improvement that Turn This Town Around has brought to this small community of about 500 near the border of Raleigh and Boone counties.
As we reported a few weeks ago, the people of Whitesville have grabbed their future by the horns and are raising money and support for projects that they believe will begin the long and difficult process of bringing families, businesses and some level of prosperity and opportunity back to the community they love.
And as we learned during our latest Turn This Town Around meeting in the Whitesville Volunteer Fire Department station last night, they are showing no signs of letting up now.
If you’re interested in plugging in to any of the community initiatives about to launch in and around Whitesville, here’s a few upcoming opportunities.
- On Friday, April 24, a Health & Wellness Expo will be held at the Raleigh-Boone Technical Center gymnasium in Pettus. The event is free and open to the public.10 a.m. – 3 p.m. More info: Sue Pauley – lpauley@ccwva.org
- This coming Monday, April 27, there will be an informational meeting about how Whitesville might start a co-op grocery store. Rotary Room of the Whitesville State Bank, 6 p.m. More info: Adam Pauley – adamspauley@gmail.com
- They started their own farmers market! Last weekend saw the launch of the Big Coal River Farmers’ Market at the Coal Heritage Riverwalk, and the plan is to continue it every other Saturday. More info: Sheila Combs – timsheila91@hotmail.com, or at their Facebook event page.
- On Tuesday, May 5, a meeting will be held to discuss what to do about a number of abandoned and dilapidated buildings in Whitesville. The meeting is the kickoff to Whitesville $10,000 technical assistance grant awarded by the Northern Brownfields Assistance Center to find potential solutions to the problem of such buildings in our communities. Business owners and building owners are especially encouraged to attend. Salamy Building, 6 p.m. More info: Adam Pauley – adamspauley@gmail.com
- Green thumbs and volunteers are needed on the morning of Saturday, May 9. The people of Whitesville will be doing landscaping and beautification work at Whitesville Elementary School. To get involved, contact Cheryl Nichols – clnichols@k12.wv.us.
- The next Turn This Town Around meeting will be held at the fire station, May 19, 6 p.m. All welcome!
While all this is going on, teams of Whitesville citizens continue to work on other exciting projects, including the creation of rail-trail along a section of disused CSX rail corridor along Coal River, converting vacant land in the center of town into an active community space, a 24-hour emergency clinic, and improving local cell phone reception.
Power to the people.
I am so glad to know good thing are happen. I know my Aunt would be wright in the middle. My mom Trisha some people call her is so happy. I cannot wait to see it in person.
I can’t tell you how proud and happy I am to hear of the progress being made by the people in the
Whitesville area ! My parents used to take me there when I was a child back in the 50’s. At Christmas
time, I was in AWE as I saw the streets of Whitesville, decorated with lights. I also saw the pride of all
the business owners who took great pains in decorating the window fronts for the holidays. I couldn’t
have been happier if I had gone to Disney ! I’m originally from Rock Creek, but I’ve always considered
Whitesville a very special place. My Uncle met and married his wife there. She used to work selling
tickets at the lower end theater ! I would love to see someone create a downtown location which
would showplace artifacts from the history of the area. Perhaps someone retired, but who would like to get involved in drawing people back to the downtown area. I love the “planter” idea ! That, along
with painting storefronts, abandoned or not, serves to brighten up the area and encourage others to
take a chance and join in on the resurrection process. The rent of space has to be reasonable enough
to allow businesses to get on their feet, but I’m sure you ALL are aware of that already. Best of luck, Whitesville ! I’ll be there in the late summer to see the progress ! Special thanks to all those who care enough to volunteer their services for the love of their community.
Byron “Ron” Cantley
How about a small historical museum for Whitesville. Old photos, school annuals, posters, newspaper clippings! Small parts of old structures that were important. The possibilities are endless. I would bet a lot of it you could found on line, especially social media sites! There has to be a ton of history there. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. A small museum would work well. Getting people to donate things to it, even just information would be a great catalyst to get them involved in other projects as well! It would instill pride. “Yep, they have a picture of my grandfather up there in the museum”! I don’t know how it works, but there was a lot of vacant buildings when I was through there in March of this year. If you can get an owner that has no plans or prospects for their building to volunteer the use of the building, volunteers to clean & set it up. Better to have even a very small museum in a building than it just sitting empty! If the owner is trying to sell or rent it out, it would increase the visibility and awareness of their building and increase their chances of selling or renting it. If they do sell or rent, get another place the same way and have new opening!
Just a thought! Good luck in all your endeavors. Coal River needs Whitesville just as much as Whitesville needs Coal River! Best of luck to all of you!
Sorry, it’s me again. I thought of something else. I’m sure you all have probably already thought of it or may already be doing it, but if your not, I bet “Cruise-Ins” would work really well there. The town is laid out perfectly for it and I would bet money if it was organized right and not overdone by having them too often and you got enough participation (which I don’t think? would be a problem), I bet that would work well! I’m familiar with the culture and I bet they could work better there than a lot of places where their very popular!