A publication of the Regional Intergovernmental Council Fall 2015

Kanawha and Clay Counties Receive Grants

Kanawha County’s TechConnectWV has received $500,000 from the U. S. Economic Development Administration for ScaleUp West Virginia, a project of the West Virginia Coalition for Technology-Based Economic Development, doing business as TechCon-nectWV. This project will take technology-based economic development to the next level through continued economic diversification, the development of technology-based startup companies, and expanded opportunities in advanced manufacturing. It will build on previous investments that the partnership of the EDA, the State of West Virginia, private sector investors and other stakeholders have made to build economic diversity in West Virginia. By coordinating and collaborating with the West Virginia Department of Commerce, to include the West Virginia Small Business Development Center, this project will grow and expand companies and jobs in West Virginia by opti-mizing commercialization opportunities; manufacturing innovation and integration; en-trepreneurial engagement and capacity; and measurement and assessment of pro-grams.

The Clay County PSD Pack Fork and Independence Road Waterline extension project received a total of $760,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) that will provide safe, reliable water service to 134 households and 2 organizations in an isolated part of Clay County. There will be eight miles of new waterline construction.

Left to Right: Greg Belcher -Chapman Technical Group, Beverly Pierson – General Manager, Clay County Public Service District, Jerry Linkinoggor – Clay County Commissioner, Arlene Tucker - Clay County Commissioner, Governor Earl Ray Tomlin. Llyn Drake – Clay County PSD Commissioner, Greg Fitzwater - Clay County Commission President, Teddy Underwood – Clay County PSD Chairman, and Terry Martin – Regional Intergovernmental Council.

Boone County Morrisvale Cameo Waterline Extension—The $4.4 million project is awaiting boundary adjustment, Public Service Commission approval and tank site location before going to bid. Boone County Sanitary Sewer Project—Awaiting funding to complete project. Clay County Pack Fork and Independence Road Waterline Extension—project is to-tally designed and received final funding from Appalachian Regional Commission. Construction bids to be let in January, 2016. City of Nitro Sanitary Sewer Update—This $8.3 million project is expected to begin construction in November 2015.

Source Water Protection Plans Completed

The Regional Intergovernmental Council along with their consultant, Potesta and As-sociates, completed the engineering portion of the seven (7) Source Water Protec-tion Plans in our region. These source water providers, Boone Raleigh Public Service District, Clay-Roane Public Service District, the Town of Clay, the Town of Cedar Grove, the City of Hurricane, Putnam Public Service District and the St. Albans Mu-nicipal Utility Commission must complete the overall plan by June 30, 2016. The en-gineering portion was made possible by a grant from the WV Bureau of Public Health. Four of the smaller providers will also be receiving assistance from Tetra Tech Engineering, through an agreement with the West Virginia Bureau of Public Health. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Community Development Project Updates

RIC welcomes Andy Martin, Transportation Planner, to our staff! Andy is a native of Rochester, New York and a recent gradu-ate of Cornell University with a Master’s in Urban Planning.

RIC Executive Director Retiring

EDA Training Workshop Held in South Charleston EDA conducted an all-day training for economic development district repre-sentatives and local stakeholders at the WV Regional Technology Park in South Charleston on September 23rd. Tonia Williams, interim Director for EDA and Bob Gittler led the workshop. How to create competitive EDA pro-posals, how the grant process works and how to improve your current applica-tion were some of the topics covered at the workshop. The workshop was co-sponsored by the Regional Planning and Development Councils and the WV HUB.

Funding Opportunities Available Environmental Protection Agency – FY 2016 Brownfields Funding Opportunities. Includes: Brownfields Assessment Grants (up to $200,000); Assessment Coalitions (up to $600,000); Brownfield Revolv- ing Loan fund (up to $1,000,000) and Brownfields Cleanup Grants (up to $200,000). Deadline – December 18, 2015. Information at www2.epa.gov/brownfields. Appalachian Regional Commission – FY 2016 Area Development Program and Distressed Counties Program Grants. Deadline – December 31, 2015. For information call WV Development Office at 304-558-2234. WV Development Office – Flexi-Grant Program. Capacity Building

Grants funded jointly by the Appalachian Regional Commission and Benedum Foundation. Maximum project amount is $10,000. Deadline – November 20, 2015. For information call WV Development Office at 304-558-2234.

Mark Felton, RIC’s Executive Director for the past nine years, will be retiring at the end of the year. Mark has been at RIC for 33 years. More about Mark’s retirement in our next RIC Messenger.

If you would prefer receiving our newsletter electronically, OR if you wish to be taken off our mailing list, please email Joyce Rock-well at jdrockwell@wvregion3.org.

Progress Continues on Two Corridor Studies

in Kanawha County

RIC transportation planning staff and its planning

partner, Burgess and Niple, Inc., continue to make

progress on two transportation corridor studies in

Kanawha County. The first study is exploring options

for improvements along the Third Street corridor in

St. Albans from MacCorkle Avenue to Kanawha Ter-

race. Identifying options for widening, replacing or

improving traffic flow through the Third Street under-

pass is a particular area of emphasis in the study.

The second study is exploring options for improvements along the WV 622 corridor

(Goff Mountain Road, Big Tyler Road) in Cross Lanes from New Goff Mountain Road

to Doc Bailey Road. This study is seeking to find options for increasing capacity and

reducing travel time along the corridor.

The study team has reviewed and summarized the existing conditions along both corri-

dors, identified transportation deficiencies and developed potential improvement pro-

jects for correcting the deficiencies. Four improvement scenarios were developed for

each corridor containing a range of improvements. A steering committee consisting of

key stakeholders has met twice over the past few months and has reviewed and com-

mented on the scenarios. Public meetings were held in Cross Lanes and St. Albans on

the evenings of October 5th and 6th and provided residents of those communities with

an opportunity to also review and comment on the studies.

Both corridors were identified in RIC’s most recent long-range transportation plan as

containing deficiencies and were recommended for improvements. The studies are ex-

pected to be complete by the end of the current calendar year.

Regional Development Plan Update

RIC has completed its annual Regional Development Plan (RDP) update. The docu-ment serves as a report on recent trends in the regional economy and progress over the past year. The RDP Update can be found on the RIC website (www.wvregion3.org)

SoJuana Ellis and Joyce Rockwell have completed environmental assessments for the Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority, which is purchasing and renovating two multi-family apartment buildings located on the West Side of Charleston. Terry Martin and SoJuana Ellis of the RIC staff attended an October 9th Property Res-cue Initiative (PRI) workshop at the WVU Institute of Technology at Montgomery. The workshop was for citizens and municipal/county staff from Lincoln, Boone, Kanawha, Fayette and Clay counties. On October 14-16th, SoJuana Ellis attended Section 3 Certified Coordinator Training, hosted by the WV Housing Development Fund at their office in Charleston. Joyce Rockwell attended an ARC Conference in Somerset, KY on October 14-15th. SoJuana Ellis and Joyce Rockwell both attended an Energy Conference at Stonewall Jackson Resort on October 27th.

St. Albans is one of six cities and towns given “home rule” status by the Municipal Home Rule Board. The state’s home rule program began in 2007 with Charleston, Huntington, Wheeling and Bridgeport . The home rule status allows municipalities ex-tra freedom to regulate their operations, including local sales taxes, changing the structure of business and occupation taxes and also streamlining building and safety codes. The other towns receiving home rule status were Beckley, Grafton, Princeton, Moundsville and Oak Hill.

City of St. Albans Granted Home Rule Status

In the last newsletter, we erroneously reported that Marie Dailey was the Mayor of Bancroft, however, George Woodrum remains as Mayor. It was also reported RIC officers serve for 2-year terms; they only serve for one year.

WVDEP Receives Brownfields Assessment Grant for Kanawha Valley

EPA has selected the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Division

of Land Restoration (DLR) for a Brownfields Assessment Grant in the amount of

$200,000. Community-wide hazardous substances grant funds will be used to priori-

tize brownfield sites in the Kanawha Valley, and perform up to eight Phase I and up

to five Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to pre-

pare up to five cleanup plans and conduct community outreach activities.

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders

to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brown-

fields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of

which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous

substance, pollutant, or contaminant. The West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Cen-

ter (WVBAC) at Marshall University is assisting the DLR with community involve-

ment, site inventory, and site background information compilation. The grant period

is from October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2018. Sites with the potential for

hazardous substances can be included in the project. Petroleum sites, including for-

mer service stations and petroleum bulk plants, are not eligible for this funding.

The project has just officially started, however the DLR has already conducted a pro-ject information meeting at their Charleston WVDEP offices (July 2015), and made a presentation at the RIC Board Meeting on September 10, 2015. This presentation included an overview of the project, and provided attendees with opportunity to dis-cuss project specifics. The DLR and WVBAC are now actively seeking input from the Kanawha Valley re-garding sites of interest to potentially be included in a site inventory list for future po-tential evaluation. Additional community interactions will also be scheduled at later dates. Anyone interested in obtaining additional information on this project can con-tact George Carico, WVBAC at 304-696-5456 (carico@marshall.edu), or Casey Korbini, WVDEP-DLR at 304-238-1220, ext. 3506 (Casey.E.Korbini@wv.gov).

2016 Economic Out-look for West

Virginia

The Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER), an economic research organization housed within West Vir-ginia University, provides policy analysis and eco-nomic forecasting. The BBER annually produces a West Virginia Economic Outlook which details the current and future state of our economy. The BBER is sponsored in part by the West Virginia Legislature, the West Vir-ginia Department of Rev-enue, and the Appalachi-an Regional Commission, and also draws data from the US Census Bureau, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The full 2016 West Virginia Economic Outlook can be found on the BBER’s website (be.wvu.edu/bber). West Virginia has seen employment decline over the past three years, al-most 8,000 jobs lost, of which a large majority can be traced to the coal industry. Currently West Virginia has the lowest rate of labor force participation among all 50 states with only 53 percent of the adult population either working or looking for work. Overall economic conditions are expected to slightly improve over the next five years, but rates of improvement are far be-hind the United States as a whole. Over the next 20 years West Virginia is expected to lose around 23,000 residents, however

population growth is expected to occur in North-Central West Virginia and the Eastern Pan-

handle. Six counties are expected to lose jobs, but the highest rates of job growth are

expected to occur where population increases.

Regional Intergovernmental Council 315 D Street South Charleston, WV 25303

Next RIC Meeting

December 10, 2015

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Regional Intergovernmental Council 315 D Street, South Charleston, WV 25303

Phone: (304) 744-4258; Fax: (304) 744-2534 Chairman: Jerry Linkinoggor Executive Director: Mark Felton

Newsletter prepared by Joyce Rockwell

The preparation of this newsletter is financially aided by grants from the Economic

Development Administration, U. S. Department of Transportation and Appalachian Regional Commission.

PRSRT STD U. S. POSTAGE

PAID CHARLESTON, WV PERMIT NO. 1372