School, County Officials Tour Poplar Gap Site

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
       School board members and supervisors alike had the opportunity last week to get a firsthand look at the possibilities for the Poplar Gap-Lovers’s Gap area of Buchanan County, as they toured the massive site now being mined by Alpha Natural Resources and its subsidiaries.
        Included in the Thursday tour was a visit to the possible site on which a replacement high school for Grundy High School might be located; a tract of land on which a housing development might be located and developed; and other acreage in the area which could be used for commercial and/or industrial development.
        Members of the board of supervisors, school board and school central office staff attended the afternoon tour, proceeding through the site with mining officials in a caravan-style tour involving several vehicles. They stopped at various locations along the way for an explanation of what they were looking and its potential future uses.
        Terra Tech Engineer Billie Campbell, whose firm is also on staff for the county as engineers, noted that the road under design to access the project is a four-lane roadway which will be designed to primary road standards, resulting in the development of a new primary route in Buchanan County.
         The road being developed to access the site will travel all the way to Bull Gap and ultimately will tie in with the proposed Coalfields Expressway alignment. Construction of the connecter road is already underway on the property.
         The roadway spans 1.6 miles from Lover’s Gap to Poplar Gap. Another 2.2 mile secondary road will also be constructed through the project area, Campbell said. The savings to the county in doing the project in conjunction with mining, Campbell noted, amounts to approximately 50 percent or more of the actual cost of road construction.
         Three seams of coal are being mined in the area as the land is left flat and developable behind it.
       Buchanan County Economic Development Director Craig Horn noted plans are for the property to be flown later this month in order to do some detailed mapping of the overall site.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.

 Board Okays CPPD Resolutions Seeking Water, Housing Grants
Public Hearings Held on Three Projects

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
        Resolutions of support for grants seeking funding for the Roseann phase of the Hurley Regional Water Project, the Hurley Flood Recovery Project Phase IV and the Six and Twenty Mile Creek Water project were approved following public hearings on each project Monday during a meeting of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors.
       The supervisors agreed unanimously to lend their support to all three projects.
       Jim Baldwin, a planner for the Cumberland Plateau Planning District, whose agency will apply for the grants on behalf of Buchanan County, was the facilitator at each of the three hearings.
        The grants being sought on all three projects are through the Virginia Community Development Block Grant program.
        On the Hurley water project, Baldwin noted, a new avenue for funding has been opened through a construction ready projects category initiated by the Department of Housing and Community Development.
         "This will be the third time we’ve applied," Baldwin said of the Hurley water project.
         He noted the last two times, bids have come in over budget and the project has been withdrawn because of a 60-day time limit.
         Changes in the new program during that timeframe, Baldwin said will actually work to the county’s benefit allowing it to access $465,000 in funding instead of $315,000.
           The funding will be used to extend water service from the tank at Home Creek to Roseann and to the area dubbed Hurley Heights, where housing construction has been ongoing.
        The water project already has $892,957 in funding available for construction, including $299,643 through the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy’s Abandoned Mine Lands program; $400,353 through the Appalachian Regional Commission; $152,961 through the Virginia Department of Health; and $40,000 through the Buchanan County Public Service Authority.
         According to the resolution of support agreed to on a motion by Rocklick Supervisor David Ratliff and second by North Grundy Supervisor Carroll Branham, the project will serve 40 low to middle income homes with 92 people.
           The second project for which funds are being sought is the Hurley Flood Recovery Project. The county is seeking $500,000 for that project.
           According to the resolution, the county has already assisted 71 families with housing needs created in the wake of the flood of 2002 there.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.