Last week was quite busy. The Discovery Junction Committee met and will meet again January 30. We want to present design proposals to Marlinton Town Council for their approval as soon as possible. The Marlinton Wetlands Project Committee met last week as well and moved another step closer to beginning this project. In local terms, we intend to clean up the slough area, which contains a wetland within the Town limits. This is the property that lies between the Greenbrier River Trail and fourth Avenue. The committee will prepare an MOU and design proposal, for Watoga Park Management. For your information, the Town of Marlinton is a partner in West Virginia Rivers Coalition’s Safe Water for West Virginia Program. The Town of Marlinton is one of the unique communities within the state that has a Source Water Protection Plan that overlaps with a Watershed Based Plan. Both plans focus on Knapps Creek. The Wests Virginia Conservation Agency authored the Watershed Based Plan for Knapps Creek and is a key stakeholder in the Safe Water Marlinton project. Going back to the Spring of 2017, the three organizations held several meetings and identified a plan to create an educational community park. This is another unique opportunity for the Town to utilize a piece of unused property that joins property owned by the West Virginia Railroad Authority and leased to the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. The Planning Commission is waiting for a few more pictures to highlight the comprehensive plan. County and regional leaders held a Broadband Meeting in Council Chambers Friday and found out there is a lot of work going on that will help Pocahontas County move toward connectivity. Senators Manchin and Capito have specifically requested funding for West Virginia. The GVEDC, Region 4, and Chamber of Commerce will try to identify business locations and active farms within the county. These two identifiers are specifically pertinent to the USDA grant process and should work to our advantage in this area. The regional goal is not to catch up, but to leapfrog the current situation and be ready for the future. Next week, I hope to update activity of the WVML Winter Conference.
