LOGAN, W.Va. — “We’re not dead in Southern West Virginia,” the message from Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin Friday at a roundtable discussion on the revitalization of the area.
Tomblin joined state and community leaders at Chief Logan Lodge & Conference Center near Logan to exchange ideas and identify opportunities.
“I know that times are tough now,” Tomblin said. “But as we fight for coal jobs and continue to offer our support and retraining for our miners and families we must also look toward our future.”
The governor announced the development of the Hobet 21 site on the Boone-Logan county line in his State of the State Address back in January. The former mountaintop removal site would provide the flat land needed for diversification. Tomblin said Friday he hoped to have infrastructure headed to the site and some inter-governmental contracts signed before he leaves office in December.
Former Marshall University acting president and longtime coal industry official Gary White agreed with the governor that the site could be a key to the future of the southern coalfields. There are plenty of West Virginia natives with successful businesses outside the state who could expand there, White said.
“Let’s think about who these people are and bring that list of people together and I think some things can happen,” White said.
The West Virginia Department of Commerce hosted Friday’s event.