Liz McCormick Published

State and Federal Grants to Aid Laid-Off Coal Miners

Coal Layoffs, unemployed
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Governor Earl Ray Tomblin joined environmental officials Friday morning to award a $1 million grant that will benefit workers affected by layoffs in three coal counties.

Tomblin announced the award Friday at the Ralph R. Willis Career and Technical Center, in Logan. He says the grant will support stream clean-up efforts in Boone, Logan, and Mingo counties.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection says the state grant allows those who were laid-off to continue working and living in southern West Virginia.

And on Thursday, U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito announced an $800,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families to help retrain laid-off coal miners at the Coalfield Development Corporation’s factory in Wayne.

The federal grant will help expand the group’s community job training programs and social services.