The Coalfield Development Corporation hosted its first graduation of the job training program, Reclaim Appalachia.
The two-year Reclaim Appalachia program provides training in environmental service jobs such as asbestos and lead abatement, mold remediation and meth-lab cleanup as well as offering classes on how to install solar power panels.
Those in the program are laid off from jobs in the coal industry or are struggling to find work fresh out of high school. Brandon Dennison is the Executive Director of the Coalfield Development Corporation.
“These 21 graduates today have worked really hard to develop skillsets in environmental remediation and solar panel installation,” Dennison said. “With their own hands these are the people that are going to rebuild the Appalachian economy from the bottom up.”
Dennison says more than half of the 21 graduates have already obtained employment. A Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training grant funded training. The training started in November.
Federal labor officials say another $4.3 million is heading into West Virginia to help out-of-work coal miners.
A U.S. Department of Labor news release Tuesday says the National Dislocated Worker Grant money will go to WorkForce West Virginia.
The release says West Virginia has previously received $10.7 million combined since 2012 through the grant program.
It says the money will help continue services for 1,700 West Virginia participants already enrolled in the reemployment and training services, in addition to about 300 more displaced coal miners.
Since acquiring the old Corbin Factory building in Westmoreland in the summer of 2014, the Coalfield Development Corporation has turned the building, now called West Edge, into a hub of training and opportunity. West Edge has developed a woodworking workshop that’s slowly cutting into the areas unemployment numbers.
Credit Clark Davis / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Glen Wilson works in the Saws Edge shop.
Glen Wilson is a former marine corps veteran from Wayne.
“It’s a passion for me, my papa was into. I was woodworking with him when I was 14 years old, he just got me into it and when he passed away, his shop kind of disappeared and I kind of ventured off of it, but my dream’s always been to woodwork,” Wilson said.
Wilson is one of just a few students involved in a program where participants take classes at Mountwest Community and Technical College in Huntington and earn credits and money to work at a woodworking shop at West Edge, called Saws Edge.
“You’re creating something that’s been put on this earth and comes from a tree and you cut it down and make something beautiful out of it, you can see all the texture and the grain out of it,” Wilson said. “There’s wild stuff when you reveal the wood and what you can see in it, it’s just amazing.”
The workshop has been working on projects for about a year now, but is starting to slowly grow. The group takes wood from old buildings in southern West Virginia, that’s reclaimed by a deconstruction team. The team is part of the Coalfield Development Corporation as well. Coalfield Development Corporation is a community based organization working in the southern part of the state.
They started out building and deconstructing homes and now provide other training opportunities at West Edge. The goal is to create job opportunities in southern West Virginia. They’re funded through private donations and grants.
Using donated wood-cutting machines, they take reclaimed wood to make different things for sale in the local market with the hopes that local groups will purchase them. They have an agreement with West Virginia Living Magazine to make home decor pieces, they’re working with local businesses on making desks and they’ve produced pieces for Heritage Farm.
Credit Clark Davis / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Ashley Wiles works on a project at Saws Edge.
Deacon Stone is president of Reclaim Appalachia and project director at West Edge. He said it’s a perfect opportunity to expose the students in the workshop to private businesses to help prepare them for the job market.
“It’s important for us and critical for the crew members to have a close interface with the private sector and for them to understand the kind of skills that we’re building here so we can achieve good placements for our crew members,” Stone said.
One of the businesses that has purchased wood and the services of the wood shop is a group called Ackenpucky. The name is an Appalachian slang term meaning a stew of unspecified ingredients or in the construction industry like a caulking or glue substance. They’re a design and construction group that specializes in restaurant and kitchen design.
Logan County native David Seth Cyfers and his wife run Ackenpucky, which is based in Huntington. He says they’ve used Saws Edge to cut down on their workload.
“In the last couple of years we’ve just been buying reclaimed products from them to do the work ourselves, but the design business has picked up to the point where it’s beneficial to us and beneficial to them to collaborate,” Cyfers said.
They’ve purchased reclaimed wood in the past from Saws Edge for projects like the design and construction of Backyard Pizza in Huntington and are working with the group on bar tops made from old bowling alley lanes for a new restaurant called the Peddler.
Credit Clark Davis / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Old bowling alley lanes that Ackenpucky intends to use in the bar area at the Peddler.
Ashley Wiles, of Wayne, appreciates what the Saws Edge has done.
“It’s crazy because before I started here I never thought I could do it, but realistically I can,” Wiles said. “I can run most of this equipment, you have to be taught and you just have to do it.”
Other students at the workshop say they’re just hoping to earn more business and more opportunities for Saws Edge.
Officials have delayed opening six swimming pools managed by the Division of Natural Resources due to the uncertainty over the upcoming state budget.
Department of Commerce spokeswoman Chelsea Ruby says the openings have been pushed back for pools at Panther Wildlife Management Area, Twin Falls Resort State Park, Cabwaylingo State Forest, Babcock State Park, Watoga State Park and Kanawha State Forest.
Fourteen other pools operated by the state park system opened Saturday.
Ruby tells the Charleston Gazette-Mail the pools that didn’t open have higher operating costs.
State lawmakers have been working on a budget for the next fiscal year. Without a budget, state government would shut down July 1. A $270 million budget gap remains.
Correction: Name corrected from Ranger Scientific LLC to Ranger Scientific.
An ammunitions company has announced plans to build a factory in southern West Virginia and add 400 jobs.
Ranger Scientific officials said Tuesday the company has acquired 1,000 acres on a reclaimed mountaintop removal coal mine.
It says the $50 million facility will produce more than 500 million rounds of specialty rifle ammunition each year.
Ranger President and CEO Daniel Pearlson says the company chose West Virginia over six other states. According to media outlets, he says bullet manufacturing is expected to begin by 2018.
The company says the plant will mass produce “harmonically tuned” rifle ammunition, which is used in Olympic and other international competitions as well as by expert hunters and in specialized U.S. military applications. Those types of bullets reduce weapon vibration during firing.
With West Virginia University opening its Beckley campus this fall, investors from near and far have been looking at potential properties in the city.
Lisa Armes, a Century 21 First Choice real estate agent, tells the Register-Herald that she has been receiving calls for the past six months about properties in the area from local clients and those as far away as California.
Armes says she believes the recent spike in interest is because of WVU-Tech’s upcoming arrival, and she looks forward to seeing the area grow.
She says people are interested in opening restaurants, antique stores, bookstores and bars in the Beckley area.
She currently has eight properties available for lease, and she is working with three strong leads to fill those vacancies.
