Greenbrier Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Wood Flooring Company Acquires Two Closed Allegheny Wood Product Sawmills

Allegheny Wood Products announced it was closing its doors in February, laying off more than 900 employees. AHF Products, a wood flooring company, has agreed to acquire two sawmills from the defunct company.

Chief Operating Officer Jake Loftis said the acquisition will save an estimated 80 jobs that would have been lost last week.

“We are excited to add this capability to AHF and operate the mills at a capacity that will positively impact people and these two communities,” Loftis said.

Allegheny Wood Products was a supplier of lumber to the flooring company.

“It’s another key step to ensure AHF’s success now and in the future,” Lofits said.

The sawmills will now continue to supply lumber for AHF, a step the wood flooring company said was necessary for securing lumber supplies for current and future operations. The sawmills that will reopen are located in Greenbrier and Randolph counties.

AHF said West Virginia lumber could be used for other company locations in the future, although currently, it is not economical to do so.

Eastern hardwood has steeply declined in the last two decades, sitting at 40 percent of what it was in 2007.

New Lawsuit Names Justice, Involves More Properties Near Greenbrier

First Guaranty Bank of Hammond, Louisiana, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia last week against People’s Bank of Marietta, Ohio.

Gov. Jim Justice has been named in a new lawsuit involving multiple banks and claims on two properties adjacent to his Greenbrier Resort.

First Guaranty Bank of Hammond, Louisiana, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia last week against People’s Bank of Marietta, Ohio.

The complaint also names as defendants Carter Bank, the Virginia lender that’s one of Justice’s biggest creditors; three additional West Virginia banks; the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation; the Greenbrier Medical Institute; Justice and the Justice Family Group.

First Guaranty seeks to restore its claim to liens on two properties in Greenbrier County, the Old White Lot and Kate’s Mountain, totaling more than 2,800 acres.

The properties were collateral for a $6 million loan made by a predecessor of People’s Bank, Premier Bank of Ravenswood.

First Guaranty alleges that People’s Bank prepared a document in 2022 without First Guaranty’s knowledge stating that the loan had been paid in full and releasing the liens on the properties.

First Guaranty’s complaint calls the People’s Bank declaration “unauthorized and improper.”

First Guaranty seeks at least $75,000 in damages and for the court to declare that the $6 million has not been paid in full and that the properties have not been released.

It also asks for “further relief as the nature of this cause and the interests of justice may require.”

Justice, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, faces multiple lawsuits in multiple states involving his business empire. The creditors of his numerous companies have sought the repayment of millions of dollars.

Among them, Carter Bank has sought to claim other properties near the Greenbrier Resort as collateral for unpaid loans.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in Roanoke, Virginia, ordered Justice’s Bluestone Resources to surrender a helicopter to partially satisfy a debt owed to a Caribbean investment firm.

Justice Hears From 2016 Rival In Lawsuit Against Carter Bank

Booth Goodwin, the former federal prosecutor and a Democrat who lost to Justice in the 2016 primary for governor, represents Carter.

The attorney defending a Virginia bank that was sued by Gov. Jim Justice is a familiar foe of the governor.

Last month, Justice sued one of his biggest creditors, Carter Bank, in federal court, seeking $1 billion in damages.

Carter’s attorney this week filed a motion to dismiss the case. That attorney is Booth Goodwin, the former federal prosecutor and a Democrat who lost to Justice in the 2016 primary for governor.

In the motion, Goodwin accuses Justice of engaging in a pattern of defaulting on his loans and filing frivolous lawsuits against his creditor. Goodwin calls Justice’s claim of economic duress “laughable” and refers to the governor as “a one-time billionaire.”

Goodwin says Justice owes Carter hundreds of millions of dollars and the bank has worked “repeatedly and cooperatively” to restructure and extend the loans over the years.

Justice, his wife, Cathy, his son, Jay, and the Greenbrier Hotel are among the plaintiffs in the suit.

Justice filed a similar lawsuit against Carter Bank in 2021 but later dropped it.

Justice beat Goodwin in the 2016 primary and was elected governor as a Democrat, but switched parties the following year. He was re-elected in 2020 as a Republican and is now a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

Goodwin, a former U.S. Attorney, prosecuted coal executive Don Blankenship. Blankenship was the former CEO of Massey Energy. An explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in 2010 killed 29 workers.

In 2015, a jury found Blankenship guilty of conspiracy to violate federal mine safety and health laws. He was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. Blankenship has tried, unsuccessfully, to appeal his conviction.

Goodwin returned to private practice in Charleston in 2016.

ARC Grant To Help Rural Communities Access Federal Funding

The $100,000 ARC award will help the counties and the municipalities expand staffing to better utilize, access, and implement available federal funding through both the America Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Fayette, Greenbrier, Nicholas, Pocahontas and Webster Counties are splitting a $100,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).

The award will help the counties and the municipalities expand staffing to better utilize, access, and implement available federal funding through both the America Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The commission’s initiative “READY Appalachia” has been working to help underrepresented communities and economically distressed areas increase their capacity to create positive economic change.

ARC is expected to announce additional funding opportunities through READY Appalachia by early 2024.