Grant funding totaling $25 million is going towards the Coalfields Expressway in the southern part of the state.
Grant funding totaling $25 million is going towards the Coalfields Expressway in the southern part of the state.
The money comes from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and will go towards the construction of a new segment of road connecting the north end of Mullens in Wyoming County to the segment of West Virginia Route 16 east of New Richmond.
The proposed four-lane highway has been in development on-and-off since 1998. When completed, it will connect Interstates 64 and 77, also known as the West Virginia Turnpike, in Beckley with U.S. Route 23 near Slate, Virginia.
Work started on another segment of the highway connecting it to the town of Welch in August, which is expected to be finished in 2026.
“This highway will make our state more accessible, connect workers to jobs, and help drive tourism and other economic activity,” U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said in a joint statement alongside fellow Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. “Today marks an important step for the future of this key highway project, and I’m looking forward to seeing the impact it will have on all West Virginians.”
“Our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law continues to bring historic investments to West Virginia — creating long-term, good-paying jobs while also addressing the state’s infrastructure needs,” Manchin echoed. “The funding announced today will help construct the Coalfields Expressway to better connect our southern West Virginia communities, and I look forward to seeing the positive impacts of this project for years to come.”
The governor’s office announced last week that $548 million from the same federal grant will go to help maintain bridges across the state.
The Mullens Fire Department building is at risk of washing away, according to Fire Chief Justin England. He said the building itself is solid but the foundation is eroding from underneath. The building is located along the Guyandotte River in Wyoming County.
The Mullens Fire Department building is at risk of washing away, according to Fire Chief Justin England. He said the building itself is solid but the foundation is eroding from underneath. The building is located along the Guyandotte River in Wyoming County.
England said firefighters noticed a crack in the bay floor that lead them outside to see the damage. He said it’s an urgent matter because the right situation and the building could crumble to the ground.
Rebuilding or repairing at the current location isn’t an option since the river will continue to pose the same hazard.
The Mullens Fire Department is working with Region One Planning and Development Council to search for funding. The Council is one of 11 in the state that utilizes federal, state, and local funding to assist with projects concerning infrastructure development, and other facilities.
The department hopes to find funding to construct a new building in town just a few blocks over.
Without a solution, England worries about the community.
The building is used to house and protect equipment. England says the town’s fire house is often called a “light of the community” hosting hotdog dinners, toy drives and more.
Plans are moving forward with a project to open a metallurgical coal mine and prep plant in Wyoming County.
Consol Energy first announced in 2019 plans to open a mine just outside of Mullens by 2021. The project was delayed because of the pandemic but is now moving forward, according to an email from a representative from the company.
The coal mine, along with a prep plant, is expected to be fully open by 2022, employing up to 150 people.
Mullens Commissioner Nathan England says he’s optimistic these jobs will help local families stay closer to home.
“There’s men furloughed from the railroad, there’s people having to drive one and two hours to work and then they see well there’s going to be work right here again,” England said. “A Wyoming countian in general is just survivors. We get by on what we have but a little help every now and then is a great thing.”
England has lived in the area most of his life. Over the years, he’s seen families suffer and move away as the jobs in mining and the railroad decline.
“You can see the trend of (coal jobs) going down, and I can understand the impact that it’s had on the environment, but it’s still a big deal here,” England said. “We’ll have to have it in order to survive.”
Some people have been working to welcome visitors brought by the Hatfield and McCoy ATV Trail system by purchasing and renovating houses and opening businesses.
“We’re trying to capitalize on other things we have here, such as the trail system. It’s getting much bigger,” England said. “The more people that come in, the more people can see that there are business opportunities here. Because there’s a lot of travel in town nowadays, just because of the trail.”
The small, Southern West Virginia town will host its 41st annual dogwood tree-planting ceremony this weekend, and organizers expect the in-person event will bring renewed hope and life to the town after the pandemic kept the event from happening last year.
In springtime, as people drive into Mullens, West Virginia on Route 54, the dogwood trees stand as welcome visitors, lining the hillsides in the woods, front yards, and even along the railroad tracks.
“They’re all over town,” observes Dogwood Festival treasurer Sara Lou Frank, who has lived in Mullens her whole life and helps with the festival each year. She says many of the white and pink trees you see as you enter town were planted as part of the annual event.
The tree that Frank is most connected to sits just beside the railroad tracks in town. She and her grandkids helped to dig a hole, insert a dogwood, and cover the bottom with rich soil in honor of her late husband Jack Frank.
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Jack Frank and wife Sara Lou Frank
“I can look right at the tree and I know that’s where we planted the tree in memory of him,” Frank said.
It’s the perfect spot since Jack worked for 46 years on the railroad. Frank says people have traveled back from all over the country to participate in the tiny town’s annual ceremony. But it’s more than that, she thinks. The festival helps people to return to their roots.
Janet Kunicki
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Sara Lou Frank stands beside the railroad tracks in Mullens, WV where a dogwood tree is planted in memory of her late husband, Jack Frank.
“I look forward to it because it brings people back home,” Frank said. “They want to come home.”
It even brought back festival organizer Susan England.
“My husband and I live in Buckhannon, West Virginia,” England said. “Mullens, West Virginia made me what I am today and I will never forget that.”
It also helps people to honor family who have passed on, she said, a symbolic remembrance that lives on.
“Today as we remember our individuals that have left us, look around at the beauty of that dogwood tree and remember that when you’re looking at the dogwood tree that our loved ones never leave us — they are here,” she said while speaking at the annual ceremony in 2019.
Bo Perdue
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Photography by Bo Perdue
A dogwood tree blooms in front of a mural in Mullens, WV. (2021)
Many of the trees were planted after the 2001 flood that nearly wiped out the town. England says the struggle to rebuild is part of what makes the town, the festival and the trees so special.
“When it becomes so important is when you go through a significant loss. Then you realize the importance of who you are and what made you who you are,” England said. “You look around you and you think if I don’t remember, the next generation will never remember. So that’s why this is so significant. And that became significant then because there was such great loss in the city and Mullens. (The year) 2001 devastated this town.
“But if you look at the people, they are survivors. That’s that’s what makes the town.”
Since the pandemic cancelled the event last year, loved ones from both 2020 and 2021 will be honored, some of them for the first time since they’ve passed on. England says some families didn’t have a funeral or service last year. This year’s dogwood tree planting ceremony will also be live streamed for the first time. It can be viewed on the Mullens Dogwood Festival Facebook page on Friday at 3 p.m.
The Mullens Dogwood Festival also has carnival rides, food, local vendors, games, and music. The 2021 Mullens Dogwood Festival is May 5-9.
Bo Perdue
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Photography by Bo Perdue
The 2021 Mullens Dogwood Festival includes a rides such as a ferris wheel.
Communities across the world are getting creative to celebrate the holidays while addressing COVID concerns. In Wyoming County, West Virginia, an annual parade of lights was cancelled. Instead, Mullens Area Chamber of Commerce members encouraged residents and businesses to participate in a holiday decorations contest.
On the corners of most streets in Mullens, you’ll hear silver bells, well — silver speakers — playing Christmas music.
That’s also where you’ll find holiday displays from businesses for this year’s contest. The City of Mullens usually hosts the contest but this year, the Mullens Area Chamber hosted the contest. This year’s business winner was State Farm Insurance.
Charlene Cook
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State Farm Insurance placed first in the 2020 Mullens Area Chamber of Commerce Business Holiday Decorating Contest.
It’s a holiday tradition for many families in the region to venture to town and check out the lights.
Making Mullens Merry and Bright
John Morgan lives on one of the side streets in city limits.
John Morgan
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A dogwood tree decorated with Christmas lights on Church Street in Mullens, WV in December 2020.
“I just start going up the tree with the lights and then I go up and then I see a gap,” Morgan said, “and then I got to go buy more lights. I keep working my way all the way around the tree and then the globes, the ornaments just kind of come this year and that year.”
He’s just about finished putting up his display for 2020.
“I couldn’t find any more lights,” Morgan said as he laughed. “Mullens is sold out.”
The community seems to have rallied behind another holiday tradition hosted by the chamber, the holiday decorating contest.
“I think everybody has had enough of the COVID-19 and being stuck in a house and wanting some Christmas spirit,” Morgan said. “You know, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ is what it’s all about. But being out and making things as pretty as you can in your neighborhood is part of the Christmas season.”
The vice president of the Mullens Area Chamber of Commerce, Cathy Huff, lives right next door to the Morgan’s.
“It seems like this year, everybody’s just really excited about it,” Cathy said. “And Mullens is really, really decorated. I mean, you can drive around at night and the lights are absolutely beautiful. I’m so proud of everybody.”
But you won’t find the winner of this year’s residential contest in town.
A Luminous Love Story
Cleadus Earl Thomas lives just across the railroad tracks before you get to town. Most folks call him Earl.
“Well, I’ve got about a little over 12,000 lights up,” Thomas said. “I buy strands and usually there’s just 100 bulbs to string like 20 foot long. I just mostly count the strands that I put up. I put up over 115 strands so.”
Thomas is 83 years-old, and he’s been putting up holiday lights since he first built his house in 1997.
Jessica Lilly
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Cleadus Earl Thomas at his home December, 2020.
“My wife, she really liked Christmas,” he said. “ And so we basically I just put them up, for her, for the kids, grandkids. But it does take quite a bit of time.”
Until this year, he thought he wasn’t eligible to enter the Mullens decorating contest.
“Most of the time I think it was for the town,” Thomas said. “And then they said well, ‘you’re not in city limits,’ so they wouldn’t include you.”
This year, the contest was hosted by the Mullens Area Chamber of Commerce, which opened up the contest to folks outside of city limits.
Either way, Thomas’s display can’t be ignored. It’s gotten a reputation in the community and it should. In mid-December a ladder was leaned on the gutters on the front of Thomas’s house. He had just gotten down from checking the bulbs.
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Earl Thomas won the 2020 Mullens Area Chamber of Commerce Residential Holiday Lights Contest.
“I just got there at one time to try to fix that section that was out and you got to take the bulbs out and try to do one that burns. See if it burns and switch them in and out until you get the bad one.”
His wife passed away in 2013. But there’s no doubt she’d be proud to know that Thomas was finally recognized by the Mullens Area Chamber for his impressive holiday display. As for Earl, he says he’s just glad to know that someone sees the lights so his work isn’t in vain.
“It would just make it, maybe little bit of effort paid off,” Thomas said. “Well at least somebody’s looking at them.”
Charlene Cook
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Complete Bookkeeping Solutions placed second in the Mullens Area Chamber of Commerce Business Holiday Lights competition in Mullens in December 2020.
