Turn This Town Around-Matewan Gains Momentum as Meetings Wrap Up

“Turn This Town Around” is a project in which two communities, Matewan and Grafton have been selected to receive training, coaching and technical assistant to help revitalize their communities.

Wilma Lee Steele is on the board for the Mine Wars Museum in Matewan. They held an open house over the week where the public was able to come and vote on the color of carpet and how the museum will present the town’s history.

“I’m totally amazed at how receptive the town has been, real supportive and absolutely wonderful and how the board has pulled together to bring so many things together and everybody has different skills and they just complement each other, so it’s been hard work, but wonderful,” Steele said.

“Turn this Town Around is project sponsored by West Virginia Focus, a partnership between West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the West Virginia Community Development Hub.

Steele and the other board members for the Museum have used the Turn This Town Around project to find grant money to help revitalize a museum.

With just two meetings left after the recent November meeting, project groups are putting together plans on how they’ll continue with the projects, once meetings aren’t happening monthly.

Projects like the Mine Wars Museum and Bike Friendly Matewan are two of a handful that have taken off.