ECONOMIC “EVENTS”
IN BOONE COUNTY

• The Boone County Community and Economic Development Office worked with Massey Energy officials for over two years on planning and infrastructure needs for a new Regional Headquarters for the company, which employs nearly 1,500 people in Boone County. The county development office assisted Massey Energy with access road planning, waterline extensions and other challenges. Massey will construct a 51,000-square foot building and Employee Training Center at Wash Branch Road along Corridor G (U.S. 119) in Boone County. The facility will employ over 120 persons, and is scheduled to open in May or June of 2008.
   

• The Boone County Community and Economic Development Office provided $75,000 for a waterline extension project to bring potable water to the Wash Branch Industrial Site in exchange for three acres of land from the developer to erect a speculative building at the park.
   

• The Boone County Community and Economic Development Office provided $50,000 to the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreational Trails Authority as matching monies for a new Retail/Trailhead Center on Corridor G, which will open in April or May of 2008. The new facility will be the Retail Merchandise Center for the Trails Authority. All souvenirs sold on line will be shipped from the Boone County Center. The Center will be visible from the four-lane highway and will serve as the “Gateway to Hatfield-McCoy Trails Country.” Two full-time and six part-time workers will be hired as Customer Services Representatives to sell permits and souvenirs and to disperse information on Southern West Virginia points of interest.
   

• The Boone County Community and Economic Development Office worked with the Greater Charleston Dialysis Center to find property in Danville for a new kidney dialysis facility that will employ 10 people, and with the West Virginia Standard newspaper to find a site for a new regional newspaper typesetting and production facility that will employ 15 people.
   

• The Boone County Development Office is working with the Boone County Commission and Boone County Parks and Recreation to develop property at WaterWays Theme Park at Julian for a major recreational project, which will include ball fields, walking and nature trail and hiking areas, an Amphitheater, and a proposed Sports and Youth Complex. A $60,000 Recreational Trails Program grant was awarded to the Commission to develop a walking trail and 5-K trail at WaterWays, and a $50,000 Community Partnership Grant was approved to build and pave a 1,000 foot two-lane road leading to the future development site. The Parks Board has hired an architectural firm with landscape experience to design the new facilities.
   

• The Boone County Community and Economic Development Office assisted the Boone County Commission in 2006 and 2007 securing over $600,000 in Community, Economic Development, Tourism and Recreation grants that will improve the quality of life in Boone County, as well as Recyling, Homeland Security-related and Records Management and Preservation grants for the county.
   

• The Boone County Community and Economic Development Office’s Small Business Incubator in Madison is at full capacity. This facility leases space to new start-up’s and has resulted in the creation or retention of 15 new jobs for the county.