By Chelsea Blair
The first item on the agenda for the regular Greenbrier County Commission meeting on Sept. 24 was the consideration to award a construction bid for Phase III of the Meadow River Trail Project to Lynch Construction.
Matt Ford, Project Director of the Meadow River Trail, was present during the meeting to request an award of bid. He stated that this phase of the project will open a section of the Meadow River Trail to the trailhead of Rainelle.
“We are looking forward to breaking ground on November 1,” Ford said. On Aug. 27, the Commission opened sealed bids received for Phase III, with Lynch Construction being the low bidder at $2,125,590.50. Unfortunately, though the lowest bid, it was still over budget. Thankfully, the WV Department of Environmental Protection and their Abandoned Lands Economic Revitalization Program found approximately $500,000 in funds to add to the budget. Before approving the motion, Commission President Tammy Shifflett-Tincher thanked Ford for his effort. The motion was then approved pending legal review.
Next, Ford brought forth the consideration of approval of a letter of support for application for New River Gorge Working Group technical assistance funds for the Meadow River Recreational Corridor Master Planning project. Ford stated that people come from all over the world to visit the Meadow River Valley with little to no place to park, having to park in ditches along the road. Many workshops were held with Greenbrier West High School students to get students involved with the project planning. Ford showed appreciation to Beth Gill with Experience Greenbrier Valley, for doing a tremendous job at getting students involved and working with them on the marketing plan.
“Students definitely see the vision of the project,” said Ford.
After looking at options to develop a master plan, Ford stated they received a proposal from a company that completes this type of work all over the United States, the New River Gorge Working Group. The group has funding to provide most of the costs for the plan. The group asks for a letter of support from government entities or organizations in the area to ensure they are not stepping on any toes. The County Commissioners approved a motion to provide a letter of support unanimously.
Commissioners also welcomed Melissa O’Brian with CityNet to join them in the discussion of the consideration to approve a letter of support to CityNet for the WV Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (WVBEAD) program. Melissa told the commission that WVBEAD has $1.2 billion available from the federal government to serve addresses across the state with broadband access and then, serve those who are underserved. To be eligible for the funding, the state must provide to the government a plan to cover the last 114,000 unserved addresses across the state. A couple months ago a pre-application process was held that any interested ISP was required to go through. Melissa stated this sort of vetted out the financing aptitude of the companies. The application portal has now opened, and full applications are due on Oct. 24. As a requirement to apply for the funding, a letter of support from a local Government entity is needed. Members of the commission approved the request for a letter of support unanimously.