Two opportunities presented themselves during the Tuesday morning Greenbrier County Commission meeting. The first was a resolution of application for $150,000 in Industrial Access Road Fund grant money the commissioners signed to build an access road to a 42-acre site to develop a new barrel-making plant at Harts Run.

Bill Comett, co-developer of West Virginia Great Barrel Company, provided a brief progress report, stating he expects to break ground in May. Inside the 90,000-square-foot facility, complicated custom-made machine processes will take at least eight months to construct, he said. The company should begin producing barrels by late May/early June of 2019, offering 100 much needed jobs at this facility.

The new roadway will also open up the possibility to develop the additional 22 acres at the site as an industrial park to attract other businesses. Several sites are laid out on the site plan with water/sewer hook ups and easy I-64 access. “It’s a great location,” said Andrew Hagy, executive director of the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation.

The Division of Highways (DOH) will cover the estimated $400,000 cost of the roadway’s construction, and also maintain it, stated James Mosby with the WV Business Retention and Expansion Development Office. As a public roadway, the provision the DOH requires is that the commission, as the pass-through applicant, must provide surety in case the barrel business does not develop, but in this instance, Mosby said, “We don’t think that will happen. We expect this to move forward.”

On a related topic, the commission also approved a letter of support tor West Virginia Opportunity Zones, presented by Hagy, to attract private investments into rural areas tor development. The Opportunity Zones Program is a new community development program established by Congress as a result of Public Law 115-97, also known as the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Governor Jim Justice recently announced that White Sulphur Springs and Ronceverte have been designated appropriate Opportunity Zones where tax credits will be offered to private investors as incentives.

Hanna said he thought there were other areas within the county that could also benefit with this program, but Rose said the reason why only Ronceverte and White Sulphur Springs were selected was because investors would be looking tor areas where infrastructure is already developed before they will commit to funding a project.

In other business:

• The list of poll workers for the primary election this spring were approved by the commission and also by the Greenbrier County Board of Education. Commissioner Woody Hanna said that more Republican and Democratic alternate poll workers are also needed. Interested persons may call the county clerk’s office to apply.

“We need to start training new – and possibly, younger – poll worker volunteers,” Commissioner Lowell Rose said, adding that continuing support is needed for the consistently reliable poll workers who serve on “this very long election day.”

• Executive Director AI Whitaker with the 911 Center was approved to hire three part time telecommunicators for the center, naming Kelcey Renee O’Neill, Kelsey Luann Cook and Samantha Lilly Herrera in those positions. Trevor Snyder was moved from part-time to full-time at the 911 Center as a telecommunicator.
• The commissioners opened six bids for clearing and grubbing contracts for the Sportsplex. They will announce the winning bids at the next commission meeting set for Mar. 27 at 7 p.m.