Latest Progress Reports

Annual Report 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999

Funding Report Benchmark Summary Report

Demographics  

State: West Virginia
Counties: Kanawha (121, 122), Fayette (207)
Community Population: 17,873
Poverty Rate: 25.1%
Net Land Area: 221 square miles

Background

• 23% of housing units do not have public sewer disposal service
• Unemployment rate ranged 7.2% to 15.5%
• Over 60% of children living in poverty
• AFDC recipients increased more than 110%

The Upper Kanawha Valley, centrally located in the State of West Virginia is in the southeastern portion of Kanawha County and includes Fayette County. The Upper Kanawha Valley is an area of Appalachia rich in heritage and natural resources, but lacking in suitable building sites, basic public infrastructure, and many essential elements of everyday community life. The extractive industries of coal mining and timber operations have resulted in a high degree of absentee ownership involving very large tracts of land. This further complicates the economic restructuring and revitalization of the region due to the unavailability of land for sale to prospective developers. 

Strategic Plan Highlights 

With the implementation of the strategic plan, the community strives to balance economic and community development.

• Business Development—establish a small business incubator, expand labor force training and development programs, establish an eco-industrial, automotive component, or technology park;
• Infrastructure—provide safe, potable drinking water, and protect water quality by expansion of the existing sanitary sewerage collection and treatment system;
• Education—deliver a world-class education at the community level; develop, use, and expand access to information technologies in all educational settings, and create part-time job service for vo-tech and school-to-work students;
• Health Services—expand access to existing health, mental health, dental and vision care programs, promote public awareness, initiate public education programs regarding community health issues, and promote and support physical activity, lifelong fitness and recreation activities;
• Housing—develop new sites for construction of affordable hosing, train inmates in construction trades while providing new affordable housing opportunities, and restore landmark buildings;
• Transportation—improve community design to better contain sprawl, expand transit options, improve surface transportation safety, and decrease the rates of freight and personal transportation emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants;
• Public Safety & Emergency Services—improve all communication between law enforcement, emergency medical, fire protection and rescue services (i.e. E911 radio, mobile date terminal, mapping, etc.);
• Recreation, Entertainment & Tourism—create great regional entertainment, outdoor recreational, meeting and conference center complex for year-round use, develop the Deepwater site, develop "vest-pocket" and linear parks, trails, and greenways.

The community has secured several partnerships from organizations in the private and nonprofit sectors. The City of Charleston and the University of Charleston have a partnership with Riverside High School, the WestBanco Bank Charleston Offices. They will provide twenty full-time jobs. The Upper Kanawha Valley Economic Development Corporation is a nonprofit corporation which was instrumental in recruitment of a $60 million State correctional complex, Business and Industrial Development Corporation is a public-private regional economic and jobs development organization that has been very successful in recruiting new empowers and retaining existing industries . 

Leveraging 

The community has a commitment of $1,000,00 from the Governor of West Virginia and the state’s economic development office. 

Community Involvement 

The Kanawha County Planning Commission published a monthly newsletter informing the community informed about the planning process and the status of the plan. The newsletter requested citizen participation and input.

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