Mineral supports drug treatment program

Officials discuss possible hydroelectricity facility

KEYSER, W.Va. — Two projects being proposed for the Mineral County area could mean some benefits for the region.

The Mineral County commissioners gave their financial support for a drug treatment program planned in the area.

“You are presenting a distant, bright light in the future to medicalize addictions,” Commission President Wayne Spiggle told representatives from Living Hope House of Keyser.

The commissioners unanimously approved $1,000 to get funding for the comprehensive drug treatment program.

Mel Menker, co-founder, spoke to the commissioners about the project, which is planned to utilize the former Potomac Valley Hospital location downtown. He said in most drug treatment programs, the patient gets moved from place to place. The process involves different treatment programs and different people that the patients must deal with in their recovery.

The program, co-founder Michael Anderson said, could be used as an alternative to incarceration. The first county in the region that they visited to discuss the center was Hampshire County, and Menker said they spent roughly $600,000 each year on incarcerating criminals who could benefit by treatment for substance abuse.

Menker said he had spoken to Gov. Joe Manchin on the subject and the governor said he would voice his support for the project if they could get the communities to show their support for the project. So far, he said they had gone to five counties and received $1,000 for the project. The rest of the $25,000 for a feasibility study will be provided by the state.

With various grants available, he assured the commissioners that this was the only time they planned to ever come to the county for funding.

The commissioners also heard plans from Advanced Hydro Solutions on the proposed hydroelectric plant that would be located at Jennings Randolph Lake.

The project would be expected to put out about 13.4 megawatts with an annual energy generation of about 52 million kilowatt hours.

Dave Sinclair, president of the company, said the plant was one of three in the state that they were investigating. He has been working with the Army Corps of Engineers and he said they have been very cooperative so far.

Spiggle said that cooperation was something they had wanted to know from the beginning. He said approval would have to come from the Army Corps.

The plant would generate tax revenue for the county as well as Garrett County, Md., but Sinclair said the plant would be automated, and there would not be employment locally, but rather at a central location within a few hours of the three plants in the state.

He said flow would all be controlled by the Army Corps and the weather, but that the flow from the dam at Jennings Randolf remains very steady. PJM, which manages the local electric grid, would give the project a 100 percent rating because the hydroelectric power that would come from the plant would be fairly consistent.

Sinclair said the plant would not be added onto the existing tunnel at the dam. Instead, the company would create a second output location.

Most of the water coming out of the dam would be sent through the plant’s output point once it would be completed with the dam’s tunnel used for major water flow only in flood situations.

If the project continues on a speedy schedule, studies would be completed this summer, with the license application filled out in December 2009 and the license issued in February 2011. With this schedule, it could began operating in early 2012.

Contact Sarah Moses at smoses@times-news.com.