Keyser —
KEYSER, W.Va. — According to the WorkForce West Virginia’s labor statistics, the unemployment rate in Mineral County dropped from 9.7 percent in January to 7.6 percent in May. Mona Ridder, director of the Mineral County Development Authority, said the county continues to work to bring more jobs and businesses to the area.
“We have been working for months to build the type of infrastructure to attract businesses,” said Ridder.
Part of the planned infrastructure is the long-awaited broadband Internet service. Ridder said construction on the broadband will begin in several months and that is a large step in the right direction. The project is being privately funded by the Mineral County Development Authority through private borrowing and uses no federal money or grants of any kind.
“Once we get broadband up and running, we can bring all kinds of businesses,” said Ridder.
While not at first, Ridder said that eventually homes all over the county will be able to take advantage of fiber-optic, broadband Internet.
“Within five years we will hopefully have fiber to the homes,” said Ridder.
Another project that Ridder said is 50 years in the making is the North South corridor and Corridor H. Ridder said that to bring to new business to an area, it’s essential to “build the basics” and that it takes time.
“These things don’t happen overnight and they are critical to bringing jobs in the county,” said Ridder, adding that the water and sewer projects are other initiatives that take time.
Keyser’s newly elected Mayor Randy Amtower agrees that one of the key components to bringing businesses to Mineral County is the road structure.
“I feel like we are at a disadvantage with road structure,” said Amtower. “It would really be a big benefit to us when Corridor H is complete.”
Once the road changes that would provide easier access to the area are complete, Amtower said that Mineral County and Keyser have “prime real estate” for businesses to relocate.
Delegate Gary Howell said that Mineral County is the perfect place for businesses to relocate. Since being put into office last year, Howell has made several suggestions to the county to bring businesses in. Most recently, Howell wrote a letter to the Development Authority requesting that they look into businesses from California.
“The state of California just announced that Friday out of state retailers with a connection to California will be required to collect California sales tax. Many companies have already announced they are looking to end their California operations,” said Howell in his letter.
Howell feels that Mineral County should reach out to these businesses, specifically large ones like Amazon that will employ a lot of people.
“It’s something we need to move on quickly,” said Howell. “We do have incentives for the location of corporations’ headquarters in West Virginia.”
Howell said that 25,000 businesses will be affected by the new tax and could move into areas like the Fort Ashby business park or Carpendale.
“We’ve got plenty of good locations,” said Howell.
Howell also said that West Virginia is only three ground shipping days from most of the Eastern United State’s population.
“That is a huge advantage to anyone sending mail,” said Howell. “That is exactly the companies California is putting out.”
Contact Emily Newman at enewman@times-news.com.
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