By JIM McCONVILLE
The Journal
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — The State Department of Commerce officials are looking to consolidate the state’s regional planning groups from 11 down to seven to operate more efficiently, officials said on Monday.
As part of that proposed plan, Region 9 — which represents Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties — and Region 8 –consisting of Mineral, Hampshire, Grant, Hardy and Pendleton counties — would be joined together, according to officials.
Created in 1972 by the West Virginia Legislature, the mandate of the regional planning and development councils is to obtain the maximum level of economic and community development in their respective region by assisting local government and businesses to implement projects and programs. The local development regions are part of the Applalachian Regional Commission (ARC).
The ARC is a federal-state partnership to create economic development in the Applalachian Region. The region includes all of West Virginia and portions of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. ARC serves 420 counties that encompass roughly 205,000 square miles, with a population of more than 25 million people.
Some of the projects handled by regional planning council include hazard mitigation plans, source water protection plans and comprehensive plans for their respective counties.
Bill Clark, executive director, Region 9, said his group met with West Virginia Commerce Director Woody Thrasher’s office last week.
“There is a move toward that direction through the West Virginia Department of Commerce,” Clark said. “We’ve been told that they want to condense 11 of the regional councils into seven,” Clark said. “In that, they did say that Region 9 and Region 8 that would be in that consolidation. It sounds like they are going to move forward on their end.”
Clark said Region officials want to hear how the move would impact how the organization would now operate.
“We want to hear what the benefit will be to our community in doing that,”Clark said. “We have Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties that we’re looking out for. That would be our biggest concern: does this bring more resources to our region in some way? We’re not sure of the ramifications of the move.”
Clark has yet to inform Region 9’s 24-member board of directors of the proposal.
“I’m sure that we will get the details from the DOC before we have that meeting,” Clark said.
Staff writer Jim McConville can be reached at 304-263-8931, ext. 215, or Twitter@jmcconvilleJN.
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