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BEAVER, WV (WVNS) — The Raleigh County Memorial Airport Expansion project is ready for take off!
On Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021 state leaders announced the approval of a $1,750,000 Federal EDA Grant for a new project that will work on unused land at the airport.
“The project as a whole is a 8.3 million dollar project and today was the final 1.7 million we needed to move the project forward,” said Jina Belcher, the Executive Director of The New River Gorge Regional Development Authority.
The NRGRDA, along with the airport authority and other partners, will expand the land at the airport and prepare it for aerospace businesses to move in. Tom Cochran, the Airport Manger, said this was only a vision more than two decades ago.
“Everything that is coming to light now, a lifetime thought and vision of where we need to be and where we’re going,” Cochran said.
They will take bids from construction companies to tear down trees and prepare the land to be move in ready for businesses. With the location right on the runway, this will make it a very attractive spot for aerospace companies to settle.
“It could be anything from engineering, manufacturing, MRO maintenance, the AMP school,” Cochran said.
Once the companies move in, they will bring hundreds of jobs, not just to Raleigh County, but to Southern West Virginia.
“We recognize that this property will recruit at least 13 new companies and will create over 600 new jobs, specifically in the aero space industry,” Belcher said.
