The State of West Virginia recently announced the awarding of Transportation and Recreational Trails Fund Grants awarding over $8 million dollars across the entire state and Logan, among other local counties, are in for some of that money.

The Town of Man is scheduled to receive $80,000 for a Transportation Enhancement Program to improve sidewalks in the community.

As is to be expected, the success of the Hatfield-McCoy Trial system appears to be the key to several nearby counties receiving several grants. The local trail system has received two grants for projects to build trailheads, for example.

The Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority has received a grant for $90,064 to construct a trailhead in Mercer County. The Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority has also received a grant for $140,128 to construct a trail head and segments of an ATV trail in Wayne County.

The Boone County Commission will receive $60,000 for a Recreational Trails program to construct a 3.2 mile walking trail and cross country track within a half-mile of the WaterWays Park and the Hatfield-McCoy Trail.

For some time, the HMRRA has been working with Boone County on the proposed new welcoming center for the trails which would be located in Boone County as well as expanding the trails into the Wayne County area, and other nearby places.

In August, HMRRA Executive Director Jeff Lusk said the Boone Trailhead project was opened for bids and all of them came in over $200,000 over budget. $427,000 had been set aside for that project, but the lowest was $218,000 more than that. Lusk said the proposed trailhead itself is 'not a complex Taj Mahall structure' and that most of the expense comes from necessary site preparation and labor costs. At that time, Lusk said $190,000 might be available from RTPA grants and the Boone County Commission might be able to help with the site preparation work, cutting the cost of the project to a do-able rate.