County Commission President Art Kirkendoll said he had attended the meeting in Charleston a few weeks ago where coal miners, elected officials and mine representatives got together to talk about the future of coal and how anti-mining activists and extremist legislation had threatened the future of coal mining, the jobs it creates and the reliable affordable energy source that it is for the entire nation.

The basis of the meeting was to address a series of anti-mining commercials and to tell the public the truth about coal. Kirkendoll noted that grim television ads and slanted media stories aside, the reality is that only four percent of the mountains in West Virginia are affected by coal and that those four percent are reseeded and cultivated back to their original state or utilized for building airports, convention centers and other projects in a region which has a shortage of flatland for development.

"West Virginia is a coal defendant state," Kirkendoll said. "Many of our counties have tried to diversify our economy and we have done an excellent job in Logan with tourism and the Hatfield-McCoy Trails, but coal is still important to our economy."

Kirkendoll noted that for Logan County and other mining communities' coal is their economic backbone in jobs both mining and mine related and taxes.

"All the residents of southern West Virginia are shareholders in the future of mining," Kirkendoll said, explaining that coal miners, elected officials and communities are shareholders in mining as an industrial and economic force. Kirkendoll said activists and alleged environmentalists were demanding extreme measures that could negatively affect not only the region, but the rest of the nation which relies on coal from West Virginia for electricity.

"People who see the top blasted off a mountain in a commercial never see the commercial housing development, shopping complex or convention center which is built later," Kirkendoll noted. "Mining has done a poor job in the past of telling the truth about mining and energy and progress, and many people may be put out of work locally because of this extremism.

Kirkendoll said the county wanted to put up money for Citizens for Coal to get the ball rolling and to challenge the 27 other county commissions in mining areas, as well as individuals, organizations and mining companies to do the same to pay for national advertising to educate the public with facts about mining instead of attacks based on extremist agendas. The commission approved a $2,500 donation to help Citizens for Coal, a non-profit organization, in opening a bank account.

"We need to put together our message about the realities of mining and the importance of coal to our nation as an energy source," Kirkendoll said. "People have been lied to. Fifty-two percent of the people in the USA depend on coal for energy.

County Commission President Art Kirkendoll said if extremists manage to regulate mining out of existence it would devastate our region and nation which doesn't have a reliable and affordable energy source to compete with it.

"People forget a few years ago we had an energy blackout in one major area of the country," Kirkendoll said. "They talk about alternative energy sources but right now, coal is the best we've got. How many years away are we from developing a viable alternative energy source for 52 percent of our nation's energy? ... Don't tell me they can't take this away from you because they can."

Kirkendoll laughed at one northern state's back up energy program, which consisted of ships in a harbor with gasoline fueled generators and pointed out that elderly people and the poor would be hit hard by proposed "alternative energy sources" which would not be as affordable as coal powered energy plants.

Kirkendoll pointed to projects like the local airport as an example of how mine reclamation land has been utilized for economic development.

"The only way to prove what is going on is to show we are doing the right thing to do with coal," Kirkendoll said, adding that there had been major improvements within the industry over the decades in safety and environmental concerns.

Kirkendoll noted that several years ago CBS "60 Minutes" came to southern West Virginia to do a piece on mining and when it aired it was just another biased piece of attack journalism.

"That's why we have to address this head on," he said.

In other Logan County Commission news:

- Kirkendoll said the County Commission is working with the Manchin administration on an emergency water project in the Striker-Marsh Fork area. Kirkendoll said that there may be an alternative to get the job done if the state does not come through with funding.

"We are putting money up for it, but there is a back up plan," Kirkendoll said, adding the county should find out by Jan. 15. Kirkendoll said he felt the incoming Obama administration would be forthcoming with help for infrastructure improvements.

- The commission approved assisting the US 119 Drug Task Force and the Logan County Sheriff's Department in upgrading two vehicles and other equipment.

- Fire Coordinator Harold Ward asked for approval of the purchase of 60 sections of fire hose for several stations in his district. The cost will be $7,200 plus shipping from the lowest vendor who returned a bid. Ward noted that in the dead of winter hoses in bad shape are often prone to tears. The request was approved.