More than 100 people gathered at a public meeting last night to voice their concerns over two coal mines that plan to open in Peach Creek next year.

KWV Mining, a Maryland company with mines in the Glen Alum community in Mingo County, is looking to open two deep mines at the head of Peach Creek, called Peach Creek 1 and 2, that will employ up to 80 people and each mine is projected to produce 180,000 tons of coal annually.

The public meeting was called by the West Virginia Division of Highways to hear the concerns of the residents of that area.

Most residents said they are concerned over coal trucks traveling up and down the narrow road at Peach Creek and Crooked Creek and the dangers those trucks pose to the residents and their children.

Many residents said they worry about their own safety when they meet a coal truck in the underpass at the mouth of Peach Creek.

“Will traffic lights be considered,” one Peach Creek resident asked noting that motorists may need more than signs to warn them of the oncoming coal trucks through the underpass.

Brian Carr, with the WVDOH, said that if warranted, lights would be considered for the underpass traffic. One resident asked if speed limits would be changed and another asked if the roads being widened would take the community’s sidewalks.

“We need to know these (concerns),” Carr said. According to Carr, the Peach Creek community’s comments will be taken back to the commissioner of highways to be considered in the permitting process. KWV has entered into an agreement with the DOH that allows them to use part of County Route 12 through Peach Creek and Crooked Creek, but mandates that the mining company will maintain the highway. KWV is planning to construct a bypass that will take coal trucks from the underpass and around the community along the old railroad bed and back onto County Route 12 to the mines.

The company said that no more than 50 trucks a day will come out of the hollow. The coal will be hauled over State Route 10 to State Route 44 and over Horsepen Mountain to the KWV preparation plant at Glen Alum.

Bud Mullins, a resident of upper Peach Creek, said the mining will affect him because he lives so close to the mine sites.

“I live in the fifth house from the head of Peach Creek and they are not going to help us,” Mullins said. “It’s going to destroy families with grandkids, school buses, the whole nine yards. They had alternative roads they didn’t take because it would cost a little bit more money. It was supposed to be belted on the ridgeline, but, that was just to get the permit, then they said they couldn’t do it like that. They’re destroying families up at the head of the hollow.”

Many residents said the coal should be shipped out of the mines and over the mountain through Ethel by belt.

KWV Vice President Kenneth Adamson said if the mines are successful, belting may happen later.

“First we need to get the mines up and running and make sure they’re successful and, as we see the mines become successful, then that would be another investment we could make to eliminate the trucking. It definitely would be cheaper to belt, but we need to make sure the mines prove themselves before we make the investment in belting.”

Glen Adkins, who has been leading a charge against the mining company with a recent meeting at his barn in Peach Creek, said hauling coal up and down the narrow road is “dangerous.”

“This is like dynamite coming out of there,” he said. “I wish the state would investigate more and investigate this the right way. Make it safe for our community. We don’t need them trucks.”

Adkins said he has several concerns that the company has failed to address.

“We need the coal mines and we need to employ coal miners, and I have a neighbor who needs a job, but he’s with me on this — we live within eight feet of the road and we’ve got neighbors who live within six feet of the road and those trucks coming out of there every day have to go by our homes,” Adkins said. “I have a neighbor who is a coal truck driver and he says there is no way (the truck drivers) can keep from running over in somebody’s yard and that’s too dangerous.

“The dust gets on the sides of your houses and windows and it’s a constant battle to keep it off there. In damptime, the slush runs right up against your chainlink fence. I don’t want that to happen to our community property.”

Butch Smolenski said he doesn’t want the noise.

“I invested a built a new home up there,” Smolenski said. “We’re not happy with the coal trucks on this narrow road and all the factors that these trucks can cause. We’re looking for alternatives. Belt the coal or go out the backside of Peach Creek. We’re not knocking jobs.”

Logan County Delegate Ralph Rodighiero was also in attendance at the meeting and said he was “concerned with the safety of our community.”

Roger Ramey, yardmaster for CSX Railroad, said his company wants to see the deeds to make sure KWV owns the property that had been used for an old railroad line.

Adamson said he heard many concerns that his company will address.

“I think the underpass seems to be a very big concerns of the citizens and that’s where a (community) committee would come into play as far as determining what they want and what is safe and what can KWV do to make this project safe to satisfy the community,” Adamson said. “I think a committee is very necessary to address everyone’s concerns. The community definitely has concerns and I’m glad we met tonight and I feel we started to address some of those concerns. I talked to several people here and I told them if they put together a committee now, we’re ready to start talking.”

Evelyn Nelson-Pennington said she lives near the mine and believes it will affect her and her family most of all.

“You do have a lot of people here who this will not affect at all, people from Mitchell Heights and Crooked Creek, except the underpass,” Nelson-Pennington said. “We are going to be affected by the dust. I know they’re going to have to drive safely, but they will really have to keep the dust down because it will be bad. I was hoping they would buy us out so we could move.”

Also in attendance was Logan County Administrator Roscoe “Rocky” Adkins, Logan Mayor Serafino Nolletti, Logan Police Sgt. Dave White, Logan County Schools Assistant Superintendents Jim Guy and Ernest “Junior” Amburgey and Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin’s Chief of Staff, Raamie Barker. None of those officials spoke at the meeting.