MAN — The Logan County Commission got right to work last Friday morning trying to find another company to take over the fish hatchery at Man.

When County Commission President Art Kirkendoll received the bad news that the West Virginia Salmon and Trout Company was closing down, he got on the phone and started calling to see if there were any other companies that could use the already-existing, multi-million dollar facilities that are in place at Man and at Thacker Hollow at the foot of Horsepen Mountain near Varney in Mingo County.

“We want to find out all the potential players who have a history of doing this type of business and we want to sit down with them and show them it’s a good thing to do business in Logan and Mingo County,” Kirkendoll said. “We’re hoping that since there’s such a large capital investment already there, there might be some financial arrangements made so that someone could come in and put the additional money into it to get it to the growth level where it needs to be and get it to work.”

The closing puts 10 employees out of work. Kirkendoll said those jobs matter to him and the commission and they want to find a way to get those jobs back.

“You can rest assured we’re going to explore every avenue because we want to increase jobs in Logan County,” Kirkendoll said. “Ten jobs is 10 jobs and one job is special to me and the commission and that one job makes a difference to us.”

Logan County Administrator Roscoe “Rocky” Adkins said this week that the commission is currently in talks with another company that they hope will take over the fish hatchery and reopen the business.

“Obviously, we have facilities that are being vacated because there is not enough product to allow them to be profitable,” Adkins said. “Our hope is that Logan County, as well as Mingo County, will be able to find another entity that will come in and open those facilities back up and will grow the business into more facilities. That’s the avenue we’re working on right now.”

Adkins said the original plan for the fish hatchery was for it to grow. Each grow-out plant uses mine water in which to grow the fish.

“With the economy the way it’s been for the past couple years, it’s not been at an advantage for the companies that have owned the facilities to want to go out and invest the kind of money it would take to build another grow-out, which has been estimated to cost about $3 million-plus to build another facility to take them to another level,” Adkins said. “We hope that there will be another entity out there that we can work with and help them facilitate getting that extra grow-out to make it an advantage for them to come here and actually have aquaculture right here in the mountains of West Virginia.

“We know there is some interest out there. We have not met with anybody, but we know there is activity going on and we look forward to meeting and greeting some of those people in December.”

West Virginia Aqua originally owned the fish hatcheries and that company was owned by Dingess-Rum Properties, W.W. McDonald Land Company and International Industries and they were built in the late 1990s.

Adkins said the commission had always hoped the success of the Logan and Mingo grow-out operations would cause other fish companies to build facilities throughout West Virginia.