MAN — Things change over time, but memories of better days are often not among them.

Local attorney and community volunteer Ed Eiland experienced some memories of better days for the residents of the Man area recently when he came across an old photograph and a newspaper clipping from the Man area in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Eiland, who was recently honored by being named WSAZ's Hometown Hero for the week of Thanksgiving 2009 shared the photos and his recollections with The Logan Banner on Tuesday.

"I found these photos of the Old Man High School from the late fifties or early sixties," Eiland said.

Eiland also had a clipping from the Logan Banner in 1959 of a bridge opening at Huff Creek.

"I don't remember if the paper had a story that went with it or not," Eiland said of the Oct. 26, 1959 front page photo taken at the grand opening of a bridge on the Guyandotte river at South Man.

"I can identify some of the people in it," Eiland said, picking out then Governor Cecil Underwood; Gerald Skaggs, an official with the Amherstdale Coal Company; Litz McGuire a longtime Logan Mayor and former State Auditor; J. Dallas Morrison a well known figure in Republican politics in that era; R.D. "Roy" Platt a state official and former Logan Police Chief; C.N. "Fuzzy" Straughn an assistant to the governor; John E. Davis a community official; Dr. H.H. Cudden a former Logan Mayor; Ira J. Cook a Logan County Commission member; Jerry Stidham, a UMWA official — That's about as far as I can go," Eiland said of the crowd of people in the picture.

"This certainly brings back memories," he added.

Eiland said he felt it was a shame what had happened to the hospital, which the county announced recently would be torn down.

Man residents were devastated a decade ago when Appalachian Regional Healthcare announced it was closing the hospital. Community activists spent years trying to reopen the hospital, gaining funds to purchase the facility from ARH.

For some time local officials had hoped to utilize the newer parts of the hospital to combine them with the nearby Community Health Foundation of Man clinic to create a Level Five Trauma Center. That dream was shattered too when the announcement was made recently that following over a year of intensive vandalism at the old hospital (which was heavily targeted heavily by copper thieves and vandals) that it would be demolished. Residents of the Man area faced another major disappointment around the same time, when it was revealed that the Community Health Foundation of Man would be closing it's doors due to not receiving a federal grant.

Lincoln Primary Care had announced its plans to place a healthcare facility in the Man area. Lincoln Primary Care has applied for a Certificate of Need to establish three clinic sites and the operation of two existing healthcare facilities with the WV Board of Healthcare Authority on Jan. 19. The board has 60 days to make its' ruling.

On Nov. 1, Lincoln Primary Care received a US Dept. of Health and Human Resources grant to provide services in the area served by Community Health Foundation of Man.

"This grant award was made pursuant to a competitive opportunity undertaken by HRSA to select an applicant to provide health care services in the service area that includes all of Logan and Mingo Counties" a letter from the chair of the WV Health Care authority about the matter states.