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Mayor: Plans for large-scale transportation project progressing |
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Bluefield Daily
Telegraph
June 08, 2009
By Charles Owens
BLUEFIELD — Linda Whalen will continue to
serve as the mayor of Nature’s Air-Conditioned City.
The newly elected members of the Bluefield Board of Directors met Monday
morning to select a new mayor. Following a closed-door executive session that
lasted for about an hour, Mike Vinciguerra, Pete Sternloff, Dr. Tom Blevins,
Mary Frances Brammer and Whalen emerged from the closed-door meeting and
confirmed that Whalen would continue to serve as the mayor of Nature’s
Air-Conditioned City.
“I’m excited to continue to be able to serve the city in this capacity,” Whalen
said. “I think we have a very good board that is interested in working together
as a team. We just hope we can continue to move the city forward as a team with
economic development and greater community participation. I think everyone
brings different talents in different areas. I think we have great variety on
the board.”
Whalen said U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., notified the city Monday that plans
for a large-scale transportation project for Princeton Avenue are moving forward.
Whalen said Rahall is hoping to secure federal funding for the architectural
and design phase of the project as early as this fall. The project envisioned
for Princeton Avenue
is being compared to the Beckley Intermodal Gateway, or BIG project, in Raleigh County, but on a slightly smaller scale.
Whalen said officials hope construction on the project could begin as early as
2010.
While it will focus on transportation, Whalen said the city hopes that new
businesses, restaurants and shops can be developed along the project.
“This has been a community project from the onset,” Whalen said of the BIG
vision for Bluefield.
“We hope there will be shops and restaurants. The whole idea for this is to
spur economic development and foot traffic to the downtown.”
The new board members will be sworn in before August, and will conduct their
first city board meeting in August.
“I’m really encouraged about Bluefield’s
potential,” Whalen said. “I think we have a great leadership team in place.
Every board member brings new visions and ideas.”
A canvassing of votes from the June 2 municipal election in Bluefield was completed Monday, and there
were no significant changes to the outcome of the council races, according to
City Clerk Helen Mitchell.
http://www.bdtonline.com/local/local_story_159212507.html
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