Years ago federal earmarks were used as building blocks for key infrastructure projects across our region. For example, the first sections of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County, including the K.A. Ammar Interchange and the Christine West Bridge, were largely made possible through the use of federal earmarks.
However, the practice of using earmarks eventually fell out of favor with lawmakers and the public, and the process was suspended by Congress in 2011. Part of the problem at the time was that some lawmakers were using the federal spending appropriations for pet projects and money was being doled out with little or no transparency.
After a decade long pause, earmarks are now back. The first round of home-district projects for members of Congress were sprinkled across the government-wide $1.5 trillion spending bill President Joe Biden signed into law last year. Most recently, the year-end spending bill authorized by Congress in late 2022 included a number of federal earmarks for local projects, all of which appear to be worthy of federal funding support.
The local funding awards were announced just after the holidays by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and included funding for land acquisition for a Mercer County Multipurpose Center, a new McDowell County Commission building, a Princeton Multi-Use Community Center, and funding for the Princeton Renaissance Theater, the King Coal Highway and the Coalfields Expressway.
The Mercer County Economic Development Authority was awarded $2 million for land acquisition related to constructing a Mercer County Multipurpose Center. John O’Neil, the county’s development authority director, said the exact location of the center cannot yet be announced but says it will be near Princeton.
“It is an economic development project related to outdoor recreation and travel sports tourism,” O’Neal said, adding it included a “significant” commercial development component.
Princeton will receive $2.2 million for a multi-use community center.
The city has been planning the facility for several years and it will be located near the new city hall on Stafford Drive. It will include at least two basketball courts, possibly an indoor soccer field, bounce houses, a place for birthday parties and maybe dining areas, according to city officials.
Also in Princeton, a $729,000 earmark was included for the Princeton Renaissance Theater on Mercer Street.
Another $5.5 million was earmarked for a new McDowell County Commission facility in Welch. County Administrator Jennifer Wimmer said the new building will house the commission as well as the magistrate court and probation offices. McDowell County will also receive $123,000 for the purchase of two sheriff’s department patrol cars.
A $1 million earmark also was included for a new new physician assistant degree program at Concord University.
The long-delayed King Coal Highway project was allocated a $5 million federal earmark. While helpful, that’s enough money to build an additional segment of the four-lane corridor. The West Virginia Department of Transportation says the $5 million will be used for an engineering study for a section of the King Coal Highway that will eventually run through the Montcalm area of Mercer County and then along Indian Ridge in McDowell County to intersect with the Coalfields Expressway at Rt. 16 about eight miles north of Northfork near the McDowell-Wyoming county border.
All of the funding awards are welcomed, and will assist worthwhile and necessary projects in the area. But the region’s congressional delegation in Washington must also find ways to secure additional federal dollars to help build more usable segments of the King Coal Highway here in Mercer and McDowell counties.