XXIV.

Today marks the end of my seven-month MEDA internship in West Virginia.

Looking back, there’s much to be proud of. TBAI is a stronger organization today and its impact on the community will continue to expand. Just this month, TBAI was awarded a substantial grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. This grant will help sustain operations and allow for the creation of a new in-house microlending program to assist local entrepreneurs.

I want to thank MEDA and TBAI for providing me with this opportunity. Thanks also to everyone who followed this blog!

-SB

XXIII.

Sometimes I wonder what the local papers would publish if TBAI weren't around...

XXII.

The Greenbrier

This past weekend I had a chance to visit one of the most interesting sites in all of West Virginia, The Greenbrier Hotel. The Greenbrier is a beautiful, old resort hotel build in 1858 around a natural sulphur spring, which is all well and good—but I don’t have the means to enjoy all that. Rather, my motivation for making the 2.5-hour drive from Kimball had to do with what lies beneath the Greenbrier Hotel: a decommissioned US government bunker that was designed to house all members of congress in the event of a nuclear attack. The bunker was kept in complete secrecy and maintained at a “state of constant readiness” for over 30 years.

The cat was let out of the bag in 1992 and it is now open to tours. The tour was fascinating—the whole thing seemed like a set from a James Bond film, with its 30-ton blast proof doors hidden behind wallpaper, decontamination showers and mockup house and senate chambers. Our tour guide had grown up in the area and could attest to the air of suspicion that hovered over the bunker’s construction carried out under the guise of the hotel’s expansion. If you ever find yourself in southeastern West Virginia, don't miss this! [Oh, and if you happen to have a $300--$500 to drop on a hotel room, I'm sure those are nice too!]

http://www.greenbrier.com/site/bunker-gallery/

XXI.

Our New E-Newsletter!

The Holler TBAI's Electronic Newsletter Welcome to our Inaugural Issue! Upcoming Workshops Microsoft Publisher Training Thursday, February 14th, 10am—3:30pm Many of you have been aware that we have had to reschedule our Microsoft Publisher training due to inclement weather. Our new training will be taking place on Wednesday, February, 14 2008 at the Ashland Company Store. This training will be conducted by the Women’s Business & Training Center in Beckley. The topics to be covered are: Exploring the Publisher Window Creating, editing, and saving new documents in Publisher Working with pictures, objects, and text Working with multi-page publications A follow-up session will be held two weeks later on Thursday, February 28th from 10am—3:30pm. This session will give participants additional time to work on their documents and receive personalized assistance from trainers. Cost: Free Seating is limited, so please call ASAP to reserve your spot! call: Debbie Bailey or Scott Bennett (304) 862-4800 Investing For Women Tuesday, March 4th, 9am—2pm A one-day workshop conducted by Dr. Elaine D. Scott, Dean of Bluefield State College School of Business. This workshop will cover: Setting Goals Budgeting Wise Use of Credit Investment Pyramid Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds Retirement Planning Cost: Free To register, call: Debbie Bailey or Scott Bennett (304) 862-4800 New Partnerships! TBAI is proud to announce two new working partnerships: MicroMentor MicroMentor connects new business owners to individuals who have successfully navigated business ownership or management in the same industry. MicroMentor is the only mentoring service that utilizes the internet to overcome geographic barriers. ACCION USA ACCION USA is a private, nonprofit organization that provides microloans and other financial services to low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs who are unable to access bank credit for their small businesses. With economic opportunity, these entrepreneurs can build assets, better provide for their families, and strengthen their communities. UNSUBSCRIBE | SEND TO A FRIEND | CONTACT US | PRIVACY Travel Beautiful Appalachia, Inc. HC 76 Box 701 Ashland, WV 24868 Tel: (304) 862 4800 E-mail: tbai.bailey@yahoo.com http://www.tbaiwv.org

XX.

Last night I watched the Super Bowl from Bluefield, VA, home of Giants' rookie RB Ahmad Bradshaw.

Having a local playing in the big show made watching such a great game all the more exciting.

You can read about it here.

XIX.

Kimball, WV: A Photo Tour

I live in a town of 411 residents. Here's an interesting fact: In 1987, West Virginia enacted a severance tax of 5% of the sale price of mined coal. In 2004, the total severance tax collected was $238,469,852.00. Of that, Kimball received $948.44.

This is the SHED house where I've been staying.
To be clear, the house is not a shed, the letters stand for 'Safe Housing and Economic Development,' which is the non-profit who manages the property. I live up on a hill above the town.

Note the elephant shutters

House across the street. I think of it as the precursor to this.

View looking down the hill toward townTown Hall at bottom of hill
Town
There aren't many establishments in town. Fortuitously, one of them is a good Greek restaurant.
Most of the buildings on Main Street were razed after flood damage
Caboose
Church

This is easily the premier building in Kimball. It's a monument to African-American Soldiers of World War I.
It's been completely rebuilt from its shell.

XVIII.

It's not my intention to make this blog a repository for our news articles, it's just that they're so easy to post.

XVII.

Training in Pittsburgh

Wednesday I attended a training session in Pittsburgh hosted by two members of MEDA’s Community Economic Development staff: Rachel Hess and Kathy Gilman. Kathy had recently finished developing a new training curriculum for MEDA’s microenterprise program and introduced it to me and representatives from MEDA’s other small business training partners in the region. It was interesting meeting with other people working towards the same goals in other communities; hearing them share their experiences and ideas was really quite insightful.

Some of the other topics covered in the daylong event dealt with tax issues and opportunities for people with low-incomes. When it was mentioned that many tax breaks go unclaimed because people are too overwhelmed by the bureaucratic procedures, I could easily relate—I’ve never felt like I fully understood my own relatively simple tax situation. It was unfortunate Debbie wasn’t able to attend the training; she’s actually worked as a professional tax preparer. Undoubtedly, she would’ve understood more than I did.

On a side note, being in Pittsburgh was a nice change of scene. Despite not fulfilling my personal goal of hearing someone say “yunz” as Pittsburghers are alleged to do, I did enjoy staying in my swank hotel. I was quickly reminded that I was back in the hills when I woke this morning to find my house was without running water.

XVI ½.

MORE PR..

XVI.

Some Good PRWe were recently featured in "Wonderful West Virginia" magazine whose circulation is nearly 40,000 monthly readers. That's Sharon behind the register (I had her autograph my copy).