HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Last Wednesday, the city of Huntington was announced as the winner of the America’s Best Communities competition, which focuses on community revitalization and economic development.
While city officials submitted plans for using the money for transforming and improving Huntington, Mayor Steve Williams said the $3 million dollar prize may be just the start.
“You make sure it is being used to leverage additional money to come in,” he said recently on MetroNews “Talkline.”
During a presentation last week, Williams said the funding will go to the Huntington Innovation Project revitalization. The plan includes transforming abandoned factories, a research hub in the Highlawn neighborhood and a new training center to help out-of-work coal miners.
Williams told program host Hoppy Kercheval the city has already been able to use $150,000 received from the contest to help raise $12.7 million for the various development projects.
“We had a 9-year-old student who was following what we were doing,” he said. “She figured out at the rate of the $150,000 that became $12.7 million, the $3 million would yield $260 million worth of investment.”
In January, the city announced it was cutting 24 jobs from the police and fire departments because of rising health insurance and pension costs. Additionally, the city has moved resources to combat the city’s drug epidemic.
Williams said the money will help to increase investments, which could help fund solutions to these problems.
“Revitalization means you are trying to fix something that isn’t working as well as it can,” he said. “Maybe even broken.”
A foundation, the Foundation for the Tri-State Community, will be responsible for distributing the money for the projects.
If further money is donated to Huntington, Williams said it could result in additional development
“We could acquire land for a baseball stadium or pay for engineers for plans as to how to reconfigure some property so it can be redeveloped,” he said.
Huntington was one of eight finalists who presented their plans in Denver. Community leaders had to submit applications for the contest between September 2014 and March 2015.