The Red Onion Industrial Park project recently got another $500,000 boost from the Appalachian Regional Commission as Dickenson County leaders work to develop sites that will mean growth for the county.
Currently, the county has no marketable sites, according to Dana Cronkhite, the county’s economic development director and executive director of the Dickenson County Industrial Development Authority.
The award is a supplement to $500,000 previously awarded to the project by the ARC, she said.
The project’s budget totals $3.8 million, which is significantly higher than originally projected, she added.
“As with many projects that began planning either pre-COVID or since, we have experienced an increase in cost to many line items in the budget. Fortunately, we were able to apply to ARC for additional funding to assist with this funding gap,” Cronkhite said.
In addition, the project has been awarded $869,584 from Virginia Energy’s AMLER, or Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization, fund, and $1.2 million from the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority. The rest of the money needed will be local funds, she said.
The ARC money was recently announced by U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, who said that the former mine site, once completed, will be a “boon for a broad range of industries, with the potential to unlock even more economic potential in Dickenson and Wise counties.”
The project is to develop three build-ready pads for industry — one 5 acres, one 10 and the other 15 acres — with access roads, redundant fiber broadband extensions, water and sewer, and natural gas line extensions.
County officials expect to put the project out for bid by late summer, according to Cronkhite.
She added that the county is intentionally developing the industrial park adjacent to Wildwood Recovery Center, a residential addiction recovery facility being built near Clintwood. It will be operated by Addiction Recovery Care, which is headquartered in Kentucky.
“The plan is to leverage the workforce being developed when marketing the sites at Red Onion Industrial Park,” Cronkhite said. “Addiction Recovery Care will work with any business to help develop the training necessary to train the needed workforce.”
A second residential treatment facility that will help women battling substance-use disorder was announced by county officials in December. It’s being developed at the former Ervinton Elementary School in Nora.
The county has had one of the highest overdose rates in the state. Part of the treatment for those who go through the facilities will be workforce development training.
