Town has until November to submit plan and map
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
KERMIT, W.Va. — The Hatfield-McCoy Trails system is mapped to bypass Kermit, but the Kermit EDA coordinator Gary Hensley is taking steps to change that.
Hensley told Kermit Council members in a meeting Feb. 20 that he and Charlie Horn recently met with Hatfield-McCoy Trails officials in Logan, including director Jeffrey Lusk.
“They are mapping trails right now that were approved back in November,” Hensley said. “They’re not aware of anything going on in Mingo County. They have thought about it, but they’re not aware of anything.”
The town has until November to submit a plan and map to HM Trails officials.
“Charlie Horn is going to get maps, and he’s going to draw where we collectively want this trail to come,” said Hensley.
“They said, ‘Bring us those maps, and we’ll do it.’”
According to Hensley, there’s an 80-acre parcel that “a bank” is gifting to HM Trails that is potentially a direct route to link Kermit to the trails system coming over the hill from Marrowbone.
Hensley noted that HM Trails officials have two pages of questions “dealing mostly with liability issues,” but a couple of questions dealt with mineral rights.
“It appears whoever gave them the land at Gilbert told them to go ahead; there would never be anything there again. Well, right now, coal is coming back up, and that organization is going to go in there again and extract that coal. So, they’re going to have to go around that mountain and bring it back into Gilbert,” said Hensley. “They don’t want that to happen with this gifting of this property that’s going to come to HM. They want to ensure that those mineral rights are done, and the reclamation is completed. So that’s what their lawyers are trying to determine.
“If it’s tied up that doesn’t mean we can’t untie it,” Hensley added.
Currently, plans call for the trail to travel from Oldfield Branch through C&C, Breeden and Taywood.
“It goes around us,” Council member Tammy Preece Hodge said.
Council member Wilburn Hawky Preece explained the trail was coming out of Turkey Creek on Jennies Creek, then making a left and going through Breeden and Dingess.
“When they come out of Turkey Creek, they need to bear to the right,” Preece stated. “In Breeden, they’re selling bundles of firewood from West Virginia for $15 a bundle, about 10 sticks of wood.”
Council member Anna Mae Sartin Wellman asked about access from Kermit to the trail.
Mayor Charles Sparks said that would be Lower Burning Creek.
“We’re on the right track now,” said Sparks.
Hensley said HM Trails has a planning committee that will help the town.
“We’re not going to be alone,” he assured. “They want to support us.”
According to Hensley, HM made almost $4 million last year and is constructing a new $13 million resort that will incorporate the golf course next to the river in Man.
“It is absolutely beautiful,” said Hensley.