BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Martin County Deputy Judge Carolea Mills has been selected to be a member of the National Association of Counties Commitment Coalition, part of the research foundation’s Building Resilient Economies in Coal Communities (BRECC) initiative.
The Coalition is a leadership network of 20 coal community leaders who aim to improve their local economies. As part of the BRECC initiative, the Coalition members will network with fellow coal community leaders through regular teleconferences and trainings and by traveling to peer exchange site visits. They will also learn economic recovery and transition strategies and share what they’ve learned with their communities.
Mills received news of her acceptance last week.
“I’m honored and excited to be chosen for this leadership program with NACo,” Mills said. “I am searching out every opportunity I can for how other communities have grown, despite difficult circumstances. Just because we don’t have a lot of resources doesn’t mean that we don’t have opportunities. I will continue to look for every opportunity I can, including examples of success from other places, that we can bring back the best parts of with the goal of growing our community and our local economy.”
According to the NACo, the National Association of Counties has partnered with the West Virginia Community Development Hub, Community Builders and EntreWorks Consulting to develop educational programming and to provide community coaching support.
Mills hopes to learn and help develop strategies for economic development that will be particularly useful to communities like Martin county.
“Our greatest resources are our natural beauty and our people,” said Mills. “We need to continually work hard to make our community a place that people would want to visit, making Tourism one of our goals. We are also committed to finding out how to find solutions to our infrastructure needs. We need major water improvements, adequate housing, and more job opportunities.”
The BRECC initiative is funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the American Rescue Plan.