Associated Press Published

Senate Panel Seeking Economic Views In Mercer

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Senate President Jeff Kessler announced Wednesday that the third meeting of the SCORE task force is scheduled next week in Mercer County. 

SCORE stands for Southern Coalfields Organizing and Revitalizing the Economy.

The SCORE task force is made up of state senators, with Kessler as Co-Chair, along with Sen. Mike Green of Raleigh County.

Members say the purpose of the effort is to enable the region to assess its current challenges, and gather ideas already underway on how to address those challenges, ultimately to take this information and propose legislation in January’s upcoming session.

Ideas discussed in the previous two meetings have ranged from workforce retraining to coal bed methane development, tourism advertising, agribusiness, better broadband Internet, and clean coal research and development.

Kessler says the panel needs to hear from the people of southern West Virginia.

The public forum is scheduled Thursday, Dec. 11 at 6pm at Fred Gilbert Activity Center in Princeton.