Below is a transcription of the live video of Crystal Mersh, CEO of The 1982 Foundation. The video was posted to Ridgeview News’ Facebook on Wednesday August 14th, 2024 at approximately 3:15 p.m.
We want to give you an update on the 1982 Foundation and where we stand, primarily on our grants and construction. And then we have some options to talk to the community about to see where we go from here.
First, updates on the grants, this has been a very busy grant season here and we’ve applied for a number of grants. Three bigger grants: Two with the Appalachia Regional Commission and one with the Area Development Project. The second of the ARC grants was called Power and was used to support multi county growth and economic for primarily coal impacted regions which we fit into very nicely. Also the Congressional Directed Spending Grants which are called ear mark funds. We applied for those through Manchin and Capito’s offices which were to fund the Agricultural Center and Farmers Market, playground equipment for the day care center, and one was for the Recovery Zone.
So, the results of this season haven’t been good. It was no fault of anyone who had prepared the grants. We worked with a group called WV Grants which were actually professional grant writers who are sponsored by ARC. They help to certify the grant packages and certify that all materials were there. On the three grants, we did not get any of them, which is a really tough situation on us.
The first was the ARC area development which wasn’t a big surprise because that particular grant was primarily focused on water and sewer development in West Virginia. There was however a small bucket of money that was for economic development. The Congressional Directed Spending Grant was a little bit of a surprise. We thought we’d get at least the one for the Recovery Center. Because recover is such a hot topic in all of the grants and they specify the areas they wanted focus on and that’s always a hot topic. So we were a little surprised by that.
We did have a call yesterday from Senator Manchin’s office who is helping us find other sources and potentially working with the.
The biggest surprise was the ARC Power Grant. That grant we had applied for $2 million dollars to start the facility up. The current construction of the facility right now stands at $9.9 Million and that doesn’t include the Recovery Zone and Agricultural Center. The operating costs that are needed for the first two years we projected at approximately $2 Million. We’ve had a lot of conversations with ARC and felt good about the proposal and submission, our grant writing team was very surprised to hear that we didn’t get it and we will be meeting with Speaker Hanshaw and others to see what we can do about it.
It’s really unfortunate. It’s difficult to begin start up on any organization and certainly this one is no different.
Let me update you on construction. There’s a lot of steel going up on the Day Care Center which is exciting to see and will actually go up very quickly because of the way this cold form steel is erected and it will be nice to see that Formation take some shape.
On the main building there has been a lot of progress as well, but not as visible as what’s being done on the outside. The windows going in and the cleaning of the masonry has made a big difference. We’ve also installed a new roof. It had a new roof put on about five years ago but it was the foam style and wasn’t wearing very well so we put EPDM on that and wanted it secure before we started refinishing thee inside.
The Apartment frame out is going quite well; electrical, plumbing, HVAC, a lot of good work on the mechanicals which is always a big part of any project and it’s hard to see progress because it’s behind the scene. The steel is starting to go into the restuarant area on the back of the building and in a couple of weeks, they’ll be a cement roof poured there that will be the foundation for patio area which will come off the library. There will be French doors onto the area where events can be hosted like wedding receptions, parties, reunions, etc. and will be an inside/outside space. We’re excited to see that come to fruition.
The pool has had huge success. The pool began with a pro form analysis that allow the planning of the budget for the pool, what it would look like, and how it would fair. That projection had said that the pool would not be a money making adventure and we knew that going in. That’s why the whole center has to work as one entity to offset the costs elsewhere.
Knowing that going in, we hired eight lifeguards, all local, either college or high school kids and they’ve done a phenomenal job. In the first couple weeks when we started to get to know each other and work together, I saw what a bright group of youngsters we had, really their young adults, not children. I decided to use this project to show what a working co-op would look like. I asked if they had interest in forming their own co-op working together to be creative and innovative about how to bring revenue into the pool that would offset the $15,000 loss expected. If they could, anything made above that they could split among the group. So the made the $15,000 in about three weeks and we were all shocked. But it’s a testament to the people who come from Calhoun and the kids who live here. It’s an inspiration for everyone and we’re very pleased with that outcome. Right now their share stands at a bout $10,000, so they’ll split that money at the end of the season. It will be more because there are other parties and events planned. That Particular project gives us great hope.
That takes us back into the building in general and the overall concept and programs.
The Day Care Center goal is to have four class rooms, three for toddlers and one for infants. It would serve approximately 50 kids and be serviced by a cafeteria that will be where the original cafeteria was, behind the gym.
The gym itself will serve as an events hall. It will be built to look as it did originally, but we anticipate many events to be held there and equip it accordingly.
The bottom floor of the building which is very interesting, is the Entrepreneur Zone or EZ Street, and what we’ll do there is have that to be a cooperative or collective group of small businesses that specialize in heritage, art, food and anything that relates to who we are in Appalachia. We have a ton of talent here, and we’ve seen that develop over the past few years with ladies making pies and pastries and all sorts of interesting food. We also know we have multiple artists and we want to use that to attract people into the county for day trips. We will be looking for folks in the next few weeks who have interest in that. At the fall festival we want heritage vendors on October 5th, so if you have a heritage product you’d like to demonstrate or sell you can reach out to Whitley Cottrell or Shari Johnson for more information. Already we have bee keepers, goat keepers, wood working products, pastries and several others. It’s filling up quite nicely.
Now we come to the “situation.” We have a problem. The fact that we did not get these start up funds from ARC Power has created this situation. We did get feedback and we had also applied last year, specifically for the day care center. We were given feedback that we should go more broad, so this year we went for the entire center and the feedback was that our efforts were too ambitious and basically they had concerns that we could complete the project. So, this feedback was essentially the same as last year, except this year it was put it into writing, saying that they basically didn’t believe our community could pull this off. I will tell you that for about a week my heart hurt, I cried and cried and cried, my husband had to intervene and take the phone calls from the people who needed to be talked to as to why we didn’t get the funding and it just hurt. It was not directed at me, it was an insult to where I’m from. That didn’t set well.
Fast forward a year later, and the comments such as “There are too many moving parts, you should focus on one,” now I’ve moved from being sad to being angry. I’m working through the stages of grief. The reality of what’s happening to us is not just us, but anyone who is in central West Virginia in what is called the “donut and donut hole.” Calhoun is actually the hole in the donut and our surrounding counties are the donut.
The federal funding that these counties get is focused on sustaining water, sewer, watershed and things that are critical to life. Yes they’re necessary but why we are still in this place in the year 2024 in the most developed country in the world, I don’t understand. It seems as though, the only kind of money we can get is that type of money.
They’re very willing to give us a handout, but they’re not willing to give us a hand up, because they don’t believe in us.
What I know about that is, “You don’t know us. And until you know us, you probably shouldn’t pass judgement on whether or not it’s too ambitious.”
I encourage people to go and visit the site and go across the street and see how many people are working. There’s about 30 working and there’s stuff going on in all the areas.
We’re sitting here now where we’re going to have three buildings completed. The Day Care Center, They gym and the swimming pool. My husband and I have furnished the funding and provided bridge loans in order to facilitate that in thee amount of $9.9 million dollars and we’ve decided that that is where we’re going to stop. We will not be funding any further construction nor the operating costs. We’re looking at this from a community stand point and what is the best option for the project.
The purpose of this post is to see where we’re at, we’ll be meeting with out board of directors, and they will need to decide how we move forward with the project. The options that I see right now, and we are open to any and all suggestions, are three:
- Complete the build.
- We will complete the build. The $9.9M will complete the facilities, under roof, have a security system in place and good monitoring system. I would then put a monument out front saying “This is a Testament to what Could Have Been.”
- Complete the build and wait for a grant. Apply for Power again next year.
- The third option is for us to bootstrap it. Much like the swimming pool and the boot strap project itself. It’s by brining economic development by sheer grit and force. Doing what we need to do to make things happen. Our volunteer basis has contributed greatly to those projects and a lot of businesses have started off the back of that and it certainly can be done. Whaat we would do is to break it down into different elements, the day care, entrepreneur, school, etc and create projects around that which will allow volunteers to come together and support the projects through the provision of food for the cafeteria, furniture and equipment, what ever is needed.
We need to think about to that long and hard. If ever there was a time for the community to come together, the time is now. In my humble opinion our biggest limitation is our own insecurities and fears. We have gained and regrouped, we have a lot of hope at the table. We see that with the tire project, the animal shelter and all sorts of community events. There is a lot of life. But we need to harness this and take the county to the next level.
There is no place like Calhoun that comes together in a disaster. We put our personal opinions aside and do what has to be done. That really has a lot of value.
Personally, I think we can do this. But are we willing and committed to get it done. We need to give the next generation an opportunity to spend their lives here if they so choose. They deserve it, they’re as smart as they come. They just need hope and encouragement.
I believe that this project will be the roll model for Appalachian revitalization.
Please, provide Crystal Mersh and the 1982 Foundation feedback and write to the ARC as well as our Senators and express your support for this project and encourage their support of our community.
