Governor Earl Ray Tomblin recently visited the Allegheny Wood Products Hazelton location to announce the award of a $250,000 grant to the Preston County Economic Development Authority. The West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council awarded the development authority with the grant to be applied towards a natural gas line extension project for AWP in Preston County.

"We have worked for more than a year on this grant in order to assist Allegheny Wood Products with its expansion. This grant is going to go a long ways toward creating job opportunities and growth in Preston County," said Executive Director of the Preston County Economic Development Authority, Robbie Baylor.

The Hazelton AWP facility has seen a large amount of growth in the last few years and with this project they are looking to continue that trend. "I believe that it is not the government’s role to create jobs, but we must be a willing partner in helping to grow the private sector," Gov. Tomblin said. "Since John and Patricia Crites first founded Allegheny Wood Products in 1971, their family-owned company has expanded operations several times. I am proud that we are able to help assist them in their latest expansion."

The WVFA office is notifying participants in the Tree Farm Regional Meetings & First Aid/CPR/BBP workshops that CFEs for the TF meetings will qualify for 2 CFE credits in category 2 and the First Aid/CPR/BBP training will qualify for 4.5 CFE credits in category 2; i.e., these are Society of American Foresters continuing education credits. There has been some confusion on this.

The following is the Executive Summary of our 2007 "Competitiveness and Taxation of Wood-Based Business in West Virginia: Report of the Ad-hoc Joint Forest Industry Committee", as compiled and authored by WVFA, the WV Chamber of Commerce and the WV Manufacturers Association.

"This report undertakes to briefly describe the role that forest-based businesses play in maintaining the economic vitality of West Virginia's rural economy. The interplay of economic and political forces that develop because we are a state whose population is decidedly urban but whose landscape is overwhelmingly rural is responsible for a markedly bifurcated state economy. The effects of public policy decisions on the rural segment of our economy deserve full consideration so that we do not unwittingly damage the whole by ignoring a part.

"Despite real progress over the past several decades in rationalizing property taxation forest land owners still face uncertainty and uneven valuation of their lands and still see widely varying tax levies for virtually identical properties in the same county. The complex history of property taxation militates against simple solutions. Nonetheless, there are aspects of property valuation and taxation that, with adequate review, could be modified to greatly improve fairness among taxpayers and to make the state more attractive to investment.