EDC: Harrison County markets aviation and technology; staff cite about $350 million in projects under way

Amy Wilson, representing the Harrison County Economic Development Corporation, gave the commission a broad economic-development update on May 20, highlighting aviation, health care and site-readiness efforts and reporting that the county has multiple projects under way.

Wilson said the county and regional partners recently held a three-day economic-development conference with strong attendance and that Harrison County attended a national trade show in Nevada to market local aviation and high-tech clusters. She said two prospects are currently being worked and that the county had highlighted the aviation cluster, including a KCI Aviation hangar project and a Pierpont Aviation School development.

Wilson told commissioners the Wolf Summit combined-cycle natural-gas plant held a distinctive groundbreaking and said WVU United Hospital Center is planning a $48,000,000 outpatient surgery expansion. "We estimated ... around $350,000,000 in projects that are underway in Harrison County," she said.

She described efforts to secure site-readiness grants and to add properties to an inventory for requests for information (RFIs) from prospective businesses, noting two county sites received $75,000 each for site preparation and that a countywide $500,000 brownfields-assessment grant has identified 38 sites with nine actively being assessed.

Wilson asked commissioners for continued support and said staff can provide detailed lists of projects and prospect information upon request.