Charleston and Huntington are among 15 U.S. cities to make it to the semifinal round in America's Best Communities competition, qualifying them for a chance to win economic revitalization grants of up to $3 million.
A ceremony on Wednesday was held to announce Charleston's advancement to ABC's semifinals.
"Great communities don't just happen - they are the result of people working together for the common good," said Tammy Shingleton, Charleston area general manager for Frontier Communications, one of four companies sponsoring the competition. "After achieving this milestone, it is clear Charleston isn't just a great community - it is one of America's best."
Representatives from the two West Virginia cities will take part in the America's Best Communities Summit April 26-27 in Durham, North Carolina, during which semifinalists will present their proposals to a panel of economic revitalization experts and executives from the competition's sponsoring companies - Frontier, DISH Network, CoBank and The Weather Channel.
At the end of the summit, eight communities will be named finalists, with each receiving $100,000 to begin implementing their strategies. In April 2017, the three communities that make the largest impact during the course of one year and show the best potential for achieving sustainable revitalization will be named grand prize winners. The top community will receive $3 million, with $2 million going to the second-place finisher and $1 million going to the third-place community.
Of the 350 communities that entered the competition, 50 were named quarterfinalists last April, and received $50,000 each from America's Best Communities to develop revitalization plans. In addition to Charleston and Huntington, other West Virginia communities to make the Top 50 cut were Ripley/Jackson County and Fairmont.
Charleston used its $50,000 grant to fund a retail strategy and merchandise mix plan for the downtown, to pay for a Wi-Fi assessment that included costs and options for deploying a downtown wireless network, to conduct a survey of downtown pedestrian needs and to begin planning for the Charleston EDGE Project, a proposed housing development at Donnally and Capitol streets designed to attract young talent to the city with affordable housing and a community leadership program.
"We've gotten a lot out of the competition already," Charleston City Manager David Molgaard said. "It's caused us to focus on what it will take to revitalize Charleston and make it an attractive place in which to live and work for generations to come."
Work already done by the Imagine Charleston program "helped set the stage for our ABC committee, and dovetailed nicely into this project. It got us ahead of the curve in this competition," Molgaard said.
Qualifying for ABC's semifinals "is a pretty big deal," Charleston Mayor Danny Jones said. "It shows that we're moving forward and have our sights set on the future."
The competition, he said, "helps us continue to focus our energy on ways to make Charleston more attractive, not only to those of us who live here now, but to future generations."
"We spent a lot of time together brainstorming and doing some hard work," said Susie Salisbury, leader of Charleston's ABC team. "I'm excited to be here today."
Other communities making it to the semifinal round in the competition include: Portsmouth, Ohio; Lake Havasu City, Arizona; Statesboro, Georgia; Valley County, Idaho; Chisago Lakes, Minnesota; DeKalb, Illinois; Fort Dodge, Iowa; Darrington/Arlington, Washington; Valparaiso, Indiana; Tualatin, Oregon; Wenatchee, Washington; Madison, Indiana, and Angola/Freeport, Indiana.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169, or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.