WIRED grant denied

By JIM TALBERT\Staff

TAZEWELL – A federal grant application that would have been the icing on the cake for Tazewell County’s Bluestone Technology Park was not funded last week.

The Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development was a joint effort between Virginia and West Virginia.

Governors Joe Manchin and Tim Kaine endorsed the project. The application was on behalf of counties in Southwest Virginia and Southern West Virginia.

County Administrator Jim Spencer said the Bluestone project would continue to go forward. He said that project was well under way long before the county learned of the WIRED grant.

He said the county was disappointed the grant was denied but has built a lot of good relationships in the process. He said the county hopes to find out where the application ranked and try to update the application and reapply in the next cycle.