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Upshur Commission hears from residents about recreation facility

BUCKHANNON — Residents expressed interest in creating a community gym or other indoor recreation area in Buckhannon during the Upshur County Commission meeting Thursday.

Commissioners Terry B. Cutright, Samuel R. Nolte and Troy A. Brady III heard from life-long Buckhannon resident Mitch Shaw regarding the need for recreation facilities.

Shaw, a member of a men’s basketball league in Buckhannon, said he and other members have a hard time trying to find a gym to play basketball in year-round.

“There are various gyms in town, but when you get down to it, they’re hard to get into,” Shaw said.

He mentioned the school system’s gyms, a church gym and others.

Shaw said there are steps one must take to be able to use the gyms privately owned in the community. It is inconvenient to have basketball league activities because in order to use the school gyms, there must be a member of the Board of Education present, and in order to play in certain gyms one must acquire insurance and it is still not always possible to get into the gym because of the other sports teams that need the facility, Shaw said.

It would be ideal that all community sports teams could hold their practices, games and tournaments at a new indoor facility, he noted.

“I am 100 percent on board with the idea,” Notle said. “I, myself, participate in soccer and there have been times where practices have lasted until 9:30 p.m. just because we couldn’t get in to utilize the gym until 8 p.m.”

Shaw said there are more than 100 local children who belong to teams that are in need of a place for their sporting events, as well as various adult leagues from various sports including basketball, softball and soccer.

The Commissioners acknowledged their interest in an indoor recreation facility.

There was no further information on the possible future of this topic during the meeting.

Also discussed Thursday:

• Commissioners talked about they called the substantial growth in success of the Upshur County Convention and Visitors Bureau under Executive Director Laura B. Meadows.

Meadows presented the Commission with information packets about activities at the CVB and spoke briefly on the new tactics used for gaining awareness and interests from various people.

The use of social media has proved to be a large part of reaching the public, Meadows said.

Though the CVB still uses print for marketing, Meadows said their social media interactions have reached millions and are getting views and comments months after being posted.

The CVB has created various videos about what Upshur County has to offer which can be found on their website, Facebook page and YouTube.com.

Meadows said visitors from Poland, England and other countries have signed the guest book in the visitor’s center.

Each Commissioner extended their gratitude to Meadows for the “wonderful job” she has been doing at the Upshur CVB.

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