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ELKINS -- Randolph County Commissioners had the opportunity to learn more about the Mon Forest Towns partnerships during the most recent regular meeting at the James F. Cain Courthouse.
Mon Forest Towns Executive Director Josh Nease told commissioners, David Kesling, Cris Siler, and Chris See, since he became executive director in the spring of 2023, the organization has been hard at work identifying what the 12 towns in the partnership need.
"I'm here today to just introduce myself and get you familiar with the Mon Forest Towns partnerships," said Nease. "I started about 10 months ago and I'm the first executive director for the organization. So we are really getting busy now, and over the last 10 months, we have identified what Mon Forest Towns partnership has done for towns and communities in the past, and what they think they need out of the organization going forward."
Nease said over the next three or four years, Mon Forest Towns will be launching a larger project to better connect towns to the national forest and to each other.
"We are going to be ramping up communication efforts on behalf of the towns to reach out to new markets and new people in order to attract more visitors to the forest and to develop recreation assets in a way that benefits and improves the quality of life for residents," Nease said. "So as we are working on all of these things, I hope you will be hearing good things about Mon Forest Towns and the things we are accomplishing … We are going into 2024 with a lot of momentum."
The 12 gateway communities that make up the Mon Forest Towns include Elkins,Thomas, Davis, Parsons, Seneca Rocks, Durbin, Petersburg, Franklin, Cowen, Richwood, Marlinton and White Sulphur Springs. West Virginia University, USDA Rural Development, Monongahela National Forest, and the Woodlands Development Group are part of the Mon Forest Towns partnership.
"The Mon Forest Towns partnership formed back in 2019 and was originally leaders from 10 towns in the Monongahela National Forest region who got together and agreed to work together to establish themselves as gateways to the Mon Forest," said Nease. "They agreed to work on developing an outdoor recreation economy as part of their economic development strategy."
Since its inception, Mon Forest Towns' partners have assisted towns in early stages of developing outdoor recreation economy.
"Over the last few years, Mon Forest Towns have worked together with its partners to identify needs across all towns, and then leverage funding from private and federal sources to address common needs across all towns," Nease said. "Some of the ongoing projects over the past several years have included trailhead development, trail development itself, and a whole host of other town goals and needs related to developing outdoor recreation economy."
Kesling told Nease that he was excited about the future of Mon Forest Towns and that the commission would help the organization in anyway it could.
"We are excited about what you've been working on," Kesling said. "When you have something planned specifically, come back and we will see if we can help. We have the hotel-motel tax that we can use with a project like yours because it brings people into the county. That's what that money is there for."
For more information on Mon Forest Towns, visit monforesttowns.com.