Submitted Photo Gov. Patrick Morrisey, center, joined by local officials and residents, cuts the ribbon for Belington's new America 250 mural, 'Cerulean Sky.'

BELINGTON — Gov. Patrick Morrisey joined Barbour County residents in celebrating Belington’s new America 250 mural and West Virginia Day.

On June 19, the Barbour County Commission hosted a public ribbon cutting for a new mural, “Cerulean Sky,” on the Golden Rule Building in Belington. The mural is part of the state’s America 250 Mural Project, where all 55 counties received funding to create a hand-painted mural that “celebrates both local and national pride,” according to the West Virginia Tourism website.

Morrisey, who cut the ribbon, joined the community to celebrate the project during Belington’s West Virginia Day festival. Residents celebrated with live music, vendors and activities, as well as meeting the mural’s artists, Kylie Proudfoot-Payne and Zoë Brielle Payne. Emilee Goodman, the third artist to have participated in creating the mural, was not present at the ceremony, according to a press release from Woodlands Development and Lending.

“When I think of Barbour County, I think of the experiences with the land, the water and the flow of the river through the County,” Proudfoot-Payne said, according to the release. “Most of our communities are along rivers, and we engage with the water and the sky… and I feel like this mural depicts a dramatic point of interaction between those things.”

The large 14×32 mural was completed in only two weeks from March 15 to April 1, the release states. It depicts the Tygart River, Laurel Mountain and the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley train under a bright sunset. Proudfoot-Payne, conceptualized this piece while her daughter, Zoë Brielle Payne, and Goodman assisted with production.

Funding for the mural was made possible by West Virginia’s America 250 Mural Project, with support from the Barbour County Commission and Woodlands Development and Lending. According to the release, Barbour County Commission President David Strait explained that they wanted the mural to mural to “make you feel the way that being in Barbour County makes us feel.” Barbour County Commissioner Bob Richardson is said to have been instrumental in picking the Golden Rule location as the mural’s location.

“When I come up here, I think about West Virginia history and how much it’s been shaped by the railroad. It carried our coal. It carried our timber, our workers, our families, but also carried opportunities,” Morrisey said in his speech on June 19. “Railroad track connected communities like Belington to all across WV and ultimately, our country… [This is] such an idyllic small town, and we have a chance to look and assess where we’ve been, celebrate where we are today, and look ahead to where we are going.”