>>ANNOUNCER: More than eight hundred people with one mission:
promoting a healthy environment.
we are the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
>>GREG ADOLFSON: Look up sustainable communities and you'll find example after example of
cities working to improve the quality of life
but those challenges are often greater in rural Appalachian communities
like Williamson.
Located in one of the most economically distressed counties in the region
Williamson finds itself at a crossroads
but unlike many once booming towns in West Virginia,
Williamson has a road map.
The DEP's Brent Kessinger has their story.
>>NARRATION: Incorporated in eighteen ninety two
the city of Williamson grew and thrived serving the local coal, timber and
railroad industries.
The county seat of Mingo County, its downtown was the banking and retail
center for the entire area but times have changed
forcing Williamson to reinvent itself.
In short, this is not your grandfather's Williamson.
>>DARRIN MCCORMICK: With the government
trying to survive with expenses rising incomes kinda flat,
we needed to try to develop our projects that would take care of
themselves.
We needed to focus on some of our bad things -
our negative things turned out to be some of our opportunities. Our weaknesses
turned into some of our opportunities.
>>NARRATION: Darren McCormick is mayor of Williamson and what began as a plan to look for
ways of saving energy and improving efficiency
has grown far beyond that.
One of those projects: Williamson's community garden -
a plot of land that offers space for anyone in the community to plant
a garden.
But this garden is growing more than just fresh tomatoes.
>>HELEN STANLEY: Hopefully we can teach people to
you know, eat a little better and exercise a little bit and getting out
in fresh sunshine and tending to your plants and looking at everybody else's
and picking the fruits of your labors
is a very good thing.
>>NARRATION: Helen Stanley is a local business owner who also manages the local farmers
market -
an outgrowth of the community garden.
Helen says greenhouses at the garden will eventually be able to provide fresh
produce year-round
and that the farmers market has grown from a once a month experiment to weekly
community event.
>>HELEN: We've had some
very good turnouts for it and a lot of positive
comments from people. They're tickled to death that we're doing this and we're
offering
locally grown
everything. Everything...
>>NARRATION: The availability of fresh locally grown food
will help address one of Williamson's major health concerns.
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates, roughly one eighth
of adults and Williamson are diabetic and more than a third are obese -
numbers well above the national average but they're not taking those numbers
sitting down. >>VICKI HATFIELD: We have four teams that have actually made it -
two are swimming in the house now. NARRATION: Vicki Hatfield is a diabetic education
specialist at Williamson Family Care Center.
She's referring to the lunch walkers -
teams of Williamson residents
who are logging their lunch time walking miles and translating those to an
imaginary trip
from Williamson
to California.
She says even if residents have a family history of the disease,
history doesn't have to repeat itself.
>>VICKI: If people are healthy and they're well
they're going to be productive.
They're gonna feel like doing things in the community
and helping out the efforts that we're doing
here and they're going to be around a lot longer as well.
>>NARRATION: And if you're wondering how improving community health effects local economic
development,
it's not that big a stretch.
>>ERIC MATHIS: Really it's about integration
and creating connections between the different projects that communities are
working on.
so I find
that one of the things
that lead to a successful sustainability program
is figuring out how, take for instance what we're doing here in Williamson how food systems
is linked to
diabetes
is linked to
workforce development is linked
to sustainable tourism and really linking all those together and building off each
other project's capacity.
>>DARRIN MCCORMICK: In some places they'll call that a green economy
Well, here in the heart of the billion dollar coalfield
with what they're feeling is
the application of
the holding back on mining permits and things like that, we felt that
saying we were going green would be controversial
so we intentionally chose the word sustainable
and as we've held sustainablity workshops and things
like that
what we've tried to do is educate our
citizenry that what
we're trying to do
is be more efficient, be smarter about the way we do things.
>>NARRATION: Sustainable Williamson is working to create a model for sustainable
development in low-wealth communities of central Appalachia -
advancing rural economies, encouraging local entrepreneurs and developing a
twenty first century capable workforce.
>>DARRIN MCCORMICK: All I'm trying to do is get everybody to the table.
The sustainability movement can help the coal mining industry particularly with
post mine development.
These are opportunities that we've never had before for large tracts of land to
be developed
that we wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to develop to create real
economic opportunities.
>>DINO BECKETT: I think we already are model,
I really do.
We're a small community that's been able to
reach out to different resources, pull them together
and the community has gotten behind what were doing.
>>NARRATION:Creating a model that can be copied across rural West Virginia and beyond.
In Williamson, I'm Brent Kessinger for Environment Matters.
>>GREG ADOLFSON: Mayor McCormick says he also sees a great opportunity in sustainable tourism.
He says the recent Hatfield-McCoy miniseries has generated a lot of
interest in the area from all over the country.
Coming up: stories from summer camp.
We'll check out the Youth Environmental Program's Junior Conservation Camp.