Progress Report 22

Progress Report No. 22
March 5, 2001

CCWF volunteers completed the following tasks since the time of our last progress report.

	On January 23, CCWF volunteer Barry Thacker made a presentation to the Tennessee Water Quality Control Board in Nashville. In a subsequent email message, Paul Davis, Director of Water Pollution Control with TDEC observed "I have been sitting with the Tennessee Water Quality Control Board for nearly 2 decades, and I don't recall any other instance where they have roundly applauded a presenter. Several members expressed to me how impressed they were with the CCWF's good work and your innovative, holistic, approach to improving the stream as part of the community". Two board members have nominated CCWF for an award from the Tennessee Conservation League.
	On January 25, we met with Carolyn Jensen, senior field representative to Senator Bill Frist. We invited Carolyn and Senator Frist to participate in "Coal Creek Watershed Health Day" in Briceville that we offered to schedule around their visit.
	On February 8, Barry Thacker won the "Distinguished Service Award" from the Pellissippi District of the Boy Scouts of America for his work in Coal Creek.
	On February 10, 17, 22, and 24, CCWF volunteers went on field trips to locate historical sites in the Coal Creek watershed. A new web page was added to our web site at www.coalcreekaml.com/cemeteries.htm to illustrate what we found.
	On February 14, Barry Thacker made a presentation on Coal Creek to the West Virginia Coal Association in Charleston, WV to gather support for the Eastern Coal Region Restoration Roundtable being convened in Morgantown, WV on May 3-5, 2001 (sponsored by OSM, EPA, NETL, and Friends of the Cheat).
	On February 16, CCWF received a scholarship to attend an EPA training session on Brownfields Redevelopment. Carol Moore will be attending this training in Texas on March 6-7, 2001. We also applied for a grant from EPA for them to send a team to Coal Creek this summer to help us prepare a Brownfields Redevelopment Grant application for Coal Creek.
	On February 20, Barry Thacker made a presentation on Coal Creek (Community Service as a Sound Strategy for Engineers) at the All East Tennessee Engineers Week Banquet. Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr. was a guest at the banquet. He said that trying to decide which projects are worthy of funding is a challenging task because of the many needs. He said that when citizens band together and start the work on their own, it makes his job easier. He encouraged us to continue our efforts, because "it's the way things get done in America".
	On February 21, we visited our proposed bank stabilization projects in Coal Creek with Julie Tindell and Jim Hagerman of TVA. They have offered to help us prepare the permit applications for this work.
	On February 27, we visited the proposed bank stabilization projects with Hollywood Whaley of FEMA Project Impact and Dave Turner of TDEC. We will be applying for grant money from FEMA to do the work. A permit from TDEC is required prior to the start of construction. A community meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, March 13, at Briceville School to discuss the status of the bank stabilization projects and development of the Coal Creek Motor Discovery Trail. The meeting will begin at 7:00 pm.
	On March 2, CCWF was awarded a $2,000 grant from the American Society of Civil Engineers to aid in our Coal Creek initiatives.

We have scheduled several events for the next two months. April 28^th will be our "Mark the Trail Day" as described at www.coalcreekaml.com/MarkTrail.htm. May 19^th will be our Historic Fraterville Mine Disaster Field Trip on the 99^th anniversary of the disaster as described at www.coalcreekaml.com/FratervilleTour.htm. We are working on a "Field Trip to Explore the History of the Coal Creek Watershed" for the 5^th graders at Briceville School on May 11^th.

Plans are also underway for events next year. We want to have the "Coal Creek Festival" on May 18^th, 2002. We want to model our festival after the Cheat River Festival described at www.cheat.org/Festivals/2001_CF/2001_cheat_festival.html. The "Fraterville Mine Disaster Memorial Service" will be held the next day, May 19^th, 2002, which will be the 100^th anniversary of the disaster as described at www.coalcreekaml.com/PRESSreunion.htm. CCWF volunteers will be attending the Cheat River Festival on May 5, 2001 to get ideas for our Coal Creek Festival next year.

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