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August 11, 2006

Byrd, Hinton Residents Celebrate Success of Technology Center

U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., celebrated the growing accomplishments of the Hinton Technology Center on Friday, and looked forward to an even better future for Southern West Virginia.

Byrd partnered with U.S. Representative Nick Rahall, also D-W.Va., and local officials to obtain $3.6 million in federal funds, matched by state and additional federal funding, to construct a new four-story, 72,000 square-foot high-tech office building. Already, the ManTech Corporation, the Computer Sciences Corporation, the TSM Corporation, the Information Manufacturing Corporation, Knowledge Systems, and Practice Link have located in Hinton, employing nearly 130 people in the Summers County community.

The Senator’s remarks from the ceremony are below.

Generations of West Virginians have grown up, raised and educated their families, and worked very hard to create a successful life in the State. Mainstays of the West Virginia economy, such as the coal, wood products, glass, steel, aluminum, and chemical industries, have served many generations well and provided the lifeblood that has kept families together. From my first day on the job, I have stood by these traditional industries by supporting innovations, new products, and processes that benefit these sectors to ensure that they will continue to provide employment for West Virginians for many, many years.

Our nation’s economy is changing dramatically, however. In West Virginia, employment in coal mining has decreased from a peak of 132,000 in 1948 to nearly 16,000 today. Mining and manufacturing have been declining while jobs in the service sector have been increasing. Coal and chemical industry jobs paying in the $50-60,000 range are being replaced by jobs in the service industries, often at lower wage levels.

Some many years ago, I recognized the changes sweeping our nation’s economy and saw the grim handwriting on the wall for West Virginia if we did nothing. Absent a plan for the future, West Virginia’s economy would wither away on the vine. I threw my energies into laying the necessary foundations to broaden and diversify West Virginia’s economy, by directing a variety of resources to build the critical infrastructure in West Virginia that was needed to better support our existing industries, as well as to harness new industries of the future.

We love our mountains in West Virginia, but we also know that traditionally, our mountainous terrain is an obstacle to economic development. Large industry and developers have mostly ignored us because of the challenges posed by the mountains that protect us. However, in the past two decades, a bright spot for employment in good paying jobs in West Virginia has been the information technology sector. Our mountains may take hours to cross by automobile, but technology can reach us in a split second and vice versa. Relying on traditional ways to move our products to market takes many hours, if not days. But we can ship our information-driven products around the world in the flash of a second. Technology can leap our mountains in mere moments.

We’ve got the talent right here in West Virginia to take advantage of the information technology wave. West Virginia colleges and universities are producing more graduates with greater skills in information technology fields. Our goal is to provide the opportunities that can enable our graduates to pick up the local want ads and find good paying jobs in West Virginia, rather than to have to look to the likes of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, or Washington, D.C. I shudder to think of our best and brightest having to move to other states to raise their families and build their futures miles away from their Mountain State home. Today, we are taking a step in providing West Virginia graduates, new or old, with good opportunities right on their doorsteps -- ways to invest their futures in Hinton, instead of taking their talents outside the state.

Our efforts in Hinton started in the mid-1990s. I was able to convince officials of the ManTech Corporation of the many advantages of having satellite operations in the mountains of West Virginia. ManTech officials quickly set up house in renovated space at the Hinton City Hall. A few years later, another information technology firm, the Computer Sciences Corporation, at my recommendation, also made the move to call Hinton home and established a presence in the McCreery Hotel.

On January 27, 2000, then-Hinton Mayor Jim Leslie came to my office in Washington, D.C. He had earlier explained to my staff that ManTech and Computer Sciences Corporation were expanding so successfully that he was running out of space for them. To me, that was a good problem to have!

When Mayor Leslie and I sat down to talk, I just asked him flat out what he would think if I were to seek $2 million for a new high technology building in Hinton that could house ManTech and the Computer Sciences Corporation. Now Jim Leslie is a man who is generally not at a loss for words, but for several moments he said nothing and then I believe he stammered a bit, and said very quietly, “I think we’d like that, Senator.” I asked him to keep our conversation in confidence since the appropriations cycle for that year had not yet begun, but I told him I would do my best to get the funding for a those purposes for the City. As you can see, I was successful in getting funding that year, and, a few years later, with the help of Congressman Rahall and the strong support of leadership of your current Mayor Cleo Mathews, I added additional funds for the project. Mayor Mathews masterfully leveraged those federal funds to obtain additional dollars to complete this glorious building.

The Hinton Technology Center is a shining star, and one that I hope will serve as the area’s catalyst for economic development for years to come. One floor of the building has been built specifically for the operations of ManTech. These eighty-some employees are creating a whole host of high technology products for the military. Can you believe it? Who would have thought that this historic railroad town would provide the military with advantaged technology, and, at the same time, save taxpayers millions of dollars annually? A second floor remains available for even more information technology firms. Further, the building eliminates a long-time impediment to development in downtown Hinton by providing much needed space for parking. You can’t spend your money in downtown Hinton if there is no parking!

In addition, to ManTech, I am proud to report that Hinton is the home to five additional high technology companies including Computer Sciences Corporation, Information Manufacturing Corporation, TSM Corporation, Knowledge Systems, Inc., and Practice Link. Together, with ManTech, these firms employ nearly 130 information technology personnel in Hinton.

Congressman Rahall has this plan - - the “Three T” plan - - to build a better future for Southern West Virginia. Those three T’s are, and Nick, correct me if I’ve got this wrong, are transportation, tourism, and technology. It’s a solid plan, and we are working together to meet these goals. I might add one more ‘T’ - - teamwork. We’ve got no better example of teamwork and technology bringing success than right here in Summers County.

Poet William Blake wrote that “Great things are done when men and mountains meet.” Today, we celebrate such a meeting. Situated in these magnificent majestic mountains, the Hinton Technology Center is proof that you do not have to leave the hills of West Virginia to reach the stars.

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