ORU Architectural Plans Submitted For Review

Marlinton, WV – The One Room University project, spearheaded by Pocahontas County Coordinator Jay Miller, is proceeding through the approval process. Miller, along with his assistant Elaine Diller, spoke to the Pocahontas County Chamber of Commerce about the project last Thursday night.

Miller says they hope to have a test run of the ORU this spring, with a full demonstration project slated for the fall. The ORU will use Interactive Video Networking or IVN technology to link students here with college classes offered elsewhere in the state.

City National Bank in Marlinton has offered space on the second floor of the bank to house the ORU. It will be located in the space currently housing the records for the Pocahontas County Farmland Protection Board. Those records and the desk for FPB assistant Kristin Kinnison will be moved to a partitioned section of the conference room on the same floor.

In addition to City National officials, New River Community and Technical College officials are also reviewing architectural plans submitted for the layout of the ORU. Only after those plans are approved will City National agree to a lease of the space.

Miller says up to seven carrels or partitions will be set up at the bank for the demonstration project. Each carrel will have a desktop computer and the IVN equipment. He says Mission West Virginia, the same group that provided the computers for the Durbin firehouse computer lab, will provide the desktops for the ORU. New River will provide the software to run the applications. Miller says other schools such as Concord University, WVU and Marshall University are interested in the project, but are waiting to see how the demonstration goes.

He says they are doing the project as inexpensively as possible to keep costs down. Financial assistance will be available through New River, and class costs are anticipated to be in line with those of on-campus classes.

In other business, the Chamber members discussed the inaugural business directory, due to come out later this year. The 32 page booklet will be split between information about the Chambers 68 member businesses and advertising space. After some discussion, the board members voted to restrict the ad space to member of the chamber only for this first issue. If a business joins the Chamber in the next two months, they’ll also be eligible for inclusion in the directory.

The Chamber is also looking for nominations for the Individual Community Involvment Award and the Business Award. Both awards are given during the Chambers annual dinner each spring. You can find nomination forms at their website, www.pccocwv.com.