Published: November 28, 2009 11:31 pm      

Town of Sophia on rebound, looks for new growth

Back in the 1950s, black gold flowed out of the mines and along the railroad tracks, and the town of Sophia was a typical, coal-based West Virginia town.

Saturday found hundreds swelling the streets, their pockets stuffed with fresh wages and the owners eager to spend them on what Sophia had to offer.

Now, the mines are silent, and Sophia is looking for new means of growing.

One is the extension of a sewer line, now in full control of the town, and the other is more in the future — completion of the Coalfields Expressway that promises to add businesses, jobs and revenue.

“Sophia is going to grow,” says Danny Barr, back at the helm as the mayor, a job he previously held.

“It has got a lot of potential. What hurts a small town is when you go for a grant, you’ve got to compete with the bigger cities, and it’s tough.”

Soon after the new administration took over, the town severed its ties with the Crab Orchard-MacArthur Public Service District, which had been responsible for the operation and maintenance of its sewer system.

“All they were doing was the operation and maintenance,” Barr said.

“Other towns have done it before, letting some private organization or a PSD do it. We thought we could as well. We took it back this month. We like to keep it here in-house.”

About five or six years, the town sought a grant but the money was delayed, and in the interim, Barr pointed out, prices rose dramatically, largely because of the boost in the cost of oil.

The sewer line has been pushed into the vicinity of Independence High School and the mayor hopes to see it go even farther along W.Va. 29 into the Coal City.

After all, he reasons, growth cannot come without infrastructure, and this is what potential investors look at first before deciding to set up shop.

“The idea is just to expand it all around,” Barr said.

“That’s the only way you’re going to make it. The more customers you have, the easier things are. The more people you’ve got paying, the more customers you have, the easier it is on the people when you have to borrow money to run a system.”

Sophia boasted a population of some 1,300 in the coal boom of the 1950s, and the latest headcount shows little change. Decades ago, families were larger. In his, Barr was one of seven children, for instance.

“We haven’t lost anything, but we haven’t gained,” the mayor said of his town.

Sophia draws its name from a settler named Sophia McGinnis. Back then, the emphasis was on the second syllable for pronunciation. Today, it lies on the first one.

“The big holdup is the Coalfields Expressway,” said Barr, who is actually serving his 12th year as mayor, considering previous terms.

“If that ever gets finished, this place is going to boom from Sophia to Beckley.”

To some extent, Sophia is considered a bedroom community, housing folks who work in coal mines, as secretaries or as attorneys or physicians outside the town.

Barr can foresee a time when the Coalfields Expressway, if and when the federal dollars are turned loose for completion, is going to make Sophia an attractive place to live and do business. Expansion could come along the four-lane, since, by Barr’s reckoning, the downtown proper doesn’t have much space in which to expand.

One change that came since the new administration came to power was the sale of the trolley, which had been purchased in Tennessee to run tours of the coalfields.

Barr says the town decided to dispose of the bus in deference to insurance costs. It was sold to a Chicago man who specializes in weddings and parties.

“We’re not having any problems,” the mayor said.

“Any time a new administration comes in, you’ve got to get everything in order the way you want things. We’re not having any problems, that’s one good thing.”

In fact, the town is shaping up plans for its annual Christmas parade, set for Dec. 12, and one big hand came from a volunteer effort that raised money for new lights.

“We’ve got more people involved in the government,” Barr said. “We’re doing good.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com