BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — Woodrow Wilson High School Cross Country Coach George Barbera recalled on Thursday, September 19, 2024, how he and his late father, Willie Barbera, cut through foliage on acreage owned by Pinecrest Development Corporation back in 2013 to create what Barbera and Woodrow Wilson High School teacher Bernard Bostick said is now one of the premier cross-country courses in the state.
“You’ve got perfect facilities,” Bostick said. “You can go to one spot on a course and watch the whole entire race. usually as a coach or spectator you watch them run a hundred yards, they run up into the woods, and 15, 16, minutes later, they come out.”
Barbera said his father had received verbal permission from Pinecrest Development Corporation officials to turn a parcel of land, including acreage between Beckley Stratton Middle School and Beckley Elementary School, into a cross-country course.
Bill Baker of Pinecrest Development Corporation said permission to use the land as a Cross Country course was given until it was time for the acreage to be developed into a technology park.
The Raleigh County Commission is now in the process of acquiring the property, and commissioners have plans to honor Pinecrest Development Corporations’ intended use of the property by developing a technology park.
Trick-or-Treat times for Southern West Virginia The news has many Raleigh County teachers, parents and student athletes reaching out to county officials with pleas to save the cross-country course.
They said the course has helped to grow the sport in Raleigh County and recently hosted a well-attended meet, the Beckley Chick-fil-A Invitational.
“It’s grown to nearly 50 schools,” Barbera said. “There was probably about 2,500 people out here. Every parking space on both schools was full. We were parking them on the grass and backing them in over there, and we also brought in a record number of proceeds.”
Barbera and others said they don’t want the cross-country track destroyed because it is important to Beckley and to students across the region.
The president of Raleigh County Commission said on Thursday that county officials plan to consider the request.
Beckley trick-or-treat times to change in 2024 “We’re all very open to green spaces on that property when the business district opens and we start developing over there,” President Duckworth said. “Green spaces, trails. If the cross-country trails can fit into those pieces, we’re very excited to work with everyone and make that happen.”
Barbera said county officials have seemed open to discussion about the trail and that he is open to working with them.
“I’m out here for the kids that are running now and the kids that will run in the future,” said Barbera. “I think they kind of share that importance.”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.
Local News
