$87 million water park resort planned for Faimont, W.Va.

Three Morgantown businessmen, David Rees, Michael Vecchio and Mark Tampoya, have announced plans to build a resort complex filled with water slides and roller coasters, movie screens, retail stores, restaurants and a hotel and conference center at Fairmont, WV. The $87-million resort, developed by The Water Works LLC, will be located on 25 acres of a 107-acre site on the East Side of Fairmont formerly occupied by the Exxon Fairmont Coke Works and the Sharon Steel plant. The resort park is expected to create 350 permanent and 125 seasonal jobs and hopes to attract visitors from West Virginia and the greater Mid-Atlantic region, including Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Columbus, Ohio, and Harrisburg.

Blogging for WV...

Given the communications challenge resulting from the various accents spoken throughout the state -- is blogging a more effective way for West Virginians to communicate? ;)

"I remember the first time I ever drove through deep, southern West Virginia. I couldn't even understand the accent of the people there, you know. They couldn't understand me. West Virginia, actually, is a state that's made up of some different kinds of communities. " (Robert Grimes)

For persons interested in dialect research: The International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) Web site has several examples of downloadable sound files (MP3) and documents (PDFs) online featuring West Virginia accent/dialect speakers.