For 30 years, Congressman Nick J. Rahall II, a Beckley native, has championed countless efforts to brighten the future of southern West Virginia.
Rahall has accumulated an impressive list of accomplishments as he has worked to improve the region’s infrastructure, develop its economy and protect its natural resources.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Rahall wrote legislation which created the largest network of federally protected rivers in the eastern United States, ensuring large tracts of the New and Gauley rivers would be preserved for generations.
He has spearheaded legislation that provided funding to reduce environmental threats associated with old mine sites and to reclaim abandoned mine properties.
In the late 1990s, he established the Rahall Transportation Institute, a consortium of five southern West Virginia colleges, for the purpose of improving transportation systems in West Virginia.
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In an effort to provide better economic opportunities to southern West Virginians, Rahall has secured millions of dollars for the construction of new technology centers at Concord University, Lewisburg, Beckley and Hinton.
In 2006, Rahall pushed mining safety legislation through Congress and brought together a $4 million Mine Safety Technology Consortium in order to make mining safer and healthier.
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“I am humbled and highly honored to receive the Spirit of Beckley Award and to join a long list of distinguished Beckleyans who have receive this award in the past,” said Rahall. “It reminds me of my deep roots in Beckley — from a pioneer grandfather who started on a shoestring in the promising town of Beckley. It makes me emotional considering our faith and the freedom we have had to grow and learn as Beckleyans.”
I hate reading stories like this because it makes me so envious that in WV-02 with Rep. Shelley Moore Capito we don't have a Congressional representative as good and effective as Nick Rahall.
We're not supposed to covet what our neighbors in WV-03 have, but I wish we had a Nick Rahall to represent us in WV-02. I don't agree with him on every issue, but I do on a heck of a lot of things.
