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New Area Partnership Is Formed to Benefit Tourism

A new area partnership has been signed, this one aimed at benefiting tourism.

The signees are the state of West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the Greater Moundsville Convention and Visitors Bureau, which represents several businesses, agencies and government on the local level.

This agreement will enable the GMCVB to utilize a portion of the Grave Creek Mound and Archaeological Complex’s Main Gallery as a visitors’ center.

The opening of the center will take place on Wednesday.

GMCVB Chairman Craig White said he, on behalf of the GMCVB, had first made inquiry about the possibility of occupying space at 801 Jefferson Ave., in Moundsville, some two years ago.

He added, “Board members are very pleased that Randall Reid-Smith, the commissioner of culture and history for the state, Gov. Jim Justice and other state officials, have enabled us to share a portion of the building.”

White added, “Since the complex is across the street from the former West Virginia Penitentiary which draws some 30,000 persons yearly, it is a win-win situation for everyone involved in tourism.”

The GMCVB will have either one of its staff members or volunteers on hand from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, to provide brochures, information to visitors to not only this area, but the state as well.

White said, “We will be utilizing the auditorium at this facility to show videos of places they can visit along with the history of this area.”As a result of the partnership, two permanent exhibits will be located at the Delf Norona Museum, one being a display of Marx Toy items by Francis Turner a longtime collector of Marx toys made at its former Glen Dale location, while the other exhibit will be of Fostoria glassware. The Fostoria Glass Society of America’s board of directors voted during its June annual convention to occupy a space in the museum.

Also, Jeremy Kohus, director of the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex, said, “Our staff is very happy to have the local CVB utilize our facility.”

As to the complex itself in the past two years several improvements have taken, or will take place, at the Grave Creek Mound itself, and also, the complex building. In the past month new carpeting has been installed in the Main Gallery, and previous to that better lighting has been installed. In the next few weeks Wi-Fi will be added to the building.

White stated, “We welcome area people to also come and see us, to learn more about the area. Also, we are looking for area residents to serve as volunteers.”

As to the former visitors center beside the Cockayne Farmstead in Glen Dale, it will remain, but will be open only on Mondays.

Fifteen years ago Bill Bryson decided to offer a travel package to multiple Major League Baseball games.

His agency, Uniglobe Ohio Valley Travel, had previously arranged for motorcoaches to Pittsburgh for Pirates games, but nothing of this proposed status.

He announced at a travel show in November 2002 that he would be providing travel and lodging for a two-night stay with the games being in Baltimore, Boston and New York.

Being a baseball fan since a youngster he believed that such an undertaking would be successful, but for how long would be something that he would have to wait and see.

Well, since 2003 there has been at least one trip a year, and up to as many as five, that starting in 2008.

This past week was somewhat of a milestone as it marked the 50th trip, with the number of games seen being 166 — these being major league, minor league and spring training games.

In addition to the games, since 2005 there have been visits to not only the ballparks, but to what we would consider tourism sites. Overall, these latter attractions having topped 150 had you been on a large number of trips.

Take for example the most recent trip, the first stop on which was Louisville, Ky., and a visit to the Muhammad Ali Museum and that evening to the Louisville Bats (Class AAA) stadium for a game against the Pirates AAA affiliate Indianapolis Indians. To help celebrate Uniglobe’s 50th multi-trip, the first pitch of the game was thrown out by Moundsville resident Mary Lynn Jones to Bats mascot Buddy Bat.

Day No. 2 was to Gwinnett County, Ga., the home of the Atlanta Braves’ top minor league team.

The Gwinnett Braves Park is located some 10 miles from Atlanta and thus the next morning we were up and running, (well taking the bus) to downtown Atlanta for a tour of the Coca Cola Museum, and then it was on to an afternoon game between the Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers. It was there that we had the opportunity to meet up with former local area residents Ed and Sara Bowman who moved 30 miles south of Atlanta three years ago. Also, their son, Mark, a former athlete at Wheeling Central, who works for MLB.com reporting on Braves games on the internet. It was because of the Braves this particular trip was arranged, as this year the Braves are in a new home, called SunTrust Park. If you have been on all Uniglobe tours, or a greater majority of them, you would have seen all 30 major league parks, in addition to four others which are no longer utilized.

We had a first at SunTrust Park, the new home of the Atlanta Braves, as the Kiss Cam zoomed in on Jim and Barb Fitzsimmons of eastern Doolin in Wetzel County. Jim was a little reluctant to look at the Jumbotron at first, but finally did.

By the way, there are three statues outside SunTrust Park, one being that of Ohio Valley native Phil Niekro. The other two are former pitcher Warren Spahn and former manager Bobby Cox.

Another attraction in Atlanta which was visited the following day was that of the College Football Hall of Fame which moved there three years ago from South Bend, Ind.

The ballgame that evening took place at the home of the Chattanooga Lookout, a Class AA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. We had a picnic there, and six members of our group came away with baseballs which were either hit into the area in which we were seated, or thrown into the area by one of the left fielders.

From Chattanooga it was off to Cincinnati, where our seats were in the club section which also included food, the all-you-can-eat variety. Seven home runs were hit in the game which marked the second-highest of the 266 games we have attended.

Our final stop was in Columbus and a visit to the Phoenix Bat Factory, where we learned how bats are made. The stopover in Columbus also included a stop at Schmitt’s Restaurant in the German section of the city.

Just in case you are interested the mileage for this entire trip was 1,630 miles.

Two of the persons on the trip, who just so happened to be seated behind me were Bob and Sabrina Montgomery.

Of course, as most people know Bob Montgomery retired in the past month as head baseball coach at John Marshall High School, and having the opportunity to question him about some of his sports involvement of the past and to learn of his future plans.

The first thing we did was “close the book” on his win-loss record, these figures being 860 wins and 396 losses as head baseball coach at John Marshall. He was actually a member of the baseball staff for 49 years having served six years as an assistant coach under Rich Canestra.

I have known Montgomery since the early 1970s when he was a first baseman-pitcher for Moundsville High School, having graduated in 1974. His most memorable game took place in his senior year. He remembers it well, having pitched a four-hitter but still losing 1-0 in the regional finals.

His teams won more than 60 sectionals and regionals, along with a state champion in 1985. He did say that regional finals were something that seemed a bugaboo for his teams.

Montgomery is not only proud of averaging 20 wins a season, but also of the numerous players who went on to play baseball at the college level, but also the great facility which John Marshall has and of which his wife is the head groundskeeper — along with being an assistant coach, along with his most recent other assistant, Roger Simmons.

Montgomery said he was responsible for two programs aimed at increasing the caliber of youth baseball, that being junior varsity teams on the high school level, and fall baseball which was started some eight years ago.

One area of concern which Montgomery hopes gets addressed in the future is the number of umpires in the state. He said the Ohio Valley and also the state of West Virginia need more umpires. There are 220 baseball umpires currently in the state which comes out to four per county.

He said, “We have been fortunate to always have umpires for our games as they all seemed to like to come to our facility.” He added, “We are fortunate to be able to utilize umpires from two boards.”

Montgomery said if the new coach (Mark Cisar) wants him and Sabrina to maintain the field, they would be willing to consider continuing in that capacity.

Getting back to sports officials, Montgomery has done his part, having been a baseball umpire for 55 years, and although he is taking a year off he plans to return next year. He also still referees basketball, having done this for 57 years.

The retired English teacher, and sports journalism teacher, learned about sports at an early age, having spent most of his time as a youth going with his father, Les, to sporting events at which he was an official. He said, “My dad on some weekends would umpire a baseball game in the afternoon and that evening would do the same for a fast-pitch softball league game.

Of course, like most of the youngsters back when Montgomery was growing up they have many memories of sports at the former West Virginia Penitentiary, and they can still remember the Red Sox team members.

He concluded that he has met a lot of great people through sports, and commented that Moundsville is a great place to live.

As for honors having bestowed on Montgomery was that of “Distinguished West Virginian.” It was presented to him by then-Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin five years ago.

A Happy Birthday to granddaughter Lillian Barrett, who today is celebrating her 8th birthday.

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