Friday, August 24, 2001
After years of flooding, Grundy, with a population of 1,175, plans to
move its downtown to higher ground by decapitating a mountain just
across the chronically treacherous Levisa River. The flattened
mountaintop is to be the base for a new town center with wireless
communications and usable new land that will double the size of its
current six acres. With its minuscule $1.5 million annual budget,
Grundy has managed to become the beneficiary of a $177 million
project combining the resources of the Army Corps of Engineers and
the State Department of Transportation. The remake is to leave this
old lumber and coal town higher and drier than it has ever been. In
the end, a picturesque bend in the river, which has often given way
to flood waters, is to become a futuristic swath of Appalachian levee
with a highway on top.
posted at 4:56 PM