Almost Heaven Habitat for Humanity board of directors held its quarterly meeting January 19 at Snowshoe Mountain Resort to discuss the 2012 project season.

ﾓWe are cranking out some exciting things for the future,ﾔ CEO and Executive Director Michelle Connor said. ﾓWe went over our annual plan which is all the activities weﾒre planning to do in Greenbrier, Pocahontas and Pendleton counties over the next 12 months, which includes building a new house in Pocahontas County and doing some home repairs for families in [the county].ﾔ

In August 2010, Greenbrier and Pendleton countiesﾒ Habitats joined forces to form one organization. Newly named Almost Heaven Habitat for Humanity, the organization also included Pocahontas County, the center of the Greenbrier/Pendleton sandwich, in its services.

AHHH assisted with the ﾓbarn raisingﾔ at the new Durbin Library/community center in 2011 and is now setting its sights on helping families in the community.

ﾓ[The house] will be our first new house ever, Habitat for Humanity house, to be built in Pocahontas County,ﾔ Connor said. ﾓWeﾒre still in the early stages for that. We still havenﾒt selected the land, and thatﾒs usually our first step.ﾔ

Connor said the organization is searching for a property owner who is willing to either donate land or sell land at a bargain price, or below market rate.

ﾓWe donﾒt sit on a pile of money, weﾒre not government funded so we donﾒt have bunches of money to go out and look for property,ﾔ she explained. ﾓSo weﾒre looking for an individual who would like to donate land to us, or sell to us, or somebody who wasnﾒt really selling their property at all, but heard about Habitat for Humanity and the good work we like to do, and would like to contribute that land or sell it to us at a very low cost so we can build a house on it.ﾔ

Habitat begins the search with finding land before selecting a family because it wants to ensure the family will want to live in the community where the land is.

ﾓIf we had our family, who had significant need, that we found we were ready to approve, who was in northern Pocahontas County, but the land we were ultimately able to find was in southern Pocahontas County, the likelihood that that family would like to move doesnﾒt make a lot of sense,ﾔ Connor said. ﾓWe really want to start with finding a suitable place where we can build and then reach out and try to find a family.ﾔ

The organization recently found a building to use as its volunteer center in Pocahontas County. Connor has contacted the Rail Authority in hopes of entering into a lease agreement for the bunkhouse in Durbin.

The bunkhouse, located near the train depot, is currently leased to the town of Durbin. At the January meeting, Durbin town council approved to end its lease to allow Habitat to enter into a lease agreement with the Rail Authority.

Once Habitat signs the lease, the volunteers will make repairs to prepare the bunkhouse for lodging.

ﾓWe hope in the course of this year, we can get the bunkhouse in order ﾖ get heat restored, get the plumbing restored ﾖ so that come 2013, that will be base camp that we will be operating out of for all of our visiting volunteers coming from outside the community,ﾔ Connor said.

For more information on the services provided by Almost Heaven Habitat for Humanity, visit www.Almost HeavenHabitat.org