BROOKE COUNTY, W.Va. — BHJ Planning Commission Executive Director Mike Paprocki updated the Brooke County Commission Tuesday on two projects seeking to move the Ohio Valley forward.

Armed with news and monetary figures, Paprocki made an announcement about the Market Street Bridge that seeks to help speed up the project.

“We have been in communication with the Department of Highways,” Paprocki said. “We’ve talked to senior management, the secretary of transportation and his staff, and we’re eager to allocate some dollars to the project. “I want to start a planning project. “It would be a location study.”

In trying to get this money from the Department of Highways, how much could be allocated to help speed up progress on the bridge?

“They are considering the possibility of programming up to $1.8 million to start that process,” Paprocki said.

Paprocki also discussed plans to help increase employment opportunities in the area after plant closures in recent years.

“On the brownfield program, we have been involved with the Business Development Corporation and the Jefferson County Port Authority,” Paprocki said. “We’ve been involved in a coalition seeking grants for brownfield; it started in 2015.”

Now, almost a decade later, the project continues to move forward.

“Since then, we have surveyed, evaluated, evaluated and planned the redevelopment of approximately 75 different sites in Brooke, Hancock and Jefferson counties,” Paprocki said.

“The big site we’re really excited about is Form Energy. That was one of the first sites we got involved with.”

Paprocki believes both the bridge and the brownfield project can only mean positive things for the area.

“We would like to do a generational change in the area,” he said.