UBB Memorial Nearing Completion

{Whitesville, West Virginia}...Two years after a mine explosion claimed the lives of 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County, workers are nearing completion on a half-million-dollar memorial in Whitesville honoring their memory. Sheila Combs, president of the Upper Big Branch Mining Memorial Group, says the main plaza of the memorial should be completed within a month. The Upper Big Branch Mining Memorial Group raised more than $600,000 in private donations and $250,000 of matching funds from Alpha Natural Resources. A piece of property near Whitesville Elementary School was donated for the memorial. The group broke ground on the memorial on January 25th.