Mollohan Earmarks Money for New Vandalia Project

Posted on October 19, 2009

A Vandalia Heritage Foundation theater restoration project in Tucker County continues to enjoy earmarks from Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va.

Mollohan earmarked $150,000 for the Cottrill’s Opera House restoration project, located in Thomas, W.Va. The funding comes from the Fiscal Year 2010 Interior Appropriations Bill, through the National Park Service‘s Save America’s Treasures Grant Program. There are 456 earmarks in the 2010 Interior budget, totaling $467,788,000.

The current Cottrill’s Opera House structure has been in existence since 1902. Despite being called an opera house, the facility was a vaudeville theater serving the local coal mining and lumber communities. Later serving as a movie theater until closing in 1973. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Mollohan first started earmarking money for the project in 1999, when $400,000 was set aside for planning and emergency stabilization for the facility. The project is being supervised by Alpine Heritage Preservation and the Vandalia Heritage Foundation. In 2009 the project received $196,000 from the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development‘s budget appropriations. In 2008 the project received $100,000 from the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.

Vandalia is one of five non-profit groups that have benefited from the majority of Mollohan’s earmarks, including NHDC, MountainMade, the Institute for Scientific Research, and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium. Between 1999 and 2006 Vandalia received 92 percent of their funding from Mollohan earmarks. Mollohan is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for the last three years due to not reporting his income and the funneling of millions of dollars of earmarks to friends and associates. Laura Kuhns, the President and CEO of Vandalia, is a former Mollohan staff member.

Mollohan included two earmarks for the design of a new Army National Guard facility on Fort Boreman Hill in Parkersburg, W.Va. in the 2010 House Military Construction Appropriations Bill. $967,000 was earmarked for a Field Maintenance Shop and $2,234,000 was earmarked for a Readiness Center. The new facility would also double as arena for entertainment events. The Wood County Development Authority is buying a piece of property on the hill for $4 million and recently named Vandalia as the project manager for the site.

In other Mollohan/Vandalia news, a real estate investment involving the Kuhns and Mollohan families is in foreclosure. Chris Stirewalt, Political Editor for The Washington Examiner, reported Thursday afternoon about the defunct investment:

“Of particular note in the Mollohans’ holdings was a beach home worth millions on North Carolina’s Bald Head Island, owned in conjunction with a former staffer who now runs a foundation that has received millions in Mollohan earmarks.

Now, we see that the house is in foreclosure and slated for a courthouse auction next week. You can read the legal notice here.

One theory as to why the Mollohans find themselves in such a strait — the down real estate market took a bite out of all real estate speculators, but with the ongoing federal scrutiny of the congressman’s finances and those of his associates and earmark beneficiaries may have had an effect on the couple’s cash flow.”

Congressman’s questionable real-estate deal now in foreclosure | Washington Examiner

The Kuhns and the Mollohan families are co-investors in beachfront property on Bald Head Island, which had a total value in 2006 of $2 million.