 Santa knows where all the best toys are, and this December many of the Hunter smartphones are just a penny, with service in Appalachian Wireless. Stop by your local Appalachian Wireless to check out all of the great smartphone deals that consistently top the nice lists. This Christmas is truly going to be bigger and better than ever. Better service, bigger savings, that is. That's today's Appalachian Wireless! The Mingo County Redevelopment Authority and Refresh Appalachia announced they will receive over $3.8 million in federal investment funds to develop an aquaponics facility in Kermit, West Virginia, powered by renewable energy on abandoned mine land. The funding is being made available through the federal 2016 Abandoned Mine Lands Pilot Fund. We're not giving up on coal. I believe coal has a great future. We're fighting for every coal job, but we're also looking at opportunities for diversification, and today we're making an announcement of funding for just such a program. The project will utilize geothermal and solar energy to power a 20,000 square foot commercial aquaponics facility. Aquaponics is a process using farmed fish and the waste from those fish to fertilize soil for plant and vegetable growth for local and regional consumers. I think in Mingo County and the coal fields in general, as we try to diversify our economy, we're looking at meeting markets that are already there. One of those is the food market. So in West Virginia, we spend over $6 billion a year in food and produce ourselves less than $1 billion a day. The project will provide employment and training opportunities for laid-off coal miners and others in coal communities of Mingo and Wayne Counties, as well as surrounding areas. I'm just ecstatic. I mean, this is great. We're like everybody else. We're fighting for every dollar and any business that we can get. And this will be a big boost for the company. You know, there's a lot of people that are out of work through the coal density, but there's a lot of people that don't want to work in the coal density. So this might give these people an opportunity to seek employment that have lost their job elsewhere. The facility will provide direct employment for 10 to 12 full-time staff. The construction phase is expected to be completed within the next year. Reporting in Williamson for EKB News, I'm Shelby Steele.