PARKERSBURG -A delegation of local officials got some good news during a visit to Washington, D.C., earlier this week.

Mayor Bob Newell, city development director Ann Conageski, Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority manager Joe Lockhart and Wood County Economic Development Authority officials Keith Burdette and Cam Huffman spent a few days in Washington meeting with congressional officials. The group met with Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., as well as aides for Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

Newell said the group was told the $3.2 million appropriated by Mollohan for the engineering and design of a new National Guard armory is about to be passed. Burdette said the money could be available to the Guard as early as January.

The money includes planning and design for a National Guard readiness center and field maintenance shop. Both facilities would be housed together in a new center that would replace the existing facility on Blizzard Drive.

"The congressman is very confident the money will be approved and signed before the year is out," Burdette said. "It's coming sooner than we thought and we are going to have to move faster as far as figuring out a means to acquire the property."

Officials are hoping to land the new site at Fort Boreman. Wood County Development Authority recently obtained an option to purchase 200 acres near Fort Boreman Historic Park from the McDonough Corp.

The news is a mixed blessing for Burdette who now has a much smaller window to put together the financial backing to purchase the property. He was expecting to have about 10 months to plan the deal. Now, he thinks the development authority will need to have a funding plan in place by the first half of 2010.

"The news is all good from Washington, but it is going to increase our workload and push up our timeframe."

Wood County Development Authority is also working with the city on plans for an events center that would be partnered with the facility.

"That was one of the reasons we were there was to get a time schedule for the armory," Newell said. "The city in particular has to come up with some money for the event part of the conference center. So we need to start making plans as to how we would fund that."

Newell said Byrd's office expressed interest in funding some money to help the city's portion of the project, which is estimated at $5 million to $7 million.

Officials have been working on establishing an armory/civic arena on Fort Boreman for more than two years. If the project becomes a reality, Burdette said the public and private investment in the area could amount to $100 million.

"There isn't another development like it. The potential is as great for a destination complex with shopping and entertainment venue as anywhere in the state or region.

"We have to figure out a way to make all this happen, and I think we will. I just can't tell you how."

Burdette said officials presented Byrd a birthday card and thanked him for his senatorial service to the state. The 91-year-old senator became the longest-serving lawmaker in congressional history Wednesday. He will turn 92 on Friday.

"We are the first from West Virginia to acknowledge those events in his life," Burdette said. "I think he was genuinely touched."