Reports of fraudulent surveyors representing the Williamson Fire Department in the Chattaroy area last week were unfounded Monday. The surveyors were representing Future Generations, a non-profit civil society based out of Franklin in Pendleton County.

“The Williamson Fire Department has helped facilitate Future Generations to bring a computer lab,” said Williamson Fire Chief Jerry Mounts. “Through miscommunication, however, the surveyors had not made the fire department aware they were in the area.”

“The Future Generation Graduate School and the Williamson Fire Department are working together to open a public computer lab with access to high-speed internet for the benefit of the community,” said Traci Hickson, director of communications for Future Generations.

“Last week, a team of surveyors trained by the Future Generations Graduate School and supervised by a Future Generations research officer conducted door-to-door household surveys in the Williamson community to gather baseline data on household computer and internet use,” said Hickson. “These surveys were legitimate and not part of a fraudulent scam as previously reported. We apologize for any confusion or concern.”

Williamson Fire Chief Jerry Mounts apologized for any confusion as well.

The computer lab, when completed, will offer 10 computers with high-speed internet access to the public. Computer mentors, selected by the local fire and rescue squads, will offer weekly computer classes. Other training programs will include: career readiness, E-commerce, disaster preparedness, health and well-being, and online mapping, according to a press release issued in February this year.

Surveys

“We have been living and working in West Virginia for a long, long time and we have always had a sense of wanting to make a difference in our own backyard,” continued Hickson.

Twenty-eight labs will be installed throughout the state with similar labs in the towns of Gilbert and Matewan as well.

The project is made possible with funding support from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and serves to complement $126 million grant received by the West Virginia Department of Commerce to deploy broadband infrastructure to all of the state’s schools, public safety organizations, and libraries.

Hickson hopes to release the survey results in early September.

For more information on the Future Generations Graduate School, visit www.future.edu. A new website will be launched in the coming weeks regarding the project. The website will be located at www.futurewv.org.