Arthurdale Heritage received $5,000 to conduct surveys, hold open forums and do assessments on the former school buildings built in the 1930's.

It plans to post online surveys on its Web site to see what community members and parents and students at Valley Elementary School would like.

"There are numerous environmental issues that have to be taken care of properly before we can move forward," said Jonas Knotts, Arthurdale Heritage.

"This will help identify those and it will also help us to give the community an input in terms of what do they really want to see once these buildings are fully restored," he said.

FOCUS stands for the Foundation for Overcoming Challenges and Utilizing Strengths and distributes its grants through West Virginia University.