Today, all that is gone. But half of the town's 209 property owners didn't pay them last year. In 1986, Wheelwright's entire utilities commission resigned. Today, council meetings sometimes stray into personal squabbling. At a November session, tempers flared when one faction accused the other of dumping trash at the Little League field.
Community leadership is a challenge anywhere, but especially so in the old coal camps.
The most educated people often move away. Those who remain have little chance to learn self-governance, and poverty can work against the pursuit of common goals. Some camps have had better luck. Just a few minutes from Wheelwright, Weeksbury provided sharp contrast in 1946. Today, a community improvement club has turned things around.