Nitro's new Robert C. Byrd Boat Launch will become the focus of many community activities, if Kelly Pruett, executive director of the Nitro Convention and Visitors Bureau, has anything to do with it. The bureau will christen the $400,000 facility this weekend with a bass fishing tournament.

Plans call for the dock just downstream from the ramp to become a stopping point for the sternwheeler Spirit of West Virginia.

The facility has paved parking for up to 72 boat-vehicle combinations, and a gravel overflow lot that can accommodate at least that many more.