Mercer County Commissioners

President Archer serves as the Region I representative.

Term: January 1, 2017 – December 31, 2022
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William R. “Bill” Archer is a Republican, District I representative and newest member of the three-person Mercer County Commission. Commissioner Archer has never held a public office of any kind before, but he has devoted many years of his life to community service and hopes to continue that work in his present position.

“My dad was orphaned as an infant and raised in an orphanage,” Commissioner Archer said. “He was adopted in his mid-teens, worked as a ‘Gandy dancer’ for the B&O Railway, but did not find his identity until he joined the U.S. Army in 1942. In combat as a buck sergeant, he learned that there are no Atheists in a foxhole and that service and brotherhood are lifelong commitments. He shared that as well as his passion for writing with me.” His father, Carl Wesley Archer, had a post-World War II poem published in Readers Digest.

Mr. Archer grew up on a farm in southwestern Pennsylvania and graduated from McGuffey High School in Claysville, PA in 1967. He was a three-year letterman in football, but enjoyed baseball even more. However, a motor scooter wreck during his senior year ended any athletic or military dreams he may have had. While college had not been a priority before the wreck, it impacted his direction in life. Washington & Jefferson College offered to honor a football scholarship, but Commissioner Archer also applied to Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia University. Ultimately, he selected WVU because it was the first school to start classes and he was tired of working at Green Cove Farms, an experimental Charolais cattle farm.

Although it took five and one-half years, Archer worked his way through school at a truck stop, construction laborer and contractor and earned a degree in English from WVU in 1972. He got a job driving tractor-trailer hauling steel east of the Mississippi River, was a bus driver at WVU, stationary engineer at the Morgantown Energy Technology Center, bar doorman at the old Bluefield Holiday Inn, maintenance mechanic for the Bluefield Sanitary Board, communications coordinator at Bluefield Community Hospital, executive editor of the Twin State Marketer/Observer and senior editor of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. Bill and his wife, Evonda live in Bluefield. They have three children, Dannie Morgan, Adrienne Murray and Coleen Martinez and six grandchildren. Mr. Archer has authored nine pictorial history books of Mercer County and surrounding communities and continues to perform songs with Karl Miller, his musical partner of 29 years. He believes that God has brought him through unspeakable challenges in life and he believes that God has led him to this new position of public service.

Commissioner Blankenship represents Mercer County’s District II.

First Term: January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2030

Brian Blankenship, a lifetime registered Republican, grew up in the coalfields of Southwest VA near Honaker.  He is the son of parents William Blankenship, retired coal miner, and Cathy Blankenship, retired Tazewell County school teacher.

Brian attended Honaker High School and went on to earn his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentrated Minor in Economics from UVA at Wise, VA in 1994.

His professional career started out with Roses Department stores in Richlands, VA which ultimately pointed him in the right direction after college to enter into their management program and brought him to Mercer County during the summer of 1995.   There he spent the next couple of years as Asst. manager for the Princeton location and ultimately his very own store in Chatham, VA with Roses Express.  Even though he started out in Retail, he knew a bigger and brighter future was in store.

Late 1998, early 1999 came the opportunity to come back to Mercer County and become a bank manager with One Valley Bank in Princeton.  A brand new concept at the time for One Valley Bank was to place their first only “retail friendly” bank inside a Kroger supermarket.  With Brian’s extensive management background with Roses Department stores, One Valley Bank knew he was a perfect fit for this new banking experience.  They went on to perform very well, increasing market share with even more retail deposits and loan portfolios for Mercer County’s One Valley Bank division.  During this same time, Brian also started dedicating his life to volunteer at the Green Valley/Glenwood volunteer fire department to serve his community as a volunteer firefighter over the following 6 years and had earned firefighter of the year in 2004.

Then came the merger with BB&T which brought more opportunities.  Brian obtained his Series 6 and 63 license and became a Financial Services Officer catering to higher net worth bank clients for a wide range of financial services.  After a short while he went on and earned a Series 7 Registered Representative securities license and worked with clients to sell a wide range of securities products as a Registered Representative with BB&T Investments.

After several more years, he was called to fill a need as an executive Vice-president under the Railroad division with Cleco, Inc. in Rosedale, VA.  This required much traveling across several states to railyards for coal and freight lines such as Norfolk Southern who engaged in the company’s services.  He always dreamed of coming back to serve in Mercer County, that he had grown to love and enjoy.  Then came a phone call from the City of Princeton Fire Department for an open professional firefighter position.

That phone call in 2008 brought Brian back to Mercer County and the City of Princeton Fire Department, where he spent another 6 years learning the trade even more extensively and earned his EMT-B license, Hazmat Technician and all applicable firefighting certifications to perform this job.  Having previously served our communities as a volunteer with Green Valley/Glenwood VFD he fit right in and enjoyed his newest professional career.

Brian went on through the years and utilized his financial background to become the City’s Chief Financial Officer from 2014 to 2020 and currently performs as its Human Resource Director to present day.  Having never held a public seat before he knew that the newest county commission office was a new chapter in life and was excited to serve his county with an extensive career stemming from retail, banking, investments, civil and public service for nearly 30 years and counting to bring that level of experience to the county seat.

One of his passions is volunteering his time to support the Boy Scouts as a former Scoutmaster and currently as District Chair.  He also volunteers and belongs to the Princeton Rotary and the Spanishburg Ruritan Club.  He lives in the Glenwood community with his wife Gaye, and proud father to their son, Blake.

Commissioner Puckett serves as the Region III representative.

First Term: January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2020
Second Term: January 1, 2021 – December 31, 2026
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Greg Puckett is a native southern West Virginian with a passion for community! As an alumnus of Princeton Senior High School and Concord College, Greg has worked diligently with communities across the country to bring in special projects and initiatives in the hopes of preventing the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs amongst youth and their families. He has also been an integral part of several community revitalization and conservation initiatives.

Although he has held a number of positions in the local community prior to serving as County Commissioner, he is currently the Executive Director of Community Connections Inc. (CCI) (the County’s Family Resource Network), where he continually reaches across county and state lines to help guide the prevention and community building process. As such, he currently serves (or has previously served) on several state committees including the Governors Committee on Crime, Delinquency and Correction: Juvenile Justice Subcommittee, Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service, the Governor’s Tobacco Prevention Taskforce, and is one of a team of local businesses and individuals passionately dedicated to revitalization and economic stabilization through the Princeton Renaissance Project (a partnership with the West Virginia HUB initiative).

Since being elected as County Commissioner in November 2014, Greg has worked in cooperation with other Commissioners to re-establish the Mercer County Planning Commission, expanded the litter control efforts to establish the nationally recognized and award winning Keep Mercer Clean Campaign, established tighter policies and ordinances to insure accountability, and, worked to pay off the county debt to our regional jail. Together, the Commission has invested nearly $2 million into our county park, worked to expand technology within the courthouse, formulated funding to local law enforcement to gain competitive balance, increased economic mobility, and bolstered new and strengthened existing community based partnerships.

He currently serves on the Mercer County 911 Board of Directors, Board member with the Mercer County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, a former member of the Mercer County Planning Commission, and has actively promoted the expansion of the King Coal Highway. He serves on the Board of the Region One Planning and Development Council and has been added to the County Commission Association of West Virginia (CCAWV) Board of Directors and Legislative Committee.

Greg serves the county nationally on the Board of Directors with the National Association of Counties (NACo), and is former Chair of the Rural Action Caucus, the largest representation of rural county government in the Country. He is currently Chair of NACo’s Programs and Services Committee, Vice Chair of NACo’s Healthy Counties Initiative, and was previous Chair of the Mental Health Subcommittee. He serves as Vice Chair on NACo’s Arts and Culture Subcommittee, and has served at one of only ten County Commissioners on the National Opioid Taskforce (a partnership with the National League of Cities), and is one of 20 Commissioners currently serving on NACo’s economic Mobility Taskforce, as well as a pioneer member of the Building Resilient Economies in Coal Communities (BRECC) initiative.

Greg was formerly on the National Coalition Advisory Committee for CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) and served as Secretary of the Board of Directors for seven years. He works in close partnership with Federal Legislators and other national organizations such as the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to carry out a host of national initiatives and pilot programs.

In January 2025, Commissioner Puckett achieved his National Prevention Certification (Level II), ranking him as one of only 25 Prevention Specialists in the state, and has been an “Expert Panelist” with the West Virginia First Foundation, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of opioid settlement funding in WV.

In July 2021, Commissioner Puckett was awarded the National Public Leadership in the Arts Award for County Arts Leadership by the Americans for the Arts.

In May 2020, Commissioner Puckett was awarded the Louis Gorin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rural Health by the National Rural Health Association. This national award was in response to his efforts in local, statewide, and national advocacy for the betterment of overall public health.

He is proud father of two kids (Lauren and Joseph) that keep him dedicated to making positive change happen, and leaving a legacy for the next generation to follow.