E.Ky. leaders “thinking outside the box” about economic development...

Last week, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Bell County is turned a major goose egg of a county-owned property into what county officials hope will become a golden faberge version of its former self: A large industrial park in Bell County that never attracted a factory will be repurposed as the site of a wildlife center that could be a key tourism attraction, according to local officials. The Pine Mountain Regional Industrial Development Authority has agreed to sell 750 acres to the Appalachian Wildlife Foundation for $750,000, said Mike Bowling, a Middlesboro attorney who chairs the authority. … The foundation plans to develop a campus that would include a conservation center with natural history and taxidermy displays, a theater, a local artisan market, research and conference space, and an astronomy pavilion, according to its website. The county intended the site to become a massive industrial park, complete with recruited factory businesses and the promise of hundreds of jobs. The land was former surface-mined land, and a multi-million dollar bridge was build from U.S. 119 to the site. Since there was nothing on the other side of the bridge for so long, locals dubbed it “the bridge to nowhere.” But now, county officials hope the wildlife center will attract hundreds of thousands of visitors in just a few years, which would bring thousands of dollars into the region. The Herald-Leader is quick to point out that “the decision to use the site for tourism instead of industry reflects the difficulty some Eastern Kentucky counties have...

First official Trail Town in eastern Kentucky wants to develop economy around designation...

By: Ivy Brashear Livingston, Ky., is a small place. At last count in 2010, the total population was 226 people. Main Street isn’t long enough for a single stoplight. Even when the L&N Railroad first came through town in 1870, Livingston stayed small. But the town’s size hasn’t kept its residents from dreaming big. About five years ago, Livingston officials and a core group of residents took action. They wanted to revitalize their small downtown to drum up local pride and make the community more attractive to tourists. They created the Livingston Development Board and developed a master plan for the town. They painted storefronts, improved landscaping, and replaced old, un-lit welcome signs with new solar-powered ones. “We have a lot of goals in mind,” said Livingston Development Board Project Coordinator Lynn Tatum. “This isn’t going to happen overnight. The next five years are going to be real critical. We want to really make some differences.” In 2013, Livingston was designated as the first Kentucky Trail Town in eastern Kentucky, a title that brings with it marketing support from the Department of Travel and Tourism. That’s support that could otherwise cost communities nearly $50,000, a sum most small rural communities don’t have on the books. It’s also support that lends credibility and notoriety to communities trying to find ways to become known as tourism destinations – an invaluable level of support when a community is trying to use that tourism to inject life back into its languid economy. The...

MACED helps create possible new economic model for rural communities...

By: Ivy Brashear The City of Berea in Madison County, Ky., hopes the Berea Artist Accelerator, an innovative new program born of a unique set of partnerships, will help plug the leak of Berea College graduates fleeing town after graduation, and in the process, become a model example for other eastern Kentucky communities. The idea for the Berea Artist Accelerator was developed after city officials approached the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) with a desire to retain freshly graduated artisans and fill empty buildings in Berea’s Old Town, an historic neighborhood whose storefronts have been typically occupied by local artists. They wanted to play to Berea’s strengths and assets as an artisans’ town – a moniker backed by decades of craftspeople living and working in the small town in the Appalachian foothills – and increase local tourism. City officials and MACED approached Berea College with their idea, and the Artist Accelerator was born. “The effort is to really grow businesses locally, develop young talent, and hopefully grow and retain local businesses,” said MACED Enterprise Development Project Specialist Danny Isaacs. “It’s a long term solution to the local economic development problem many small rural communities face.” Once the plan was hatched, a vacant building in Old Town was renovated into a gallery and studio space for participating artists: Gallery 123. Artists can create in the back of the building and sell their work in the front of the building. Artist and program participant Jonathan Clark said this space,...

Kentucky Moonshine Trail? Whitesburg could be the first stop

It looks like downtown Whitesburg, Ky., will soon be home to a legal moonshine distillery, and that’s a good thing. Kentucky has seen recent success with its Bourbon Trail drawing thousands of visitors to the state each year, and it stands to reason that eastern Kentucky could reap similar success with its most famous – and infamous – alcoholic beverage. Not only will the new distillery add more to the local tax base and create new jobs, but it will also draw tourism dollars into Whitesburg, renovate an historic downtown building, and the distillery owner, Colin Fultz, has plans to keep local as much of his operation as possible: “We’re wanting to make a flavored moonshine using locally-grown fruit, corn, everything that we can get local, and hopefully that’s what’s going to help the economy and let everybody that’s in the county benefit that wants to.” Fultz has tapped into something that we need to see more of in eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia: A change in the way we think about economic development. Fultz isn’t trying to bring something into the region; he’s drawing and building from assets that already exist. He’s using those assets to create opportunity for himself, but he’s also thinking about the overall economic health of his community, and making plans to become a support for that community through his business.     We need more entrepreneurs thinking like Fultz, and we need more local leaders taking risks to support them. After all, the region is experiencing a major shift...

Music Festival Helps Small Virginia Town Grow

You might not expect to find some of the biggest names in indie and folk rock playing at a dot on the map in Southwest Virginia, but the town of Floyd is bringing them in. Bands like the Lumineers and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros typically play to sold-out crowds in much bigger cities around the world, but next month they will be joining dozens of other musicians at FloydFest. Music festivals are growing in popularity, but they're typically found in larger metropolitan areas. Floyd has a population of under 500 people – so what effect does an influx of over 10,000 tourists at once have? According to an article in the Roanoke Times, it's a positive one. The owner of the single hotel in town books rooms a year in advance of the festival, and plans to expand. People traveling hundreds of miles for a festival that costs hundreds of dollars generally have money to spend on other amenities. From the article:   “Some people come in the Monday before to get settled and to go around the town,” Wall said. That means they’re spending money, eating and shopping in the area longer than just the festival’s four days. “FloydFest is good for just about everyone here,” said Jim Newlin, a manager of the store Republic of Floyd . “People sometimes come just to get a little break when they visit here. But the businesses prepare for it.” Floyd is no stranger to music – there are typically mountain music jam sessions...

Civic Tourism: Tourism for Communities First

I’ll admit, even though I love to travel, I’d never heard of “civic tourism” before I saw the information about this upcoming conference. Curious, I looked into it a little more and found that it encompasses most of the other types of sustainable tourism many of us are already familiar with, like eco-tourism, agri-tourism, adventure tourism. Here’s a great explanation from this Appalachian Ohio-based Civic Tourism website: [Communities] protect, promote and share the unique assets of their landscapes and communities for themselves first, because they define who they are through the places, stories and local practices they love and respect.   As time goes on, these inspiring local assets and the people who tend to them attract others who wish to experience and support their special character, often times supporting the local economy and its ability to sustain itself over time because of the lasting qualities of unique, treasured places. As more Appalachian communities look to tourism as a way to bolster and diversify their economies, this idea is one that deserves more exploration. During a conversation about tourism at the Brushy Fork Institute, participants in the “Appalachia’s Economic Future” track described places in Appalachia they thought were both successes and failures as tourism destinations. Damascus, Virginia; the Lake Cumberland area, and Berea, Kentucky – places that focus on preserving and promoting assets, that support local businesses and entrepreneurs, and that are hospitable and friendly – were all suggested as models to aspire to. Gatlinburg, Tennessee, with its chain stores, imported...

Drink Local – Appalachian Breweries and Distilleries Making Their Mark...

Need something to wash down your Appalachian-raised burger and fries? There are an increasing number of locally-produced beers, wines and liquors to quench that thirst. Local food might be getting the lion’s share of media attention, but local “adult beverages” are becoming a force in their own right. Dancing Tree Distillery is a new, craft vodka distiller located in Meigs County, Ohio. And not only is it locally-produced, it sources the vast majority of its ingredients locally too. A recent article from the Ohio University’s newspaper, the Post, describes the impact: Larry Cowdery, owner of Cowdery Farms [source of Dancing Tree’s corn], said he is a big supporter of the distillery’s commitment to supporting the local food economy.What (Sauber) is doing with his products is great,” Cowdery said. “By incorporating local ingredients into the products, not only does (he) make them high quality, but he is helping me and other farmers continue to make a living. I can’t thank him enough for that.” Many area restaurants and liquor stores sell Dancing Tree, and tourists will soon be able to stop in at the distillery for a taste. Craft brewing and distilling is a growing niche market in Appalachia. There are more than 25 local breweries in Central Appalachia (and that’s not including the official “Beer City USA” of Asheville, NC), with many more in the works. Liquor distilleries are popping up throughout the region as well, and (legal) moonshine is beginning to making its own mark – Short Mountain Distillery...

We Cannot Wait

Foothills Eco-Agri-Tourism Corporation (FEAT) and the UK Cooperative Extension Service hosted a workshop for entrepreneurs interested in advancing their ideas at Morehead’s Regional Enterprise Center in West Liberty, KY earlier this week (see post for details). Entrepreneurs working in Wolfe, Menifee, Morgan, Elliott Counties were the target audience for the event – but the combination of excellent speakers and networking among creative folks with great ideas drew a crowd from across Kentucky. Peter Hille, Director of Berea College’s Brushy Fork Institute, set the tone for the workshop with a talk entitled “We Cannot Wait.” Hille talked about the lag effect often present between the national economy’s events and the impacts on rural communities, noting that it is possible the brunt of the economic downturn could just be hitting Appalachian communities now. Therefore, according to Hille, we cannot wait for a factory to show up and jump-start community economies – the local opportunities present in each and every community need to take off. Existing resources – capable people networking together to address challenges – need to be tapped to confront challenges in local economies, schools and government. Hille stressed the need for communities to take matters into their own hands – and not wait for outside help from the state or federal government, private foundations, or businesses. One such way for local communities to resource themselves is, according to Hille, exploring the opportunity to create a local community foundation, drawing on contributions of those who have made their lives and...