Economic Development Planning Sources for Elkhorn City!

The Elkhorn City Area Heritage Council is hosting a YourTown workshop on November 1 -2, 2011 in Downtown Elkhorn City, Kentucky. The workshop is made possible by grant form the National Endowment for the Arts and is a followup to our workshop in 2005.

I thought I would write-up a post for all the folks in Elkhorn City who are working on economic development plans and other city planning ideas.  This would also be a great reference resource for the Workshop.

Here is a list of all the plans that reference Elkhorn City, Kentucky

How about a link to my post on the Ten Things Elkhorn City must do to Thrive.

• The 2011 Elkhorn City Master Plan Document, Drafted by Citizens and Big Sandy ADD.
• The 2008 Elkhorn City Strategic Master plan draft.
• The Elkhorn City Area Heritage Council’s In River Whitewater Playpark Initiative development plan for the Russell Fork in Downtown EC.
• The Elkhorn City Renaissance Map.
• The Russell Fork River Connect Trail Plan appendix on the Economic Impact of Whitewater parks.
• The Elkhorn City Public Art Plan drafted in 2005.
• THe Elkhorn City Area Heritage Councils original development plan for EC.
• The Elkhorn City Main Street Mission Vision and Goals.
• A document showing traffic counts for Elkhorn City.
• A document showing The Economic Impacts of River Recreation.
• A Comprehensive Plan for  Elkhorn City written by Roger Copley, in September 2011

Are are some links to Regional and Area Planning documents for reference.

The Big Sandy Regional Adventure Tourism Plan, January 2009 by Big Sandy ADD.

Governor Beshear’s four-year plan for Appalachia entitled, Appalachia Tomorrow 2009-2013.  Showing the benefits of adventure tourism.

A Great Day to Get Wet!

Sunday, July 10th,  2011, was a beautiful day in Elkhorn City and a good day for our little tourism industry.  Ratliff’s Hole was full of people using the Russell Fork River.  I saw 42 different paddlers in the river and 50 plus swimmers.   The most interesting sight was the two folks using an air mattress and running down the river from the put in down to the play hole.  They were having a blast, as was everyone using the river that today.

Last week, I saw two boaters from Alaska eating at the Rusty Fork Cafe.  This morning I saw 13 boaters eating at the Rusty Fork.  Today the license plates in the parking lot where from Fayette County, Jefferson County, Letcher County, Boyd  County, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

     What amazes me about this is I saw about  8 locals at Ratliff’s Hole and only two of them using the river.  Everyone else was  out of county or out-of-state.  Just like a prophet is not known in his or her hometown, the cleanest and most beautiful river in the eastern United States isn’t either.  It makes me sad that we have such  a great asset and it seems that most of the local people have no appreciation for  it.  Well, I guess they are all in South Carolina keeping Myrtle Beach in business.  I heard that at the end of the month of July, South Carolina has  to bring in the heavy equipment just to get the coal dust off the beach!

     Another  area of adventure tourism Elkhorn City is seeing some benefits from is the Transamerica  76 cross-country bike Trail.   Today, I also saw 5 bicyclists coming through town on the Transamerica Trail.  Earlier in the week a group of 10 came through and a couple  of them had some mechanical breakdowns.  This has happened a lot this year.  It really points out the need for a small bicycle shop in town.  We used to have one back in the early 1990′s and it did pretty well.  In fact, I bought my bicycle from “Bike Mike” at the Mountain Bike Shop.  It was next to the post office on one side of the old Western Auto  building.

Today reinforced to me they need for the Elkhorn City to develop the Russell Fork River in its downtown.  The Elkhorn City Area Heritage Council has a detailed plan regarding a whitewater in river play park for the downtown area.  I can imagine 100 times  the activity I saw today at Ratliff’s Hole right in the middle  of  downtown Elkhorn City when it is completed.  You can find the plan here and it is well worth the read.  Take a look and let me know what you think.

10 Things Elkhorn Must do to Thrive!

Downtown Elkhorn City

10 Things Elkhorn Must do to Thrive!

Here is my list of things that Elkhorn City should do to Thrive.  Elkhorn City needs to prepare for new US 460 and be ready to capitalize on its construction and make sure people take the Elkhorn City exit.

This list is no holds barred.  Some of my close friends will not like some of items on this list, but in my opinion they still need to be done.  Some will notice some big topics are missing from this list, but rest assured, if we can get these things done swimming pools and other great things will come.

1.      Establish a Local Tourism and Convention Commission.

2.      Establish a comprehensive Zoning Plan

3.      Elkhorn City must continue to Annex Key property around the new US 460.

a.       All state owned property should be  annexed and more of John Moores Branch.

b.     The City should annex all the way up  Little Beaver Creek along the ridge between Beaver and Ferrells Creek.

c.      The City should annex all of Dunleary Bottom and both of the hollow at Dunleary.  Jesse Rowe  will sign into the City by agreement.

4.      Elkhorn City must clean up!

a.      The City Streets must be clean.  This needs to be a regular maintenance project.  We have been doing pretty good, but more can be done.  The Stone Company needs to pinch in here as well as the Coal Companies.

b.      The dilapidated buildings.  Some were done before the last election.  This needs to continue.

5.      Elkhorn City must reassess property tax values.  This has to be done.  There are too many pieces of property that are being held on too with tax values of 3000.00 – 5000.00 but if you ask for a price to buy the lot the owners wants 75,000.00.  I know this has happened to me on 4 different occasions.  Allowing this to happen robs Elkhorn City of its potential.

6.      Elkhorn City must get a Community Development Block Grant and develop Pine and Main Streets.  This has been talked about for years.  It has to be done now.  The City needs to move the City Hall and County office to Main Street or Pine Street.  This will help foot traffic downtown.

7.      Once the Local Tourism and Convention Commission is established Elkhorn City must pass a 3% restaurant tax.  This tax under state law can only be used to market the town and sustained the Tourism Commission.  The restaurants do not pay the tax, the patrons do.  I have never understood why people go to Pikeville and welling pay a meal tax but if it is mentioned in Elkhorn City they go crazy.  The City should also set a hotel room tax and get ready for develop.  Moore’s Motel already pays this tax to the County.  If we had a Local Tourism Commission it would be paid to EC.

8.      Elkhorn City must build the in river Whitewater Play park that the Heritage Council has started.  This would be a huge draw to downtown and would be key in making sure people do not just drive by on 460.  These parks work.  Everywhere they are built the have a huge economic impact on the local community.

9.      Elkhorn City must continue its Public Art Plan.  Elkhorn City must continue to promote ACT and other individual and public Art initiatives.  The murals and the Blue Line Trail need to be extended.  The riverfront area needs to be keep up as it has been recently.

10.   Elkhorn City must find a way to address most of its public sidewalks.  The old sidewalk to the old school building should be rebuilt.  The highway department took it out after a gravel truck from Elkhorn Stone wrecked and destroyed the guardrail.  There must be a public sidewalk from the new Pike County Housing complex and downtown.

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