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.

Here’s our signs!

Thanks to the Kentucky Department of Transportation and Sara George’s great follow-up on my earlier blog post, we have some  new road signs in Elkhorn City and Elkhorn Creek.  In fact, I am told that the Trans-America Bicycle route is now signed all the way to the Perry County Line.  I hope the rest of the state follows up and signs the route all the way across Kentucky.

Since my last post regarding the Bike trail we have had about 450 bicyclists come through Elkhorn City since early March.  I only count the ones I see so the number is probably higher as to the total use of the 1976 Trans-America Bicycle Trail.

I see most of them at the local restaurant (402 to be exact) and I have seen a lot of them at the local grocery store, that means they are spending money in the local economy.  If we are having a weekend event in Elkhorn City some of the bicyclists hang around the whole weekend.   Based on my rough estimates I would say that bicyclists have about a $25,000.00 dollar a year impact on Elkhorn City’s economy.

Here’s Your Sign … or Where are all the signs!

Today I met a  nice gentlemen named Andre’ from France.  He and his wife were biking across the United States along the Transamerica Trail.  They had stayed at the Breaks Interstate Park and made it into Elkhorn City about 11:00 a.m.  Every year I talk to numerous bicyclists who come through Elkhorn City along the trail.

My conversation with Andre’ was insightful for two reasons.  One, I enjoy talking to and meeting new people, especially form other countries, and two, Andre’ could not figure out why the TransAmerica Trail had good signage all along the route in Virginia, but as soon as he got into Kentucky there where no signs at all showing the route.

When the trail was first developed, in 1976, there was good signage all along the trial in Eastern Kentucky.  I can remember seeing the signs and I also remember bicyclists staying in the basement of the Elkhorn City Church of Christ.

This brought home to me the fact that we need to do more work to develop our adventure tourism infastructure in Kentucky.    Replacing the signs along the Kentucky section of the Transamerica Trail makes good sense.  It is the type of project that adds value to our tourism infastruture and would not be expensive to complete.  Governor Beasher has made a big push for adventure tourism, it seems to me  that replaces the signs along the Transamerica Trail is a no brainer.

If you feel  the same  way contact  the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and let them know we need to put up signs for our tourist who use the Transamerica Trail.

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

Division of Multimodal Programs

125 Holmes Street, 3rd Floor

Frankfort, Kentucky 40622

502-564-7433

The Transportation Cabinet has put out a nice pdf document on Bicycling in Kentucky and all the Bike Trials in the state you can find it HERE

Related articles

• First Bicyclist of the Year in EC (timbelcher.wordpress.com)

First Bicyclist of the Year in EC

Image via Wikipedia

The first transamerica trail bicyclist have made it into Elkhorn City.  I have been looking out for them all month.   Two fellows headed to San Francisco got into town late on March 30, 2011.  I also keep a count of the total that come thru town each year.  Last, year the count was  754.  I only count them if I see them so the total number has to be greater than 754.

Generally, we start seeing bicyclist around mid March of each year.  It also seems to coincide with the Bradford Pears blossoming each year.  The cyclist travel along the Trans America 1976 Bicycle trial which  was developed in 1976 to celebrate our country’s 200^th birthday, or Bikecentennial. Since then, thousands of cyclists have ridden this 4,200 mile route between Virginia and Oregon along America’s back roads. The Trail is noted for its focus on America’s heartland, scenic diversity, and historical interest.

Related articles

• 10 Things Elkhorn Must do to Thrive! (timbelcher.wordpress.com)