Click here to see the Corbin 2020 Vision Team Strategic Plan in its entirety


By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

The results of Corbin's 2020 Vision Team were revealed during Tuesday's Corbin Chamber of Commerce meeting by team member and Grace on the Hill Pastor Tim Thompson.

"Almost a year ago we sat down as a community, our economic development office and some other folks from the city, and wanted to look at establishing a long-term plan for sustained economic growth and development," said Bruce Carpenter, economic development and chamber of commerce director, who introduced Thompson.

Last May, the Corbin Economic Development Agency, through the Kentucky Association of Economic Development, completed an assessment program that included an online survey of the area's strengths and weaknesses.

Carpenter said it was important to follow that survey up with action steps.

"You know you can do all kinds of reports, all those things, and you can put them away in file 13 and forget about them, and really it was a waste of time to do it to begin with," Carpenter said.

To make sure that didn't happen, Carpenter sought and received a $10,000 federally-funded grant from the Center for Rural Development to hire an outside facilitator to conduct the 2020 Vision Plan. The grant, received in December, required $2,500 in matching funds from the chamber of commerce. With the money, the Corbin Economic Development Agency hired Karen Russell with the Facilitation Center at Eastern Kentucky University to head the 2020 Vision Plan.

Thompson said the "2020" plan has a double meaning — having the clarity of 20/20 vision and also having a goal of completing these projects by the year 2020.

"If you're not growing, you're dying, if you're not moving forward, you're probably moving backwards," Thompson said.

The five goals of the group were to improve economic development, increase tourism in the region, provide high quality education, to create a culture in the region where diversity is highly valued, and improve public relations.

Suggestions from the plan include creating a "task force" to develop and promote a "diversity plan", establishing a regional education task force, and establishing an economic development executive committee.

To increase tourism, the plan suggests hiring a tourism director, creating a new tourism Web site, strengthening relationships with Cumberland Falls, and continuing to pursue the Colonel Sanders musical project, which was put on hold after a suitable site couldn't be found for an outdoor amphitheater and one of two men working on the play, Chris Toliver, was murdered in Lexington.

Under economic development, the plan suggests that the Corbin Economic Development Agency host an annual luncheon with regional economic developers, county judges and local economic development boards. It also calls for CEDA to "hire additional personnel to meet office needs."

The plan also suggests that a public relations representative possibly be hired by the city of Corbin.

During Tuesday's luncheon, Thompson talked about the growth seen in northern Kentucky and Newport on the Levee, and what that could mean for Corbin.

"I was just blown away by what I saw up there," he said. "Thirty years ago, Newport — and Covington wasn't very far behind — Newport was the armpit of Kentucky. It was a dump... what it was known for were bars, and strip clubs, and honky tonks, and a few more strip clubs, and a few bars... now, the whole area has radically changed, it's this whole paradim shift."

The Corbin area is far from a "dump," he said, but northern Kentucky's change could be a model locally.

"A paradim shift of cooperation, of seeing the greater good for the whole region instead of all this competativeness... " he said. "We need to get some amesisa, we need to forget about stuff that happened on a ballfield or on a basketball court 30 or 40 years ago..."

The 2020 Vision Team is a group of local business leaders, community members and community leaders — including Carpenter, Thompson, Mayor Willard McBurney, Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr., Main Street Manager Sharae Myers, Tourism Commissioners Suzie Razmus and Steve McBurney, Tom Blair, Erin Blount, David Cox, Cheryl Ellis, Don Estep, Ron Herd, David Myers, Anthony Powers, Joan Rich and Sandra Stevens.

The chamber's original speaker was set to be David Williams, who was unable to appear because of the called special session of the state legislature.