Pike county's most certifiable community is now certified. After several years of intensive cat herding and hoop jumping, Elkhorn City became the seventh Kentucky Trail Town yesterday.
There's a sign on the way.
You'd be surprised how many meetings it takes to get certified. Meetings are the currency of folks who certify things and having a lot of meetings requires meetings to get ready for meetings. Those meetings have to be certified which takes more meetings.
We're a small group and meetings require people, but the Task Force is a band of hardened meeting veterans who can meet and meet and meet with the best of them. We found an EKU professor who could out-meet Tim Belcher to ride herd on things and our certification success was guaranteed.
If you count up all the meeting minutes you'd quickly get to days and soon months. It seemed like the effort took years. That's because it took years. We started in 2011.
I hope it was worth it. I think it was.
On Thursday we heard from dignitaries who are true believers in the potential of tourism as an economic force in Elkhorn City. Their words come with promises. Becoming a Trail Town means a commitment from the state. That commitment could be the difference between just hanging on and flourishing for local businesses.
The commitment is apparent when you learn Elkhorn City hosts two events in the Kentucky Outdoor Adventure Games series: The Cloudsplitter 100 foot race and the Lord of the Fork whitewater race. We're the only location hosting two events.
But it's still up to us to create an environment where business can take advantage of the stream of adventurers who pass through here. That doesn't matter if they're boaters, hikers, atv riders, bicyclers, anglers, bird watchers, hunters, cruisers, campers, or those adventurous theater lovers. They all will spend money if you give them an opportunity to spend it.
The majority of folk in Elkhorn City see this and are for it. Who wouldn't be proud to live in a place folks from all over the world want to come hang out? Elkhorn loves visitors and always has.
Yet, this is Elkhorn and there's an undercurrent that raises it's head on anti-social media, the "Elkhorn's never gonna have nothin" crowd. The "nothing's ever gonna change around here" gang who fight change tooth and nail. Some just don't want to see somebody else make a buck.
I've heard a lot of thin-air tales about trails and rivers and theaters and atvs from people who could blow up an onion sack. We're a creative bunch and the "nothing's ever right" brigade can cook up tall tales with the best. They're just 98% wrong.
I encourage my fellow Elkhornians to get involved. Come to a Heritage Council gathering or go to a City Council meeting. Find out what's really happening before you get tricked by somebody who knows nothing's Facebook rant.
Being the seventh Trail Town is just marketing. It's the combination of all our assets that will make us.
We still have things to do, decisions to make. We've been certified. Now we're committed.