This is a good attitude... Never in Florida

Location: Middlesboro KY

Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 12:28 pm Post subject: interesting article

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From Steve Bashear's and Daniel Mongiardo's stop in Middlesboro:

"Issue No 5: Tourism

Returning to the subject of the lack of industry in Middlesboro and other parts of southeast Kentucky, Beshear was asked what, he, as governor, would do to help the region’s economy, “starting with the (Middlesboro) crater and working your way out.”

“We want to refocus our economic development efforts in the state,” he said. “Right now, about all the state does is go out of state and try to find some out-of-state corporations and convince them to move to Kentucky. We offer them tax incentives and tax breaks. They agree to come here and create so many jobs. They move here and more often than night, in five or 10 years, they’ve moved off to Mexico or South America or someplace else because the labor is cheaper. And we seem to target the kind of industry that pays minimum wage jobs, doesn’t pay benefits, and those are ones that most often are going to move anyway. They’re just passing through here to get whatever benefits they can and then they’re going to move on someplace else.

“We think it’s time to refocus our efforts more on our own people and our own businesses and our own industries and our own entrepreneurs. If we can go out the state and offer incentives to out-of-state businesses to move here, why can’t we sit down with our own people and say, “What can we do for you to help you expand, to help you create 10 more jobs or 20 more jobs or 50 more jobs?:” I guarantee that we will create more jobs by working with our own folks from within than spending all of our time chasing some company from someplace else.

“At the same time, we’ll continue to target businesses from other places that fit within our culture, that fit within the way we do things here that have the most opportunity to stay here, and that offer good paying jobs and good benefits. We don’t need to attract any more minimum-wage factories in here because they’re not going to stay here and our folks can’t live on that, anyway. Nobody can.”

Beshear said that the tourism industry is a big part of the answer for not only Middlesboro and southeast Kentucky, but the entire state, as well.

“We’re going to revitalize the tourism industry,” said Beshear, nodding to Mongiardo, who Beshear said has been working on adventure tourism promotion through legislation in the state senate.

“The best answer (for southeastern Kentucky) is to have someone on the ticket that is from southeastern Kentucky,” said Mongiardo, who resides in Hazard. “Someone that understands the culture, what we have here, what are assets are, what our needs are, and how best to put that together. As Steve has mentioned, we have been searching far and wide for jobs to come into this area. We’ve looked so far that we’ve missed what’s right under our noses. And that’s the mountains and the people.”

“The coal industry, through the years, has invested millions of dollars developing a trail system from Bell County through Harlan County through Knox County through Leslie County through Perry County through Letcher County through Pike County that are interconnected,” Mongiardo continued. “We plan on putting together 2,000 miles of interconnected trails, part for (all-terrain vehicles) and four-by-fours, part for horses, part for biking and hiking, and part of it for public hunting. What we want to do is make Kentucky THE adventure-tourism state for the nation. And in so doing, I think that we’ll attract people not only from around the country, but around the world. And it will make Kentucky a destination, and not just a pass-through state.”

Mongiardo said that once this vision is accomplished, it will make tourism “second-largest industry in southeastern Kentucky.”

“In the words of my native language, ‘Ain’t nobody goin’ to take that away from us,’” he said.

Mongiardo used Harlan County, where there is a 7,000-acre ATV park, as an example.

“It’s been named one of the top ATV destinations in the nation already,” he said. “Last year, that park had 60,000 visitors. People who live ‘up the holler’ are starting to build cabins, they’re starting to be mechanics on these four-wheelers, they’re starting to do things that they already naturally know because we already ride four-wheelers, we already ride the mountains. They’re also being tour guides, there’s going to be jobs as far as policing the trails, there’s going to be jobs expansions in the restaurant business ...”

“Hotels,” interjected Beshear. “Camping areas.”

“Entrepreneurial-type jobs,” said Mongiardo.

“Small businesses,” Beshear added.

“The visitors to Harlan County last year that stayed overnight in the limited number of hotels there spent, on average, $187.50 a day,” Mongiardo said, adding that with development and promotion, hunters and campers would come from all over the nation and the world to see the wildlife and enjoy what the region has to offer.