Published: May 16, 2008 09:42 am            

Corbin Main Street wins big

award money to be used for downtown improvements

Corbin’s Main Street program won second place and a $50,000 prize for downtown improvements during the TOUR Southern & Eastern Kentucky awards dinner Thursday evening in Somerset.

Fifteen Corbin residents and city leaders were on hand during the “Unmask Your Potential” dinner at the Center for Rural Development.

Corbin had applied for $100,000 worth of CITY (Community Initiatives in Tourism for You) funds for facade improvements to downtown businesses, and the second place win means that half of those projects will be funded.

The award announcement was kept secret until the end of the dinner.

“I thought I was going to faint,” said Main Street Manager Sharae Myers. “And I was deeply touched by the comments that they had presented that my community had shared about the work I had done.”

When announcing Corbin’s award, Jeff Crowe, director of program development for Tour SEKY, said one downtown pharmacist called the Main Street manager “our light of hope.”

“The application was excellent,” said Vicki Kidd, president/CEO of TOUR SEKY, of Corbin’s win, “but that’s not what sold it. The downtown people are who sold it.”

Kidd said she visited downtown businesses, including S&J Designs, where she said the owners told her, “we need the money, but with or without the money, we’re going to make something happen.”

She also said Corbin’s downtown business owners showed a strong sense of the community working together.

“When you see a community behind you, you can accomplish anything,” Kidd said.

TOUR, a federally-funded initiative of U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers, had received more than $2 million in requests from across 5th Congressional District for $180,000 in CITY funds.

This was the first year that Corbin participated in TOUR programs throughout the year to be eligible to apply for the TOUR money.

“Corbin’s application told a story,” Crowe said. “Everything they talked about in their application, we saw (on Main Street.)”

Crowe said representatives from TOUR walked Corbin’s downtown and were impressed with the attitudes they encountered.

“I think that it gives our citizens and the people on Main Street hope and faith in our program,” added Commissioner Dennis Lynch, who attended the event. “It lets them know that we’re going to make it, and I can’t say just how grateful I am for it (the grant.)”

Corbin Main Street and TOUR SEKY representatives will work together to determine which of the projects will be funded. Myers said actual improvements — such as signage, awnings and paint — may be seen by the end of the summer.

Williamsburg also received $10,000 in CITY funds toward a historic lighting project for downtown.

In Let’s Paint the Town funds, the city of Barbourville received $4,500 and the city of London received $2,000, and in Community Development Funds, Cumberland Falls State Park received funds for telescopes. In the “We’re in the Pink” amateur photography contest for the annual Redbud calendar, Adam Sulfridge, a University of the Cumberlands students in Williamsburg, won second place and a $150 prize.

The top overall winner of the night was the city of Somerset, which received a first-place CITY award for a children’s botanical garden. In the city’s application, Somerset stated it only needed $70,000 of the traditional $100,000 first-place award to complete the project, which allowed TOUR to give an unexpected $30,000 prize to the city of Middlesboro.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.