Some exciting new developments that could be coming to the City of Middlesboro were shared during a recent meeting with Tad Long and John Buchanan from the Kentucky League of Cities. They reviewed the framework for the city’s strategic plan with several city officials.

“We’re here to get your feedback in terms of ‘We’ve heard this,’ ‘We’ve already done this,’ ‘Can you add this,’ ‘You can take that out.’ After this meeting we’re going to be pretty heavy into writing the plan,” Long said. “This is just to check in and make sure that we haven’t messed it all up.”

Council members Glynna Brown, Judy Grandey, Terry Poore, Brad Cawood and Dawn Risner attended the meeting along with Mayor Boone Bowling,  City Clerk Sandy Wilson and other community members.
Long and Buchanan put together suggestions for the plan after compiling the data received during a community meeting this summer. Citizens were encouraged to list the city’s strengths and weaknesses, values and what types of economic development and tourism opportunities could work here.

One big idea presented was for a Food Walk along the canal in the city parking lot. Long said about a dozen enclosures could be built to temporarily house food vendors in this area. The spaces could be rented out for a month or during special events to give people who are thinking of opening a restaurant a test run.

“This would be an entertainment kind of space,” he said, adding that the city could bring concerts or use a blow up movie screen in the parking lot to draw visitors and that Food Walk could be in use during the Levitt AMP concert series. “People can use the food walk and then cross over the canal to the brick and mortar businesses that are downtown.”

Another big concept was the idea of branding for the city. Long suggested a duality of branding with using the Crater City concept to draw visitors from around the country and even internationally while using Magic City to draw local residents. “Whatever you decide to go with, go after it with all of your heart,” he said.

Long also suggested the city embrace a core identity around its connection to LMU.

“Cumberland Avenue, America’s next great college town,” he said. “Put out banners for LMU, celebrate game days, do all kinds of activities related to the university. Embrace it, if you’re going to do it. Love the students, love the university, love what they’re bringing to the town and in turn they will love you.”

KLC boiled down all of the suggestions they had received into four focus area: economic development, growing the community’s core identity, housing and community health and wellness.

“If the city can do these four things simultaneously, you should see some significant progress and growth for the future,” Long said.
Long also noted that Middlesboro is within a four-hour drive for 8.5 million people that includes the cities of Nashville, Cincinnati and Atlanta and shared Tourism Cabinet information from 2022 that 76 million tourists visited Kentucky with an economic impact of $8 billion.

Cawood also pointed out that while the city’s population is around 10,000, it has a daytime population that’s closer to 30,000 or 40,000 because of visitors and people who work in Middlesboro but live in Tennessee, Virginia or other areas of Kentucky.

When looking at economic development, Long said the city, Main Street Middlesboro or the Chamber of Commerce should do a complete audit of all current small businesses and compile an inventory list by type, size and ownership. Long said he thought there were about 730 businesses in Middlesboro.

“Once you have that inventory and what sectors they serve, then you can go through it and look for gaps. What are the things that we don’t have that we could have or should have. . . or what are complementary businesses,” Long said. “That’s the kind of analysis I’m talking about trying to do to identify what the potential for business growth is here.”

He said there also needs to be a comprehensive inventory of available square footage for business space in the city and determining what is available for purchase or rent.

“If you don’t know how much you have to market, then how can you grow?” Long said. “If someone approaches you wanting to start up a business and they say I need 2,000 square feet and this is what I want to do with it and here’s the price I’m willing to pay. What do you have?”

He said the answers to those questions need to be easily available to provide help opportunities for economic development.

Another idea was for a 9.5 mile healthway, a walking and biking trail to loop around the city.

“I think you all have touched on some really good points, especially with LMU,” Poore said. “It wouldn’t cost a lot of money and it’s something we could do right away.”

The next step is for the city to come up with their priorities for the plan. It will then be broken down into specific projects that can be completed in one year, two years and so on through the five-year plan.