City of Middlesboro adopts new Strategic Plan from KLC

Published 10:55 am Friday, August 1, 2025

The City of Middlesboro adopted its new strategic plan during their July meeting after seeing a presentation by Tad Long and John Buchanan from the Kentucky League of Cities.

“We enjoyed our time visiting here, working here and getting to know the people here and we are excited about the plans for the future as well as the things you have going on right now,” Long said.

The plan was put together after a public meeting last summer at the Community Center where everyone could throw out ideas based on the city’s strengths and weaknesses, wants and needs. That was followed up with a meeting at city hall where Long gave a preliminary overview of where the plan was going to make sure he was on the right path.

“We, of course, looked at the history of the community, there are a lot of very interesting things that could be used to build upon in the future,” Long said.”We met at the Community Center, we did interviews, we went to the high school — we got a lot of input.”

The plan focuses on four areas: economic development, community health and wellness, drawing the core identity of the community and housing development.

Buchanan shared more information on economic development and what needs to be focused on in that area.

“Small business development is number one. Finding the right business mix for the city and exploring options for business incentives, possibly revitalizing downtown along Cumberland Avenue, bringing new retail and new restaurants to 25E and really bringing that local mix to the city,” he said.

Buchanan said the approach to traditional economic development, such as industry and manufacturing, is for Middlesboro to take a regional approach.

Long said a big part of developing the downtown area was getting a list together of what spaces are available, how much square footage is available and what the costs would be for potential renters.

“If I come to Middlesboro and said I would really like to put in an escape room and I’m going to need about 7,000 square feet. Can you tell me the building right now? Can you tell me the cost?” he asked. “You need to know what you have and what the costs are so you can help people determine if they can operate a business here.”

Buchanan also spoke about sustainable infrastructure, becoming more energy efficient and helping the next generation of entrepreneurs who come up by learning trades to develop.

In community health and wellness, he mentioned all of the parks and recreation opportunities in and around Middlesboro including the National Park, State Parks and forests.

He suggested providing access to visitors and residents to explore what has long been known as The Crater City as well as working with Boone’s Ridge on marketing.

“You should let people know to come and enjoy Boone’s Ridge have fun out there, but Middlesboro is where you come to spend the night, have a good meal, things like that,” Buchanan said.

He also mentioned promoting the Middlesboro Country Club, which is the oldest continuously played golf course in the country and Wasioto Winds golf course at nearby Pine Mountain State Park.

The Middlesboro Healthway is another new potential project identified in the plan.

“This would be a shared use biking and walking trail that could go through downtown and around the city to connect points of high value and high interest,” he said. “I would also give the potential for promoting healthy lifestyles and things like that.”

Buchanan also suggested creating a marketing position to promote all of the great things and amenities in the city and around it.

Long also spoke about the city having a core identity and how important that is to branding.

He suggested that Middlesboro embrace its proximity to LMU and market itself as “America’s next great College Town.”

“It takes a little work, it takes a little creativity, it takes a lot of communication and a lot of collaboration,” Long said. “If that’s something that interests you, I think it’s ripe for the picking.”

He noted that Middlesboro has several different brands such as Crater City and Magic City and shared a story from a trip to Montana a few weeks ago at an economic development conference for rural communities.

“Someone brought up Middlesboro, they had been here. Another person said: ‘Yeah, it’s built inside a crater.’ Another one said, ‘Have you seen that golf course they’ve got?.’ Someone else said, ‘Yeah, and it’s at the Cumberland Gap.’” Long said. “Someone else said, ‘Why did they get all the branding stuff?’ I think sometimes it’s hard, when we’re close to something, to see it for what it is.”

Long also touched on housing and finding ways to do some creative things with housing.

“Not just traditional one and two story family homes. Maybe consider some higher density homes or retirement homes that are grouped together,” he said. “This is not something that the city has to do. The city can lead the charge, but this is an opportunity that would be ripe for project developers.”

Long said the strategic plan has a lot of wonderful things in it, “but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t take a step. I would challenge you and the community to latch on to one thing and do one, then two, three, four, five and six will be easier.”

Mayor Boone Bowling said he really appreciated the time and effort Long and Buchanan put into the strategic plan.

Councilman Brad Cawood said he liked that the plan includes step-by-step actions needed to complete each potential project.

The council voted unanimously to adopt the Strategic Plan as it was presented