Corbin Tourism Director abruptly resigns Tuesday

Portia Flowers-Gosser, who had been serving as Corbin Tourism Director since January, resigned Tuesday after a closed-door session of the Tourism Commission. No reason was given for her resignation.

Corbin Tourism’s experiment with two directors came to an abrupt end Tuesday night as Portia Flowers-Gosser tendered her resignation.

The Tourism Commission held a special called meeting to discuss personnel. After calling the meeting to order, the commission immediately went into executive session. Flowers-Gosser, who had been serving as Director of Tourism for the last seven months, was asked to remain and speak with the commissioners.

After almost 45 minutes, Flowers-Gosser stormed out the door, stopping long enough to tell the media they could expect a statement from her attorney.

Upon returning to regular session, Commission Chair Alan Onkst read a statement that the commission had unanimously approved a motion to accept Flowers-Gosser’s resignation, effective immediately.

“The Corbin Tourism Commission would like to wish Ms. Gosser the very best and thank her for her service,” according to the statement.

Onskt declined to comment when asked what had led to the resignation.

Flowers-Gosser and Associate Director Maggy Kriebel were hired in January.

A native of Russell Springs, Flowers-Gosser served as Executive Director for the Tourism Commission and the Chamber of Commerce in Russell County and worked as Marketing Director for the state dock at Lake Cumberland. She’s also worked for Dale Hollow State Resort Park.

Flowers-Gosser was tasked with overall supervision of the agency along with: strategic long-range planning; grant writing and seeking grants; reporting directly to the tourism commission; was to be the direct contact for the Arena manager, regional and state tourism officials along with local political leaders and representatives of the local lodging and restaurant industries; was in charge of marketing and public relations, and assisted in the annual budget process.

During her time in Corbin, Flowers-Gosser had focused on getting the word out about Corbin, establishing the Corbin Tourism Facebook page, developing a new brochure for Corbin Tourism and working to update and activate the Corbin Tourism website.
In addition, Flowers-Gosser had been making regular trips to network with tourism directors from across the state.

Kriebel, who has been leading the effort to overhaul and update the railroad museum, overseeing the commission’s efforts to complete the construction of Sanders Park, and organizing the children’s events at Nibroc remains with the commission.

Onkst said he contacted Kriebel following the meeting Tuesday and advised her to assume the day-to-day office duties.

Kriebel’s title will remain associate director.

Onkst said there are currently no plans to begin a search for a new director.