EXTRA CONTENT: ’20/20 Vision Plan’ for Corbin released, discussed Tuesday

View Corbin’s 20/20 Vision Plan by clicking here.

The Corbin Officer of Economic Development has a vision for the future of Corbin.  One that includes specific goals in five different areas: Diversity, education, public relations, tourism and economic development.

This plan, officially called the city’s 20/20 Vision Plan, was unveiled Tuesday at the monthly Corbin Chamber of Commerce general membership luncheon, held at the Corbin Center for Technology and Community Activities.

In the plan, the goals for Corbin are broken down one by one, assigning a leader, an objective, a strategy, action steps, timeframe and resources available in the five different aforementioned areas.

The discussion was led by Corbin Director of Economic Development, Bruce Carpenter along with Grace on the Hill United Methodist Church pastor Tim Thompson, also a part of the 18-member Vision Committee that worked on distilling feedback from the community assessment into a plan.

"We need a paradigm shift of cooperation. We need to forget about stuff that happened on a ball field 30 years ago and work together and achieve our goals," Thompson told the crowd.

The plan also outlines internal strengths and weaknesses of Corbin. Some of the strengths include available land, available workforce, school performance, low cost of living, a 5,000-seat Exposition Center and last but not least, tourism assets. Some of the weaknesses include lack of regional cooperation, lack of ethnic diversity, low number of recent business expansion, lack of openness to ‘new’ people and lack of a full-time Tourism Director.

"I think this is a very positive message. I agree with the strengths and weaknesses, they are something we can all work on. We all need to come together," said Corbin Forcht Bank employee, Ola Croley from Williamsburg.

The plan started as a community assessment survey conducted by the non-profit Kentucky Association for Economic

Development (KAED). The program was funded through a $10,000 grant received from the Center for Rural Development and matched by the Corbin Chamber of Commerce. The plan was developed through a series of four-hour meetings over the course of eight weeks between facilitators and local civic, business and government leaders. Eastern Kentucky University Facilitation Services Specialist, Karen Russell, was brought in to help with the process.

"We were very impressed with what she found for us," Carpenter said.

"Everyone who sat on the board was a big help to the process, not just Russell. We appreciate everyone’s input and time spent on this process."

The committee anticipates some resistance from the community, but suspects everyone will get on board eventually.

"You may ask the question, do you want this change to happen. Well, do you want to grow or do you want to die? Anything that is not growing is dying," Thompson said.

But there are already many people ready for change.

"We are living in one of the best well kept secrets in the State. It seems like there is more unity in Corbin now than in the past," said Jim Dorn, an employee at L&N Federal Credit Union. "We are all the same people whether we realize it or not."

Carpenter ended with a reminder that the whole process will have been a waste of time and effort if we do not move forward with the recommendation in the plan.

Thompson advised that open mindedness is vital to bring about the change needed to set Corbin in the right direction.