Tourism approves interpretive plaques for Sanders Park

Corbin Director of Tourism, Maggy Kriebel, holds up an informational poster showing what signs in Sanders Park will look like.

KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders is known around the world and while the Corbin Tourism Commission had a large hand in completing work on the park that bears his name, the planned interpretive panels detailing his story remain missing.

The tourism commission took the first step toward adding the panels during its regular meeting Tuesday night when it approved Tourism Director Maggy Kriebel’s proposal.

Kriebel presented the commissioners with a sample of an 18×24 inch panel based on information and photos she had gathered.

Along with pictures of Sanders, the panels detail his life and provide interesting facts and figures.

“Sanders Park is a huge asset to the city as well as downtown Corbin,” Kriebel said adding she has placed rack cards about the park at the original KFC on U.S. 25W.

Kriebel explained that while an increasing number of tourists will drive downtown and stop to have a picture taken with the statue, the park needs something that will cause the tourists to linger.

“We have to find ways to keep people at the park,” Kriebel said explaining that extra time causes them to look beyond the park and increase the chances that they will seek out something to eat, drink or buy.

Kriebel said the eight panels would be arranged around the park with two panels attached to each of the four planters that surround the statue.

Hinkle Printing would make the panels with an estimated cost of $1,200 to $1,500.

“That is for the panels, the brackets, the installation and everything,” Kriebel said.

The panels will have a protective covering that will allow them to be wiped clean should they be spray-painted.

“I think it will be classy and still achieve our objective,” Kriebel said.

Kriebel said the plan is to have the plaques made and installed within a month.

“The tourist doesn’t have the same knowledge and experience as a local. This is one of our assets that we promote to bring visitors into our community and generate revenue,” Kriebel told the commission.