TVA checks out CRIP
Dr. Elijah Wilson shows TVA inspectors proposals for the Cumberland River Industrial Park (CRIP). Behind him is Junior Cecil, and in the left foreground is Kevin Dailey, two of the founders of Southern Kentucky Distillery (SKD), which was where the meeting took place last Tuesday. The men briefly explained how the BCCIDA had welcomed them to the county and assisted in bringing the distillery here.
By Greg Wells
CCN-Editor
Tuesday morning the team leading consideration of a grant application by the Burkesville Cumberland County Industrial Development Authority flew in to examine the Cumberland River Industrial Park (CRIP).
Meeting them were Dr. Elijah Wilson, chairman of the BCCIDA, Jim Neathery, a board member, County Judge-Executive Luke King and others. The visitors toured the work completed at the site, then went to Southern Kentucky Distillery (SKD) to hear a presentation by Wilson.
Wilson went over the hundreds of thousands already spent getting the land and then leveling part of the site as well as the beginning of an entranceway.
The board is asking the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Economic Development fund for $241,691 to continue the work. The BCCIDA is pledging $103,582 in matching funds for that project.
TVA’s Senior Program Manager for Industrial Development, Bill Anderson, said as the meeting was drawing to a close, “What you need is an entrance.”
He pointed out that those looking to locate a business in an industrial park are very interested in how that park presents itself, especially the first impression, the entrance.
At present, there is no entrance, as the school district, which has an easement to cross part of the property, has put a fence across the property and has a number of buses and various other things lying in the BCCIDA’s planned entrance.
The previous excavations ended at the bus lot’s back fence, to allow the school district to remove those things blocking access to the CRIP.
Wilson said he has been in discussions with the school district about cleaning things up but has been waiting for them to address the situation.
Anderson and others on his team stressed that this is the first thing that has to be done before anyone would consider the CRIP a valid business location.
Another on the TVA team asked, “Can you build the road you need with what you have now?”
Wilson said they could.
The BCCIA has made it through the first round of considerations for this grant and now has a visit by the leadership team under its belt; they hope to make it through the next round of selections. Word on that is not expected until later in the year.
