SOAR moves forward at East Kentucky Leadership Conference

The next step in the SOAR process happened last week at the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation annual conference when the SOAR working group committees met for the first time. The 10 working group committees are tasked with “leading large-scale discussions throughout eastern Kentucky on topics related to the region‟s economic future and quality of life,” and include Agriculture, Community and Regional Foods, Leadership Development and Youth Engagement, Broadband, Business Incubation, Business Recruitment, Education and Retraining, Health, Infrastructure, Regional Collaboration and Identity, and Tourism, Natural Resources, Arts and Heritage. All group meetings are open to the public, and an undetermined number of these meetings will take place throughout the summer. Each group is made up of a 15-person committee that is supposed to determine three to five recommendations about their topic to send to the SOAR executive committee for their consideration. As it was described during the working group meetings, the executive committee will make decisions about which if these recommendations to possibly fund. These recommendations are to be in the hands of the executive committee by August of this year. There were many eastern Kentuckians at the EKLF meeting to attend the working group meetings, and we were told this was the largest EKLF meeting in many years as a result. It’s exciting and encouraging that so many are concerned enough about the future of the region to attend meetings such as these. We just hope that excitement lasts through summer as the working groups continue to meet. We also hope...

Kentucky General Assembly tinkers but doesn’t change way it spends severance funds...

The Kentucky General Assembly came to a close last week, and its accomplishments (or lack thereof) leave much to be desired for eastern Kentucky. A bill to make permanent scholarships for coal county students attending coalfield schools passed, but beyond that, little was done to support eastern Kentucky’s struggling miners, communities and economy. Proposed bills to give unemployed miners preference in hiring, to promote renewable energy and to protect Appalachia’s waterways went nowhere. Neither did the attempt to return all coal severance revenues back to coal-producing counties. It was, however, a budget year and as such more attention was given to how we spend our coal severance revenues. This two-year budget takes only small steps to ensure  more strategic use of severance funds for the long-term development of eastern Kentucky’s economy. An editorial from the Lexington Herald Leader on Friday sheds light on this problem: Preparing for coal’s decline as a source of jobs and revenue was the idea in the 1990s when the legislature designated half of the coal severance tax for coal-producing counties. Eastern Kentucky failed to diversify its economy, nonetheless. Too much of the tax revenue that was supposed to create a post-coal economy still subsidizes the coal industry through everything from coal-haul road repair to training mining engineers. And then there are the goodies handed out by lawmakers, popular amenities that do nothing to create jobs. In the just ended session, the House earmarked severance revenue for an American Legion Post, a chess team, volunteer...

Pat Gish’s legacy, as well as husband Tom’s, should inspire today’s Appalachian reporters...

Eastern Kentucky laid to rest one of its fiercest advocates this week: Pat Gish, who with her husband Tom, ran The Mountain Eagle weekly newspaper in Whitesburg, Ky., for more than 50 years. (Lexington Herald-Leader photo by James Kenney, used with permission: Pat, with husband Tom) The Gish’s “spoke truth to power . . . through their crusading weekly newspaper,” writes the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Bill Estep in this excellent piece about Pat’s life and legacy. From the piece: “‘We’ve lost another true bulldog of journalism. Pat and Tom were inseparable when it came to what they believed was right and wrong and neither hesitated to go after the truth,’ said David Thompson, executive director of the Kentucky Press Association.” The Gish’s were never afraid to print the truth about local politics and the abuses of the coal industry against miners and communities, even though printing that truth in the local paper at that time was practically unheard of. Even after threats, business boycotts of the paper, dropped ads, and after The Mountain Eagle office was firebombed by a police officer, the Gish’s kept publishing their paper. They knew they had a duty to their community, and they helped uplift it and propel it forward. “We are convinced that knowledge is power and that the more the Eagle can help inform its readers about local and far-away developments that affect them, the more good things can happen,” said the couple in a 2000 commentary. The Gish’s were champions of rural journalism, writes Tim Mandell of...

Photo Post: Floyd, VA

Greetings from Floyd, Virginia, a little town with a big personality! I’ve spent the last two days here with the Central Appalachian Network and CAN grantee SustainFloyd. Though the town itself has under 500 residents, Floyd has a great downtown with locally-owned businesses and is seeing more entrepreneurial-minded young people moving into the area. It’s also host to FloydFest, a rapidly-growing annual music festival. SustainFloyd is a local organization working to promote the area’s food and farm economy, with a Farmer’s Market, farm-to-school, and pocket farm programs. Floyd is a great example of small-town economic development in Appalachia, and it was great to be here!...

Public radio covers coal’s decline in east Kentucky

The decline of the coal industry is getting some national attention – and, finally, some decent reporting. American Public Media’s Marketplace program (aired on many NPR stations) covered the economy of eastern Kentucky earlier this week on two separate shows, with more nuance than the region normally gets from national news. The first part of the report explored why the industry is collapsing: mined-out seams, competition from other coal regions and fuel sources, and environmental regulation. The second part of the report asks the same question we have been asking for years: what’s next?  Communities are just now beginning to seriously discuss economic alternatives. Some blame the slow start on the “War on Coal” rhetoric, saying it’s distracted attention from preparing for a “low coal” future. Others say political leaders have spent coal severance tax money on basic services instead of diversifying the economy. Regional leaders who gathered in the mining town of Hazard to talk to Marketplace stressed they didn’t believe there was one single thing that could “replace” coal. They hope a new bi-partisan effort called SOAR (Shaping Our Appalachian Region) will come up with some alternatives. The region has already been targeted for special assistance from the federal and state government, but residents fear the money won’t be enough. “I mean, what happened in Detroit when that industry was threatened,” says Jeff Whitehead, executive director of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program.  “There was a lot of government support. Lots of it.”  Jennifer Bergman, JobSight Services Director at the program, says the region should develop...

Appalachia’s ethnic and racial diversity should play role in economic future...

With the rise of reality television shows focusing on rural areas and the recent 50th Anniversary of the War on Poverty, stereotypes about Appalachia have resurfaced on the national scene with a vengeance. It’s been hard for Appalachia to combat these pervasive images and perceptions, but National Public Radio’s Sarah Baird takes a stab at it in her recent piece, “Stereotypes of Appalachia Obscure a Diverse Picture.” In the article, Baird examines the history of ethnic and racial diversity in the region, and tried to combat the prevailing image of Appalachia as a solely white region. It’s an issue that Berea College’s Appalachian Studies Center has taken on, too, analyzing 2010 Census data to create maps of Appalachia’s African-American and Latino populations. The maps (at left), paint a very different picture from that perpetuated by most national media of who inhabits Appalachia.“While the economic despair and major health epidemics are an unsettling reality for the region, a glaring omission has been made from the ‘poverty porn’ images fed to national audiences for generations: Appalachia’s people of color,” Baird writes. In writing this piece, she’s helping to reveal the complexities of Appalachia, a region so often cast-aside as too homogenous, and, as a result, backward. It all brings us back to the economic transition in Appalachia. In order to move forward into a brighter future that works better for more people, the region’s legacy of diversity must be embraced. There can be no bright future for Appalachia unless all of her people...

More youth should have a seat at the decision-making table

Appalachia’s leaders have long wondered how to get more young people involved in matters of state. Since the Shaping Our Appalachian Region Summit last December, there has been a renewed push to involve more young people in processes that will design eastern Kentucky’s future. (Picture from The STAY Project, a youth-led, grassroots regional network of young people working to create sustainable, engaging and inclusive communities in Appalachia. Learn more about STAY, here.) Shortly after the SOAR Summit, the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition hosted a call-in day for youth to let their legislators know they supported the Clean Energy Opportunity Act. But when youth began calling in to the switchboards in Frankfort, many were told they could not leave messages for their representatives because they were younger than 18 years old. The youth took action, and steps were immediately taken to end the 15-year informal policy of not allowing anyone under 18 to leave messages for their legislators. Clearing the way for youth to freely and opening contact their legislators regardless of how young they are is definitely a move in the right direction, and we applaud the Legislative Research Commission for taking such swift action. But, we are disappointed this week about the limited number of young people on the SOAR executive committee, which is in charge of next steps in the initiative. The list of working group facilitators is also lacking in youth voices. This is certainly a missed opportunity. If we want to build a brighter future in this state and...

State agency offers predictions for Kentucky’s energy future...

The Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence (DEDI) provided some eye-opening charts at a recent symposium on “The Future of Coal” at Northern Kentucky University. It’s no secret that coal in eastern Kentucky is in steep decline, but seeing where DEDI believes the future will take the industry and the region is very interesting. First, let’s look at where we are. For all that we hear about a nationwide “War on Coal,” it’s clear that eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia is really where the significant job losses are. In most other areas, including western Kentucky, mining employment is relatively steady or even increasing. One of the reasons for this decline is that a number of power plants using eastern Kentucky coal are retiring. This map shows the plants that are or are likely to retire through 2018. The bigger the dot, the more east Kentucky coal the plant uses – clearly, this is going to be a big blow to an industry that is already suffering. Clearly, our nation’s energy landscape is changing, and Appalachia must position itself to take advantage of these changes like so many other states have been doing. Unfortunately, if projections  by DEDI come to pass, Kentucky’s energy future simply trade one fossil fuel for another, with little room for the innovation or diversification of our energy portfolio that are creating jobs and mitigating rate increases in other states. While coal provides 38% of US electricity, it generates 92% of Kentucky’s electricity. DEDI...