Kentucky Moonshine Trail? Whitesburg could be the first stop

It looks like downtown Whitesburg, Ky., will soon be home to a legal moonshine distillery, and that’s a good thing. Kentucky has seen recent success with its Bourbon Trail drawing thousands of visitors to the state each year, and it stands to reason that eastern Kentucky could reap similar success with its most famous – and infamous – alcoholic beverage. Not only will the new distillery add more to the local tax base and create new jobs, but it will also draw tourism dollars into Whitesburg, renovate an historic downtown building, and the distillery owner, Colin Fultz, has plans to keep local as much of his operation as possible: “We’re wanting to make a flavored moonshine using locally-grown fruit, corn, everything that we can get local, and hopefully that’s what’s going to help the economy and let everybody that’s in the county benefit that wants to.” Fultz has tapped into something that we need to see more of in eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia: A change in the way we think about economic development. Fultz isn’t trying to bring something into the region; he’s drawing and building from assets that already exist. He’s using those assets to create opportunity for himself, but he’s also thinking about the overall economic health of his community, and making plans to become a support for that community through his business.     We need more entrepreneurs thinking like Fultz, and we need more local leaders taking risks to support them. After all, the region is experiencing a major shift...

Who runs the Kentucky economy? Small businesses and entrepreneurs....

Kentucky is powered by small businesses. And when I say small, I mean small. Ninety-four percent of small businesses in the state have less than 50 employees, and 74 percent have less than 10. This is part of the reason why increased investment in and support for entrepreneurs in eastern Kentucky can be a major boon for the region’s economy. In fact, it could become a very strong foundation upon which the region’s entire economy stands. If only much of our leaders saw it that same way. Economic development in eastern Kentucky to this point has been almost exclusively about attracting and enticing large, industrial companies into the region with the promise of providing hundreds of jobs in one fell swoop. But the truth about the region’s economy is much more complex than that, and as Kentucky Center for Economic Policy Director Jason Bailey points out in this piece about supports for local entrepreneurs from Making Connections News, this strategy hasn’t really been that successful for the region, and the state’s time, effort and money could be better spent by investing more in small businesses: The approach to economic development and the resources for economic development are really focussed on landing the big fish – on trying to lure companies into Kentucky that would potentially employ a lot of people. And that’s gotten harder and harder for the state. There are fewer and fewer of the big fish out there, and it’s always been difficult for eastern Kentucky. If we put more money and...