By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
It started about eight years ago when I published an editorial about my naming brainstorm in the now-defunct Journal-Times weekly newspaper.
You may recall those fine papers were owned by an outfit from Alabama that stopped loving us when those and some other local papers didn’t make enough money.
To my dismay, no politician has yet embraced my notion of designating KY 67 as the Double G Parkway or Highway from Grayson to Greenup instead of the boring, inaccurate name of Industrial Parkway.
The current name is wrong because no heavy manufacturing is located in that 14-mile corridor. And it’s painful to recall that failed promise of a giant aluminum mill for which the taxpayers of Kentucky provided the only hard cash.
For 25 years we’ve had the double A Highway, representing Ashland to Alexandria. That AA designation has become an ongoing promotion for each of those cities.
It was rumored years ago that plans supposedly being developed in Frankfort to someday expand KY 67 to four lanes. That was the stated reason for providing space for two more lanes, along with room for additional overpasses.
With several weeks remaining in the current session of the General Assembly and a couple of billion dollars in unpromised surplus state funds, this could be the perfect time to approve that expansion to four lanes and to rename the road as the GG Parkway or Highway.
In addition to creating a safer highway at four lanes, the new name could become an effective rebranding tool to catch the attention of potential visitors and employers to both Grayson and Greenup.
I challenge State Sen. Robin Webb, Rep. Patrick Flannery, and Rep. Danny Bentley to form a bi-partisan effort to make this happen in this session.
Since the budget process already is in motion, why not get underway with some planning money and the name change to get a head start in marketing that snappy new name and the two cities at each end?
(Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com).
