By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
It started about three years ago when I published an editorial about my brainstorm in the now-defunct Journal-Times weekly newspaper.
You may recall that paper was owned by an outfit from Alabama that stopped loving us when their local papers simply didn’t make enough money.
That company, CNHI, has no relationship with the Carter County Times, we’re proud to say.
I’m dismayed that no politician in either county has yet embraced my inspired notion of designating KY 67 as the Double G Parkway 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, only the fading promise of a giant aluminum mill for which the taxpayers of Kentucky apparently have provided the most cash.
In fact, the Kentucky Lottery could set up a betting pool on whether or not the $15 million in public funds either will be repaid to the state treasury or result in hundreds of great jobs.
For 20 years we’ve had the double A Highway, representing Ashland in Boyd County to Alexandria in Campbell County.
That AA designation has become an ongoing promotion for each of those cities, despite the fact it was not built to interstate highway standards and actually ends about 22 miles short of Ashland.
With plans supposedly already developed in Frankfort to someday expand KY 67 to four lanes, renaming the road as the Double G Parkway could effectively rebrand the route to draw the attention of potential visitors and investors to both communities.
State highway planners had the foresight to provide enough graded and drained land for a four-lane, divided roadway for KY 67. However, the drastic impact of Covid-19 on state revenue likely means there won’t be extra highway construction money for a few years.
But we could start the process now by putting up new signs identifying that road as the Double G Parkway.
Is there a second to my motion?
Keith Kappes can be reached at keithkappes@gmail.com