By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Grayson Tourism Commission isn’t ready to move their accounts just yet, but they’re discussing ways to maximize the funds they’re currently holding in surplus. During their regularly scheduled meeting on October 10, the commission approved the treasurer’s report, and heard the report from sports park manager Grant Harper, who brought the issue to their attention. Harper prefaced his report with the financial suggestion, telling the commission he would like them to consider investing surplus funds held in the maintenance account.
“We typically carry a rather large balance in the maintenance fund,” Harper said. “And I think there is a potential for some interest earnings that we are not currently getting.”
Harper said he believed that currently the maintenance account was in a standard checking account, and he thought it would be a good idea to research options on an interest-bearing account of some sort.
“Whether it is through a CD or some higher yield savings of some kind, I think there is probably the potential for some interest-bearing account of some sort. Most current high yields are around four percent,” Harper said. “And if you take our current balance, that would be about eight to ten thousand a year.”
Harper said the drawback would be that he wasn’t aware of this type of account offered locally, and there is a hesitance to move money out of local institutions. The commission discussed the potential, and though no vote was taken, commissioners agreed that looking into interest bearing accounts or other means would be beneficial.
Tourism director Lana Axtell discussed the upcoming Octoberfest in Grayson, and told the commission that the first meeting had been held for Hometown Holidays.
“There were a lot of good ideas,” Axtell said. “Including piping the music down Main Street sidewalks.”
The idea, she said, was to give the city of Grayson a more Christmas feel as that season approaches, much like one typically sees in the popular seasonal Hallmark movies.
The commission discussed the Blue Goose Project, and commissioner Deana Miller discussed information that she had received on the project. Miller said the reports she studied, many from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet that are available online, had a lot of good information on them and she suggested it would be beneficial to the commission to familiarize themselves with the reports. The reports include a lot of informative studies on main streets and roads, Miller said, as well as development.
“What I took from it is that there are a lot of organizations in Grayson and Carter County that want to do good things,” Miller said. “The City of Grayson, the Chamber of Commerce, the Tourism Commission, the Main Street Group, that all have specific things they can and can’t do. And I personally think that if we can coordinate with other groups, we can get a lot more done.”
Miller proposed the commission go over the reports before their next scheduled meeting in order to have a clearer idea of how to proceed.
Miller also discussed in part the Blue Goose, including a structural analysis of the building.
“Basically, what it says, and it was just a visual inspection of the roof only, was that looking at it from Main Street, the right side is basically a pole barn.”
Miller said that according to the report there are essentially two different structures, one consisting of wooden beams and trusses that are not even connected to the masonry wall on the other side. The other side of the building (the section formerly used for the business of the previous owner) has properly connected beams, etc.
Many of the issues with the building are due to the age of the structure, and the current codes of that time such as 4-foot beams, which by current code should be 2 foot beams, Miller said.
“So, there is a lot of structural reinforcement that needs to happen,” Miller said. “Not only on the roof but the walls as well. And what the engineer and the architect have actually written down in their report is that they both agree that the building roof is unsound, and it should not be used for anything but storage until the roof has been reinforced.”
The commission discussed the report, but the general consensus was that a meeting should be arranged with both the architect and the engineer in question before any decisions were made.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
