By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Blue Goose was on the agenda when the City of Grayson Tourism Commission held its regularly scheduled meeting on November 14, 2024, to discuss both new and old business. The commission started the meeting, though, discussing revenue from the restaurant tax, with some figures provided by sports park manager Grant Harper, due to the absence of the interim treasurer.
“The restaurant income tax was approximately $83,000,” Harper told the commission. “And that’s up about six thousand over the previous period. That’s a significant increase.”
“The hotel transient tax was about $5,200 for the month of September,” Harper said. “And I think that’s about in line with the same period in 2023.”
Don Combs told the commission that he had spoken with Tourism President Mindy Click, who could not attend the November meeting, and that she had asked him to communicate to the commission that they had a meeting with Renee Parsons to investigate grant opportunities for building reinforcement on the Blue Goose property. Combs said the meeting yielded good information on opportunities concerning the property, including financial sustainability.
But while some members are looking for opportunities to preserve and stabilize the building, others suggested the space might be more valuable than the building itself.
Commissioner Deanna Miller presented the commission with some of the findings her research on the Blue Goose property yielded which suggested demolition might be a better option.
“We all love the property,” Miller told the commission. “But as far as being on the Kentucky Historic Register or National Historic Register, it is not. And as far as meeting any of the requirements to put it on a Historic Register, it won’t.”
Miller said the property was examined for that determination in 2003, but did not pass muster.
The square footage of the property as it stands now, Miller said, is approximately 6,000 square feet. Miller told the Commission that she had spoken with a company that builds government-ready buildings about the property. The ‘rough’ quote she was given, which included the tear down of the old building and site preparation, with bathrooms and HVAC, was $250 per square foot. At that rate, assuming a 6,000 square foot build, the cost would be approximately 1.5 million dollars, and a 5,000 square foot build would be approximately 1.25 million dollars.
“That’s a lot of money,” Miller said. “But I don’t think it would be as much as it would cost to rehab the current building.”
Miller also pointed out that some realignment of goals might be in order.
The City of Grayson, she pointed out, has about 3,800 residents in the city limits, with a median income of $27,000; though that median income does increase when considered county wide. Miller said her opinion was that a good way to proceed would be with a multi-use building, a community arts center style complex that would host band concerts and sports banquets, as well as public meetings. Speaking to that, Don Combs said that along with being a business incubator, that was the original plan for the property.
The Blue Goose Project has encountered certain stumbling blocks since its inception. The original estimate came in higher than expected for what the tourism commission initially intended, and re-bidding of certain portions of the proposed construction were considered. After an extended discussion of the project, its current state, and ultimate goals, the commission decided to not take any action on the Blue Goose Property until all options were reevaluated across the board in order to best determine whether to proceed in renovation of the property as it stands or to consider an entirely new construction model.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
