By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Tourism Director Lana Axtell shared some upcoming events with the Tourism Commission at their regularly scheduled meeting on March 13.
“Everyone knows the first quarter is kind of slow,” Axtell told the commission. “But I wanted to share with you some of the things I had planned on sponsoring.”
“One of those things is that Kentucky Christian University in June will be having Ricky Skaggs, and I’ll be giving a $2,000 sponsorship on that. And they will be having another concert in August which will be Josh Baldwin,” Axtell said. “Some folks from the Chamber of Commerce approached me if they could get a headliner in for Memory Days, if I could go in half with them. Which would be about $5,000,” she continued.
Currently the Chamber of Commerce does not have a headliner, Axtell told the commission. And if they do not get a headliner, Axtell said her plan was to give space in the Blue Goose building for free and add a $500 sponsorship.
Axtell added that she is gearing up for the Easter Egg Hunt which is scheduled for April 19 at Prichard Elementary beginning at 11 am. Other events scheduled are Raiders Run Scavenger Hunt (a ride on June 14), Christmas in July, Rally for Recovery (July 26), The Octoberfest Pageant (October 4), Octoberfest (October 25) and Hometown Holidays which will run from November 29 through January 3 of 2026.
Sports Park Manager Grant Harper gave a report to the commission about the new season at the park.
“We are getting ready to get going,” Harper said. “Last weekend we hosted the 16 region softball panorama. We had nine teams down there and it was a good event.”
“Last night,” he continued, “we hosted the East Carter Baseball scrimmage with Fairview, and we have Eastern Elite Soccer practicing three nights a week.”
This, he said, was in addition to the 28 softball teams scheduled to play there on the weekend following the meeting.
Harper said there was a lot going on in the sports park, with more being scheduled regularly as the warm weather increases outdoor sports and other activities. The 28 teams in the softball tournament were from around the tristate area, Harper told the commission but pointed out that as the season progresses there will be teams coming from farther away.
“Usually that happens around May,” Harper said, as people start to tie their vacations into the travel sports.
Given the extended school year, Harper said that he expects the travel numbers to increase drastically during the months of June, July, and August.
“We have a lot of good tournaments, and I believe we will have some big numbers,” Harper said. “We now have five Eastern Elite Soccer games scheduled at the park. Our first official hosted soccer game will be on April 12, and I ordered three different sized goals so we can host three different age groups.”
Currently they are planning to mark out soccer fields, and Harper said it was exciting to get that new chapter of the sports park started.
The tourism commission also discussed the ultimate fate of the Blue Goose building, as well as future plans for the space in downtown Grayson.
“I believe the consensus of the group,” Tourism Chair Daniel White told the commission, “Is to move forward with the issuing of an RFP for demolition of the Blue Goose building that exists currently.”
White referenced a working meeting held by the tourism commission the previous day, where numerous alternatives were discussed. Part of what was discussed was the demolition of the building (originally the Brown’s Mobile Homes Building) and the reclamation of the land and preservation of the existing green space, turning the entire site into a green space initially.
“The discussion revolved around our vision for the place,” White said.
Consecutively, or shortly after the demolition, the consensus was to move forward with identifying design build firms to conceptualize what a potential new building could look like in that space.
“The goal is to have the work (demolition) completed and grass sewn by mid-September to have a green space ready for Octoberfest.”
The Commission voted unanimously to proceed, pending approval by the City of Grayson at their next regularly scheduled meeting.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
