Projects to boost tourism in E. Ky. among those awarded $30 million in federal funding

A project to build 130 homes in an Eastern Kentucky County will benefit from $5.6 million in federal funding,

The money will finance construction at the Olive Branch development in Knott County, one of several “high ground” communities being developed in Eastern Kentucky to replace houses destroyed or badly damaged during catastrophic flooding in July 2022.

The grant was one of a dozen that Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear announced Friday at the Shaping Out Appalachian Region conference in Pikeville.

The source of the money is the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization program, which Rogers set up in 2016 to provide money to try to boost jobs in areas such as Eastern Kentucky hurt by a sharp downturn in the coal industry.

Projects in Kentucky have been awarded $224 million through the program since 2016, Rogers said.

“The program has become highly competitive in our region with innovative local projects that will generate revenue and new opportunities to help grow and sustain our rural communities,” Rogers said in a release.

Funding announced Friday for Kentucky projects totaled $30 million. The other projects are:

▪ AdventHealth Manchester, $3.89 million for a renovation project that will allow the hospital serve more patients.

▪ The city of Campton, $2.5 million to extend a waterline to serve 80 households in Wolfe County.

▪ Letcher County, $3.3 million for a solid-waste project.

▪ Mine Made Adventures Lodge & Attractions in Knott County, $1.7 million to develop a to develop a general store, a zipline, a bathhouse and a 10,000-square-foot lodge.

▪ Boyd County, $2 million for an access road to connect the Camp Landing entertainment district with the quarter horse racetrack at Sandy Ridge.

▪ Magoffin County, $3.18 million to expand the TEK Center training campus at the Gifford Industrial Park.

▪ University of Pikeville, $5 million for development of a football stadium and soccer facility at Bear Mountain in Pike County.

▪ Floyd County Area Technology Center, $812,000 to repair damage from mine drainage.

▪ Pike County, $882,000 to buy equipment for wood disposal, including a whole-tree chipper and an air curtain burner incinerator, which will help extend the life of a landfill.

▪ Salyersville water system, $700,000 for new water meters to make the system more efficient and reduce water loss.

▪ Floyd County, $500,000 to prepare a site along U.S. 23 in order to recruit new businesses.

“Kentucky’s economy has been on fire for several years now, and these projects are proof of the vitality of this region and the innovative thinking that is bringing jobs to Eastern Kentucky,” Beshear said in a release.