In the past few weeks, we continued our push for unity in
eastern Kentucky through our quarterly luncheon series, One Eastern
Kentucky. We united multiple chambers and elected officials together
again to work toward a unified plan for Economic development in Eastern
Kentucky. This quarter’s luncheon featured Lt. Governor Jerry
Abramson. We also held the kickoff visit from InSite Consulting Group in
partnership with AEP-KY Power. The initial kickoff meeting with InSite
involved participants, from the eight counties served by the chamber, assessing
where we stand as a region. One comment from Mr. Joel Thornbury
particularly stood out in my mind. He said, "We need to celebrate
our successes.” In a room full of political and business leaders, I
believe we found hope, as it was referred to by Mr. Joe DePriest from Letcher
County. Hope that we can overcome the boundaries in eastern Kentucky that
have held us back for generations.
In basketball, you play the sport 5-on-5. When you
pick your starting five, they have a myriad of skill sets that complement one
another. The essence of a team is to capitalize off of collective
strengths to outweigh individual weaknesses. That means you have a point
guard who can handle the ball, while you have a center who can rebound the
ball. You have a shooting guard who can score from the perimeter and
power forwards who can post up inside. In eastern Kentucky, we have lots
of strong players (counties) but no team. We have counties with
industrial parks and counties with developed retail. We have counties
with universities and counties with Community and Technical College
campuses. The problem we have is that we have been playing 1-on-1 amongst
ourselves while our competition for recruiting industry has been playing as a
team; areas such as northern Kentucky (three-county coalition) and Bowling
Green (seven-county coalition). Not only do they have a team, but they have
a strategy.
For generations, our strategy has been driven by internal
competition. The reality is that we've been playing 1-on-1 amongst ourselves,
or 1-on-5 against the competition, which doesn't mean we are losing, it means
we are disqualified or not even in the game. Back to Joel’s comment
earlier, at the end of a high pressure game, it doesn't matter who hits the
last three pointer or scores the most points, the entire team celebrates the
victory; even the fans who only cheer from the stands join the celebration. The
solution to what's next for the economy of eastern Kentucky will come from a
united effort amongst the business community and elected officials to play as a
team, buy into one vision, look past our county lines and be willing to chant:
E-A-S-T, East! East! East!
