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The Wonderful Times I Have Shared With You

A blog post written by SAM NEACE for the county he loves

The day I began work in the Hazard/Perry County Tourism Office, I said,

 

“I am going to engage the people of Perry County by writing a blog post every week!”

 

Nine months into the job, I am just now writing my third blog post.

The truth is, I’ve been busy, or rather, I should say, WE have been busy—WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED COMMUNITIES OF PERRY COUNTY!

 

You should be proud of yourself because TOGETHER we have done one fantastic job.

 

“What did the people of Perry County do that was so great?” some might ask. Well, let’s briefly recap all of the action.

 

January, 2015

 

I launched Facebook pages for Tourism and the Fiscal Court, which gained nearly two thousand “likes” within forty eight hours. When I saw how eager you all were to join and share my social media campaigns, I could not help but LOL and holler, “OMG!” I never knew I had so many BFF’s.

 

Of course, the likes were not for me. Instead, they were for US. Finally, the people of Perry County had social media outlets to collect ideas, answer questions, and promote the positive aspects of life in these here mountains.

 

Lots of suggestions came pouring in, and the overwhelming majority of them were extremely clever. Very few of the ideas you shared were as "out there" as these:

 

Get Ronda Rousey to come to Hazard and fight that black bear everybody saw in Woodland Park—Uncle Monroe

 

Let’s build a fifty-foot-tall golden statue of Sam Neace's brother and sit it in the Walmart parking lot—Sam Neace's Brother

 

Your suggestions, on the other hand, have actually been awesome!

  • Trail systems for hiking, biking, and riding ATV’s or horses

  • Make use of the railroad for tourism activities

  • Canoe routes for the river and the lakes

  • Zip-lines

  • Enhanced Elk Viewing Sites and Elk Viewing Tours

 

That is merely a handful of the wonderful suggestions I have received from you through Facebook. But Facebook was only the beginning. In January, I also built a new website for the Fiscal Court (the website you are logged onto right now). However, I was not able to share or promote the website until March because it took me that long to get pictures of the magistrates. So help me, I am not making this up. From late January to early March, this is how the Magistrates section looked on the new Perry County Fiscal Court website.

Magistrate District 1

Keith Miller

Magistrate District 2

Ronald Combs

Magistrate District 3

Kenny Cole

The judge would not allow me to promote the new website until I either snapped real photos of the magistrates or changed his picture to a close-up shot of Brad Pitt.

 

This website has important emergency management and county road information, along with contact numbers for local government offices, and I have included a community calendar, as well as a blog, where leaders can share important news with the people. The blog is also used to promote the bright, young talents in our communities. Kaitlin Combs, a Hazard High School student with aspirations of becoming a professional writer after college, writes a blog, which is shared exclusively by our website. I hope to have the opportunity to shine a light on more young talents from Perry County in the near future.

 

Perry County also has an official Twitter account and YouTube channel now.

 

February, 2015

 

I attended meetings, which were organized by InVision Hazard and the Friends of Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park, to discuss really cool ideas they developed for Valentine’s Day events. Both groups produced mystery theater performances that attracted rather impressive crowds to the Treehouse Café and Bakery, where the InVision event was held, and the Buckhorn Lodge, which hosted the Friends of Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park dinner and performance.

Heading into the middle of February, my spirit was bursting with excitement because I realized there are lots of brilliant people in Perry County, who are bringing great ideas to life.

 

Then Winter Storm Octavius hit our region and nobody, except emergency management crews, did much of anything for a little while.

March, 2015

 

In March, I completed and launched the website for the first ever Perry County Fair. Some truly amazing people participated on the fair board and helped make the inaugural fair an event the community can be proud of, but I will get to the actual fair itself in just a little bit. For now, let me say that one facet of the Perry County Fair website I loved was the “Stage Spotlight” section, which focused on a different musical performer every few days. All of the performances at this year’s fair featured local musicians, and their talent level is unbelievable. I haven’t heard anything produced in Nashville or Hollywood lately that can even come close to comparing with the local artists we featured at the fair. I am devoted to helping them hit the “Big Time,” and I am thrilled to know that the fair’s website gave them a little something extra in terms of promotion and appreciation. Let’s get behind our local artists because they are REALLY GOOD!

April, 2015

 

With spring finally upon us, InVision Hazard and Hazard/Perry County Tourism co-sponsored a pancake breakfast for everyone, who worked to keep people safe and restore disrupted utilities throughout winter's treacherous conditions. I felt honored talking with so many of Perry County’s true heroes. Several volunteers from the community showed up to help serve the breakfast. I felt honored talking with them too, although one particular conversation that morning did lead to the creation of a new joke.

I experienced my first ever Hazard Soapbox Derby, which was rock 'n' roll fabulous. Plus, I made some new friends at Hazard’s Autism Awareness Fun Day in April.

The Hazard-Perry County Women’s Club held their annual Tea Party, in which Betty Morton was awarded “Mother of the Year,” and Alison Wells received “Professional Businesswoman of the Year” honors. The Hazard-Perry County Women’s Club does FANTASTIC work for our community.

 

May, 2015

 

In May, I met with Mae to discuss the Perry County Farmer’s Market. Mae Humiston is one of the incredible folks, who worked to, not only make the 2015 Farmer’s Market happen, but also to build the market into something better than it is has ever been before. I coordinated announcements for important dates Mae gave me for the market with our community calendar and made sure those dates were advertised through various forms of local media. The Farmer’s Market featured new programs this year, designed to increase revenue for local farmers, while also helping customers living on tight budgets afford more market fresh goods, which in turn places healthier foods in their diets. With these new programs, everybody wins. Major league thanks goes out to Mae Humiston, Liberty Campbell, and everyone, who worked to organize the 2015 Perry County Farmer’s Market. You all rock for real!

 

I also began writing my ideas for a possible trail system and super huge cancer/health event in Perry County. My hope is that I might draw the interest of folks, who can help turn at least one of these crazy dreams into reality.

June, 2015

 

June was all about the first annual Perry County Fair. A tremendous amount of work went into planning and organizing this event. The fair never could have happened, without the insight and effort of each board member, along with help from our volunteers.

 

My main jobs were marketing/advertising, which turned out to be a tough task, considering we had never hosted a fair before and my marketing budget was nowhere near Disney level. I spent a lot of time trying to spread the word. I was also in charge of recruiting and booking the musicians for all three days of the fair, with the exception of Halfway to Hazard. Plus, I assisted with vendor applications and ran around the Perry County Park doing whatever the blue blazes somebody needed me to do while the fair was actually going on. I was sunburned, and limping, and physically frazzled. The situation was so intense, I think I actually passed out behind a port-a-potty during the Midlife Crisis performance, Saturday evening. By the time the fair was over, I looked like this:

But all of the hard work was worth it in the end because the Perry County Fair turned out to be an excellent event for the community, especially considering the fact that this year’s fair was the first one we have ever put together. Local causes raised money. Local artists gained exposure. There was professional wrestling and a Civil War skirmish reenactment taking place within 200 feet of each other. Something fun and interesting was always happening somewhere in the Perry County Park those three days. I will forever cherish the thought of playing a significant role in creating the first ever Perry County Fair.

July, 2015

 

July in Perry County was like a Chuck Norris movie—ACTION PACKED! We had a lot going on. The annual Fourth of July Bash kicked off on July 3rd and lit up the streets of Vicco for two solid days and nights. On the morning of July 4th, the first ever “Fish the City” fishing tournament, presented by InVision, took place on the banks of the North Fork of the Kentucky River in Hazard, where you will find some of the best fishing in the universe. Feast your eyes on the whopper I caught out of the North Fork that day:

I’m going to use it as bait to catch “The World’s Biggest Bass!”

 

The Fourth of July Fish Fry triumphantly returned to City Hall in Hazard, much to the delight of the tummies all across town. Breathtaking fireworks displays were presented in Vicco, Hazard, and overtop the lake at the Buckhorn Lake State Resort Lodge. The Hazard Police Department capped of the Independence Day festivities with their 5k run, which compelled a multitude of participants, representing all different demographics, to storm Main Street. Some of the runners were in their prime, but there were also little girls and senior citizens at the starting line, all of whom successfully beat me in the race.

 

Independence Day in Perry County was terrible for the fish, but a whole lot of humans sure seemed to have a good time.

 

Summer in the Park is an enchanting one-day festival of art in Hazard’s beautiful Bobby Davis Park. The idea of incorporating stage-plays as part of the festival is magnificent and adds a dimension to the experience that you will not find in most small town celebrations.

 

This July also marked the beginning of what I hope will become an annual tradition in Hazard, with the dates of the event possibly extended further into the year. Thursdays on the Triangle turned out to be an excellent project, with hundreds of visitors strolling through the Triangle Park downtown to sample the local art, music, food, and whatever else the people in the community could cook up to add depth to the atmosphere. The crowd had fun and the vendors made money. Everyone, who worked to create these events, should be thanked by their neighbors wholeheartedly because their vision and diligent effort turned Hazard into a lovely place to be on a summer’s day.

August, 2015

 

On my drive to the Leatherwood Park for Fun Night, I figured the event would be a nice little party for some of the kids in the area, with free food and inflatables, followed by a movie at dusk on the big, blow-up screen, and I was right; the children did enjoy the evening. I had not, however, planned on becoming completely caught up in all of the fun myself, which is exactly what happened. Brandi Palumbo grilled some dogs and then fired up the popcorn machine. In other words, she did all of the hard work. I chatted, and stuffed my face, and then settled onto the grass, beneath a sky filled with more stars than Hollywood, and I watched an animated movie, titled “Home,” which, believe it or not, I really enjoyed. The fact that I considered a children’s cartoon movie to be entertaining should not surprise me. After all, this is the lunchbox I carry to work every day at the Courthouse.

That thermos is full of Red Bull.

 

The State Fair consumed most of August. Tourism established a State Fair Committee, consisting of me, participating members of the Tourism Board, Sherry Spradlin, and Wanda Brown. When they suggested that Perry County’s booth should highlight our waterways and our mountains with a theme of “The Kentucky River Runs through It,” I thought the plan was great, and right away, I hoped to recruit students from Perry County Central High School’s Commodore Players Theater Group to design the Perry County booth, kind of like a set-piece in a stage-play. I love the Commodore Players because they deliver excellent productions, and I did a little acting myself when I was a young lad.

That’s me on the left, from high school days. I was part of several plays throughout my tenure, but in this picture, I am not wearing my character’s costume prior to a performance. I am actually just THAT old. Those clothes were in style back then.

 

Somehow I suckered Philip Neace and his students into enduring the hours-upon-hours of back breaking and mind melting work that was necessary to perfectly capture our vision. As I figured it would be, the final result was glorious… hard to transport from Hazard to Louisville… but nonetheless, stupendous. I honestly think we had the prettiest booth of any county in the whole State Fair. Thank you, Mr. Neace and the Commodore Players!

What’s Next?

 

I do not know what kind of world the next sunrise shall shine upon. Where will I be? What will you do? Tomorrow is the eternal riddle.

 

But, as long as I have been alive, my dreams have lived with me. So they probably aren’t going to pass away until I do, and if they live, then they are possible.

 

All of us share a similar dream. It is the dream of happiness. And if the sun shines down on me tomorrow, you will find me still searching for the way.

 

So for all of you who believe in the promise of a project, such as trail development, or downtown revitalization, or an expanded hunting and fishing industry, or a vibrant arts movement, or whatever wild and wonderful visions you have conjured-up in that brilliant, little imagination of yours, I say, “Let’s keep working to make that dream happen!”

 

Yes… We WILL be that crazy!!!

 

Let me tell you why I am confident in a brighter future for Perry County. The reason for my hope is YOU! Every day, people in our communities are working hard to build something great, and I cannot wait to marvel at the final results.

 

Your ideas are not foolish. Your work is not in vain. Your dreams are not unreachable. In fact, the truth is quite the contrary.

 

Sure, there will be ups-and-downs. We will hit snags along the way. But I believe in you enough to stand beside you through the most treacherous of times because what I have seen from you so far is nothing short of inspiring.

 

I am proud of Perry County. I am proud of the job I hold in service to the people. I am proud of you.

 

So let’s stand together and create something wonderful!!!

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