After reading the article in the daily paper about the Whitley Co. airport, I now know how it was being funded on a daily basis. Cumberland Falls and Sheltowee Trace. It's amazing those two places, by themselves, could fund the daily operations, or most of it percentage wise, with their taxes. I believe it was a 4% transient tax.
Does corbin have a motel tax too? I've never heard it mentioned, or just haven't paid attention if it was.
From what I read in the article, it seems as if the airport, overall for now anyway, is a white elephant for the county, all costs and no revenue, or at least not enough to sustain itself. That will drain the budget very fast. I've been out there a couple of times, and it kind of reminds me of those emergency airfields the military has scattered around the country, used only in emergency's or during a national crisis to refuel and rearm warplanes. Even those are going away now, but this sure reminds me of it.
It was a very good article, well written and well researched.
The one thing the article said that I did agree with, was that now whitley county will have to form a Tourism Commission to get the money from the Falls. As I understood, however, it's still up in the air if they can use the money from the Falls for the airport, legally.
This makes me wonder, is our tourism commission doing the same thing with the old civic center project. Can they use that money for what they have planned. I don't know, I'm just asking.
I personally don't see the Whitley Co. airport being a worthwhile project in my lifetime, but maybe in the future it could. With the financial shape the state and nation is in, I really wonder.
I agree. Samantha has written anothr excellent article. She deserves some awards for the way she performs her duties. She is a shining star in our area.
I think Samatha needs to research the Corbin Tourism Commission and see if the funds are being allocated per statute. I also don't know about the old civic center project, but I would think tourism money would be about getting more tourists to our area, not city rec projects.
