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Harlan Countians have been looking forward to the completion of projects including a new Wellness and Recreation Center for some time. While taking longer than expected, the facility is still on track.

Harlan County Judge-Executive talked about the center project and others during a recent interview.

“The Wellness and Recreation Center will have a major impact on our community,” Mosley said.

A move forward was made back in the spring when the Harlan County Fiscal Court decided on a location.

“We voted to acquire the former Belk building back in April,” Mosley said. “That deal has still not closed. We have been working through some details related to easements and rights of entry and what our responsibilities are versus what the current property owner’s responsibilities are with the rest of the property.”

Mosley explained since the former Belk’s building is part of a mall complex, such issues are common.

“Anytime you’re dividing something that’s connected like that, it usually involves a lot of legalities and questions that have to be resolved,” Mosley said. “The survey’s done, the appraisal’s done, the title opinion, all that’s done. It’s a matter of fine tuning some language that all parties can find acceptable.”

Mosley mentioned communication involving those issues is ongoing.

“We’ve been calling, texting, and meeting for the last five months,” Mosley said. “We were really ready to get that done in August, but there have been things that have happened that have caused a (delay)…we’re really close to having that finalized.”

Mosley added it is important to ensure the deal is a good one for the county.

“We have to make sure the taxpayers are protected,” Mosley said. “There have been discussions about language in there regarding use if it were not a wellness center at some point years down the road. I don’t want to do anything that would handcuff the county’s ability to use it for another purpose 30 or 50 years down the road if they chose to. We’re trying to put all that into a document that protects the property owners but protects the county as well.”

Mosley stated he believes the deal is close to being finalized.

“I feel like we’re a little closer every day,” Mosley said. “I’m excited about getting that project started. I think it’s going to be a catalyst for future development in our community.”

Mosley also talked about other ongoing county endeavors such as a build ready site designed to attract industry.

“We still have our build ready site in Cumberland that we market to try to land some type of manufacturing or agriculture/aggrotech type of company,” Mosley said. “We continue to market that.”

Mosley cited the results of a build ready site in Hardin County as an example of the sort of buyer Harlan County is attempting to attract with the build ready location in Cumberland.

“They’re building the Ford battery plant,” Mosley said. “They acquired that site 35 years ago and didn’t get anything landed on it until now.”

He pointed out a build ready site is a large asset for any county to have available, but it can take time to attract a buyer.

“You develop it with the hope that you’ll have a future development on it,” Mosley said. “It may take six months, it may take six years, it may take 60 years, but it’s there and ready for when somebody bites. We’ve had multiple requests for information from companies that have looked at it. We’ve just not had one sign on the dotted line yet.”

Mosley added before the build ready site in Cumberland, no requests for information were received from companies looking for a place to build.

“We didn’t get those leads because we didn’t have anything to market,” Mosley said. “My next goal is to try and develop another site in the county just like that one. It may take 5, 10, or 20 years to land something on it. That’s OK, but if we don’t have those types of places ready, we’ll never attract anything. My goal is to get us to a point where we have these sights, so we have a chance to get manufacturing, aggrotech, some type of technology center, or something like that. There are so many different possibilities out there.”