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Backroads of Appalachia, a nonprofit organization based in Lynch which focuses on motorsports tourism, provided the Harlan County Fiscal Court with an update on the organization’s activities during a recent meeting of the Harlan County Fiscal Court.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley handed the floor over to Eric Hubbard of Backroads of Appalachia (BOA) to advise the court on the recent activities of his organization.

“Our project in Evarts is called Hope High, we’re doing a feasibility study now,” Hubbard said. “An investment of $82,000 has been committed and is underway for what is possible with energy and other factors that we could redevelop Evarts and Hope High to do. We’re about a third of the way through that feasibility study.”

The Just Transition Fund website at https://justtransitionfund.org provides information on the Hope high project provided by Hubbard.

“We are profoundly honored to have been awarded the Coal Communities Grant through the Just Transition Fund’s Get Ready Challenge,” Hubbard said according to https://justtransitionfund.org. “This support brings renewed hope to Evarts, Kentucky, and provides us with a pivotal opportunity to revitalize our community. The grant enables us to transform the old high school into “Hope High,” a groundbreaking program designed to attract and retain creative professionals, aiming to reverse the severe decline our town has experienced due to the downturn in the coal industry. The award not only offers a clear framework for development but also sets the stage for securing additional funds and creating a unique community model.”

According to Hubbard, BOA intends to begin focusing on community development.

“We’re also investing $30,000 to do an asset inventory,” Hubbard said. “One thing I see as a person that looks in on all this, is when we do have a catastrophic event, when it’s time to report to FEMA we’re not having the ability to monitor all our assets.”

Hubbard also provided an update on the BOA Welcome Center in the Lynch community. The Welcome Center has been closed for remodeling.

“It’s been a slow go,” Hubbard said. “We’re almost to the final push on that to have it open. We are working with Harlan County Co-Op on that, they’re doing the work.”

Hubbard said the travel season has arrived.

“I’m getting nervous because this is when we can make sustainability funds, and we’re not open,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard mentioned the Sports Car Club of America recently had a group of 77 Porsche vehicles in Harlan. A Mini-Cooper car club also made the trip to Harlan from West Virginia to drive the Dragon Slayer, which is a portion of KY 160 over Black Mountain.

Hubbard pointed out an increase in visitors is expected.

“Once the Welcome Center is open, our projection is a 35 percent increase,” Hubbard said. “The Dragon Slayer is now number three on the east coast for destinations for motorcycle and car clubs.”

After Hubbard finished his report, Magistrate Paul Browning commented on the Hope High project located in the former Evarts High School facility.

“That’s pretty promising,” Browning said. “I’ve attended a couple of meetings about it, and it’s starting to actually grow legs.”

Mosley mentioned the large number of travelers through Harlan County, inquiring how to draw those travelers into other Harlan County businesses and attractions.

“Businesses will say ‘I don’t see these people’ or I hear other tourist attractions like Portal 31 – right across the street from your Welcome Center – they said the first year they saw motorcycles that stopped and did the tour, since then it’s been less every year,” Mosley said. “How do we better engage these people to go do something like that?”

Hubbard said the staff at the Welcome Center did mention Portal 31 to visitors before the facility closed for renovations.

“I did talk to the new manager at the Benham (Schoolhouse) Inn,” Hubbard said. “We quit sending people to the Benham Schoolhouse Inn because they were being charged a $30 COVID cleanup fee after COVID…we will start really promoting the Benham Schoolhouse Inn when the Welcome Center reopens.”

The Backroads of Appalachia Welcome Center at Lynch is expected to reopen soon.