Judge-Executives to breathe life into EastPark

Henry Culvyhouse And Aaron Snyder, The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky.
·2 min read

Mar. 14—Two judges-executive said the FIVCO counties are going to push to market EastPark, after the return of land to the state following the conclusion of the Braidy Industries fiasco.

Judge-Executive Eric Chaney said he and the judge-executives of Greenup, Carter, Elliott and Lawrence counties met last month to discuss the push to breath new life into the industrial park.

Established in 1998 — when Chaney was 8 years old — EastPark has seen some activity over the years, but nothing earth-shattering like what former Gov. Paul Patton predicted.

At Tuesday's fiscal court meeting, Justice of the Peace Suzanne Griffith quoted Patton as stating that folks should look back on the day EastPark was established in the year 2020.

Perhaps Patton was a bit prophetic — 2020 happened to be the year the largest project, Braidy Industries, started unraveling before the public's eyes after the ouster of CEO Craig Bouchard.

Chaney said a portion of a $500,000 allocation of funds for economic development last month will go toward getting a full-time director at EastPark and marketing.

"Listen, rather than selling the land for $25,000 an acre, I'd rather give it away. We could tell a company if you buy the property and use it for so many years, you'll get back your money," he said. "The counties will be able to make it back through occupational tax over the next 20 years."

Chaney said he doesn't have an issue with anyone on the board at EastPark, but without having a full-time executive director, there's not much going on out there.

"I think their executive director is paid like $1,000 a year," he said. "You can't expect them to do anything with that."

At Tuesday's fiscal court meeting in Greenup County, Judge-Executive Bobby Hall said all the county judge-executives involved were excited for the return of the land.

"This basically puts to rest the Unity situation," Hall said, using the name assumed by Braidy after Bouchard dipped out in a golden parachute.

Local attorney Sonny Martin, who now represents EastPark after Matthew Warnock was elected as Greenup County Attorney, said Greenup County stands to get $750,000 worth of property back into its portion of EastPark.

(606) 326-2653 — henry@dailyindependent.com