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As soon as the Allthech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) in 2010 were awarded to Kentucky, our local tourism partners immediately went to work! With good reason, our first interest was in housing. You may or may not know, but tourism efforts are almost entirely supported by Transient Room Tax (TRT). As a matter of fact, 93 percent of our total budget comes from TRT. This is the taxing mechanism for funding tourism efforts all over the country. So, when we heard our hotel rooms would all be filled for the entire three weeks of the WEG, we were ecstatic!

There are many, many reasons for us to be involved locally and regionally and we have a large group of local citizens involved in various ways to prepare for more than one-half a million visitors who will come to Kentucky September 25 through October 10, 2010. In addition to housing, we immediately realized we need to plan for events, hospitality, budget, sponsorships and communications; one other item soon became paramount in our planning. Beautification very quickly rose to the top of our identified needs.

It didn’t take very long for us to realize beautification is a big task and certainly one that cannot be left to the last minute. We can put up tents and set up stages at the last minute, but if we want to accomplish a major beautification effort it must be started NOW!

After working on beautification for more than a year now, I want to share with you just a little bit of where we are headed. First of all, we want to develop an easily maintained and completely sustainable beautification plan for Frankfort and Franklin County. No longer in our minds are we simply preparing for 2010; yes, we are working to get ready for 2010, but our intent is to be ready far before September 2010 and then to work the plan forever. Some of us may die off eventually, but hopefully someone else will pick up where we stop.

Two very capable and talented women are chairing this committee; Kim Cowherd and Phyllis Liebman are our fearless leaders and I for one am thrilled to follow their direction. In addition to the beautification committee itself, there are also subcommittees which are also functioning. Jan Wright is chairing a sub-committee of horticulture clubs; downtown buildings is being chaired by Kelly Everman; Danny Garland will chair the service clubs; streets and curbs is headed by Bob Tillet; and finally, public art is being chaired by Sallie Lanham (and she has three sub/sub-committees). Other people serving in various capacities include Dick Bell, Rebecca Hall, Robin Antenucci, Freddie Johnson, Twina Keeton Andrew Cammack, Mike Greer, Kathy Carter and Mark Schmitt. A pretty impressive group in our city has stepped up to the plate to work on beautification – and we still need all of you to help us accomplish the goals on which we are working.

Pictures, pictures and more pictures have been taken to document our present state of beautification or in some cases lack of beautification. All of these photos have been organized and Dick Bell is now working diligently to prioritize them into practical bite sizes. I’m sure you are thinking at this point, these people have really taken on a huge project and you are entirely correct. That is why we need your help. Our committee would like very much to get everyone involved in this Beautification Plan. We want businesses, clubs, churches, schools, people of all ages – we want our entire community to become an integral part of developing and definitely implementing a plan. In just a few weeks we will announce available project. Please be watching and ready to step forward to help.