When I took office in 2019, downtown Somerset had little to offer its residents in terms of retail and entertainment. One of my first orders of business was to do something our city government had never done before — host four free community festivals downtown to highlight local art, music and food.
It was one of the best ways I knew to light up Somerset, a campaign promise that truly represented what I wanted to see happen in our southeastern Kentucky city. I wanted to build a Somerset for all generations — to make this place one in which others want to live and work — and that started by creating ways to celebrate who we are and share that story with people across the state and nation.
So we launched a Keep Somerset Beautiful campaign, setting aside funds to build downtown pride — beautifying our streetscape, ensuring sidewalks were up to par, investing in outdoor art projects that tell Somerset’s story, and launching those much-needed events.
All of these commitments represented one of the basic tenets of my business philosophy, that to experience growth you must invest. I learned during my time as president of Somerset Recycling Company — a business my father started solo that has grown to more than 75 employees — that when I gave my team the resources it needed to be successful and provided an energetic, vibrant workplace, my employees returned my investment ten-fold.
Now that I’m in public service, I have two teams to support — our nearly 300 city employees and more than 11,000 residents. The actions we’ve taken to invest in downtown, our people and resources demonstrate my philosophy still holds true.
Our four festivals, which are now annual events, attracted more than 20,000 people to downtown Somerset in their first year. Residents who once thought they’d never be able to walk down East Mount Vernon Street carrying a beer while listening to up-and-coming state and regional bands on stage at Fountain Square were suddenly doing so.
These events gave residents an opportunity to experience their changing community, reestablished their pride in it and challenged the status quo. We proved that downtowns can be the heartbeat of a city, and that begins when thousands of people gather together to have a good time.
Our focus on quality of life and quality of place allowed the city and its residents to begin thinking bigger. And some pretty outstanding things started to happen: To date, eight new businesses have opened downtown, many of them female-led. Four more are on the way. Millennials are moving home after going to college, citing the change in Somerset as the reason they came back. More people are shopping locally and encouraging others to do so.
The best part? It all happened organically.
As a result, the City of Somerset’s 2019-20 fiscal year was one for the books. We had a record year in revenue in four different tax categories without increasing rates — occupational, insurance premium tax, ABC regulatory revenue and property tax.
Our quality-of-life investments set off a chain reaction that gave the City of Somerset an excellent return. Not only did we benefit from a 3.5 percent increase in tax revenue, but we were also able to refinance our city government building, saving taxpayers $3 million and reducing the life of the loan by 15 years. And our Moody’s credit rating was upgraded two levels, deeming us a low credit risk to investors.
It’s a small anecdote of a larger effort to reignite Somerset’s economy, one that has been widely successful even during a global pandemic. I’m excited to keep building our downtown to be a thriving place future generations will love and enjoy.
Streets and Eats 2019
Moonlight Festival 2019
Light Up 2020 Bash
Moonlight Festival 2020
Recent Comments