In the Know: Harrodsburg Economic Director Terri Bradshaw

Thoughts And Goals From Community Leaders

Jennifer Marsh

Herald Staff

jmarsh@harrodsburgherald.com

(Editor’s note: This is a weekly series interviewing community leaders to share their thoughts and goals for the community.)

Mercer County’s leaders agree it is time for change and development in the community, according to Terri Bradshaw, president and CEO of Kentucky Capital Development Corporation.

A native to Mercer County, Bradshaw hopes to help the community reach it’s goals of development.

“It will be a three step process,” said Bradshaw. “The first step is to assess what the community has, identify current issues and work on a strategy.”

Bradshaw said she hopes to engage the community in the assessment stage with focus groups, surveys and community meetings.

“The second step is to define what the future will look like through what the community wants and will support,” said Bradshaw. “This plan cannot be mine, if it is, it will not work. The community has to define the future it wants to see.”

Bradshaw said the final stage is a time-line short-term and long-term goals.

“Mercer County already has great entities to fuel economic growth,” said Bradshaw. “We will be working together to create a plan with individual action items that will support the over all goals of the community.”

Bradshaw said the plan is supposed to be a compromise that includes desired actions from all perspectives and she anticipates not pleasing everyone with every item.

“There are so many local and regional partners that can help promote economic development,” said Bradshaw. “When we finish, the city will have a lot of ways to look at the process and make it better.”

Bradshaw said the city eventually will have to dedicate some staff to economic development.

“To sustain economic development there has to be someone to oversee it,” said Bradshaw. “We cannot take the sit and wait, shotgun approach, to development or it will miss us.”

 

Find the rest of the story on page 8A of this week’s issue of the Harrodsburg Herald or click here to subscribe.