$34M announced for projects in Eastern Kentucky, including a children’s hospital
A project to create a children’s hospital in Pikeville will allow families of sick kids in Eastern Kentucky to get treatment closer to home, officials said Friday in announcing a $4.78 million federal grant to create the facility.
The grant was included in $34.4 million in funding for various projects highlighted at the annual Shaping Our Appalachian Region, or SOAR, summit in Pikeville.
The money for Pikeville Medical Center was the largest of 20 grants announced by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers and Gov. Matt Bevin, both Republicans.
Rogers and Bevin also announced that two more sections of KentuckyWired, the project to create access to high-speed internet across the state, have been completed. The rings cover much of Eastern Kentucky.
Rogers said the planned children’s hospital and pediatric clinic at Pikeville Medical Center will be the only one in the region dedicated to medical treatment for kids.
Families have often had to travel elsewhere to treat their children, said hospital chief Donovan Blackburn.
“When patients are sick, they don’t want to travel,” Blackburn said at the SOAR conference. “Our children in Eastern Kentucky deserve this.”
Construction on the facility will start before the end of the year, Blackburn said.
Officials announced funding for more than a dozen projects at the summit.
The grants are part of what is called the Abandoned Mine Lands Pilot Program, funded through the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and administered by the state Energy and Environment Cabinet.
Rogers, who pushed to create the program, said it has provided $105 million in funding for projects in Kentucky since 2016.
The goal is to boost economic development in the state’s eastern coalfield, which like other areas of Central Appalachia has been hurt by a dramatic loss of coal jobs since 2011.
“We are addressing a broad spectrum of issues through these grants, from advancing healthcare, to enhancing tourism, to improving infrastructure, to creating new jobs,” said Rogers, who noted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also has supported the program.
Other funding announced Friday included:
▪ $2 million to improve internet service in Leslie County and promote teleworks jobs.
▪ $3.4 million for the East Kentucky Advanced Manufacturing Institute, or eKAMI, to build a center to train inmates at the Little Sandy Correctional Center in job skills.
▪ $1.5 million for the USA Drone Port in Perry and Knott counties to build an indoor drone-testing facility.
▪ $2.5 million for Hazard Community and Technical College to create an advanced-manufacturing training center.
▪ $2 million to the Big Sandy Regional Industrial Authority to improve the industrial park in Martin County. Another project in Martin County will receive $1.37 million to construct a building for manufacturing operations.
▪ $2 million for Southern Water and Sewer District in Floyd County to replace and update meters.
▪ $4 million to Paintsville and Johnson County to improve sewer service.
Officials also announced grants for several tourism projects, including a sport-shooting and archery park in Letcher County; a campground in Breathitt County; cabins and camping sites at a park in Knott County popular for horse riding; and an inventory of coal-related buildings and historic sites with an eye toward developing a coal heritage trail in several counties.
“These are the cornerstones of economic development,” Bevin said of the various projects.
The keynote speaker for the summit was Maj. Dan Rooney, an Air Force pilot who started the Folds of Honor organization to raise money for scholarships for children and spouses of members of the U.S. military killed or disabled in the service.
Rooney commended the people at the summit for being part of the effort to revitalize and diversify the region’s economy.
People could have quit when the bottom dropped out of the coal market, but they didn’t, Rooney said.
“When you take that step forward, great things can happen,” Rooney said. “Our lives are defined every day by what we do when it didn’t go our way.”
The KentuckyWired project will create an access point for broadband in each county and provide service to state offices, but will not extend service to individual businesses and homes. It will be the job of other providers to provide that “last mile” service.
The project has suffered delays and cost overruns of nearly $100 million, according to a review by state Auditor Mike Harmon’s office. The audit said the initial contract for the public-private partnership was badly structured.
The legislature ultimately approved letting the agency overseeing the project borrow an extra $110 million to pay costs caused by the delays and clear up problems with the initial agreement.
Supporters have acknowledged some bumps in getting the project going, but argue broadband has become essential to education, health care, economic development and other areas.
Internet speeds in some areas of the state have lagged far behind national rates.
KentuckyWired is the avenue to boost speeds around the state, Rogers said.
“We’re about to eliminate the days of being under-served and last in the nation,” Rogers said.
This story was originally published September 6, 2019 at 10:22 AM.
