Welcome to Mead County.
We are so excited to take you al
around and show you all the cha,
all the new things that are happening
in the big celebrations that are
happening here very, very soon.
I'm with Annie Hamilton with the
Mead County Chamber of Commerce,
Mead County Tourism.
And it's great to be back here.
And you know, I mean, first of ,
love the new offices in the spa.
It's gorgeous.
Yeah, we are really fortunate.
This house was built in 1964.
The previous owner was an ag teacher.
He was our former judge executive career.
So we have all these beautiful fruit trees,
there's magnolias, pecans,
and then we have these Japanese maples.
It's just such a beautiful spac.
I was going to say for our view,
this is nestled on this beautiful farm and
I think what better way to kind of show
off all the things like a nad to your past?
You know, while looking to your future,
I'm sure you have big plans for
what you can probably do with t.
Well, we do share an office
with industrial development.
So it's kind of the welcome wagn
meets what's coming to town.
Yes, let's talk
a little bit more about like all
the things that are happening.
I mean we're here to kind
of showcase the bicentennial
celebration that's happening. Bt
I feel like since we've
been here two years ago.
So much more has happened in
the city and so much growth.
Yeah, we're fortunate enough
to have Newport Online now.
They they had the first piece of
steel come on in December and
that's like a $1.8 billion proj.
It employs over 400 people.
And then we have subsidiaries cg
in that we're so excited about d
our little Berg is just growing
and growing and growing you kno.
What kinds of new business
are you excited that that's
kind of coming up over the hill
here that you see like when
you look out your side here,
you see kind of new things
being built kind of in town?
Well, we're excited to be part
of the Blue Oval pipeline.
So of course we have everybody
coming and looking at anything
that's available retail expansi.
And our population has grown bye
3000 people in the last three y.
So to be able to welcome new pee
and to facilitate their needs
is what we're looking at now.
You know, we're
just a short drive from Louisvie
just down the Ohio River, you k,
to have the kind of growth that
you have in the last couple of
years with these industries.
What has it done like to your
overall economy and kind of
the impact in this community
we can see on the impact our
GDP or our median income has
grown from 46,000 to 56,000.
And we're starting to go even further.
So we're above inflation,
which is what everybody's going to stay here.
Our housing market is still ver,
very hot, but our educational
system is what's keeping us,
keeping us really where people want to come.
Yeah. What are
you most excited about kind of
being able to do here in the fu?
Because I know the future is so bright here.
Us that have kids are so excited
that our kids are probably going
to stay because it used to be
the kids would go to high schoo,
go to college and some would come back,
but the majority wouldn't.
So we're excited to have a place
for our kids. Can stay now.
Yeah, absolutely. Come back,
maybe have their own business one day.
Well, I know we're going to dig a little
bit deeper into this, but you k,
you've got a big celebration
coming up. Don't give away too h
because I want people to see more later.
But. What do you hope that that people
will, will enjoy about this big celebration,
the bicentennial coming up May ?
Well, 200 years. It's huge.
Especially for the fact that Kentucky's
just a little bit over 200 year,
you know, so we're going to be e
to celebrate from 1823 to 2023 d
everything that's come between.
So we're so excited.
We're excited that we were found
by the Boones, like Daniel Boon.
We're a fan of the Boones and we're going
to be able to tell all that his.
To everybody that comes that da,
beyond the bicentennial
celebration, what other festivas
and events are you looking forwd
to this summer that, you know,
it's really going to bring people in?
Well, we're going to go
past the summer to the fall.
Oh yeah, we have the battle.
I'm ready for the pumpkins and cider.
And bring it.
Yes, we have the Battle Town Witch Festival,
which was our inaugural year last year.
It's based off a real person, Leah Smock,
from the history of Meade Count.
She's actually older than Battle Town.
She used to be called Witch Lea.
She's Kentucky's first recorded ghost.
And we have a festival.
Around her every October.
The last Saturday in October.
I already got chills.
I'm already there for it.
I love it. All right, Well,
can't wait to learn more about
the Bicentennial and all the
fun things that you all have
planned for that weekend.
So to get started on your
next visit to Meade County,
go to meadekychamber.org.