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Nola Sizemore

Staff Writer

Having a great website to promote area tourism was the sentiment of the Cumberland Tourist and Convention Commission at a recent meeting.

Approving a request to purchase a host for the county’s website, members agreed to allow students from Harlan County High School to design a new website for the commission and the students will receive class credit.

“The website is great, but right now no one can get on it because no one has a password except Justin Smith in Harlan, and he is charging every time they want something changed on it,” said Director Tracey Bailey. “The Harlan County Outdoor Recreation Board (HCORB) is having issues where people are contacting them about Portal 31, Kingdom Come State Park, Hensley Settlement — everything plus their zipline and ATV parks. The Outdoor Recreation Board is actually asking high school students at Harlan County High School to design a website for them also.”

Bailey said the website, which is owned by the HCORB, is a Harlan County website, which is a collaboration with both Harlan and Cumberland Tourism Commissions.

“We can’t afford to pay every time we want to go in and change pictures or post events we are having in our area,” said Bailey. “The way it is set up we can’t go in there ourselves and make changes. We need something easier to maintain.”

Bailey said the original design of the county website was to be “tourist friendly.”

“We had one, HCORB had one, the city of Cumberland had one, so it was combined to one website with everyone’s information on it, with links to each individual interest,” said Bailey. “We’ll always get calls from people who aren’t familiar where things are located in the county, but as a whole it is informational. It could be better if we could just get on there and change information from time to time with upcoming events.”

The commission approved the purchase of the host at a cost of $79 annually, which will be split with the HCORB.

In other action the commission:

*Noted a gazebo will soon be completed for the city’s Black Bear Park;

*Appointed a committee to obtain quotes and make decisions on purchasing windows for the tourism office;

*Approved the use of the commission’s bus for an upcoming outing to Middlesboro by Tri-City Senior Citizens;

*Noted that the agency is teaming up with the Harlan Tourist Commission to host a Haunted Ranger Station at Putney on Oct.25-27 and Oct. 29-30 from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. Proceeds from the event will go toward construction of the Veterans Memorial Park in Cumberland;

*Agreed to participate in WYMT-TV’s Go Local 15 minute segment spotlighting Kingdom Come State Park;

*Announced plans to apply for a R.E. “Bob” Frazier Foundation Grant, TOUR-SEKY Grant and a Brushy Fork Institute grant for spring 2013.

Reach Nola Sizemore at 606-573-4510 or at nsizemore@heartlandpublications.com