A master plan for the Lake Cumberland area is to be reviewed and discussed next week by the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

The future of Lake Cumberland and this area is to be reviewed.

Nothing to get excited about you might say!

Everything to get excited about, we would say.

The next few years, once the lake level is again back to normal, can very well mark the future of the lake and this area.  

We certainly understand we are to promote the entire Lake Cumberland area, but we cannot keep from having a little prejudice to this end and Russell County.

We also cannot keep from seeing that Pulaski is preparing for those future years and we must also be prepared for these future developments.

We can easily see the future years with a new convention center in the Burnside area and with the wet issue already established there, there will be little doubt that conventions and large meetings will hit that area.

We fully understand that what is good for one area is also good for the entire lake area. We must support Lake Cumberland as a complete tourist area, but Russell County must also assume and compete in a leadership role.

When we say compete, we mean to prepare.

Gatlinburg, Branson, and areas like that did not just turn into major tourist attractions, they were planned, planned, promoted and promoted.

Several years a group from Russell County talked to the developer and promoter that had the first vision for the Gatlinburg area. Look what that vision has created today. This developer would have developed a plan for us, but we felt like we could not afford it!

The Corps of Engineers is holding their master plan discussion to present their ideas for the future of the lake area.

While they are preparing for the use and development of Lake Cumberland, all of us should be holding and developing a master plan for developing the area around Lake Cumberland.

It is not going to happen if all of us sit back and wait for the state and federal agencies to do this for us. It is not going to happen  if all we can do is print a brochure and hold a beauty pageant.

It is going to take planning, planing, promoting and promoting. How would you like to see Lake Cumberland’s plan for the future?