For the last 17 years, Cadiz-Trigg County’s Tourist & Convention Commission has been led by the steady hand of native Bill Stevens.
Following his retirement, another native — Beth Sumner — has taken the role, in a chapter that truly began with Tuesday afternoon’s board meeting, the first in her tenure.
A former Trigg County Schools educator and administrator, as well as Trigg County Chamber of Commerce liaison, she’s in the middle of 30-, 60- and 90-day planning — before things really turn full tilt at the Annual Trigg County Country Ham Festival.
She’s looking forward to traveling the region and Commonwealth, while embracing the surroundings — and leaders — of west Kentucky.
Furthermore, she’s preparing to promote Trigg County for what it is: the “front porch of Land Between the Lakes.”
In other tourism news:
— Sumner said more details would be forthcoming, but a recent connection with Owensboro’s Symphony and its Chief Executive Officer Gwyn M. Payne has created the arrival of two large fiberglass pigs to the office. More, Sumner said, are on the way, as leftovers from a long-ago barbecue festival promotion, and there is a possibility for interested local businesses to claim these.
Their arrival coincides with long-running preparation of two new Trigg County promotional installations: a 10-foot concrete pig near the Cadiz-Hopkinsville exit off of I-24, and an 8-foot concrete pig at Trigg County Recreational Complex.
Eventually, Sumner said she wants the community and its visitors to embrace a “Pig Trail,” where people can travel all over the county to enjoy not only the vast number of pigs in the area, but the sites at which they are located.
— Director of Guest Services Jamie Lewis said the office served up more than 1,900 informational leads last month, and one traveling group from Lyon, France, on their way from Chicago southward, also passed through the area.
— Three meetings are on the office calendar: a pair of Trigg County Country Ham Festival Committee gatherings planned for September 4 and September 18, and a tourism session for September 10.
