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By Zach Compton

Claiborne Progress

 

The Guardians of the Gap held their annual planning meeting for 2025 on Saturday at the Olde Mille Bed & Breakfast. The nonprofit organization is committed to partnering with business owners and community members to create opportunities to connect with locals and bolster the local tourism economy by hosting events in the small town.

Some of the activities planned for this year include returning favorites such as the White Lightning Festival in April, the Crossing the Gap car show in August, the Holiday Market and Christmas Parade in December, along with many others planned throughout the year. They discussed early planning for seasonal decorations in town throughout the year, and placed special emphasis on preparing a decoration plan early to go along with their seasonal activities.

Alongside the year’s planned activities, the Guardians are also excited about the town’s new tourism branding and iconography created by Guardians member and marketing advisor Bob Colloredo. The Guardians are planning on using this new branding to release new brochures, pictured alongside this article,  including a map of the town alongside their list of planned activities.

A special point of interest for the Guardians is collection of tax revenue data to show the monetary impact their events have on the local economy. They have been told by local businesses that their events directly correlate with increased spending and tax collection within the town, but they would like to collect data to show, in aggregate, their positive impact on the town in a more concrete way.

The Guardians also discussed updates on the grants they have applied for. Cumberland Gap residents may be familiar with Folkfest, an event that the Guardians have hosted in years prior. They are currently waiting for a second round of interviews with the Tennessee Arts Commission, who has funded the event for the past two years. Those interviews are part of the process for getting funding from the commission for this year’s event.

Cumberland Gap residents may also be familiar with the DIG (Downtown Improvement Grant) that the Guardians have been trying to secure for some time now. Half of the money from the grant, which would award a total of roughly $600,000 to the town, would allow local businesses and commercial property owners to apply to receive some of that money for building facade improvements. The other half of the grant would be spent on public space improvements and wayfinding signage, which the Guardians strongly feel the town needs. They have been approved for this grant, however they are still awaiting a response from the state.

The final large grant discussed was the Community Enhancement Grant. The town wants to use this grant to install new public bathrooms, including one indoor shower, in the town, as well as other public installations such as bike racks. The Guardians have been approved for this grant and plans are mostly in place for what will be built. The town is just waiting for the funds to be released so construction can begin.  There is currently not a definitive timeline regarding that construction.

Another point of discussion was handicap accessibility in the region. The nearby national park recently constructed a new bridge over Gap Creek which is fully handicapped accessible, and the Guardians would like to acquire wheelchairs which are capable of going off-road to make the trails in Cumberland Gap more accessible.

They also noted success with the bike system they installed, with hundreds of uses of the bikes and only two cases of repairs being needed. The Guardians would like to see another bike system, alongside accessible racks for handicapped bikes installed.

Overall, the Guardians of the Gap are looking forward to the upcoming year and doing early preparation for their events this year. With the grants they have applied for slowly being accepted and their plans for the town hopefully being realized soon, alongside the new tourism initiative and branding that they have secured for the town, they are hoping to make a real impact and see their community grow this year.