We head west on I-64 for today's Monday's on main series.
Shelbyville is the seat of Shelby County and is sometimes referred to as the saddle bread capital of the world.
But city leaders say they hope to capitalize on a different industry that's also well known in Kentucky.
I've lived in Shelbyville my entire life.
I've been born and raised here, obviously.
And we have such a great, fabulous community that I'm very proud of.
And we have spent a lot of time and efforts on revitalizing the downtown as well.
We currently have many grants, matching grants available to a lot of our buildings that are that have been vacant and we've been able to put those in place for young entrepreneurs, people that have interest in building a business and coming downtown.
Complementing the city of Shelbyville as well as Shelby County, has kind of undergone kind of a big change because we were primarily a large agricultural county, tobacco and dairy.
And both of those have kind of gone away.
And in the same time they went away.
The distillery industry has really stepped into Shelby County.
You've seen a couple of really nice distilleries move in.
There's more coming, great benefit to the county.
We're supporting local agriculture and we sure make a great product.
Well, the county and the city of both play a very important roles for us as we started this project.
Distilleries were not allowed in the county.
They weren't allowed to be built.
So we worked very closely with the county and the city both to get ordinances set up that allowed distilleries to even exist.
And when we were actually first starting this, the county was actually dry or moist, you know, so we weren't going to be able to sell our products.
So the city worked very closely with us at that beginning time frame to allow us to get annexed into the city so that we could have our gift shop and sell our products and be part of the bourbon trail and be a tourism destination.
So the county and the city have both been very, very great to work with.
Being a stop on the bourbon trail is something that impacts our downtown.
People stay here in our Airbnb, so we have at least seven of them right on our main street, in our local right downtown.
So when people are coming, they're staying here and then they're venturing out.
So whether that's to jump the bullet or they're going outside of Shelby County, we become kind of that of that hub.
It also brings in a lot of money.
So when people are staying here, they're using the Airbnbs, but then they're eating or they might be going shopping, you know, So they're the impact on the economic side of things is really pretty huge and it's great.
So they get to come in and have a great time and enjoy what we have and go drink some bourbon and have a really good time there.
But then they're also benefiting our community and so much goes back into what we are doing to develop downtown and Shelby County.
I'm actually the local Farm Bureau insurance guy, and I can tell you we're insuring a lot of Airbnbs now and what's kind of neat about the Airbnbs in Shelby County and Shelbyville is they all are kind of different and they all have their own different flavor and their own different style.
So it's kind of cool.
You get a really nice selection of what what are you looking for in an Airbnb.
In regards to the economic development?
It is a juggling act.
I'm a firm believer in having smart growth.
Yeah, it is important that we keep that small town charm, if you will.
I think that's what makes us the most appetizing.
And with all the different things that we have in Shelby County and here in Shelbyville, we are a really good destination for people.
And we're very proud of that.