 Last September the City of Prestonsburg opened its new rail trail to the public and while the trail itself was complete there was still more work to do. So on Thursday, one year and eight days after that grand opening, the city held a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the now complete Prestonsburg Passage. The ceremony took place at the West Prestonsburg Trailhead which has only been open for a few weeks. Other new additions include amenities to make it easier to spend time on the trail including shelters, picnic tables, benches, bike racks, trash cans, water spigots, bicycle repair stations and, well, other facilities. Officials say it all adds up to an attraction that is not only a benefit for local residents but a draw for tourists. We had a ribbon-cutting just for the asphalt. So many people have enjoyed this trail. By the time we worked through everything we were trying to do we ended up with a substantial amount of money left over and that was because of very frugal spending by the the staff. The contractors worked with us. Everybody has been so excited to see this happen that we were able to put back about a hundred and seventy thousand dollars, almost two hundred actually. So with that we were able to buy a tractor excavator over here. We bought this electric vehicle that is a maintenance vehicle and we have bought all these amenities. What a great trail and what great interest in the trail. And you're on the right path. I think the Hittese Hills are home to us but they're an attraction to people who don't live here. And you're making Kentucky available to a lot of people including yourselves. Here at Pikeville Medical Center's Heart and Vascular Institute we have assembled a comprehensive team of cardiac specialists bringing expertise from all regions of the nation and the world. We have coupled that with cutting-edge technology providing them the best equipment and operating rooms available. The result is comprehensive cardiac care for the people of our region that is second to none. The Heart and Vascular Institute at Pikeville Medical Center. The trail is already a hit. It's amazing the number of people that are already coming out to use the trail and are coming from everywhere. With that said the opportunity creates more opportunity and the people visiting the trails they stay locally. Hopefully they will visit our new campground and just opened on the trail. They'll spend the night in one of our hotels and grab something to eat. So poorly these opportunities and the bigger opportunities is what we're doing. So when this vision first came about and I was not anywhere part of the vision but but people saw it and we had people in place that were being visionaries and trying to be innovative and people thought what the world's a paved trail going to do. Again, 44 million dollars in spending last year in Floyd County. That's what trails like this are doing and what a blessing that no taxpayer dollar was spent on a creation like this. The trail runs from West Prestonsburg through Archer Park and the Middle Creek battlefield and on to the former coal mining camp of David. It is open during daylight hours for walkers, runners, cyclists and horseback riders. Reporting from Prestonsburg, I'm Ralph Davis for Mountain Dopp News.