Why Pikeville

Utilities

Kentucky has the 4th lowest electricity rates in the United States. Pikeville has some of the lowest rates for water/sewer/trash in the entire state of Kentucky.

With Interstate-quality highways and the Pike County Regional Airport, the City of Pikeville has quite literally moved mountains to open us up to commerce, retail, industry, and more. The Cut-Through Project (completed in 1987) moved a river and mountain to open Pikeville up for quality roads and access while also protecting the city from flooding. The New York Times called it the “Eighth Wonder of the World” and it is the second largest civil engineering project in the Western Hemisphere, behind the Panama Canal. This project is a true testament to ingenuity and determination of Pikeville and its people. Not even mountains can stop us from progressing.

Pikeville, Kentucky is in a unique position in Eastern Kentucky because we are the intersection of four interstate-quality highways – U.S. 23, U.S. 119, U.S. 80, and U.S. 460. It is one of the busiest rural intersections in the state with over 38,000 cars that pass through daily.

We are in close proximity to rail yards, including CSX’s Shelby Yard which is only 2.5 miles from Marion's Branch Industrial Park.

At the Cassidy Boulevard intersection in Pikeville, we have a service area of 217,000 people and 500,000 people living within a 50-mile radius.

Within 600 miles of Pikeville, one is capable of reaching 51% of the U.S. population, 48% of personal income in the United States, and 55% of manufacturing employment in the U. S. as well. We are in a prime location for any and all types of businesses and industry.

Because of the state of the coal industry, the market offers a surplus of hardworking, skilled workers ready to work. Pikeville is innovative in that we are looking for and creating alternative solutions to put our skilled workforce into employment. As the regional hub with full services, Pikeville is moving mountains by establishing ourselves as a core location to employ our skilled workforce. Our workers are second to none with experience and training and we stand behind our workers and their capabilities.

Pikeville is proud to have innovative workforce programs such as Big Sandy Community and Technical College’s Workforce Solutions. It is a customizable employee training program that includes 10/30 Hour OSHA training, ServSafe, Fiber Optic Certification, OSHA Forklift, and CDL programs. They are eager to design a program to fit any business or Industry’s needs. The Workforce Solutions program has an enrollment of 3,011.

Our well-trained labor market area (within 45 miles of Pikeville) includes the Kentucky counties of Pike, Letcher, Johnson, Martin, Floyd, Knott, Lawrence, Magoffin, Perry, and Breathitt, the West Virginia counties of Mingo, Logan, and McDowell as well as the Virginia counties of Wise, Buchanan, and Dickenson.

There are currently multiple options for phone or high speed broadband with plans to provide gigabyte service by mid-2017 to the Kentucky Enterprise Industrial Park and the City of Pikeville.

Fast, reliable broadband internet is a necessity in the business world now. Businesses, both large and small, need to have access to product orders, company headquarters, inventories, and other information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Business in our community will be able to compete globally with faster broadband speeds. Fast and dependable broadband is an economic lifeline paving the way to increased job creation, education, and health access.

KentuckyWired is a new, statewide project recommended by the SOAR (Shaping Our Appalachian Region) initiative. This will bring fast broadband to every county in the state, beginning in Eastern Kentucky. With the KentuckyWired project, Pikeville and Eastern Kentucky are breaking down the geographic and financial barriers to connect our community globally, allowing greater access to education, healthcare, and economic development.

The Eastern Kentucky region (this includes Pikeville, Kentucky) will be the first priority area, with work beginning in the summer of 2015. The backbone work is expected to be completed in Pikeville by April of 2017.

The KentuckyWired project is estimated to total $324 million. The funding will be provided by both federal and state levels, as well as the private sector.

This project is the largest P3 fiber partnership in the country and the only one which is fully open-access.

The city has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state of Kentucky to become the first-gigabyte community in the state.

The City of Pikeville continues to work through the various stages of our broadband strategy for the community. We are working on the most effective way to take full advantage of the state’s project. CTC, one of the nation’s leading experts in developing a broadband strategy, completed a full feasibility study in 2016 to assist and guide Pikeville on constructing our last mile. This will improve current healthcare and education sectors, while also assisting Pikeville in diversifying our economy with the latest, greatest, affordable, and high speed broadband service. This will create a virtual presence and connect Pikeville globally. Funding is committed by the City of Pikeville to implement the first phase and launch of the project. The city intends to select its partner through a Request for Proposal process in early 2017, whoever is selected will assist the city in the designing, engineering, construction, and operation of the new system. The city intends on implementing and operating a full open access network by the end of 2018.


Why Pikeville

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