MILLERSBURG, Ky. (LEX 18) — It’s been 51 weeks since a fire tore through a portion of the village of Millersburg and not much has changed since then.
Residents are still having to send and receive mail at a trailer on 5th Street after the post office burned to the ground. A nearby building remains boarded up and so many businesses have closed. The once quaint and somewhat bustling town needs a facelift, and it may have found the right people to handle the project.
“Right now we have our assets, we have the homes and the buildings and we’re starting to develop plans,” said Victoria Benson, the p[resident of Mustard Seed Hill.
Inside the historic Mustard Seed Hill home is the office of Community Ventures, which gathers the necessary capital to improve and develop areas in need. They can buy and then lease or sell both residential and commercial properties to homeowners or entrepreneurs. That’s exactly what they’re doing right now in Millersburg, because it wasn’t just the fire that left this area somewhat depressed.
“Once the MMI (Millersburg Military Institute) left and the factory left and the bypass was rerouted around this town, a lot of those businesses didn’t have people coming here anymore,” Benson noted.
Many of these businesses on Main Street closed before last summer’s fire. Even the tall clock by the park is stuck at 5:53 and seemingly has been for years.
Community Ventures can apply for grants and tax credits to get the funding needed to do the business it wants to do. While Victoria alluded to a few deals that have already been consummated, it’ll take a long time for things to return to normal here.
“I’d say in five years this will look like a completely different town,” she said. “As long as everyone can be patient, believe in the dream and the vision and the community aspect of this, then we won’t have any problems. It’ll just keep moving forward,” she continued.
Mrs. Benson said a new post office is part of the plan here, but they’re waiting on some direction from the postmaster before moving ahead with that.
