The First Impressions Program is a service offered through the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky (CEDIK). This program coordinates anonymous visits to a community by professionals in community and economic development, small business owners, and community leaders. Visitors document their experience and interactions with local community members. Their responses are then compiled and presented back to the community by a CEDIK representative along with suggestions and resources to address the areas identified for potential improvement.

In the Fall of 2017, the Carroll County Extension Council first learned about the First Impressions Program, listening to a CEDIK representative describe the process.   After seeing the positive outcomes of the program, the council agreed to sponsor the program for Carroll County.

Visits to Carroll County were conducted by six individuals throughout the months of June to November 2018. Visits were conducted on both weekdays and weekends to capture a variety of activity within the community. Overall, conditions were favorable for visiting and exploring the roads, small communities, parks, and businesses within Carroll County.

Visitors began by reviewing the Assessors’ Guide with the First Impressions coordinator and clarifying the purpose of their visit and geographic location from which they would enter Carroll County, in order to ensure that major entrances were explored. Adult ages ranged from 20 to 50 years, with a mix of small business owners, young professionals, seasoned professionals and community development professionals. Assessors were from both rural and urban areas. Assessments were completed at an individual pace, allowing personal life experiences to shape participants’ impressions. While quotations in this report should not be considered true for all individuals of these demographics, they do provide a valuable snapshot of visitors from a variety of ages, life experiences, and interests.

All visits were done in secrecy.  Neither County Extension Council members nor Extension staff knew when the specific visits took place. Local government, tourism, chamber of commerce, and business were not told about the program so the most honest results could be achieved.

In February 2019, the Carroll County Extension Agents for FCS, ANR, and 4-HYD organized a forum for CEDIK representative, Melissa Bond, to present the findings.  Melissa gave the initial results to the County Extension Council earlier in the month of February.  At the forum, approximately 40-45 community members attended.  Individuals represented local government, tourism, chamber of commerce, business owners, and residents.

The results were divided into the following sections: web presence, community entrances, livability, arts and culture, civic engagement, parks, public infrastructure, Downtown Carrollton, recreation and tourism, and restaurants and lodging.  The recommendations offered included:

1. Create opportunities for businesses to learn about social media
2. Address blighted lots by interstate and downtown, as well as litter on county roads
3. Develop a strategy to encourage business owners/residents to buy local

After the results and recommendations were presented at the community forum, attendees were divided into four groups to discuss possible avenues for improvement, based on their interests:   interstate clean-up, downtown, web presence, and provide more local items to purchase.  The groups then came back together to report their discussions.

In the interstate clean-up discussion, participants reported that they were not surprised about hearing this topic being pointed out because the county has struggled with a private landowner cleaning up their land that is around the Carrollton interstate exit.  The group suggest contacting District 6 about easements, take a committee to Fiscal Court, check ordinances, and utilize volunteers for clean-up.

In the downtown discussion, participants discussed the lack of public art noted in the report, and suggested students and adults could create larger pieces of art.  For vacant building, the group suggested to encourage building owners to make the building look occupied, or find uses for the building.

In the web presence discussion, participants noted that local businesses were not on web platforms like Yelp and Trip Advisor.   They suggested partnering with the Chamber of Commerce to sponsor a class training on these platforms.  They also discussed placing signs in businesses to encourage customers to review/comment about the business as well as bridge the two Carroll County websites together.

In the providing more local items to purchase discussion, participants were surprised that visitors reported they could not find local Carrollton items to purchase.  They noted there were some local/handmade/unique to Carrollton items available, but perhaps they needed to be label more clearly with signage.  Long term, they suggested recruiting local artists to place items in established stores.

Since the forum, the information has been shared through social media by community residents and provided to local civic groups (Rotary Club).  It has also been reported that the Carroll County Fiscal Court has hired workers specifically to cleaning up the roadsides throughout the county to address the litter issue.  A noticed social media campaign has begun where local businesses are sharing positive reviews about other local businesses—something we had not seen in the past.

A follow-up meeting was held in April 2019 to share thoughts and ideas about moving forward.  A small group of community members along with all Carroll County Extension Agents and Staff participated.  The group resulted in a project geared to improving the look of vacant store fronts in the downtown area by gathering historic pictures of those buildings to place in the windows.  To date, six downtown building owners have agreed to the project, and the search is underway to locate historic photographs.  This project will help improve the look of vacant buildings as well as serve as historical information for local residents and visitors.

The information learned by providing the First Impressions Program in Carroll County is priceless, and the Carroll County Cooperative Extension Service looks forward to how they can contribute to the community as a result of this program.