I don’t have to tell those in charge of the Corbin Arena about the parking disaster caused by two sellout crowds to the Leanne Morgan show Saturday night. They are already aware of what happened.
Never again should two big events be booked so close together at the Arena. Because of the mammoth problem of getting vehicles exiting after the 4 o’clock show and trying to get those into the 7 o’clock show, never has the Arena been assaulted with so many negative comments from people all over eastern Kentucky, and perhaps further, on the Internet. I saw comments from people in Georgetown, Lexington, and Somerset, that said, “Never go to the Corbin Arena.”
This is the biggest blackeye the Arena has ever suffered, and a lot of damage has been done.
I was a little lucky in that I got there early enough for the second show to get in line near Applebee’s. From there, it took me one hour to get to the top of the hill. I moved my vehicle to the right lane because the signs directed those with handicap tags to be in the right lane with flashers on.
When I reached the top of the hill, the parking attendant motioned me to the gravel lot. I pointed to the handicap tag and he shook his head NO, so I entered the gravel lot of which the next parking attendant directed us to go to the far back of the lot.
I also pointed to the handicap tag and refused to go to the far end and parked closer. A big question is why would a parking attendant direct those who got there first to the furthest end of the lot? The people parked next to me also had a handicap tag, and the poor little lady, all bent over, said she didn’t know if she could walk that far.
One of my passengers had just had a knee operation and I have severe breathing problems, so that long walk made it very difficult.
When we finally arrived to the front doors, all but one handicap parking places were empty, as was half of the lot in front of the Arena. When we were finally seated, the couple next to us also said they were refused to park in the handicap area. There is no excuse for parking attendants to ignore the rules that are posted along the route.
Inside the packed Arena, only one restroom area and one concession area was open. Lines were extremely long at both locations. It’s also very obvious that a lack of planning had taken place for an event of this size.
Now that this has happened, it should never be repeated. From time-to-time there can be problems. Even for those attending the Ryder Cup in New York, a golf match between the USA and Europe, experienced a far greater quagmire of traffic problems getting into the course parking area than we had in little Corbin.
There desperately needs to be another entrance area to the Corbin Arena. I have no idea how this could happen because of its location. I remember City Manager Bill Ed Canon taking Mayor Amos Miller, Commissioner Phil Gregory, and myself up that hillside in his four-wheel-drive vehicle before a road was ever constructed. In the back of my mind, I was thinking why would we ever want to build on top of that hill? But now that we have, and not too many years of payments remain for paying it off, maybe a solution for traffic can be made.
One other thing… When exiting after the 8:30 p.m. show we were directed to the Corbin Bypass. That was no problem for me, but for the Pulaski County car in front of me, I’m sure they had no idea of where they were and where they were going. I cut left at the Woodbine exit and made it back to town. The car in front of me kept going. Hopefully they figured out a way to get back home. Another question is why were we not permitted to go straight to US 25?
The bottom line is that it was a good show, and hopefully those who blacklisted the Arena online will be more understanding that this does not happen regularly.
And before I close, Fourth and Fifth streets in Corbin received a new layer of black top. That’s great! But this doesn’t answer why those streets got priority when Kentucky Street, which has much greater traffic, remains in the deplorable condition it has been in for years. That question goes to the Kentucky Department of Highways.
