FRANKFORT, KY – The Kentucky House Committee on Tourism Development approved a bill last week that Representative Keith Hall hopes will pave the way for an ATV trial in Kentucky that would connect to the Hatfield-McCoy Trails in West Virginia.

Hall (D-Phelps) said the system could potentially attract 200,000 tourists to the area annually, injecting much need cash into the economy. He said Pike is working with 13 other counties in Kentucky, including Floyd, Johnson, Perry and Wolfe.

The bill would create the Kentucky Mountain Trail Corporation to manage the system. Trails could be over 2,000 miles long. Much of the land for the system is property that has previously been strip mined, and so has much of the groundwork already accomplished.

The bill was passed unanimously, with some changes to be made. The original bill would have make the authority a state agency, which could require riders buy a permit before riding on state lands.

Hall said he made the changes because the original bill would be too expensive. He said economic diversification is important to Pike County and Eastern Kentucky.

“We think this is the right thing to do for tourism ... in these dead and dying counties,” Hall said.