A love of the arts and wanting to attract people into Elizabethton and Carter County created a drive for one recently created organization.
With just a handful of members, BRATS (Beautification, Rails, Arts, Tourism, Special Projects) is starting to make traction within the community and has struck up a partnership with the Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Department to address issues at a handful of the parks.
“This particular group, I can foresee it going down a different road compared to the Friends of the Park program,” Parks and Recreation Director Mike Mains said. “I can see them working on the designs for parks and reaching out for grant opportunities.”
Mains works alongside Chris Little, one of the founder members of BRATS. Little added the idea of the group came together after a handful of residents came together to address the different needs within the city and county, wanting to work with the arts, trails and tourism.
“Kayla Carter is going to be excellent in her role as tourism coordinator for the county,” Little said. “Our goal is to help build the infrastructure to make Elizabethton and Carter County marketable and provide something different compared to Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol.”
Currently, Mains alluded to the fact that BRATS approached the Parks and Recreation Board to assist with upcoming projects for parks.
“We do a 5-, 10-, 15-year plan with capital projects,” Mains said. “Our first objective at Covered Bridge Park was to build a stage, restroom facilities, then landscaping and lighting. Our city engineers have worked together for a site plan for that and some of our other parks.
“Chris came to use and offered help to look at Edwards Island and the Covered Bridge Park,” he continued. “It was great timing. They approached our board and it approved their mission of wanting to help.”
One of the ideas brought up was establishing outdoor artwork at parks, Little said. With members wanting to delve into the artistic side of things, the BRATS member said that the arts community in Elizabethton and Carter County is ever-growing and can provide a different flare to the county.
“Since I’ve been with the city, I haven’t witnessed an outreach like this before,” Mains said about the outpouring of support. “There’s a lot going on here to help make improvements to our city and county. We have several other projects going on. I believe this is the start of something successful for the future.”
The director added that steps are in place to begin work on the various projects coming through the pipeline.
“The first step was taken several weeks ago,” Mains said. “We’ve been in discussion for weeks. They came to our parks and recreation board. They approved the mission to assist us with projects. We’re really just gathering research about making improvements and landscape to locations, then go from there. Once we have our plan in place, we’d do an outreach for grants to assist with funding.”
As the group grows, Little added that BRATS is also looking for citizens that are looking to make a difference within the area to help promote tourism and beautification. To learn more about the organization, individuals can contact the Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Department at (423) 547-6441. Mains added that he can direct individuals to get in touch with Little.