On January 8, 2011, newly elected Mayfield Mayor Teresa Cantrell and Graves County Judge Tony Smith co-hosted an unusual Saturday morning summit. City Council and Fiscal Court members heard presentations from Rep. Fred Nesler, a community beautification program, and a marketing firm representative.

Kay Dosier, co-owner of 1187 Creative, a marketing firm based in Carbondale, Illinois, presented her firm’s work with other entities familiar to attendees. 1187 Creative has worked recently with Paducah’s Renaissance Alliance and the Southern Illinois Miners baseball team. The firm provides a range of services from branding with logo to website creation management.

Dosier’s firm spends a good deal of time polling the local community to come up with suggestions for a brand suitable to that community. “If I came up with something right now” she told her audience, “I guarantee you it would be wrong.” 

One participant asked how long the process of getting the program up and running would take. Dosier said much depends on the client’s ability to provide information quickly to the firm. She estimated the process to take nine months to roll out.

Costs for the marketing program are in the neighborhood of $40,000. Mayor Cantrell remarked that the city’s portion is roughly equal to the assistant salary she received before she was elected mayor. She has announced that she will not be hiring an assistant, which could free up some funds.

During the break, Cantrell said that cooperation between county and city is essential in these hard economic times. Pooled resources save scarce dollars.

Mayfield and Graves County face similar problems – the loss of manufacturing jobs, high unemployment, shrinking resources and rising costs. Elected officials of both entities are looking for ways to address their problems and avoid duplication.