As employees of the Kentucky Coal Museum, School House Inn and Kingdom Come State Park wait eagerly to see when and how the Kentucky Department of Parks takeover of the attractions will happen, officials from the department visited the Tri-Cities on Wednesday to get an in-depth look at the facilities.

With the sites currently managed by the Southeast Foundation, part of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, and owned by the county and Tri-City Chamber of Commerce, hopes are that the state takeover will bring more funding, advertising and visitors to the attractions once they are part of the state parks system.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop spent the day with the visitors from the Department of Parks, including Mike Swatzyna, Bob Johnson, David Coleman and Charles Smith. They toured several attractions, including the School House Inn, the Portal 31 exhibit, the Lynch depot, lamp house and fire station and the Kentucky Coal Museum.

"I felt that they really loved the rooms (at the inn), they loved the historical view that the building brings," Grieshop said. "They really enjoyed (the museum) because none of them had ever experienced coal mining before in their life."

Being employed by the state, the four men said they were not free to comment on whether or not they enjoyed their trip.

However, their visit wasn't just a sightseeing venture. They came to take an inventory of every building and its contents as they prepared to finalize plans on acquiring the properties.

For example, the officials took an in-depth look at the records of the Kentucky Coal Museum, which keeps up with thousands of items, documents and photos donated by hundreds of people.

"One of the most important things that a museum does is to track their collections," said assistant curator Phyllis Sizemore. "In order to put an item in use for research or exhibit ... we have to be able to know where that item is, and we have to be able to know how it got here."

She said it's a big job to follow so many items. The museum uses a three-part numerical indexing system to track each item accompanied by endless supporting documents and information, all in a paper only system.

"They were pleased with the way we had kept our records," said museum curator Bobbie Gothard.

Grieshop said he expected the takeover to happen in the "near future." He said he recently signed a memorandum of agreement with the state and was waiting for the state to make its move.

"It's ready for transfer as far as we're concerned," he said.