LOUISVILLE
Tech Firms Feeling Low, But Not All Are Down and Out

Darwin Networks, the Internet-access company which laid off more than half its workers in November, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. Assets of over $122 million are spread across 11 states, including offices in Seattle and Cincinnati as well as headquarters in eastern Jefferson County.

Times are equally tough for Louisville interactive game kiosk firm Agora Interactive Inc., which also filed for Chapter 11 in December . But not all e-business is suffering. Louisville-based interactive and distance learning company Connected Learning.Network, Inc. announced a strategic partnership with IntraLearn Software Corporation of Northboro, Massachusetts to provide official Microsoft eLearning training courses online to Microsoft Certified Technical Education Centers across the country. TechRepublic recently signed an agreement with NorthWest Center for Emerging Technologies, granting the IT education firm a license to reproduce TechRepublic’s content for its 30 consortium institutions. “By providing educators with easy access to our award-winning content, TechRepublic is contributing to the training of the IT leaders of tomorrow,” said CEO Tom Cottingham. Another Microsoft partner in Louisville, ASP Vobix Corporation, is heavily invested in the software giant’s next stage product, the .NET Enterprise environment, which Vobix president and CEO Tim Landgrave has characterized as the future of business technology deployment.

Earl Winebrenner III, president of investment banking firm Winebrenner Capital Partners, says Louisville’s New Economy retrenchment process isn’t that drastic overall.

“Thankfully, we did not get overly exuberant the last few years,” he reports, noting that the area’s enthusiasm and energy hasn’t waned. “Investors want to see a clear path to profitability,” he says. “BCatalyst continues to see a lot of business plans. The Venture Club gets 80-100 people showing up every month – a year ago, we heard pre-revenue dotcom presenters, and now we’re seeing presenters with less glamorous but operating companies in the tech fields.”

BEAVER DAM
Airbag Inflator Maker Coming to Western Kentucky

Daicel Chemical Industries, in a joint venture with Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd., will build a $23 million, 65,000 s.f. plant in the Bluegrass Crossings Business Centre Park in Ohio County. Expected to be operational by the end of 2002, the auto airbag inflator factory will employ 70 at the outset, with the potential to add 60 more people by 2005. “This investment will reinforce our automotive airbag inflator sales and manufacturing operations on a global scale and will allow us to more effectively service our customers in North America,” said Daicel president Daisuke Ogawa, whose firm will receive $6 million in tax credits under the Kentucky Rural Economic Development Act. Daicel will be the first tenant in the 1,160-acre industrial park, itself a joint venture by five Kentucky counties.

LEXINGTON
AirLog Imaging Wins Big Idea Expedition

AirLog Imaging, which digitally records and indexes aircraft maintenance records, was the big winner in the Big Idea Million Dollar Business Plan Expedition, beating out 71 other business ideas from a three-state region for $1 million in cash and funding assistance from Louisville tech incubator bCatalyst and the University of Louisville’s College of Business and Public Administration. The school’s MBA program was recently singled out as the 2001 National Model MBA Entrepreneurial Program by the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Bcatalyst was one of several firms (including Louisville’s Prosperitas Investment Partners and Anchorage Angels) to invest $1 million in a Louisville-based company with a similar technology oriented toward the healthcare market, Advanced Imaging Concepts. Its document-imaging technology is in use at 60 sites in 20 states. But AirLog president and co-founder Lisa M. Anderson says that’s where the similarity ends.

“Winning the bCatalyst Big Idea Expedition is both humbling and validating,” said co-founder and president Lisa M. Anderson. “We are honored, and graciously accept their assistance with AirLog Imaging in changing the face of aviation.”

“Our program is used to to address a shortage of qualified aircraft maintenance technicians,” she says. “They’re encumbered with paperwork, and our program allows them to be less encumbered.”

STATE
Wet Versus Dry Stays on the Local Level

According to a state law that was enacted in 2000 and which withstood a legislative repeal challenge this year, dry counties with wet cities are allowed to have precinct-specific votes regarding liquor sales at golf courses, as well as at restaurants where 70 percent of the receipts are from food sales. Seventeen such referendums have been held thus far. A referendum to legalize liquor sales at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Rowan County was voted down 225 to 76. Such a measure passed muster at Persimmon Ridge in Shelby County, but similar efforts had mixed results in Jessamine County, where Widow’s Watch failed and Champion Trace succeeded. In restaurant-focused votes, Somerset has stayed dry and Georgetown has gone wet.

“We’re staying out of it,” says Stacy Roof, president and CEO of the Kentucky Restaurant Association. “We’re happy with the decision made last year, and with the community being able to decide what’s best for them.”

LEXINGTON
Lexington Ranks High in Economic Ratings, Led by Per Capita Income

According to Demographics Daily, which issues monthly economic ratings for all 50 states and the District of Columbia and 224 metropolitan areas based on population, income and employment trends, Lexington ranks high on the national success meter. The city garnered a five-star rating in February, which goes to the top 10 percent in each category, joining such communities as Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Diego, Atlanta and Phoenix. The city’s highest ranking among the criteria was 33rd in per capita income growth, based on figures covering 1996 through 1998.

FRANKFORT
Capital City Bank Founders Build on Brick and Block, Stock Sale

STATE
University Presidents Announce Their Resignations on Same Day

Tuesday the 13th was an unlucky day in the eyes of many in the state university community. First came the announcement that after seven years at the post, Murray State University president Kern Alexander would resign later this summer. He also served as president at Western Kentucky University from 1985 to 1988.

In Richmond, Eastern Kentucky University president Robert Kustra announced he too will resign, effective exactly one year later – June 30, 2002 – than Alexander’s final day. Kustra has held the post for three years, and was both revered and reviled for consolidating the schools colleges and operations. The formal search procedure for a new president at EKU will be initiated at the board’s April meeting.

STATE
Agricultural News Topped by Year of Tobacco Tumult, New Ventures

Gov. Patton has appointed Versailles farmer Hampton “Hoppy” Henton Jr., the director of the Farm Service Agency, as head of the Kentucky Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship. He will oversee a $5.6 million budget to deliver services to farmers trying to wean themselves from tobacco.

Meanwhile, Gov. Patton has also contracted Harvard business School professor emeritus Ray A. Goldberg to oversee the composition of the state’s agriculture policy plan for a $25,000 fee.

A recent survey of Kentucky’s 1,900 dairy producers by the Department of Agriculture revealed that most intend to stay in the business for the long run. Ninety percent of the 476 respondents said they’d still be milking in two years, and 80 percent said they’d still be there in five years. And the average dairy herd had increased in size by about 27 percent. “From 1995-99, Kentucky lost around 200 dairy operations each year,” said Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Billy Ray Smith. “In 1993 and ’94, we were losing about a dairy farm a day. Our recent survey shows that pattern to be slowing down considerably, and that’s good news for our dairy industry.” Kentucky milk production for January 2001 totaled 145 million pounds, down three percent from a year earlier, but up six percent from December.

In other farming news, overall crops produced by Kentucky farmers during the year 2000 were valued at $1.67 billion, 20th in the U.S. and up two percent from the 1999 crop valued at $1.63 billion. Tobacco still accounted for 35.9 percent of Kentucky’s total crop value for the year 2000 and 29 percent of the U.S. value of tobacco produced. Another recent report from the Statistics Service showed that about 1,000 farms have folded since 1999, bringing the total to 90,000 in the state, covering 13.6 million acres.

LOUISVILLE
Cronan Becomes First Woman to Chair Kentucky State Fair Board

The Kentucky State Fair board elected Mary Anne Cronan of Louisville as chairwoman, succeeding William Kuegel of Owensboro. Cronan, who represents the American Saddlebred Horse Association, is the first woman ever elected to head the board. Bruce Harper, manager of Wilkinson Farms in Mercer County, was elected as vice chairman.

“I can’t think of a more qualified individual to lead our state Fair Board than Mary Anne Cronan,” said fellow board member Governor Paul Patton. The Louisville native’s experience includes executive positions with the Louisville Area Chamber of Commerce and the National Center for Family Literacy, as well as a seat on the board of trustees for Humana/University of Louisville Hospital.

“The membership of the Fair Board is a very active, hands-on group of Kentuckians,” said Cronan, “and it is truly an honor and a privilege to serve in this leadership capacity.” (A full listing of board members appears on page 20.)

LEXINGTON
Minority Banker Raymond Smith Finds New Position with Chamber

Former manager of Bank One’s Diversified Lending Group Raymond Smith was named Director of Minority Business Development by the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce. Bank One was recently pressured by black community leaders after it announced a consolidation that resulted in Smith’s loss of his post, a position he’d founded in 1993 as a way to bring the bank’s services to an underserved portion of the community. Among his new duties will be overseeing the Chamber’s new Access Loan Program, which helps minority entrepreneurs bring their business plans before several financial institutions.

“I am passionate about helping entrepreneurs reap the benefits of the free-market economy,” said Smith.

“His background and strong support from the minority community made him the best candidate for the job,” said recently installed Chamber president and CFO Bob Quick.

Smith’s predecessor, De Asa Nichols, took a position with minority purchasing and procurement at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Company’s North American headquarters in Erlanger.

MAYSVILLE
Harsha Bridge Project Wins National Engineering Award for Cable Design

The Lexington-based engineering team from American Consulting Engineers received the 2001 American Consulting Engineers Council’s “Grand Conceptor” award at a Washington, D.C. ceremony in March for their work on the William H. Harsha cable stayed bridge linking Maysville and Aberdeen, Ohio. It is the first bridge of its kind in Kentucky. “Joining two communities separated by a river may seem a trivial matter, but for American, this feat is a monument to the levels of professional excellence possessed by our staff,” said American general manager James D. Sigler.







NORTHERN KENTUCKY
Another Business Park to Locate Adjacent to Circleport in Erlanger

A 60-acre business park will rise in Erlanger in a joint venture launched by the Tewes family and Pilot Contracting Corporation. Plans call for the acreage to be developed in six lots, and a connector road will link it with Mineola Pike and the nearby Corporex Circleport business park. “Economic development is a product-driven process, and the greater the variety of product you can bring to the market, the greater the chance of success,” Tri-Ed’s Danny Fore told the Cincinnati Business Courier.

STATE
Idea Incubator NewCities Foundation Spins Off From League of Cities

The Kentucky League of Cities has launched the NewCities Foundation, a new organization that “will serve as an incubator for innovation, a catalyst for original thinking and a source of information and education for 21st century cities,” said KLC executive director and CEO Sylvia Lovely. “We will be an organization that does instead of merly thinks abut doing good things.” Buoyed by an initial $50,000 endowment from the UK College of Architecture, the foundation will sponsor work for multiple communities at the Urban Design Studio in Louisville, as well as partnering with KET in a new jobs skills program.

STATE
BellSouth Extends DSl Base to Rural Areas in Response to Demand

In response to what many call the “digital divide” separating many rural residents from the infrastructure and amenities of the Internet, BellSouth announced it will spend upwards of $16 million to bring digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet services to 57 towns in Kentucky, meaning connections that are 20 to 50 times faster than an ordinary phone line. Expected cost is between $40 and $59 a month, a price that could be different from that of ISPs that contract on a wholesale basis with BellSouth to access its DSL service and offer it to their own customers. Verizon offers the service in six Kentucky communities. (See story, p. 54)

STATE
UK, U of L Coaches Depart - One Under a Cloud, the Other in Twilight

After an internal investigation of the football program revealed dozens of NCAA rules violations over the past two years, University of Kentucky Hal Mumme followed the example of his maligned recruiting coordinator Claude Bassett by resigning in February, accepting a severance package of $1 million over the next four years. Bassett has landed a job as a high school head coach in Texas. An NCAA investigation is pending.

In Louisville, University of Louisville basketball coach Denny Crum ended his 30-year Hall of Fame career on a sour note, as confidential and combative memos between him and athletic director Tom Jurich were leaked to the press. Finally, he announced that he would indeed step down, accepting a $7 million buyout of his contract that includes a longterm agreement to serve as a consultant to the university. Crum is 14th on the all-time coaches’ list for career wins, with 674. Former UK head coach Rick Pitino will take the helm at Louisville next fall for just over $1 million a year, plus a $5 million “loyalty bonus” if he finishes out the six-year contract.

STATE
State and Nation Award Grants for Projects, Training and Development

Bedrock Products will receive $240,000 loan from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority to open a limestone aggregate operation employing 24 people in Breckinridge County. Other KEDFA-approved incentives included tax credits for manufacturing projects by Lafarge Corporation in Campbell County, Traditional Homes in Morehead and Can Spar U.S. in Gallatin County.

The latest round of training grants from the Bluegrass State Skills Corporation has produced over $1.1 million in funds for 39 projects. Among them:

• Over $127,000 to train 893 employees at GM-NACG BG Assembly Plant in Bowling Green
• Over $78,000 for the Elizabethtown Industrial foundation Training Consortium to upgrade skills for 380 trainees
• Over $45,000 to Aisin Automotive Casting, Inc. to train 330 people in London

Meanwhile, $13.2 million in USDA grants and loans has been awarded by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to rural development efforts in 19 states, including $450,000 to Kenergy Corp. in Henderson, which will use the money to finance site enhancement for Scott FoamTechnologies, Inc.

Business Briefs

ASHLAND

• Classic Bancshares, Inc. subsidiaries Classic Bank of Ashland and first National Bank of Paintsville will merge, becoming a Kentucky chartered commercial bank called Classic Bank. Some operational functions will be consolidated in Ashland. Company official say the expected loss or transfer of 10 positions will be slightly offset by the opening of a new banking office in Paintsville in mid-March

DANVILLE

• Centre College officials report that the institution’s applications are up 16 percent and the percent of alumni donating to the school is up over 49 percent, which they attribute in large measure to the exposure Centre received when hosting the vice presidential debate last fall.

HOPKINSVILLE

• Operators of the new 10,000-s.f. Children’s Academy of Hopkinsville hope to see the area’s industry benefit from not only the center’s child care offerings, but its concentration on early childhood education as well, according to the Kentucky New Era. Offering care for children aged 6 weeks to 5 years, the Academy may offer tutoring and summer programs once its core programs are up and running this fall.

INEZ

• Oneida native and Cumberland College graduate Robert M. “Mike” Duncan, regional chairman for the Bush 2000 campaign, was named national treasurer for the Republican Party.

KIMPER

• The Department for Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement presented a 2000 Commissioner’s Award of Excellence in Reclamation to the McCoy Elkhorn Coal Company for its work at the 39-acre Burke Preparation Plant and Loadout facility, which processes about 500,000 tons a year.

LEXINGTON

• As added incentive to keep AHL minor league hockey team the Kentucky Thoroughblades in town, the city of Lexington has offered a significant rent reduction for next season – from the current 10 percent of gross ticket revenue after taxes or $5,000 per game (whichever is greater) to free of charge. At press time, the team was trying to meet a goal of 3,000 season tickets by March 23, when they had to inform the American Hockey League where they’ll be playing next year. However, the league and the city are both considering deadline extensions. Attendance has dropped over 50 percent since the team arrived in 1996.
• Clark Material Handling Company laid off 60 employees in Lexington, citing a “slower than anticipated reorganization process” and difficulty in securing funding for operations in Europe.
• Web-page creation firm iHigh laid off 28 more workers in February, after eliminating 21 positions in January. Founded in 1999, the company partners with high schools to promote sports and other activities. It acquired the high school marketing division of Host Communications in December, and Host parent company Bull Run Corp. owns 37 percent of iHigh.
• After a change in the city’s comprehensive plan, the burgeoning Hamburg Place shopping and residential area near I-75 will be home to a golf course and hotel on about 120 acres of the 1,900-acre development.
• After going on strike Feb 25, then rejecting what was supposes to be an improved contract offer by an even larger margin than the first vote, the 1,200 UAW workers at Trane Co., a manufacturer of heating and cooling equipment, voted to approve the third contract offer. The dispute centered on the sharing of healthcare costs, with the company finally taking on more of the burden than in previous contract versions. (See health care story, p. 36.)
• A market update from RentStats America, Inc. shows that Lexington’s residential leasing occupancy is just over 89 percent. The figure isn’t much different from statistics of recent years, but the market’s total exposure (vacancies plus unrented properties)has exceeded 15 percent, whereas that figure was in the 10 percent range over the past few years. The number one reason for move-outs has been the purchase of a new home, prompting the update to report that the rental market is “as cold as it feels.

LIBERTY

• OshKosh B’Gosh has laid off another 148 employees, following layoffs of 162 people in late 1998. Company officials cited their “implementation of global sourcing strategy,” meaning the jobs went to Mexico. The plant is still open however, employing 132 workers, 11 in the sewing division.

LOUISVILLE

• Service Net, after selling a controlling interest in the company to Kemper Insurance, has rewarded employees with profit-sharing bonuses equal to 20 percent of their 2000 W-2 wages, meaning a total of $535,000 distributed to the company’s 110 employees. The firm attained 528 percent of its stated performance goals for the year. “We’ve got a great group of people and they’ve all played a role in our success,” said company president Kevin Callahan. The company expects to double its employment in 2001 as it moves to new headquarters in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
• Bankrupt direct marketing holding company Dimac Holdings Inc. has completed the $12 million sale of its AmeriComm Direct Marketing assets to a group of former AmeriComm managers and executives backed by other investors. The company, which specializes in a wide range of telemarketing and other services, has its headquarters in Norfolk, with operations in Louisville, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, and both Mountainside and Clifton, New Jersey. The 375-employee firm reported sales of $32 million in 2000.
• Doe-Anderson won the retail, point-of-sale and sales promotion advertising accounts of Lexington-based printer maker Lexmark, adding the manufacturer to its top five accounts in terms of annual billings. Other Doe-Anderson clients include Maker’s Mark, National City Bank and another Lexington firm, Valvoline.
• Lightyear Communications announced a collocation agreement with the National Weather Service to provide web server outsourcing, with the added service of allowing an NWS data-gathering satellite dish to be placed atop the Lightyear Technology Center to collect information from several states in the Appalachian region.
• Jackson C. Mullins, president of Fulfillment Concepts Inc., received the Roger Madison Executive of the Year award from the Louisville Sales and Marketing Association.
• Kentucky Utilities and LG&E parent company PowerGen named Nick Baldwin as its new CEO, while former chief executive Edmund Wallis will remain as chairman. Meanwhile, LG&E chairman and CEO Roger Hale will leave the company April 30. Rumors have recently swirled about a possible purchase of PowerGen by German firm E.On. LG&E’s profits declined by four percent last year, while PowerGen’s also sank by 12 percent.
• Humana reported a $27 million profit in the fourth quarter of 2000. Despite a loss of commercial members as the company culled unprofitable units, Medicare premium yields rose 6.7 percent and overall Medicare membership actually rose by 1.2 percent.

NEWPORT

• NS Group reported a drop in sales for the fourth quarter of 2000, including a 29 percent decline in the shipping of energy-related products and a 40 percent decline in special bar quality shipments since the third quarter. However, company president and CEO RenÈ Robichaud indicated several positives in the market that should improve company results in 2001, among them a 15 to 20 percent increase in international drilling rigs.

NORTHERN KENTUCKY

• Pomeroy Computer Resources will acquire the systems integration and consulting business of Osage Systems Group, based in Phoenix, Arizona, as part of that company’s bankruptcy filing. Osage, with 120 employees in eight states, reported sales of $84.3 million in the first three quarters of 2000, but lost $3.8 million during that same period. The purchase is Pomeroy’s fourth acquisition in the last 12 months – a growth strategy that helped the firm to revenues of $244 million in the fourth quarter of 2000.
• After disappointing fourth-quarter results, Barnesandnoble.com is laying off 350 people and shutting down distribution centers in New Jersey and Erlanger. The northern Kentucky facility was once operated by Fatbrain.com before it was acquired by the national B&N chain.
• Ashland Inc. purchased the business and assets of Neste Chemicals Oy, a subsidiary of Nordkemi Group, one of the world’s largest producers of formaldehyde based resin systems. The new acquisition will become part of Ashland’s Composite Polymers Division, and is expected to extend the company’s reach in the gelcoat market throughout Europe.
• Boone County led the region last year with over 1,000 single-family new home permits, according to the Home Builders Association of Northern Kentucky. The dollar value of the homes, $95.4 million, made up over half of the four-county region’s total of $188 million. Association president Jeff Erpenbeck looks for another strong year ahead. “The drops in interest rates will allow many new first-time buyers to enter the market and free move-up buyers to get more new home for the dollar,” he said.

OWENSBORO

• According to the Messenger-Inquirer, the number of banks serving Daviess County has doubled to 12 since 1994, and the boom is extending into neighboring Hancock County, where Independence Bank will open a location this spring in Hawesville. Hancock is one of the state’s fastest-growing counties.
• Smyrna, Tennessee-based Corporate Airlines began to offer three daily flights from Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport to St. Louis beginning in March.

PADUCAH

• Computer Services, Inc. has invested $3 million in a Unisys ClearPath mainframe at its Valparaiso, Indiana technology hub. It’s just the latest technology step for the banking services company, which has invested over $10 million in core systems technologies and $5 in item processing and telecommunications over the past three years.

PRESTONSBURG

• At the annual meeting of the East Kentucky Corporation, directors celebrated a year that saw nine loans, primarily to manufacturing operations, that resulted in 270 new jobs in the region. All in all, EKC has brought in 24 companies, made 36 loans, and watched those companies and financing create over 1660 jobs in EKC’s ten years of existence. Recruited by EKC as well as other organizations, the teleservices business sector continues to be drawn to the region, having created over 5,300 jobs. Leaders noted that one of the strongest employers in this sector is the Civic Development Group, with three call centers in Western Kentucky and four in Eastern Kentucky.

ROCKCASTLE COUNTY

• The 16,600-s.f. Kentucky Music Country Museum and Hall of Fame is under construction, headed for an expected May 2002 grand opening. Backers of the project, including Kentucky first lady Judi Patton, are aiming to raise $4.1 million in total funds, and have garnered 2.5 million so far.
• Dr. William P. McElwain, president of Health Kentucky, Inc. and medical director of the Rockcastle Hospital and Respiratory Care Center’s Emergency Department, received the 2000 Community Health Leadership Award from Community Health Charities. Health Kentucky’s programs to provide health care to Kentucky’s indigent population, boosted by McElwain’s relationship-building with pharmaceutical companies, have brought enhanced care worth more than $6 million to over 220,000 Kentuckians.

SOMERSET

• The Rural Development Center, Southern Kentucky Economic Development Corporation (SKEDC), and the Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation have joined together in the formation of the Valley Oak Business and Technology Park, a 250-acre regional site designed to attract technology-intensive companies to Somerset/Pulaski County.

SPARTA

• In response to the traffic snarls that plagued big events at the new Kentucky Speedway last year, the state will add an interchange and a connector road to I-71, with $35.8 million worth of construction scheduled to be complete in May 2002.

WHITESBURG

• The Appalachian Industrial Authority has purchased an 83-acre site from TECO Energy subsidiary Pike-Letcher Land Co. for $1.2 million. The Authority, made up of leaders from four counties, plans to buy up to 300 total acres by the end of 2002 for the Child’s Branch Industrial Park. The expected cost of $3.5 million will be borne entirely by coal tax severance money. Another 77 acres will be given to the Authority by the city of Jenkins.

WINCHESTER

• Suit coat maker Winchester Clothing Co., opened in 1981 and currently employing around 150, will shut down operations within the next two months. The plant closing follows the closing of fellow Winchester firm Polycel Structural Foam, which eliminated 45 jobs.

STATE

• Dennis Boyd resigned as Kentucky’s Medicaid commissioner, a week after Secretary of Health Services Jimmy Helton turned in his own resignation in the wake of the program’s overwhelming budget deficits of $82 million this year and an anticipated $281 million next year. Ellen Hesen has been appointed interim Medicaid commissioner. Governor Patton has appointed a Medicaid program steering committee headed by Kathy Kustra, wife of the soon-departing president of Eastern Kentucky University Bob Kustra. Once their analysis is completed, formal searches will be done to fill the two positions. Boyd will take an unspecified position with the University of Louisville Medical School.
• In the face of a more open Chinese market, the Kentucky Burley Growers Cooperative recently hired a Washington, D.C.-based consultant recommended by Sen. Mitch McConnell to aid growers in their quest to sell more leaf there. The 2001 burley tobacco marketing quota is 332 million pounds, up 34 percent from 2000. “I am please to see that our effort last year in buying out pool stocks was successful in increasing the basic tobacco quota by thirty-four percent,” said U.S. Congressman Ernie Fletcher, who, along with McConnell, helped to pass legislation that scratched a 1999 $500 million loan to the Burley Co-Op, removed 250 million pounds from the pool stock, and saved burley farmers an estimated $510 million.
• Seven pilot programs are underway in communities across the state to assess and develop workforce skills and to analyze job potential. Through a program called Work Keys – developed by ACT Inc. and supplemented by educational materials from Worldwide Interactive Network of Kingston, Tennessee – companies can have employee skills assessed, jobs analyzed, and then direct employees toward targeted instruction to improve particular skills. The program is sponsored by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and the Cabinet for Workforce Development, and is funded by $400,000 from Governor Paul Patton’s EMPOWER Kentucky initiative.
• In an interview with the Courier-Journal, newly elected University of Kentucky president Lee Todd touted several possible ways of jumpstarting the state’s participation in the New Economy. Among them: loosening up UK’s intellectual property dominion, thereby allowing staff scientific discoveries quicker entry in the commercial marketplace; working with other state university leaders to convince the federal government to locate a federal research center in Kentucky; and appealing to UK alumni’s sense of loyalty when trying to attract new businesses to the Commonwealth. “There may be some people who don’t want to take risks,” he told the newspaper. “If that’s the case, welcome to the ’30s and ’40s.” Todd takes office July 1.

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