FRANKLIN
Garvin's Brings 800 New Jobs and 1.8 Million Visitors

The founder of Camping World, a Bowling Green company that has become the world’s largest camping equipment supplier, has announced plans to build a $53 million recreational vehicle showroom in Franklin, Kentucky that is expected to create 800 new jobs and bring millions of tourists to the area.

The new RV facility will be known as Garvin’s, in honor of Camping World founder David Garvin, and will include the nation’s largest RV and new-product showroom as well as a comprehensive RV service center. The 265-acre site along I-65 will also include a “first-of-its kind” American Travel Museum.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who hailed the project as “visionary,” noted that the state is partnering with Garvin’s to develop a recreational vehicle service-training curriculum at the new state technical training facility in Franklin.

With the new facility expected to become a destination point for some 1.8 million visitors, the company estimates that gross sales and service transactions could exceed $900 million in the first full year of operation. The first phase of the facility is expected to open in 2007.

While Garvin considered sites in North Carolina, California and Nevada, he decided on Franklin because of Kentucky’s central location and its access to important interstate highways. I-65 is one of the country’s most traveled north-south routes, while nearby I-40 is the one of the nation’s most heavily traveled east-west highways.

STATE
Export Initiative Provides New Opportunities

Kentucky has been selected as one of eight states to participate in the TradeRoots program, the nation’s leading sustained grassroots trade education program dedicated to raising public awareness of international trade on a local level.

In making the announcement, Gov. Ernie Fletcher noted that the program “will allow us to market Kentucky products around the world and provide more opportunities for our workforce within the small business community.” The program will specifically help foster the state’s relationship with the Republic of Chile and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Fletcher added.

Kentucky was chosen to participate in the TradeRoots program due to its aggressive international trade program and the potential of its small and midsize companies to export. The program is designed to enhance existing export assistance programs in the Commonwealth while raising awareness of free trade agreements and increasing export opportunities for existing businesses.

Exports have proven to be of great economic value to individual companies, as well as the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Kentucky exports rose 21 percent in 2004 compared to 2003, from $10.7 billion to more than $12.99 billion. More than 53,000 direct jobs, 38,000 indirect jobs and 51,000 induced jobs in the Commonwealth are sustained by exports to foreign countries.

CADIZ
New Trailer Plant Creates 250 New Jobs

Benson International, Inc. a manufacturer of steel and aluminum truck trailers and bodies, has announced that it will locate a new $10 million facility in Cadiz.

The new plant will create 250 new full-time jobs, making Benson the second-largest employer in Trigg County. (Johnson Controls employs about 750 workers.)

The company’s new 180,000-sq.-ft. facility, which will be located on 14 acres in the Trigg County Industrial Park, will house two complete production lines that will make aluminum flatbed trailers. Operations could begin as early as January, said company officials.

The family-owned, West Virginia-based company, which is one of the largest custom trailer and body builders in the industry, also operates plants in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Benson selected the Kentucky over locations in Tennessee and Alabama.

The state has approved $3.5 million in tax credit for Benson to locate in Cadiz.

STATE
Kentucky Moves Forward with Tax Modernization Legislation

Gov. Ernie Fletcher had nothing but compliments for the Kentucky General Assembly’s recent passage of an historic tax modernization package.

“This reform accomplishes several objectives,” Fletcher said. “It reduces the tax burden on the poor, provides tuition tax credits for families of Kentucky students at in-state public and private postsecondary institutions, improves the tax climate for small businesses, repeals a corporate license tax that was established in 1906 and offers significant environmental protection.”

The legislation will begin the first comprehensive overhaul in a half-century to a revenue system largely based on a 19th century economy. That system, Fletcher said, “punished the poor, stifled small business and did little to encourage economic development and investment or to attract the entrepreneurs who create jobs.”

The top income tax rate will be reduced to 5.8 percent from six percent on income from $8,000 to $75,000, about a third of the reduction sought by Fletcher. But, the reform will result in 216,000 low-income tax filers, representing 496,000 total Kentuckians, being removed from the income tax rolls.

The top income tax rate on corporations, currently eight percent, will be cut to seven percent this year and to six percent in 2007.

Tax credits were created for historic preservation, biodiesel, and brownfields development.

The excise tax on cigarettes, which at three cents was the lowest in the nation, will rise to 30 cents a pack, with part of the revenue to be dedicated to cancer research.

A development fund for equine breeders will help preserve Kentucky’s status as the horse capital of the world – a status that has been endangered by aggressive incentive programs in other states.

BOURBON COUNTY
New Molten Aluminum Production Plant to Locate in Bourbon County

Toyota Tsusho America Inc. and its parent company, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, have formed a joint venture with plans to locate a new 50,000-sq.-ft. aluminum smelting facility in Bourbon County.

Kentucky Smelting Technology (KST) will work in partnership with CMC/CLA, a manufacturer of aluminum wheels, and will be located behind the CMC/CLA plant to provide easy access between the two companies.

“KST will be performing a vital operation for CMC/CLA in providing molten aluminum for our casting operations,” CMC/CLA Chairman and CEO Frank Bellafato said. “We are expecting to expand our production of aluminum wheels in September to 1.5 million per year. With KST providing the aluminum, CMC/CLA can focus our activities on our core business of casting and finishing aluminum wheels.”

The new plant represents a $9.2 million investment and is expected to create 35 new jobs.

STATE
Kentucky Unveils Leading-Edge Program to Address Drug Problem

Kentucky has become the first state in the nation to implement a state-operated database for the identification and prevention of controlled substance abuse.

The Enhanced Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting program, known as eKASPER will allow pharmacists, physicians, law enforcement and other qualified users to get KASPER reports 24 hours a day, seven days a week within 15 minutes or less of making a request. The present system can take up to three weeks to generate a report.

“eKASPER is the most effective and efficient tool ever implemented to combat prescription drug abuse in Kentucky. Its benefit will be immediate and powerful and have an incredibly positive impact on the citizens of the Commonwealth,” said Robert J. Benvenuti, III, the inspector general for Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

KASPER, which began operating in 1999, tracks all schedule II-V drugs dispensed by licensed Kentucky pharmacists.  It was developed to help physicians, pharmacists and law enforcement fight “doctor shopping.” Before KASPER, it took drug control investigators an average of 156 days to complete an investigation of alleged drug diversion. Under KASPER, the average time dropped to 16 days. With eKASPER, it’s expected to drop further, in addition to providing improved accuracy of reported data.

LOUISVILLE
HealthEssentials Solutions Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

One of the commonwealth’s fastest-growing young companies, Louisville-based HealthEssentials Solutions Inc., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Founded in 1998, HealthEssentials was a provider for health care services to the elderly in assisted living centers and nursing homes as well as in-home health care. However, with virtually all of its revenues coming from Medicare and Medicaid, problems in receiving reimbursements from those sectors created cash-flow problems for HealthEssentials.

Last year, company officials hoped to offset the slow reimbursements by raising money through an initial public offering. However, that action was halted when a federal investigation of the company was launched with “probable cause warrant” related to issues of conspiracy, false statements, wire fraud, bank fraud and a scheme to commit health care fraud.

According to statements made by the company’s attorney, HeathEssentials has ended its nurse practitioner business and plans to sell the remaining home health and hospice operations.

MAYSVILLE
East Kentucky Power Opens New $400 Million Clean Coal Plant

East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s E.A. Gilbert Generating Unit in Maysville is now on line, representing the state’s first coal-fired plant in 15 years.

The $400 million unit, which ranks among the cleanest coal generating units in America, will provide power for EKPC and the 16 not-for-profit cooperatives served by the organization. The 268-watt Gilbert Unit operates with a cutting-edge clean-coal technology known as the circulating fluidized bed (CFB) process. Coal is burned at a much lower temperature than a conventional unit and limestone is fed into the boiler, resulting in extremely low emission levels. The coal burns at nearly half the temperature of a traditional unit, removing 98 percent of the sulfur dioxide. The process produces five times less nitrogen oxide than a conventional unit.

The new plant was necessitated by exceptionally strong growth among EKPC’s 16 distribution coops, growth that is more than twice the national average. A 17th cooperative, Bowling Green based Warren RECC, will join the system in April 2008. Because of the system growth, EKPC plans to add two generating units that will be identical to the Gilbert Unit. One will be adjacent to the Gilbert Unit and is scheduled to come online in 2008; the other will be built in Clark County and is slated to open in 2009.

STATE
BB&T Launches Remote Check Deposit for Business Clients

BB&T Bank is among the first financial institutions to offer remote deposit, a service that provides business clients with a faster and more efficient way to make deposits.

With BB&T OnSite Deposit, clients use a scanner attached to their computer to create a digital image of their check for secure transmission to BB&T and same-day deposit.

The financial industry is gradually moving toward paperless banking, following the Check 21 law that went into effect in October. Check 21 allows banks to convert paper checks into substitute checks, reducing the time and cost of moving paper checks between banks.

“BB&T OnSite Deposit will give our business clients an affordable, self-service option to make check deposits at their leisure, from any of their offices, from anywhere in the world and on their schedule, even nights or weekends,” said Lee Leslie, BB&T’s commercial deposit product manager. “It should also eliminate most geographical barriers in the traditional deposit processes for clients with multiple offices and with distant locations.”

BB&T OnSite Deposit will offer scanners for small- and large-volume deposit clients and provide easy-to-use Windows-based software that allows clients to see and verify scanned checks and deposit amounts prior to transmitting electronically.

The typical scanner is similar to the size of a shoe box and automatically feeds the checks through the scanner. Depending on the model used, scanning time will range from less than a second to a few seconds.

STATE
Study Ranks Three Kentucky Hospitals Among Nation's Top 100

A nationwide study has ranked Baptist Hospital East in Louisville, Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown and King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland among the top 100 hospitals in the nation.

The rankings were released by the Solucient Center for Healthcare Improvement, an organization that performs the annual study of 6,000 hospitals. Solucient collected the data for the 2004 study from a number of public sources, including federal Medicare statistics.

As a group, the hospitals that made the top 100 list outperformed their peers across the country on key indicators that included: patient safety (ten percent higher at benchmark hospitals); rate of complications (18 percent lower at high-performing facilities); expenses per patient hospital stay (nearly ten percent lower at benchmark hospitals); and average length of stay (nearly 11 percent shorter at benchmark hospitals).

The study divided acute-care hospitals into five categories: major teaching hospitals, teaching hospitals, large community hospitals, medium community hospitals and small community hospitals.

Baptist East and King’s Daughters were listed among the 20 hospitals in the “large community” category; Flaget was listed in the “small community” category.

LOUISVILLE
Chautaugua Airlines Breaks Ground on New Maintenance Facility

After nearly two years in the planning, Chautauqua Airlines has officially broken ground on a new maintenance hangar at Louisville International Airport.

The 60,250-sq.-ft. facility is expected to employ more than 300 people with an average annual salary in excess of $34,000.

Chautauqua, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings, provides regional jet service for American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Air Lines and US Airways and is the only regional airline to partner with four major airlines. The airline was selected as Regional Airline of the Year by Regional Air Transport World and Regional Airline World in 2004.

Louisville currently serves as a maintenance and crew base for the airline, utilizing a temporary facility at the Signature Flight Support. The new maintenance facility will enable the airline to triple the number of aircraft it currently works on in Louisville overnight.

“This new Louisville maintenance center, when completed, will support our company’s growing operation,” said Warren R. Wilkinson, vice president of Government Affairs & Corporate Communications for Republic Airways Holdings. “Louisville is an important piece of our regional jet strategy and its convenient location allows us to support three of our four airline partners.” Construction of the hangar is scheduled for completion in December 2005.

PIKEVILLE
Community Trust to Acquire Heritage Bank of Danville

Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Heritage Community Bank of Danville for $12.2 million.

Jean R. Hale, president and CEO of Community Trust, said the opportunity to acquire Heritage was a “logical” step for her company as it seeks ways to expand service in Central Kentucky.

Community Trust Bancorp, Inc., with assets of $2.7 billion, is headquartered in Pikeville and currently has 72 banking locations across eastern, central, northern and south central Kentucky, five banking locations in southern West Virginia, two loan production offices in Kentucky, and five trust offices across Kentucky. The acquisition will increase Community Trust’s total assets by approximately $100 million.

HOPKINSVILLE
Seven Companies Announce Plans to Expand Hopkinsville Operations

Seven Hopkinsville-Christian County companies have announced plans to expand their operations, resulting in a total investment of more than $60 million.

• Amfine, which makes specialty additives for the plastics industry, is spending $2 million on the expansion of its process, blending and warehouse operations.
• Commonwealth Agri-Energy is expanding its facility in order to produce more ethanol, a fuel made from corn. The expansion will allow the company to produce seven million more gallons of fuel per year.
• Continental Mills, which produces dry mix food products, is investing about $5 million for new systems to handle blending and bulk ingredient handling.
• CoPAR is adding some 90,000 sq. feet to accommodate growth of the company’s production of thick-core aluminum radiators, which are used in heavy equipment.
• Dana, which produces automobile and truck frames, has announced plans to invest $30 million in press and assembly upgrades.
• Siemer Milling is investing some $2 million on a new blending facility for its Glu-X product, a glue extender that is utilized in the manufacture of plywood.
• TGASK, which produces sealings for the automotive industry, plans to invest $5 million to expand its Hopkinsville facility in order to accommodate demand from Toyota’s new plant in Texas.

Community officials acknowledged that while a great portion of the investments are in technology, the announcements assure a “continued presence in Hopkinsville.”

LOUISVILLE
Competitor to Buy Thomas Industries for $734 Million

Louisville-based Thomas Industries Inc. has announced its plans to sell the company to Gardner Denver, Inc., one of its competitors in the pump and compressor industry. The transaction is valued at $743 million.

Thomas Industries Inc., which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, has approximately 2,200 employees worldwide, though only 17 are located at the company’s Louisville headquarters. Thomas Industries had about $410 million in 2004 revenue.

Gardner Denver, with 2004 revenues of $740 million, is a leading world-wide manufacturer of pumps and compressors and is headquartered in Quincy, Illinois. The company has approximately 1,900 employees.

The merger is pending approval by regulatory agencies as well as Thomas shareholders. Upon closing of the transaction, Thomas will become a subsidiary of Gardner Denver and will no longer be publicly traded. 

TENNESSEE
FedEx Launches First Direct Flights Between Europe, China

FedEx Express, a subsidiary of Memphis-based FedEx Corp., has launched the express air cargo industry’s first direct flight from mainland China to Europe. The flights, which will provide daily service from Shanghai, China to Frankfurt, Germany using a MD-11 freighter.

“This past year, Europe became China’s No. 1 trading partner, and this new flight strengthens our leadership in facilitating trade between Asia, Europe and North America,“ said Michael L. Ducker, executive vice president-international, FedEx Express. “These trade benefits are the direct result of the liberalization of China’s aviation market and support our belief that the elimination of trade barriers encourages global economic growth.”

The new China-Europe flight is part of a new westbound around-the-world flight that originates and terminates in Memphis, Tennessee, and provides connections via the FedEx AsiaOne network to and from Japan and more than 130 cities in northern and eastern China.

INDIANA
Great Lakes Chemical to Merge with Crompton in $1.55B Deal

Great Lakes Chemical Corporation, an Indianapolis-based company that ranks as one of the world’s leading producer of specialty chemicals, has entered into a definitive merger agreement with rival Crompton Corporation in a deal valued at $1.55 billion. The all-stock merger transaction will create the nation’s third-largest publicly traded specialty chemicals company.

Crompton Corporation, headquartered in Connecticut, is a producer and marketer of specialty chemicals and polymer products and equipment.

Great Lakes ranks as one of the world’s leading producers of certain specialty chemicals for applications such as water treatment, household cleaners, flame retardants, polymer stabilizers, fire suppressants, and performance products.

The new company, which will be headquartered in Middlebury, Connecticut, will have combined 2004 revenues of more than $4.1 billion and a market capitalization of nearly $3.2 billion.

“This combination represents an excellent strategic fit between two companies with complementary business portfolios and will create a company with a strong financial profile,” said Robert L. Wood, chairman, president and CEO of Crompton. “In addition to significant operating synergies, we immediately gain greater geographic reach in plastics additives.”

“This transaction,” said John Gallagher III, acting CEO of Great Lakes, “… creates options and flexibility that operating as two separate companies would not provide.”

Business Briefs

BOWLING GREEN

• The Bowling Green City Commission has voted in favor of a downtown redevelopment plan that, in addition to residential and other mixed-used projects, includes construction of a new baseball stadium that is a key ingredient to attracting a minor league baseball team to the city. Though that plan still has several hurdles to jump before becoming a reality, the commission’s approval is an important component of the proposal.
• Weyerhaeuser Company has announced that it will not rebuild its Bowling Green North corrugated packaging facility, affecting approximately 120 jobs. The plant sustained major damage when much of its roof collapsed in late December.  New equipment will be added to the company’s Bowling Green South facility, which will enhance that plant’s production capacity. Some employees will be added to the South production team, but not all 120 from the closing plant.

BOYD COUNTY

• YouthStream Media Networks Inc. has purchased KES Acquisition Company, LLC, the owner and operator of Kentucky Electric Steel, a steel mini-mill that has produced steel for approximately 50 years. As part of the acquisition, a new subsidiary, YouthStream Acquisition Corp. has been formed. YouthStream will hold 80 percent of the new company, with KES owning the remaining 20 percent. Kentucky Electric Steel was purchased by KES Acquisitions for $2.6 million in 2003, when Kentucky Electric was in the midst of bankruptcy and had been shut down. KES reopened the mill in 2004 and currently employs about 100 workers. Staffing levels are not expected to be affected by the most recent acquisition.

CASEY COUNTY

• Liberty Water Tank LLC, which produces metal water tanks for livestock use, is expanding its operations, creating 52 new jobs in Casey County. The company plans to renovate the former Sheridan furniture plant and add a warehouse. Casey County has received a $1 million federal grant to help aid the company’s expansion. The funding will be utilized to buy equipment that will in turn be leased to Liberty Water Tank.

CAVE CITY

• The Cave City Council has voted in favor of selling the city’s municipally owned water company to the Caveland Environmental Authority for $300,000. The decision was prompted by the immediate need to repair faulty water distribution lines at an estimated cost of some $250,000, a cost the city could not afford without raising rates. Approximately 25 percent of the water lines are leaking, according to information presented to the council.

CLARK COUNTY

• The Winchester-Clark County Industrial Development Authority has approved the sale of 13 acres of land to Cingular Wireless. Cingular plans to construct a 10,000-sq.-ft. facility, which will handle operations regarding the routing of wireless and land line communications to cell towers. The new facility will employ 15 workers – some of whom will be transferred from other Cingular offices – with an annual payroll of approximately $1.5 million.
• Infiltrator Systems Inc. plans to break ground this month on a 62,000-sq.-ft. addition to its existing Clark County facility, where it manufactures leaching chambers for the sewer industry as well as storm water chambers. The new addition will be used to recycle plastic utilized in the company’s production process and will add 50 jobs to the current 260-member staff.

CORBIN

• Kentucky’s new annual budget includes $12 million in bond funds for a new civic center in Corbin. Construction on the Southeastern Regional Agricultural and Exposition Center is expected to start within the next six to eight months.

FRANKFORT

• The Kentucky History Center has been renamed The Thomas D. Clark History Center, in honor of Kentucky’s historian laureate. Clark, a well-known historian and author, was an active advocate for the development of the Kentucky History Center.

HARLAN COUNTY

• The Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College is partnering with Louisville-based Shuckman’s Fish Company & Smokery to build a fish processing plant in the Harlan County area. The plant, which is estimated to be complete by mid-2006, will process trout and tilapia for distribution in Kentucky and other states in the region. The college is already raising rainbow trout in water from abandoned coal mines (which stays at a constant temperature, resulting in very firm, natural-tasting fish), producing up to 10,000 pounds of trout annually. Shuckman’s is already buying some of the mine water-raised trout, smoking it, packing it and selling it under the Shuckman’s Black Mountain Rainbow Trout label.

HENDERSON

• With the passage of a state budget and tax reform, Henderson Community College is finally receiving funding to move forward with a technology center that will provide space for workforce training and education in Henderson, Union and Webster counties. The design phase of the facility is expected to begin by late summer, but it will likely be at least two years before the building is completed, HCC President Pat Lake said.

LEBANON

• Lebanon, Kentucky is part of Hampton Inn’s latest hotel expansion plan. The new 58-room hotel is one of seven new hotels to be opened by Hampton since the beginning of the year. All include complimentary high-speed Internet access and hot breakfast options in addition to other amenities.

LEXINGTON

• Delta Air Lines has announced plans to launch daily nonstop jet service between Lexington and Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, effective June 1. The new service, which will be operated by Delta Connection carrier Comair, is the first nonstop service to be offered from Lexington to the popular Florida destinations. Comair will operate the flights using 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet aircraft.
• In a worldwide quality of life study conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Lexington was one of five cities that qualified as the safest municipalities in the U.S. The four other cities tying with Lexington were San Francisco, Honolulu, Houston and Winston-Salem. The Mercer study rated Luxembourg as the world’s safest city and Baghdad as the most dangerous. The survey assessed personal safety in 215 cities, examining relations with other countries, internal stability and crime, including terrorism. Law enforcement, censorship and limitations on personal freedom were also taken into account.
• Spencerian College has expanded the program offerings at its Lexington campus to now include Allied Health. Spencerian College in Louisville has offered Allied Health for more than 30 years; the decision to expand the Allied Health programs to the Lexington campus is a result of the growing demand in the health care field, said E.G. Clark, executive director of Spencerian College Lexington. The initial Allied Health programs will include: phlebotomy certificate, clinical assistant diploma, limited medical radiography (LMR) diploma, massage therapy diploma, medical assistant diploma, medical coding specialist diploma, and a health care reimbursement specialist associate degree.

LOUISVILLE

• Norton Healthcare Inc. plans to open a Congenital Heart Center at Kosair Children’s Hospital. The new $4 million center will combine services that are currently offered at Kosair and Norton. The 7,500-sq.-ft. center will be the only facility in the region that is dedicated to caring for patients – both children and adults – with congenital heart defects. Kosair serves as the pediatric teaching facility for the University of Louisville’s School of Medicine.
• National City Bank of Kentucky has launched a program with four of the state’s largest universities, designed to keep Kentucky’s best and brightest business students in the state after graduation. The National City Business Scholars program provides up to $10,000 scholarship money and the potential to be selected for a summer employment experience after the junior and senior years. The program will initially be offered to business school students at the University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University and Western Kentucky University. The program is the first of its kind in any of the seven states where National City operates.
• Construction has begun on the west runway extension project at Louisville International Airport. When complete, the $20 million project will permit airlines to fly non-stop with larger loads to destinations as far away as the Pacific Rim and Asia. The extension will provide Louisville’s air carriers with the same competitive advantage that other similar airports, such as Memphis, offer in competing for international business.
• The McConnell Technology & Training Center (MTTC) will undertake four additional projects for the U.S. Navy that are estimated to help the Navy save more than $1.4 million a year. MTTC Program Manager Ray Zavada said the projects “continue MTTC’s eight-year mission to solve some of the Navy’s most pressing maintenance challenges.”  MTTC’s projects provide more than $78 million a year in cost avoidance for the Navy.”
• U.S. Wireless Online, Inc. is continuing its growth plan with the announcement that it has entered into an agreement to acquire VoIPWorks, LLC. Ohio-based VoIPWorks specializes in orchestrating the implementation of voice and data technology solutions by utilizing national, regional, and local resources to provide optimal equipment and/or service upgrades. The deal represents U.S. Wireless’ fifth acquisition since the first of the year.
• E.On AG, the German-based parent company of LG&E Energy, has officially stated that it has no plans to sell LG&E, as had been speculated earlier in the year. In fact, E.On officials said that the company is considering a U.S. expansion, though that will likely be far in the future. Still, such news is a welcome statement for Louisville, where LG&E is headquartered and figures as a prominent corporate citizen.

MUHLENBERG COUNTY

• A group of environmentalists has filed a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency in hope of stopping the construction of a large power plant that has been proposed for Muhlenberg County. According the lawsuit, which alleges that the EPA did not consult with federal Fish and Wildlife Services regarding the long-term effects of the plant, pollution from the 1,500-megawatt Thoroughbred Generating Station could potentially harm a number of animal and plant species.

OWENSBORO

• Owensboro has been selected to host the 2005 Eurosport Challenge Cup soccer tournament in June. The event, which involves some 80 teams of 9- to 12-year-old players along with their coaches and families, is expected create a direct economic impact of more than $1.6 million. With two more soccer tournaments also slated to take place this year, the city’s total indirect economic impact from the three soccer events could climb to nearly $6 million. Nine new soccer fields are being constructed to accommodate the events.

PADUCAH

• The United States Department of Education has awarded a $1,823,711 grant to West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) that will be used to help ensure first-generation and economically disadvantaged students succeed in college.  The grant program is expected to last for five years, with $364,900 to be provided to WKCTC this year.  The funding will allow for a comprehensive support system, new entry-level curriculums and special training for faculty and staff.

RADCLIFF

• A group of Radcliff investors is partnering with Wyoming-based American Family Entertainment Centers to develop a 55,000-sq.-ft. entertainment complex. The new facility will house stadium-style movie screens, a bowling alley, video arcade, children’s center, rock climbing wall and a food court, as well as a community meeting room. The $8 million facility will be located next to the Challenger Learning Center and local officials are hopeful that the two attractions will eventually draw additional projects such as restaurants and retail.

RICHMOND

• The Kentucky Artisan Heritage Trails (KAHT), based at Eastern Kentucky University, is working with the National Geographic Society to promote the “undiscovered treasures” of Appalachia. A foldout map in this month’s issue of National Geographic Traveler will feature 30 tourist sites in the Appalachian Region of eastern Kentucky and the Cave Country of south central Kentucky. The Kentucky sites range from tourist attractions such as Mammoth Cave National Park and the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea to festivals, scenic byways, restaurants, craft shops and historic sites. The sites also will be featured as part of an interactive map at www.nationalgeographic.com. KAHT is a cultural heritage tourism and business development program offered through the Center for Economic Development, Entrepreneurship and Technology at EKU and supported by the Appalachian Regional Commission.

SHELBYVILLE

• Alton Webb and Associates is planning an 18,200-sq.-ft. commercial center for the Breighton Business Center that will feature up to eight tenants. The new center, which will be built by developer Mike Meinze, will include three or four anchors that would utilize 3,000 to 5,000 sq. feet each, with the remainder available to smaller tenants. The four-acre parcel also has an outlot that would be suitable for a restaurant.

WESTERN KENTUCKY

• Elk Brand Manufacturing, which has been in business since 1924, has announced that it is shuttering its operation due to increasing competition from overseas manufacturers. The Nashville-based company produces jeans at its production facility in Cadiz and also owns a finishing plant in Hopkinsville that will also be closed. The move will result in the loss of approximately 90 jobs.

STATE

• The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board has approved $330,000 in state funds to establish the office of the Kentucky Dairy Council. The council will develop and implement a comprehensive plan with the purpose of increasing the profitability of Kentucky dairy producers and to promote and foster an environment for growth of the Kentucky dairy industry.
• Kentucky’s annual unemployment rate dropped to 5.3 percent in 2004 from 6.2 percent in 2003 as state employment grew for the first year since 2000, according to the state’s Office of Employment and Training. The U.S. unemployment rate decreased to 5.5 percent in 2004 from six percent in 2003. Unemployment rates declined in 43 states from 2003 to 2004. Hawaii posted the lowest 2004 annual jobless rate in the country at 3.3 percent, while the District of Columbia had the highest annual rate at 8.2 percent. Thirty states, including Kentucky, had lower annual unemployment rates than the U.S. annual rate in 2004, while 16 states and the District of Columbia were higher than the nation, and four states had the same unemployment rate in 2004.
• The U.S. House of Representatives has approved $11.2 million to fund a proposed highway that would connect the Louis B. Nunn Parkway in Adair County to the Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway in Washington County. Funding for the Heartland Parkway project was approved as part of the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU). The TEA-LU now moves to the U.S. Senate for consideration. “In light of the recent road projects we got funded in the state budget, it would be great for the Heartland Parkway project to become a reality,” Adair County Judge/ Executive Jerry Vaughan told The Adair Progress. “It would really help open up this part of the state for economic development.”
• U.S. Representative Ron Lewis has been honored by the National Association of Manufacturers with the organization’s Manufacturing Legislative Excellence Award. The award is presented to members of the United States Congress who have a 70 percent or better record of voting in support of pro-growth, pro-manufacturing and pro-worker legislation. This year’s award represents the seventh time Lewis has been recognized with the honor.
• One million dollars in federal funds have been earmarked for the UK College of Law Rural Drug Prosecution Assistance Project, a program that will help state and federal attorneys and judges by providing students as summer interns to help in the fight against illegal drugs. “This program benefits our law students by giving them actual experience on the front lines of the war on drugs,” UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. said. “It also gives attorneys additional help to make sure our justice system functions the way it is intended.” The program is designed to educate law students about drug-related criminal justice system opportunities in qualified rural counties, to provide stipends for otherwise unpaid internships, and to give salary grants and tuition remissions for graduates working with the legal system.
• Governor Ernie Fletcher has announced the addition of eight companies to the ConnectKentucky partnership, an alliance of technology-minded companies supporting the governor’s Prescription for Innovation. The Prescription for Innovation is an initiative that aims to provide broadband (high-speed Internet) access to all Kentuckians by 2007 and improve computer adoption among citizens, business, and local government. New partners include Camvera Networks, Cinergy, Computer Associates International, Crown Castle, GeoWireless, Kentucky Interactive, Lexmark, and Vivato. The companies represent distinct areas of the technology sector including hardware manufacturing, software consulting, e-government applications, energy, and network infrastructure.

INDIANA

• Subaru’s assembly plant in Lafayette is to begin production this month on the company’s newest vehicle, the B9 Tribeca. According to Subaru, the seven-passenger vehicle combines the best features of sports-utility vehicles and sport wagons. The additional work – the plant also builds Subaru’s Legacy and Outback models – could result in the plant adding up to 300 more employees to the existing 2,400-member staff.

OHIO

• UBE Automotive North America has announced that it will close its aluminum wheel production plant in Mason by the end of the year, resulting in the lay-off of all 310 employees. The announcement comes as a blow to Warren County, where UBE is one of the community’s largest employers. Company officials blamed the shut-down on severe competition from low-production-cost countries combined with an 11-week labor dispute in 2003 and 2004 that cost the plant nearly $70 million. “There comes a point when you can only sustain so much in losses before you are forced to make a decision,” said Dale Gerber, human resources director for the company. The company, which is a unit of UBE Machinery Corp. Ltd. of Japan, plans to focus its resources on its plant in Ontario, Canada in an attempt to rebuilt its North American aluminum wheel business.
• The Cincinnati Reds have confirmed that three members of the Reds’ ownership group have announced the intention to explore the sale of their interest in the Reds. The parties investigating the possibility of a sale, who own a combined 51 percent of the Major League baseball team, include the Louise Dieterle Nippert Trust, George Strike and Multimedia of Cincinnati Inc., part of Gannett Co. Inc. The remaining owners, Carl H. Lindner, the Reds’ controlling partner, and members of his family as well as Great American Insurance Company and William J. Reik Jr., intend to retain their Reds’ ownership interests. A statement from the Reds said no change of control is anticipated.

TENNESSEE

• Medical equipment giant Siemens Medical Solutions has announced plans to acquire CTI Molecular Imaging Inc., a Knoxville company that is a leading supplier of products and services related to positron emission tomography (PET). (PET is a diagnostic imaging technology utilized for the detection and treatment of cancer, neurological disorders and cardiac disease.) CTI Molecular Imaging was established in 1983, focusing on PET and molecular imaging and later extended its business into research, development and the distribution of PET tracers and probes. CTI PET Systems was formed in 1987 as a joint venture between CTI and Siemens to combine CTI’s expertise in PET technology with Siemens’ global distribution network. In fiscal year 2004, CTI reported sales of $402 million and income from operations of $58 million. The merger agreement is valued at approximately $1 billion.

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