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FAST LANE - May 2000 LOUISVILLE MAYOR David Armstrong, completing 15 months in office, recently announced five major initiatives in his second "State of the City" address. Armstrong said that his administration would lead efforts to rebuild the downtown Galleria and revitalize the West End. He also announced plans to develop a short-line trolley system and a hotel in the notorious "porno block." The trolley line, which could be operating by 2002, would run from Hancock Street on the East to 10th Street on the West, along both Main and Market Streets. It would link the new Slugger Field and its adjacent planned condominium project through the proposed Main business district to the expanding museum center on the west. The line would be designed to connect with the proposed north-south light rail commuter line being planned by the Transit Authority of River City. Armstrong also announced plans to build a surface parking lot next to Slugger Field and a multi-level garage near Seventh Street. The "porno block" is a very visible group of adult nightclubs and theatres across from the Kentucky International Convention Center. Mayor Armstrong is supporting a legislative proposal that would provide a sales tax rebate for anyone investing $20 million or more in a hotel adjacent to a publicly-owned convention center. The developer could recoup up to 25 percent of sales taxes over a 10-year period. Bruce Traughber, director of the Louisville Development Authority, later explained that credit could make a 600-room hotel feasible on the site. Armstrong also said that he would meet with Attorney General Janet Reno in an effort to make the recommendations of the city’s Gun Violence Task Force a national model. That group, appointed one year ago, has proposed a 20-point plan including the destruction of confiscated weapons, background checks and safety education, and mandatory licensing of purchases of handguns and ammunition. Although the issue has drawn national attention, the mayor did not refer to the recent dispute with the police force over his dismissal of Chief Gene Sherrard, except to praise the department for its role in reducing crime in inner-city neighborhoods.
ASHLAND OHIO, Kentucky and West Virginia officials and businesspeople are hoping that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will approve the proposed expansion of the Port of Huntington from 14 miles to 199 miles, creating the largest inland port in the nation. If that approval comes, it will only be following the example set by barge and port companies for years, as they move millions of tons of coal, refractory products and other commodities along a geographical feature whose only borders are its banks. "The highway is so cluttered and utilized, you can’t develop a whole lot more traffic on that system without major changes," said Don Salyers in an interview last October. Salyers owns Combined Terminals Corporation and is a member of the intermodal advisory panel for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. "Some of that traffic has to divert to the railroad and to the river system, which has always been under-utilized," he continued. "Most people don’t realize there’s almost 90 million tons of product shipped out of this region annually. You could add that same amount of tonnage to the present river system and not have to change anything." The seemingly universal backing of the proposed new designation will only serve to boost the potential utilization of smaller collaborative facilities like East Park regional industrial park, jointly created by leaders from Boyd and Greenup counties.
REGION NO further evidence of the worker shortage is needed than the recently proposed federal legislation to raise the number of H-1B work visas – issued to foreign professionals to work in the U.S. – from the current 115,000 to 195,000 a year over the next three years in order to fill high-tech, scholarly and professional vacancies. This year’s quota was expected to have already been filled by the end of March. The proposal also calls for $150 million to be generated for training of U.S. workers, funded by employer-paid fees attached to the visas. The U.S. temp industry has tripled the number of workers on its payroll over the past 10 years, accounting for 10 percent of employment growth between 1991 and 1997. It’s not just service jobs either. According to a recent study based on government data, the demand for temps in the service sector rose to about 45 percent of the total temp workforce, while the manufacturing sector’s demand accounted for a healthy 30 percent.
LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE’S West End, the historic center of the city’s African-American community, will be the focus of an "industrial revitalization" study by a professor from the Harvard Business School. Michael Porter and his not-for-profit consulting group, The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, will develop a plan to attract new business to the area in response to the planned closing of the Philip Morris cigarette factory in mid-summer. Mayor David Armstrong announced the $150,000 contract, which will be prepared in cooperation with a local task force of residents and business people. Armstrong has said previously that he hopes Philip Morris will donate the facility to the city as a "brownfields" reclamation project. The company once employed more than 2,000 workers, many from the West End, in the plant on West Broadway. In making the announcement, Armstrong pointed to several "signs of hope" in the West End: the emergence of the Community Development Bank, the success of the Park DuValle "new neighborhood"; the demand for job counseling and transportation services at the Nia Center; and the plan for the proposed African-American Heritage Center in the old Trolley Barn. The Mayor has also previously announced a housing initiative that would revitalize existing homes and construct in-fill units in downtown and surrounding areas, including the West End. Porter will present his preliminary report May 11.
LOUISVILLE PAPA John’s International, which has suffered legal reversals recently, has just won a victory in the court of public opinion. The National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan has rated the pizza chain the nation’s best restaurant group in its quarterly index of customer satisfaction. Papa John’s received a score of 76 (on a scale of 100), ahead of Wendy’s and legal and business rival Pizza Hut, with 71 and 68, respectively. KFC and Taco Bell, both divisions of Tricon Global Restaurants (as is Pizza Hut), were tied for sixth with scores of 64 each. The mean score for the top eight fast-food restaurants was 69. Factors considered in the index are well-defined customer base and quality of service and product. Price has a minor impact in the overall scores, according to the Center, because there is a little difference in pricing among pizza competitors.
GEORGETOWN TOYOTA awarded its 1999 Outstanding Business Partner awards to five Kentucky suppliers: Advanced Industrial Products, Inc., a hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical spare parts supplier from Lexington; Henderson Electric Company, Inc., a Lexington supplier and installer of access control, fire alarm and closed circuit television systems as well as fiber optics; Ohio Transmission and Pump Company of Louisville; Orr Safety Corporation, a general safety equipment provider from Louisville that supplies such products as shoes, fall protection equipment and signs; and Concept Packaging Group of Cynthiana, which provides specialty packaging for Toyota’s service parts. The company also announced that the Georgetown plant will begin producing the Camry Solara within the next four years, as part of a move to streamline and boost production among the company’s facilities in Ontario, Indiana and Kentucky.
LEXINGTON A recent public meeting regarding long-range transportation planning for the Lexington area drew officials and concerned citizens to discuss how a growing area can accommodate the inherent challenges of moving around more people and goods. "We’re involved in the implementation as well as the planning," said Bob Kennedy, the community’s manager of transportation planning, who is also part of the 22-member federal planning body responsible for long-range transportation planning for the entire region. One persistent concern is traffic flow and parking in the downtown area. The coming extension of Newtown Pike will alleviate some of that traffic. Plans call for more bicycle-related projects than ever before, and the Lexington Transit Authority reported a 40 percent increase in ridership over the past four years. Flextime scheduling and telecommuting may also help to solve the apparent congestion. LexTran director Stephen Rowland noted, "Vibrant downtowns don’t necessarily have better parking. If you have something that will bring them here, they’ll come."
VERSAILLES PENDING approval by licensing and Medicare officials, Georgetown Community Hospital will lease the emergency room, out-patient surgery and other facilities of Woodford Memorial Hospital while Woodford’s board continues to search for a buyer. Woodford Memorial closed on February 4 due to financial problems. The facility’s status as a Medicare provider is currently under review by that federal program, as are the hospital’s books by the Public Corruption Unit of State Attorney General Ben Chandler’s office. The U.S. Department of Labor is conducting a criminal investigation into why employees weren’t being paid, and many of those employees, now without jobs, continue to await their final checks.
ASHLAND UNIFORM maker Cintas will construct a $12 million manufacturing facility and become the first tenant in the EastPark Regional Industrial Park this fall. "This is a prime example of coal severance monies being used to enhance economic development opportunities that are non-coal related," said Governor Paul Patton. The plant will start with 125 employees and employ more than 250 people within three years at an average wage of $7-9 per hour. The 273,000-square-foot processing and distribution facility will be the company’s largest, processing about 40,000 garments per day. Cintas already operates four sewing plants, four rental facilities and one first-aid facility in Kentucky. "This comes at a time when jobs are needed and, personally, Ifeel like this is just the beginning of future companies locating in our region," said Boyd County Judge Executive Bill Scott. The park itself is a collaborative effort by officials from five area counties. Cintas, which has reported 30 consecutive years of growth in both sales and profits, will receive tax credits under the Kentucky Rural Development Act.
Business
Briefs STATE
ASHLAND
BOWLING GREEN
CAMPTON
DANVILLE
FRANKFORT
GREENUP
HAZARD
INEZ
LEXINGTON
LOUISVILLE
MADISONVILLE
PADUCAH
SHEPHERDSVILLE
VALLEY VIEW
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