Economic development efforts in Kentucky gained some high profile recognition in the May issue of Site Selection magazine, which honors 1998’s Top 10 corporate facility deals and the Top 10 economic development groups.

United Parcel Service’s expansion of its Louisville hub was ranked as one of the year’s Top 10 economic deals, based on its proposed capital investment of $860 million and a projected addition of 6,000 new jobs. Tri-County Economic Development Corp. of Covington was included as one of the Top 10 economic development groups after bringing $654 million in investments and 9,176 jobs to the Northern Kentucky area during the course of 1998.

Kenton County, Kentucky’s efforts to land the new headquarters facilities for GE Capital Information Technology Systems received an honorable mention, while the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce was included in the honorable mention category for top economic development groups.

The Top 10 deals were selected based on the size of capital investment involved, the number of jobs created and the projected impact on the area’s economy. In listing the top economic development groups, Site Selection looked at the groups’ service area in relation to the jobs and capital investment they attracted. "That levels the playing field, so groups with large service areas don’t automatically rank first," explained Jack Lyne, executive editor for Site Selection.

Site Selection’s circulation consists of 45,000-plus executives involved in corporate site selection decisions, most of whom are at the CEO/President/COO/CFO level.

Pomeroy Computer Resources has acquired Systems Atlanta Commercial Systems, Inc., a Georgia-based systems integrator and provider of technology staffing, for an undisclosed price.

Stephen Pomeroy, chief financial officer of Pomeroy, said, "No matter how you view it -- geography, business philosophy, skills, target market -- acquiring Systems Atlanta made perfect sense. We had opened a services satellite location in Atlanta to fulfill the needs of a large customer and merging that operation into Systems Atlanta’s will provide immediate synergies."

Systems Atlanta reported 1998 revenues of approximately $5.5 million and has been named as one of the Top 100 "Fast Track" technology providers in the country by VarBusiness magazine. Pomeroy, one of the largest network integrators in the country, currently has more than 30 regional facilities. The company ended the ‘98 fiscal year with revenues of approximately $628 million.

White Hydraulics, Inc. of Hopkinsville and Carey Consulting, Inc. of Edmonton have been selected as this year’s winners of the 1999 Governor’s New Product Award.

White Hydraulics was recognized as the winner in the large company category for the "stand alone brake," a wet brake product that uses a multi-disc pack to achieve a required holding torque. The product is designed for use with heavy-duty machinery and off-highway vehicles.

Carey Consulting was the recipient in the small company category for the Careylift™ Tube Bundle Lifting Device, which picks up tube bundles by their baffles or support plants, eliminating contact with expensive tube materials. The device results in increased productivity since even the largest bundles can be moved with only one person needed to operate the product. Primary customers of the product are petroleum and chemical refineries such as Ashland, Chevron and Mobil, among others. Logging and sugar refinery businesses have also expressed an interest in the product.

The Governor’s New Product Award is sponsored by the Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers in association with the governor’s office and the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. The award is designed to recognize companies that have engineered and placed a new product on the market over the past four years. Companies are judged on criteria such as economic contribution, sales and number of jobs created; ingenuity in use of engineering principles and materials; and improved functions, ease and savings in use.

The Kentucky Association of Health Plans has adopted a voluntary external review process in hope of providing more rapid resolutions to disputes over what medical treatments and services are covered. The review process would be available to more than one million health plan members in Kentucky who are part of Advantage Care, Anthem Blue Cross/ Blue Shield, Bluegrass Family Health, CHA Health, CIGNA/Healthsource, Humana and PacifiCare.

The program is expected to be in place by the end of this month.

The external review process calls for the health plan member to have first exhausted their health plan’s internal review procedure. On non-life-threatening cases, the health plan member has 60 days to seek external review once the health plan’s internal processes have been exhausted. The reviewer then has 30 days to issue a final decision.

"This voluntary process will assure our health plan members that they have every opportunity to have an impartial and independent review of their case," explained KAHP Executive Director Dick Brown, who added that the process has already been adopted by law in 18 states and voluntarily enacted by two other state health plan associations.

The program is expected to aid not only individuals but also small businesses, which have struggled with the rising costs of healthcare for employees.

"External review should prove to be a valuable method to help keep costs under control while enhancing the protections provided for employees and their families," said Ken Oilschlager, president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

The president of Eastern Alloys Inc. had pretty much settled on establishing a new facility in northern Indiana -- until he happened to run across an ad for Henderson, Kentucky in an industrial development magazine last August. This spring the company has begun construction on a $6.5 million zinc alloy production plant located next to the Henderson County Riverport.

Eastern Alloys was searching for a location to serve as the sister plant to its main Maybrook, New York facility. Henderson’s centralized location along with its riverport, rail access and the proximity of the Evansville airport just across the river made the community ideal for Eastern Alloy, said company president Dick Bauer. The company plans to utilize the riverport to receive zinc and other raw materials.

The 40,000-square-foot plant, which is expected to be operational by November, will produce zinc alloys that are utilized in die-cast products such as plumbing fixtures and galvanized coatings used for nails, fences and metal roofs. Eastern plans to initially hire up to 30 people and could increase to 50 employees within a couple of years.

Alcan Aluminum Corporation and ARCO Aluminum, Inc. have launched a $22 million expansion of their jointly-owned Logan Aluminum rolling mill in Logan County.

The Logan facility, which employs approximately 950 people, is already the world’s largest producer of aluminum sheet metal for the beverage can industry, with an annual output of some 1.5 billion pounds. The expansion will include the installation of a new furnace that will allow for greater utilization and operating efficiencies at the plant’s hot rolling mill. The project also includes a 10,000-square-foot building expansion, which is scheduled to be completed by the third quarter of next year.

The Logan County plant has undergone several expansions since its 1985 opening, including a $255 million project in 1993.

Alcan Aluminum Corporation, based in Cleveland, is the U.S. subsidiary of Alcan Aluminum Limited. ARCO Aluminum, Inc. is headquartered in Louisville and is a unit of Atlantic Richfield Company.

A highly automated distribution center planned by Guess?, Inc. is expected to bring 300 jobs to the Louisville area, with an average annual payroll of nearly $8.5 million.

The building configuration of the 500,000-square-foot facility, which will be built in the Louisville Riverport, will enable the California clothing company to eventually double the size of the facility in the future.

Armand Marciano, senior executive vice president of Guess?, said that the company is building the facility with plans for expansion in mind and expects to increase its personnel to approximately 750 over the next 10 years.

In addition to providing jobs up front, the company has also said it will contribute approximately $400,000 to a business education program set up with the Jefferson County school system and the University of Louisville. The program allows students to obtain work experience through programs such as paid internships.

Guess? was founded in 1981 and has grown into a company with sales in excess of $600 million.

Members of the Green River Electric Corp. and Henderson Union Electric Cooperative have voted in favor of merging the two Western Kentucky electric cooperatives. The merger will make the new co-op -- to be called Kenergy -- the state’s third-largest electric distributor, serving 48,000 members.

The consolidation, which is expected to take place over a three-year period of time, involves a total of 194 employees. Some 60 jobs are expected to eventually be eliminated, but cooperative officials emphasize that job reductions will be handled entirely through attrition.

Kenergy will be based in Henderson, operating out of Henderson Union’s main offices, and will serve all or parts of 14 counties. Dean Stanley, president and chief executive of Green River, will become the head of the new cooperative. John West, chief executive officer of Henderson Union, plans to retire after remaining for a year in an advisory capacity.

Cooperative officials say the merger will result in Kenergy selling more power than any other co-op in the nation, with sales for the first year projected to be more than $235 million.

The merger of The Mason Company and Philadelphia-based Day & Zimmermann, Inc. should allow the larger entity to better compete for contracts in the defense industry, say company officials.

The Mason Company, parent company of Mason & Hanger, has been operating industrial defense plants for the U.S. government for more than 50 years and is experienced in the production and demilitarization of conventional, chemical and nuclear weapons. Day & Zimmerman’s government systems group manufactures, stores and demilitarizes ammunition products and provides related services to the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S.-approved foreign government.

Rick Loghry, president of The Mason Company, said that because both companies’ cultures are virtually identical, the transition should be an easy one. The deal between the two privately-owned engineering/construction firms will make The Mason Company a wholly-owned subsidiary of Day & Zimmermann. Combined, the two companies will have annual revenues of $1.5 billion and a payroll of 22,000 employees. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

The Mason Company is one of the nation’s oldest engineering and construction contractors, tracing its roots to 1827. The company has been headquartered in Lexington since 1959 and now has approximately 5,000 employees, 130 of which are employed in Lexington.

ASHLAND

• Classic Bancshares has announced that it will repurchase up to five percent of its 1,237,000 outstanding shares of common stock in the open market. The company recently completed the repurchase of 65,000 shares of common stock.

• Due to a budget increase, The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) plans to add nine special agents and a supervisor to its Ashland office. The office is currently staffed by one special agent and an administrative clerk.

BARDSTOWN

• Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc., the nation’s largest family-owned producer and marketer of distilled spirits, has completed the purchase of Christian Brothers Brandies and Dessert Wines, Old Fitzgerald Bourbon and the historic Bernheim production facility in Louisville from United Distillers & Vintners. The company has already stated that it plans to "significantly increase production" at the Bernheim facility, which will result in additional hiring.

CALDWELL COUNTY

• Boyd Energy Corporation, a Texas-based oil and gas exploration and development company, has purchased 2,000 acres in Caldwell County, bringing the company’s total investment in the area to 4,200 acres. The purchase was based on data that indicates potential for the presence of commercial quantities of natural gas. The total acreage will allow for the development of more than 100 wells.

COVINGTON

• The merger between Jacor Communications and San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications has been completed, creating the second-largest radio station company in the world with 625 stations. Randy Michaels, formerly CEO of Jacor, has been appointed president of the radio division for the parent company, Clear Channel Communications. He will continue to operate from Jacor’s headquarters in Covington.

FRANKFORT

• The City of Frankfort has approved raising the city’s occupational tax to help beef up the law enforcement and fire fighting workforce and address other issues such as city drainage problems. The current one percent rate, which has been in effect since 1960, will be raised to 1.75 percent on Jan. 1, 2000. The tax will affect some 21,400 workers.

• Trig Inc., which manufactures thermostats, has implemented another round of job cuts, this time laying off approximately 15 people. The company is currently in the process of reorganizing after filing for bankruptcy protection last June. As part of the reorganization, the company is changing its product line emphasis and plans to ultimately reduce its workforce, which now ranges between 50 and 200, to 15-25.

HARLAN

• Harlan County’s classified school employees -- a group numbering approximately 370 that includes custodians, cooks, bus drivers and teachers’ aides - have voted 194-133 in favor of joining the United Mine Workers of America to help negotiate better benefits. State education officials say it’s the first time they’ve heard of such a contract within a Kentucky school district.

HAWESVILLE

• Arvin Roll Coater has eliminated a shift at its Hawesville plant, resulting in the layoff of 24 production workers. The plant produces the metal coatings for General Electric appliances as well as coatings used for lighting, office furniture, doors and air conditioners. Company officials say the layoffs were needed to bring the number of employees in line with production requirements.

LAUREL COUNTY

• Aisin Automotive Castings, Inc. has announced a $46 million expansion that will nearly double the size of the company’s existing 126,000-square-foot Laurel County plant. The expansion is needed to allow for the production of transmission casings for Toyota and will create approximately 200 new jobs. The company currently employs some 235 workers in Laurel County.

LEXINGTON

• Central Baptist Hospital is selling seven practices back to the physicians who originally owned and managed them. The practices involved are located in Lexington, Jessamine County, Danville, Barbourville, Mount Vernon and Richmond. Central Baptist bought the practices during a nationwide trend -- one that may now be reversing -- to affiliate medical practices with hospitals in order to help stay competitive in the healthcare industry.

• Lexmark Electronics, a business unit of Lexmark International, has opened a new manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic, where it will produce printed circuit boards. With more than 50 percent of its revenue coming from outside the U.S., the company selected the Czech Republic site because of its central location, which will help provide greater efficiency in the company’s European markets.

LOUISVILLE

• Tumbleweed Restaurants, which completed its direct public offering of common stock last December, has been added to the Nasdaq National Market after initially being listed on the OTC Bulletin Board. The trading symbol TWED remains unchanged.

• Trustees of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary have approved a $70 million expansion/renovation plan that will double the seminary’s library space and add campus housing needed to accommodate an increasing enrollment. On-campus enrollment for the ‘99 spring semester was 1,372, up eight percent from one year ago, and officials anticipate a steady increase over the next few years.

• The Louisville-based law firm of Stites and Harbison has merged with Varner, Stephens, Humphries & White of Atlanta. Both firms specialize in business law, including real estate, construction and commercial litigation and creditors’ rights. The newly-created firm will be called Stites and Harbison and will employ a total of 150 attorneys in Louisville, Lexington, Hyden, Atlanta, Jeffersonville, Indiana and Washington, D.C.

• Raytheon Systems Co.’s plans to move two lines of weapons production from its Tucson, Arizona plant will add about 70 high-tech positions at the company’s Louisville plant. Additional contracts could add another 80 positions, say Raytheon officials.

• National Processing Co. has sold its NPCCheck Services Inc. subsidiary to International Payment Services Inc. for $38 million. The sale is part of Louisville-based NPC’s goal of restructuring the company to focus on its credit-card transaction, airline ticket processing and imaging services. Check Services Inc. operates out of New Jersey.

MURRAY

• Murray State University has opened the state’s first organic pasteurization facility, which will be used to demonstrate how a natural bacteria process can eliminate pollution and offensive odors resulting from agricultural waste. The $370,000 project is expected to draw widespread interest because it addresses issues that have become important in the agribusiness industry, such as how to handle groundwater contamination. The next closest facility is in Nebraska. The Murray plant will be controlled by The MSU Applied Technology Foundation Inc., a nonaffiliated foundation.

OWENSBORO

• Biosource Technologies has paid $275,000 for 17 acres in MidAmerica Airpark to accommodate expansion plans for its Owensboro plant. The California pharmaceutical company’s agronomic resources and manufacturing facilities are located in Owensboro, where Biosource processes genetically manipulated tobacco to make pharmaceutical products.

PADUCAH

• Paducah Community College and West Kentucky Technical College are preparing to submit a plan to the Kentucky Community and Technical College System Board of Regents for the consolidation of the two colleges. College officials say that combining the two schools, which together would have approximately 2,000 students and 130 faculty members, would place the community in a better position to attract more business and industry. If approved, Len O’Hara, president of PCC, will serve as the chief executive officer of the new institution.

• R&L Carriers, an Ohio-based interstate trucking company, plans to build a 24,000-square-foot truck terminal near Interstate 24 in Paducah. The company anticipates employing approximately 70 people and could expand in the future, depending on the success of the new location.

WALTON

• A British firm that produces polyolefin block foams has announced plans to invest $25 million to construct a 140,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on 20 acres in Walton Industrial Park. Company officials with Zotefoams, plc say the selection of the Northern Kentucky site was determined to a great extent by the proximity of the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, from which Delta Air Lines offers nonstop flight service to London. The company will hire 50 to 60 people and expects to begin production by the first quarter of 2001.

WILMORE

• Kentucky Bank has finalized an agreement to acquire National City Bank’s Wilmore branch in Jessamine County. Kentucky Bank, a community bank headquartered in Paris, has offices in six counties in the Central Kentucky region and ended 1998 with $309 million in assets.