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BARDSTOWN
Flowers Foods has opened a 197,000-s.f. bakery in the Nelson County Industrial Park with state-of-the-art equipment capable of producing 10,000 loaves of bread per hour. The new $52 million facility is currently operating with approximately 100 employees, a figure that is expected to grow to 145 next year when a second production line is added. The Nelson County plant is one of 39 Flowers bakeries that produce breads, buns, rolls, snack cakes and pastries that are sold nationwide.

BOWLING GREEN
A new start-up automotive company has announced plans to establish itself in Bowling Green, creating some 35 new jobs. TMS Automotive specializes in a process that includes removing unwanted residue from metal then applying rust-prevention coating. The company will provide value-added manufacturing to customers in the region, including Bowling Green Metalforming and Dana Corp. TMS President Michael Hall told The (Bowling Green) Daily News that the company plans to locate in the former Nyloncraft building in Bowling Green before eventually building its own facility.

Western Kentucky University has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant of nearly $900,000 for a program to increase the number of science and math teachers. Through the five-year grant, WKU will initiate and fund the WKU Science and Mathematics Alliance for Recruitment and Retention of Teachers (SMARRT) Program. Current high school students as well as current WKU STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students will be recruited into the program, which will offer opportunities for internships, scholarships, mentoring and other incentives for these students to pursue teaching as a career.

COVINGTON
Covington-based Ashland Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to sell its global marine services business, known for many years as Drew Marine, to J.F. Lehman & Co. in a transaction valued at approximately $120 million before tax. “For Ashland, this reflects our strategy to strengthen our core specialty chemical businesses while reducing our investment in non-core or non-strategic businesses,” Ashland Chairman and CEO James J. O’Brien said. “For J.F. Lehman & Co., the acquisition of Drew Marine represents an opportunity to acquire a leading global brand with strong market positions and prospects for growth. I believe the outlook for the marine business and its employees will be much stronger as part of an organization that is targeting growth in the maritime industry.” With revenues of approximately $140 million a year, the Drew Marine business has approximately 325 employees, 28 offices and 98 stocking locations in 47 countries. Ashland’s after-tax proceeds will be used to reduce debt.

DANVILLE
Alan Clark Holdings has announced plans to relocate and consolidate its international manufacturing and distribution operations in Danville.  The company has contracts with Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing Inc.; Lamas Beauty Inc.; and True Essentials (nutritional products) for the assembly, packaging and distribution of their products. The Danville facility will ship nationwide, as well as to Canada and the United Kingdom. The company’s operations will be located in the former AdMart Custom Signage facility and will bring 10 to 15 new jobs, with an initial payroll of around $244,000 the first year. Both employment and payroll are expected to grow as salaried employees from other affiliated company facilities are relocated to Danville.

ELIZABETHTOWN
The (Elizabethtown) News Enterprise reports that Dana Corp. has rehired 70 workers who were laid off from the Elizabethtown plant earlier this year. The plant, which produces vehicle frames for Ford, is seeing increased demand as Ford ramps up production of its Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition models. Dana’s Elizabethtown plant also produces frames for Ford’s F-150 pick-up truck.

ERLANGER
Erlanger-based Comair is closing its aircraft maintenance base in Orlando, Fla., citing “unprecedented financial challenges due to difficult economic times.” The closing will affect 81 jobs.

FRANKFORT
Buffalo Trace Distillery has purchased the Old Taylor Bourbon label and barrel inventory from Beam Global Spirits & Wine, maker of Jim Beam Bourbon. The product line changed hands in an agreement where Beam bought the EFFEN Vodka brand from Buffalo Trace parent company Sazerac. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
 
HARLAN
Citing a decline in the coal market, Massey Energy has idled its Darby Mine No. 1 coal mine.  Twenty-seven workers have been laid off as a result of the decision.

HEBRON
Delta Air Lines has announced that it is suspending service between the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport and Frankfurt, Germany, and London, England, effective in September. The cutbacks are part of a 10 percent systemwide reduction of flights and an overall 15 percent reduction in international capacity. A group of 59 Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky corporate presidents and CEOs has submitted a letter to Delta CEO Richard Anderson, asking that the airline reconsider the decision, noting that a significant amount of new business attraction in the region is from western Europe and that eliminating direct air access to Europe will deter economic development efforts. The group has requested that Delta consider simply reducing the number of flights to three or four times per week.

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS
Northern Kentucky University has announced that it is limiting student enrollment this fall, citing concerns with classroom capacity amid a record number of freshman applications. The university has received 6,500 freshman applications for the upcoming fall semester, an all-time NKU record and a 36 percent increase over last year. The university said qualified freshmen with more than one academic deficiency who apply for admission after July 1 will be deferred to the spring semester. Students with just one or no academic deficiencies will continue to be admitted for the fall.

HENDERSON
A years-long effort to “unwind” lease agreements between E.ON U.S. and Henderson-based Big Rivers Electric Corp. has stalled due to economic conditions affecting the Century aluminum smelter in Hawesville, Ky.  Part of the complicated transaction depends on long-term power contracts approved by the Kentucky Public Service Commission being signed between Big Rivers and the Century and Rio Tinto Alcan smelters. While officials at Rio Tinto Alcan say they are prepared to move forward under the terms outlined in the unwind documents, Century officials recently announced that “extreme economic circumstances” preclude them from entering into the contract terms. A primary purpose of the unwind was to put long-term power contracts in place for the smelters to help protect some 1,400 jobs there. The contracts under which Century and Rio Tinto Alcan are operating now expire in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The current lease agreements between E.ON U.S. and Big Rivers for the operation of power plants owned by Big Rivers and the City of Henderson have been in place since 1998 and are scheduled to run until 2023.

LEXINGTON
Kentucky National Insurance Co., a Lexington-based property and casualty insurance company, is now offering insurance to customers in Tennessee. The insurance will be sold exclusively through Tennessee independent insurance agents.

Lexington-based Valvoline has launched a new program that guarantees up to 300,000 miles of engine performance for loyal users of its engine oil products. The Valvoline Engine Guarantee covers all lubricated engine parts and components (cylinder heads, oil pump, pistons) except for the timing chain. No other components or systems (such as a turbocharger and supercharger) are covered. To be eligible for the program, customers must register their vehicles at valvoline.com before reaching 75,000 miles.

Spencerian College is now offering a degree in biomedical engineering technology. The course covers a variety of material ranging from highly specific technical skills to customer service that will prepare students to test, install, maintain and repair medical equipment.

Overbrook Farm, one of the horse industry’s most successful breeding establishments, has announced plans to completely disperse its Thoroughbred yearlings, breeding stock and the majority of its horses in training, beginning at Keeneland’s September Yearling Sale. Overbrook owner Bill Young Jr., whose father developed Overbrook into a highly respected breeding operation, said the decision to withdraw from the breeding industry was personal one. “I simply don’t have the same passion for the Thoroughbred sport that my father did, despite my respect for the business.” Young said his goal is to lease the farm as a Thoroughbred operation.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati at the University of Kentucky has discovered a biological marker for neovascular age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older adults. The marker, a receptor known as CCR3, shows strong potential as a means for both the early detection of the disease and for preventive treatment. 

A California developer has announced plans for a large mixed-use development in an area near downtown Lexington that once housed tobacco warehouses. George Krikorian’s proposed project, which is within walking distance of the University of Kentucky and downtown Lexington, would include a multi-screen theater, a bowling alley, retail shops, grocery, restaurants and 150 apartments. A tobacco warehouse on the property will be retained and renovated as part of the project.

LOUISVILLE
Bellarmine University’s Lansing School of Nursing and Health Sciences has received an $80,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to recruit students from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds to the nursing field. Eight students will receive $10,000 each to pursue an accelerated bachelor’s degree in nursing. Candidates must already hold a non-nursing bachelor’s degree. The program targets men, racial and ethnic minority groups and students who are economically disadvantaged. The scholarships will allow students to enroll in the one-year accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program that begins in the summer of 2010.

Home health provider Almost Family Inc. has announced an agreement to acquire the assets of the Medicare-certified home health agencies affiliated with Florida-based Central Florida Health Alliance. CFHA is a two-hospital health care system with home health branches in Leesburg and The Villages that generated approximately $4.5 million in revenue in its last fiscal year. Almost Family operates more than 100 branch locations in 11 states.

Citing the need to improve efficiency, Aegon is transferring 125 administrative positions from Louisville to its offices in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Another 13 Louisville positions are being eliminated by the insurance company’s subsidiary, Aegon USA Investment Management. Prior to the transfers and job cuts, Aegon employed approximately 500 people in Louisville.

Compass Airlines, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, has opened a new $9.5 million maintenance hangar at Louisville International Airport that will eventually employ approximately 70 people. The hangar provides capacity to work on up to three aircraft per night. Compass has a fleet of 36 Embraer 175 jets, each seating 76 passengers.

Advanced Cancer Therapeutics, a Louisville-based for-profit private company dedicated to bringing new anti-cancer therapies to market, has signed an exclusive license to develop and commercialize a finding by scientists at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center. Researchers Drs. Brian Clem, Sucheta Telang, Jason Chesney and John Trent recently found that removal of the gene for choline kinase caused a block in signals required for the survival of cancerous tumors. The discovery could lead to a new class of chemotherapies, Chesney said.

Midwest Airlines has announced plans to resume daily nonstop flight service from Louisville International Airport to Milwaukee, Wisc., beginning Aug. 2. The airline will operate the service using 37-seat, Embraer-135 regional jet aircraft. Midwest dropped its service out of Louisville last September after 17 years in the market, due to the significant downturn in the economy.

The University of Louisville has been awarded $900,000 from the National Institutes of Health that will fund a four-year clinical trial for autism treatment. The trial will involve combining magnetic stimulation with behavior therapy in people with autism, an approach that researchers believe will ease major symptoms of the disorder. “We have focused on using our new understanding of brain function to treat autism, instead of using medications to remediate its consequences,” explained neuroscientist Manuel Casanova. 

NICHOLASVILLE
R.J. Corman Railroad Group LLC has finalized its acquisition of Railpower Technologies Corp. of Quebec, Canada, and its wholly owned United States subsidiary Railpower Hybrid Technologies. Rick Corman, owner of Nicholasville-based Corman Group, said his company will continue the development and production of Railpower’s Gen-Set locomotives, which utilize multiple smaller engines as opposed to conventional new locomotives that use one large engine. According to Corman, the result is a better matching of engine power needs to the required amount of power to move the train, as well as up to a 40 percent fuel savings and cut in greenhouse gases, and up to 80 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide. More than 100 Gen-Set locomotives are currently in operation.
 
PAINTSVILLE
Citizens in Paintsville have voted in favor of allowing alcohol sales in restaurants. The measure – which narrowly passed by a vote of 650-to-594 – permits alcohol to be sold by the drink in restaurants and allows stores to sell packaged alcoholic beverages. Proponents of the measure hope alcohol sales will help stimulate economic development in the area.

RICHMOND
Lexington’s Central Baptist Hospital is expanding its reach into Madison County with a new facility that will house primary-care physicians, outpatient diagnostic services and multi-specialty clinic space. Central Baptist Medical Plaza at Heritage Place will be located across from Richmond Centre, an expansive retail development just off I-75. Construction on the 20,000-s.f. facility began last month and is expected to be complete early next year.

TOMPKINSVILLE
Anderson Forest Products, a Tompkinsville-based company that specializes in wood products such as custom reels and pallets, has purchased the former Belden manufacturing facility in Tompkinsville that has been vacant since 2007. Company President Billy Joe Anderson told the Glasgow Daily Times that he plans to expand the company’s product line to include the manufacture of cardboard and paper products and expects production at the newly acquired plant to begin within several months. Anderson said he anticipates employing between 140 and 150 people at the plant. Anderson Forest Products also operates facilities in Nebraska and Mexico.

WURTLAND
The downturn in the auto industry has led to the temporary closing of Sun Chemicals’ plant in Wurtland, where it produces pigments used by auto manufacturers. A press release issued by the New Jersey-based company noted that the temporary closing will allow it to adjust its inventory and hopes to bring back the plant’s 19 workers as inventory requirements change.

STATE
The Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) has further extended the time for residents of far western Kentucky to continue using area code 270, basing the decision on new data from the agency that distributes telephone numbers. The optional use of area code 364 will now take effect on Jan. 1, 2012, 21 months later than the previous implementation date of April 1, 2010. Area code 364 is to cover the western portion of the current area code 270, which includes the cities of Henderson, Hopkinsville, Madisonville, Murray and Paducah.

Kentucky’s minimum wage rate increased from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour effective July 1. The minimum wage rate for tipped employees will remain at $2.13 per hour. Questions regarding the increase can be directed to the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, Division of Employment Standards, Apprenticeship and Mediation at labor.desam@ky.gov or at (502)?564-3534.