2011 Owensboro Magazine

Greater

U.S.A.

2011

OWENSBORO

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4800 New Hartford Road Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 686-4400 Toll Free 1-866-755-6282 www.owensboro.kctcs.edu OCTC is an equal opportunity employer and educational institution.

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From the Chair

T

he annual Owensboro Magazine is intended to give residents, visitors and newcomers alike a “flavor” of what makes our community as special as it is. Perhaps the “Get Movin’ 2011” community health challenge that is highlighted starting on page ___ perfectly describes the momentum Greater Owensboro enjoys at this time.

From the 2010 Chamber of the Year award won by the Greater Owensboro Chamber to the bold downtown “placemaking initiative” to the highway projects rapidly evolving in our region to award-winning companies like Phill’s Custom Cabinets to local people stepping up to invest in their community—Larry and Rosemary Conder—there is much to celebrate in our corner of the world. It’s all here in the Owensboro Magazine.

The renaissance of Greater Owensboro continues into 2011 and beyond with the soon-to-be completed $45 million Ohio Riverfront project. Plans for the new downtown events center and adjacent signature hotel will move forward. We’re easier than ever to find with the recently opened 22-mile, four-lane highway leading to Owensboro from I-64 in southern Indiana. At the same time, efforts to encourage entrepreneurs and assist companies with business and employee growth will continue to evolve.

You’re invited to make our community your community. Owensboro is a unique blend of Southern hospitality coupled with progressive ideas and projects. Come “Think Big” with us!

Shirley Cecil 2011 Board Chair Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce

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Greater

U.S.A.

2011

OWENSBORO

An official publication of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce

DOWNTOWN Extreme Makeover: Downtown Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Initiated with an eye to economic development, the professional master plan completed

by Gateway Planning Group of Fort Worth, Texas, and CityVisions of Louisville is kicking up a cloud of dust as it’s implemented on Owensboro’s downtown riverfront.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP Investing in Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Ask Larry and Rosemary Conder why they have invested more than $2 million in downtown Owensboro over the last three years and the answer boils down to one word: home.

Raising the Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Phill Crabtree started his company in his garage in 1975. Since then, the company has relocated eight times and now serves an area from Indianapolis to Nashville, with shipping available to any location across the country. The company produces custom cabinets, bookcases, desks and built-ins. With his son Phillip he created a patentpending computerized cabinet-building system which recently won their industry’s highest honor for innovation.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT On with the Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

What is the longest running show in town and the oldest arts group in the city? If you said Theatre Workshop of Owensboro, award yourself two aisle seats for a future production. The community theater group has recently taken over a new stage in a downtown building which has been a mecca for entertainment for nearly a century.

Owensboro Attractions and Cultural Events . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Kentucky’s “Festival City” offers events and attractions all year.

WELLNESS Health Initiative Challenges Owensboro to Get Movin’. . . . 20

Communities across the nation are always searching for ways to improve the health of their citizens, and the city of Owensboro is no exception. So when the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce decided to offer a wellness program for its members, the Owensboro Health Park and many area businesses jumped on board to promote a worthwhile event to the entire community.

SPORTS & RECREATION Area Recreational Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Owensboro has been named Sports Illustrated’s #1 Sportstown in Kentucky. Here’s a listing of Owensboro’s world class sports and recreation facilities from sports complexes to golf courses to show you why Owensboro was chosen.

COMMUNITY Guard Constructing new Home in Owensboro . . . . . . . . . 26

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear came to Owensboro for a ceremonial groundbreaking in 2010 for a new $14 million Kentucky National Guard Readiness Center. The 57,644square-foot armory building, the replacement for the Guard’s armory on West Parrish Avenue, will be built on 20 acres at the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport.

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TRANSPORTATION

Private Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Road Project Funding Secured . . . . . . . . .28

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet released their proposed six-year road plan which included seven projects totaling nearly $29 million for I-69. Those projects are designed to pave the way for designating some of Kentucky parkway’s as I-69 in Kentucky. Owensboro economic development officials want the Audubon Parkway designated as an interstate spur when the Pennyrile Parkway becomes I-69.

Widening of Panama Canal Could Benefit Owensboro’s Ports . . . . . . . . 30

The $5.2 billion expansion of the Panama Canal, expected to be completed in 2014, “will fundamentally change world commerce,” the president of Kentuckians for Better Transportation said during a meeting in Owensboro.

Owensboro is Flying High . . . . . . . . . . 31

Several small private schools enhance the educational choices in Owensboro.

POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION Collaboration Creates Options . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Owensboro has several postsecondary institutions, each with many options. One of these is an innovative Theater Arts curriculum that is a unique partnership between public and private educational institutions, a non-profit arts organization and a manufacturing company.

Educating the Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

A listing of the many postsecondary educational offerings in Owensoro.

Kentucky Skies and Allegiant Air offer regular flights to Orlando and Nashville from Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport.

SMALL BUSINESS

AGRICULTURE

Just over six years ago, Kate and Jason Higdon were an average American family with two working parents and two small children. The simple gift of a high quality camera changed ever ything for the couple, and put into motion an amazing series of events.

Young Farmers are the Future . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Daviess County is home to a large group of eager young farmers ready to step up on family farms.

NEIGHBORS Welcome to the Neighborhood . . . . . . . . . .40

Growing with entrepreneurial opportunities, industry and home-grown small businesses, Owensboro’s economy thrives, establishing a solid housing market largely unaffected by national trends.

Small Business Sur viving – and Thriving . . . . . 62

CPA Firm Offers Innovative Solutions . . . .64

Founded in 1973, Riney Hancock CPAs set out to be an uncommon firm dedicated to providing timely, quality services, through commitment, excellence and innovation.

One-Stop Business Permitting . . . . . . . . 66

Moving In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Helpful information for new residents.

Easy-to-follow information about starting or locating a business in Owensboro or Daviess County.

K-12 EDUCATION

Local Chamber’s National Honor . . . . . . . . 67

Educating the “Whole Child” . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Owensboro Public Schools are well known for an exceptional fine and performing arts curriculum to educate children beyond just academics.

Changing the Face of Education . . . . . . . . . .54 The mission of the Daviess County Public Schools district is to prepare students to succeed for life — REAL life.

Bringing Faith to Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Owensboro Catholic Schools are committed to instilling values, morals and proper attitudes.

The Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce reached a longterm goal by being named Chamber of the Year by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE).

DEPARTMENTS

From the Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Community at-a-Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 By the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Dining and Catering Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Advertiser Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

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Greater

U.S.A.

Find Your Way to

2011

OWENSBORO

A publication of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce with advertising and editorial produced by the Messenger-Inquirer

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Greater Owensboro U.S.A. is published annually by the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce P.O. Box 825 Owensboro, KY 42302 This edition was produced by the Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro’s daily newspaper.

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Downtown

A worker walks across dirt in a portion of the river wall construction zone near the RiverPark Center.

Extreme Makeover: Downtown Edition rom 1940 to 2008, Owensboro produced 23 master plans designed to revitalize the downtown area.

All ended up sitting on a shelf except for the last one.

Initiated with an eye to economic development, the professional master plan done

by Gateway Planning Group of Fort Worth, Texas, and CityVisions of Louisville is kicking up a cloud of dust as it’s implemented.

The goal of the plan, said Fred Reeves, executive director for downtown development with the Owensboro-Daviess County Industrial Authority, is to “create a downtown so vibrant and so unique that it becomes an asset for the entire region to attract talent and hold onto talent.”

This vision has taken off because “down-

town is the key to the long-term economic development of the city,” said Scott Polikov, president of Gateway Planning.

With Owensboro’s manufacturing economy becoming more high tech and with the emerging economy of the 21st century focused on knowledge workers who can take their jobs anywhere thanks to advanced technology, economic development is not just about bringing in good jobs – it’s about creating a high quality of life to attract those workers to our area, said Nick Brake, president of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corporation.

Owensboro’s new downtown will do that through a strategy called placemaking – creating spaces for people to live, work and play in a unique environment.

The types of young professionals who are vital to improving Owensboro’s economy

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By Benjamin Hoak

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have shown a strong desire to live in vibrant downtown areas. They can work in their condo or office space or even take their computers outside on a bench in a park (with free wi-fi) overlooking the Ohio River.

While meeting colleagues or friends for a quick lunch, they can relax and watch kids play or stop by a farmer’s market to pick up some fresh produce.

Later, they can stroll down the block to a nice restaurant for dinner before they hit some entertainment hotspots, grab a drink or walk along the riverbank enjoying the spectacular sight of the fiery sun sinking down into the river.

These unique aspects of Owensboro that move beyond the big box homogeneity of America will “go a long way towards creating an environment that will attract and retain young people,” Brake said.

Child Care Resource & Referral Ted Lolley, structural engineer and project manager for the $37.6 million riverfront project, looks out over the Ohio River while standing in the river wall construction zone.

So just how will Owensboro’s downtown accomplish this?

Building on a $40 million federal investment that is shoring up and expanding the riverfront, the plan focuses on Owensboro’s natural, easy access to the Ohio River and is highlighted with several key pieces. Be-

ginning in the east at the RiverPark Center, an expanded and improved Smothers Park will offer great spaces for kids to play as it stretches along the riverfront to a cascading water feature.

The west end of the design will be anchored by a new $25 million convention

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Downtown

Barry Alberts, managing partner of City Visions, presented this artist rendering showing a proposed site plan for downtown development including the former Executive Inn property in a joint meeting of the Owensboro City Commission and Daviess Fiscal Court at City Hall in 2010. The plan includes a convention center which will be built on the former site of the Executive Inn Rivermont, and renovating the state office building. The site plan proposes making the state building the home of the International Bluegrass Music Museum.

center on the site of the old Executive Inn. The site includes a pier that will provide a space for a unique river room directly over the river.

The center will be designed by Trahan Architects, who renovated the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Their vision is for a bold, exciting building that reflects the community and makes use of the naturally impressive views of the Ohio River.

Next to the convention center will be a new high-end hotel, with an option for a second hotel close by. Other features include Riverfront Crossing – an open promenade area with a clock tower where folks can sit and relax, meet for lunch or just enjoy the view.

A regional farmers’ market will also have permanent space downtown.

Another piece of the plan that makes major use of Owensboro’s identity will be an International Bluegrass Music Center. Planned for the former state office building at the corner of Second and Frederica Streets, the remodeled building will include an open air venue for concerts.

The father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, was born a half-hour from Owensboro and the International Bluegrass Music Museum already resides in the RiverPark Center’s building.

The museum would move to the new building (an Arts Academy may take its place) to draw on the huge international appeal of bluegrass – fans travel from great distances to indulge their passion. “It’s a distinctive aspect to who we are in Owensboro,” Brake said. “Nobody can claim bluegrass quite the way we can.”

A key component of the plan will be changing traffic patterns from one-way streets to more pedestrian-friendly two-way

streets that will encourage walking and help create the compact, urban shopping/dining/ entertainment/residential area that is so attractive to young professionals.

“We think we are progressive,” Reeves said. “A lot of communities are aspiring to this.” What makes Owensboro’s plan better than others, he said, is the “quality of the master plan, the speed of implementing and the funding.”

The original plan was conceived in 2008.

In 2009, elected city and county leaders voted to implement a four percent surcharge on residents’ insurance premiums to generate a $79 million funding stream for the project.

While many local residents argued against raising taxes, Reeves and Polikov say this leadership and funding component is what sets Owensboro’s project apart.

Reeves expects Riverfront Crossing to be finished by the summer of 2011, with the new Smothers Park done by the summer of 2012. The hotel and convention center

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should both be completed by the end of 2013.

While the public investment is significant, private development will sustain the plan.

Owensboro native Larry Conder, who with his wife Rosemary has invested more than $2 million in downtown Owensboro over the last three years, says the plan will be a success when outside developers invest in downtown purely from an economic standpoint and when families and children are able to walk around with the same carefree, easy feeling they have at any other park in Owensboro.

The vision for downtown Owensboro is grand, and although the hard work of implementation remains, the future is bright.

“It is especially important for communities that want to remain competitive to absolutely get ahead of the curve,” Polikov said.

“Young talent can go anywhere in the world.

This is going to make Owensboro competitive on a national level.”

While much of the nation hibernated during the recession, Owensboro used this economic uncertainty to gain a competitive advantage over its peers. Owensboro has embarked upon an ambitious plan to revitalize downtown and establish a world-class riverfront that will be a major attraction for tri-state business, entertainment, living and culture.

As a foundation for revitalization, work is progressing to reclaim and transform the downtown riverfront. Forty million dollars was used to stabilize the eroding riverbank through construction of a concrete and steel river-wall that attractively protects “Old Yellowbanks.”

This construction has enabled the city to establish an enlarged, superlative riverfront park. The

park will include Shelton Memorial; a place of honor commemorating the life of Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and Vietnam War POW Charles Shelton. The park will also contain an outdoor theater and sculpture area, numerous overlooks of the river, breath taking fountains and water features as well as an outdoor museum and playground. The playground is a dynamic, interactive center that allows children to navigate an educational trail at ground or treetop level; there will be no similar park in the tri-state area. Construction of the park has begun and will be completed in time for a grand opening celebration on June 2, 2012.

Building upon the riverfront’s success, the city has initiated design of a major convention

and events center, a supporting convention hotel and a downtown plaza connecting the core of downtown to the riverfront.

While eagerly awaiting the return of big-name entertainment and conventions once famous in Owensboro, renewed growth downtown is a welcome sight. In anticipation of these major catalytic projects, new businesses such as The Crème, Gambrinus Libation Emporium, Diamond Delights Bakery and Café, 2nd Street Pub, Musick Dance Studio, The Miller House, Blossoms, The Crowne, Bee Bops, C-ing Polkadots, Dream Copy Photography and Studio Slant have opened downtown with other entrepreneurs competing for space.

We’re on the move!

Owensboro’s proposed downtown hotel, events center and Riverfront Park.

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Entrepreneurship

Investing in Home

Tim Scarton, bottom, and Greg Bradshaw, both installers with Husk Signs in Evansville, guide the sign for The Créme Coffee House as it’s lifted into place in front of the West Second Street business.

By Benjamin Hoak

A

sk Larry and Rosemary Conder why they have invested more than $2 million in downtown Owensboro over the last three years and the answer boils down to one word: home.

Born and raised here, they both possess a deep desire to make the community better.

To do that, they’re focusing their efforts on what makes Owensboro unique – its downtown.

“When I was young, downtown was all there was,” Rosemary Conder said. “It’s nostalgic. These are the things that make a community unique.”

“What makes a community unique is what you develop,” Larry Conder added.

With a keen eye for downtown’s inimitable architecture, the Conders began buying property in Within 18 months, they bought three buildings on Second Street – The Gallery at 107 E. Second St., which they turned into a gift shop called The Crowne at 107; the former Second Avenue Antiques at 109 E. Second St., which has become The Crème coffee shop; and the Smith-Werner building (built in the mid-1800s) a block west.

In doing so, they placed funds from overseas markets into “hard assets we could see,” Larry Conder said. “(We wanted to) bring back home not just our talents, but our money.”

Although they would not invest if they didn’t believe their plans would be profitable, they also believe their efforts will “help everyone in our entire region, not just the city and county,” he said.

“They’ve had a tremendous impact on downtown,” said Fred Reeves, executive director for downtown development with the Owensboro-Daviess County Industrial Authority. “Their investment is very significant, but even more important is their belief in downtown. They believe in the past we’ve lost and celebrate that with contemporary opportunities.”

Larry Conder began his career at Texas Gas in Owensboro, working his way up from the mailroom to learn the art of buying and selling natural gas on the open market.

The company eventually planned to move him elsewhere, but he wanted to stay in

Owensboro, so he started his own business brokering natural gas for small Kentucky municipalities. The business has done well, providing him with money to invest.

Several years ago, he and Rosemary, who worked as a nurse for 30 years before retiring, were searching for the perfect place for a wedding reception for one of their children when she fell in love with the building

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that now houses The Crowne at 107. When she later found the building for sale online, she and her husband bought it, looked at each other and said, “Now what do we do with it?”

The building right next to it soon came up for sale as well, so the Conders bought it with the intention of creating a coffeehouse there. “This spoke to me from day one,”

Rosemary Conder said. “I had a love of the buildings – I wanted to preserve that.”

The Crème is now a popular coffee house with an easy charm that invites you to linger over your drink – the hand-built coffee bar, exposed brick walls and high ceilings make it easy to imagine what the building was like in its heyday.

The Crowne at 107 is now a specialty shop with a unique mix of gifts, specialty items and collectibles. The second floor of the building features a 30-seat theatre and an enormous suite – a five-man Hungarian bluegrass band stayed there during Owensboro’s annual River of Music Party last summer. The whole building has a grand, elegant feel evocative of the old days when Clark Gable would have graced the secondfloor screen.

The Conders then spent about $1 million renovating the historic Smith-Werner building into retail and residential space.

Renovations were led by Randall Cook, who “knows old buildings,” Rosemary Conder said. “It’s an art unto itself. We could not have done it in time and on budget without him.”

Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the building’s first floor features Gambrinus Libation Emporium (run by the Conders’ daughter and son-in-law, John and Adrienne Condray), Dream Copy Photography and BeeBops, a ‘50s style diner. On the second floor are four 1,800 square foot luxury condos, all filled with young professionals attracted to the fun, urban vibe of a energized downtown.

The Conders have bought two other downtown properties with plans to renovate them in a similar manner as the SmithWerner building, with retail space on the first floor and condos or apartments on the second floor. They’re also moving forward with plans to build a replica of Owensboro’s Bank of Commerce as it looked in 1887 in the parking lot west of the Smith-Werner building.

And they may try to acquire more downtown spots in the future. “As long as we can justify the investment, we’ll keep doing it,” Rosemary Conder said.

As both the guinea pigs and poster children for private downtown development, they’ve had good dealings with city and county leaders, and the Chamber of Commerce named them the 2010 Entrepreneurs of the Year.

“We like to be busy,” Rosemary Conder laughed. “We’ve been busy since we met.”

The Conders have been married eight years and between them have six children (four live in Owensboro) and nine grandchildren (six are in town). During one 14month stretch a few years ago, the family had five weddings, three births and three funerals.

The Conders field a steady stream of questions from others interested in starting businesses downtown, and they’re glad to do so. “We want to see private entrepreneurs,” Rosemary Conder said.

The industrial authority will even set up meetings with the Conders and potential investors or business owners. “They’ve showed others they can do this and make money,” Reeves said. “The quality of their work is spectacular.”

Potential business owners who want to lease a spot in one of the Conders’ buildings should be prepared with a business plan, a target market and a willingness to be open in the evenings to attract folks to the downtown area.

“We take great pride in what we do,” Larry Conder said. “(We make sure) tenants are the right tenants. Cash flow is priority one, but is it a good fit?”

They’d like to see a better mix of restaurants and residential space in the area, as well as businesses that pay a good wage to attract professionals who want to work there. A mid-price clothing store open in the evenings would be helpful as well, Larry Conder said, and he would even love to see a small, 100 to 150 seat movie theater downtown that would bring folks back to the area not just on summer Friday nights, but throughout the week.

Another vision involves bringing schoolage kids downtown to paint murals on walls or lay bricks – anything to give them a sense of ownership.

Once they feel that pride of ownership, they’ll return again and again, Larry Conder believes, and when it’s time for them to choose where they want to live, they’ll have a natural inclination to Owensboro because it will have the amenities – as well as the emotional pull – they’re looking for.

“People will be blown away by our downtown,” said Rosemary Conder. “People in Owensboro will have a place to come. It’s the best $2 million we’ve ever spent.”

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Larry and Rosmary Conder are framed in a doorway of the Smith Werner building along West Second Street in downtown Owensboro during their renovation project.

The Condors’ Riverwalk Properties LLC purchased the building in 2009 from the county for $56,960. The Gambrinus Libation Emporium became the first business to open in the building after $1 million in renovations.

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Arts & Entertainment

On with the Show

Director Lisa Mingus Tullis sweeps the stage after designing the set for Theatre Workshop of Owensboro’s production of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” at The Opryhouse, formerly Goldie’s. “It’s been an adjustment,” Tullis said. “I’m very pleased with the set. This is community theater when the paint isn’t dry on opening night.”

hat is the longest running show in town and the oldest arts group in the city? If you said Theatre Workshop of Owensboro, award yourself two aisle seats for a future production.

TWO’s beginning is a little reminiscent of the now quaint Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musicals of the 1940s that usually included a variation of the line, “Hey kids, there are some costumes in an old trunk in the barn, let’s put on a show.”

In 1955, a group of local business and professional people who had acted in high school and college plays decided to try their hand at community theater.

The curtain went up on the first production on Friday, Dec. 1 of that year at Southern Junior High School (now Owensboro Middle School) debuting a Moss Hart and

George S. Kaufman play with Kentucky Wesleyan College drama instructor Walter Lazenby as the director and lead actor.

The following morning the MessengerInquirer said, “A small, but well rewarded audience braved rain, sleet and ice to see a practically flawless production of ‘The Man Who Came To Dinner’ by Owensboro’s new little theater group, the Theatre Workshop.”

The group went on to stage several more plays until 1959 before taking an eight year hiatus.

In its nearly half a century of existence, Theatre Workshop of Owensboro has shown an infinity for old buildings, steeped in local history.

The former Trinity Episcopal Church in the 400 block of West Fifth Street, with its cramped quarters and postage stamp size stage, has been home to TWO for 37 years.

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By Lee Denney

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Built in 1875, the building – now known as Trinity Centre – is the oldest example of Gothic architecture in Western Kentucky.

Registered as an historic landmark, it is also the oldest brick structure in Owensboro.

In the spring of 2008, TWO announced a one million dollar fund drive to pay for needed renovations to Trinity Centre and to launch a search for a larger, second site. Stephen Coppick, executive director of Theatre Work of Owensboro, says over $400,000 of that has been raised, with much of it spent or earmarked for repairs at the 90-seat Trinity Centre.

With a portion of the funds, the community theater group has also taken over a new stage in a downtown building which has been a mecca for entertainment for nearly a century.

In 2009, the TWO board of directors entered into a lease-purchase agreement with

the owners of the former Malco Theater building which had housed Goldie’s Best Little Opryhouse in Kentucky for 19 years.

Charlie and Goldie Payne, the building’s owners, agreed to sell the property at 418 Frederica Street for $250,000. The agreement calls for the final payment of $200,000 to be made in April 2010.

“Having both buildings gives us new notes to play. We can do smaller, intimate plays at Trinity Centre, cabaret shows and theater in the round. The Opryhouse gives us a chance to do some larger scale youth productions and musicals,” Coppick said.

“Having two buildings gives us options.”

Coppick says the response to plays already produced in the 300-seat Opryhouse has been great. “It gives us a chance to bring in touring musicians and performers who would never be able to play here otherwise.”

In addition to performances for the general public, Theatre Workshop has a thriving youth program.

Coppick says that someone from TWO is in a Daviess County classroom, teaching creative dramatics, almost every day of the school year as part of Daviess County Public School’s emphasis on the arts.

“We also offer after-school programs at Audubon Elementary and at the Neblett Center,” he said. “We collaborate with the RiverPark Center on its Arts in the A.M., a participation program for students in grades 3 to 12 from all over the (region). We also have our Saturday morning drama club and week-long drama camps during the summer.

Just this year, we started collaborating with Owensboro schools on a gifted and talented program, focusing on the performing arts” Karen Carothers, president of the TWO board of directors, is looking forward to the day restoration of the Opryhouse to its glory days can get underway. “We can’t really make any changes until the purchase is final. We would like to keep the building close to its original state, but renovation will allow for more dressing rooms, a bathroom backstage and perhaps stadium seating for better sight lines. When you look around here, restoring all this molding around the ceiling would be just beautiful.”

The Opryhouse, as it is now called, debuted as the Empress Theater on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1912, showing the recently completed World Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Giants.

It was the first theater in Owensboro, and some say it was the first east of the Mississippi River, built specifically to show the new photo plays – as movies were called in those days.

According to the Theater Historical Society of America, only the Palace in Los Angeles, which opened a year earlier, had a longer run of continuously showing movies.

The Empress was later renamed The Center

Five guys named Moe, from left, Christophre Woods as No Moe, Maurice Hanley as Little Moe, Troy Duncan as Big Moe, Layson Brooks as Four Eyed Moe (hidden) and Brad Rodgers as Eat Moe, rehearse the opening scene of the Theatre Workshop of Owensboro musical production “Five Guys Named Moe at The Opryhouse.

and closed as The Malco in January 1989, with the Bill Murray movie “Scrooged.”

But the theater didn’t stay dark long.

Local entertainer Goldie Payne breathed new life into the place later that year, starting a 19-year run of a popular musical vari-

ety stage show, taking her final bows Dec. 14, 2008.

Likely thousands of names have appeared on TWO playbills over the years, including those of Mary Martin and DebContinued on Next Page

OWENSBORO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Nicholas Palmer, Music Director and Conductor

The Owensboro Symphony Orchestra enriches, educates and entertains the residents of Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

For information call 270-684-0661 or www.theoso.com O w e n s b o r o

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Arts & Entertainment From Previous Page

Oliver Palmer, who plays the role of Ralph, holds up a conk shell during a dress rehearsal of “Lord of the Flies,” a Theatre Workshop of Owensboro youth production.

Preserving The Past

Educating For The Future

Visit our new Coal Mine Gallery!

The new Origins Exhibit is opening soon!

Hours of Operation Monday 10:00 am – 8:00 pm Tuesday – Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

For information on membership, tours and admission call us at 270.687.2732 or visit www.owensboromuseum.com

Owensboro Museum of Science and History 122 East 2nd Street • Owensboro, Kentucky www.owensboromuseum.com

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bie Reynolds. Not the woman who first flew as Peter Pan on Broadway, nor the ingénue who danced with Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in “Singing In The Rain” but a couple of regional talents who share their famous names.

However, Christine Johnson Smith, a contralto who sang at the Metropolitan Opera and on Broadway, did “tread the boards” at Theatre Workshop.

Christine Johnson was best known for creating the role of Nellie Fowler in the original production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” in 1945. Five years later, in a life twist that might make a Broadway play plot of its own, Christine Johnson turned her back on fame and fortune, returning to her Owensboro hometown to marry Dr. Robert Smith, raise a family and occasionally appear on local stages. She died in June 2010 at age 98.

Coppick is among the many local folks who have performed with TWO stage. The Owensboro native acted in plays while Theatre Workshop’s temporary home was in the basement of the long-gone Rudd Hotel.

Coppick studied theater in college, managed theaters around the country and was teaching arts marketing at a school in Colorado when the opportunity to come back home materialized. He is one of a handful of salaried staff members.

Coppick says stipends are paid to some directors and designers, but otherwise the program utilizes volunteers.

Box office receipt s are just a small part of the funding apparatus for TWO. Grants, private and corporate donations and sponsorships are combined with city and county government support.

TWO also gets funding from the Kentucky Council for the Arts, which in turn gets some funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Carothers, who was co-artistic director of Owensboro Dance Theatre for 25 years, has been involved in TWO for about 10 years, starting when her daughter acted in “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

“I loved the organization and just really wanted to help them accomplish their goals,” she said.

There are a myriad of opportunities to be involved in future productions.

In addition to acting and directing, volunteers can contribute through set construction, costuming, hair/make-up, lighting, sound, ushering and more. Coppick and Carothers encourage people to scratch their artistic itch through Theatre Workshop of Owensboro.

“We are always looking for volunteers, and we’ll find something for them to do,” Coppick said.

Hey kids, there are some costumes backstage. Let’s put on a show!

Owensboro Attractions Edge Ice Center 1400 Hickman Avenue owensboroparks.org International Bluegrass Music Museum 207 E. Second Street bluegrassmuseum.org or (270) 926-7891 Owensboro Museum of Fine Art 901 Frederica Street omfa.museum or (270) 685-3181 Owensboro Museum of Science and History 122 East Second Street owensboromuseum.com or (270) 687-2732 Owensboro Regional Farmers Market 2818 New Hartford Road Seasonally: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings Owensboro Symphony Orchestra 211 E. Second Street owensborosymphony.org or (270) 684-0661 RiverPark Center 101 Daviess Street riverpakrcenter.org or (270) 687-2770 Theatre Workshop of Owensboro 407 W. Fifth Street theatreworkshop.org or (270) 683-5003 Western Kentucky Botanical Garden 25 Carter Road wkbg.org Windy Hollow Speedway 4731 Windy Hollow Road windyhollowspeedway.net or (270) 785-4065

Rosine native Danny Jones of Louisville plays his mandolin with Chuck Nation on guitar and Susan Nation on bass while enjoying an impromptu jam session near the campsites during the seventh annual River of Music Party at Yellow Creek Park.

Festivals and Events Gospel Festival offers two nights of gospel music in RiverPark Center’s Cannon Hall. riverparkcenter.org Bill Monroe Centennial Exhibit at the International Bluegrass Music Museum is part of a two-year celebration of what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday on Sept. 13, 2011. Notable artifacts on display include Uncle Pen’s fiddle and the headstock veneer from Monroe’s famous mandolin. bluegrassmuseum.org

Windy Hollow Speedway revs up the excitement with dirt track racing from April to October.

(270) 785-4065 or windyhollowspeedway.net International Bar-B-Q Festival is two days of barbecue heaven when cooking teams gather in May to compete with their secret recipes for barbecue. bbqfest.com

Daviess County Parks & Recreation

Come Outdoors With Us! Larry Lowing, a retired college professor and master gardener, teaches Highland Elementary fourthgraders C.J. Mullins, center, Riliegh Owens, back left, Noah Wright, front left, and some of their classmates about biotechnology at the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden. The students were participating in the garden’s Budding Biotech program, which is a collaboration between the garden, Owensboro Museum of Science and History, Owensboro Medical Health System, Kentucky Bioprocessing, Owensboro Cancer Research Program and Owensboro Community and Technical College. The program is funded through grants and staffed by volunteers, Lowing said. Third and fourth-graders from area schools participate free.

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Yellow Creek Park • 5710 KY Hwy 144 Panther Creek Park • 5160 Wayne Bridge Rd. Horse Fork Creek Park • 3005 Fairview Dr. 270-685-6142 • www.daviesscountyparks.com

Friday After 5 is a series of free summer concerts from May to September along the downtown riverfront every Friday evening. fridayafter5.com Owensboro Regional Farmers Market is open seasonally on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings in the parking lot of Owensboro Christian Church.

Summer Movies on the River is a free outdoor family movie night on the plaza at RiverPark Center. riverparkcenter.org The Dazzling Daylily features a national display garden of hybridizes daylilies, tours, food and fun at the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden. (270) 852-8925 or wkbg.org

Gracie Rima, 8, right, shows a tube containing flour to Mary Rodriguez and her 3-year-old daughter Lily Rodriguez, second from right, as the three of them along with Madeleine Edge, 5, far left, learn about grinding wheat during the Kids in the Kitchen event sponsored by the Junior League of Owensboro at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History. Melissa Toler, the Junior League chair for the Kids in the Kitchen program, said in the past the they have offered the program to small groups of children. Toler said, “The push nationally is to go bigger, so we chose to open (Kids in the Kitchen) to the public.” She said children learned about good choices through a skit, a game called “The Choice is Right” and through various learning stations at the event. Local businesses were incorporated into the event to teach good food choices such as a fruit cup from a fast food chain, and choosing to play a video game that incorporates movement to encourage exercise. Toler said they wanted to teach children how to make good choices because we live in a, “fast paced, fast food world.”

ROMP: Bluegrass Roots and Branches Festival is the International Bluegrass Music Museum’s annual bluegrass festival in June featuring concerts and events at the museum, the RiverPark Center and Yellow Creek Park.

1-888-MY BANJO or bluegrassmuseum.org Family Freedom Fireworks Festival is a family celebration of Independence Day at Panther Creek Park. daviesscountyparks.com

Marty Farmer of Hawesville, left, stirs one of two Crooked Creek burgoo pots as teammate Dale Wink of Utica keeps an eye on the competition at the International Bar-B-Q Festival in Owensboro.

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Celebration of the American Spirit is the City of Owensboro’s July 4th celebration featuring fireworks extravaganza on the river at English Park. owensboroparks.org

Reid’s Orchard Apple Festival celebrates the fall season and everything apple in October at Reid’s Orchard, 4812 Kentucky 144. (270) 685-2444 or reidorchard.com

Daviess County Lions Club Fair is the funfilled annual county fair in July featuring tractor pulls, beauty pageants, animals, rides and more. daviesscountyfair.com

Veterans Day parade brings bands, floats, scout troops and organizations to downtown Owensboro to honor our veterans in November.

Dust Bowl is a nine-day outdoor basketball tournament held in July at Owensboro’s Kendall-Perkins Park.

Multicultural Festival offers a unique blending of cultures each August to educate and celebrate our diversity at First Presbyterian Church, 1328 Griffith Ave. (270) 684-1467 or firstpresbyterianowensboro.com Owensboro Symphony Orchestra’s Concert on the Lawn is presented each August on the lawn at Kentucky Wesleyan College on Frederica Street.

Owensboro PumpkinFest celebrates the season with a traditional family fall festival with games, rides and activities for all ages at the Owensboro Sportscenter. owensboropumpkinfest.org

Owensboro Christmas Parade is one of the largest Christmas parades in Kentucky and features bands, lighted floats and more to kick of the season on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. ChristmasParade.net Holiday Forest features trees and decorations designed by regional artists, civic groups and schools. The trees are installed as an exhibit at the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art for the month of December.

Owensboro Dance Theatre’s annual performance of “The Nutcracker” includes elaborate sets, beautiful costumes and showcases the talent of the theatre company and guest artists from Kentucky Ballet Theatre. riverparkcenter.org

Patriot Days at Yellow Creek Park features living history exhibits, colonial games, a scavenger hunt, prizes and refreshments. patriotdays1776.com

Holiday Stroll enhances the holiday season at the beginning of December with live music and other activities and attractions at several locations in downtown Owensboro.

Scarecrow Festival starts the fall season off at the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden, 15 Carter Road. (270) 852-8925 or wkbg.org

Winter Wonderland features an enormous Christmas tree at the entrance of an outdoor skating rink overlooking the Ohio River at the RiverPark Center from November to January. Also features holiday movies on an outdoor air screen, caroling, children’s rides, sleigh rides and visits from Santa. riverparkcenter.org

U.S. 60 Yard Sale in October, stretches from Union County to Meade County along U.S. 60. highway60yardsale.com Voices of Elmwood Cemetery brings local history to life in October with a series of unique nighttime hay rides through the historic cemetery organizes by the Owensboro Museum of Science and History and the Daviess County Public Library. owensboromuseum.com

For more information about events happening in and around Owensboro, call the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention and Visitors Bureau at 1-800-489-1131 (toll free) or go to visitowensboro.com.

International

BAR-B-Q FESTIVAL 2nd Saturday Every May

Brooke Boarman, 8, uses an easel while drawing her art work Sunday during the preview Brooke Boarman, 8, uses party for Owensboro Museum of Fine Art’s an easel while drawing ArtLand. “I’m coloring a stained-glass peace her art work during sign,” she said. “I like to draw.” Children had the preview party for the opportunity to paint, work with clay, Owensboro Museum of color with markers or crayons and play with Fine Art’s ArtLand. marionettes.

www.bbqfest.com O w e n s b O r O

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Wellness

Health Initiative Challenges Owensboro to Get Movin’

By Kristi McCabe

C

ommunities across the nation are always searching for ways to improve the health of their citizens, and the city of Owensboro is no exception.

So when the Owensboro Chamber of Commerce decided to offer a wellness program for its members, the Owensboro Health Park and many area businesses jumped on board to promote a worthwhile event.

In a joint effort, Owensboro Medical Health System, the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce and the MessengerInquirer will sponsor Get Movin’ 2011, a campaign designed to raise greater awareness in the community about good health.

The goal of this innovative health initiative is to encourage physical activity among Owensboro citizens and to provide a fun and free way to get in shape.

“We were looking for a way to encourage our Chamber members to get active,” said Chamber of Commerce President Jody Wassmer. “A recent survey of our members showed that they are interested in a wellness program that will improve health across the board, and the Get Movin’ 2011 Campaign will help us achieve that end.”

Individuals throughout the community are invited to form teams of two to 10 to increase their activity level over a period of 12 weeks. OMHS is offering pre- and postassessments at no cost to participants and the Messenger-Inquirer is promoting the event.

The team with the highest number of minutes per participant at the end of the contest wins.

The goal is to heighten awareness of ongoing health concerns and to encourage participants to keep up good habits after the initiative has ended.

“We want to change people’s mindsets, and encourage them to get up off the couch, and think about ways to get their hearts pumping,” Wassmer said.

“Research shows that physically active people have a lower risk of chronic disease and that they live longer. With increased ac-

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As the rain peppers down, Anna Kendall, 27, runs while her 6-month-old son, Wyatt Kendall, naps in the jogging stroller in the 1500 block of Tamarack. She ran six miles. “I run six days a week,” Kendall said. “My husband and I thought about running a half marathon. I do it for the psychological benefit.”

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tivity, there is a lesser chance of developing diabetes, heart disease and cancer. If people have no need to access health care to address serious problems, costs go down and that helps everyone.”

Improving the health of the community was placed in the spotlight with a visit from

Mark Fenton, a nationally-known health and wellness expert.

Fenton came to Owensboro during 2010 as part of the Pioneering Healthier Communities initiative that is being led by the Owensboro YMCA. Fenton – a former U.S. Olympic speedwalker and current host of the PBS series “America’s Walking” – has become a recognized authority on public health issues and is a proponent of increased biking and walking in communities.

Fenton made an appearance at a Chamber of Commerce event and did an community assessment, stressing the importance of making neighborhoods and public areas more conducive to physical exercise.

One of the suggestions made by Fenton was to tie in the Greenbelt biking and walking trail to the downtown area, which would allow downtown workers and residents to take advantage of this great outlet for physical activity.

There should be more continuity throughout the community of walking trails and biking paths, Fenton emphasized, and neighborhood developers need to keep these things in mind.

If local businesses would supply more bicycle racks for customers and reduce the size of their parking lots, Fenton says, people may choose to ride bikes when out and about, and leave their cars at home. Why encourage people to drive everywhere, Fenton states, when a philosophy change is

what is needed?

The Chamber of Commerce was impressed with Fenton’s suggestions, and eager to help improve the health of its community. Get Movin’ 2011 is a positive step in this direction and may serve as an impetus for future events.

“We’ll focus on doing a great job in 2011 and then go from there,” Wassmer said.

“There’s nothing more important than good health, and that is what we hope to put in the front of people’s minds with this campaign. If we could do that as a community each year, I think it would be great.”

Collette Carter, Director of the Owensboro Health Park, is very excited about the Get Movin’ 2011 campaign as well, and feels it will help draw inactive citizens into a more active lifestyle.

Carter says that working with the Chamber and the Messenger-Inquirer to raise the level of interest is ideal for the program.

“We want to get the word out that engaging in any level of physical activity benefits lifelong health,” Carter explains. “Everyone can do something to improve their health, if that means choosing to ride a bike rather than driving a car, or simply parking a little farther away from the office building and walking into work.”

Carter emphasizes that building healthier communities should be everyone’s concern.

Healthy people build healthy communities and healthy work forces, and this

strengthens the entire community. The hope is to dispel the myth that one has to devote a large amount of time to physical activity in order to improve overall health and that we can all get moving in some way.

“One of the most common reasons people cite for not getting more exercise is that they simply don’t have time,” Carter says.

“We want to show that there are many little things anyone can do to get moving. Little things – like taking a walk downtown during a lunch break, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or waking up early to walk before heading off to work – can make a huge difference.”

Many area businesses are stepping up to help out with this community-wide effort, including Great Harvest Bread, Shoe Stop and Anytime Fitness. These businesses – and others – are offering discounts on their products and services for Get Movin’ participants. For example, Anytime Fitness will allow participants to work out for free during business hours, and Great Harvest is offering specials on reduced-fat menu items.

“It’s important to remember that with this initiative, we are moving forward,” Carter says. “We are working on improvement. Currently there are a lot of great efforts taking place in Owensboro to improve our citizens’ health, from the creation of the Greenbelt to the Health Park to the Bike Owensboro program. We want to make Owensboro a healthier place to live, and that is what Get Movin’ 2011 is all about.”

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Sports & Recreation Area Recreation Facilities Adkisson Greenbelt Park owensboroparks.org The 15-mile Adkisson Greenbelt Park links neighborhoods, parks and schools. The trails offer a 10-foot wide asphalt surface to easily accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists.

Ben Hawes Park Golf Course (270) 687-7137 The park features an 18-hole regulation course, a 9-hole par 3 course and a driving range. The Pro Shop offers pull carts, golf cars and rental clubs plus golf apparel, clubs and balls. The public archery range at Ben Hawes Park is located near the Pro Shop.

Combest Pool 1530 McJohnson Avenue owensboroparks.org Combest Pool is an Olympic-sized municipal pool on the east side of the city. The facility offers certified lifeguards, public swimming, swim lessons for youth and adults, fitness and acquatics classes and private party rentals.

Cravens Pool 2815 Cravens Street owensboroparks.org Cravens Pool is a municipal pool on the west side of Owensboro. The facility offers a showering mushroom and lily pads and ranges from 1 to 4.5 feet deep.

Elizabeth “Bug Bug” Baker, 7, lunges along side her coach, Allyson Hughes, 18, during an Owensboro Figure Skating Club practice at The Edge Ice Center.

Edge Ice Center 1400 Hickman Avenue owensboroparks.org This state-of-the-art municipal center replaced an outdated facility in 2009 for recreational ice skating. Edge Ice Center is also home to Owensboro Youth Hockey Associaton, Hockey Cheerleading, varsity high school hockey and the Owensboro Figure Skating Club.

FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT FOR HEALTHY LIVING FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

English Park Boat Ramp Hanning Lane owensboroparks.org The English Park Boat Ramp opened in 2008 as part of a major upgrade to the riverfront park. The ramp features a wide ramp, reaserved parking for trailers and a dock.

Hillcrest Golf Course 4346 Old Hartford Road (270) 687-8717 Hillcrest Golf Course is a year-round, 9-hole municipal golf course. It offers a pro shop, practice green and chipping green and features bermuda fairways, tees and bent grass greens.

Horse Fork Creek Park Soccer Complex 3005 Fairview Drive (270) 685-6142 Horse Fork Creek Park features nine soccer fields and is home to the Daviess County Youth Soccer Association.

Kendall-Perkins Park West Fifth Street owensboroparks.org Kendall-Perkins Park is a 2-acre neighborhood park featuring a Spray Park, two lighted tennis courts and two lighted basketball courts. The park has been the home of Owensboro’s Dust Bowl basketball tournament since 1973.

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Kentucky Motor Speedway 8135 Haynes Station Road, Whitesville kentuckymotorspeedway.net This asphalt stock car racing track features a three-eighths-mile oval track. KMS is located just of Kentucky 54 near Whitesville in Daviess County. The racing season begins in April.

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Legion Park Byers Avenue owensboroparks.org Legion Park is the oldest city park. The 23.75-acre park includes two tennis courts, one lighted basketball court and Spray Park.

Moreland Park Tennis Center West Parrish Avenue owensboroparks.org The Moreland Park Tennis Center includes12 lighted tennis courts and is host to youth and adult tennis tournaments and high school and college matches. The center is also home to the Moreland Park Tennis Association and the National Junior Tennis League. Owensboro Parks and Recreation Department provides tennis lessons during the spring, summer and fall.

OMHS HealthPark 1006 Ford Avenue (270) 688-4820 The Owensboro Medical Health System Health Park offers a wide range of wellness services in their 110,000 square-foot facility. The facility includes a cushioned indoor walking/running track, indoor lap pool, warm-water therapy pool, cardio and strength training equipment, enclosed freeweight area, racquetball courts, chapel and meditation garden and gymnasium. The facility also offers a wide range of therapeutic services.

Owensboro Family YMCA 900 Kentucky Parkway (full family facility) 650 Chuck Gray Court (adults only with childcare available) (270) 926-9622 The Owensboro Family YMCA is an inclusive organization providing services to structure spirit, mind and body. The Owensboro Family YMCA offers a full selection of fitness and acquatics programs for every age in a Christian atmosphere.

Ten-year-old Caleb Buckman follows through on a backhand return shot while playing tennis with his brother, Josh Buckman, at Moreland Park. Caleb Buckman is ranked No.1 in Kentucky in the USTA 10-and-under age division.

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Sports & Recreation Owensboro Softball Complex 3900 West 5th Street Road owensboroparks.org Located in Jack C. Fisher Park, the complex features four lighted softball fields, a field house with concessions and announcer’s area. While providing space for local leagues and schools, it also hosts many local, state, regional and national tournaments.

Owensboro Sportscenter Hickman Avenue The Owensboro Sportscenter is a 5,500-seat auditorium and arena. The venue hosts many public and private events and is home to the American Basketball Association’s Kentucky Bisons.

Panther Creek Park 5160 Wayne Bridge Road daviesscountyparks.com Panther Creek features six diamonds for softball and baseball and is home to Owensboro-Daviess County Babe Ruth League and Daviess County Church League.

Thompson-Berry Soccer Complex Raven Drive The Thompson-Berry Soccer Complex has 11 fields and a concession and restroom building. The complex is home to the Green River Area Soccer Association.

Waymond Morris Park Football Complex 5200 Todd Bridge Road owensboroparks.org The complex features four lighted fields, concession and restroom building and 290-car lot. The complex is home to the OwensboroDaviess County Youth Football League.

Jake Trogden begins his time trial as Harry Roberts keeps him balanced Wednesday afternoon during the River City Racing time trial at Kentucky 279 and Panther Creek Park Drive. Each cyclist begins the 9.8-mile course in two-minute intervals.

Windy Hollow Speedway 4731 Windy Hollow Road windyhollowspeedway.net or (270) 785-4065 The area’s home for dirt track stock car racing features a three-eighths-mile banked dirt oval track. The racing season at Windy Hollow Speedway runs from April to October.

Yellow Creek Park 5710 Kentucky 144 daviesscountyparks.com Yellow Creek has three lighted diamonds for softball and baseball and is home to Owensboro-Daviess County Babe Ruth League and Daviess County Church League. The park also features a disc golf course which hosts sanctioned PDGA B-tier tournaments and is home of the Daviess County Disc Golf Club.

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Community

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear addresses the crowd as Adjutant General Edward W. Tonini looks on during a visit to the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport in 2010. Beshear came to Owensboro for a ceremonial groundbreaking for a new $14 million Kentucky National Guard Readiness Center.

Guard Constructing New Home in Owensboro entucky Gov. Steve Beshear came to Owensboro for a ceremonial groundbreaking in 2010 for a new $14 million Kentucky National Guard Readiness Center.

The 57,644-square-foot armory building, the replacement for the Guard’s armory on West Parrish Avenue, will be built on 20 acres at the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport by A&K Contracting of Paducah, in concert with the Collignon & Nunley/Hafer Associates architectural firm of Owensboro.

Unlike traditional building projects where an architect designs a project, then contractors vie to build it, the Owensboro Readiness Center is a “design-build” project, which means that specifications for the center were issued and contractors submitted designs of their own making incorporating all the specifications.

A&K and Collignon & Nunley/Hafer Associates submitted the winning design-build proposal for the center.

“What we needed was a building that meets the requirements,” King said. “A&K

and Collignon & Nunley/Hafer Associates clearly put together the best proposal.”

The Guard estimates that construction will take 15 to 18 months. That puts the center’s opening somewhere between late 2011 and early 2012.

The $10.3 million federal portion of funding for the center comes from the $446.8 billion spending bill signed by President Barack Obama in 2009.

About $3.5 million of the total cost of the project is state-funded through the Department of Military Affairs. Of that amount, $1 million will come from the city of Owensboro, which will purchase the existing armory on West Parrish Avenue.

Beshear was joined by Maj.Gen. Edward W. Tonini, adjutant general for Kentucky, Owensboro Mayor Ron Payne, all members of the Owensboro City Commission and Daviess Fiscal Court and several local legislators. Several Guard members in uniform were present.

“This is a great day for the commonwealth of Kentucky and the Kentucky National Guard,” Beshear said. “In a time when money is tight and other states are closing armories, we are fortunate to have

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By Steve Vied

K

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a brand new readiness center that will serve as a home for our great citizen-soldiers and also be a valuable resource for the people of Owensboro and Daviess County.”

Tonini said the National Guard center represents many things to many people.

“In addition to its main function as a headquarters for our hometown defense force, it will serve as base of operations in times of natural disaster and other emergencies,” he said.

Payne presented an oversized check for $1 million made out to the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs. He thanked Beshear and Tonini for their efforts to fund the Owensboro project.

“The Kentucky National Guard has had a home in Owensboro for 60 years and with this project, it assures their presence for years to come,” Payne said.

At Right: Mason Miller, 15, a freshman at nearby Catholic High School, walks towards the Kentucky National Guard Armory for basketball practice in the gym there. Preservation Alliance of Owensboro-Daviess County is working to try to save the 63-year-old building from being demolished. Below: An artist’s rendering of the $14 million Kentucky National Guard Readiness Center which will be home to Headquarters Support Company and Forward Support Company, both with the 206 Engineer Battalion.

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27

Transportation

Road Project Funding Secured A

large banner with the Interstate 69 shield hung over one end of the Frankfort Convention Center during a West Kentucky Thank You event during the 2010 Kentucky General Assembly in Frankfort.

The banner left little doubt as to what leaders from the region believe is important for economic development. Earlier that week, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet released their proposed six-year road plan which included seven projects totaling nearly $29 million for I-69.

Those projects are designed to pave the way for designating parts of the Edward T. Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway, the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and the Julian M. Carroll Purchase Parkway as

I-69 in Kentucky.

Owensboro economic development officials wants the Audubon Parkway designated as an interstate spur when the Pennyrile Parkway becomes I-69.

“The timing was perfect for the reception and I-69,” said Chamber President Jody Wassmer. “This would be the first time it appears in the road plan and that’s important to gain federal dollars in the next highway reauthorization bill.”

The 26 chambers of commerce sponsoring the reception were comprised of the 12 chambers of C-LINK (Chamber Leadership Initiatives for Northwestern Kentucky) and the 14 chambers of WKRCA (West Kentucky Regional Chamber Alliance).

The Greater Owensboro Chamber of

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Three years ago, the Audubon Parkway from Owensboro to Henderson was officially designated as a “Future I-69 Spur.”

Facing Page: The larger-than-life banner makes it clear that the 26 Chambers of Commerce hosting the West Kentucky Thank You event during the 2010 Kentucky General Assembly support the I-69 projects.

Commerce was a founding member of C-LINK, which has worked since 2008 to advocate for the I-69 project funding.

WKRCA was formed in 2009 and has also promoted the project.

Progress for I-69 in the past year included the hiring of a project manager, a study to determine the cost of upgrading the Purchase Parkway in southwestern Kentucky, and a request of $644M in the next highway reauthorization bill now before Congress.

When completed, I-69 will intersect the Audubon Parkway three miles southeast of Henderson putting Daviess County 15 miles from an Interstate. Three years ago, Chamber advocacy led to Congress designating the Audubon Parkway as a future I69 spur which will bring an Interstate and its economic development advantage to Owensboroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s western front door.

C-LINK and WKRCA have created a website about I-69 advocacy at buildi69ky.com.

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29

Transportation

Widening of Panama Canal Could Benefit Owensboro’s Ports

By Keith Lawrence

T

he $5.2 billion expansion of the Panama Canal, expected to be completed in 2014, “will fundamentally change world commerce,” the president of Kentuckians for Better Transportation said during a meeting in Owensboro in 2010.

Stan Lampe told the Green River Area Development District’s board of directors that in the past shipments from Asia were placed in containers, shipped to the West Coast and then sent by rail to the Midwest and East Coast.

But a new lane of traffic will be opened in the Panama Canal in four years with a new set of locks, which will double the canal’s capacity and allow more traffic and longer, wider ships.

“The Panama Canal is your friend,” Lampe said at the meeting at GRADD headquarters in Owensboro.

Cargo from Asia will then be able to pass through the canal and unload along the Gulf Coast onto smaller vessels that will take the containers up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, he said.

“This area of the state is prepared and ready for it,” Lampe said. “In Owensboro, you have both private and public ports. That’s a good thing. Container cargo is coming to your doorstep very soon. That’s nothing but good for you.”

“Anyone who waits until 2014 to start on this will probably be left behind,” Ed Riney, president of the Owensboro Riverport, said later.

The port has been discussing building a slackwater harbor – an inland channel for unloading barges – for a container cargo operation for several years.

Riney said the port has completed several studies on what it would need to do to build a slackwater harbor and where to do it. And a preliminary design of the harbor is in the works.

A slackwater harbor is likely to cost $20 million or more, Riney said. But such a har-

A barge moves downstream near the Owensboro Riverport.

Representatives from the Owensboro Riverport Authority, Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport and the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corporation are exploring ways to attract the logistics industry to take advantage of regional assets like the airport, CSX rail line and the Ohio River.

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bor could handle up to six barges at a time, rather than handling one barge at a time on the river.

The way the riverport envisions the system is barges could bring in containers and repackage the products there. Then, the repackaged product could be shipped by rail, truck or air.

Owensboro could become “a key intermodal hub for cargo,” Riney said in 2009.

“The potential of containers is very significant for economic development,” he said at the time.

KBT describes itself as a statewide trade group that provides education and advocacy for all modes of transportation.

“You can’t put all your money in one mode of transportation,” Lampe said. “You have to have rail, public transportation, air, water and streets, highways and bridges.”

Counties that are along parkways, interstates or have international airports have a per capita income that’s 56 percent higher than counties that don’t, he said.

Lampe praised the Chamber Leadership Initiative for Northwestern Kentucky – a coalition of 12 chambers of commerce in 10 counties working together on transportation issues – for their efforts to bring I-69 through western Kentucky.

“It’s paying off for you,” he said.

Lampe is optimistic that Congress will invest more money in transportation projects despite the budget deficit and the lagging economy.

Jerry Howard, owner of Howard Sign Co., applies an Owensboro Riverport vinyl decal to the side of a two million gallon storage tank for UAN, a solution of urea and ammonium nitrate in water used as a fertilizer.

It is one of three such tanks on the north side of the Riverport property off Rinaldo Road.

Ramp agent Jason Campbell of Owensboro directs an Allegiant Air MD-80 airplane as it taxis to Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport’s terminal after arriving from Orlando, Fla.

Owensboro is Flying High The Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport is an independent public airport governed by a 10 member board of directors composed of private citizens.

Allegiant Airlines provides non-stop service to Orlando Sanford International Airport. Flights are available every Sunday and Thursday and other flight days are added throughout the year.

Kentucky Skies provides service to Nashville International Airport with three flights daily every weekday and two flights daily on Saturday and Sunday.

After a recent expansion project, the airport is one of only three in the state with a runway at least 8,000 feet long

– in company with Greater Cincinnati (northern Kentucky) and Louisville.

The full length of the runway will be available for use once power lines are moved and a more sophisticated approach lighting system is installed.

That portion of the runway enhancement will cost $2 million to $3.5 million and will be paid primarily through the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program with the remainder coming from local and state funds.

The project is projected to be completed by fall 2011. Talks are underway with Allegiant Air to add flights to Las Vegas once the approach lighting system is in place.

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Agriculture Wes Poole scoops up 5-gallon buckets of cattle feed inside a storage bin at land he leases in Sythia. “I’m a young farmer, and I’m trying to get established,” Pope said. The University of Kentucky and area cooperative extension offices hosted “KyFarmStart” to help new farmers in the Owensboro region learn more about modern agriculture practices. Poole participated in the sessions.

Young Farmers are the Future of Daviess County

By Benjamin Hoak

I

n a state where more than half of the total land area is farmland, Daviess County ranked number one in farm cash receipts for crops in 2008, and number eight in total cash receipts (crops and livestock).

About 85,000 farms do business in Kentucky; the average farm size is 164 acres and the average age of principal farm operators is 56.5. About 1,000 of those farms are in Daviess County.

All that to say: agriculture in Daviess County is a big deal.

With farmers’ average age in the mid-50s, “we need skilled, young, interested people to come along and take over grain acres and pasture (and) continue to utilize land … for the economy,” says Clint Hardy, the Daviess County extension agent for agriculture and natural resources. “These farmers will not farm forever. Eventually they will retire or give up the acres they have rented.”

The good news, according to Hardy, is that Daviess County is home to a large

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group of eager young farmers ready to step into the gap. “There are young people farming on every road in the county,” he said.

The greater Owensboro area “provides a great off-farm income” while young farmers try to make their mark, Hardy said.

Because of the high cost of land and equipment, opportunities to break into the field are limited for those who are not already part of a farming family. Until they can make full-time farming viable, young farmers must often seek that off-farm employment to pay the bills and establish their household.

Wes Poole While Wes Poole is the fourth generation of his family to live on a 127-acre farm in eastern Daviess County, he is the first to turn it into a full-time calling – he raises 150 head of cattle and grows 30 acres of tobacco on his own land while farming a few hundred more acres in corn and soybeans for O w e n s b O r O

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several other landlords.

But full-time farming didn’t happen overnight – it was a gradual process that took a full 10 years.

Now 27 with a wife and young daughter, Poole says he “always wanted to farm.”

The land he grew up on had been a parttime farming operation since his grandfather found work in town after World War II. Poole’s father had a stroke when Poole was 15, so he was unable to farm, but as a high school junior, Poole began to run a few head of cattle and grow an acre of tobacco.

He also worked for Otis Craig and sons, a large farming operation in Maceo, through high school and for a year after graduation.

His time there taught him how to manage a farm.

“I’d always been around people doing it as a hobby,” he said. “(At Craig’s) I got a taste of doing it as a profit.”

From there, Poole joined Midwest Ag Systems in Reo, Ind., where he learned the mechanics and equipment of farming. He performed equipment maintenance in their

Wes Poole dumps a 5-gallon bucket of cattle feed into a trough. He was feeding his fall calving herd of beef cattle. “I also raise tobacco, soybeans and hay,” Poole said.

“It’s a great environment to raise a family in. Kids learn so much responsibility around a farm. The whole family is very involved. You’ve always got something to do – if you’re bored and you live on a farm, you’re lazy.” custom fabrication shop and gained a specialized knowledge of farm machinery and structures, including grain systems.

After three years, Poole wanted to branch out on his own, but between land and equipment, farming takes a “huge amount of capital.”

In order to gradually work full-time into the farming business, he started driving a tractor-trailer while he continued to farm on the side. “I saved up and paid cash for a truck, took that truck and made a good living with it,” he said.

He hauled everything from wood chips to steel for barges to aluminum ingots and much more.

Because he worked for himself, he had the flexibility to take days off and focus on farming if he needed to. The trucking business was sporadic, so during slow times Poole would hustle up more farming work.

He also saved his money and bought the farming equipment he needed one piece at a time.

After five years, he had picked up enough farming business that he couldn’t do both jobs at the same time. “I had to go one way

or the other,” he said. In March of 2010, Wes Poole became a full-time farmer.

“I like to be challenged,” he said. “Farming changes with the season, there’s nothing that is ordinary about it, nothing repetitive about it. There’s constantly a new situation to address, always a new problem to solve.”

Poole solved plenty of problems in just becoming a farmer.

Because he didn’t come from a largescale family operation with ready-made business, he had to build his reputation as an honest guy with a good work ethic so landlords or investors would trust him to work their land. “The hardest thing I’ve had to try to do is getting that name out there, finding the landlords to work with me, build that trust. Farming is political,” he said.

When Poole and his wife got married in 2008, her steady income made his transition to full-time farming “a whole lot easier,” he said.

She also keeps the books, and with an increased tobacco contract, a highly managed cattle operation (Poole raises purebred stock, bred heifers, commercial heifers and steers and heifers for a pre-conditioned O w e n s b O r O

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health program) and the several landlords he works for (if he farms 100 acres as a tenant, for example, the landlord’s fee might be 30 percent off the top), there’s a lot to keep up with.

For Poole, though, the challenges are worth every moment. “I’ve always liked to work and keep busy,” he says. “I love the fact that if any of my family needs me, I don’t have to worry about sick days or vacation days – I can be there for my family.”

He’s looking forward to raising his daughter and any future children on his farm.

“It’s a great environment to raise a family in,” he said. “Kids learn so much responsibility around a farm. The whole family is very involved. You’ve always got something to do – if you’re bored and you live on a farm, you’re lazy.”

Poole also sees farming as an economic driver. “I will hopefully be successful and create a business where my family can always have a means of work,” he said. “I will provide them opportunity. Tobacco, baling hay, driving a grain truck – they’re making all this opportunity.”

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Agriculture

Herschel Horn, left, with his son Tim, center, and grandson Jesse, right, on the family farm they run together on Ditto Road in eastern Daviess County.

Jesse Horn When 27-year old Jesse Horn rolls out of bed every morning, he’s not just on his way to farm 1,600 acres in eastern Daviess County. He’s meeting a basic need of humanity. “I consider it to be one of the most important jobs in the world,” he said. “Food is a basic need of humanity … it’s a basic building block of organized society.”

He sees his profession as not only a career, but a rewarding lifestyle. “It’s a special job, not one everybody can do,” he said. He calls the up-and-coming generation of farmers vital to the success of our country. “If we don’t have people willing to do this, we’ll pay huge amounts of money for food.”

United States citizens currently spend about 10 percent of their income on food – the lowest percentage in the world. “We have to foster the next generation of farmers or pay exorbitant amounts of income for imported food,” Horn said.

Horn is a third-generation Daviess County farmer. His grandfather started their farm between Philpot and Whitesville off Kentucky 54 in the 1950s. Now Horn and his father (with his grandfather still handling grain marketing and occasionally climbing on a combine or tractor) run the place with just a few seasonal laborers.

On both rolling hills and flat bottom land, they primarily grow corn and soybeans, along with a few acres of tobacco.

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“It’s a special job, not one everybody can do. If we don’t have people willing to do this, we’ll pay huge amounts of money for food.”

They’ve also cultivated a niche market of value-added crops – specialized products such as white corn, seed beans, high-oil corn and waxy corn that bring in extra money.

Horn grew up working on the farm and was a member of Future Farmers of America before he went to the University of Kentucky, where he majored in agricultural economics and farm business management.

Until his junior year, he planned on coming back to Daviess County to farm, but he decided to go see the world instead. And he did – not many Daviess County farmers can say they’ve played college rugby in Argentina.

After he graduated, Horn began working on a master’s degree in community and leadership development and spent several months in the former Soviet republic of Georgia working on a U.S. Department of Agriculture project promoting agricultural education and training for farmers.

Back in Lexington, he took a job as a non-profit administrator and then lost that job about a year later. At the same time, his dad lost his farmhand and needed help.

Horn reluctantly agreed to come home, but when he got here, “I just kind of fell O w e n s b O r O

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back in love with it,” he said. “I didn’t realize I had missed it.”

The time Horn spent gaining experience away from home was invaluable in helping his work relationship with his father to become more professional, he said.

And although there are sometimes tax issues with transferring a farm from one generation to the next, Horn knows he’s in a good spot. Without a family legacy of farming, the land, facilities and equipment it would be “extremely cost prohibitive to get involved in farming,” he said. “You have to take on an extreme amount of debt.”

Horn thinks farming is an honorable profession, even if it is not often seen as such. “It takes people who have an interest in working long hours, sacrificing personal freedoms at times,” he said.

Farming generates almost $140 million each year for Daviess County, and Horn doesn’t want the community to lose sight of how important the agricultural industry is to the county. He would like to see more farmers stepping into local organizations and leadership positions, although the nature of their job makes it difficult to commit to missing regular blocks of time on the farm.

Horn’s degree and his years growing up on a farm give him a good background for the farming business. And though he says classroom experiences don’t always translate well to the real world, he encourages young farmers to hit the books. “It (college) changes the way you learn about things,” he said. “It’s an overall growth of mind.”

The business side of farming takes up about three-fourths of his time, Horn said.

“It’s a tremendous amount of organization required.”

Crops from the Horn farm make their way to various corners of the earth. Horn doesn’t know where all of it ends up, but some likely stays in the area, while their white corn goes to the Gulf of Mexico area. For many years, they shipped corn to a mill in Japan that wanted a specific variety.

Horn also enjoys another advantage his grandfather could not have imagined – an online community of young farmers who are working their way into their careers together. They help each other with equipment repair questions and more as they keep up socially online.

Horn and his colleagues will be on the front lines of farming for years. “It’s more than just work,” he said. “It’s a very rewarding career.”

Jesse Horn digs a trench with a backhoe on the family farm in eastern Daviess County.

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Agriculture Matt Castlen Sometimes in life, you start out following one plan when another sneaks up and surprises you. Matt Castlen knows the feeling.

His dad was a farmer, so Castlen grew up with the business and worked for his dad for six years before deciding to strike out on his own at age 21.

Armed with a welding degree from Owensboro Community and Technical College – he started classes at 18 and did a lot of welding at night – he began a welding business to subsidize his farming operation.

“It’s hard to take off and just start farming from scratch,” he said. “You’ve got to have something to subsidize it because of the cost.”

To his surprise, Castlen’s plan worked the opposite of the way he intended. “It (welding) took off a lot more than we ever dreamed,” he said. “We’ve taken it and made more of a business out of it. Farming is more of a hobby – I do it on my own on the weekends.”

Castlen adapted to the change in direction and moved full speed ahead with Castlen Welding and Manufacturing in the Yelvington area. He employs seven people and focuses on agricultural welding, including custom loader attachments, in-shop repair services, portable welding, custom fabrication and sandblasting.

One of his specialties is producing grapples that attach to front-end loaders. A grapple is a claw-like implement that farmers can use to clean up trees and debris, especially from storms. “Most every farmer around here has got one,” Castlen said.

Variations on the grapple include the rock grapple, tile plow, stumper, excavator thumbs, tobacco bail squeezer, root rake and more. The company can manufacture grapples to fit any model of tractor or backhoe.

Castlen also builds hopper bottom grain trailers for transporting grain, and he builds and sets up grain systems, including grain storage bins and legs to hold them up.

While other businesses also build grain bin systems, Castlen believes he is the only one in the Owensboro area that constructs grapples and hopper bottoms. He also does custom fabrication work, including jobs for the military and a contract with the city of Owensboro.

“I really enjoy it,” he said. “It’s kind of a business that there’s not an end to.”

Now 24 with a wife and new baby, Castlen still farms about 400 acres of corn and beans. He likes farming because he says he gets to “work with good, honest people. I grew up with (it) all my life, I feel like I know it.”

He says it’s important for younger farmers to get involved and carry on legacies because farming is the “kind of business that’s recession-proof. People have to eat every day.”

Castlen is the past president of the Daviess County Kentucky Farm Bureau Young Farmers, a group that is an extension of Kentucky Farm Bureau. The current president is Kent Moore, who works for Miles Farm Supply; his job involves helping local farm-

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Castlen Welding & Manufacturing owner Matthew Castlen, left, and sales manager Alex Bryant weigh a grapple built by their company at the business off Saur Road in eastern Daviess County.

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ers get the maximum potential yield from their ground through use of best practices with seeds, herbicides and fertilizer.

Moore said the Young Farmers organization has a core group of about 10 families.

They’re looking to expand as they attempt

to change the focus from a social group that meets once a month to an organization that offers valuable services to members, such as speakers who give advice on various aspects of running a small business.

As part of Kentucky Farm Bureau, Moore said young farmers across the state are very active in the development of policies that affect agriculture. “All policy is from the ground up,” he said, adding that lobbying positions truly do come from local farming groups.

Moore moved to Daviess County four years ago for his job and he still operates a small farm in Butler County on the weekends. His holdings include a cow-calf operation and a small corn and soybean crop.

“I have been so impressed with the group we have in Daviess County,” Moore said. “They could do something else and probably make more money and not work as hard, but that’s not what they want to do.”

Moore said many young farmers like Matt Castlen are diversifying their operations by adding a sideline business or growing specialty crops such as pumpkins or watermelons that they can sell to customers directly, rather than just selling grain as a commodity.

“These young farmers are the future of what we do,” he said. “The world population is growing – it’s up to America to feed them.”

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37

Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurs

Phillip Crabtree, left, and his father Phill Crabtree reset a computer operated system in the manufacturing area.

Raising the Bar Local innovator moves entire industry forward 67-year old cabinetmaker from Pennsylvania who has been in business since 1971 called Phillip Crabtree of Phill’s Custom Cabinets in Owensboro.

“What you’ve done has completely revolutionized my cabinet shop,” he said. “We’ve gone from (probable) bankruptcy next year to a 25 or 30 percent margin.”

Cabinotch, a patent-pending computerized cabinet-building system developed

by Crabtree and his father, Phill Crabtree, over the last five years, is the kind of product that’s going to produce many more such phone calls. In August, the International Woodworking Fair (IWF) awarded Cabinotch its 2010 Challengers Award – one of the industry’s highest honors.

“It’s like an Olympic swimmer winning the gold,” Crabtree said. “These aren’t given to small guys. Companies spend millions

(trying to win).”

Cabinotch produces pre-cut custom cabinets at high speed and low prices without sacrificing quality. Crabtree credits his father, an expert millwright who started the company 36 years ago, with the success as well. “He’s just as much part of it as me,” he said. “Dad and I worked all of it together.”

The company began the IWF Challengers award application process in April and was named one of 22 finalists in June. Presented every two years, the award challenges companies to use technology to move the woodworking industry forward.

After a 15-minute final presentation at the IWF in August – the fair included more than 950 exhibiting companies and judges from all over the world – Phill’s Custom Cabinets was named one of seven winners, marking the first time that a first-time exhibitor has won the award. Six of the eight judges told Crabtree that Cabinotch was

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By Benjamin Hoak

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the most innovative product they had ever seen.

As a result of the award and its publicity – publications around the world will be writing about the Challenger awards – Crabtree is anticipating an increase in business. The company is already getting calls and they’ve invested in more equipment to accommodate the demand. He expects newly-created jobs to soon follow.

How Cabinotch works:

Custom cabinet-makers enter their cabinet height, width and depth specifications to the thousandth of an inch at Cabinotch’s website, www.cabinotch.com. The system’s software automatically programs equipment in the Crabtree’s shop to cut the cabinet elements to those exact specifications.

The pieces are then delivered flat-stacked to the client’s shop, where the ingenious interlocking design lets the cabinetmakers form

Tim Payne, master finisher for Phill’s Custom Cabinets, moves a loaded drying rack in the production area.

the cabinet boxes in a matter of minutes.

Customers building custom pieces can then add their own doors, finish and trim.

The process is faster and less expensive than if cabinet makers built their own cabinet boxes by hand. It’s also more efficient – instead of cutting sheet after sheet of plywood by hand to get exact dimensions, Cabinotch produces minimal waste. Because of its precise measurements and machinery that can cut to 1/20 of the thickness of a human hair, scrap pieces from 10 Cabinotch kitchens would only fill a 5-gallon bucket, Crabtree said.

The company’s YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/cabinotch) shows several videos of Crabtree demonstrating how Cabinotch cabinets work. In one time-lapse video, Crabtree and an employee assemble and install 13 cabinets – an entire kitchen’s worth – in just 49 minutes.

Crabtree said his ability to conceive and produce the process goes back to high school. “I learned more in three years with Mr. Green at Apollo High School in tech

lab … than in all four years of college,” he said. “It’s just priceless to me to have (that) training.”

Crabtree dreamed up the basic Cabinotch premise while laying laminate flooring at night to pay for his college education at the University of Kentucky. “If laminate flooring could be clicked together, I thought

“It’s like an Olympic swimmer winning the gold,” Crabtree said. “These aren’t given to small guys.

Companies spend millions (trying to win).” machinery could do it for cabinets,” he said.

After he earned his degree in management and marketing, he came back to join his father’s company on Kentucky 81 in O w e n s b o r o

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Owensboro. “We’ve got 23 of the best employees in the country,” he said. “It’s a rocksolid company built on strong Christian principles. We don’t just have employees.

We have family.”

Phill Crabtree started his company in his garage in 1975. Since then, the company has relocated eight times and now serves an area from Indianapolis to Nashville, with shipping available to any location across the country. The company produces custom cabinets, bookcases, desks and built-ins.

The word “custom” conjures up images of high prices, but Phillip Crabtree said their process allows them to build pieces so quickly that they can beat a quote on a custom kitchen from Lowes or Home Depot by 10 percent.

He is still amazed they actually won the award, even though he was confident in their idea. “For a little guy from Owensboro to come in and win is incredible – the global impact that we could have from Owensboro.”

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WELCOME to the

Neighborhood Owensboroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historic Griffith Avenue neighborhood is located in the heart of Owensboro. Most homes sit back from the street on oversized lots with mature trees. Children in the area are in the Owensboro Public Schools and attend Sutton Elementary School, the Owensboro 5/6 Center, Owensboro 7/8 Center and Owensboro High School.

W

ith all the southern charm of a small town, Owensboro delights residents and visitors with the many benefits of a larger city. As the third largest city in Kentucky, Owensboro offers a wide variety of living, dining, shopping and entertainment options. And with the U.S. 60 Bypass connecting the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s four corners, everything is literally only 15 minutes away.

The friendliness of the community permeates its neighborhoods as residents greet each other, providing a sense of familiarity and comfort. Part of the Owensboro charm is the variety of housing options for families of any size. The many neighborhoods in Owensboro offer safety and beauty, and are largely unaffected by national real estate trends. Parks, pools, walking and biking trails and tennis courts are common in neighborhoods.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2009 American Community Survey, there are 50,942 total housing units in greater Owensboro. Of these, 5,545 units are vacant and available for purchase.

The median home value is $105,700, but total home values range from less than $50,000 to $1 million or more. There are 30,676 owner-occupied homes in the area.

There are 14,721 individuals paying rent in the Owensboro area. They pay a median $606 per month, with prices ranging from $200 to $1,500.

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Listed in the National Register of Historic Places since March 28, 1986, the J.Z. Moore Historic District features many restored historic homes. The neighborhood is in the heart of the city â&#x20AC;&#x201C; bounded north and south by 12th and 14th Streets and bounded east and west by Daviess and St. Ann Streets. The homes feature Late Victorian and Classic Revival architecture built between 1875 and 1924.

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From design to detail…

• At Martin Custom Building, we insist on quality • We revere thoughtful design • We are uncompromising in our specifications and selections • We demand superior workmanship at all times • Lots available in Creek Haven, Hunters Ridge, and Lake Forest or we will build on your lot!

• We offer: ~ Custom home developments ~ In-house drafting and design ~ A counselor to guide you in selections, budget and financing ~ An experienced job superintendent ~ Walk-thru inspections ~ A custom service program ~ A true custom home with a unique design in floor plans, elevations, kitchens, baths, moulding, stairways and much more

…experience the difference for yourself!

Building In: Hunters Ridge Lake Forest Creek Haven 4

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Mike & Bruce Martin (270) 926-2060

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Lake Forest

In Lake Forest, residents are just minutes from a wide variety of dining, entertainment and shopping options. Students in the neighborhood attend Daviess County Public Schools starting with Highland Elementary School, then Daviess County Middle School and Daviess County High School.

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Whether you choose from one of Jagoe’s hundreds of floor plans or design something uniquely your own, Jagoe will build your home where YOU want. Find your own lot, or let Jagoe show you sites that match your vision.

Customize your new ENERGY STAR home with the help of Jagoe Home’s full-time architect and design team!

Jagoe Homes are among the most beautiful, yet sensible homes in the Tri-State today!

To find out more, please contact a Jagoe New Homes Consultant, visit any of our Model Home locations, or find us online.

www.jagoehomes.com 44 1-800-264-4663

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Heartlands The

The Heartland includes 12 distinct neighborhoods along wide boulevards on the east side of Owensboro. Walking and biking trails, a series of pocket parks and a mini playground are some of the unique features available to residents. The communities in the Heartland subdivision offer home prices from $90,000 to $500,000. The well-lit streets and biking and walking trails in the neighborhood offer easy access to the Adkisson Greenbelt trail around Owensboro. Students in Heartland attend Daviess County Public Schools starting at Highland Elementary School, then moving on to Daviess County Middle School and Daviess County High School.

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BUY – BUILD – REMODEL Choose A Registered Builder & Remodelor Professionalism. Reliability. Peace of Mind. Don’t Accept Less.

Home Builders Association of Owensboro 3515 Wathens Crossing (270) 688-0353 www.HBAO.com

Country Club & Estates

Western Kentucky’s Premier Golf Course The Homes. The Life. The Style.

270.281.4653 www.summitky.com

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Summit The

The Summit is a family golf community in east Daviess County which has been providing a unique lifestyle for residents since 1993. Community amenities include a world-class golf course, clubhouse, swimming pool, exercise room and tennis courts. Neighorhood children attend nearby Eastview Elementary School, then Daviess County Middle School and Daviess County High School.

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Sycamore Square

We’re A Full Service Company!

• Accredited Relocation Program • • Property Management • • Commercial/Lots • • Auction Team • • Residential • • Farms •

We make selling your home a lot less complicated.

To sell your home, you'll need more than yard signs and advertisements. You need a Sales Associate who will work as your Trusted Advisor, Skilled Negotiator and Expert Facilitator ®.

Your Real Living Home Realty Sales Associate can help you sell your home more quickly and easily.

Call us and we’ll put Premier Service® to work for you!

270.684.6221

3424 Frederica St. Owensboro, KY 42301

www.RealLivingHomeRealty.com

Service You Deserve. People You Trust®

Uniqueness To Suit Your Taste

• Plumbing and Lighting Fixtures • Lamps • Ceiling Fans • Mirrors • Oil Paintings • Art • And Much More Your Local Lighting & Plumbing Partner Serving the Plumber Since 1996

331 Leitchfield Rd. • 691-6040 48

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Sycamore Square Condominium Community is located in downtown Owensboro on the banks of the Ohio River.

This community offers a quiet, maintenance-free lifestyle.

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Moving In If you are new to Owensboro or Daviess County, here is some information to help you get moved in.

ELECTRIC Owensboro Residents Owensboro Municipal Utilities 2070 Tamarack Road Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 926-3200 omu.org Daviess County Residents Kenergy 3111 Fairview Drive (270) 926-4141 kenergycorp.com WATER Owensboro Residents Owensboro Municipal Utilities Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 926-3200 omu.org

Daviess County Residents Southeast Daviess County Water District (270) 685-5594 or East Daviess County Water Association (270) 281-5187 NATURAL GAS Atmos Energy 2401 New Hartford Road Owensboro, KY 42302 1-888-954-4321 atmosenergy.com

BROADBAND Broadband services are available from a variety of sources. High-speed Internet, including cable modem, DSL and wireless are available throughout Owensboro and some county locations. Here are a few of the many providers.

Norlight 1-877-472-3341 or norlight.com

SEWER Regional Water Resource Agency 1722 Pleasant Valley Road Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 687-8440 rwra.org

Time Warner (270) 852-2000 AT&T www.bellsouth.com/DSL

Serving a community means being a part of it.

AT BB&T, WE SEE BANKING AS MORE THAN JUST BUSINESS. It’s about the very life of a community. A working commitment to the prosperity of our neighbors, friends, and families. So whether you’re seeking personal fi nance expertise, or financial business planning, come to BB&T. We invest in people.

Visit any of our conveniently located branches in Owensboro, Whitesville or Calhoun, or call us at 270-926-3232.

B A N K I N G

I N S U R A N C E

I N V E S T M E N T S

BBT. Member FDIC. Only deposit products are FDIC insured. BBT.com. © 2009 BB&T.

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Covington Ridge Covington Ridge is a community nestled in the country just west of Owensboro. Students in the neighborhood attend Daviess County Public Schools starting with Audubon Elementary School, then College View Middle School and Apollo High School.

TELEPHONE AT&T Residential service toll-free in Kentucky: 1-877-757-6500 Residential service toll-free outside Kentucky: 1-800-477-4459 Business service toll-free in Kentucky: 1-866-620-6000 Business service toll-free outside Kentucky: 1-800-947-8398

NEWSPAPER Daily local news for the greater Owensboro area is provided by the Messenger-Inquirer. Call (270) 926-0123 to have the print edition delivered daily, or log on to www.messenger-inquirer.com to subscribe to the online edition.

CABLE TELEVISION Time Warner Cable 100 Industrial Boulevard Owensboro, KY 42301 1-888-683-1000 O w e n s b O r O

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Education

Educating the “Whole Child” Extends Beyond Academics Owensboro Public Schools have created a digital curriculum team to produce digital lessons. This futuristic approach to teaching ensures a significant emphasis on use of technology in classrooms across the district.

By Dr. Larry D. Vick

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wensboro Public Schools strive to educate the “whole child” so that every student has the opportunity to reach his or her full potential and be successful in a global society.

Owensboro Public Schools officials believe that a balanced education that incorporates academics, the arts, essential skills and extracurricular opportunities will provide students with the foundation they need to be successful.

As a way to monitor achievement, student growth in areas of math, reading and language usage is measured through the Measures of Academic Progress testing system so that individual student progress is routinely monitored.

A key to meaningful instruction is tailoring individual instruction to this data and our schools are doing just that.

Our elementary schools (K-4) are among the highest performing on state assessments.

Many enrichment opportunities are provided to students. For example, arts education begins early.

The nationally recognized OPS Instructional League for elementary students encourages physical activities intended to help establish a healthy lifestyle from an early age. And students can participate on school

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academic teams as early as 4th grade.

To help ensure continued success as students enter intermediate grades, all 5th-8th graders attend Owensboro Middle School.

Although the 5th and 6th graders and the 7th and 8th graders are housed in separate buildings, counselors and teachers work together to align curriculum and to smooth the transition for students through those grades.

Middle school students have the opportunity to participate in instrumental and choral music, drama, team athletics, academic competitions and other clubs and organizations.

Owensboro High School has a long tradition of excellence ranging from academics and the arts to athletics.

In July 2010, the district completed a $23 million fine arts/gym expansion to OHS which includes state-of-the–art music and drama facilities that rival professional venues.

Music students have access to Wenger practice rooms that allow them to record and immediately hear what they would sound like in venues ranging from a small room to a concert hall.

The new 2,500-seat gym and physical education facilities house an athletic program that has 29 state championships to its credit.

The high school offers approximately 20 Advanced Placement courses each year. The quality of education OPS students receive has resulted in Owensboro High School be-

OPS QUICK FACTS OPS enrollment – approximately 4,400 students Hager Preschool serves at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds Elementary schools (grades P-4) – 5 Middle schools (grades 5-8) – 2 campuses Traditional high schools (grades 9-12) – 1 Alternative schools (grades 6-12) – 1 For more information visit owensboro.kyschools.us O w e n s b O r O

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Elementary students are exposed to a variety of music experienced such as playing hand bells during their choral music classes.

ing selected among the “Best High Schools 2008 and 2009” by U.S. News and World Report.

OHS Principal Anita Burnette was named Kentucky High School Principal of the Year for 2010.

Computer technology is an integral part of the curriculum with the Internet and instructional software used in grades K-12 as well as at Hager Preschool.

The district is taking a cutting-edge approach to creating a digital curriculum that can be used by all teachers.

Our futuristic digital curriculum team is not only creating digital lessons but also helping teachers keep abreast of new technology being introduced into their classrooms. This approach brings new depth to already excellent instructional initiatives.

Our schools are creating an environment in which teachers and students are becoming more proficient in using a wide variety of tools to enhance learning, problem solving, communication, collaboration, productivity and creativity.

OPS schools are among the outstanding instructional leaders in Kentucky. Hager Preschool for at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds has been designated as one of two Kentucky Department of Education Early Childhood Centers of Excellence. Sutton Elementary School is one of two Kentucky schools to be selected as National Title I Distinguished School for 2010.

The district serves a diverse student population and works diligently to meet the needs of every child whether academically advanced or academically challenged.

Teachers and staff are committed to continuing to align curriculum to national standards and to provide the education necessary for today’s students to be successful as they graduate from Owensboro Public Schools.

Dr. Larry D. Vick is Superintendent of the Owensboro Public Schools

Wenger practice rooms are equipped to record students playing or singing and allow them to apply a variety of venue sounds such as a concert hall. As students play back what has been recorded, they know how they will sound on stage.

Owensboro Public Schools A Tradition of Excellence

visit us online at: www.owensboro.kyschools.us 1335 W. 11th Street, Owensboro, KY • Phone 686-1000 O w e n s b O r O

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Education

Changing the Face of Education

West Louisville Elementary School’s Ryan Ash, in white, waves his small American flag during the school’s eighth annual Veterans Day celebration.

By Tom Shelton

T

he mission of the Daviess County Public Schools district is to prepare students to succeed for life — REAL

life.

DCPS has accepted the challenge and responsibility of preparing students to successfully meet the expectations of college and career. Skills that have been identified as crucial for success include critical thinking, teamwork, problem solving and communication. Our focus on these skills begins with our youngest children, and continues throughout our students’ academic careers.

Our strategy for achieving these goals includes an emphasis on the “new” Three R’s – Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships – which we believe form the foundation of teaching and learning.

Rigor What is rigor? First, it is important to understand what rigor is not. Rigor is not correctly defined as “hard” or “more homework” or “more questions on a worksheet.”

A rigorous classroom is one in which students are challenged to think, and to consider how they will apply, assess or com-

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municate what they are learning. In a truly rigorous environment, students clearly understand how good their work is, and explore ways to improve their work.

DCPS is designing and delivering rigorous instruction by: • Focused instruction challenges and high expectations for each student.

• Asking high-level questions.

• Addressing critical thinking/communications/problem solving skills.

Relevance We are living in a revolutionary, evolutionary time. The world – and our students – have changed and are continuing to change at an ever-more-rapid pace.

Our students live in a world of instant information. Kids today demand relevance; they ask, “Why do I need to know this?”

That’s a good question, and it demands an appropriate response. DCPS has stepped up to meet that challenge!

DCPS provides relevance by: • Making meaningful cross-curricular or “real world” connections • Providing opportunities for content application based on student interest or choice (differentiation) • Explaining the purpose for learning (why)

Relationships As the third element of the “new” Three

DCPS QUICK FACTS DCPS enrollment – 11,490 students in grades P-12 Elementary schools (grades P-5) – 12 Middle schools (grades 6-8) – 3 Traditional high schools (grades 9-12) – 2 Non-traditional high schools (grades 9-12) – 1 For more information visit dcps.org or e-mail contact@dcps.org O w e n s b O r O

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Volunteer Emily Castlen, left, with the Daviess County High School Future Farmers of America, gives East View Elementary School students, from right, Houston Martin and Tyler Orth, both 8, a chance to feel the suction of a milking machine during Agriculture Day at the school off Kentucky 405 in Thruston.

West Louisville Elementary School kindergarten teacher Stacy Payne, right, greets Hanna Rafferty as her mother, Ronda Rafferty, watches on the first day of classes for Daviess County Public Schools.

Highland Elementary School fifth grader Morgan Shreve, 10, takes aim with an Olympic style compound bow during a practice session in the school gym. Smiling, Shreve said she hit a bulls eye on her second attempt. The two-week program included safety instructions.

R’s, DCPS is focused on developing relationships that foster a mutually caring, respectful and positive environment.

The main goal is to strengthen the following relationships: Teacher-Teacher …

Teacher-Student … Student-Student …

Family-School … Community-School The DCPS Board of Education has adopted four overarching goals, from which all annual goals are developed: 1) DCPS students will show continuous improvement on state and district measures of achievement in order to demonstrate that they are prepared to succeed for life.

2) All DCPS students will be involved in an extra/co-curricular activity that will provide a meaningful, relevant connection with their education experiences.

3) Parent and community involvement opportunities will be expanded and created to support the DCPS learning community.

4) Professional development activities for faculty and support staff will be designed and supported in order to provide a broad range of educational approaches and support services necessary for staff to ensure quality instruction and meet the individual needs of our students.

Tom Shelton is the Superintendent of Daviess County Public Schools.

Daviess County Public Schools “Preparing Students To Succeed For Life” 1622 Southeastern Parkway P.O. Box 21510 Owensboro KY 42304-1510

Developing ... Challenging ...

Visit us online: www.dcps.org Preparing ... SUCCEEDING! For information about DCPS: (270) 852-7000 or contact@dcps.org O w e n s b O r O

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Education

Aidan Cardona, 15, right, spins the combination lock on a locker at Owensboro Catholic High School. After a few attempts Cardona was able to open his locker and put away some of his belongings before reporting to the first class of his freshman year at the high school.

Bringing Faith to Education he Owensboro Catholic Schools are committed to instilling values, morals and proper attitudes.

Owensboro Catholic upholds a standard of order and discipline to teach students responsibility, accountability and respect.

Students are prepared for life in this world and in Eternity with the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church.

Integrating the Catholic Faith and Traditions are part of every aspect of OCS. The Owensboro Catholic Schools focus on four pillars – Daily Faith Formation, Academic Excellence, Championship Caliber Athletics and Award Winning Extracurricular Activities.

Faith formation includes many activities in addition to coursework. Activities include weekly mass, sacramental preparation, service projects and grade level prayer days and days of recollection.

OCS exceeds the average composite scores at the regional, state and national levels on nationally-normed standardized tests.

The Owensboro Catholic High School

Class of 2010 scored an average ACT composite score of 22.6, exceeding national and state averages and a tie of the highest score in OCHS history. This was the first class in OCHS history to have 100 percent of the students taking the ACT test.

Keeping up with best practices, current research and continuous improvement is fundamental for a successful curriculum for all students.

For the K-6 grade levels, a new computer based reading program was initiated from a generous private donation. The Lexia Reading program assists students with general reading and comprehension.

The athletic program through OCS develops God-given talents in leadership and self-discipline, work ethic, drive and determination.

The Boys Cross Country team perfect pointed for the Regional title and placed sdecond in the State meet. The 3rd Region Girls Basketball Player of the Year honor went to an OCHS Lady Aces team member.

The Fast Pitch Softball team continues to be the most winning program in the state, earning its 10th straight Regional Title. Our

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By Karen Gross

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athletes continue to earn accolades at the local, regional and state levels.

Extra-curricular activities give students countless opportunities to share their gifts and talents. The OCS Academic teams are very competitive at the regional and the state level.

The National Honor Society was named the Outstanding Chapter in the State and earned top honors of Outstanding Service Project, both for the second year in a row.

The Marching Aces earned 7th place in the state with the program, “The Great Ice Age.” The Owensboro Catholic Schools have led the way in communication with students, families and the general public.

Schools utilize Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a podcast for general information and updated news. Most recently, OCS released a free App for download available on the iTunes store.

Enrollment at the opening of the 2010 school year for K-12 totaled 1285. This was an increase over the start of the 2009 school year.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS Heritage Christian School Pre-school to 8th grade 3585 Thruston-Dermont Rd. Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 685-4002 www.hbcowensboro.org/school

Third-grader Logan Corn, 9, makes a robot with ZOOB!, a mind-building model system, at St. Maximilian Montessori Academy. “You can build your own stuff,” he said. “It’s like Legos.”

Majesty Academy Kindergarten to 12th grade 2600 New Hartford Rd. Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 926-9014

Maximilian Montessori Academy and Triplett High School Pre-school to 12th grade 801 Old Hartford Rd. Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 683-8814 www.max-academy.org www.triplettschool.org

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Postsecondary Education Esteban Caracciolo, right, with Production Resource Group (PRG), demonstrates the features of an automated lighting system for a dozen theatre students in a “Fundamentals of Production” class at the RiverPark Center. PRG has donated state-of-the-art lighting equipment to help train students in the skills they’ll need when they graduate from the joint theatre arts degree program offered by three local colleges and the RiverPark Center.

Collaboration Creates More Education Options ne of the many advantages of small town living is the value placed on education.

The city of Owensboro has several institutions for obtaining a postsecondary degree or certificate, each with many options.

One of these is an innovative Theater Arts curriculum that is a unique partnership between public and private educational institutions, a non-profit arts organization and a manufacturing company.

Brescia University, Kentucky Wesleyan College and Owensboro Community and Technical College have joined forces with Owensboro’s RiverPark Center and a company called Production Resource Group (PRG) to create a program that gives a hands-on approach to learning about the creative and technical aspects of theater.

Through the program, students learn while working with some of today’s entertainment industry leaders.

KWC and Brescia both offer a bachelor’s level degree in theater arts while OCTC offers certificates related to theater arts.

“It’s a matter of sharing resources,” said Rev. Larry Hostetter, president of Brescia University. “It would be difficult for any one of us to reproduce the resources that the RiverPark can afford. But together, we can work with the RiverPark Center and share professors and other resources.”

Students in the program take a majority of their courses at the school they are enrolled in, but they are also able to take

courses at the other institutions to fulfill their degree requirements. Some of the courses offered through the program include Production Basics and History of Drama.

Master Classes, taught by industry professionals have also been offered. The first, led by Lee Goldberg, a television producer and writer whose credits include, “Monk”, “Diagnosis Murder” and “The Glades.” Goldberg’s class was about movie making, with a different workshop held on each campus.

The Cambridge Players, from England, put on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and the actors held workshops on each campus.

The corporate partner in the collaboration, Production Resource Group, is a supplier of entertainment and event technology to a wide range of markets, including corporate and automotive events, concerts, special events, theater, television and film, trade shows, theme parks, museums, retail stores and performing arts centers.

So far, PRG has donated $500,000 in state-of-the-art equipment to the RiverPark Center for the program. And PRG has an internship program in the entertainment technology industry.

“Over this year and into the next, we anticipate that participation from a wide variety of students will increase as well as more theater arts majors,” said Cheryl King, president of KWC. “We think it’s unique in that students will be able to work directly with the RiverPark Center,” said Hostetter. “Our students will be able to get involved in musicals and

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By Tina Forrest

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plays that are professionally produced, with professional actors, designers and technicians. All of those things are going to afford them a distinct advantage when they go out into the world of theater because they will have the correct experience.”

When Dr. Jim Klauber, newly appointed president of Owensboro Community and Technical College heard about the new 12-hour certificate in theater arts, he said he found it “very refreshing.” Klauber said that OCTC will offer more of the technical courses involved in theater, but through the partnership, their students will be able to take advantage of courses from KWC and Brescia.

“It demonstrates the importance of collaboration between entities and it’s particularly important because often you see collaborative efforts among public institutions.

It’s even better when you’re able to have collaborations between a public two-year institution and two private four-year institutions,” said Klauber.

“All of us encourage education, and we all live in a world with declining revenues and the ability to work together and not duplicate services is the wave of the future and that is the way we are going to have to operate going forward and it’s a very positive thing.”

“There’s strength in partnerships,” said King. “It allows our students to study with faculty from various institutions as well as have the applied learning opportunities through the RiverPark Center.

“It also benefits our community in that

Western Kentucky University President Gary Ransdell, front left, laughs as he talks with people after the dedication service of the new WKU-Owensboro campus at 4821 New Hartford Road. The new building is the first of five in a master plan for the Owensboro campus.

we’re able to utilize resources from the colleges, universities and RiverPark Center so we have more rather than less – by working together and making sure we are not duplicating services.”

Even though the program is still new, RiverPark Center’s president and CEO Zev Buffman is already looking ahead to what it can become in the future. The proposed move of the International Bluegrass Music Museum from its current home in the Riv-

erPark Center opens possibilities for a centralized location for an Arts Academy.

And there is talk of affordable housing being provided downtown in the future – near the RiverPark Center – for students and faculty involved in the program.

Buffman said this new degree program, as well as many other new developments, are all part of a growing downtown. “And a young new downtown is a healthy downtown,” Buffman said.

Senior Jessica Smith of Beechmont prepares to clean the needle to run a test on a liquid compound during an instrument analysis lab at Kentucky Wesleyan College’s Yu Hak Hahn Science Building.

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Postsecondary Education

Educating the Region

Senior Amber Krampe solders her stained-glass work for her advanced stained glass class at Brescia University’s Administration Building. “It’s just a real simple piece,” Krampe said. “It’s a Mother’s Day gift for a friend’s mom.”

Kentucky Wesleyan College

Small liberal arts college or large university?

Andrew Johannemann ’10 tried a large university first and then found a home at Wesleyan.

“With strong academic programs backed by personal attention and guidance from my professors, KWC was the perfect fit.”

Today he’s a hands-on researcher at the high-tech Owensboro Cancer Research Program. Tomorrow . . . medical school and a bright future.

A World of Possibilities 60

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kwc.edu 2 0 1 1

1-800-999-0592

Owensboro Community and Technical College

Owensboro Community and Technical College is a public, two-year community and technical college and one of 16 colleges that make up the Kentucky Community & Technical College System (KCTCS).

In 2009, OCTC had an enrollment of more than 6,000 students.

OCTC awards associate degrees, diplomas and certificates in a variety of disciplines. For students wishing to attain a bachelor’s degree or higher, OCTC has agreements with Kentucky’s public institutions, as well as many private colleges and universities, to ensure seamless credit transfer for an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree.

For more information visit octc.kctcs.edu.

Kentucky Wesleyan College

Kentucky Wesleyan College is a private four-year liberal arts institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church. In 2009, KWC enrolled 834 students from 23 states and eight foreign countries.

KWC students participate in over 40 campus organizations, and more than 25 percent of all students take part in campus ministries.

More than 90 percent of KWC graduates who apply to colleges of law, medicine, dentistry, optometry and pharmacy are accepted for admission. For information visit kwc.edu.

Western Kentucky University - Owensboro

Western Kentucky University - Owensboro primarily offers bachelor’s degree opportunities through 2+2 programs and completion degrees. Students take two years of classes at a Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) school or other college and then take their junior and senior years of classes at WKU–O. WKU-O also offers masters level courses.

WKU-O faculty teach classes either face–to–face or via distance learning (online or IVS). For information call (270) 6849797 or visit wku.edu/owensboro.

Brescia University

Brescia University, a Roman Catholic affiliated institution, was founded in Owensboro in 1950. Brescia began operating as a four-year College in 1951 and earned university status in 1998.

Brescia offers individualized attention to educational and spiritual needs to produce servant leaders who take what they learn into the community in the spirit and example of Jesus Christ. The university offers associate level, bachelor level and master level degrees and certificates.

Brescia’s current enrollment is more than 600 students. For more information visit brescia.edu.

Senior Chris Sandage, 26, left, uses a milling machine to square a grinding block while sophomore Deron Storm, 20, of Maceo knocks off the burs on his block with a file during advanced industrial machine class at Owensboro Community and Technical College’s Advanced Technology Center.

Daymar College

Daymar College has been providing career training since 1963. Professional faculty bring real-world experience to the classroom to provide each student with the quality instruction needed to be successful on the job and in life.

By utilizing hands-on training methods, discussions, practical exercises and on-thejob training, Daymar programs are tailored to complement each individual learning style. For more information call 1-877-2587796 or visit daymarcollege.edu.

Explore the Brescia Difference.

Offering more than 40 degrees through on-campus and on-line formats.

Recently added: Online Associate Degrees in Business, Liberal Arts and Human Services.

717 Frederica Street, Owensboro, KY 42301 1-877-BRESCIA www.brescia.edu O w e n s b O r O

Chelsie McCaslin ’10

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Small Business

Kate Higdon, owner of Captured Moments Photography with her husband Jason, accepted her Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Award from Tammy Maglinger, the Chamber’s small business task force chair, and Suzanne Northern Blazar, Chamber board chair. Higdon won in the category for businesses with 10 employees or less.

Small Business Surviving – and Thriving ust over six years ago, Kate and Jason Higdon were an average American family with two working parents and two small children.

Jason was commuting to full-time work in Henderson as a tool engineer specializing in plastic injection molds and Kate, who has a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of

Southern Indiana, was the executive director of PRIDE (Public Responsibility In Designing Environment) of Owensboro who yearned to spend more time with her kids.

The simple gift of a high quality camera changed everything for the couple, and put into motion a series of events that finds them the owners of Owensboro’s Captured Moments Photography and the recipient of the Greater Owensboro

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Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year award for a business their size.

Jason Higdon had long listed photography as a hobby of his, but it was the photos his wife captured of their children that caught the eye of other moms when Kate would visit a local scrapbooking store with her photos in tow.

Soon, people were asking Kate to take pictures of their children.

She quickly found herself doing lots of

photo sessions based solely on word-ofmouth. “At first, it was part-time to earn money so that I could stay home with my children,” recalls Kate Higdon, “but Jason and I had always wanted to own our own business and we have a hard time doing anything part time.”

In January 2005, the Higdons applied for and received their business license.

As their business took off, Jason Higdon was still commuting to Henderson, working a full day, and then coming home to do hours of studio work on the computer.

The three hours of sleep he was getting a night weren’t cutting it.

He soon quit his job. “We simply had no idea it would grow so fast,” said Kate Higdon of Captured Moments’ success. “If you’d told me we’d be in a 4,600 square foot studio in less than five years, I’d have said you were crazy.”

Captured Moments moved into a sunny new studio on Old Hartford Road in October 2010.

The couple basically gutted the building, a former private school, to accommodate their studio needs and serve as a home away from home to them and their children.

Technically, the studio and business office are open Tuesday through Saturday, but the couple find themselves – and consequently their children – there much more often.

For that reason, Kate Higdon reveals, “we have a full kitchen, a toy room, a place to do homework and are thinking of even adding a shower.”

Children of the four other employees are also welcome when needed. “Flexibility is a huge benefit for our employees” agree Jason and Kate.

For customers, the new studio offers more options for portrait backgrounds.

The Higdons are planning an outdoor portrait park on the property, which will include a variety of fenced in settings such as a fishing dock, an arbor, a water feature and more.

“The majority of our work is studio work, but we love to go to family properties to create even more meaningful portraits,” said Kate.

One of the most difficult lessons the couple learned in establishing their photography business was to not “be all things to all people,” said Jason Higdon.

Luckily, a mentor advised the couple to find a niche. For Captured Moments, that niche is portrait photography.

“Portrait photography is not necessarily reality,” explains Jason Higdon. “It’s a perception of reality.”

His wife agrees, adding, “People want

to look their best and when they come here, the know they’ll get the best image of themselves.”

The studio is also known for it’s photo sessions for high school seniors, which most often have Jason behind the lens, and its newborn sessions, which Kate loves to photograph.

The Higdons are proud of their memberships in various professional organizations and associations. The couple agree that the “most important step (we) took was to join those.”

Kate Higdon recently accepted a position on the board of directors of the Kentucky Professional Photographers As-

Inside

Instyle

sociation The couple invest each year in workshops and photography education and attend conferences where they meet with nationally and internationally known photographers.

“You really need to spend time with other owners in the business,” Kate says, adding that “nine out of 10 photography businesses fail in the first five years.”

The reason for that, explains Jason, is that small business owners often don’t understand the cost of sale, or fail to figure in taxes, insurance or time invested when coming up with their prices. “To do everything legally is expensive.”

TOWNE SOUARE

Get in a Towne Square State of Mind with over 50 Fabulous Stores including Aeropostale, American Eagle, Bath & Body Works, Pac Sun, Rue 21 Towne Square Mall 5000 Frederica St. Owensboro, KY www.shoptownesquare.com O w e n s b o r o

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Small Business

Joseph A. Hancock CPA, left, president and managing shareholder of Riney Hancock CPAs, reviews information with the firm’s controller Andrea Haynes.

CPA Firm Offers Innovative Solutions ounded in 1973, Riney Hancock CPAs set out to be an uncommon firm dedicated to providing timely, quality services, through commitment, excellence and innovation.

The firm’s founders had national accounting firm backgrounds, but wanted to

establish a local firm with the resources of a national firm, to provide a firm with the best of both worlds.

In 1987, when Joseph A. Hancock became President, the firm focused on becoming more of a regional firm; and in 1989 Riney Hancock CPAs merged with Roy Cobb, CPA in Evansville, Ind. With offices in Owensboro and Evansville, Riney

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By Jeana Sorrells

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Hancock CPAs meets the financial and business needs of their clients in the tristate area.

With six shareholders and a professional and support staff of 23 team members, Riney Hancock CPAs continues an atmosphere of “excellence” in everything they do. This coupled with a philosophy of always doing what is in the best interest of

their clients while maintaining their integrity. The firm’s mission statement is simply “To be our clients most valued and trusted financial advisors.”

Riney Hancock’s financial advisors are continually striving for innovative ways to solve their clients’ problems and offer value-added advice.

Their goal is to meet the needs of their clients and exceed their expectations.

“We are here for our clients to provide more than just traditional tax and accounting services,” said Joseph A. Hancock, president and managing shareholder of the firm. “This is evidenced by the wide range of consulting services we offer to meet the ever changing needs of our clients.

“The Riney Hancock team has the intelligence, experience and credentials to offer a wealth of specialized knowledge to our clients. To say we have been in business for 37 years is not the firm’s most defining accomplishment. It is our growth into an experienced firm of highly specialized CPAs and financial advisors who have helped our clients succeed, grow and increase their profitability. Their success is our success.”

Riney Hancock CPAs has been a part of the Owensboro community for over 37 years. The firm’s commitment to the community is demonstrated by the level of involvement by their professionals in the community, giving time, talent and treasure.

Their professionals serve on numerous boards and committees for both professional and charitable organizations. Last year, their professionals averaged over 100 hours each of community service involving 55 organizations.

This year the firm was a flagship sponsor of a new event in Owensboro, the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K. As a flagship sponsor, the firm not only made a sponsor-

ship donation, they were also significantly involved with the event.

From participating in the 5K, recruiting walkers, fund-raising or volunteering at the event, Riney Hancock team members promoted awareness for the fight against breast cancer. The firm raised over $11,000 and recruited 126 walkers for the event.

“Most of us have been touched by breast cancer whether it’s a mother, sister, spouse or a close friend. It wasn’t surprising when this opportunity arose for us to be a sponsor of this event that our Riney Hancock staff and family jumped at the opportunity to get involved and were truly excited about meeting the challenge of Making Greater Strides Against Breast Cancer,” Hancock said.

The team members at Riney Hancock CPAs are dedicated to the firm, their clients and the communities they service.

This is all evident by the awards they received in the past year.

Riney Hancock CPAs was honored with the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year Award in June.

They also received the Reader’s Choice Platinum Award for Accountants as selected and voted on by readers of the Messenger-Inquirer.

Riney Hancock was also a recipient of the 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence for Work Place Flexibility in Kentucky.

When asked about the success of the firm, Mr. Hancock said, “Each team member at Riney Hancock CPAs contributes to the success of our firm. Our professional and support team members are our most valuable resource. We value our employees and it shows in our low turnover rate. We take pride in our team members, our clients and our community.”

WILKERSON

PLASTERING & ACOUSTICS, INC. MAY WE TRANSFORM YOUR SPACE?

Drywall Acoustical EIFS Plastering Floor Covering P.O. Box 154 300 Lucas Avenue Owensboro, KY 42302 Phone 270-926-8170 Fax 270-683-5795 Email: WPA@Wilkersonpa.com Website: http://www.wilkersonpa.com

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1 PERMITTING

Answer the following questions to determine what permits you need to launch your business 1. Will your business be in the city of Owensboro or Daviess County?

Owensboro City Limits County Business License Business License Alcoholic Beverage Control License Alcoholic Beverage Control License Occupational License Occupational License

(270) 687-8530 (270) 687-8537 (270) 687-8534

2. Will you be using an existing building or building a new one?

Existing New Planning & Zoning Planning & Zoning Fire Inspection Fire Inspection Building & Electrical Permit Electrical Inspection Building Inspection

Local utility information Owensboro Municipal Utilities 2070 Tamarack Road P.O. Box 806 Owensboro, KY 42302-0806 Phone: (270) 926-3200 Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon. - Fri. Service(s) provided: Electric, water, commercial fiber optic services and sign-ups for sewer and sanitation in Owensboro.

Requirements to obtain service(s): Must be in the OMU service area and must bring the following to the OMU office: 1. Valid picture I.D. 2. Proof of property ownership, or 3. Letter of credit from previous utility Fee(s) required to obtain service: There is a $5 per meter connection fee and a deposit may be required for those who lease their building or residence.

Regional Water Resource Agency

Administration Building: 1722 Pleasant Valley Road Owensboro, KY 42303 Phone: (270) 687-8440 Permitting/Engineering: 2101 Grimes Ave. Owensboro, KY 42302 Phone: (270) 687-8452 Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon. - Fri. Service(s) provided: RWRA is the local provider of regional comprehensive wastewater collection, treatment and transmission services. Sewer connection permits are issued at 2101 Grimes Avenue (Joseph Murphy Building). Industrial discharge permits are issues at 1722 Pleasant Valley Road.

Fee(s) required to obtain service: Sewer connection costs vary, depending upon location, use and type of discharge. There are no costs involved in obtaining an industrial wastewater discharge permit.

City of Owensboro

6402 Old Corydon Road P.O. Box 18 Henderson, KY 42419-0018 Phone: (270) 926-4141 Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mon. - Fri. Service(s) provided: Electricity Requirements to obtain service: Must show picture I.D. and supply social security number when applying for service.

101 E. Fourth St. P.O. Box 10003 Owensboro, KY 42302-9003 Phone: (270) 687-8534 Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon. - Fri. Service(s) provided: City business licenses Requirements to obtain service: Business location must first be approved by Planning and Zoning.

Fee(s) required to obtain service: Fees are based on type of occupations.

Business license form is available at www. owensboro.org.

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Kenergy Corp.

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(270) (270) (270) (270) (270)

687-8650 687-8404 687-8661 687-8537 687-8665

AT&T There is no local business office Business service toll-free in Kentucky: 1866-620-6000 Business service toll-free outside Kentucky: 1-800-947-8398 Corporate Affairs: (270) 926-2737 Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon. - Sat. Service(s) provided: Local residence and business connections, e-commerce services, Web design and hosting, dedicated and dialup Internet access, digital and data services, wireless communications and local long distance.

Requirements to obtain service: Services can be obtained over the telephone or by Internet. Basic credit information (source of income, social security number, etc.) is required to determine if a deposit is necessary.

Fee(s) required to obtain service: Installation fees and monthly recurring charges are based upon the service ordered. Billing arrangements can be made for the one-time charges.

Atmos Energy 2401 New Hartford Road Owensboro, KY 42303 Phone: (270) 685-8024 1-888-954-4321 (Customer Service) Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mon. - Fri. Service(s) provided: Natural gas Requirements to obtain service: Social security number

Owensboro Metropolitan Planning Commission 101 E. Fourth St. P.O. Box 732 Owensboro, KY 42302-0732 Phone: (270) 687-8650 for planning, zoning, subdivision, addresses, street access Phone: (270) 687-8665 for building plan review and building/ electrical permits Phone: (270) 687-8656 for housing improvement programs Hours: 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m.

Service(s) provided: Countywide Planning/ Zoning status & changes; zoning development plan approval; land subdivision plat approval; conditional use permits; variances; major street access approval; street address assignments; FEMA flood insurance rate maps available for public inspection.

Countywide building/electrical (excluding city of Whitesville) plan review; building and electrical permits and inspections; zoning administration. City of Owensboro Community Development Block Grant administration; housing improvement programs; property maintenance inspections.

Requirements to obtain service: Submission of appropriate application form and fee for items involving review and approval; requests for basic information may be answered immediately. Refer to OMPC Form 311 for a flowchart that summarizes the building approval process. This form advises you, prior to submission of building plans, to check whether the current zoning is appropriate for the intended use or a zoning change is needed, whether a lot division or consolidation is necessary, and whether a conditional use permit or variance is required for the proposed building project.

Fee(s) required to obtain service: Refer to OMPC Form 107 for filing fees for planning/zoning items, which vary by application type. Refer to OMPC forms 303 and 323 for building/electrical fees, which vary by project type and size. OMPC forms are available at www.iompc.org.

3. Research the necessary state licenses and permits.

The Fast Track Business Registration Program site offered by the state of Kentucky provides a comprehensive list of licenses and permits based on the type of business that you will be starting. For detailed information visit http://sos.ky.gov and click on “FastTrack”onestop.htm

Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce President Jody Wassmer and Operations Manager Ashley Bradshaw accept the Chamber of the Year award at the ACCE conference in Milwaukee on Aug. 5, 2010.

Chamber Earns National Honor T

he Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce reached a long-term goal by being named 2010 Chamber of the Year at the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) conference in Milwaukee, Wis., on Aug. 5.

The Chamber was named a finalist for the award in early June along with the Fargo Moorhead, N.D., Chamber of Commerce in the $450,000 to $900,000 annual revenue category based on an application process.

At the conference, Chamber President Jody Wassmer and Operations Manager Ashley Bradshaw interviewed before a panel of three judges who then decided the winner.

Being named Chamber of the Year was the overall goal of the Chamber’s “Five Over Five” strategic plan approved by the Chamber board of directors in early 2008.

In the application for the award, the Chamber highlighted its involvement in the C-LINK 12-chamber, 10-county alliance that was formed in 2007 and has advocated for the development of Interstate 69 through western Kentucky.

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The Chamber also featured the “Owensboro Buys It!” program that aligns small business “sellers” with large local business “buyers” at an expo designed to create local commerce.

Separately, C-LINK was one of three finalists for the ACCE’s Alliance for Regional Stewardship Organizational Champion Award which was also given at the Milwaukee event.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with this national honor,” says Suzanne Northern Blazar of UniFirst Corporation and 2010 board chair of the chamber. “This is recognition for the bold advocacy and member service programs the chamber has initiated in recent years.”

ACCE’s Chamber of the Year is the nation’s only award which recognizes up to four chambers of commerce each year for their dual role in creating and leading businesses and communities.

“We won it two years ahead of what we thought was even possible,” Wassmer said. “We intend to keep following the plan and already are working on new initiatives for 2011.”

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Owensboro at-a-Glance

The crowd begins to thin as storm clouds move in and a light rain falls on the carnival section of the 2010 International Bar-B-Q Festival.

is the industrial and cultural hub of western Kentucky. Located along the southern banks of the Ohio River, Owensboro is the third largest city in terms of population in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is also centrally located to many of the largest metropolitan areas in the Midwest and the southern United States. Owensboro is located 32 miles southeast of Evansville, Ind.; 134 miles north of Nashville, Tenn.; 109 miles southwest of Louisville, Ky.; 209 miles southeast of St. Louis, Mo.; and 209 miles southwest of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Owensboro enjoys a diverse economic base. Of the 44,222 people who work in Daviess County, less than 25 percent work for the county’s 10 largest employers.

History

Anthropologists suggest western Kentucky — including the Owensboro area — may have been home to Native American cultures for as long as 12,000 years. More recently, the region served as home and hunting ground for the Shawnee and other tribes, who lived here until territorial disputes forced them north of the Ohio River in 1758.

The first known settlers of European descent came to Owensboro in the late 1790s.

Local legend has it that in 1798 or 1799, a trapper named William Smeathers built a cabin along the river, near the present location of the Executive Inn. Over time, a community grew up around the cabin, first called Yellow Banks, then Rossborough, and finally

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Owensboro, in honor of Colonel Abraham Owen.

Daviess County — Kentucky’s 58th — formed in 1815 and was named in honor of Colonel Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, although the spelling was later modified.

Climate

Between moderately cold winters and warm, humid summers, the greater Owensboro area experiences a wide temperature fluctuation.

The average annual temperature is 57.3 degrees, with extremes of 107 degrees in 1936 and 1944 and a low of minus 21 degrees in 1951. In the winter, the average temperature is 39.6 degrees, and in the summer 76.9 degrees is the estimated average. Temperatures are generally highest in July and August and O w e n s b O r O

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lowest in January. The average annual rainfall for Daviess County is 44.27 inches.

Media

Daily morning newspaper service for indepth local news and regional and national news is provided by Owensboro’s MessengerInquirer.

The Owensboro market is served by five broadcasting networks located in Evansville, Ind., including WEHT-Channel 25 (ABC), WFIE-Channel 14 (NBC), WTVW-Channel 7 (Fox), WAZE-Channel 19 (The CW) and WEVV-Channel 44 (CBS).

OCTV is a community cable television station run by Owensboro Community &

Technical College and airs a variety of community events.

More than 20 radio stations serve the greater Owensboro area offering local news headlines and a variety of News/Talk, Country, Top 40, Oldies, Light and Rock formats.

Agriculture

Daviess County ranks first among Kentucky counties in total soybean production and third in total corn production. More than 84 percent of the land in Daviess County is devoted to agriculture.

Business and Industry

The Owensboro area serves as the industrial hub of Western Kentucky, with major industries including aluminum, steel, distilling, mining, automotive manufacturing and natural gas transmission. Locally produced commodities include automotive components, meat products, smokeless tobacco, office furniture, spaghetti sauce, bourbon whiskey, chemicals, large steel vessels, grain processing, refined oil, paper, plastic extension and casement windows.

Transportation

Local passenger and charter air service is available at the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport. The airport has two concrete runways measuring 5,000 and 8,000 feet. The longer runway has a full-instrument landing system that provides all-weather ca-

pabilities.

Allegiant Airlines provides non-stop service to Orlando Sanford International Airport with two weekly flights on Wednesday and Saturday.

Kentucky Skies provides service to Nashville International Airport with three daily flights Monday through Friday and two daily flights on Saturday and Sunday.

Owensboro is served by an excellent highway system. The Audubon and William H. Natcher Parkways are designated as Interstate spurs and provide connections to Interstate highways in the south and west. U.S. Highways 60, 231 and 431 provide direct access in all directions, including a direct connection to I-64 via the William H. Natcher Bridge.

Four of the several dozen common carrier trucking companies serving Owensboro maintain local terminals. CSX Transportation provides the city with mainline rail services.

The Owensboro Riverport Authority is an international port and is designated as a Foreign Trade Zone.The Riverport provides barge, rail and storage facilities. The city of Owensboro operates a city-wide bus service, and private taxi, rental car and luxury limousine services also are available.

Cost of Living

Residents of Greater Owensboro enjoy some of the lowest cost of living anywhere.

In particular, the cost of utilities (electricity, water and sewer) are some of the lowest in

the nation.

The American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association (ACCRA) produces the ACCRA Cost of Living Index to provide a measure of living cost comparisons among urban areas. The index measures relative price levels for consumer goods and services in more than 300 participating areas. The average for all participating areas equals 100 and each participant’s index is read as a percentage of the average for all areas. As shown below, greater Owensboro costs are lower than the average in every category.

Type Percentage All items 94.9 Grocery 98.5 Housing 93.4 Utilities 84.7 Transportation 96.2 Healthcare 89.8 Miscellaneous 97.2

Government

The city of Owensboro operates under a city manager form of government where an elected mayor and four elected city commissioners appoint a city manager. The mayor is elected to a four-year term, while the commissioners each serve two-year terms. The current mayor began his term in 2009. The commissioners began their service in January 2011. The city’s Web site is www.owensboro. org.

Daviess County is part of Kentucky’s

Serenity Barnes, 6, points out cigarette buts to her mother, Dana Barnes, during PRIDE of Owensboro-Daviess County’s annual Spring PRIDE Day at the Daviess County Courthouse.

Volunteers worked on beautification projects and plantings at David C. Adkisson Greenbelt Park,Yellow Creek Park, Daviess County Courthouse and Daviess County High School.

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Owensboro at-a-Glance Kentucky Wesleyan College’s Thomas Gordon (#3), a junior running back from Jacksonville, Fla., shows Bralee Powell, 3, how to use a hula hoop at the H.L. Neblett Community Center. Gordon, Adam Beck, back left, Khalid Harris, back right, and other members of the Panther football team spent a morning hanging out with the children at the Neblett Center.

county fiscal court system and is represented by an elected judge/executive and three elected county commissioners. Each county official serves a four-year term. The current fiscal court began its term in January 2011.

The county’s Web site is www.daviessky.org.

Churches

Owensboro is served by more than 150 Protestant churches of 22 different denominations, 18 Catholic churches and one Jewish Temple.

Education

Two public school systems, Owensboro Public Schools and Daviess County Public Schools, plus the parochial Owensboro Catholic School system comprise the K-12 education system in the community. Heritage Christian School and Majesty Academy provide Christian education. Hastings’ Early Learning Center offers the Montessori Method of education for preschool children.

The Maximilian Montessori Academy offers the Montessori Method of education for preschool through 8th grade. And Triplett High School offers the Montessori Method for 9th to 12th graders.

Owensboro is home to two four-year liberal arts institutions — Brescia University and Kentucky Wesleyan College. Each has an enrollment of approximately 800 students

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and Brescia offers some graduate-level degree programs.

Owensboro Community & Technical College is one of 16 colleges in the Kentucky Community & Technical College System and is one of the fastest growing colleges in the system.

The Business and Industry division of Owensboro Community & Technical College offers the Work Keys assessment tests which can be used to determine individual skill levels for certain jobs. Free training for individuals to improve their scores and improve their employability is also available.

Western Kentucky University offers extensive undergraduate and graduate programs in Owensboro. In 2010, the first building for a new Western Kentucky University satellite campus opened on U.S. 231. The project was funded locally by Daviess County Fiscal Court and calls for additional buildings.

Murray State University also offers classes in Owensboro.

Daymar College is a private career college that offers a variety of training and certifications.

Sports & Entertainment

The greater Owensboro area has excellent public recreation facilities sponsored and maintained by the Owensboro Parks and Recreation Department and the Daviess County O w e n s b O r O

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Parks and Recreation Department.

Facilities include numerous parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, golf courses, disc golf courses, tennis courts, softball and baseball diamonds, basketball courts, soccer fields, nature trails, a municipal ice center and a greenbelt trail for biking and walking. There are two softball complexes, a soccer complex, a youth football complex and sand volleyball courts. At least four playgrounds are equipped for the physically disabled.

The Owensboro Sportscenter is a 5,500seat air-conditioned auditorium/arena maintained by the city. Ben Hawes State Park has two golf courses.

Owensboro is home to the Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers men’s basketball program. With eight NCAA Division II championships, 18 Final Four appearances and more tournament victories than any other NCAA school, KWC is THE winter sports event in Owensboro.

Some of the area’s private recreation facilities include three country clubs with golf courses, five swimming pools, 12 indoor movie theaters, three bowling facilities, a large YMCA, the OMHS HealthPark and indoor and outdoor tennis courts.

Festivals

Owensboro is known as Kentucky’s “Festival City.” Festivals and special events fill

much of the Owensboro area’s calendar. One of the biggest and best known is the International Bar-B-Q Festival, which takes place downtown the second weekend each May. Thousands of hungry barbecue lovers sample mutton, chicken and burgoo served up by cooking teams participating in the event. The festival includes musical entertainment, carnival rides and more than 100 booths selling handmade arts and crafts.

Throughout the summer, a variety of musical styles can be enjoyed at free Friday After 5 concerts each Friday evening on the downtown riverfront. Other events include the International Bluegrass Music Museum’s River of Music Party (ROMP) each June, the Daviess County Lions Club Fair in August, Reid’s Orchard Apple Festival in October, Winter Wonderland in November and December and many more.

features of the museum are historic memorabilia, including arts, crafts and antiques, as well as natural history exhibits and an indoor play area.

The museum’s SpeedZeum exhibit celebrates the rich racing heritage of the region, covering everything from Soapbox Derby to local dirt track auto racing to NASCAR, motorcycle racing to hydroplane boats. With six active NASCAR drivers and countless crew members in service in NASCAR’s various racing circuits, Owensboro claims one of the highest levels of motorsports participation of any city in the country.

The Owensboro Museum of Fine Arts is housed in two historic structures — the Carnegie Library and the John Hampden Smith

House, which dates to the Civil War. The museum features a permanent collection of paintings and sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries, decorative arts dating back as far as the 16th century, and the spectacular Stained Glass Gallery. The museum also features traveling exhibits and hosts educational youth tours during the school year.

The Daviess County Public Library provides services to the entire county population from a facility located in the center of Owensboro. The library provides a wide array of services, including materials in all formats for all age groups; reference and information services; Kentucky history and genealogy research services; interlibrary loan; programming for children and adults; home-

Arts & Cultural Attractions

Owensboro boasts some of the best arts and cultural activities for a city its size in the country. Whether your interests lie in museums, music, art or theater, Owensboro has it.

The curtain is always rising on a new event at the RiverPark Center on the Ohio River in downtown Owensboro. The RiverPark Center includes a 1,500 seat multi-purpose auditorium, an experimental theatre that seats up to 300, lobbies and support facilities, a riverfront plaza, an open-air courtyard, and meeting/reception rooms. Each year, the RiverPark Center hosts more than 150 performance events and more than 900 private and civic events.

The RiverPark Center is home to several local performing arts organizations including the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, Owensboro Dance Theatre, the Owensboro Community College Oak Island Theatre and the Owensboro Concert Association.

Theatre Workshop of Owensboro is celebrating more than 40 years of presenting community theatre to greater Owensboro.

Theatre Workshop of Owensboro is housed in the Old Trinity Centre, is a registered historic landmark.

Bill Monroe, known as the “father of bluegrass music,” was born and raised in Rosine, Ky., just a short drive from Owensboro. That tradition is still alive and well in the area and is celebrated at the International Bluegrass Music Museum, which displays the history of bluegrass music through interpretive exhibits, posters, costumes and instruments. Other local bluegrass events include museum jam sessions, the Yellowbanks Dulcimer Festival at English Park and the annual ROMP! River of Music Party bluegrass festival.

The Owensboro Area Museum of Science and History and the Wendell Ford Government Education Center is one of the finest facilities of its kind in the region. Among the

Wesleyan Park Plaza 2730 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 270.686.0001 www.lancecojewelers.com O w e n s b o r o

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Owensboro at-a-Glance

Blacksmith Phillips Williams works a knife handle on the nose of his anvil at the second annual Patriot Day in Pioneer Village at Yellow Creek Park.

bound delivery service; public access Internet; dial-in access to the on-line catalog; fax and photocopy services; and outreach services to schools, daycare and headstart centers, and other community agencies. About 275,000 people visit the library each year.

Healthcare

Owensboro Medical Health System (OMHS) is committed to providing health education, prevention, early intervention and wellness programs in addition to high-quality, cost-effective inpatient and outpatient services. At all locations, OMHS offers stateof-the-art technology with a medical staff of 130+ physicians representing a wide range of specialties. This not-for-profit regional health care provider serves 13 counties in Kentucky and southern Indiana. The main hospital, located at 811 East Parrish Avenue, is licensed for 469 beds. A new facility on the eastern edge of Owensboro is currently under construction.

The OMHS HealthPark was established in 1998 to improve the health of the community. Located at 1006 Ford Avenue, the HealthPark includes a health and fitness center, a diagnostic center, a health resource center, outpatient therapy services, a chapel and physician offices.

Fred Hagman of Rome judges a shallow-frame honeycomb entry during the Daviess County Lions Club Fair in Philpot. The back light provided a look into the honeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clarity. The 4-H FFA garden, crops and honey entries were open for registration.

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Katie Reid checks the root moisture level on potted Sutera or Giant Snowflake flowers at the Reidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Orchard greenhouse.

Several walk-in clinics for illness or minor emergencies are located throughout the community and operated by a variety of providers.

The OMHS Mitchell Memorial Cancer Center provides centralized, quality, local care to cancer patients in the region.

River Valley Behavioral Health provides mental health, substance abuse and mental retardation/developmental disability services in a seven-county area. Its facility in the Cigar Factory Complex contains the agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s offices for outpatient therapy, case management, DUI education, prevention center/library and administrative services. River Valley also provides residential programs as well as inpatient treatment for children ages 5 to 18 at River Valley Behavioral Health Hospital.

Wendell Fosterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Campus for Developmental Disabilities is a private, non-profit therapy, training and residential facility for children and adults with developmental disabilities. The center also offers outpatient services, including physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy.

The 63-bed residential facility is the only such facility in Kentucky specializing in residential training and individualized therapy for people diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The facility emphasizes training and development of each individual to help them reach their maximum potential. Houses on the perimeter of the campus provide independent living and assisted living opportunities for 19 additional adults.

The Most Rev. William Medley makes the sign of the cross in ashes on the forehead of 3-year-old Paul Clayton as his mother, Michelle Clayton stands behind him during Mass on Ash Wednesday at St Stephen Cathedral.

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By The Numbers

Quick Facts

Business Cost

Kentucky Index, 2008

(U.S. = 100.0) Labor Cost 93 Energy Cost 71 Overall Business Cost 90 Kentucky is tied for the 9th lowest overall business cost in the nation.

Gross State Product

Per Wage, 2008 Kentucky $2.16 U.S. $2.17

Industrial Electric

Cost Per KWH, 2008 Kentucky $0.05 U.S. $0.07 Kentucky has the 8th lowest cost for industrial electric power amongst the 50 states.

Daviess County Statistical Summary

Population 2009 Daviess County 95,394 Labor Market Area 481,263

Daviess County Per Capita Income 2008 $33,278 Median Household Income 2008 $43,075 Median Home Price 2008 $98,310

Total Available Labor 2009 Daviess County 4,590 Labor Market Area 23,624

Unemployment Rate 2009 Daviess County 9.5 Labor Market Area 9.1 U.S. 9.3

Average Weekly Wage 2009 Daviess County $657 Labor Market Area $699 U.S. $876

Population

Population by Race and Hispanic Origin, 2009

Daviess County Labor Market Area

Number Percent Number Percent White 81,295 87.2 435,226 90.9 Black 6,130 6.6 28,156 5.9 Asian 103 0.1 235 0.0 American Indian/Alaskan Native 0 0.0 4,472 0.9 Native Hwaiian/Pacific Islander 19 0.0 149 0.0 Other/Multirace 5,733 6.1 10,489 2.2 Hispanic Origin 1,414 1.5 6,836 1.4 Note: Hispanic is not a race category. A person can be white, black, etc. and be of hispanic origin. Source: Applied Geographic Solutions, Simi Valley, Ca.

Population Projections

2015 2020 2025 Daviess County 96,931 98,507 99,890 Source: Kentucky State Data Center, University of Louisville.

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Business

Major employers in the greater Owensboro area

Owensboro Medical Health System Regional Hospital 3300 Daviess County Public Schools County School System 1785 US Bank Home Mortgage Mortgage Processing 873 Owensboro Public Schools Public School System 778 Specialty Food Group Processed meat products 470 Wal-Mart (2 stores) Retail 541 Unilever Foods North America Pasta and simmer sauces 515 Owensboro Community & Technical College 494 City of Owensboro City Government 481 Commonwealth of Kentucky State Government 471 Toyotetsu MidAmerica LLC Automotive stampings and welded

assemblies 372 Titan Contracting Specialty mechanical construction 350 UniFirst Uniform distribution 350 Kimberly-Clark Corp Tissue paper & towels 342 Premium Allied Tool Metal Stamping 330 Swedish Match North America Smokeless Tobacco products 290 Boardwalk Natural gas Pipeline Headquarters 255 Owensboro Municipal Utilities Public Utilities 250 Metalsa Truck Frame Manufacturer 230 Green River District Health Health Department 224 AT&T National directory call center 200 Sazerac Bottling/warehouse plant of whiskey,

gin, etc.

215 MPD Inc. Commercial Tubes and Components,

microwave & police radar equipment,

breath analyzers, ceramics & ceramic

to metal seals 189 Miles Farm Supply Farm Services 175 Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline Inc. Headquarters 165 CRS OneSource Wholesale food, equipment and

supplies and distribution 150 Owensboro Grain Soybean processor 150 Sara Lee Bakery Group Wholesale producer of bread and

bun products 150 Source: Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corporation.

Summary of Recent Locations and Expansions, 2007-Present

Reported

Companies Jobs Investment Manufacturing Location 1 28 $25,000,000 Manufacturing Expansion 28 548-572 $112,791,786 Supportive/Service Location 1 3 $8,000,000 Supportive/Service Expansion 6 212-825 $33,165,075 Note: Totals include announced locations and expansions.

Source: Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development (8/15/10).

Selected Market Centers

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Percent of U.S. Within 600 Miles of Owensboro

Population 44%

Personal Income 56%

Retail Sales 41%

Manufacturing Employment 52%

Highway Distance to Selected Market Centers City Miles 1. Atlanta, GA 2. Baltimore, MD 3. Birmingham, AL 4. Boston, MA 5. Buffalo, NY 6. Charlotte, NC 7. Chicago, IL 8. Cincinnati, OH 9. Cleveland, OH 10. Columbus, OH 11. Dallas, TX 12. Detroit, MI 13. Houston, TX 14. Indianapolis, IN 15. Jacksonville, FL 16. Kansas City, MO 17. Lexington, KY 18. Louisville, KY 19. Memphis, TN 20. Minneapolis, MN 21. Nashville, TN 22. New Orleans, LA 23. New York, NY 24. Norfolk, VA 25. Oklahoma City, OK 26. Omaha, NE 27. Philadelphia, PA 28. Pittsburgh, PA 29. St. Louis, MO 30. Wichita, KS Source: ESRI ArcView Streetmap, 2007.

Employment by Major Industry by Place of Work, 2009 378 713 324 1,059 642 513 328 209 455 315 738 470 859 178 726 451 179 109 291 749 134 664 850 752 703 641 777 495 209 647

Workforce

Civilian Labor Force

Daviess County Labor Market Area

2009 Sept. 2010 2009 Sept. 2010 Civilian Labor Force 48,557 49,314 244,695 243,364 Employed 43,967 45,130 222,385 222,107 Unemployed 4,590 4,184 22,310 21,257 Unemployment Rate (%) 9.5 8.5 9.1 8.7 Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

LABOR MARKET AREA

Daviess County Labor Market Area

Employment Percent Employment Percent All Industries 42,309 100.0 210,025 100.0 Agriculture, Forestry, 123 0.3 617 0.3 Fishing and Hunting Mining 167 0.4 N/A N/A Construction 1,997 4.7 11,430 5.4 Manufacturing 5,547 13.1 32,012 15.2 Trade, Transportation, and Utilities 9,379 22.2 41,575 19.8 Information 504 1.2 3,305 1.6 Financial Activities 2,315 5.5 8,389 4.0 Services 14,645 34.6 77,752 37.0 Public Administration 1,347 3.2 5,228 2.5 Other 8 0.0 N/A N/A Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Average Weekly Wage, 2009

Daviess Co. Kentucky U.S. Ohio All Industries $657 $731 $876 $787 Agriculture, Forestry, 596 582 503 509 Fishing and Hunting Mining 1,014 1,215 1,644 1,190 Construction 686 832 946 907 Manufacturing 862 923 1,056 985 Trade, Transportation, and Utilities 645 674 750 699 Information 698 791 1,330 979 Financial Activities 756 947 1,343 1,032 Services 513 650 791 712 Public Administration 748 802 1,037 994 Other 1,041 961 890 606

Indiana Illinois Tennessee Virginia All Industries $736 $931 $774 $928 Agriculture, Forestry, 580 597 500 505 Fishing and Hunting Mining 1,112 1,160 1,099 1.158 Construction 905 1,138 823 872 Manufacturing 1,007 1,076 936 962 Trade, Transportation, and Utilities 649 798 732 714 Information 840 1,191 998 1,422 Financial Activities 908 1,533 1,091 1,189 Services 638 842 704 913 Public Administration 772 1,077 787 1,287 Other 667 798 1,185 738 Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Personal Income Labor market counties are composed of counties which significantly exist within the sixty (60) minute drive range of the originating county’s county seat. A county will be included within the radius if the centroid point of a county (a point representing the center of the geographic area of a county) falls within the drive zone. Additionally, all contiguous counties will be classified as part of the labor market with the exception of non-Kentucky contiguous counties which have been excluded by the above mentioned 60-minute drive range and have a border with the Mississippi and/or Ohio Rivers.

2003 2008 Pct. Change Daviess County $26,620 $33,278 25.0% Kentucky $26,299 $31,936 21.4% U.S. $32,271 $40,166 24.5% Labor Market Area $18,870 - $31,956 $22,276 - $39,211 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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Dining & Catering Guide

Owensboro Eateries

offer a wide variety of choices from pizza and family dining to world-famous barbecue, ethnic and gourmet foods. The following restaurants are members of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce.

RESTAURANTS Bee Bop’s

122 A West Second Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 663-0623 akellum1975@yahoo.com Burgers, cheesesteaks, old-fashioned milkshakes, wraps, subs, paninis, french fries, soups and salads.

Bob Evans Restaurant

3123 Kentucky 54 Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 683-3515 bobevans.com Dine in, carry out, breakfast, lunch and dinner in a family atmosphere.

Buffalo Wild Wings

4736 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 686-7800 buffalowildwings.com 32@buffalowildwings.com Award winning wings and sauces, full menu and bar, sports environment.

Cheddar’s Casual Cafe

3040 Highland Point Drive Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 685-2092 cheddars.com An American dining experience with great service and homemade food, in an upscale yet comfortable environment, at everyday low prices.

Chick-fil-A

4545 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301-7438 (270) 684-5488

Diamond Delights Bakery & Cafe

City Subs & Salads

3600 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 689-9703 citysubsandsalads.com marceloAgud0@aol.com Subs, wraps, paninis, cheesesteaks, salads, and real New Yorl catering for all occasions from NY Chef Marcelo Agudo.

Colby’s Fine Food & Spirits

204 West Third Street Owensboro, KY 42303-4121 (270) 685-4239 colbysfinefoodandspirits.com colbysrestaurant@aol.com Casual fine dining with extraordinary service. Delivery and catering available.

Onsite banquet facility.

5311 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 684-4118

The Crème Coffee House

109 East Second Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 683-7787 conder740@yahoo.com Experience a warm, welcoming atmo sphere with an eclectic mix of music and the fragrant aroma of freshly ground gourmet coffee beans where friends like to meet.

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3020 Highland Pointe Drive Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 689-4040 culvers.com culvers2@owens.twcbc.com A quick service restaurant with a family environment. Serving signature Butter Burgers, frozen custard, sandwiches, salads and dinners.

Denny’s Restaurant

4601 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 683-0907 chick-fil-A.com 02584@chick-fil-a.com

Cracker Barrel

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Culver’s Restaurant

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222 Allen Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 686-8696 algendek@hotmail.com Full line bakery including donuts, pastries, bread, wedding and specialty cakes. Lunch includes soup, salad and blue plate specials. Dinner includes full course meals and full table service.

Famous Bistro

102 West Second Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 686-8202 Famousbistro@bellsouth.com Offering a variety of Mediterranean cuisines and beyond.

54 Pizza Express

3101 Alvey Park Drive East Owensboro, KY 42303-2130 (270) 683-5454 Pizza Restaurant – eat-in, carry-out or delivery.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries 2660 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 684-7888 Burgers, fries and hot dogs

Fuji Japanese Steakhouse

4028 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 685-0046 Japanese steak, seafood and sushi.

Great Harvest Bread Co.

3211 Frederica Street, Suite G Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 691-0093 greatharvestowensboro.com gagarrard@greatharvest.com Scratch-made breads, cookies and sweets.

Made to order sandwiches, hot or cold.

Gift bags and baskets.

Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, Inc. 338 Washington Avenue Owensboro, KY 42301-5450 (270) 926-9000 Barbecue restaurant providing dining, carry out and catering.

Ole South Barbeque 3523 Kentucky 54 East Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 926-6464 Providing barbecue buffet, carryout service & catering

House of Canton, Inc.

2845 West Parrish Avenue Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 683-7662 Fine Chinese cuisine and buffet.

Full-service bar.

The Olive Garden Restaurant 5204 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 683-4848 olivegarden.com Genuine Italian dining, complimented by a great glass of wine, in a home like setting.

Lee’s Famous Recipe Fried Chicken

1001 Burlew Boulevard Owensboro, KY 42303-1736 (270) 685-4542 Eat-in, drive through, catering for any s ize group.

Maloney’s Roca Bar

3030 Highland Point Drive Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 684-8080 Offering pizza, Italian salad, sandwiches, wings and entrees. Full service sports bar with 24 big screen TVs. Private banquet hall.

Pangea Cafe & Catering 1320-B Carter Road Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 689-9824 pangeacompany.com pangeacompany@yahoo.com Flavors of the world creatively combined for your dining pleasure. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday.

Maria Guadalupe’s Diner

201 East 9th Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (812) 390-6028 American breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The menu also includes authentic mexican food.

Penn Station East Coast Subs 3525 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 683-1515 psevansville.com Quick, casual dining, sandwiches, salads and wraps fresh-grilled to order. Fresh, hand-cut french fries, fresh squeezed lemonade. Catering and box lunch service with free delivery.

The Miller House

PizzaRoma 1401 Carter Road Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 684-1111 pizzaroma.com mal@pizzaroma.com Pizza, sandwiches, calzones, pasta, friendly atmosphere, great service.

Locally owned for over 45 years.

Real Hacienda Mexican Restaurant 3023 Highland Point Drive Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 684-5595 arortiz24@hotmail.com Authentic Mexican food.

Red Lobster Inns 3410 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301-6083 (270) 926-4045 redlobster.com The flavors and feelings of the seaside.

Me

READ ss E

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2010 Bar-B-Q PLATINUM

quirer r-In ’ CHOICE ge en RS

Me

boro s n e w O Loves

Mutton • Chicken • Ham Pork • Ribs • Beef Dine In or Carry Out Custom Cooking & Catering Gift Certificates

A ARDS W

2840 West Parrish Avenue Owensboro, KY 42301-2689 (270) 684-8143 moonlite.com A Kentucky tradition: Barbecue buffet, menu service, catering and carry-out.

Voted best barbecue in Kentucky by Kentucky Living and Kentucky Monthly magazines.

quirer r-In ’ CHOICE ge en RS

READ ss E

Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, Inc.

1915 West Parrish Avenue Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 685-4694 pizzabyhanny@att.net

“Where local Folks Bring Visitors for Owensboro’s Best Bar-B-Q” ARDS W

301 East Fifth Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 685-5878 themillerhouserestaurant.com jkirktmh@gmail.com Traditional food with a southern flair.

Full service catering. Private meeting rooms. Indoor and outdoor event space.

Open daily for lunch and dinner.

Reservations available.

Pizza by the Guy

2010 Burgoo PLATINUM

A Fine Tradition for Six Generations 338 Washington Ave. at 25th & Frederica • 926-9000

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Salsaritas 3500 Villa Point, Suite 101 Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 686-7505 salsaritas.com salsaritasowb@yahoo.com Delicious made-to-order meal prepared right before your eyes. Choose from burritos, nachos, taco salads, tortilla-crust pizzas and more made with a wide variety of fresh ingredients. Dine-in, carry-out guests and catering.

Shaker’s Pizza 3010 West Fourth Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 683-0660 josephmccoy007@yahoo.com Pizza, subs, wings, pasta, and desserts.

Eat in, pick up or delivery.

Shogun of Japan 5010 Wildcat Way Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 685-9980 Japanese steak, seafood and sushi

Subway 3739 U.S. 60, Suite A Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 684-1330 subway.com

The Summit

Z’s Restaurant & Bar

6501 Summit Drive Owensboro, KY 42303-9535 (270) 281-4653 summitky.com Golf and home development and restaurant.

T.G.I. Friday’s 5135 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 686-1910 fridays.com manager1100@bistrogroup.com

Tumbleweed 5257 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 685-4111 tumbleweedrestaurants.com owensboro@tumbleweedinc.net Southwest cuisine, catering, buffet, mesquite grill, carry out platters and margaritas.

White Castle

4641 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 926-5333

757 West 12th Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 852-2322 zsrestaurant.com stacy@zsrestaurant.com Upscale atmosphere, private dining, full bar, catering, carry-out, private meeting rooms. Menu has a broad range of items: burgers, steak, seafood.

CATERING Bee Bop’s

122 A West Second Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 663-0623 akellum1975@yahoo.com Burgers, cheesesteaks, old-fashioned milkshakes, wraps, subs, paninis, french fries, soups and salads.

Bob Evans Restaurant

3123 US Kentucky 54 Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 683-3515 bobevans.com

Canteen Service Co./At Your Service

Zaxby’s 5030 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 691-6166 bsf6@att.net Fast casual restaurant serving primarily chicken.

P.O. Box 1785 Owensboro, KY 42302-1785 (270) 683-2471 canteenatyourservice.com gws@owb.canteen.net Vending, food management, catering, refreshment services.

Chick-fil-A

4601 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 683-0907 chick-fil-A.com 02584@chick-fil-a.com

City Subs & Salads

3600 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 689-9703 citysubsandsalads.com marceloAgud0@aol.com Real New York catering for all occasions

by NY Chef Marcelo Agudo

Colby’s Fine Food & Spirits

204 West Third Street Owensboro, KY 42303-4121 (270) 685-4239 colbysfinefoodandspirits.com colbysrestaurant@aol.com Delivery and catering available. Onsite banquet facility.

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Diamond Delights Bakery & Cafe

222 Allen Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 686-8696 algendek@hotmail.com Full line bakery including donuts, pastries, bread, wedding and specialty cakes. Lunch includes soup, salad and blue plate specials. Dinner includes full course meals and full table service.

Famous Bistro

102 West Second Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 686-8202 Famousbistro@bellsouth.com Offering a variety of Mediterranean cuisines and beyond.

Fantasy Cupcakes

1012 East Fourth Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 231-0283 fantasycupcakes@gmail.com Gourmet cupcakes and imported espresso, tea, coffee and hot chocolate in a whimsical fantasy atmosphere.

Available for parties and special events.

Great Harvest Bread Co.

3211 Frederica Street, Suite G Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 691-0093 greatharvestowensboro.com gagarrard@greatharvest.com Scratch-made breads, cookies and sweets. Made to order sandwiches, hot or cold. Gift bags and baskets.

House of Canton, Inc.

2845 West Parrish Avenue Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 683-7662 Fine Chinese cuisine.

The Miller House

Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, Inc.

Schnitzelbank Catering

338 Washington Avenue Owensboro, KY 42301-5450 (270) 926-9000 Barbecue catering.

409 Third Avenue Jasper, IN 47546 (812) 634-2584 schnitzelbank.com gail@schnitzelbank.com Our mobile kitchens prepares food fresh and hot on the spot.

Ole South Barbeque

3523 Kentucky 54 East Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 926-6464 Providing barbecue catering.

T.G.I. Fridayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 5135 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 686-1910 fridays.com manager1100@bistrogroup.com

Pangea Cafe & Catering

1320-B Carter Road Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 689-9824 pangeacompany@yahoo.com

Penn Station East Coast Subs 3525 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 683-1515 psevansville.com

Tumbleweed 5257 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 685-4111 tumbleweedrestaurants.com/ owensboro@tumbleweedinc.net Southwest cuisine.

Pizza by the Guy

1915 West Parrish Avenue Owensboro, KY 42301 (270) 685-4694 pizzabyhanny@att.net

Yummies by Yuck

Red Lobster Inns

3410 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301-6083 (270) 926-4045 redlobster.com The flavors and feelings of the seaside.

2922 Greenhill Drive Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 903-2700 yummiesbyyuck@yahoo.com Home baked goods.

Salsaritas

3500 Villa Point, Suite 101 Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 686-7505 salsaritas.com salsaritasowb@yahoo.com Choose from burritos, nachos, taco salads, tortilla-crust pizzas and more.

301 East Fifth Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (270) 685-5878 themillerhouserestaurant.com jkirktmh@gmail.com Traditional food with a southern flair.

Full service catering. Private meeting rooms. Indoor and outdoor event space.

Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, Inc.

2840 West Parrish Avenue Owensboro, KY 42301-2689 (270) 684-8143 moonlite.com A Kentucky tradition catering more than just barbecue.

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Advertiser index Associated Engineers Inc............................ 27 Audubon Area Community Services, Inc....... 9 BB&T........................................................... 50 Brescia University....................................... 61 Brushwood Apartments.............................. 51 Bryant Engineering, Inc............................... 37 Century 21 Partners, Deborah Nunley....... 46 Custom Audio-Video, Inc............................. 13 CherriCare................................................... 24 City of Owensboro..................................... 11 Daviess County Public Schools................... 55 Daviess County Parks.................................. 17 Edward Jones................................Inside Back Ebelhar Whitehead, PLLC............................ 80 Fern Terrace................................................ 23 Greenwell-Chisholm Printing Co.................. 2 Hampton Inn............................................... 29 Hermitage Care & Rehabilitation Center.... 25 Home Builders Association of Owensboro............................................. 46 Independence Bank...................................... 7

International Bar-B-Q Festival..................... 19 Jagoe Homes, Inc......................................... 44 Johnson, Depp & Quisenberry..................... 9 Kentucky Skies............................................ 31 Kentucky Wesleyan College........................ 60 Lance & Co. Jewelers.................................. 71 Legendary Entertainment........................... 19 Martin Custom Building, Inc....................... 42 Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, Inc............................ 79 Norman King Electric................................. 65 Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, Inc............................. 77 OMHS HealthPark....................................... 21 Owensboro Museum of Science & History................................... 16 Owensboro Catholic Schools..................... 57 Owensboro Community & Technical College.....................Inside Front Owensboro Medical Health System ......................................................Back Cover Owensboro Museum of Fine Art................. 18 Owensboro Public Schools......................... 53

Owensboro Symphony Orchestra.............. 15 Owensboro Winnelson, Co......................... 48 Pattiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Resale, Inc........................................... 9 RBS Design Group........................................ 3 Real Living/Home Realty............................ 48 Republic Bank & Trust................................ 49 South Central Bank of Daviess County....... 37 Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline, Inc...... 35 State Farm Insurance, Daniel Dick................ 6 The Summit................................................. 46 Time Warner Cable....................................... 1 Towne Square Mall...................................... 63 US Bank......................................................... 6 Wendell Fosterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Campus for Developmental Disabilities................... 57 Western Kentucky Regional Blood Center............................................... 29 Western Kentucky University..................... 59 Wilkerson Plastering & Acoustics, Inc......... 65 Wright Implement of Owensboro.............. 35 YMCA.......................................................... 22

Ebelhar Whitehead PLLC CPAs & Advisors

Same people, same location, same great service!

All that has changed is the name.

Please contact Jeff Ebelhar or Becky Whitehead and Let us know how we can serve you!

More Than Accountants, We're Problem Solvers Telephone 270.926.2922

80

100 West Third Street, Suite 200 P.O. Box 1824 Owensboro, KY 42302-1824 O w e n s b o r o

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Fax 270.684.0178

Member SIPC © Edward Jones, 2010

Has the audacity to believe investing should be face to face, not just inbox to inbox.

It shouldn’t be a crazy idea that investments deserve personal attention. That’s why we put our 10,000 offices in neighborhoods. So we’re easier to get to, and spend time with. Join the nearly 7 million investors who know. Face time and think time make sense. www.edwardjones.com

John M Hess

Financial Advisor .

2429 W Parrish Avenue Owensboro, KY 42301 270-926-9700

One of the highest-rated hospitals for quality serves your community.

OMHS ranks among Top 5% in the nation for Quality

HealthGrades, a national healthcare ratings firm, continues to recognize OMHS with its Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence AwardTM. OMHS is one of 270 hospitals in the United States – and one of the few in Kentucky – to receive this award, placing OMHS in the top 5% in the nation for overall quality.

What this means to you is that some of the nation’s top quality healthcare remains available close to home. Care from a team of talented, concerned professionals who provide some of the country’s best medical treatment.

Learn more at omhs.org