The LINK Reader - March/April 2022

MARCH/APRIL 2022

Who are we?

Rural NKY

Suburban NKY

Urban NKY

Here’s why residents of Northern Kentucky’s rural communities say they experience the best of both our region’s worlds.

Once rural, our area’s suburban cities have watched change happen in real time and say they enjoy living “where the city meets the country.”

Change is the name of the game for the river cities in Urban Northern Kentucky.

But can the urban core unite our region?

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LINK Partners We are grateful to all LINK’s Partners - those organizations in the community who believe strongly in what we are doing, and have thrown their full support behind us.

These NKY institutions are helping bring a voice back to our community.

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PRESIDENT & CEO Lacy Starling CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Mark Collier CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Michael Monks MANAGING EDITOR Meghan Goth LINK REPORTERS Kenton Hornbeck, Haley Parnell GOVERNMENT & POLITICS REPORTER Mark Payne CONTRIBUTORS Brian Frey, Jason Finnell, Robin Gee, G. Michael Graham, Melissa Reinert, Patricia A. Scheyer, Abigail Shoyat, Dan Weber, Eric Willoughby DESIGN Erin Sendelbach CONTACT INFORMATION LINK Media, LLC 621 Madison Avenue | Covington, Kentucky 41011 859-261-2729 | www.LINKnky.com SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER The Daily LINK here, just scan with your camera app

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SUPPORTING PARTNERS

The LINK Reader is published bi-monthly by LINK Media, LLC. It is mailed free to every resident in NKY, because we want everyone to receive this news, regardless of their access to technology or ability to pay.

The NKY Community Journalism Fund, a component fund of Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky, collaborates with community supporters like you to protect and expand public interest journalism that has a direct impact on our community. We aim to increase our region’s ability to engage the public, call for accountability, and explore solutions to make a difference for the people of Northern Kentucky.

Join us in supporting this critical work by scanning the QR code below and donating to the Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky.

No part of this publication may be used without permission of the publisher. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings, and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please let us know and accept our sincere apologies in advance.

MARCH/APRIL 2022 3

Table of contents

10

HALEY PARNELL

15

KENTON HORNBECK

19

Rural Northern Kentucky residents say they have the best of both worlds

Suburban Northern Kentucky: Remembering the old and appreciating the new

MEGHAN GOTH Can the urban core help unite Northern Kentucky?

26

MICHAEL A. MONKS

29

MARK PAYNE

LINK nky strives to bring comprehensive daily news back to region, follows long line of footsteps

How Gravity Diagnostics put NKY on front lines of COVID fight

letter from the CEO

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hat you are holding in your hands is the future of news in the NKY Metro. The LINK Reader (and our daily digital news site www.LINKnky.com) is the culmination of years of work by many different members of our community. I’m so proud of the team we’ve built and what they’ve created.

Getting something new, like the LINK Reader, in your mailbox is sure to raise some questions: Who are these folks?

Who controls LINK Media? What’s their end game? I hope I can help answer some of those questions for you today.

What are we trying to do? Our mission is simple: With a focus on the public interest, LINK Media advances the Northern Kentucky Metro in the region, the commonwealth and the nation by providing transformative coverage of the news of the day with focus on the deeper issues that matter most to our community.

Who are we? Internally, LINK is made up of journalists who have been working in the market for years. Michael Monks’ River City News and Mark Collier’s Fort Thomas Matters were both acquired by the larger LINK entity in October, and all the writers and support staff who had worked for them came along. Same people, bigger coverage area.

We’ve also hired fantastic, talented journalists from local schools (WKU, NKU, and UC) to expand our full-time staff and bring more of the coverage NKY needs. You’ll read some of their work in these pages.

Additionally, we have two boards. Our Managing Board is made up of a combination of local investors and nonprofit organizations. Our investors, Bill Butler, David Heidrich and Mark Perkins, have put their own money in because they believe strongly in what we are doing. The nonprofit organizations with seats on the board do not have financial obligations to us - rather, they are there to ensure that LINK is serving the entire community, not just the investors.

Those organizations are the NKY Chamber of Commerce, the Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky, the OneNKY Alliance, and Northern Kentucky University.

The managing board oversees the business side of LINK, and has no say in editorial content, policy or coverage. They also understand that even though we are a for-profit entity, our goal is not to return profit to shareholders. Our goal is to use all of our resources to hire more reporters, publish more content, and ensure our long-term existence.

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The Editorial Board is where we give the community a voice. You’ll meet the members of our editorial board in a bit, and read more about their role, but in brief, they are the mirror that the community holds up to our staff to show us if we’re meeting our mission. NKY is a diverse community - in many senses of the word. It’s not possible for our editorial staff to have feet in every corner of the community,

so we will rely on the members of this board to tell us when we’ve missed something important, or failed to see a different perspective. We are very excited to hear their input, and see how it improves what we are doing – in real time.

How are we paying for this? Starting a media organization in this day and age feels like a risky proposition. After all, the Kentucky Post folded 15 years ago because it couldn’t make the economics work. I won’t pretend to have completely cracked that nut, but I will say this - the unique funding stack that we’ve put together combines the best practices we’ve found around the country for making local journalism work.

First, we took on investors to acquire RCN and FTM, and fund our startup expenses. Second, we are selling sponsorships and advertising across all our platforms to fund operational and non-editorial expenses (like paying rent and the electric bill) and to pay for sports and entertainment reporting. Third, we have created the NKY Community Journalism Fund at the Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky, where individuals and organizations can donate tax-deductible money that can then be used to support public interest journalism, like government, healthcare and education reporting.

Most importantly to our readers, though, is the question of subscription fees. Part of our mission is to provide the news to the community regardless of people’s financial situation or access to technology. For that reason, we are committed to keeping news reporting, and this bi-monthly print edition, free for everyone. But it is very hard for a news organization to grow and thrive without some form of recurring subscription or membership base. So we are contemplating ways to make that work, whether it’s by setting up memberships for premium content, giving first access to longer-form pieces to subscribers, or something different altogether.

But let me say again: The news of the day, and this bi-monthly print publication, will always be free, for everyone in the NKY Metro.

In closing, I’d just like to say that I am so excited for what we are creating at LINK, and I truly believe that this organization will outlive all of us, if we get it right. (And we’re working very hard to get it right.) I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve my adoptive community in this way, and look forward to the challenges and rewards it will bring.

I’m sure that there are many more questions you have for me, readers. I’d love to hear from you, and perhaps include your questions in future columns on the website. Please email me your thoughts and questions at lacy@linknky. com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay well, Lacy Starling President & CEO LINK Media

MARCH/APRIL 2022 5

editorial board

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he LINK Team is pleased to announce the first five members of our seven-person Editorial Board. These individuals will be responsible for consuming the news that LINK reports, and discussing our coverage through monthly meetings. They won’t write policy, or be responsible for taking stances on issues (LINK doesn’t do political endorsements or write our own opinion pieces). Rather, they’ll let us know how well we’re holding to our Guiding Principles, and how well our content reflects the diversity of our community.

Rich Boehne, Newport

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Rev. Richard Fowler, Wilder

Will Johnson, Newport

Susan McClure, Union

Dr. Jim Votruba, Fort Thomas

If you are interested in serving as a member of our Editorial Board, we are still looking for our last two members. To apply, simply go to https://bit.ly/LINKedboard.

“your name here”

“your name here”

MARCH/APRIL 2022 7

Elect

Chris Robinson KENTUCKY STATE SENATE 24TH DISTRICT HHHHHHHHHHH

About Me Veteran – US Army Corps of Engineers Small Business Owner BA Psychology (Northern Kentucky University) M.Ed. Clinical Counseling (Xavier University) Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor – KY KHSAA Basketball Official

The Issues

A

letter from the CCO

t the risk of oversimplifying the circumstances behind the current state of discourse in this country, I believe that a strong remedy – one that could at least put us back on a path of civility and productive conversation about our problems and their solutions – is bolstering local journalism.

once again value one another as neighbors, as people, and not as a voter/supporter of this or that candidate. We will find common ground again and agree on a common set of facts, if while civilly disagreeing on how to address issues.

So much of our current political, governmental, and social environment seems to be viewed through a national lens: Who you supported for president in 2020 may determine who you support for city council or school board or dogcatcher.

LINK nky was founded through the merger of The River City News (which I created in 2011) and Fort Thomas Matters (created by friend and now co-worker Mark Collier in 2009). We hope to build on our solid foundation of a local focus, an independent mindset, and a fair approach to the issues of the day in our communities.

It may even determine which news you decide to consume, not because you are seeking truth, but because you want to indulge in your preferred narrative. You want to be mad about the same things as your favorite TV talking head.

You may even brag on social media about your favorite cable news show’s ratings.

Has that ever been the case in our history before when average citizens and news consumers celebrate one show’s dominance over another?

In the unique role I’ve had in Northern Kentucky over the past decade, I’ve gotten to know a lot of people of all stripes, from all corners of the region. I’ve spoken to countless people for stories, or just for casual interaction.

I know that at our core, we are mostly good, and we want good things for each other.

Should it be that way?

I think not.

But I believe it is that way because of the diminished presence of local news across the country.

As long as we marry our eyes to national cable news and our ears to national talk radio and our fingertips to agenda-driven national online sites, we will continue to lose our connection to our local community.

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We want information, we want to know what is going on, and when all that is available to us is an agenda-driven charlatan on radio or TV or online, that is where we gravitate.

Political polarization is not new, but has it ever been so extreme? So dangerous? Have we ever experienced such information overload, smothered by misinformation all at the same time?

It does not have to be this way.

Paid for by Committee to Elect Chris Robinson for Kentucky Senate 8 MARCH/APRIL 2022

This will sound self-serving, perhaps, but it is my strong belief that if we as a local community turn our focus to local news first, where the rubber meets the road, we will

But I can’t simply ask you to, instead, turn your focus to LINK nky.

What we at LINK nky are going to do is work hard with a commitment to independence, fairness, and comprehensive local journalism that motivates you to look to us first.

Politicians in Washington, talking heads in New York, and bloggers in God-knowswhere don’t care about the pothole on the busy street in your neighborhood.

They don’t care about the challenges your schools are facing. They don’t even know the name of your town.

Together, we can turn the focus of our precious time — our celebrations, our concerns, and our occasional outrage — to the things that impact us most.

LINK nky will bring you local government, sports, business, community, and event news — and more. And when we do, we want you to tell us how we are doing, what we are missing, and when we get it right or wrong.

And you can do that on the phone or email or even at our office door, because unlike all those shouting hosts on radio and TV and online, we are right here in your neighborhood, your community, your region.

We will approach this job thinking of you in that respect, and we want you to look at us that way, too.

When we remember that we are people — and neighbors — with common wants, needs, and feelings, I think we can begin to heal these deep wounds brought on by spending too much of our time celebrating national events and personalities, and not paying enough attention to what is happening right outside our window.

It is our honor to work on this with you.

But we do.

And so do you.

Michael A. Monks Chief Content Officer LINK Media

MARCH/APRIL 2022 9

Rural Northern Kentucky residents say they have the best of both worlds

BY HALEY PARNELL, LINK nky REPORTER | PHOTOS BY ABIGAIL SHOYAT, LINK nky CONTRIBUTOR

Kevin Williamson, a lifelong Rabbit Hash native, heads out to take care of his cattle Sunday morning, Jan. 30. The Williamsons acquired the land after World War II, and Kevin has spent all but one year of his life at the family’s farmhouse.

Williamson heads to the barn to gather feed for the cattle who begin to come down from the neighboring fields, highly familiar with him and his routine. “When me, my brother and my sons are all here, they know something is up,” Williamson said in reference to the butchering season.

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efore second grade, Rachel Franzen played in the creek and picked wildflowers for her mom in the hayfields on her neighbor’s land that stretched around her parents’ property in California, Kentucky.

When Franzen was in second grade, her neighbors sold their field, and a subdivision took its place.

“Even that climate jump was very strange just because we couldn’t go anywhere we wanted to go anymore,” Franzen said. “We saw it as a shock, like oh my gosh, people are intruding on our home.”

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“Kentucky cities collectively increased their population by 7.1% from 2010 to 2020,” According to klccitylimit.com. “Central Kentucky – particularly the ‘golden triangle’ area between Louisville, Lexington, and northern Kentucky – remains one of the highest growth areas.”

Rural areas are stereotyped as being for people in agriculture, but many people who live there prefer it to a city or suburb because of the privacy it holds and the land they can own. Many people who live in rural areas have grown up in less populated areas, and enjoy the seclusion it offers.

Now 24, Franzen recently closed on her mother’s childhood home, which happens to be next door to the house where she grew up. Franzen said she is a “for lifer” when it comes to rural living.

Jim Lackey grew up on Uhl Road in Silver Grove. He has lived within about a 10-mile radius his entire life, aside from when he moved away for college. He now lives in California, Kentucky, with his wife and two dogs.

What is life like on the Southern ends of Northern Kentucky today?

Living out in the country feels more like home, Lackey said.

The communities have continued to grow, as any long-term resident of the area can attest. Northern Kentucky has diverse areas that make up the region, and who you are as a Northern Kentuckian might differ from urban to suburban to rural living.

Where you live also affects how you view the growth in population that is forcing more development in each area.

“My closest neighbor right now is probably a mile away. We help each other all the time. His cows get out; I run them back down to him and fix his fence,” Lackey said.

“But there’s peace and quiet. You just get out here and do your own thing. You don’t have to worry about an HOA or somebody imposing rules and regulations. You just have your own little piece of the pie.”

Convenience and privacy are aspects of rural living that Franzen can appreciate.

“I do love where I live,” Franzen said. “Being probably a half an hour from whatever- I mean, I could go a half-hour south and be in the middle of cow pastures, and then I could go a half-hour north, and I’m sitting downtown Cincinnati. It’s rare that you can do that. And still have the privacy of where I live.”

Everyone has heard the phrase southern hospitality, and for Lackey and Franzen, it perfectly describes their corner of Northern Kentucky.

“In the rural parts, people are a little more to themselves,” Lackey said. “They’re a little more private. But if you had something go wrong at home, they would come to help you.”

Franzen said she feels like there is a sense of family among her neighbors that have lived around her entire life.

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KELLER MICHELLE

KENTUCKY SUPREME COURT

Greetings fellow Northern Kentuckians! It’s a privilege to be a part of this inaugural issue of The Link Reader. It has been my greatest honor to serve both as your Court of Appeals Judge and now your Supreme Court Justice over the past 15 years.

I was born, raised, and attended school here. My husband, Jim and I were married at St. Agnes Church 36 years ago, and this is home to us and our daughters, Brenna and Olivia. I hope to continue as your public servant through this term and beyond.

“I would definitely say that I have no doubt in my mind that the people around us, if I ever needed anything, or even if I didn’t need anything and just wanted to go talk to somebody people are always so welcoming to do that,” Franzen said. “I don’t think you can find that everywhere. I think that’s a luxury that people in this area kind of take for granted. Rarely can you walk up to somebody and just not have a full-on conversation with them.”

People who live on the southern end are proud of where they live and come from.

Many residents are protective of their homes and have fears of unwanted developments encroaching upon them.

“I even look at Alexandria as an example right now because you still have some rural parts of Alexandria, but you cannot go down 27 without being stopped 10 times from either traffic or red lights or whatever it might be,” Franzen said. “That all has to do because of the development, and they just keep coming and coming with it. And it’s just going to keep getting worse and worse because they’ve already set that precedent.

And you can’t undo it. You can’t stop it.”

Lackey, who is in his 50s, has seen the progression of development around Northern Kentucky while growing up and continuing to live in the area.

Continues on page 12

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Continued from page 11

“Tommy Shultz owned part of the land where Arcadia is, and I remember back in the day that was a hog farm,” Lackey said.

“I mean, they would raise 250 to 300 hogs a year right there where Ford is and the drive that goes back to Arcadia. It’s just gotten so congested now. Walmart went in, and now we have a Walmart, so subdivisions started going in. For some reason, we need a Ford dealership and a Chevy dealership. We’ve got all this now. You need restaurants for people, and Alexandria is the Mecca for car washes.”

Residents of rural areas chose to live there for a reason. They like their privacy. When more businesses pop up in places, it causes more people to move to the area, bringing traffic with them.

“It’s all coming further South,” Franzen said. “It’s because of demand, and I don’t blame anybody for that. It’s a demand for the influx of people that are coming into the rural areas. Still, the rural areas that they’re moving to really aren’t rural anymore because they’re just being developed into being subdivisions or whatever it is.”

Franzen said that people in rural areas see what development is doing to other parts of the county, and they don’t want that for themselves. She relates it to everyone’s preferences. Having your home change or daily endeavors change based on what other people think the area needs or should want is scary for her.

Neltner’s farm in Melbourne, Kentucky,

was a full-time vegetable farm from 1978 until 12 years ago when the family started implementing their fall festival and eight years ago when they began their wedding venue business on the farm.

Kevin Neltner is the fifth generation on the farm.

“We were a full vegetable farm,” Neltner said. “I mean, that farm dates back to the families in 1892. We were full-time vegetables; we produced a massive amount of vegetables, and as time evolved, things like the public not consuming in great volume.

They don’t can them; they don’t do that kind of stuff anymore. So, we cut back on the vegetable part, and that’s why you see we went towards the agritourism part.”

The Neltners have benefitted from the influx of people moving to the area because they attend their festivities at the farm and use their wedding venue.

“I think developments have sort of slowed down over the years,” Neltner said. “And I think we’re all pretty comfortable about it.”

The expanding population in Northern Kentucky’s suburbs and cities like to get out into the country and enjoy what it has to offer too.

“Because we’ve opened it up to agritourism, I feel like a lot of people get to experience what we see every day,” Neltner said.

“It sort of brings the city out to the country; it’s a neat feeling to let everybody enjoy since there’s not a lot of farms in Campbell County.”

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12 MARCH/APRIL 2022

Williamson fills the trough for the cattle. In colder weather, more concerted efforts are required to sustain them, including periodically breaking the ice over the stream and pond to allow them to drink.

More goes into finding a field of open space and deciding you want something to be built there. Whether for residential purposes or commercial, zoning laws and regulations play a factor in developments.

Specifically looking at rural areas, it can be hard to develop due to sewer and water systems in place – or a lack thereof.

“It’s [development] limited by the utilities available,” said Campbell County Planning and Zoning Director Cindy Minter. “Do you have water, sewers, gas? Then, the roadway systems, is it designed to handle the traffic?

Are the school systems in place? All of it has to be balanced together.”

The capacity of what things can handle comes into play, Minter said. Water lines typically tend to be smaller on the county’s southern end than on the northern end. Some areas have Northern Kentucky Water District, while some have Pendleton County Water District.

The topography in the area has many ridges and hills, which she said makes the area great for residential builds but not as much for commercial builds as you might see in Boone County, which has a lot of flat land.

Williamson takes his tractor out to one of the pastures to unload a bale of hay. In the summer, his eldest grandchild (who also resides on the family’s property) enjoys riding in the tractor with him. In citing his grandson’s infatuation, Williamson said, “he’s probably peering out the window right now after he heard it.”

“Opinions vary widely,” Minter said. “We try to be respectful of those opinions, and the voices are heard. If there is pushback, the project could go away, most projects go forward, but there are some that never make it to the table.”

Lackey can attest to some of the issues when building in southern Campbell

County. He had his home built and found a few challenges along the way.

in a septic system because we don’t have city hookups for that.”

“There are conveniences when you buy a house in the suburbs or a subdivision. You got sewage industry, you got water industry, you got gas industry,” Lackey said. “Out here, we had to put a huge cistern in because we don’t have city water, and we put

He also said that internet service was nonexistent for their first three years of living there. They used hotspots for internet connection.

Continues on page 14

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Continued from page 13

One specific project that has made Franzen fearful of development in her area is a highway extension called the Eastern Bypass highway.

“It’s been a few years, but there was talk of an interstate extension,” Franzen said.

“Looking at where that map would have been, it would have taken out a lot of the homes around me. I think that’s when development in general kind of like hit us like a rock wall because it would affect every aspect of life.”

Franzen is not the only one familiar with the road extension. Campbell County Conservation District and Campbell Conservancy board member Jim Benton said it is called The Eastern Bypass.

“The Eastern Bypass is championed by Drees, Home Builders,” Benton said. “This ultimately would be like a 275 loop around the city. Primarily going to interstate 71-75, cutting across somewhere in the northern Pendleton, California area. I spoke with the

14 MARCH/APRIL 2022

transportation cabinet about the likelihood of this happening, and currently, it’s just too expensive.”

with eight neighbors. They went to the extension office and agreed on what could and couldn’t happen with their land.

Franzen said though the road would be great for commerce, the noise and pollution that traffic would bring to the area would change many residents’ way of life.

“It gives us a little bigger voice if we ever get pressured to sell,” Lackey said.

“If you can place a conservation development easement on your property, it will make it much, much harder,” Benton said.

A conservation development easement is a voluntary way landowners can stick together to protect their lands.

“It’s a 250-acre minimum amount of land to fall under this agricultural district,” Benton said. “So, it could be you and your five neighbors, or 10 neighbors have a kind of handshake agreement, be part of this district, and that district can afford some protection from the county changing your zoning.”

Lackey is in what he refers to as a “Co-op”

Campbell County is 25 miles long, Minter said. It changes so much from one end of the county to the other, and every area has its own personality.

“Through the years that we’ve lived out here, things culturally and environmentally have changed, the speed of life, I go to work, and everything just seems to happen so fast,” Lackey said. “You get out of here, and you just get back to the basics. I get home, and it’s just quiet and slowed down.”

Now a homeowner in rural Northern Kentucky, Franzen thinks a lot about what could happen to the area around her as she sets permanent roots for herself. The land next to where she purchased her house is an open field that could have the potential

Left: Over the weekend, temperatures had dipped into single digits and roughly five inches of snow had accumulated in Boone County. The cattle have barns to which they can retreat, but often opt to stay in the fields unless the weather is particularly harsh.

Center: Williamson pets one of the farm’s two horses, the more docile of the pair, that allows his grandchildren to ride, even without a saddle.

Right: The cattle, farmed for their beef, gather at the trough. The colored tags on their ears help the farmers identify the animals.

to be developed just like the one that she used to play in back in second grade.

“I have thought about it,” Franzen said.

“What would happen if technically two, three houses could fit on that land? What would happen if a zone changed in order for three or four houses to go in next door to my house? I would not be happy. I love the privacy that is my home, and I love being able to use every nook and cranny of the land that we have here.”

Suburban Northern Kentucky: Remembering the old and appreciating the new

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here the city meets the country.”

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KENTON HORNBECK, LINK nky REPORTER

This is the official motto of the city of Alexandria, a small, unassuming home-rule city in central Campbell County nestled along scenic US 27.

ing relative to the national average and many other large metropolitan areas,” Janet Harrah, Executive Director of Economic Outreach at NKU Haile/US Bank College of Business said. “A key to the low cost of living is the region’s affordable housing, which is substantially below the national average.”

It’s a 25-minute drive south of Cincinnati and serves as one of the two dual county seats for Campbell County. It emulates many other growing cities throughout Northern Kentucky – formerly rural communities transforming into suburban towns.

Economic development has changed the socioeconomic fortune of the area. When your region’s economic potential is being realized, its cultural essence can morph to accommodate those polarizing changes. In the 21st century, the region’s economy relies less on agriculture than ever before.

Northern Kentucky was once a rural, economically agrarian region. Besides the urban centers along the Ohio River in northern Kenton and Campbell counties, the region mainly consisted of private farmland. Most of the familiar community developments we see today – such as sprawling subdivisions, shopping malls and even Northern Kentucky University – were built on top of these farms.

This raises an important question for suburban Northern Kentuckians: Who exactly Continues on page 16 are we?

A local patron grabs a take out order at Lou Lou’s Cafe in the Spare-Time Grill building.

Kevin Wright, a native of southern Campbell County, has watched his childhood community transform since he grew up there in the 1970s and 80s.

“I grew up on a 170-acre farm near Grant’s Lick in the 1970s and 80s,” Wright said. “Our house was about a mile up Siry Rd. It was the first house you came to on the road. I remember baling hay on the Marshman dairy, site of present day Parkside development; chopping corn on the Darlington farm, today the Darlington Creek subdivision.”

While many of the activities Wright experienced farming as a kid, such as baling hay, still happen in the region, they aren’t as pervasive as they once were.

Culturally the area still exudes many of its rural characteristics from generations past.

However, suburban sprawl has encroached on a significant amount of this historic farmland.

But why is this happening?

“Northern Kentucky has a low cost of liv-

MARCH/APRIL 2022 15

Continued from page 15

Much of the Arcadia subdivision is completed.

This question can be answered through the lens of a town like Alexandria.

Alexandria is a community surrounded by green rolling hills and beautiful farmland.

It isn’t landlocked by other neighboring municipalities, allowing it room to expand outward. According to Zillow, aver-

Some new Arcadia homes are still in the construction phase.

age home prices in Alexandria are cheaper than other local cities such as Villa Hills and Ft. Mitchell.

Alexandria pairs small town charm with all the amenities of a typical suburban area. Its boutiques and salons along Ky 10, which acts as a de facto Main Street, give

H H H H H VOTE IN THE PRIMARY MAY 17TH H H H H H

the town a charming, rustic vibe. Its proximity is close enough to Cincinnati to make the commute north relatively convenient, while also being a stone’s throw away from the countryside to enjoy the scenery.

“The rolling hills and beautiful nature, access to the AA Highway and 275, with the ability to go East or West, and the connection from 27 to 471 and with easy access to downtown Cincinnati” gives Alexandria the best of both urban and rural worlds, said Steve Whaley, Director of Marketing at Fischer Homes.

These pull factors make Alexandria a great place to move for empty nesters and young families who want to get away from the hustle and bustle of Northern Kentucky’s urban core concentrated around along the Ohio River.

As a region, Northern Kentucky is economically enticing for businesses and housing development.

CAMPBELL COUNTY HOUSE DISTRICT 68

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“The cost of doing business in Northern Kentucky is very competitive,” Harrah said.

“The region has some of the lowest utility rates in the United States. The region is ringed with fiber optics. Location also impacts the cost of doing business. Northern Kentucky is within a one-day’s drive or a 90-minute flight from two-thirds of the U.S. population. A crucial factor leading to robust growth in the region’s transportation, logistics, warehousing, and e-commerce industries.”

These factors help explain why the region’s population has exploded in its formerly rural areas.

Alexandria is currently experiencing popula-

tion growth. Studying data from the US Census Bureau can help us understand how the country town has grown through the years.

Until 1960, Alexandria boasted fewer than 1,000 people. In 1980, the town’s population nearly quadrupled to 5,000 people.

From 1990 to 2000, Alexandria grew by 48.2 percent. That’s approximately 8,000 more people. Since the turn of the century, Alexandria has added over 2,000 more residents to put their population count firmly over 10,000. To put it into context, the town went from a population of 316 in 1920, to 10,341 in 2020.

The motto of “where the city meets the country” can be interpreted literally.

Geographically speaking, Alexandria serves as the gateway community between Campbell County’s northern cities such as Newport and Fort Thomas, and rural southern communities such as Claryville and Grant’s Lick. You can witness this dramatic urban to suburban to rural shift as you drive south on US 27 from Cincinnati.

Campbell County High School serves as a symbolic road marker for the suburban to rural stretch of the drive. Residents know that once you pass CCHS, you’ve officially reached rural Campbell County.

“It would have been impossible to go into Alexandria to the grocery or feed store and not meet several acquaintances. Today, I can often visit several businesses on a Saturday morning and see absolutely no one I know,” Wright said.

Similar to Alexandria for Campbell County, Independence serves as a suburban gateway town for Kenton County. Independence sits in between the urban core of Kenton County, Covington, and its rural towns such

as Nicholson, Piner and Morning View.

Independence was once a small, rural town in central Kenton County with a population of only 309 people in 1960. By the beginning of the 1970s, Independence’s population ballooned to 1,715. The town continued rapid growth into the 1980s, boasting a population of approximately 8,000 by the end of the decade.

Independence nearly doubled in size by the turn of the century with a population of approximately 15,000. In 2022, Independence once again nearly doubled in size, boasting a population of approximately 29,000 according to the US Census Bureau.

The tale of Alexandria’s growth into a suburban town can be told through its commercial expansion. Since 1960, the town has added a Walmart Supercenter, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Planet Fitness, Walgreens, O’Reilly Auto Parts, multiple car washes, multiple car dealerships, and numerous other fast-food chains. The community, however, isn’t a dystopian wasteland of heat-lamp burger restaurants. Alexandria’s economy is reliant upon various small businesses like gyms, coffee shops, garages, boutiques, bars, bowling alleys and breweries.

These small businesses served as a symbol of community resiliency throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Similarly, other Northern Kentucky cities’ economies have a saturation of national chain businesses, as well as a robust small business sector. Independence, too, has a

The Alexandria Park lake, frozen over on a chilly day.

plethora of fast food restaurants, small businesses and gas stations mixed with subdivision cul-de-sacs. This is a hallmark description of an economy in American suburbia.

Alexandria’s big box businesses sit juxtaposed to its small town community staples such as the legendary Spare-Time Grill.

The original Spare-Time opened in 1958.

The diner is a jewel of the community, an icon of a different era. It serves as a historic, physical reminder that represents the spirit of what the community once was.

The Spare-Time opened when Alexandria had fewer than 1,000 people. Its neon lights have waited around, patiently observing the town growing up around it. In 1958, across the street from Spare-Time, there sat nothing but fields of farmland. In 2022, the Spare-Time building is across the street from a Burger King and a Speedway; pillars of a healthy modern society. Soon they will be joined by both Popeyes and Dunkin Donuts.

Mayor Andy Schabell grew up in the town.

He graduated from Bishop Brossart, Alexandria’s local Catholic high school. He, too, has witnessed the dramatic changes in the town he now presides over as mayor. He remembers a time when recognizable community symbols such as the Village Green shopping center didn’t exist.

The historic Campbell County courthouse.

“When I was in high school, the area of the Village Green shopping center was all cow fields. Arcadia, Summerlake, Timber Creek subdivisions were all farms. US Continues on page 18

MARCH/APRIL 2022 17

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27 was a narrow four lane road instead of the wider four lane road with the median that it is now,” Schabell said. “But it is nice to see that some things haven’t changed very much over the years. Southern Lanes Bowling Alley, the Alexandria Fair Grounds and Spare-Time restaurant, now named Lou Lou’s Café, have all been staples of the Alexandria community enjoyed by generations.”

Population growth in Alexandria created a greater demand for housing. In 2007, Fischer Homes and the Drees Company announced Arcadia, a suburban development across the highway from Alexandria’s Village Green shopping center.

Arcadia refers to a vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. The name derives from a mountainous region in southern Greece with the same name.

Alexandria’s Arcadia emulates a prototypical 21st century American suburb. Mani-

cured green lawns guard two-story homes veneered with brick and siding. Besides suburban homes, Arcadia also features condominiums, townhomes with ground level access and single-level floor plan patio homes.

The development brings more tax revenue and consumer spending power, something immeasurably beneficial to a developing community. Although Arcadia is a positive symbol of growth, large suburban developments can have negative side effects on the community. Arcadia has given too many people access to the town’s infrastructure.

In turn, the infrastructure’s effectiveness can be strained, even overwhelmed.

A sewer construction moratorium from 1999 to 2009 prevented any more suburban development throughout the time period, Mayor Schabell said. The moratorium is now over and development has commenced. Alexandria’s infrastructure hasn’t scaled quickly enough to compensate for its rapid population growth.

A predictable issue that has arisen is Arcadia’s effect on the flow of traffic. Residents have expressed concerns about increasing traffic on US 27 due to Arcadia. With over 1,000 housing units, morning and afternoon traffic increases due to the volume of residents commuting to and from work.

There’s little access to public transit, or adequate funding to build enough new roads to offset rising congestion.

“Fischer Homes would love to develop additional communities in Alexandria, but the topography combined with the lack of infrastructure makes this very difficult,” Whaley said. “We have seen success in other communities like Summerlake and Darlington Creek in Campbell Country, but those are either sold out or are coming to an end.”

Schabell echoes this sentiment. He expects continued growth and development for his community, but concedes there will be hurdles, not only politically but sentimentally.

“I do expect continued growth over the next 10 years,” Schabell said. “Unfortunately, much of this growth will continue on properties that were formerly farms. While I wish the city was in position to purchase the vacant land and keep it pristine, that isn’t the role of city government, and there simply isn’t enough money in our budget to do such a thing even if we really wanted to.

We will continue to do our best to ensure that new subdivisions and businesses that come into the city will reflect the values of Alexandria and keep as much land untouched as possible.”

left his community altered as compared to when he grew up. Did we trade beautiful rural scenery for a Long John Silvers and a few dentists offices? Wright holds a respectably nuanced view of the situation.

“There is a nostalgic part of me that misses the old southern Campbell, but generally I embrace the changes,” Wright said.

“It makes me especially happy when I see second and third generations raising their families in the same place as their parents and grandparents.”

Many Northern Kentuckians whose families have grown up here for generations share the sentiment. Substitute Alexandria for Florence, or Burlington, or Independence. Those residents have watched the land around them develop as they’ve aged.

That same land is looked upon by generations of the same families’ eyes.

Their grandparents observed something different on that land. Now as their grandchildren look upon it, they may see a restaurant, bar or shopping center. It’s the same land the cows used to roam.

The only thing that’s changed is what’s built on top of it.

That’s who we are as Northern Kentuckians. We can rock out at the farmers market, and get a beer at the Levee. We’re humbly fond and sentimental of our communities from yesteryear. Respectful of our past, but relishing to embrace a future. We were never afraid of change, just mindful not to forget everything it took to get us here.

That’s what makes us, us.

For natives like Wright, these changes have

18 MARCH/APRIL 2022

Ky 10 in the late afternoon.

Can the urban core help unite Northern Kentucky?

T

MEGHAN GOTH, LINK nky MANAGING EDITOR | PHOTOS BY ERIC WILLOUGHBY, LINK nky CONTRIBUTOR

he elevator opens. A wide hallway leads to a front desk, flanked by staircases that arch down to the front doors of 100 E. Rivercenter.

Bill Butler’s office is on the 10th floor. It overlooks the Roebling, which stretches over the Ohio River to Downtown Cincinnati.

A beautiful view. An ironic view, perhaps, for a man who has spent his life building up a place that is at times reluctantly reliant on the city his window frames.

“We don’t have an identity,” he said on a zoom call from Florida. “What is our identity? Whatever it is, Cincinnati looks down on it.”

It isn’t the office one would expect for a person most credited, at least anecdotally for this project, with influencing what urban Northern Kentucky, and perhaps most of Northern Kentucky, has come to be.

There’s a desk in the center of the room with five neat piles of paper spaced out evenly. A few momentos.

The view is the showstopper.

Angie Fischer’s office is almost as big as his, but hers has a lot more in it. Fischer is the director of the office of the chairperson.

She is here, holding down the fort while Butler is in Florida.

Back downstairs, revolving doors open to Rivercenter Boulevard. A coffee shop is to the right, then the Embassy Suites by Hilton Cincinnati RiverCenter and Cincinnati Marriott at Rivercenter; the hotels’ unfairly ironic names reflect Northern Kentucky’s identity, or perhaps, its frustrated relationship with the city across the river.

“Ninety percent of the people who bought condos in the Ascent project in Covington were from Cincinnati,” Butler said. “They moved over from Cincinnati. The same things happened in Newport and Bellevue and Dayton. Those are mostly Cincinnati people. So that stigma about who we are in Northern Kentucky is still there. But not really. Not with the people who have money and not with progressively thinking people.”

Jess Sheldon moved from Over-the-Rhine

with her partner, Chris, last year. They now live in a home on 7th Street in Covington.

Sheldon didn’t expect to end up in Kentucky. She was admittedly caught up in the stigma. But she loves it here.

“I feel like OTR was getting too fancy,” she said while out walking on a recent evening with Chris, their 3-month-old son, Wilder, and her dog, Findlay. “We were paying a premium to live in this tiny apartment where we are on top of each other.

“I felt like I had to get dressed up just to go down the street or get something to eat,” she said. “Here it still feels urban but it’s more …. Country urban.”

Northern Kentucky is its own place.

But it also has a reluctant if occasionally agreeable relationship with the Queen City. A place with a name. A place where the newspaper and the TV stations congregate. A place with fewer politicians and municipalities and school districts. A place that happens to be 14 feet higher than its southern counterpart, taking settlers from their initial landing place on the flat bank on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River to Cincinnati, where the hills better kept the flooding at bay.

A place that many in Northern Kentucky would say they don’t want to be; but a place with which they still associate when necessary.

Continues on page 20

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Continued from page 19

Just before the Cincinnati Marriott at RiverCenter is Madison Avenue. Traveling south, there is the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, then the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky, and the Kenton County Justice Center. Beyond that, shops and banks and restaurants, like Kung Food Amerasia, with its neon signs and bar and surprisingly cheap lunch menu.

There’s Hotel Covington, Agave & Rye, The Madison Event Center. A mile and a half later, after a turn on West 19th, is the steep hill up Benton Road.

Through two open gates with an unmanned security booth is a general store that

doesn’t look open, though resident Josiah King said it’s a decent place to get basics if a 1.5-mile trip to Kroger can be avoided.

Residents were told last year that the public housing complex, built in the 1950s, will be closed in the coming years because the cost to make necessary improvements is too high and the money just isn’t there.

The Covington Housing Authority, which owns City Heights, will sell the complex, which has about 360 units.

Urban Northern Kentucky is – and has been for decades – a place defined by change. A desire for change, the embracing of change, and yet occasionally a stubborn

hanging on to things that once were.

Maybe, then, any pushback – or even passive and sometimes active resistance – is a reflection more of a disagreement about the implementation of the change and its effect on those who were here first.

Urban NKY: Where we came from Pamela Mullins grew up in Peaselburg. She is on the Covington Human Rights Commission, an organization created “to foster mutual respect and understanding and to create an atmosphere conducive to the promotion of amicable relations among all members of the city’s community,” the website says.

Mullins is one of only two Covington City Commissioners who is African American.

Mullins also served on the Covington Board of Education. Most recently, she stopped by LINK’s offices to talk about a 42 Art Meets Activist grant she was awarded to create a social media team of women and girls who will learn video and podcasting skills.

Mullins was born in 1953. She described an integrated community with single family homes. Sure, the white people congregated toward one end of the street and the African American people on the other, but they lived together, they owned homes, they were a community.

Mullins speaks about the past, before her memories, as if she were there. Her memories come from the elders, as she calls them, who still occupy streets not torn down to make way for the public housing community City Heights, which was known then as the Ida Spence Homes.

“We were property owners, then once people were displaced, they became renters,” Mullins said. “We were fortunate my dad was a veteran and qualified for a loan through the GI bill.”

Mullins’ family moved to a home in a white neighborhood. “We integrated the neighborhood,” she said.

The home was on Greenup between Pleasant and Bird streets. It’s still there, and the family is still making use of it, she said.

Bill Butler has told this story before.

20 MARCH/APRIL 2022

The founder of Corporex could have brought his company’s headquarters anywhere in the world. But Northern Kentucky is his home. And he’s determined to make it everything it has the potential to be.

“I gave a talk recently on the fact that what we’re all about is reversing 200 years of history,” Butler said. “The settlers back in the 1500s and 1600s, they actually settled the Kentucky shores first. But everything blew up in Cincinnati because the banks of the river are sloped 14 feet higher on the Ohio side. The Kentucky side is flat. There was great farmland and topsoil. So they set up in Covington and Newport. But it flooded.”

Butler grew up on 14th and Greenup streets in Covington. He went to the old St. Xavier, the one on Seventh and Sycamore streets in Downtown Cincinnati.

When he talks about Northern Kentucky, there’s an affection in his voice that’s similar to when people talk about their children. Like Mullins, he speaks of the history of his home as if he were there to see it all those years ago.

“At 7th Street (in Covington) you see Huntington Bank and U.S. Bank,” he said. “And on the corner you see another bank and another bank. They all located at 7th Street.

Whenever people settled a community in the early days, the bank was the first to be set up. Madison and Pike, when I was a kid, that was Main Street. That’s the center of

the city of Covington.”

The Banks opened on 7th Street as opposed to closer to the river, Butler said, because of flooding.

“You had to get back at least that far to get out of the floods,” he said.

When he started in business 56 years ago, Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties amounted to about 130,000 people. Now it’s just over 400,000 people.

“In 10 years there will be close to 500,000 in this thing we call Northern Kentucky,” Butler said. “We don’t have a name.

We don’t have a reference to a place on the map. We need a name. But before we get a name, we need to become a united community. So who are we?”

What happened in the urban core, or perhaps more accurately what didn’t happen all those years ago, “speaks to a whole community,” Butler said.

“It is just now happening 500 years after

people first settled here,” he said. “And the reason it didn’t happen was because of flooding. Because our land was 14 feet lower than it was on the other side of the river.

It had nothing to do with us people.”

“high impact real estate development projects in Northern Kentucky’s River Cities by connecting people, place and product with capital and technical expertise,” its website reads.

Jeanne Schroer is the president and CEO of the Catalytic Development Funding Corp. of Northern Kentucky. The fund executes

In other words, Schroer said, the fund does not act as an actual developer of properties.

Continues on page 22

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Rather, “we have an investment fund and we use that to make loans and investments in different properties that meet our criteria. We only work on projects that would be difficult to accomplish by the private or public sector by themselves.”

The fund was born out of Northern Kentucky Vision 2015, a brain child of Butler and Chuck Scheper, who was once called the accidental mayor of Covington and is now the chairman of the board of directors at Bexion Pharmaceuticals.

“Chuck and Bill asked me to lead this thing,” Schroer said.

The Vision 15 plan, Schroer said, recognized that for a while in the 80s and early 90s, Northern Kentucky really had a lot of momentum.

“That’s when Rivercenter was developed and several fortune 500 companies moved to Northern Kentucky to be part of River-

center,” she said. “A lot of hotels were built, Newport on the Levee.”

But then, Schroer said, the area started losing momentum in the 2000s.

“You started to see a lot of disinvestment in the urban core,” Schroer said. “Covington and Rivercenter lost several major employers and tenants. That was the major concern that led to the creation of an entity that could regain the momentum that had really stagnated in the early 2000s.”

Butler, in talking about what led us to where we are now, points to two more things: The changing media landscape and Interstates 71 and 75.

First, the interstates.

“The other thing we did to screw up Covington, Newport and Cincinnati is these high-speed road systems,” Butler said. “In Europe, they don’t do this there. Their urban centers are vibrant.”

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You know the old proverb: All roads lead to Rome. Because European cities are set up the way they are, people must travel through them, as opposed to around them, as has happened in the United States.

“It used to be that way in America, too,” Butler said. “In order to get to Louisville or Columbus, you had to drive through Covington and Cincinnati. But with 75, they put it on the side of the city, and on the Kentucky side they raised it up so you were going over the top of the city in addition to going around it. So no longer did you have to go through Rome. All roads didn’t lead to Rome, they went over the top of Rome.”

On to newspapers.

“When I grew up, there was the Times Star and the Post,” Butler said.

The Cincinnati Post began publishing in 1881 and launched the Northern Kentucky edition in 1890.

The Post acquired the Times Star in 1958. The Post ceased publication in 2007.

“So the media are all in Cincinnati,” Butler said. “The primary focus is over there.”

tially primarily African American, but it’s flipping now.

OneNKY Alliance, whose mission is to transform Northern Kentucky by uniting and mobilizing leaders, holds a meeting every quarter, Butler said, and one of the things that came out of the meeting was that we don’t have a voice.

In Mullins’ mind, the changes happening in Northern Kentucky are “all about the money and the politics.”

“Northern Kentucky doesn’t have a voice,” Butler said. “We can’t talk to Frankfort, we can’t talk to each other.”

And that is how LINK came to be. Butler is on LINK’s managing board and also is one of the funders of the local news startup.

Which brings us to now.

Urban NKY: Where we are Pamela Mullins’ family home on Greenup Street is still there, and she said you’ll know which one is theirs because there’s a full porch but only half an awning.

22 MARCH/APRIL 2022

But the neighborhood around it keeps changing. Many of the homes surrounding it have become Airbnbs. Demographics are changing, Mullins said. The area was ini-

Janet Harrah is the executive director of outreach at the Haile/US Bank College of Business at Northern Kentucky University.

Before that, she led the Center for Economic Analysis and Development at NKU. “We have the same challenges any city has,” she said. “One, limited land. Two, how to balance displacement versus gentrification and historical development.”

Harrah pointed to other urban cores that have experienced similar tensions when it comes to gentrification versus maintaining historical neighborhoods: In Cincinnati, there’s Over-the-Rhine and most recently, the FC Cincinnati stadium. Those same conversations are happening in Northern Kentucky, she said. Then comes the recognition that some buildings are too old and have outlived their usefulness. And in those tensions, Harrah said, there is no quick answer.

flexible hours and benefits.

Now she’s looking to Charlotte, South Carolina. She said she heard it’s a good city for kids to grow up in and develop.

Mullins, for her part, is frustrated.

“The economic divide continues because the equity issue is still a concern,” she said.

As for City Heights, she wonders who is benefiting from the development’s closure.

“If it’s not for the benefit of the people, who is it for?” she said.

Outreach efforts on behalf of the housing authority haven’t been effective, Mullins said.

“One of the things I always tell people when they talk about affordable housing,” Harrah said. “What does that mean? Every house that is occupied is affordable for someone.”

As people occupy urban cores, she said, the bar for how much it costs for people to live there moves up.

“It’s not like you’re pricing everyone out, but it’s who you are pricing out,” Harrah said. “Typically who you are pricing out are low income individuals who have often lived there for a very long time.”

People like Ebony Friday and Josiah King and Talisha Hubbard.

People who know they have to leave the City Heights homes they’ve occupied for years, but who have been given no timeline and who don’t know where they will go.

The price to rehabilitate City Heights would be around $50 million, housing authority Executive Director Steve Arlinghaus

told WCPO 9 reporter Courtney Francisco.

WCPO has a content sharing partnership with LINK. “The federal government is just not going to award us over $50 million to take care of that,” Arlinghaus said.

But that explanation doesn’t help current residents figure out what to do next.

“There’s nowhere to go,” Friday said in one of the second-floor rooms of a City Heights apartment. “Nobody takes Section 8.”

Residents will receive Section 8 vouchers that they can use anywhere in the country, but as apartments that accept the vouchers are notoriously hard to find, many residents will have to leave the area, their jobs, their kids’ schools, and their community.

“I’m going to have to move out of town,” Friday, a single mom who works two jobs, one at New Riff and one as a home health aid, said. She likes her jobs – they provide good,

“I know there has been a lack of inclusion,” she said. “There have been outreach efforts, but how effective have they been?”

Mullins pointed to a 150-page document that outlines the relocation plan for residents of City Heights.

“One hundred and fifty pages,” she said.

“How many people are going to understand that?”

Hubbard, a 12-year resident of City Heights and a home health aid, said she knew there were meetings about the development’s eventual closure, but “since I work so much I can’t go to City Council meetings.”

Two miles north, back on the bank of the Ohio River, many projects that were outlined in a document called Northern Kentucky’s Future have come to fruition.

The document, published in September of 1981, was the result of an eight-member

Economic Development Task Force that set out to compile a report that included “a united tri-county growth plan, and to identify hindrances to growth and potentials for an increased rate of growth.”

The document’s recommendations include a significant pacesetting project in the urban center.

“A multi-purpose civic/business oriented development is hereby recommended for the highest priority to cause the greatest single impact on the trend of the entire area,” the document reads. “The core areas remain and shall always be the center of a successful metropolitan system.”

Butler has remained focused on bringing just that to the southern banks of the Ohio River.

“The Mainstrasse project has come alive after it took 30 years to ferment,” Butler said.

“That all started in 1988, and it was built through 2008 to develop Rivercenter. The result of Rivercenter was the aquarium.

Then Newport on the Levee.”

The Levee, Butler admits, has some flaws.

Flaws he is hoping to overcome with Ovation, also in Newport.

“At Ovation, there’s a street we are building and you’ll have to drive up the street, then you drive all the way across the platform.

With the Levee you have to pull into a garage, then go up an elevator,” Butler said.

“So we are going to let you drive right up.

And of course you have the music venue.”

Urban Northern Kentucky is, the Catalytic fund’s Schroer said, a place of amazing opportunity.

Continues on page 24

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Continued from page 23

“Urban Northern Kentucky has all of the assets you look at when developing,” she said. “Proximity, beauty of river and hillsides. The potential and the greatness was there and it just needed some examples of what I call catalytic investment to kind of prove there was a market.

“And if we had product that was quality and unique people would want to live and work here. We made investments that might not have been made otherwise. But now all these projects that have happened have been extremely successful.”

There are other things unique to urban Northern Kentucky that attract business and families, she said: the historic buildings, the ability to walk to attractions.

“And then the historic housing stock,” Schroer said. “We are a bit different from urban Cincinnati because there is a lot of single family housing integrated into the urban core. And it’s all very walkable to the

urban business district here.”

portive of each other.”

Urban Northern Kentucky is, Schroer said, an area of small businesses. An area where entrepreneurs have thrived.

There are bars and breweries and bakeries, but “then you have a lot of businesses like ours that aren’t retail but we are certainly serving the community,” Aichholz said. “It’s been a really great place to do business for us.”

Which brings us to Nancy Aichholz at Aviatra. The accelerator – solely for women entrepreneurs – sits in a storefront on Pike Street in Covington.

Aviatra welcomed its first cohort of entrepreneurs in 2010 and moved into their current location in 2016.

“Since then our organization has just boomed,” Aichholz said. “Between the space in general and having the connections with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the city of Covington is very real estate friendly. They are very active in bringing people into brick and mortar locations.

They make it really easy.

“They’re also really good at bringing businesses together that are going to be sup-

Urban NKY: Where we’re going There are many, many people invested in urban Northern Kentucky’s future.

“The urban renaissance is going to bring together the entire region,” said Karen Finan, president and CEO of OneNKY Alliance. “I really feel like what is happening in the urban core will bring all of this together.”

What’s happening is a lot: “From the urban side,” Finan said, “there is a lot of private development happening on the riverfront. Riverfront Commons is a walking/hiking/biking trail that has been in the works for a long time. It will connect to the crown in Cincinnati when it’s complete.

That, coupled with Ovation and the Levee remake, Manhattan Harbor, the things you see up and down this area, the redevelopment being completed by the Catalytic fund.”

Two priorities for area leaders right now, Finan said, are talent attraction and population increase.

So what’s after that? For Finan, it’s the ties

24 MARCH/APRIL 2022

between the urban, suburban and rural parts of Northern Kentucky. The marriage of those is going to be incredible, she said, and it is going to create who we are as we move forward.

“There is such a strong private sector interest in this region,” Finan said. “There is an acknowledgement that there are things we need to work on. It’s up to us to take advantage of it.”

Unity. It’s a word most everyone included in this project has pointed to as a goal.

But unity of what? People? Places? Government? And what would it mean to bring unity to all of those pieces of Northern Kentucky?

For those who rely on affordable housing, NKU’s Janet Harrah said that officials will often say we need more affordable housing, just not in their backyard.

“Some of the wealthier neighborhoods need to lead by example if you want more low-income housing in more areas,” Harrah said. Places like Indian Hill or Fort Thomas need to lead by example, she said, and bring affordable housing into these wealthier communities.

“There is a recognition that high density housing projects aren’t working,” Harrah said. “Cities around the U.S. are demolishing them because they haven’t worked. But the problem is, we are demolishing these typically urban housing projects, and we

aren’t building new low income housing to replace it in the same numbers.”

Many people, she said, cite crime as a reason they don’t want public housing in their neighborhoods.

“The problem that typically comes with high density is crime,” she said. “If you don’t have that high density housing, the incidents of crime go down greatly.”

When it comes to bringing Northern Kentucky together, Butler is excited about a new facility that will house Northern Kentucky’s growth organizations – the Catalytic Fund, OneNKY Alliance, The Chamber of Commerce, MEETnky, TriED, the Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky.

This will bring “not just the urban area but the entire community forward,” Butler said. It will be located near the Ascent in Covington, he said.

And finally: government.

“Fragmented political and geographic limitations are at the heart of the problem,” Butler said. “So you’ve got three counties, not one county. You have 30 some cities within those three counties. The same goes for the schools, for the planning, the same goes for everything.”

What would bringing together Northern Kentucky’s various forms of government look like? Could Campbell, Kenton and Boone counties become one big city?

NKU law professor Kenneth Katkin said it wouldn’t be all that hard, at least logistically.

political obstacles,” Katkin said. “There’s nothing in the Kentucky constitution that would prevent it. There’s no requirement that the localities agree to it.”

It would be as simple as a legislator introducing a bill.

“If the Republicans really wanted it, they may be able to get a bill passed even if the democratic cities didn’t want it,” he said.

The problems could, he said, come from things like: • In the suburbs of Boone and Kenton counties, they may think they would have to carry more of a financial burden if they were linked with places like Covington.

• More democratic cities like Covington and Newport would end up becoming part of a relatively conservative area if all three counties combined.

“I think there’s reasons that the democratic mayors in places like Covington and Newport – they’d be losing power so they’d probably oppose it,” Katkin said.

But it is possible, Katkin said, pointing to Louisville and Jefferson County, which went through city-county merger in 2003.

So what will it take to create an urban core that will unite the people, places and government of Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties?

In Bill Butler’s mind, Henry Kissinger put it best when he said: “The job of a leader is to get the people from where they are to where they have not been.”

“There aren’t huge obstacles to it other than

MARCH/APRIL 2022 25

LINK nky strives to bring comprehensive daily news back to region, follows long line of footsteps

Y

ou are holding in your hand the first print product from LINK Media, the parent company created last fall that acquired longtime local digital sites The River City News and Fort Thomas Matters. LINK represents the largest investment in Northern Kentucky journalism in a generation and we promise to work with a commitment to truth, independence, integrity, and this region.

We know the challenging road ahead.

We are not the first to attempt it.

But like you, we know how important it is that a region like ours has a committed voice that tells our stories, profiles our peo-

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MICHAEL A. MONKS, LINK nky CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER ple and businesses, and keeps a keen eye on the issues that shape us.

“It is important for the media, for a local newspaper, to stay in touch, not to dictate what the agenda is, but to know what the agenda is and to elevate things that are important in a community so that the whole community sees them,” said Mark Neikirk, executive director of the Northern Kentucky University Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement.

Neikirk was managing editor of the Cincinnati Post and the Kentucky Post when the Scripps-owned publications ended on December 31, 2007.

During his long career in journalism, Neikirk understood the important role of a free and independent press in local communities. The stakes are high, and extend beyond knowing local sports scores – though that is also important.

But without a local organ with a commitment and dedication to a people, the very fabric of democracy could be at stake.

“It relates to what a democracy is,” Neikirk said of a local press. “You really want participation in a democracy. That is true in the nation and in any community. It is accelerated in communities like ours where there is a tremendous division in how we are governed. We have a lot of school districts, three counties, multiple cities, a lot of special districts. So, if nobody is covering those, it is difficult to keep track of what my school board is doing, what my fiscal court is doing, what my city council is doing.”

Following the closure of the Post, a study by a Princeton economist, who continued his research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, found that voter participation in the Northern Kentucky region fell off dramatically. Fewer candidates sought public office and more incumbents were reelected.

But Neikirk noted that there are unique challenges in covering Northern Kentucky, even when the Post had 50 people working

26 MARCH/APRIL 2022

An 1875 edition of The Ticket, published in Covington

in its downtown Covington newsroom. “We never felt like we had enough people to cover everything,” he said. “You can’t go to every council, school board, or special district meeting. But you can make decisions about which ones are important to go to and try to cover those and stay as much on top of it as you can.”

Prioritizing coverage areas is familiar territory for those of us who fought against all odds to create, deliver, and sustain The River City News and Fort Thomas Matters for more than a decade. And while we were always painfully aware of our shortcomings, we are proud of what we were able to do for our community, and eager to do more now that we are on organization with more resources.

We are still far short of that 50-member news team at the Post, but we are bigger than we were, and “We confidently look to the public to sustain us.”

That quote was the last line in an editorial by the Covington Journal, which announced its return to covering local news, citing the growth of the city and the need for a hometown paper since the Cincinnati media is more focused elsewhere.

That editorial was published on February 8, 1868.

For more than 150 years this region has

known how important it is to have local, independent journalism based here. In some periods, papers rose to the occasion.

Other times, like in recent years, Northern Kentucky has been more challenged. And not only is that a problem for the present, it could affect the way we are remembered in history.

“Those sources become the foundation of historical research a decade later or sooner in many instances, particularly in smaller communities like Northern Kentucky,” said Kenton County Public Library Executive Director Dave Schroeder. He spoke recently to history majors at Thomas More University, an annual affair for him or other library representatives, about primary source materials in bolstering local research.

“When you talk about the 1860s, the 1870s, we had diaries. People kept diaries and journals. You don’t see that as much. People don’t write letters anymore,” Schroeder said. “These newspapers become even more important as the primary resource for the future. I think it even puts more emphasis on the importance of journalists to make sure they are getting it right, because you are not always telling the story of what happens today, you are informing historians 20 to 30 years down the road and providing an accurate depiction of what was happening at this time in Northern Kentucky.”

It was not long ago that there were three newspapers serving Northern Kentucky every day, albeit Kentucky editions of Cincinnati outlets. However, all three had their own newsrooms on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River.

The Cincinnati Enquirer produced The Kentucky Enquirer, and The Cincinnati Post produced the The Kentucky Post, and The Cincinnati Times-Star gave us The Kentucky Times-Star. In 1958, the Post acquired the Times-Star and for sixteen years published as the Kentucky Post & Times-Star before reverting to its former name in 1974.

With the closure of the Post in 2007, only the Enquirer remains, but it operates no newsroom in Kentucky and only has two full-time journalists assigned to Northern Kentucky stories.

In the context of historical research, “We talk consistently about newspapers because they are consistent,” Schroeder said.

“They are reliable, they are told at the time that they were written, so they are contemporary and often they are the only primary

A 1937 edition of the Kentucky Post

resources that exist.

“When you think about 50 years from now, with the video or audio that we have now, how much of that will be saved? Someone is going to have to pay for that to be saved, someone is going to have to preserve that.”

In the meantime, LINK nky picks up the baton in a region that has not received its due in terms of media coverage.

“There are 400,000 people in Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties,” said Neikirk, the former Post managing editor. “That’s a market. More people live here than in Fayette County. It would be the second-largest city in the state.”

But there are questions to be answered about Northern Kentucky, Neikirk said.

to the region’s problems and issues, but before that is possible, we know that we have to understand what those issues and problems are. We are a team of journalists and professionals who deeply care about the region and we are committed to telling our stories with fairness, empathy, and humanity.

We will do this through our print product, The LINK Reader, which will come directly to your mailbox every two months. We will do this at our website linknky.com and our email newsletter The Daily LINK every day.

We will do this through the podcast The Kentucky Side and other audio, video, and multimedia content that we will share online at our website and social media platforms.

And we will also do this by being held accountable by you, the reader.

“Is there a common cause of Northern Kentucky? Is there a townhall of Northern Kentucky? How does Northern Kentucky get on the same page about something?

We want to know what you want to see, read, hear. We want your stories, your photos, your comments.

“We have precious few institutions that bind Northern Kentucky together,” he said.

And, when you can, we want your subscription support, and your advertising dollars.

At LINK nky, we aim to focus on solutions

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Continued from page 27

After all, “we confidently look to the public to sustain us.”

We understand the stakes and the challenges of launching a new media operation in an under-served region. But we also know how important it is that we give it our all.

We truly hope you join us in the effort.

Timeline of newspapers published in Northern Kentucky Editor’s note: We recognize that some of these newspapers took abhorrent positions editorially and include them here solely for historical context. Among them is the Covington Journal, which was cited in the editor’s article, for its 150-year old editorial detailing the importance of having an independent newspaper covering Northern Kentucky. That paper published that editorial after it returned in 1868 following its being shuttered by the federal government during the U.S. Civil War for its Confederate sympathies.

Farmers Record and Covington Literary Gazette Believed to be the first newspaper in the region. It published from 1831 to 1832.

Western Colonizationist and Literary Journal Published in Covington in 1839 advocating for the removal of African Americans.

Yankee Doodle Published in Covington, 1840-1846.

Licking Valley Journal Published 1841 to 1848 in Covington and was the dominant paper of its day. It became the Covington Journal in 1848.

Cincinnati/Kentucky Enquirer Founded in 1841. In 1972, a Northern Kentucky staff was hired. Still publishing today.

Covington Journal Published in Covington from 1848 to 1876, though it was shut down for a period of time for its pro-Confederate sympathies during the U.S. Civil War. It started as a newspaper supporting the Whig Party and had a strong focus on Covington.

Daily Commonwealth Published off and on from the 1840s to the 1870s and also dominated Covington news during its era.

Interested in serving as a member of our Editorial Board?

We are still looking for our last two members.

To apply, simply go to https://bit.ly/LINKedboard or scan the QR code below.

28 MARCH/APRIL 2022

Newport and Covington Daily News Founded in 1850 by abolitionist William S. Bailey whose Newport home and press were burned to the ground by pro-slavery advocates. Bailey soon after founded another paper, The Free South, in 1858. The press for that paper was stolen from his offices and thrown into the river by pro-slavery advocates. Bailey’s work, which ceased publication in 1866 following the Civil War, represented one of the few abolitionist papers in Kentucky.

The Ticket Published three times a week with offices at Sixth Street and Madison Avenue in Covington. It merged with the Newport Messenger in 1875 and became a daily publication in 1876 before folding in 1878.

Newport Local Founded in 1876. Its first edition stated, “the aching void has been filled”, a reference to the lack of Campbell County news in local publications. Its offices were on Jefferson Street, now known as 6th Street. Newport Local published three times a week with a subscription cost of ten cents a week or four dollars a year. The editor was George M. Dittoe who previously operated a newspaper in Somerset. The focus was primarily on Newport, Bellevue, Dayton, and Alexandria (because of its standing as home of the county courthouse). In 1879, Newport Local changed its name to Kentucky State Journal and in 1891, Kentucky Journal. It closed by 1896.

Cincinnati/Kentucky Post Founded in 1890 as a four-page paper. Its first Northern Kentucky office was at 404 Scott St. (Blvd.) where thirty employees worked. It was an afternoon daily paper and in 1891 had 10,000 paid subscribers. In 1892 it moved its offices to the 400 block of Madison Avenue where it remained until 2005. In 1921, when Bruce I. Susong became editor, the paper became a crusader of clean government in Covington and Newport. It supported the city manager form of government in Covington. In 1963, editor Vance Trimble expanded its focus beyond Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties to include counties to the south. In 1965, the paper had a circulation of 50,000, down from its peak of 60,000 in 1958 when it acquired the Times-Star. In 1977, Scripps, the paper’s owner, made a 30-year deal with the Cincinnati Enquirer to print the Post and to handle its circulation and advertising. In 2005, the paper moved to RiverCenter II in Covington. In 2007, at the expiration of that 30-year agreement, the Post closed.

Cincinnati/Kentucky Times-Star Founded in 1902 and owned by the prominent Ohio political family, the Tafts. It was an afternoon paper that operated in Covington at 421 Scott St. (Blvd.). The façade of the building, which still stands and has the Times-Star name on it, was renovated by famed local architecture firm, Hannaford & Sons. In 1958, it was acquired by the Post.

Its circulation at that time was 22,784.

Other local papers of note: The Boone County Recorder, founded in 1875.

Ludlow News-Enterprise, founded in the 1870s as the Ludlow Reporter. In 1936, it became Ludlow News. In 1940 in merged with the Dixie Enterprise. The longtime editor was Gus Sheehan, a Kentucky state senator. It primarily covered Ludlow, Bromley, West Covington, Crescent Springs, and Villa Hills. In 1988 it was sold to Steppingstone Publications and then in 1991 to the Recorder newspapers. The publication ceased at that time.

Falmouth Outlook, founded 1907 and still in publication.

German-language papers Covington and Newport Post, 1875.

Covington and Newport Zeitung, a weekly founded in 1859.

Die Gegenwart, a weekly opposed to the temperance movement from 1873-74.

Kentucky Journal, published in Newport as a weekly in 1879.

Kentucky Staatzertung, published as a weekly in 1879.

Editor’s note: Thanks to Dave Schroeder and the Kenton Co. Public Library for its research on this.

The Ticket sold in 1875 for two cents

How Gravity Diagnostics put NKY on front lines of COVID fight

O

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARK PAYNE, LINK nky POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT REPORTER

n any typical day at the Kentucky capital during the General Assembly, legislators, staff, lobbyists, and journalists trickle into the building to conduct business for the 2022 session. For some, they’ll walk into the Kentucky Capital Education Center to get a COVID-19 test before heading into the House or Senate chambers.

Down a short hallway, workers in lab coats wait for those wanting to get tested. Small testing machines sit on a table while some fill out forms, and others pull down their masks to get swabbed. The company doing the testing? Covington’s Gravity Diagnostics, a CLIA-certified CAP-accredited laboratory licensed in all 50 states.

Gravity’s presence in Kentucky has been monumental because the state labs couldn’t initially provide the robust testing needed to tackle a pandemic. Like the site at the statehouse, Gravity has its own staff at the testing sites.

“The testing and vaccine protocols developed here in the commonwealth with the help of partners like Kroger and Gravity Diagnostics have gone on to become national models,” said Gov. Andy Beshear in his

Jan. 4 State of the Commonwealth address.

“Think about, in little more than a year, we’ve built the most robust testing and vaccination networks in human history. It was called the greatest logistics challenge since World War II, and we got it done.”

Responding to Beshear’s January address, Rep. Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) told LINK nky that Beshear hadn’t received enough credit for the access Kentuckians have had to receive testing.

“We are so lucky in Northern Kentucky that we have (Newport-based) Ethos Labs and Gravity Diagnostics,” Roberts said. “People forget how hard it was to get a test a year and a half ago.”

While the company was around for six years before COVID-19 hit, the pandemic proved to be a transformational event for the fledgling company.

Gravity Diagnostics’ testing site in the Frankfort capital building.

“Infectious disease is one of the things we do, and so we had been around six years before COVID hit the United States, and we pivoted to do methodology and validation, so we were able to do COVID testing,” said Gravity Diagnostics CEO Tony Remington.

Gravity also provides testing for upper respiratory, toxicology, pharmacogenetics, sexually transmitted infections, and blood hematology.

“We have over 30 to 40 sites throughout Kentucky and Indiana where we actually staff the site, whether it’s onsite in the building or outside the building, or whether it’s a drive-through,” Remington said.

Gravity provides COVID testing at numerous sites throughout the state, including other locations in Kentucky, such as Danville and Pineville. They also offer testing in other states, such as Illinois and Indiana. In Northern Kentucky, they have sites in Covington and Florence;

Gravity Diagnostics’ testing site in the Frankfort capital building.

Continues on page 30

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Continued from page 29

the Ft. Mitchell site recently closed, though no reason was immediately available.

Among the many testing sites Gravity provides for the Commonwealth, they test in much-needed facilities such as long-term care facilities, hospital overflow testing, prisons, and health departments.

“In 2021, a lot of the people we test for started to want more remote testing, drivethrough testing, and onsite testing,” Remington said. “I would say about nine months ago, probably over the summer, we started to provide that resource.”

While Gravity’s work has been crucial to the Commonwealth, the relationship with Kentucky started before the pandemic, so when it hit, both parties were primed to take part in the budding relationship.

The timeline of the partnership with the Commonwealth of Kentucky

Attorney General Daniel Cameron to talk about addiction.

When staff started to head back to work in Frankfort after the initial phase of the pandemic, Dr. Steven Stack, who was appointed commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health by Gov. Andy Beshear in February of 2020, reached out to Gravity Diagnostics to see if they would be able to provide this type of testing for the statehouse.

“So, we were always trying to do right by the community, so we had met a field rep in Mitch McConnell’s office, we met someone that knew Jonathan Smith (the Deputy Chief of Staff for Gov. Andy Beshear), we had done preliminary discussions with St. Elizabeth about different partnerships,” Remington said.

“From the beginning, we felt very honored and humbled just to be able to be a part of the solution in Kentucky,” Remington said.

“Whenever we get a request like that, we do everything we can to make it happen, and so I think the call came in on a Thursday, and we started testing that Monday.”

But Remington and the company had been working to build a relationship with politicians in the capital before the pandemic. The goal was always to help people, Remington said.

“We call it the Gravity way,” Remington said. “It’s probably a little corny, but we have always done right by people. For five years, we lost money every month trying to do other types of testing.”

Sean Wyllie of Gravity Diagnostics

Gravity had been very passionate about the opioid epidemic and what role they could play, Remington said. They had met previous Chief of Staff Blake Brickman, who worked under Gov. Matt Bevin. Before the pandemic, they met

As they transitioned to COVID-19 testing, Gravity’s science team decided to put their abilities where it was most important. This included the elderly, long-term care facilities, and the hospitals that were running at full capacity.

“This is in March of 2020, so instead of using our lab capacity to help anyone that wanted to get a test, we purposely said no to those types of customers,” Remington said, “and we worked really hard to get to the state department and the state lab because we had heard the state lab didn’t have the capacity to handle the volume.”

When the pandemic hit, Kentucky was one of the few states that didn’t have the state, academic, or federal laboratory capacity to do the testing.

“If you go to Ohio, they had Children’s Hospital, they had Ohio State, the Cleveland Clinic,” Remington said. “In Kentucky, we have UK, the University of Louisville, and some of those places, but the capacity that was required right when this hit Kentucky wasn’t able to be covered by the government or the academic labs.”

Remington worked to get in touch with the state to let them know that Gravity Diagnostics could help. He was finally able to get in touch with Dr. Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health.

“We had more clinical kits than anyone,” Remington said. “We had 16,000 swabs, biohazard bags, and all the medium and everything we needed. That’s how this all started.”

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The original agreement Gravity has with the Commonwealth of Kentucky continues to June of this year, including the statehouse testing. The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting released the original contract and posted it online. It showed

Kentucky would pay Gravity roughly $2.5 million per month, or “50,000 samples (2,000 per day 6 days a week, excluding Sundays) processed at $51 per sample = $2,550,000.00,” according to the contract.

They have separate bids for long-term care facilities and K-12 testing.

“That agreement has had some addendums to it, but it was really focused on the health department, the behavioral health hospitals, and the prisons,” Remington said. “That initial agreement that we had with the state from the beginning is really the essential people that don’t have access to laboratory testing that need it.”

While Gravity isn’t the only life sciences company in Northern Kentucky, the impact they have had on the region via the relationship with the Commonwealth of Kentucky is proving valuable. With this much of an impact, the commonwealth is investing in the region to continue to develop its life sciences industry.

“My budget invests $10 million to build a life sciences R&D facility in Northern Kentucky,” Beshear announced in his budget address on Jan. 10. CTI Clinical Trials, Bexion Pharmaceuticals, and others, are also involved in the proposal for the wet lab.

Gravity Diagnostics’ field operations team When the statehouse testing site came to fruition, two Gravity employees, Branden Goodin and Sean Wyllie, jumped at the opportunity to help. With the call coming in from Dr. Stack on Thursday, they had to prepare and get a site set up in Frankfort on a Monday.

Wyllie gets about 5 a.m. everyday and drives to Gravity’s location in Covington.

After gathering supplies he hits the road to Frankfort. He arrives before 7 a.m., which gives him time to set up and be prepared for the early risers.

“We’re always looking for different ways to help with the company, especially with this kind of testing,” Wyllie said of his and Goodin’s decision to run the capital testing site.

Wyllie previously spent most of his time in accessioning at Gravity, but he enjoys being able to go offisite because he’s not a big fan of sitting at a desk. He also enjoys helping people have peace of mind or get the care they need if they do test positive.

“They’re driving two hours each way, so they’re driving four hours,” Remington said. “They’re driving four hours, working eight hours.”

Gravity’s team that travels and operates onsite is known as their “field operations” team. They cover sites and go out into the field to do this type of testing. They initially didn’t have anyone allocated to do this work, so they had to find employees willing to travel every day.

ART, COOKING, AND YOGA CLASSES FOR ALL AGES

The testing at the statehouse is typically only for legislators, staff, lobbyists, media, or anyone else conducting business for the General Assembly. But, they try to provide “peace of mind testing” so they are there if needed and don’t focus on the politics of testing.

Initially, they were concerned that anybody would just show up to get tested at the statehouse. Gravity doesn’t take it upon themselves to turn anybody away as they don’t want their employees engaging in conflict, but outside citizens are encouraged to go to other testing sites.

“Our focus is our employee safety,” Remington said, elaborating that they don’t require employees to try to identify those showing up at a testing site. “At the statehouse, we don’t want our employees to be put in a position where they’re confronting people, so we let them have that discretion.”

They test as many as 100 people a day and as low as 20 at the statehouse. However, they’ve seen as high as 150.

Access to testing for those in power Legislators, lobbyists, government staff, and media all have access to free testing at the statehouse. When any of the aforementioned parties enter the testing site, they are swabbed and out the door within minutes. A rapid PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test can detect small amounts of the virus.

Register Online:

Gravity Diagnostics’ testing site in the Frankfort capital building.

If you get a test at the statehouse, it’s quick, but if you get a test at the Covington site, it will be sent to the labs at Gravity’s headquarters just up the road in Covington.

This is why it takes a bit longer to get results from this site. Remington notes that it would be hard to provide that many Thermofisher and Mesa Biotech Accula testing stations for a large testing site, such as Covington.

“You can’t do 700 people with Mesa (the rapid PCR test used at the statehouse) because it takes 30 minutes per docking station, and each docking station has to plug in the wall,” Remington said, who also noted the NFL uses Mesa testing. “At the drivethrough, we would need like 500 Mesa devices.”

Thermofisher acquired Mesa Biotech, the company that developed the Accula test.

These small testing stations are what allow results so quickly.

Statehouse staff and visitors are also getting these tests and heading straight into the building, so it’s important to receive quick results. Gravity Diagnostics or other government staff will call the affected person if a positive test result is received. If a negative test is given, it will come in the form of a HIPAA-protected email.

“We’re actually able to swab someone and get the result back to them within thirty minutes,” Remington said, “... or get the HIPAA-protected email.”

“The state of Kentucky and the way they’ve handled the federal dollars that came in for testing is as good as any state in the country,” Remington said, noting that Gravity

tests in many states, and it’s typically not as good.

www.bakerhunt.org 620 Greenup Street | Covington, KY

859.431.0020

“We went to Pineville, and we went to Danville, and we set up these locations based on trying to provide testing for those most in need,” Remington said.

Kentucky is even providing support for private hospitals and practices, such as longterm care facilities. Remington said thatworked to get testing to those in need.

“But, overall, 95 percent of what we do or more is guided toward those people that need testing that can’t get it,” Remington said.

While he agrees there are more significant, more macro-level issues for testing across the United States, it isn’t the issue in Kentucky. “But, in this moment, I would say that Kentucky has actually done a really good job of where people need help and where people need testing.”

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