ment on whether she is pursu-ing another job opportunitybut said she will miss the peo-ple she has worked with morethan 14 years while she looksforward to new challenges.

“It was a difficult decision,but the Heart is in a really goodplace right now,” Wagner said.

e Heart of Danville re-ceived state and nationalrecognition under Wagner’sleadership, including the Na-tional Trust’s prestigious GreatAmerican Main Street Awardin 2001, the Ida Lee WillisAward, the Kentucky Histori-cal Society Award, BluegrassTomorrow’s Award for Visionand being named a MainStreet Program of Excellencelast week in Frankfort.

In addition to the morethan $4 million in grantmoney she secured, Wagnersaid she was especiallypleased with projects shehelped spearhead, such as thedowntown parking garage andredevelopment of the Hubbuilding.

“I have gotten to do thingsmost Main Street programmanagers only dream about,”Wagner said. “It’s because ofsuch great support from ourboard of directors and volun-teers who care about the com-munity that I’ve been able tobe successful.”

Vicki Darnell, president ofthe Heart of Danville’s board ofdirectors, praised Wagner forthe many aspects of down-town her work improved.

“e Heart of Danville’smission is to stimulate theeconomic vitality of the down-

town business district,” Dar-nell said in a press release.“Under Julie’s capable watch,our focus has been to be aleader in developing our com-munity as a center for bettergovernment, commerce,tourism, education, health,historic preservation andquality of life. Great strideshave been made under Julie’sleadership, and while we wishher the best in her future en-deavors, we are appreciativethat she leaves the Heartpoised to continue the successDanville is accustomed to.“

ose who worked with theorganization before and dur-ing Wagner’s leadership said itwill be hard to find someoneto match the impact she hashad on Danville’s downtown.

“Julie leaves big shoes tofill, and we are so proud of allshe has accomplished,” saidCarol Senn, owner of Carol’sBridal and Gifts in downtownand a longtime board memberand founder of Heart ofDanville.

“Downtown Danville iswhat it is today because ofJulie’s leadership and vision. Icannot imagine Heart ofDanville without her but knowshe is leaving the organizationin the best place it could be.”

According to the press re-lease, Wagner’s last day will beMarch 2. e Heart ofDanville’s organization com-mittee will meet next week toestablish criteria and set aprocess to begin a search forWagner’s replacement.

“When I first came toBCTC, I couldn’t even get inuntil I took a couple of mathclasses,” he says.

Asbery thinks going di-rectly from high school toUK would have been a badidea for him, and he isgrateful for the time and at-tention he received to findhis focus and develop alevel of maturity that has al-lowed him to get his think-ing up from becoming anelectrician to calling him-self an engineer.

Asbery says he benefitedgreatly from the small classsizes at BCTC taught byteachers who also know athing or two about dedica-tion.

“When I’m in a calculusor physics class now withprobably 400 other stu-dents, I wish I could takethat class at BCTC. Theone-on-one really makes adifference,” he says.

From having to completetwo math classes beforebeing accepted at BCTC tograduating with an associ-ate’s degree in arts and sci-ence with a 3.75grade-point average, As-bery found his focus there.

He kept it, too. He leftWestern with a 3.7 GPA andcurrently has a 3.7 at UK.

He is on the board now atBCTC and is a booster forthe benefits of communitycolleges in general andBCTC in particular.

“Some parents, maybebecause of having been in afraternity or whatever, lookdown on community col-leges, but I’d say to them tonot frown upon communitycolleges. It’s a really goodway to get a degree or to starton a degree.

Asbery works for Inter-County Energy and creditsBCTC with being the placewhere his dedication — justlike Mom wanted — turnedto academics.

Cause for celebration

BCTC is celebrating 10years since first opening itsdoors in Danville in 2002.Enrollment has grown from200 to 1,602 students regis-tered.

Trends suggest theschool is riding the wave ofchange in the educationmodel.

Campus Director ErinTipton has been at theDanville campus since thebeginning and calls theschool her “baby.”

While there are certainlykids right out of highschool, many students arenot there for training asmuch as for re-training.

When the former Mat-sushita facility in Danvillelaid off about 400 employ-ees in 2004, part of the com-pensation package wasmoney for school. As thiswas not the only businesswith layoffs in the area, theDanville campus fairly ex-ploded with dedicated, olderstudents forced into a careerchange with BCTC as the

safety net.Tipton saysthe averageage of stu-dents atBCTC is 29.

“We servee v e r y o n e,”Tipton says.“We reallyare comprehensive, meetinga broad range of needs.”

Tipton has noticed an un-expected benefit of blendedages in classrooms.

“e older, non-traditionalstudents will share their sto-ries; it's a good reminder tothe younger students to stickwith it," she says.

Parking already has had tobe expanded by 100 spaces,and the nursing school hasoutgrown the facility and ex-panded to Lancaster.

Even those on a careerpath that requires a four-or-more-year degree often seethe sense in fulfilling re-quired core classes inex-pensively in a concentratedarena.

Even better, BCTC hastransfer scholarships tomany universities thatallow students to take theirassociate’s degree andtransfer to places such asthe University of Kentuckyand still pay BCTC rates.

Other scholarships areavailable as well.

Tipton says four-yearuniversities court BCTCstudents because they trustthe solid foundation theschool provides.

BCTC is one of 16 col-leges covering 68 campuslocations in the common-wealth consolidated underthe umbrella of the Ken-tucky Community andTechnical College System.

KCTCS was created bythe Kentucky Postsec-ondary Education Improve-ment Act of 1997, with amandate to “expand oppor-tunities among Kentucky’stwo-year public colleges.”

Now serving 90,000 stu-dents, KCTCS is the largestprovider of post-secondaryeducation in the state.

With 44 areas of studyand offering not only two-year degrees but also cer-tificate programs andtraining, development, andtesting services to busi-nesses, BCTC not only isfulfilling the mandate but is

a streamlined vehicle thatstudents of all ages and at-titudes are choosing to takethem to their dreams. Pureeconomics — both finan-cial and concerning time —suggest a new model forpost-secondary educationthat may be the one beingperfected at BCTC.

Hidden gem

Jody Lassiter, presidentand chief executive officerof the Danville-BoyleCounty Economic Develop-ment Partnership, recentlyreturned after attending aconference with others whodo what he does.

There, he says, he heardonce again about what maybe bad news for some com-munities but is good newsindeed for Danville and oneof the very reasons industryis attracted to the area —Bluegrass Community andTechnical College is a con-stant source of a skilledworkforce, something in-dustry reports is in shortsupply.

Lassiter, who has been inhis position for four years,acknowledges the foresightand wisdom of his prede-cessors who knew thenwhat is still being discussedtoday by others in his field— despite the headlines ofjoblessness, skilled labor isa highly sought-after com-modity.

Because there are morejobs than qualified appli-cants to meet the need, in-dustry wants to locate incommunities with a steadysupply of skilled employees.

Danville offers just thisbecause of BCTC.

“BCTC is definitelymeeting the needs of indus-try,” he said “It’s one of thefirst questions newprospects ask when visitingsites,” he says.

“They want to know, ‘Doyou have a local training fa-cility’ so that is why BCTC ispart of every tour.”

He calls the campus a“hidden gem on CorporateDrive” and says Tipton, thecampus director, is almosta part of a recruitmentteam.

He cites the nursing pro-gram and programs such aswelding technologies withattracting companies.

A6 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

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“Listening Session”Date: Thursday, February 9, 2012

Time: 6:00 p.m.Place: City Hall

This will be a time to update the Citizens of Danville, review current City programs; discuss desired

changes and/or additions to programs and services for the upcoming year.

Please Plan on Attending!Go to Danville’s website to see last year’s survey results

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By ROGER ALFORD

Associated Press

FRANKFORT — Ken-tucky’s filing deadline to runfor legislative seats becamea moving target again onMonday when a judge didnot immediately rule on alawsuit challenging the con-stitutionality of newly re-drawn district boundaries.

Franklin County CircuitJudge Phillip Shepherd saidhe expects to enter a rulingin the case by mid-week.

Shepherd has already ex-tended the filing deadlineonce, and said he may do itagain.

“I will say that I am verymindful of the fact that thisdecision is one that is timesensitive,” Shepherd said atthe conclusion of the four-hour hearing Monday after-noon.

For more than a month,Kentucky’s Legislature hasfocused almost entirely onthe contentious debate overredrawing legislative and

congressional districtboundaries. Other issueshave been stalled while thecourts work to decidewhether the legislativeprocess should be struckdown and while lawmakerscontinue to battle over con-gressional lines.

“It’s held up the wholesession, obviously, and untilit gets resolved it’s going tobe difficult for anything tohappen in this session,”House Speaker GregStumbo said Monday.

seen some that started outhere, in our program, thatnow teach. At least four orfive that I know who teachright now across the state.”

Welch teaches traditionalskills as well as the latest,state-of-the-art technolo-gies in his field.

“ere is so much one-on-one here. My math classwhen I was in college washeld in an auditorium,” hesays. “is is better.”

Adam Bland, 25, liked hiseducation at BluegrassCommunity and TechnicalCollege so much, he did itagain.

“If I could go back there tofurther my education, Iwould,” he says.

Bland graduated in 2007the first time as a licensedpractical nurse and turnedaround “right away” to grad-uate there in 2008 as a regis-tered nurse.

“I’m not bragging on my-self here when I tell you thatI passed both boards, bothtimes, the first time and so

did everybody I knew inschool there,” he says. “I’mbragging on my school andmy instructors.”

Bland graduated fromhigh school in Camp-bellsville with a baseballscholarship to the universitythere, but he turned it downto come to Danville becauseof the nursing program here.

“ey were supposed tohave a nursing program upand running by the time Igraduated, but it didn’t hap-pen so I declined,” he says.

He lives in Campbellsvillenow and works as an operat-ing room nurse at TaylorCounty Hospital, which paidfor part of his education inexchange for him agreeingto come back there to workit off.

He says he could easilyhave gone straight to work atEphraim McDowell Re-gional Medical Center inDanville.

“ey talked to us, andthere was a job there for sureif I wanted it,” he says.

He cannot say enoughgood things about his expe-

rience in the program, espe-cially about his instructorsand especially about CherylPuckett.

“It was just a quality edu-cation. My instructors hadusually 20 years or more ofactually doing what theywere teaching us. ey hadjust years and years of expe-rience combined,” he says.“So they were not just hand-ing it to us. ey wanted usto know it’s not just a job —it’s about people’s lives so ifyou are in it for the money,go home.”

He thinks any who werenot willing to be dedicatedwere weeded out in the firstor second semester.

“I felt like if I didn’t passmy boards, it would have re-flected badly on my instruc-tors, on my school. I didn’twant that,” he says.

Why did he want to be anurse?

“My dad,” he says. “Hesuffered a head injury whenI was in the eighth grade andwas flown to UofL and spentfive days in the ICU. I knewthen what I wanted to do.”

e former Norfolk South-ern railroad engineer retiredfrom office in 2009 before theend of his term and handedthe reigns to Lincoln's then-coroner Bill Demrow, whosubsequently lost to currentJudge-Executive JimboAdams.

During his time as judge-executive, Gilbert was a pro-ponent of the successful pushto get planning and zoning inthe county, as well as the effortto build Cedar Creek Lake,among other initiatives. Hesaid there are several issues helooks forward to tacklingwhen he gets to the state cap-ital, but right now he is morefocussed on the bigger pictureof the campaign.

"I've been to Frankfort a lotof times and Washington,D.C., a lot of times and think

I've helped take LincolnCounty forward," Gilbert said.

e new legislative districtsdrafted by House Democratsand approved by the governorare still being reviewed by aFranklin County judge afterseveral elected officials filed alawsuit challenging their con-stitutionality.

Under the new plan, Lin-coln County, which had beenpart of the 80th District repre-sented by Danny Ford ofRockcastle County for most ofFord's 30 years in Frankfort,would be part of the 36th Dis-trict that Napier representedfor 28 years.

According to Gilbert, hewas not swayed by Napier’sdecision to give up the seat hehas held for nearly threedecades.

"It's been about 30 yearssince Lincoln County has hadrepresentation from Lincoln

County in the state House,"Gilbert said. "It's definitelynothing against Rep. Napier orRep. Ford, but I think I canrepresent Lincoln and Gar-rard counties as well as theyhave over the years.”

If no other candidates fileby today's 4:30 p.m. deadline,the races for the House seatwould pit an aspirant fromGarrard against one fromLincoln in both party primar-ies.

After announcing his deci-sion not to run again, Napierthrew his support to currentGarrard County EconomicDevelopment Director andfellow Republican NathanMick, who will be challengedby David Meade of Stanford.Gilbert will face former Lin-coln County school superin-tendent Larry Woods ofLancaster in the Democraticprimary.

BCTC, from A1

SUCCESS, from A1

Erin Tipton

GILBERT, from A1

WAGNER, from A1

Judge weighs constitutionality of redistricting