Business,bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/.../56f945c7826d0.pdf.pdf · chandler builds porTfolio while giving back To communiTy Page 5 First in a four-part series Coming April

industry & careersBusiness,

n Transpark reTurns value To Taxpayers, chamber ceo says Page 2

n chandler builds porTfolio while giving back To communiTy Page 5

First in a four-part seriesComing April 3: Tourism, sports & entertainment ailyNews

Bowling greenD

900-acre Kentucky Transpark is a busi-n e s s , i n d u s t r y

and education magnet.The transpark, located

off U.S. 31-W just north of Bowling Green, contains eight manufacturers, three educational components and one business. Jobs have con-tinued to grow in the park. In 2014, there were 1,466 jobs and that number increased to 1,828 last year, accord-ing to figures provided by the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce in a white paper developed for the Daily News.

With the completion of the $36 million connector road and interchange off Interstate 65, the park can grow some more, said Ron Bunch, chief executive officer and presi-dent of the chamber. The connector road is expected to be completed within 12 months, and land options on a 35-acre and a 82-acre tract located on either side of the road are expected to be developed, Bunch said in a February interview.

Bunch said an integrat-ed strategic plan currently under development will chart the future course for the transpark and further

economic development in the city of Bowling Green and Warren County.

Additionally, the transpark is home to the second and the third certified “Build Ready” sites in Kentucky, making it an attractive location for potential manufacturers and businesses.

According to the state specifications for Build Ready, the sites have com-munity control of the land to be developed, a prepared building pad that is augment-ed by prepared ground/soil/environmental studies, com-pleted preliminary design work, approved site plan per-mits and the necessary utility and transportation infrastruc-ture in place.

“The long lead times for determining if a site can be used are eliminated and a structure can be placed immediately,” the chamber noted about the Build Ready option in a news release.

Transpark industries, in the order which they arrived, are Bowling Green Metalforming; American Howa Kentucky; Cannon Automotive; Shiloh Industries; Alpla Inc.; Bilstein Cold Rolled Steel; Quiver Ventures LLC; and TMS Automotive. Five spec buildings have been filled, and the sixth spec building is to be completed in May of this year. The five spec buildings were all completed and purchased within a year

of their groundbreakings.American Howa Kentucky

bought the first spec building prior to a 2007 groundbreak-ing. Cannon Automotive is in spec building two; Shiloh Industries in three; Alpla in four and TMS Automotive in five.

Spec buildingS Shorten conStruction timelineS

According to chamber officials, spec buildings are an important economic development strategy. Spec buildings shorten construc-tion timelines, reduce proj-ect costs and reduce risks for companies seeking to locate, the chamber noted in a state-ment.

“Spec buildings provide a base building that can be customized by the company to meet their specific needs, such as floor depth, light-ing and layout,” the cham-ber noted, adding, “Each of our spec buildings is also designed with expansion in mind.”

The park also hosts a campus of the Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College, the Warren County Area Technology Center – which serves three school dis-tricts – and the offices of the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative, which serves 40 school dis-tricts and Western Kentucky University.

Goodwill Industries is cur-

rently the lone business con-cern in the transpark; how-ever, officials envision other businesses locating in the park.

Bunch said that the invest-ment made by local officials years ago in the transpark is paying off.

“Local governments invested in the transpark and they have received a return on their investment,” Bunch said. The Bowling Green Area Economic Development Authority and the Inter-Modal Transportation Authority Inc. work together to ensure the park’s success, he said. The chamber works on the transpark project through a management contract.

Over the next decade, the Kentucky Transpark will have a $5.4 billion economic impact on the region and, at present, annual payroll at the transpark tops $117 million, chamber officials estimated in the white paper.

“I cannot imagine another community not wanting the success that the transpark has brought in,” Bowling Green Mayor Bruce Wilkerson said in an early March interview. “It was a great opportunity, and they (the public offi-cials) took it.”

Where it all Started and Where it iS headed

In October 1998, the Warren County Fiscal Court incorporated the Inter-Modal

Transportation Authority Inc., a non-stock, not-for-profit corporation. Initially, it was a component of Warren County government. In 2007, the authority restated its arti-cles of incorporation. The authority became an agency of both Warren County and the city of Bowling Green, run by a board of directors – half appointed by the county and half by the city.

According to authority financial statements audited by Montgomery & Webb of Bowling Green for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015, the city and the county provide “significant finan-cial support” in the form of capital contributions to ser-vice lease agreement obliga-tions. Combined support for 2015 was $2,163,050 and for 2014, $2,602,739, the audit noted.

Bunch said contributions from the city and county over the years amount to just under $30 million. He said the value of the invest-ment may be measured in direct, indirect and induced ways. The direct measure-ment is jobs, while the indi-rect benefit is the businesses and manufacturers that have located in the areas near the transpark which serve the eight manufacturers in the park.

“It has a multiplier effect,” Bunch explained. “There is a more than $1 billion impact and its not fully built up yet.”

The authority’s primary purpose is the design, pro-motion and construction of a multi-modal commerce and distribution center and industrial park in the Warren County area, the audit noted. The authority’s primary sources of funding are land sales, wage assessments from businesses locating in the park, state grant funds, contributions from the city and county, and rental

ThriveSunday, March 27, 20162 Daily News, Bowling Green, Kentucky

TH2

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Kentucky Transpark returns value to taxpayers, chamber CEO says

on the front:Top phoTo: Gov. Steve Beshear was at the Kentucky transpark in 2014 for the groundbreak-ing for Constellium-UACJ Body in White Plant, a $150 million aluminum production facility. Also in attendance were Consul General of Japan Moto-hiko Kato; Pierre vareille, chief executive officer of Constellium; Shigenori Yamauchi, chairman and Ceo of UACJ; and Markus Wild, project director of Body in White Project.

Miranda [email protected]

BoTToM phoTo: An AeriAl view is shown of the Kentucky transpark.

suBMiTTed phoTo

Story by CharleS a. MaSon | [email protected]

The

This

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busi

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See TRANSPARK, 3

Miranda pederson/[email protected] of people attend a grand opening in 2008 of Cannon Automotive Solutions at the Kentucky transpark.

income from residential and farm leases. Future sources of revenue are expected to include lease income, state grants, portions of county and city revenues provid-ed for under the Kentucky Increment Financing Act, and additional land sales from the proposed develop-ment area, the audit noted.

The wage assessments paid by businesses locating in the transpark will end in 2023, Bunch said.

The ITA has total assets of $16.5 million and cur-rent liabilities of $2.2 mil-lion, according to the audit. Current assets increased $713,490 between 2014-15 after an increase of $405,858 the previous year, the audit noted. The 2015 increase was because of an increase in cash from wage tax assessments and property tax income, the audit noted.

Total operating revenues for the ITA in 2015’s fiscal year were $3.4 million, the audit said. Revenues includ-ed $1.1 million for the coun-ty wage assessment, $89,350 in rental income and $1.3 million in lease income, the audit noted. Total expenses for fiscal year 2015 were $4.6 million. Total expenses increased $645,014 in fis-cal year 2015 due primarily to the payment of incentive expenses and the grant and economic development bond expenses, the audit noted.

The largest expense is $1.7 million for leases. The lease payments by the author-ity are equal to the debt ser-vice of the city of Bowling Green’s general obligation bonds. The city of Bowling Green entered into the finan-cial picture in 2007 when the outstanding debt of the authority was paid in full from a lease issued by the city when the framework of the ITA was restructured.

The incentive expense to the authority was $1.4 mil-lion in fiscal year 2015.

Airport inclusion shelved for KentucKy trAnspArK

Gary Dilliard, a Bowling Green businessman who serves on the ITA, said the early years of the transpark’s development were marked by discussions of putting a new regional airport in the package. Concerns about the karst topography under-ground and a potential jet fuel spill changed the plan to one served by rail and road, Dillard recalled. Local offi-cials visited an intermodal center in Huntsville, Ala., to get an idea how the local project might look.

The idea of the airport waned as officials realized they didn’t have the freight potential that would justify its inclusion.

Bunch said the rail alone – 1 mile long – along with suf-ficient electricity and natural gas, makes the site attractive.

Environmentalists sued the Kentucky Department of Transportation to try to stop the I-65 interchange; howev-er, that legal dispute has been resolved in recent years.

Wilkerson added that the environmental protections introduced in the transpark are more numerous than any other similar site in Kentucky.

He said the transpark is on one side of a hill and Mammoth Cave National Park is on the other side of a hill. Therefore, the ground-water from one site won’t run over the hill underground to the second site. In addition, Wilkerson said the storm-water basins in the transpark are specifically designed to clean water runoff so as not to interfere with the area’s water table.

Dillard said the entire area around the park and the park itself has benefited from the improved infrastructure. Dillard said when the I-65 interchange and connector road is completed, he can

envision more economic growth coming to the park.

Dillard praised the cham-ber’s approach of using the spec buildings to attract park tenants, particularly the quick turnaround of the buildings. Spec buildings in the transpark have been occupied within a year of groundbreaking. “Typically, it takes three years or more.”

Dillard said as the park matures, he foresees more of a mix of service industry and businesses in the park. “They also are going to have to secure more land,” he said.

‘Much More thAn An industriAl pArK’

“The Kentucky Transpark is a great location for suc-cess,” Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon said in a text message. “It is much more than just an industrial park. The Kentucky Transpark has become an address of pref-erence for many companies of international prominence. Our central geographic loca-tion within one day’s drive to over 75 percent of the U.S. population is advantageous. That is part of the reason why Kentucky has become one of the top automotive manufacturing states.

“Many site-selectors have comfort in bringing their clients to consider the transpark. They are assured that they can depend on choice of properties of every size, spec buildings, Build Ready sites, campus ame-nities like tree-lined streets, sidewalks, walking and bike trails, utilities and broad-band available to the site,” Buchanon said.

“And many companies appreciate the environmen-tal-friendly restrictions like the stormwater retaining lakes, and the no-idle zones for diesel trucks,” he said. “Transportation accessibil-ity is always important. The long-awaited new I-65 exit 31 interchange will have a direct connection to the transpark and is scheduled to be completed this year,” the judge-executive said.

“This will make parts supply and product deliv-ery for resident businesses much more accessible and efficient, and will make an already superior site even more attractive to prospec-tive industries,” Buchanon said.

SKYCTC has an onsite training center for region-al manufacturers, provid-ing broad or tailored pro-grams that deliver certifi-cates of accreditation which many companies require. This Warren County Public Schools’ Area Technology Center located within the transpark provides job train-ing to give high school stu-dents with the ability to enter the workforce imme-diately upon graduation. Of course, WKU located here is a factor in most compa-nies’ decisions to locate at the transpark or anywhere in this southcentral Kentucky region. The transpark is an attraction for this entire area, Buchanon said.

locAtion, locAtion And locAtion iMportAnt

Bowling Green is in the center of a 34-state distri-bution area in the eastern United States, according to the chamber website. Southcentral Kentucky’s prime location acceler-ates the distribution time of goods and materials to a massive industrial and con-sumer market. “In fact, we are within a day’s drive of 60 percent of the nation’s population, personal income and manufacturing business establishments,” the cham-ber website noted.

Most states are lucky to have one major shipping hub nearby. Kentucky has two – UPS Worldport in Louisville and DHL in Erlanger, the chamber website noted, add-ing, “As the nation’s third largest air-cargo shipping hub, even our backup modes

of transportation have back-ups. No matter your cargo’s destination, we have a way to get it there.”

According to a CNBC report, Kentucky was ranked in the top 15 best states for low “cost of doing business.”

The chamber website said that fact – combined with the area’s overall lowest cost of living in the U.S. according to the 2014 CNBC report – businesses and industries seeking to call southcentral Kentucky home, “won’t find another location that can save you more money,” the chamber noted in the web-site profile.

Of course, Kentucky has the lowest cost of electric-ity in the industrial sec-tor among state east of the Mississippi River and the fourth lowest in the U.S. Those utilities are more than 25 percent lower than the national average.

“According to a 2012 report from The Tax Foundation, Kentucky ranks as the seventh most business-friendly states in the country for new firms,” the chamber profile noted. A 6 percent sales tax rate and a broad range of exemptions and income tax credits designed to encourage capital invest-ment and job creation are offered in Kentucky, the chamber pointed out.

The city of Bowling Green is ranked second on Site Selection magazine Top 10 Metro Areas for New and Expanded Facilities in 2015, a chamber news release noted. The ranking is among metropolitan areas with populations of less than 200,000.

The 2015 distinction marks Bowling Green’s third consecutive year on the list. Bowling Green was sixth in 2013 and fourth in 2014.

Site Selection ranks areas based on capital projects that involve a capital invest-ment of at least $1 million, create at least 50 jobs or add 20,000 square feet of new floor area.

“The success we saw in 2015 is astounding,” Bunch said in a chamber news release. “We more than doubled the number of announced expansion jobs from 2014, we have surpassed investment num-bers of any year in the last decade and the $943.7 mil-lion invested in 2015 was four and a half times that of the city’s second-largest investment year in the last 10 years, which was in 2010.

“Without the continued support of our regional part-ners, our success would not be possible,” Bunch said.

— Follow business reporter Charles A. Mason on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.

ThriveSunday, March 27, 2016 3Daily News, Bowling Green, Kentucky

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From Page 2

TRANSPARK

Miranda Pederson/[email protected] is underway in 2014 at Constellium-uACJ Body in White Plant in the Kentucky transpark.

“We more than doubled the number of announced expansion jobs from 2014, we have surpassed

investment numbers of any year in the last decade and the $943.7 million invested in 2015 was four and a half times that of the city’s second-largest investment year

in the last 10 years, which was in 2010.”

Ron BunchChief executive officer and president of the Bowling Green Area

Chamber of Commerce

Daily News, Bowling Green, KentuckyThriveSunday, March 27, 20164

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David Chandler believes the journey in life is just as impor-tant as the destination.

The 57-year-old Bowling Green real estate business-

man’s journey began in a small town – Owasso, Okla. – just a dozen miles north of Tulsa, and that has led to a success-ful career in Kentucky that spans the Southeast.

He’s golfed at Pebble Beach in California and even run a sub-four-hour marathon at Big Sur when he was a younger man.

However, Chandler takes his unpreten-tious pleasures in life from his dogs, the people who work for him and longtime friends. Possessions aren’t critical to him though he appreciates them in light of a hardscrabble start in life. He said his pas-sion is putting together business deals and also helping out behind the scenes in the community, preferably outside the spot-light of publicity.

“Solomon won that rich man contest a long time ago,” he said with a smile while chatting in his Bowling Green office at 2600 Chandler Drive in Chandler Park.

The businessman’s approach to life can best be summed up by a recent heartache.

Chandler lost Titan, his 200-pound English mastiff to cancer in January, and still has a hard time talking about it.

“He was 200 pounds of man’s best friend,” Chandler said, showing a visitor the Christmas card he sent out last year with Titan and Sooner, a second English mastiff, both dressed in red Santa hats.

Sooner is the younger of the two dogs, not quite 200 pounds, and Chandler said he’s not yet ready to consider having another dog cavort around his house.

Chandler said he comes from hum-ble beginnings so how he treats people trumps how many zeroes are in his bank account or how many ribbon-cuttings he attends.

A 1977 graduate of Owasso High School, Chandler was reared by his mom, Sue, in a single-parent household, he recalled during a February interview. His mom now lives in Bowling Green.

Growing up in Oklahoma, Chandler experienced tragedy while in the sixth-grade. His oldest brother was killed in a quarry workplace accident.

“We were very poor,” Chandler recalled of a childhood spent in public school and in the Baptist church. “I didn’t know the difference. Mom did a wonderful job.”

Chandler learned to make his bed, brush his teeth, say “yes sir” and “no sir” and to open a car door for a lady.

“None of that stuff costs money,” he

‘expression

success’of his

Chandler builds portfolio while giving back to community

Miranda Pederson/[email protected] ChanDler appears March 1 at his office.

See CHANDLER, 6

By CHARLES A. MASON | [email protected]

said of the correct behaviors he was taught.

Doing the right thing was like taking a breath for the young man who was sur-rounded by Oklahoma’s oil fields.

Leaving OkLahOma fOr kentucky

Before he reached 20, Chandler recalled he decid-ed to strike out beyond Oklahoma.

Oil was a large part of that journey. Twenty-four quarts of oil to be exact – two cases of oil.

A small, powder-blue truck with a white top is placed on the many shelves that also contain pictures and Western Kentucky University items in Chandler’s office in Chandler Park.

Chandler said the vehicle is a spitting image of the 1966 Chevy pickup that he purchased for $550, bor-

rowing the last $50 from his mom “with interest.”

It was a truck that con-sumed 24 quarts of oil as he stopped every 55 miles or so on the way to Bowling Green to see his dad, Mike, for the first time in years.

Chandler had mowed lawns and swept parking lots to raise the money to pur-chase the truck.

Later, he would install a new motor in the truck which he held onto for nine years.

Once back in Owasso fol-lowing the Bowling Green visit, Chandler made plans to attend Oklahoma State University, then realized about a month before class-es started that the university was out of his price range.

Two weeks before classes started at WKU in the fall of 1977, Chandler rejoined his dad and enrolled as a Hilltopper.

“I thought it was a semes-

ter plan. Here I am 38 years later in Bowling Green,” Chandler said.

Chandler, who later grad-uated from WKU with a Bachelor of Science in geol-ogy, kept his Oklahoma con-nection, traveling back to the Midwest to work as a roust-about on oil rigs. Chandler said he would work 91 straight days, filling in for other workers’ time off, and make around $3,000 to pay for college. Here he slept in the front bedroom of his dad’s trailer and also was involved in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity on campus.

The semester plan turned into five years of school-ing. “I thought I was mov-ing back to Oklahoma,” he recalled.

chandLer uses geOLOgy degree tO wOrk fOr driLLing cOmpany

However, he got a job with

Jarvis Drilling in Albany in Clinton County and per-formed research for expand-ing production. In 18 months, Jarvis drilled 27 wells.

While busy at his job, Chandler took time in his off-hours to devour self-help books. “I probably read 50 motivational books. I always had an entrepreneurial spir-it,” he said.

Considering himself “a mediocre scientist” at the time, he made a career switch to real estate. “I had a plan to build a portfolio,” he said, beginning work under Buddy Adams at Century 21.

He bought his first prop-erty, two dwellings on the WKU campus, the site on which the Augenstein Alumni Center sits today, for $235,000, and at age 27 took care of the 13 units.

He would load a lawn mower and filled paint cans into his vehicle and go to the apartments to perform main-tenance.

He started developing accounting, legal and bank-ing contacts, building a multi-family residences portfolio.

“It was tough sledding. It’s never about the money, it’s your passion, the passion of doing the deal,” he said.

In the back of his mind was a “lightbulb” moment of his youth in Oklahoma. While in high school he joined eight of his friends to play cards. The ring-leader of the group expressed a desire to get out of back-breaking work in the Oklahoma oil fields. He said the young men needed to figure out how to take a shower before work rather than after work.

“All nine of us ended up going to college,” Chandler recalled.

The real estate executive said he wanted to prog-ress past selling houses and maintaining his multi-family dwellings.

“I was still playing church league basketball with holes in my shoes,” he recalled. After a stint at Century 21, followed by time at ReMax, he started Chandler Real Estate in 1995. Three hun-dred and seventy-five loan closings later, he could look back in 2016 on the compa-ny’s progress.

He bid on an 11,500-square-foot U.S. Social Security office building project slat-ed for Campbell Lane in Bowling Green and real-ized there could be a market niche of bidding on govern-ment contracted buildings of just under 10,000 square feet and 50,000 square feet. He also developed contacts in the U.S. General Services Administration in the GSA

Region 4 based in Atlanta.In time, the building proj-

ects cropped up in Memphis, Tenn., Little Rock, Ark., Mobile, Ala., and Raleigh, N.C.

“The multi-family hous-ing was still our bread and butter,” Chandler said. The 31 federal building projects added value to the Bowling Green company.

Chandler Real Estate has branched out to apartments, duplexes, fourplexes and now full-scale, site-based communities. Chandler has constructed projects in Bowling Green, Owensboro, Paducah and Evansville, later moving into the hospi-tality business by becoming a Marriott/Hilton franchisee.

“It’s been a natural growth process,” he said of Chandler Real Estate, which now employs about 200 people. He sold Chandler Property Management to business partner Mike Simpson 16 years ago.

Simpson, president of Chandler Property Management, 908 Broadway Ave., said with a laugh that he and Chandler “are for-ever joined at the hip.” Simpson first met Chandler at WKU when both were stu-dents, and then re-connected through business about 20 years later.

“David had a clear drive and vision about what he wanted to achieve,” Simpson said. “He has a great knack of battling through difficulty. These projects are not easy, or everyone would be doing them. David gets to the fin-ish line,” said Simpson.

Simpson said he likes the day-to-day management of the multi-family properties while Chandler likes envi-sioning the projects. Simpson owns Chandler Property Management outright and serves as a business partner in some of Chandler’s other projects.

Simpson said people in the community see Chandler’s successes, but oftentimes aren’t aware of his generosity.

“More than his success in business, David’s compas-sion is an expression of his

success,” Simpson said.Steve Wheeler of Carr,

Riggs & Ingram of Bowling Green, Chandler’s accoun-tant and longtime friend, agreed with Simpson.

Wheeler and Chandler first met at a local gym where they worked out at 6 a.m.

“Dave is an incredible person, a true rags-to-riches story,” Wheeler said. “He is generous, honest and straight-forward. He sought business and tax advice and we developed a good, per-sonal relationship.”

Wheeler said Chandler has some qualities people successful in business don’t have.

“He has dozens and doz-ens of benevolent actions that tell a lot about his char-acter.” One action was the construction of Chandler Chapel on the WKU cam-pus, where Chandler joined about 80 benefactors in fun-draising for the project.

Another project has been The Foundry, 531 W. 11th Ave., Bowling Green, which provides pre-school readi-ness for children on the city’s West Side. The last three years Chandler has contrib-uted about $350,000 to the United Methodist Church initiative.

“Dave’s generosity to The Foundry is providing a sus-tainable solution for equip-ping children in the West End to succeed in life,” said the Rev. Rick Bard, a teaching pastor at Broadway United Methodist church and pastor at Faith United Methodist Church.

“He does not take his suc-cess lightly but feels com-pelled to give back in ways that provide hope for our most vulnerable citizens – our children. He out-thinks and out-dreams me as to what is next,” Bard said of Chandler’ affiliation with The Foundry. “He sees the children of the West End as the next doctors, engineers and pastors.”

— Follow business reporter Charles A. Mason on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.


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From Page 5

CHANDLERThe MarrioTT TownePlace Suites stands before opening in 2013 on Cave Mill road.

Daily News file photo

“Dave’s generosity to The Foundry is providing a sustainable solution for

equipping children in the West End to succeed in life. He does not take his success lightly but feels compelled to give back in ways that provide hope for our most vulnerable citizens – our

children.”

The Rev. Rick BardTeaching pastor at Broadway United Methodist church

and pastor at Faith United Methodist Church.

HORSE CAVE — The simple name understates the role of The Bookstore in Horse Cave.

While the venue is indeed one of the few remaining independent bookstores in the region, it is also a com-munity meeting space, cof-fee shop, live music venue – and even a popular place to get married.

Tom Chaney is the color-ful 70-plus-year-old, white-bearded proprietor who dish-es out one-liners, local histo-ry lessons and, on occasion, marriage vows. The Horse Cave native has traveled the world – during a stint in Philadelphia running a sou-venir shop for tourists, he met acclaimed writer Calvin Trillin, who wrote about Chaney’s myriad exploits in two of his books. “The ol’ Kentucky storyteller,” Trillin called Chaney.

Chaney also taught at col-leges across the country before returning to Horse Cave and helping form the former Kentucky Repertory Theatre.

Chaney said The Bookstore opened in 1995 as a combo cafe/bookstore on Horse Cave’s small down-town strip adjacent to the railroad tracks, but he and his two partners closed the cafe portion in 2002.

He and his partners “were shrinking under the weight of books” at their homes, Chaney said, so they decid-ed to sell off some of their inventory. “We thought this sort of thing would add a good mix to the communi-ty,” he said.

“We’re still here,” he added, despite the general decline of independent book-stores in the last decades as many book buyers now make their purchases via the Internet, where giants like Amazon can undercut pric-es because of their massive

inventory.“Amazon has made things

miserable for small book dealers,” Chaney said.

While maintaining the brick-and-mortar location, Chaney has also embraced online sales out of necessity.

“That’s the salvation of us,” he said, adding that about 50 percent of The Bookstore’s profit is from online sales.

The more rare (and valu-able) books are primarily what he sells online, “but it’s hard to find those,” Chaney said.

As for inventory, Chaney said The Bookstore restocks with estate sale purchases, by purchasing large collec-tions, trading for individual books and even by buy-ing the inventory of another Horse Cave bookstore when it closed.

The Bookstore, decorated in a ramshackle way with historic and new photos, posters, art and tongue-in-cheek signs, caters to a set of regular customers as well as travelers who come to the town for its tourist attrac-tions.

The closing of Kentucky Repertory Theatre in Horse Cave in 2013 has damp-ened business somewhat, he said: “We were not mortally wounded, but we suffered a body blow.”

The regulars include a dozen or more people who gather at a round table in the former cafe portion of the bookstore for coffee and conversation – a daily morning ritual at the store. The group, Chaney said, is known variously (and unof-ficially) as The Liar’s Club, The Downtown Philosophic Society and a name that’s not fit for print in a family news-paper. Coffee is $1 a cup – “The refills are free until you pee,” Chaney said.

At 6 p.m. on Thursdays, local musicians gather for impromptu jam sessions that are free to the public.

“We have as many as 25 playing at one time,” Chaney said.

And then there are the weddings – about 100 that Chaney estimates he has officiated over the years in

The Bookstore.Chaney is an ordained

Baptist minister, and “word gets around” that Chaney is agreeable to performing vows that other ministers might shy away from, he

said.Religions “have a lot of

will-nots” he said, such as they will not marry same-sex couples or individuals who were divorced. “Those are the ones who come to me,”

he said.In June, one day after the

Supreme Court overturned bans on same-sex marriages, Chaney officiated the mar-riage of two men who had been partners for 16 years.

“There is a difference between the civil and reli-gious” aspects of marriage, he said.

Chaney said The Bookstore, in all its diverse capacities, serves an impor-tant role in the community.

“We continue to provide a kind of cultural harbor,” he said.

— The Bookstore is at 111 Water St. in Horse Cave and is open from 7 a.m. to about 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. To check specific hours, call 270-786-3084.

— Follow Daily News reporter Wes Swietek on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNgovtbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.

Daily News, Bowling Green, KentuckyThrive

Sunday, March 27, 2016 7

Store has books, bluegrass and moreBy WES SWIETEK

[email protected]

Horse Cave business even hosts weddings

Photos by bac totrong/[email protected]: Tom Chaney reads Feb. 20 at The Bookstore in horse Cave. below: Photos of friends and family hang on a wall.


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The student pipeline to meet the region’s employer needs is being built daily in southcentral Kentucky, offi-cials said.

Eric Keeling, principal at the Warren Area Technology Center, said students have many career choices in the vocational and technical fields. Thinking about those choices begins in sixth grade for local students, he said.

“I tell my students, ‘You will be treated with respect. We (the center) will give you our best, and you can give us your best,’ ” Keeling said.

At the end of the previous school year, Keeling said just about every technology cen-ter graduate obtained a job working for local company. That was more than 60 stu-dents. They became welders, construction workers or were employed in jobs in local manufacturing facilities.

“We placed every senior who was career ready and wanted a job,” Keeling said in a February interview.

Keeling said enrollment at the technology cen-ter has increased during the past three years. When Keeling took over, enroll-ment was 153 students. Now, 203 students are enrolled at the technology center from three school dis-tricts, Warren County Public Schools, Edmonson County Schools and Bowling Green Independent School District. That’s out of a potential pool of more than 5,000 students. the principal said.

Efforts to find students jobs after graduation are also occurring in Barren County.

Barren County Judge-Executive Micheal Hale said the “Learn and Earn” Initiative is an attempt to tar-get the nearly 500 graduating seniors in Barren County this school year. “They are our future workforce,” he said.

Hale said nearly 50 stu-dents in the county were

put to work after gradua-tion in 2015 at Akebono Brake’s Glasgow plant, a manufacturer of disc brakes and disc brake pads at 1765 Cleveland Ave.

More than 30 of the stu-dents remain employed at Akebono months later, Hale said. The students survived “tough interviews” to obtain their job offers and the posi-tions pay more than $13 an hour, he said.

Hale is working with Barren River Area Development District offi-cials to place more Barren County students into inter-view situations with Barren County employers this year. He said there are a dozen other business partners, and he sees no reason why the “Learn and Earn” approach cannot be used throughout the 10-county region.

StudentS alSo purSueacademic futureS

Today’s students also pursue academic paths that eventually lead to jobs.

Jason Kupchella, chief academic officer for Warren County Public Schools, and Cindy Beals, high school supervisor/district assess-ment coordinator for the county district, agreed in February interviews that stu-dents looking at enrolling at colleges or pursuing work right after high school grad-uation also have a chance to explore those career paths.

Kupchella said students are taking advanced place-ment tests or classes for actu-al college credit while still in high school. The college classes are below the cost they would be if taken on campus at Western Kentucky University or Southcentral

Kentucky Community and Technical College.

“This enriches access to things that the high schools don’t have,” Kupchella said.

Beals said: “The job of the district is to provide opportu-nities. We start talking about career pathways in middle school.”

In sixth grade, a student receives an individual learn-ing plan, the start of a career road map that can lead to high school graduation and beyond.

An increased emphasis in public education on col-lege and/or career readiness in Kentucky through Senate Bill 1 that was approved and implemented in 2009 has led to new staff positions, such as a college and career coach at Bowling Green High School.

Bowling Green schools

Superintendent Gary Fields said the new approach is necessary as the pendulum in public education has swung away from only concentrat-ing on preparing students for college.

“It’s the ability of the stu-dent to be successful,” Fields said. “A college and careers coach helps to bring the two worlds into alignment.”

Fields said increasing costs of higher education mean parents have to maximize their dollars. Oftentimes, stu-dents can earn certificates or two-year degrees in special-izations, quickly going out into the workforce.

Job needS by 2020documented in region

Projections show the Bowling Green region will need 9,000 jobs filled by the year 2020, and at least 1,000

jobs recently announced by area industries have yet to be filled. Many of the local jobs are in manufacturing sector.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Bowling Green region’s civilian labor force was 76,700 in December, increasing from 75,000 in July 2015. The bureau reported 3,500 peo-ple are unemployed while 73,100 have a job, leading to a 4.6 percent unemploy-ment rate that is not season-ally adjusted.

The largest sector, or 14,000 workers, are employed in trade, trans-portation and utilities. The next largest sector is govern-ment with 13,400 workers. Manufacturing is third with 11,400 workers, and educa-tion and health services is fourth with 10,700.

Demographics on the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce web-site show 11 job categories available in the region with the majority of the work-ers, 39,974, in the services sector. Construction jobs number 5,845; manufactur-ing, 18,459; and retail trade, 29,238, according to the breakdown.

Student Self-eSteem focuS can lead to employment

Keeling said he’s started programs at the technology center that are intended to boost a student’s self-esteem, such as “Be The Change,” which encourages students to focus on their work ethic and daily attendance while still in high school.

“Be The Change” was rec-ognized at a national confer-ence last year and praised by BRADD officials.

Students’ positive behav-iors are rewarded through “tickets” the teachers write. Students receiving tickets can cash them in at the tech-nology center to obtain spe-cial T-shirts.

Educators lay out career paths for students that can lead to jobsBy CHARLES A. MASON

[email protected]

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See WORKFORCE, 11

Other students can see how the positive behaviors impact the student popula-tion, Keeling said.

Another program is Mentor Mondays, where local business professionals meet with students during the school year.

“It’s basically a year-long interview with the kids,” Keeling said.

Students learn about area companies and visit some on field trips. The field trips began with trips to SCA, Stupp Bridge Co., BG Metalforming, Cannon Automotive, Shiloh Industries and Stewart Richey Construction.

“When kids see a plant manager or human resources director come here – that’s powerful,” Keeling said.

The school’s link with business and industry have led to chamber efforts to a mentoring through Work Ethic Seal. Work Ethic Seal helps students learn about career planning/preparation, collaboration, communica-tion, conflict management, critical thinking, employer expectations, job interviews, soft skills, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), the four Cs ( critical thinking, communi-cation, collaboration and cre-ativity) and workplace skills and priorities.

“America’s system of edu-cation was built for an econo-my and a society that no lon-ger exists,” said “Preparing 21st Century Students for a Global Society: An Educator’s Guide to the “Four Cs,” a report prepared by the National Education Association around 2011.

“In the manufacturing and agrarian economies that existed 50 years ago, it was enough to master the ‘three Rs’ (reading, writing and arithmetic). In the mod-ern ‘flat world,’ the ‘three Rs’ simply aren’t enough. If today’s students want to compete in this global soci-ety, however, they must also be proficient communica-tors, creators, critical think-ers and collaborators (the ‘four Cs’). Students need to master additional subject areas, including foreign lan-guages, the arts, geography, science and social studies. Educators must complement all of those subjects with the ‘four Cs’ to prepare young people for citizenship and the global workforce,” the report said.

At the annual Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce dinner, the pro-gram contained a page detailing 31 volunteers from the business community who had dedicated more than 11 hours to further the cham-ber’s Work Ethic Seal edu-cation efforts.

Chamber looksat Work ready

“Warren County has once again illustrated the commu-nity’s commitment to excel-lence in talent development,” said Ron Bunch, chamber president and chief execu-tive officer, in a February news release noting Warren County had been re-certified as a Kentucky Work Ready Community by the Kentucky Workforce Investment Board.

Warren County was cer-tified in 2012 as one of the first counties in Kentucky, and the announcement in February marked the sec-ond time Warren County has been re-certified as a Work Ready Community.

The community’s high school graduation rate of 94 percent, National Career Readiness Certificate hold-ers, community commit-ment, educational attain-ment, soft-skills develop-ment and residential broad-band access were all evaluat-ed during the recertification review.

To maintain the Work Ready Community des-ignation, Warren County must graduate 98 percent of all high school students by 2022, the chamber said.

Hale, Barren County’s judge-executive, sits on the state Workforce Investment Board. A newly formed West Central Workforce Board serving the 10-county region has started meeting monthly in Glasgow.

Company buy-inslead to job offers

The technology center is making history in seeing stu-dent’s jobs needs met.

Keeling said Stupp

Bridge’s buy-in to the stu-dent mentoring program eventually resulted in all nine welding students at the technology center receiving job offers.

“That’s history for our school. That’s never hap-pened before,” he said.

Stupp Bridge Co., A Division of Stupp Bros., Inc. is a leader in steel fab-rication and headquartered in St. Louis. Stupp Bridge Co.’s fabrication facility in Bowling Green opened in 1999 and is among the most efficient in existence, according to the company website.

Another company stepping up to the plate is Bowling Green Metalforming.

“They placed every senior last year, and we have com-mitments for this year,” Keeling of the about 100 technology center students.

Magna, BG Metal-forming’s parent company, is a global automotive sup-plier with 285 manufactur-ing operations and 83 prod-uct development, engineer-ing and sales centers in 29 countries. It has more than 125,000 employees. The company announced an expansion in 2015 of the Bowling Green site.

Keeling said the new links with business and industry and getting the students to buy into the positive attitude reinforcements such as “Be The Change” have resulted in a cultural shift for the entire center.

Keeling said adding new programs is an attempt to build on that demonstrated success with local business and industry. More robotics offerings are planned.

Another strategy is grounding the students in workplace soft skills. “I don’t want to see one of my guys get a job and then get fired. They all need critical employment skills so that they can keep their jobs,” he said.

Certificates can be attained in valuable work skills, such as the National Career Readiness Certificate obtained through the ACT WorkKeys initiative.

ACT WorkKeys is a job skills assessment system that helps employers select, hire, train, develop and retain a high-performance work-force. “This series of tests measures foundational and soft skills and offers special-ized assessments to target institutional needs,” accord-ing to the program’s website.

As part of ACT’s Work Readiness System, ACT WorkKeys can be a building block of knowledge that can lead to a job, Keeling said.

ACT WorkKeys assess-ments in applied mathemat-ics, locating information and reading for information can lead to earning ACT’s National Career Readiness Certificate, a portable cre-dential earned by more than 2.3 million people across the United States, the website said.

Keeling said the technol-ogy center’s student passage rate has increased from 64 percent three years ago to 87 percent to 90 percent this past year.

At least 11 local indus-try partners work with the technology center, he said, including SCA; Bowling Green Metalforming; Stupp Bridge; Cannon Automotive; Sh i loh Indus t r ies ; Davert; Kobe Aluminum Automotive Products, LLC; Clark Beverage Co.; Country Oven Bakery; Stewart Richey Construction; Lowes; Magnolia Village; The Medical Center; Tri-Star Greenview Regional Hospital; and Graves-Gilbert Medical Clinic.

“We’ve got companies out of Louisville and Glasgow who want to hire students,”

Keeling said.Keeling said the students

are taught that with a good work ethic, armed with industrial and business certi-fications they can have a leg up on their competitors.

“I tell kids this is the last step of the journey,” Keeling

said, adding that the extra training can mean the differ-ence between starting a job at $7.25 an hour and $15.50 an hour. “When you have money, you have choices,” Keeling said he tells the stu-dents.

Another tool in the pipe-

line building for local busi-ness and industry is finan-cial support from BRADD, which last school year pro-vided about 60 students each with an $8,000 tuition reimbursement. A two-year degree costs about $6,200, increasing the student’s potential real-world wage from $15.50 an hour to $20 an hour, Keeling said.

early College approaCh Could boost Wages

Keeling calls it the “side-door approach” to a college education, getting the tech-nology students interested in a two-year degree at a time when it is not on their radar.

Keeling envisions a literal pathway between his center and the Kentucky Transpark campus of SKYCTC. Junior and senior students at the technology center could take math and English classes at SKYCTC, possibly earning 29 credits toward college. The early college model Keeling is working on needs financial support since the technology center funding

he receives from the state of Kentucky wouldn’t cover that cost.

Keeling said adding robot-ics, automation technology and computerized manu-facturing and machine pro-grams can expand current technology center offerings of information technology, health sciences, construc-tion, automotive technology and welding.

The early college initiative could lead to more technol-ogy center students obtain-ing associate’s degrees from SKYCTC. Keeling said he’d like to see 120 students in the expanded program. The new equipment bears a cost of about $500,000. Paying for four new instructors would be about $300,000 annually. Keeling said if SKYCTC is able to provide the instruc-tors, he will seek financing for the equipment, perhaps turning to the private sector.

— Follow Daily News reporter Charles A. Mason on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.


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Growing up in south-ern California, local farmer Timothy Kercheville said he dreamed of Kentucky’s lush and green landscape.

“I was enchanted by Kentucky throughout my youth,” said Kercheville, not-ing he often visited family here and did class projects about Kentucky. “I would always say that I would move to Kentucky as an adult.”

Kercheville kept that promise in 2010 when he moved to Kentucky and worked as a stonemason.

Kercheville now spends a lot of his time promoting permaculture-style farming, which focuses on develop-ing sustainable agriculture models similar to natu-ral ecosystems. He sells onions, sauerkraut and other seasonal produce at the Community Farmers Market. Additionally, Kercheville owns and runs Festina Lente Farms, a sustainable farming network that takes its name from the Latin mantra “has-ten slowly.”

For Kercheville, perma-culture contrasts with con-ventional agriculture, which focuses on either raising livestock or a single, rotat-ing crop.

“It’s undeniable that this degenerates the soil quite quickly,” he said. “It destroys the biodiversity not only within the soil but above the soil. I’m interested in trying to find a holistic solution to the problem.”

Much of his life is wrapped in a central question: “How can we feed ourselves with-out destroying the Earth’s biodiversity?”

Kercheville is a quick learner. It wasn’t until May 2011 that he planted his

first heirloom tomato seed – which he still grows from today.

“It’s changed my entire life,” he said. “I went from someone who was basically a student and a scholarly-like individual to someone who is constantly outdoors.”

Kercheville’s passion took root after he discovered a Victorian-era terrace gar-den hidden beneath invasive weeds in his backyard in downtown Bowling Green.

“By the end of the sum-mer, I was a total addict,” he said.

As his garden contin-ued to thrive, others asked Kercheville for help devel-oping their own gardens. In 2012, Kercheville had six gardens around Warren County and so much excess produce he applied to be a vendor at the Community Farmers Market. Business picked up for Kercheville in 2013 when he was hired to develop multiple gardening models. He’s now operating on 20 farms in three counties.

Amanda Crawford is a journalism professor at Western Kentucky University and a musician with the band Former Friends of Young Americans. Crawford’s house doubles as community arts venue and recording studio, and her front yard is marked by Kercheville’s work. It fea-tures a hugelkultur mound, which is a raised planting bed with a core of decaying wood and other biomass.

For Crawford, sustainabili-

ty melds well with a nonprof-it FFOYA is creating. Artists, writers and musicians aren’t always familiar with causes they can lend their voice to, which she said creates the need for a mediator.

“That was the idea that we were working under – that we could introduce bands and help them to work on causes that they find are important,” Crawford said.

Crawford and her part-ner, Robert Tobias, harvest turnips, arugula and other greens to throw potlucks and other community events at their home. Community art-ists and activists can relate to Kercheville, Crawford said.

“He really helps to connect FFOYA House and our sus-tainable ideals with obvious and tactile examples of how you make a change in your community and how you can produce your own food,” she said.

Tiara Na’Puti is a profes-sor with WKU’s Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility who’s also benefited from Kercheville’s work. As a native of Guam, her garden is a reminder of her culture, which promotes a respect for the land.

“It was kind of like another opportunity to just connect,” she said.

Nicole Breazeale is a pro-fessor of sociology at WKU’s Glasgow campus and is working on a project to bring WKU students and inmates together at the Barren County Detention Center by collabo-

rating on a garden.She described Kercheville

as a “tremendous” partner with a lot of knowledge.

“That’s where Tim has come in and been an incred-ible asset,” she said. “He knows how those (plant)

varieties work together and which ones are best suited for our particular soil and space.”

— Follow Daily News reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter at twitter.com/aaron_muddbgdn or visit bgdailynews.com.

By AARON [email protected]

Local farmer says sustainability keyKercheville runs Festina Lente Farms


270-782-1747�•�Downtown Bowling Green

Above: TimoThy Kerche-ville of Festina lente Farms makes furrows for wildflower seeds Feb. 18 for the model garden at the Barren county Detention center in Glasgow. Left: Kercheville says he “was enchanted by Kentucky throughout my youth.”Photos by MirAndA Pederson/[email protected]

Kercheville’s passion took root after he discovered a Victorian-era terrace

garden hidden beneath invasive weeds in his backyard in downtown

Bowling Green.

Students in Western Kentucky University’s fledg-ling film program tend to leave Bowling Green upon graduation, seeking employ-ment out of state.

But aside from the lure of Hollywood and other film hotspots such as Georgia and Louisiana, there is a market for those skills in the Bowling Green area. From wedding videos and promos to public television specials, employees at several local companies spend plenty of time producing, shooting and editing videos in the area.

Andrew Swanson estab-lished Filmik, his production company, after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in film in 2011. He operated it out of his mother’s house in Henderson until June 2013, when he relocated to Bowling Green.

In the home office where Swanson does his editing at a computer with two monitors, a bookshelf in the corner displays a framed audience choice award for a film he and a team made in 48 hours as part of the 2011 WKU 2-Day Film Challenge.

The Internet has made location less important than it was in earlier decades, Swanson said. While operat-ing in Henderson, his main client was ES Professionals, an Australian company that develops e-commerce appli-cations for the tire indus-try, he said. ES has since split into three companies, one of which, Tire Wire, he still works with extensively, Swanson said.

“We do a series of videos that kind of support what their software entails, and we do it through kind of cheesy comedy, kind of like a show host and he’s really cheesy, but they love it and they’ve acquired lots of clients from showing them these videos, so it’s working,” he said.

Swanson is Filmik’s only

employee and contracts with other talent, such as actors and lighting professionals, as they’re needed. Though he has gone through tal-ent agencies in Louisville and Lexington on occasion, he generally works with local actors, such as Jeff Armstrong, a Hardinsburg resident who plays the cheesy host of the Tire Wire videos.

For Swanson’s young company, other business has come in the form of promo-tional videos for the Alvaton Volunteer Fire Department and instructional safety vid-eos for Hill’s Pet Nutrition, as well as wedding videos.

“This city is ... I would call it a love city,” Swanson said. “A lot of people get engaged here, a lot of people meet at WKU and get engaged.”

There is no dependable 9-to-5 workday for Swanson. Because his company tackles every stage of film produc-tion, what he does on any given day depends greatly

on his current project.“It’s so sporadic,” he said.

“There can be days where it’s purely trying to network, or there could be days where its purely trying to do paper-work.”

From day to day, his duties can range from writing or refining a script or hiring people to filming on set to editing. “It varies, which I think is the part that I enjoy the most, that it’s not so the same everyday,” he said.

Conversely, former Hollywood filmmakers Dorian and Elaine Walker, the owners of Peridot Pictures, located in an old house on State Street, didn’t look to Bowling Green until well after their careers had taken off.

The Walkers lived in Los Angeles from 1980 to 1994, where they worked on a wide range of productions, including PBS specials, the TV movie “Greatest Trials of All Time” and “Unsolved Mysteries,” Dorian Walker

said.During the 1992 Los

Angeles riots, the couple saw a need to relocate.

“Things were getting very crazy there,” Elaine Walker said. “We had to close our windows because the smoke was so bad with fires that had been set.”

At the time, their children were 8 and 11 years old, said Elaine Walker, a for-mer Bowling Green mayor, Kentucky State Parks com-missioner and briefly Kentucky secretary of state.

“We just decided there had to be a better place to raise two kids,” she said.

Kentucky’s history was a draw for the Walkers, Dorian Walker said, who added that he’s fascinated by the state’s pioneer mythos and the fact that the presidents of both the Union and the Confederacy were born in Kentucky.

“We want to expose people to the side of Kentucky that we have come to know and love and that is the culture,

the history, the environment, the people,” Elaine Walker said. “And it’s always fas-cinating to us to see people come into our community and fall in love.”

Though production still tends to take them all around the country, the Walkers have shot scenes in Bowling Green, Dorian Walker said.

“When we were doing the Al Capone story (for “Greatest Trials of All Time”) for instance, we closed off a portion of Fountain Square, brought in all these old cars,” he said. “We were telling the drama story of one fella whose life was changed to the positive by Al Capone, so we brought in extras all dressed in costume.”

The prevalence of theater troupes in the area means the Walkers have a lot of local talent, from costumers to makeup artists to set design-ers to choose from when they do work in Bowling Green, Dorian Walker said.

The work Peridot does

mainly comes from contacts at PBS the Walkers worked with in their L.A. days, he said.

“We didn’t come to Bowling Green thinking that there would be work here, and there consistently has not been work for us here in Bowling Green,” Dorian Walker said.

Working closely with PBS, Peridot still turns out 12 to 20 hours of national televi-sion a year, he said. Their output in recent years has included a docudrama about cave explorer Floyd Collins, a documentary about the early days of aviation and a feature film about a Civil War drummer boy.

“We work really hard and generally are successful in including a Kentucky ele-ment ... because we’re proud to be Kentuckians,” Elaine Walker said. “We’re proud to be here and we like to share our skills and our interests and our love of Kentucky in our work.”

— Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter at twitter.com/Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.


By JACKSON [email protected]

Bowling Green companies produce film content

Left: Andrew SwAnSon started Filmik, a production company, after graduating from western Kentucky Univer-sity. Above: dorian and elaine walker own Peridot Pictures.DAiLy News photos


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2012 TOYOTA CAMRY XLE HYBRID • Certified • • Certified • • Certified • • Certified •

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T HERE ’ S A P RE -O WNED V EHICLE F OR E VERYONE , T OO !

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Documents

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