I was able to speak with an amazing woman this week while out visiting Chamber member Hometown Manor Assisted Living in Russellville. Her name is Nell Lawrence and she will be 105 on March 29, but they had her party this past Wednesday. Nell is a life-long resident of Logan County and a HUGE University of Kentucky Basketball fan.
The things this sharp-minded lady has seen in the span of her life is amazing. She remembers World Wars I and II. She recalled the first time she ever saw a car as a child – it was to carry her grandfather away to the funeral home. Her family had a horse and buggy and she didn’t own a car until she was married. She worked for a short while for the telephone company and for Red Kap for a while, but most of her time was spent out on her farm with her children and grandchildren. She told me that working with the ones you love makes life much sweeter and that is what she holds on to now.
Nell’s family told me she was a master gardener as well and would have flowers that would put Martha Stewart to shame.
Oh, and the secret to living to be 105?
“Working hard, I enjoyed it,” she told me. “And, I would eat just about anything, but I especially like fried chicken.”
So, there you have it. The secret to a long life is to love your family, work hard and enjoy your fried chicken.
Here’s to 106, Mrs. Nell …
LEADERSHIP LOGAN
Due to the tremendous amount of snow which cancelled February’s class, I was just now able to meet and go with the Leadership Logan Class as they toured local factories during “Chamber and LEAD Day” Thursday. I think we have a wonderful group and I was impressed with their professionalism and questions as we toured together.
A special thanks to those who allowed us to tour their facilities and were very gracious hosts. Thanks to the Russellville Electric Plant Board, General Products, Ventra Plastics and Logan Aluminum.
There are two things I would encourage everyone who reads this: first, if you haven’t been a member of a Leadership Logan class, please consider joining the next one and second, if you get the opportunity to tour any of the places we visited Thursday, please do so. The tours are not only suitably impressive, they will help you understand how vast and successful our industry is here in Logan County.
LOGAN ALUMINIUM CONSIDERS EXPANSION
Speaking of success, it was announced Thursday the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority gave preliminary approval for incentives to Logan Aluminum for a proposed $282 million expansion.
According to an article in the Bowling Green Daily News, the company could create 188 jobs, which would pay an average of $50 an hour. The wages those jobs would create have qualified the company for a $5.2 million tax incentive over 10 years.
The expansion would include $70 million in building improvements and $212 million in equipment purchases, The Daily News said. The company makes rolled aluminum for such things as can stock. The expansion would be to produce flat-rolled aluminum sheets for the automobile industry. Logan Aluminum has 1,072 employees, making it one of the largest employers in southcentral Kentucky.
We look forward to hearing more about this great news.
RIBBON CUTTING FOR THE LOFT
There was great food, fellowship and a wonderful ribbon-cutting welcoming The Loft into the local business community on Tuesday. The business, which is owned by Lisa Haley-Miller who also owns Creative Canvas by You, is Russellville’s newest event venue. It is gorgeous inside and would make a great place to hold almost any kind of event. Congrats to Lisa and here’s to the next time I can eat some of those baby quiches Lisa served … man, they were good!
MORE RIBBON CUTTINGS/EVENTS FORTHCOMING
The great weather (i.e., no snow and/or ice) has brought forth a plethora of ribbon cuttings this month. Here are the ones scheduled, for now, in April:
Brooks & Hendricks, PLLC – April 6 @ 9 a.m.
Russellville High School ATC – April 13 @ 10 a.m.
Lewisburg Bank (Hopkinsville Road in Russellville location) – April 29 @ 7:30 a.m.
We will also be having a Tea and Networking hour at Creekwood Nursing and Rehab Center on April 22, starting at noon.
So there will be many, many activities for Chamber members in April. And, possibly, there will be even more events than these. April is shaping up to be a busy month, which is a good thing!
BUSINESS CARDS
For those members who want a great, easy and free way to get noticed, bring your business cards by the Chamber office for us to put on our card holders in the lobby. I have only been at the Chamber for two months, but even with the terrible weather I’ve seen all sorts of people come in and take cards from the holder with them. We have several empty spots on our holder, so bring your cards by and we will put them up!
WRUS A SUCCESS
Friday morning we had Chamber Vice President Joe Hendricks and Board member King Simpson on our monthly program on WRUS 610 AM and had a great time learning more about the Library and Joe’s law practice. We also spoke a little about some information I shared in a previous post we were able to get with the TVA’s help about Logan County’s retail leakage. Thanks to former Chamber President Chris McGinnis for breaking down the math on what we, as Logan Countians, spend on food and drink outside of the county each year. The numbers tell us something we probably already knew. We spend more than $13 million a year on food and drink outside of Logan County. That is roughly $481 a person or $1925 a year for a family of four. That is an average.
Stay tuned to this channel for more on our upcoming retail initiative.
MISSION STATEMENT
In the last meeting of the Chamber Board of Directors, we streamlined the Mission Statement of the Chamber as one of the first steps of the upcoming Strategic Plan. So here is the new Mission Statement for the Chamber:
Mission Statement: The mission of the Logan County Chamber of Commerce is to promote and develop strong businesses, and foster a more vibrant economy through leadership, education, governmental affairs, and community development, resulting in a better quality of life for all Logan Countians.
KU CAREER & DEVELOPMENT
Leslie Witty, with WKU Career & Workforce Development, sent me a very nice letter recently and sent more information about the program, noting its "specialty is in soft-skill training — we offer trainings in areas like interpersonal communication, teambuilding, leadership, customer service and much more. One course that’s been generating a lot of interest is our DiSC course in which people take self-assessments, learn about their behavior preferences (as well as the behavior styles of their co-workers) and then incorporate these into their specific workplaces. We offer courses as short as a few hours up to programs that run throughout the course of a year."
RETAIL RETENTION/RECRUITMENT PROGRAM
Finally, we had a wonderful meeting recently with Melissa Halsell, the program manager for TVA Economic Development. Melissa was a fount of knowledge and was able to give us a good snapshot of the retail reality for Logan County. We are working with Melissa on the best approaches to gaining more retail for Logan County. For instance, Logan County "leaks" out Food and Drink dollars that surpass $13 million each year. That means Logan Countians spend that much money at places, restaurants in particular, that are not in Logan County. It is our job to see about getting Logan County in a position to get some of that money back and being spent inside our borders. Stay tuned for more announcements about our retail program!