Danielle Crafton has been named the Coordinator of Marketing and Communications at Northwest Kentucky Forward. Crafton earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Kentucky. Crafton’s areas of focus include: developing and implementing a comprehensive communications plan and managing various marketing tools and media strategies. She resides in Henderson, Kentucky.
Two companies in Northwest Kentucky will be celebrating the grand opening of their new facilities next week:
Homecare Products will celebrate the opening of their new Morganfield manufacturing facility on Wednesday, 5 May at 2 pm. Located in the Morganfield Industrial Park, this new 100,000 sq. ft. facility will be used to produce the company’s EZ Access portable wheelchair ramps and Access One industrial steps.
Innovative Workflow Technologies will be showing off their new office and software development center on Friday, 7 May, at 2 pm. The building is located on Amiet Drive just past the Henderson Airport. The company, which develops software for the healthcare industry, will also be signing their forgivable loan with Henderson County at the festivities.
Both events are open to the public.
Economic Development leaders from Northwest Kentucky, Southwest Indiana, and Southeast Illinois, along with their Chamber of Commerce counterparts, recently participated in a joint mission to Washington, DC.
The group, which came out of the November 2008 Regional Economic Summit, is working together on areas of mutual concern. We met with Congressmen and Senators from the region, as well as DOT and key associations, to promote I-69 and US 50 as well as to encourage the members to carefully consider the impacts of both cap and trade legislation and the EPA’s recent moves to attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air act.
Nearly every office commented on the uniqueness of seeing a tri-state region working together.
I am speaking today to the Green River Area Development District Board of Directors. GRADD is the 7–county regional planning entity for Northwest Kentucky.
I am going to focus on 4 project/initiatives of Northwest Kentucky Forward:
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels met in Henderson earlier this week for a joint signing ceremony. The two governors signed legislation that creates a bi-state authority that can address the funding for the proposed I-69 bridge connecting Henderson and Northwest Kentucky with Southwest Indiana.
Northwest Kentucky Forward is led by a great Board of Directors composed of 22 members from throughout the region. Each of the 4 County Judge-Executives (basically county mayors for those unaccustomed to KY politics) and the Mayor of Henderson are ex-officio members with the other 17 members coming from business and industry in the region.
Last night, the board elected 3 new members:
NWKF is proud to welcome these new members and looks forward to their being an active part of our efforts to create wealth and opportunity for people, business, and governments of the region.
HB 3 passed out of the House A&R Committee this afternoon with a committee substitute. The substitute amended the minimum wage for incentives in non-enhanced counties from 175% of federal minimum wage to 150%. This is a change that we endorsed and are pleased to see included in the approved legislation.
The amended bill now goes to the full House for consideration tomorrow.
Also, HB 4 easily passed through the House A&R Committee. This bill, which would create infrastructure authorities to help fund mega transportation projects, will soon be heard by the full House.
The House Appropriations and Revenue Committee will hear testimony today at noon CDT on HB 3 (economic development incentives) and HB 4 (infrastructure authorities). The committee will hear testimony tomorrow on HB 1 (budget) and HB 2 (video lottery terminal).
The hearings will be webcast through KET at http://www.ket.org/legislature/.
A special session of the Kentucky General Assembly will begin this Monday, 15 June. The Governor has placed four items on the agenda:
It is doubtful any region of the Commonwealth will follow these issues more closely, or has more potentially at stake, than Northwest Kentucky. I will blog more about the incentives legislation and will provide updates as the session progresses.
The Audubon Board of Realtors recently reported several very positive signs for the local housing market and economy:
You can read more at http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/may/23/realtors-report/ or at the Board of Realtors website at http://henderson-realtors.com/.