GRADD Board Meeting
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:
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Innovative Workflow Technologies—This is a new software firm that is relocating its headquarters, development center, and data center to Henderson. This location is resulting in 40 new high tech jobs, but it is also having impacts across the community. I am going to talk a little about these ripples.
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Kentucky Aluminum Network—NWKF recently joined with several partners to help our area aluminum companies to form a statewide organization to promote the importance of this sector to the Commonwealth. KAN is promoting the importance of aluminum, threats to its survival, and opportunities for growth. Already, KAN is having an impact in Frankfort on several issues.
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Regional Economic Network—REN is a new initiative that is growing out of the Regional Economic Summit that NWKF helped to sponsor in November 2008. Economic development groups in Northwest Kentucky, Southwest Indiana, and Southeast Illinois are looking for ways to collaborate and cooperate while we still compete. Issues such as I-69, cap & trade, higher education, etc. are issues which impact all of us and offer opportunities to work together.
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Energy—Northwest Kentucky has the potential to be a significant player in the energy sector with our natural resources (coal, oil, natural gas, ag industry), transportation resources (rivers, rail, roads, pipelines), and human resources (the various power related companies and suppliers in the region). Continuing to advance that agenda and prepare the region for these projects in light of the challenges (capital markets, federal policies) is an ongoing challenge.