Fall Chamber Breakfast

By PJ Martin

Editor

The Herald-News

 

Despite the heavy rain showers, the Chamber breakfast was well attended with approximately 100 people present.

Bragg gave the audience an update on the stage project saying, “We finally found a home for the pavilion that’s currently in the courthouse yard. It will be going to Sulphur Well Park…that pavilion will be leaving shortly after the Pumpkin Festival, and then the stage project will get underway…”

He thanked everyone who has helped make the stage project possible and thanked all the businesses who support the chamber welcome baskets for new citizens of Metcalfe County. He also thanked Diane’s Cake & Catering for the great breakfast. He then called upon Superintendent Josh Hurt to deliver the invocation.

Next Bragg announced, “The company that we’re going to recognize now is another one that’s a staple in Metcalfe County. It’s kind of like the emergency room for whatever you’ve got into. If you break something, or you’ve got that little project…Barney’s probably got whatever you need to get out of that problem… We want to recognize our Fall Business of the Quarter Metcalfe Farm Supply.”

Owners Barney Withers and Becky Wilson accepted the award and Withers thanked the crowd for their support and patronage over the years.

The next speakers were Misty Morgan and Ashley Phelps from CHFS DCBS. Morgan began by explaining, “We are from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, we are a Division of Protection and Permanency. Most of you know it as social services or child welfare. We are here today because we wanted to talk to you… our region is in desperate need of foster parents.”

“We are at a point that we have kids staying in our offices for days and weeks at a time. They’re staying in the offices, in the hotel. We as workers are having to give up our time with our family, and so we really wanted to just come today and kind of put that information out there…Maybe you can’t, but you might know somebody that can be (a foster parent) and it’s not just for Metcalfe County… Workers staying with these kids, 24 hours a day, they go to school. We’re trying to make them have as much of a normal life as it can be when they’re sleeping on air mattresses and cots and stuff in offices…”

Misty motioned to Ashley and explained that she is the emergency worker with recruitment certification for foster parents. She explained that even if you cannot be a foster parent, you can provide clothes, food, gift cards for the kids, anything because most come into foster care with nothing.

Again, I am Ashley Phelps. I’m not going to get up here and tell you how to become a foster parent. What I want to do is put the bug in your ear. If you know someone that is interested. If you are interested in me coming to your church to talk about foster parenting, or how you can help these children. Or if you have a club that you’re involved in that you would like for someone to come speak to. Or I can talk to you individually, any way for us to get out there to speak to people. Of course, that’s how we’re going to recruit people. We do have a new thing with familial foster parents… You don’t have to be open to the other children coming into your home, it can be very child-specific to just that person.”

Bragg introduced the next speaker James Cook, the Chief Development Officer at Candela Renewables. Cook stated, “We develop solar power plants, and like I said, we’re really happy to be a new member. We’re a small business, 24 employees… We founded our company six years ago… more recently, solar power plants, or we’ve actually been successful enough to have 50 solar projects built. These are massive arrays of solar panels that provide power locally. One of the things that we do as part of our work is prioritize working with local communities, and we have really enjoyed, over the last 2, 3, 4, years, spending a lot of time down in Summer Shade. I have enjoyed getting to know folks there.”

“We would hook a new solar project into the electrical grid down in Summer Shade, the EKPC has a substation there that’s well suited to inject new power into the location. The solar panels will last 40 to 50 years… Solar projects like ours should bring about $3.1 million of extra revenue to the county, and that’s with an industrial revenue bond and the payment load tax agreement. And we would bring jobs. The construction itself actually takes two to 300 people to build a solar

project like that, and then maybe two or three people to operate it over the course of its lifetime.”

The next speaker was Alicia Basham from Just Family Adult Day Health who works in Taylor, Green, Cumberland, Barren, and Metcalfe. She stated, “I am here about senior citizens and our disabled population.”

“I want to tell you a little story… This was an 89-year-old female at an apartment complex. I have to mention no pain. Her son had died. If I get emotional, y’all forgive me. And we just saw her out walking aimlessly. She didn’t know where she was, didn’t know where her son had run off to, and I just stopped her. I said, ‘Do you need help?’ She had no food. She didn’t know where to turn…We got her in one of the adult day programs.”

“Now she attends five days a week. All of her medicines are leveled out. She knows who she is. She knows where she is. She gets up and plays, she dances… I just wish I could show you all the change in this life.”

“And so, I know you all have great programs here in your community as well for your seniors and your elderly. So please support those even if you just stop by to play bingo with these people, you stop by. Whatever your cause is pour into those people, because a lot of times their families are gone and you’re all they have left. So, I just want to let you know it’s really important…”

Bragg introduced the final speaker of the day from Kentucky Innovations Project Manager Marilyn LeBourveau.

LeBourveau began, “I’m with the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development down in Frankfort, Kentucky… The Cabinet for Economic Development is the state agency responsible for encouraging job creation and retention and new investment in the state.”

“…there are about 70 people in the cabinet. We work with businesses in all 120 counts, and I’m in the KY Innovation office. So, our target market is what we say, entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors all across Kentucky.”

She began by explaining the Small Business Tax Credit (KSBTC) program. Businesses with 50 or fewer employees could qualify for a $3,500 tax credit. If specific qualifications are met potentially get up to $25,000 in non-refundable tax credit.

She also presented various other programs available such as the KY Business Credit Initiative Program (KSBCI 2.0), KY Selling Farmers Tax Credit (KSFTC), and the Kentucky Enterprise Fund (KEF).

The program overview of these can be found at www.kyinnovation.com/programs-and-incentives, www.kyexports.com, or www.ced.ky.gov/entrepreneurship/KSBCI. You can also email info@kyinnovation.com for more assistance.

Edmonton-Metcalfe Chamber of Commerce, Executive Director Kim Harwood thanked the crowd for attending the breakfast and informed them that the Chamber Christmas Banquet is scheduled for Monday, November 25^th.

The breakfast and door prizes were sponsored by Wellcare.