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The Courier-Journal
November 15, 2003
Fletcher names efficiency panel
Commission to study improving structure of state government
LEXINGTON, Ky. — His right arm still in a sling after shoulder surgery
this week, Gov.-elect Ernie Fletcher yesterday announced the members of a panel
he said will study the efficiency and organization of state government.
Fletcher's "Blue Ribbon Commission" will be headed by Louisville
businessman Bruce Lunsford, who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination
for governor and later endorsed Fletcher, a Republican, in the general election.
The 15-member committee includes judge-executives from Kenton County and Warren
County, a newspaper publisher and the presidents of the University of Kentucky,
University of Louisville and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
Fletcher said the last major reorganization of state government came in 1973.
The commission's goal is to "bring as much efficiency as possible"
to state government, Fletcher said. "If we are going to bring real change
to state government, we must evaluate how state government is run, and make
some real changes to improve its effectiveness," he said.
"During the campaign, we talked about bringing real change to Frankfort.
Part of that change is making sure we look entirely at state government, look
at what is going on and do an assessment. We have teams out already, just purely
collecting data, so we can get information and begin to start our efforts to
bring that real change people are looking for."
Lunsford compared state government to a car and said the commission's goal
was to make it more "aerodynamic." He declined to offer specifics,
but Fletcher said organization, the use of technology and improved working environments
and productivity are areas the commission will examine. It will not address
state government personnel needs, Fletcher said.
"It's looking more at structure and changes in structure," Fletcher
said.
Fletcher said he'd like to receive the panel's recommendations shortly after
his Dec. 9 inauguration, but that its work would continue after that.
"We will establish other guidelines as we go along, depending on what
particular recommendations are made," he said.
Lunsford brushed off criticism about assisting Fletcher. "People who have
known me for a long time, I would not think they would identify me as (Fletcher's)
`hatchet man.' I don't think that's been the responsibility, the task we've
been given here," Lunsford said. "I think we're supposed to design
a system that works."
Members of Gov.-elect Ernie Fletcher's "Blue Ribbon Commission"
- Bruce Lunsford, chairman and CEO of Citation LLC, Louisville.
- Dick Murgatroyd, Kenton County judge-executive.
- Virginia Fox, former chairman of KET, Franklin County.
- Jim Paxton, editor and publisher of the Paducah Sun, McCracken County.
- Bob Ramsey, former vice president of Lexington Community Venture Corp.,
Georgetown.
- John Hall, former Ashland Inc. chairman and CEO, Boyd County.
- Alois Moore, owner of Moore Real Estate, Hazard.
- Margaret Handmaker, Worldwide Partner Mercer Human Resource Consulting,
Louisville.
- Bill Street, member of the board of Brown-Forman Corp., Louisville.
- Cathy Bailey, philanthropist and president of Operation Open Arms, Louisville.
- Mike Buchanon, Warren County judge-executive, Bowling Green.
Ex-officio members:
- Lee Todd, president, University of Kentucky.
- James Ramsey, president, University of Louisville.
- Michael McCall, president, Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
- John David Peterson (general counsel), former state senator, Paintsville.
Herald-Leader
November 16, 2003
Patton's growth program falls short
Jenkins and Hindman still wait for jobs
JENKINS - In 1997, Gov. Paul Patton named Jenkins and Hindman, tiny coal towns
deep in Appalachia, the lucky beneficiaries of his Community Development Initiative
program.
In the six years since, the towns have shared nearly $40 million in state and
federal aid intended to create strong local economies in an impoverished region
where such development plans tend to fail. The program moved slowly and with
some controversy, but just a year ago, advocates predicted a payoff right around
the corner.
Now, as Patton leaves office, funds for the program are all but gone. And some
residents of Jenkins and Hindman, where nearly one in three people live in poverty,
say they have been disappointed by the program's meager results.
In Jenkins, the CDI program built the $6.5 million, 377-acre Gateway Business
Park, which has not attracted a single new employer.
"Everyone's waiting for a big factory to come and give us 350 jobs rather
than settle for a new Burger King, which at least would hire a dozen people,"
said Ernestine Flint, owner of Tan-a-Rama and Gifts, one of a handful of stores
in Jenkins.
Hindman chose a different strategy, investing about $12 million in "arts
and smarts" -- a folk-art gallery, a fledgling school for folk artists
and a new, three-story Opportunity Center that houses the public library, a
Head Start program and expanded facilities for the local branch of Hazard Community
College.
Though they remain hopeful about this strategy's potential, Hindman residents
are quick to note that only a handful of jobs have been created.
Many are skeptical about basing their economy on beaded necklaces, quilts and
wooden bowls in a region already saturated with roadside crafts sales.
"Arts and crafts I don't think can sustain an economy," Knott County
Attorney Randy Slone said.
Be patient, governor says
When Patton launched the CDI program, he promised that the "new towns"
that emerged in Jenkins and Hindman would enjoy self-sustaining economies that
could create positive ripples across Eastern Kentucky's mountains, where the
governor was born and spent most of his adult life.
In a recent interview, Patton acknowledged that has not happened. The towns
received new water and sewer lines, street improvements and several new government
buildings, but most poverty indicators -- jobless adults, children who get free
school meals -- suggest economies that are as weak as before the program began.
Be patient, the governor said in a recent interview.
"Neither town is finished," said Patton, a former Pike County judge-executive
who leaves the Governor's Mansion in three weeks. "We'll have to see what's
happened 10 years down the road, whether we see the results we're looking for."
Joe Hall of Jenkins is not waiting.
Hall recently hunched over a computer in the attractive, brightly lit Jenkins
library, one of the town's new public-improvement projects. Hall, a community
college student who was researching a report on diabetes, said he will gratefully
use the new library as he earns a degree in radiology.
Then he plans to look for a hospital job -- in Virginia, not Jenkins.
From the CDI program "we've gotten some nice things, but there still aren't
many jobs here," Hall said. "Nothing that pays anything, anyway."
Lowered expectations
On the outskirts of Jenkins, Gateway Business Park is practically a ghost town.
The weed-choked lots are empty except for a data-entry firm that moved down
the road from Whitesburg, the county seat, more than a year ago.
The 40,000-square-foot "spec building" that could be converted into
a factory is vacant. Roads, utilities and street lights are unused.
Local officials now are lowering their sights. They are negotiating with the
region's medical-helicopter services about building a landing pad, hangar and
dormitory at the park, which could bring at least a few jobs.
Officials said they understand that companies have not been expanding in the
sluggish national economy, but they worry that Jenkins is too rural and remote
to compete for manufacturers, even when the good times return.
After all, they said, the business park has no railroad line. The nearest interstate
highway is 45 miles away; the nearest commercial airport is 75 miles away. Additionally,
Jenkins offers no shopping malls and little upscale housing for corporate executives.
"The perception is that we're a Third World country here in Eastern Kentucky,
and that really hurts us," said Letcher County Judge-Executive Carroll
Smith.
Solutions beget problems
Tim Glotzbach happily surveys the newly renovated stone schoolhouse in Hindman,
where paint is drying and hardwood floors are shiny and unscuffed. The new Kentucky
School of Craft suffered some construction delays, but its first workshops are
under way, in stained glass, beaded jewelry and wood turning.
Glotzbach, the founding dean, said he plans to hire two full-time instructors
and enroll as many as 30 students for the first semester, in fall 2004. By 2006,
there might be additional classes in furniture making, fiber weaving and blacksmithing
for as many as 150 people interested in native Appalachian art, he said.
In Glotzbach's vision, Hindman could become a mecca for artists and tourists
seeking local color, like quaint Berea in Madison County with its small college
and town square of galleries and shops.
For every problem Glotzbach settles, however, another emerges.
The school arranged with Hazard Community College to issue associate's degrees
in its name, but even if the school can draw dozens of students, where in Knott
County would they live? There is little flat land available for homes, and there
is scant rental housing. Hindman's sparse Main Street, which curves along Troublesome
Creek, has none of the bookstores, cafes, restaurants or music venues favored
by the college crowd.
"It is daunting from many standpoints," Glotzbach said. "It
will take a lot of effort, but we can do this. We can make something great here."
No overnight success
If Patton's CDI program fell short, that is because nobody knew exactly what
the goals were, said Justin Maxson, executive director of the Mountain Association
for Community Economic Development in Berea.
Patton threw millions of dollars at the communities to see what, if anything,
might improve, rather than demand tangible accomplishments, such as jobs created
within a given number of years, Maxson said.
"In some ways, the economy has actually gotten worse over the last six
years in Knott and Letcher counties, and in all the coal counties," said
Maxson, a former Letcher County resident. "I'm not a big believer in the
'If you build something, somebody will come' model of economic development."
The state official in charge of monitoring the CDI program, Ewell Balltrip,
however, expressed satisfaction with the progress so far. Balltrip is executive
director of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission, of which Patton is chairman.
"Sure, we all want to see more jobs. We want instant gratification because
the need in these areas is so great," said Balltrip, interviewed at a recent
Appalachian leadership forum in Prestonsburg.
"But economic development doesn't work that way. You cannot rebuild an
economy overnight, or even in six years," he said. "We have achieved
a lot in six years. No, we've not reached our objectives yet, but that's not
an indication of failure."
Besides, the CDI program is fast becoming old news. The buzz at the leadership
forum was over a new economic-development program called New Appalachian Horizons,
promoted as "nothing less than the second wave of the Appalachian revolution."
This latest plan, the offspring of a blue-ribbon panel, focus groups and public
hearings, calls for Eastern Kentucky to "aggressively promote entrepreneurship"
and "aggressively market the assets of the region." Its suggestions
include a rail-transit system so people can work in the cities, but return at
night to the mountains.
Balltrip said he is sending the 60-page report to Governor-elect Ernie Fletcher.
There is concern among some Eastern Kentucky leaders that Fletcher, who lives
in Lexington, might not be as generous to the ailing mountain counties as Patton
was. Fletcher should be impressed by New Appalachian Horizons though, Balltrip
said.
"This is an initiative that aims to engage people in the region in the
planning and development process," Balltrip said, clutching the report.
"I'm very excited about it."
The Paducah Sun
November 14, 2003
KCTCS colleges rise in enrollments
Colleges in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System have more
than 72,000 students enrolled for the fall semester, according to a statement
released Thursday.
The final enrollment of 72,023 submitted to the Council on Postsecondary Education
exceeded fall 2002 enrollment of 67,812 by more than 6 percent. Since 1998,
KCTCS colleges have increased enrollment by 58 percent.
Official enrollment for fall 2003 also topped the enrollment estimate issued
in September of 71,061.
Every KCTCS district except one enrolled more students in fall 2003 than the
year before. The largest increases were recorded by Henderson Community College,
20 percent; Southeast Community College, 18 percent; Central Kentucky Technical
College, 15 percent; Somerset Community College, 13 percent; and Gateway Community
and Technical College, 13 percent. West Kentucky Community and Technical College
in Paducah had 5,875 students enrolled in fall 2002. Unofficial enrollment figures
show there are 279 more students this semester, an increase of nearly 5 percent.
KCTCS President Michael B. McCall attributes part of the statewide increase
to the expansion of the colleges and implementing new recruitment plans.
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