Northern Kentucky chamber president interview: No Brent Spence progress until 2018?
The president of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce doesn’t see an opening to make progress on a Brent Spence Bridge replacement in the near future. Not until 2018, to be specific.
“I see
several years down the road before we get to any consensus,” Trey
Grayson, the former Kentucky Secretary of State, said in a recent
interview ahead of his one-year anniversary on the job. “I look at it as
were not going to have a consensus out until 2018 when we have a new
governor,” a new president and possible changes in the composition and
leaders of Congress.
Until the possibility for a
consensus is there, Grayson thinks additional Brent Spence planning (if
any is needed) should move forward. He also said the region’s leaders
need to relook at alternatives to relieve overcrowding on Interstates 71
and 75, so traffic is improved even if the key bottleneck isn’t fixed.
Finally, he also thinks the time should be used to rethink whether a
Brent Spence replacement is the only solution.
Greyson,
who is paid $190,000 a year, also talked about the challenges of having
Toyota close its manufacturing headquarters in Erlanger, the
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport’s future and other
issues confronting the Cincinnati region and Northern Kentucky
specifically.
The following are excerpts from the interview at the chamber’s offices in Fort Mitchell:
Question: What are the biggest challenges Northern Kentucky is facing currently?
Answer: There
is a challenge of two different states having two different state laws.
So sometimes employers are not sure what they can do what they can’t
do. Another challenge is attracting and maintaining a skilled workforce,
and with that challenge, the heroin issue really exacerbates it. I was
talking with a chamber member recently and they were talking about how
they had an employee die from an overdose. It’s an issue that is not
just affecting families but also efficiencies at work. Those are two of
the biggest right now. Read more: Cincinatti.com
Regional cities initiative in Southern Indiana gets deadline extension, adds new local partner
A regional collaboration designed to improve
the quality of life and place and prioritize capital projects in
Southern Indiana has some breathing room to submit a proposal to the
state. And the effort has a new partner in Harrison County.
The collaboration, known as Our Southern Indiana. is deep in the throes of crafting an application
to take part in the Regional Cities Initiative. The program is designed
to boost economic development and population growth by centering
efforts on talent attraction and regional development. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is managing the state's new program.
As much as $84 million in state funding is
expected to be used in only a few regional areas or cities. They'll be
chosen through an application process in which the regions outline
multi-year strategic plans.
Wendy Dant Chesser, president of One Southern Indiana,
the chamber of commerce for Clark and Floyd counties, said the IEDC has
extended the deadline to submit the application to Aug. 31 and will
start accepting applications in July. The original deadline was July 1.
“The good news is that we have more time to
work through the process,” Chesser told Louisville Business First. “The
bad news is that everybody else we are competing with has more time as
well." Read more: Louisville Business First
Traverse City (Michigan) businesses find it difficult to fill jobs
Nick Trahair of the AmericInn in Traverse City is in a unique situation: He only needs two more employees to fill his summer staff positions.
He is fortunate. With an increase in available jobs, positions are increasingly difficult to fill — there are more open positions for workers in the area than there are workers available, business officials and jobs experts say.
"We have a great staff," Trahair said. "We've gotten creative with incentives. We offer good wages with summer bonuses and production goals. We do lunch for employees, sometimes we have ice cream on hot days, and we've played miniature golf next door. We even have beach picnics. We do a lot for our employees to keep morale up."
The search for workers is ongoing, and at times difficult for businesses in this area that rely on the summer tourist trade. Some businesses even have had to lean more heavily on workers from other countries to fill critical positions.
"With 36 years in this business, I've never seen anything like this," said Jane Butzier, Northwest Michigan Works manager. "As the economy grows there are jobs going unfilled. We don't have the people to fill the positions."
The reasons for the dearth of workers are difficult to define, according to Laura Oblinger, executive director of the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce. "There are a lot more businesses in the area, and people are busier. More business means more staff. They are all indicators of a stronger economy." Read more: Detroit News
Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce calls for Caraway on cash
Cari White of the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce wants to help put the face of former U.S. Sen. Hattie Caraway on the face of the $10 bill.
Caraway’s position as the first elected female senator and her role in the women’s rights movement, farmers’ rights and New Deal policies were the driving reasons for a campaign, White said in the announcement.
“She was a pioneering woman in Arkansas,” White told The Jonesboro Sun (http://bit.ly/1TP67mE ). “For Arkansas at that time, it was an amazing feat.”
The U.S. Treasury Department announced a campaign to replace Alexander Hamilton on the bill in 2020. The date lines up with the 100-year anniversary of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. A means of measuring popular candidates will be the amount of use of the Twitter hashtag “TheNew10” with a candidate’s name. White aims to launch a social media campaign to get the state and nation involved.
“The goal is to get every Arkansan onboard, especially those in Northeast Arkansas,” she said. Read more: Washington Times
Bluefield Chamber Good news: Welcomed developments on horizon
A number of new projects and developments currently in the works look promising and could certainly help Mercer and Tazewell counties. For example, we learned last week that two new restaurants — IHOP and Buffalo Wild Wings — could soon be coming to Princeton near the Interstate 77 and Route 460 interchange. And that’s in addition to the ongoing construction on Bojangles that is nearing completion on Oakvale Road.
A newly renovated Arby’s also will be opening soon in the city limits of Princeton, and Mercer County Development Authority Development Director Janet Bailey is hoping that construction can resume soon on the Chick-Fil-A project also located along Oakvale Road. Work on the stand-alone Chick-Fil-A has been stalled due to complications with underground fuel tanks and Department of Environmental Protection regulations. But she is hopeful that construction will recommence soon. So are we. A stand-alone Chick-Fil-A would be a nice addition to the heavily traveled interchange of Route 460 and I-77.
In Bluefield, City Manager Dane Rideout and city Community and Economic Development Director Jim Spencer are hard at work on a new economic development project that they hope can be a game changer for Bluefield. In fact, it’s being called Project Game Changer, or Project G.C. for short. Rideout told members of the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce last week that the five- to seven-year plan could bring more than 1,000 jobs to the city if the proposal comes to fruition. Rideout, Spencer and Bluefield Mayor Tom Cole have already presented the proposed economic development plan to U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va. Read more: Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Jodi Maughon named head of Madison County Chamber of Commerce
Jodi Maughon has been named the new executive director of the Madison County Chamber of Commerce.
Maughon has been with the chamber since September 2010. She is a 2011 graduate of Mississippi College with a bachelor’s degree in communication with an emphasis in public relations. Maughon started out as an intern with the Madison County Chamber of Commerce before taking a full-time position as project coordinator in 2011. In March 2012, Maughon was named director of programs and special events. Read more: The Clarion Ledger
30,000 to Attend Sheboygan 4th Of July Parade
There is no shortage of Independence Day festivities in the Sheboygan area slated for this weekend.
The Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce lists more than one hundred entrants participating in the annual 4th of July parade, which kicks off at 9am Saturday.
Lisa Hartman says, “We’ve got a lot of organizations in there willing to celebrate the Fourth of July. We have the Kiel Municipal Band, the Sheboygan Pops, high schools participating with their drum -lines and dance teams. It’s just a lot of fun.”
Hartman says some thirty thousand spectators are expected to line the parade route this year but, attendees are being reminded that lawn chairs and blankets cannot be set up before 5am Saturday- per city ordinance. WHBL.com
Marion, Illinois 18th best for small business
Marion is considered the 18th best city in Illinois to start a business, according to a recent study by a consumer finance company.
The study was done by NerdWallet, a finance company based in San Francisco.
The business climate — including the average revenue of businesses, percentage of businesses with paid employees and businesses per 100 people plus the local economic health, including median annual income, median monthly housing costs and unemployment rates — were used in determining the rankings.
NerdWallet analyzed 285 places in Illinois, each with a population of at least 5,000. Five of the top 10 cities have populations under 10,000. All of the cities listed in the top 10 are in northern Illinois.
Oak Brook came in as the top spot, with the second-highest number of businesses and the highest number of businesses per 100 people with 43. That's over 3,400 businesses. It is home to the headquarters of McDonald's, Ace Hardware, Blistex, TreeHouse Foods and other major corporations.
The remaining top 10 includes: Itasca, Lincolnshire, Countryside, Peru, Deerfield, Elks Grove Village, Burr Ridge, Northfield and Lisle. Rounding out the top 20 were: Bensenville, Litchfield, Effingham, Northbrook, Libertyville, Downer's Grove, Schaumburg, MARION, Morris and Bloomington.
The survey stated Marion has a population of 17,2382 with 1,846 businesses and revenue of $1.743 million. Forty-one percent of the businesses have paid employees and 10.68 percent of the businesses employ more than 100 people. The city's employment rate is 6.3 percent, according to the survey.
Median annual income and median annual housing costs accounted for 10 percent of the 35 percent overall score in the local economic health category and 15 percent was counted for the unemployment rate with a lower rate contributing to a higher overall score. The business climate accounted for 65 percent of the overall score.
The news was not surprising to Dalus Ben Avi, executive director of the Marion Chamber of Commerce.
"Marion is the place to do business. The Marion community is filled with people who are supportive of its businesses and the people who work in the Marion area," Avi said.
"Marion has the perfect mix of ingredients for being a great place to attract and grow businesses: a thriving regional airport; investments in infrastructure; access to Interstate 57 and highways; strong caliber of employees; distance from several metropolitan areas such as St. Louis, Indianapolis and Nashville; excellent education institutions and healthcare facilities; beautiful scenery; wide variety of activities and events to choose from; and the willingness to question the norm and see what can be changed for the betterment of the entire area," she continued. Read more: Daily Republican
Famous 4th of July Chamber of Commerce Quotation: (Attitude)
If it's your job to eat a frog, it's
best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two
frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first. - Mark Twain
