Rayloc closure bad news for county
It was the worst economic news for Crittenden County since Tyco announced it was closing its doors more than eight years ago.
Rayloc, an auto parts remanufacturer, announced layoffs at its Morganfield plant last Thursday that will affect about 480 workers. As many as 100 of those factory jobs are filled by people currently living in Crittenden County.
“Things are not looking good right now,” said Jeff Fritts, one of those local residents who will be looking for a new job this autumn.
The layoffs were announced last Thursday during a plantwide meeting that called all three shifts to the Union County plant. During the brief session, the company’s president announced the closure of the plant’s production lines through a live video conference. The 15-minute meeting ended with workers being handed their pink slips and severance packages. The Union County plant then closed for the day.
“They dismissed us and we all went home,” said 15-year employee Chad Morris of Marion.
Armed security was present at the meeting, but Morris said employees were too stunned to take much notice. Fritts said Tuesday the shock still has not worn off for he and many of the 540 wokers who returned to the job as usual Friday.
“It’s been hard to sleep.... nerve-wracking,” he said. “I think everybody feels about like this.”
The news was especially hard for Fritts. Both he and his wife Rene have worked at the plant since the early 1990s. Together, the couple brought home around $60,000 annually with jobs paying around $15 an hour. After production lines shut down between Oct. 13 and Oct. 31, the couple will be forced to rely on their severence packages and unemployment benefits to make ends meet.
They will not be alone. Fritts said several couples draw both paychecks from the plant. And, like many of those couples, the Frittses have begun to raise a family on their Rayloc incomes.
“We still don’t know what to do, really,” said Jeff, who works the day shift with his wife while their 12-year-old girl is at school. “We haven’t talked.”
The situation is made worse by the looming looming loss of health insurance for plant employees. Morris has an 11-year-old son, a five-year-old daughter and a work-at-home wife who have depended on that coverage since he began working at Rayloc.
“What’s really going to be whipping me is the insurance,” said Morris, who started work at the plant out of high school. “I’m gonna have to come up with something.”
His wife Stacie has a medical condition that requires several regular presecriptions.
“It’s pretty costly each month,” the husband and father said.
As shocking as last week’s announcement was, it was not without some indications as Fritts and Morris look back at the last few months.
“In an environment where there are a lot of people, a lot of rumors start,” Morris said.
He said several company meetings had reinforced that the auto industry was suffering from a sluggish economy. Even more telling were the recent closures of plants in Maryland and Texas.
“It’s just not a good time in the auto industry,” Fritts agreed. And “we’ve been getting a lot of stuff from China and Mexico.”
In fact, unemployed workers at the Hancock, Md., Rayloc plant that closed last spring have been made eligible for federal benefits available to workers displaced due to increased imports. According to the Herald-Mail.com, an online news source for Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, all 260 employees were eligible for the government assistance.
But Kevin Sheilley, executive director of Northwest Kentucky Forward, a regional economic development agency based in Henderson, said it’s too early to tell if the Morganfield layoffs are related to such foreign influences. Familiar with Rayloc’s impact on the county from his time as director of the Crittenden County Economic Development Corp., Sheilley said it appears that Rayloc is shifting toward distribution from manufacturing.
Though no official press release has been issued by Rayloc or its parent company, the Atlanta-based Genuine Parts Co., Sheilley said about 60 jobs in distribution will remain at the Morganfield facility’s 100,000-square-foot warehouse.
Sheilley, as well as Paul Monsour, the executive director of the Union County First economic development organization, were taken aback by last week’s announcement.
“We had no indication at all,” Monsour said of the layoffs. “They had even talked to Northwest Kentucky Forward about expansion.”
Meantime, prospects are slim for workers like the Frittses and Morris who have spent virtually their entire careers at Rayloc.
“I’ve done this one job for so long,” said Jeff Fritts, who learned of the layoff as he was finishing up his vacation. “It’s hard to get a foot in the door unless it’s similar work.”
And manufacturing jobs are scarce in Crittenden County right now although the service sector, largely restaurants, are looking for new hires. Joe McDaniel, president of Par-4 Plastics, said his company is not hiring right now, in fact.
Par-4 is the county's largest manufacturing facility. Like Rayloc, it makes parts for the automotive industry.
McDaniel said the Toyota plant in Princeton, Ind., limiting production through November because of the downturn in demand for trucks it builds, the Sequoia and Tundra. Toyota's slowdown will have an affect on Par 4's sales, McDaniel said, be he does not anticipate any mandatory layoffs.

Duncan find hope in charred remains
Sifting through the charred ruins of his family's home, Junior Duncan couldn't be more thankful.
“This whole thing has been a testament to what's important,” the husband and father of two said Tuesday, just over a week after losing almost everything to a devastating house fire which severely burned his teenage son, Nic.
What's important to Duncan is his family, his faith and the community spirit that have all been uplighting in his family's time of need.
“It's a life-changing experience,” Duncan said. “I just want to let everybody know how super all the help from people has been.”
The calls, support and offers of help have been pouring in to the family since the Aug. 4 blaze that destroyed the Duncan's home at 231 Jarvis St. A grease fire that started in the kitchen and quickly spread out of control also burned Nic literally from his head to his feet, hospitalizing the 19-year-old with third-degree burns to his arm and less severe scalds on his head, face, torso, legs and feet.
“Nicky came home last night,” his father said Tuesday. “He's doing fine, but he's got a bad burn on his right arm.”
Skin grafts were needed to promote growth over an area of third-degree burns that encompassed the arm from the wrist to the shoulder. Despite the severity of the burn, the donor leg from where skin was taken may be the worst part of Nic's ordeal, according to his father.
“Where they took the skin off his right leg is bothering him worse,” Junior said.
With his mother Debbie by his side the entire time, Nic was hospitalized for a week at Vanderbilt Medical Center, receiving treatment for smoke inhalation and burns. He is glad to be back home, his father said, but will have to return to Nashville a couple of times a week for further treatment of the wounds.
It was a pan of French fries that started the blaze, the father explained. The grease caught fire and when Nic went to jerk the pan off the stove, it sloshed onto the teen and kitchen surfaces. Junior, who was on the road with his job at the time, said his son thought the fire was out before being rushed to Crittenden Hospital by his mother.
But the fire had spread to the attic and behind the cabinets, quickly burning out of control before firefighters were dispatched to the home. Little could be done by the volunteers except keep the fire from spreading to neighboring houses. Even items in areas of the home not charred by flame were ruined.
"What the fire didn't take, heat and smoke did," Duncan said.
Ironically, there were a few miracles from the tragedy.
The intense heat that melted objects from the walls saved most of the family photos. Duncan said melted plastic formed a shell over an area where most of the pictures were kept.
"It's kind of a phenomenal thing; I'd bet we didn't lose five percent of our pictures," he added.
And, all three family Bibles kept in the house were spared amid the ruins.
"Everything around them was burned, but you could pick up those Bibles and blow the dust off of them," Junior said. "I've got witnesses."
With a stiff breath to whisk away the ashes, the tiny Bible resting on daughter Jesika's night stand is as white as it was before the fire, he said.
"The entire room is black. Everything on that nightstand was burned," Junior said, still wowed by the pristine condition of God's word.
What possessions were lost, though, will be hard to replace. Trying to make ends meet, what insurance coverage the family could afford was not enough to replace everything.
"We were trying to get by in a pinch," he said.
But the Duncans can take some time in finding a replacement home. A family friend has given them a place to stay on nearby Keeling Street, allowing Junior, Debbie and their children, Nic and Jesika, to all sleep under the same roof again.
"Our friends have been a godsend by giving us a place to live," he said. "But we don't have any kind of furniture whatsoever."
To help the family, several benefits have been planned. On Sunday, from 7 to 11 a.m., Glen Conger is hosting a benefit pancake breakfast at Conger's Country Kitchen with all receipts going to the Duncans.
"Just imagine waking up and going to comb your hair and not even having a comb," said Conger, a friend of the family.
On Aug. 23, a household shower for the Duncans is being thrown at 1 p.m., at Marion City Hall by employees of Safetran in Marion. Then, on Sept. 5, a concert featuring gospel performers The Hamptons and Stone Family will be held at Fohs Hall, with proceeds going to the family.
"After these benefits, we'll search around and get what we need," Duncan said. "But right now, furniture is what we most need."
There are still many hurdles – Debbie, as of Tuesday morning, had yet to lay eyes on the ruins of the home; Nic faces a long recovery; and settling into a new home lies ahead – but Duncan is taking things in stride.
"It's just all been a valuable lesson," he said. "Appreciate what you have."

Ringstaffs still rebuilding from fire
Kim Ringstaff couldn't believe what had happened. When she heard last week that Junior Duncan and his family had lost their home to fire, she was shocked.
"It was unbelievable because after our fire, Junior was the one who called every day asking what he could do to help us and providing some much needed moral support for my husband," said Ringstaff.
Ringstaff and her family, husband Greg and children Kenley and T'Roy, were in the same situation two months ago. A fire in Salem claimed their home and all their belongings.
"Junior graduated with me and my husband from Livingston Central in 1984," Ringstaff said. "After our fire, Junior was one of the first to offer help. He would call or come down every day and he would take my husband to breakfast."
After last week's fire destroyed Duncan's home, Ringstaff said her husband called to offer his assistance. "Junior told him, 'Remember those shirts I gave you after the fire? Well, I might need to borrow one of them,'" Ringstaff said.
He was in good humor even after what had happened to him, Ringstaff said.
The fire that destroyed the Ringstaff's possessions was on June 23. Still, they are in need of many items before their lives will be back to normal.
A "Starting Over Shower" will be held at the Salem Christian Life Center at 2 p.m., Sunday. Organizers hope the family shower will help the Ringstaffs complete their new beginning after the fire.
"We have more clothes now than we did before the fire," Ringstaff said. "In the days after our house burned, people came with boxes full of clothes and we feel blessed for having them."
What the Ringstaffs need now are kitchen and bathroom items such as small appliances, utensils, bed linens and towels.
"We don't have a microwave or even a mixer," Ringstaff said. "We are so appreciative of everything that everyone has done to help so far."
The family has replaced its furniture, too.
"The larger type things we have now, but it's just those little things for the kitchen that we're still without," Ringstaff explained.

School board wants tax increase
Hammered by rising energy costs, Crittenden County Board of Education is again turning to taxpayers to help close a gap that has led to cuts in programs and personnel across the school district.
When board members meet later this month, they are expected to ask the county's property owners for more money to prepare the community's children for tomorrow's world. A proposed 1.3-cent increase on each $100 of real and personal property is anticipated to generate almost $185,000 in additional revenue for the school system.
“Increased energy cost certainly makes the school district’s budget ... much more difficult to manage,” said Superintendent Dr. Rachel Yarbrough.
The 3.1-percent tax hike would see the owner of a $100,000 home paying $13 more in real estate taxes. However, this will be the second consecutive year the district has sought a tax increase after leaving rates put since 2003.
Last year, the tax rate on real and personal property was increased 1.2 cents to 41.4 cents per $100 of assessed value, amounting to $12 annually for the same $100,000 home owner.
In the spring, former Superintendent John Belt, amid budget planning for the current school year, hinted that the board would be wise to again seek increased revenue to offset ballooning expenses. Yarbrough, in only her second month on the job in Crittenden County, agrees. Though a superintendent has no vote in such matters, Yarbrough said the proposed 42.7 cents rate on both real and personal property is needed to properly fund the education requirements of the district.
“Rural school districts seem to be caught in an ongoing dilemma between decreases in revenue sources and an increase in student achievement accountability performance,” Yarbrough said. “We will continue to try and maintain the integrity of the instructional programs for Crittenden County students so that they receive a high quality education each year of their school career.”
The superintendent said state-allocated funding has been flat while expenses have soared. She added that all school districts in the commonwealth have been put on notice by Frankfort to be prepared for a potential unfavorable, mid-year adjustment to the state's funding formula.
Compared to 2003 when the school district increased its property tax rate from 39.0 cents to 40.2 cents, the board is today paying $117,000 more annually in combined electricity and natural gas costs, which does not include proposed increases to both that could take effect before winter. 
As for fuel costs, the numbers are staggering compared to just 10 years ago. The last load of diesel fuel delivered before school resumed last week was $31,947, more than the annual cost each year from 1996 to 1999.
Aside from increased energy expenses, state-mandated contributions to the County Employee Retirement System have doubled from 6.34 percent of the annual payroll for classified employees in 2003 to 13.5 percent. In that same period, the starting salary for a teacher has also increased $6,797 to $34,267, and salaries across the board face a mandated one-percent increase. Food costs, too, have increased drastically.
The five elected members of the school board will meet Aug. 28 to introduce the tax measure. The new tax rate is expected to produce a total of $1.42 million for the district, up from the $1.24 collected last year. Of the anticipated $184,087 increase in collections, 92 percent would be slated for instruction, with the remainder allocated for the building fund and collection of the levy.
As with last year, no change in the motor vehicle tax of 54.1 cents is being proposed. And while the increase on real estate taxes bypasses the 20 percent of the county's population that lives in rental units, it also spares excessive burden on many of those on fixed incomes who rent or may be exempt from a portion of their taxes due to age or disability. There are no exemptions on motor vehicle taxes.
"It's a little more than a dollar a month," Highfil said of the increase's effect on an owner of $100,000 worth of real estate. "That's one less soft drink."
Last year, of the five surrounding school districts, only Livingston County did not seek a property tax increase of some sort.
Property taxes are the primary means by which the board of education can control its revenue flow. Annual state allocations are primarily based on fixed amounts for enrollment, attendance and performance. However, the district also collects three percent from gross utility charges in Crittenden County, accounting for about $370,000 in tax revenue.
The public will be given opportunity to weigh in on the property tax increase proposal at the Aug. 28 meeting of the school board. A forum has been scheduled for 5:45 p.m., prior to the meeting at Rocket Arena. A second reading and vote on the measure will be required before the rate is set for 2009 tax collection.
Crittenden Fiscal Court and the City of Marion will introduce their proposed tax rates for 2008 at their respective regular meetings later this month. City Administrator Mark Bryant said a special meeting would likely be called after that time to finalize the 2008 tax rates for the city.

City wrecking mosquito breeding ground
Enjoying a comfortable summer morning on his front port, Billy Millikan stripped copper from some old electronic components for recycling. As he fiddled with wires and circuits from an old television, the clang and crunch of land-clearing equipment could be heard operating just beyond a stand of trees.
“I wondered what that was,” Millikan said Monday.
The noise that included an occasional pop as a another tree limb broke under the weight of a dozer turned out to be music to his ears. A few acres of swampy undergrowth was finally being cleared.
For the 22 years he's lived on East Gum Street, Millikan has battled mosquitoes. At times, the nagging, biting insects have been so bad he didn’t dare venture out at dusk or after dark. This year, he says, they've even seemed worse than usual.
“It's really been bad,” the retired widower said.
He's even left squash on the vine to rot in the garden plot adjacent to the mucky, mosquito breeding ground on the other side of a fence. His corn, now barren of the yellow ears he's fed on all summer, still stands, waiting to be chopped down.
“I'll wait for the mosquitoes to die down,” he said, apologizing for the appearance of the garden plot.
But help from the City of Marion is already under way. Late last week, heavy equipment began clearing and leveling about four acres of land that has become known as a mosquito breeding ground. The plot lies between East Gum Street and Old Piney Road. In spring and early summer, in particular, the entire south end of Marion registers complaint after complaint about the pests.
“It's pretty much from Bellville Street south... on both sides of Main Street,” City Administrator Mark Bryant said of the area where most mosquito complaints arise.
Mosquitoes in the United States can carry an array of diseases, most often West Nile virus or encephalitis. In underdeveloped nations, they carry the more deadly malaria and yellow fever. But in Marion, they are mostly just a pest that can reduce the enjoyment of being outdoors.
“They can be deadly, but it's extremely rare,” said Dr. Gary V. James of Family Practice Clinic in Marion. “Mostly, we just see local skin infections.”
The swampy land that appears to be the origin of many complaints belongs to Darrell Jent, who has given a free pass to the city to do what it needs to alleviate the pooling of water on his seven acres. There is no development on the land and through no fault of Jent's, the mosquito problem has grown over the years, particularly after a drainage pipe filtered stormwater runoff from East Gum Street directly into the low-lying area.
"You see that pipe?" Millikan said, pointing from his porch to a white drainage tile in his neighbor's yard. "When (the city) installed that, it drained this whole street into that pond."
After heavy rains like the four-inch downpour in early July, Millikan said the mosquitoes thrive for a week and a half or two weeks. It gets so bad, he won't even venture outside without long sleeves.
"There's water in it all the time," he said of a pool he estimates is about 25 square feet of stagnant, mosquito larva-filled gunk.
Bryant said the city has questioned hydrologists and engineers about how to fix the drainage problems in the area and all were in agreement that it would be a costly fix. The easiest solution, Bryant said, was to simply clear the land to alleviate pooling and promote evaporation of excess water by removing the sun-blocking canopy of trees and undergrowth.
With Jent's approval, the city decided to do just that, employing Industrial Contracting owned by Todd Reddick to send a crew to bulldoze trees, burn off brush and push in fill dirt. The project could be finished in a couple of weeks, Bryant said.
It may come too late to save Millikan's squash this year, but the work just on the other side of his garden has him looking forward to a bumper crop in 2009.