News from September
2, 2004 issue
County wants free bridge
for creek
It sounds like a perfect match. A free bridge and a real need
in Crittenden County's Amish community.
When news of the give-away of a Bourbon County bridge reached
Crittenden County officials it didn't take long for the plan to
start forming.
Magistrate Percy Cook, who represents the district that includes
the Amish community, immediately thought of Crooked Creek, the
horse and buggies that pass through it during periods of high
water and the four mile detour motorists make when they can't
cross the creek.
Cook and Judge-Executive Fred Brown have formulated an official
request for the bridge. Crittenden is among several other Kentucky
counties hoping to land the free, historic bridge.
Built in 1901, the one-lane steel bridge is on the National Register
of Historic Places. The state wants to preserve a 103-year-old
structure scheduled to be replaced next year in Bourbon County.
The Transportation Cabinet will pay to take down the bridge and
transport it to the new site. The only cost to the county, if
it gets the bridge, will be installation. The application is due
to the state in mid-October.
"It was built in the horse and buggy days and would be going
back to horse and buggy days," Cook said, pointing out that
most of the traffic across it would be Amish.
"There are other places trying to get it also, but we're
trying to build enough evidence to show them that this would be
a good location for it, more than most places because of it being
in the Amish and rural area," Cook said.
Brown said it makes sense for Crittenden to have the bridge because
it would continue to serve as a viable part of the transportation
infrastructure. After heavy rains, the judge said, folks have
trouble passing down the road, which fords the rock-bottom creek,
because of high water.
Cook said members of the Amish community told him two years ago
they were willing to donate the labor if the county would build
a bridge over Crooked Creek.
"There wasn't any way we could come up with the money in
Crittenden County to build the bridge," said the magistrate,
who estimates the cost of spanning Crooked Creek at more than
$100,000 even with donated labor. "The Amish are excited
about the possibility of a bridge there, and it is a pretty attractive
deal with them doing the work to reassemble it."
Cook says not only would the bridge solve a major traffic inconvenience,
it could also serve as a tourist attraction in the Amish community
itself an attractive destination for local tourists.
One of the stipulations of the award is that the recipient not
object to the bridge being listed on the National Register of
Historic Places. The recipient must also maintain the bridge for
20 years, according to Department of Interior standards for rehabilitating
historic buildings.
Cook said work to Beachy Road and Daniel Spur Road, which led
to the proposed bridge site, will be needed if the county is to
land the bridge, but the cost is minimal compared to that of a
bridge.
The Transportation Cabinet will survey sites applying for the
bridge before it makes its award in 2005.
Par 4 Plastics continues
growth
Par 4 Plastics, Inc., has outgrown its building in the Marion-Crittenden
County Industrial Park and is getting ready for an expansion project
this fall.
Joe McDaniel, president of Par 4 Plastics, said construction and
the purchase of new equipment will lead to about 70 new jobs over
the next two years. The project will take about six months to
complete.
Par 4 Plastics currently has 150 employees in its injection plastics
manufacturing operation here. Par 4 was founded locally by McDaniel,
a Crittenden County native, in 1990. By 1999, the company had
left its original site in the Marion Mining Bolt building and
moved into a new 50,000-square-foot facility at the corner of
Industrial Drive and Chapel Hill Road.
The planned expansion project will add 24,000 square feet to the
plant, including a new shipping dock. McDaniel said the extra
space will be used for warehousing and manufacturing.
"We're experiencing growth within our existing customer base,"
McDaniel said. "Over the next couple of years we're anticipating
some new opportunities."
Par 4 Plastics' business has grown at a rate of more than 30 percent
annually over the last four years. Par 4 started out with modest
sales and by 1996 had grown to a $4 million company. Today, its
sales are well over $10 million annually.
The expansion project will be privately financed, but Par 4 has
been approved for Kentucky Rural Economic Development Authority
(KREDA) benefits, which helps the company retire the debt though
income tax credits.
"We continue to receive great support from our local government
officials as well as our local and state economic development
agencies," McDaniel said.
"Without their support this expansion would not have gone
forward," he added. "We wouldn't be where we are today
without this community and the support we get from local government,
the banks and everyone else."
CHS selling both nursing homes
Crittenden Health Systems' (CHS) board of directors voted unanimously
last Thursday to sell its two nursing homes to Orion Care Services,
a subsidiary of Essex Healthcare Corp.
Dan Smigelski, interim CEO for CHS, said that by selling Crittenden
County Convalescent Center and Salem Springlake Care Center, the
hospital could focus on the things it does best.
"We're hospital managers not nursing home managers,"
Smigelski said Friday, explaining why the nursing homes have become
a financial drain for the local healthcare organization.
CHS purchased Springlake in 1988 and the nursing home in Marion
in 1997. Together, the facilities include 180 beds.
Sharp declines in government payment programs like Medicare and
Medicaid have resulted in more narrow margins for long-term care
facilities, hospital officials say.
According to CHS figures, Crittenden County Convalescent Center
(CCCC) has lost $505,000 through 10 months of this fiscal year
which ends this month. Last year during the same period, CCCC
lost almost $400,000, Smigelski said. Likewise, Salem Springlake
has operated at about a $700,000 loss the past two years.
"We have not done a good job operating those facilities,"
admits Smigelski, who was hired as the temporary head of CHS in
June after former CEO Greg Moore resigned to take a job elsewhere
in the industry.
The nursing homes have been a financial drain for several years
and Quorum Healthcare Services, Inc., the consulting group that
helps manage the hospital and its subsidiaries, had suggested
that CHS sell them two years ago, Smigelski said.
"We think another (company) can come in and operate those
facilities much more efficiently and much more effectively,"
he added. "That way they can be saved and still be part of
this community."
The CEO suggested that by not selling the facilities, one or both
of them might have been in jeopardy of closing down completely.
The deal with Orion is expected to be complete by Nov. 1, barring
any stumbling blocks. The Crittenden County Fiscal Court, which
created a separate agency that holds deed to the properties, will
have to officially approve of the plan. Hospital officials met
privately with magistrates two weeks ago in closed session and
laid out their intention to sell the two nursing homes.
The price for the two facilities has not been disclosed; however,
Smigelski said the hospital will be close to debt free after the
sale.
CHS currently owes about $5.1 million on bonds it issued to buy
the nursing homes and renovate other parts of the operation a
few years ago. CHS owes about $2.1 million on the nursing home
portion of the bond issue.
Smigelski said he is recommending that CHS concentrate on operating
the hospital, ambulance service and home health for at least six
months before it starts looking further down the road.
"We need to get out of the nursing home business and show
some cash flow and profitability before we jump on anything else
too soon."
The hospital had planned some capital improvement projects over
the last couple of years, but those have been on hold because
of budget constraints.