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.