ASHLAND —
For those who own a small business or are thinking of owning one, attending a March 21 seminar at the FIVCO Area Development District office in EastPark may prove to be among the most valuable three hours they will ever spend.
Sponsored by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, the area “Kentucky: Here We Grow” seminar is one of 15 the Cabinet is planning at the state’s development districts’ offices during the next six months. Registration is free and at the door. In short, all one has to do to take advantage of the seminar is show up at the FIVCO offices at 1 p.m. March 21. The FIVCO offices are in EastPark off the Northeast Kentucky Industrial Parkway.
The seminars are designed to educate small-business owners and entrepreneurs on the resources available to them. In turn, the Cabinet hopes those attending the seminars will use what they learn to either expand their business or to launch a new business.
“These seminars provide a great opportunity for business owners to get their arms around the wealth of programs that can help grow their businesses, whether start-ups or existing operations,” said Larry Hayes, secretary of the Cabinet. “The Cabinet and its partners are able to assist small businesses with everything from exporting, to accessing loans, tax credits and government procurement to almost everything in between.”
The Cabinet’s interest in small business is simple: While luring a large company to a community with the promise of hiring hundreds of workers is sure to attract the most headlines, most new jobs are created by small employers either being launched or adding employees.
And there is no shortage of small businesses in this area. According to the 2010 Census, there are approximately 1,399 small businesses in Boyd County, including 1,331 with fewer than 50 employees. Carter County had 404 small businesses, with 392 with 50 or fewer employees while Greenup County had 498 small businesses with 482 fewer than 50 employees.
“About nine out of 10 businesses in Kentucky are small businesses, so this is something that can provide tremendous support to a large portion of our economy,” said Mark Johnson, assistant director of the Cabinet’s Small Business Services Division.
Topics at the seminar include loans available to small business, how to expand into foreign markets and programs available for innovative, technology-based businesses.
Businesses in Ashland may consider FIVCO’s offices in EastPark to be in the “middle of nowhere,” but the industrial park is a centrally located location easily accessible by U.S. 23, Interstate 64, U.S. 60 and other major highways in the FIVC0 area of Boyd, Greenup, Carter, Elliott and Lawrence counties. We encourage area business owners and entrepreneurs to circle March 21 on their calendars and attend the seminar to listen and learn about what’s available and what they can do to expand.
Editorials
A chance to learn
Small businesses can benefit greatly by attending seminar
- Editorials
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Funding Rupp
The use of $2.5 million in coal severance tax revenue to help pay for renovations at Rupp Arena in Lexington has drawn the ire of some county leaders in the eastern Kentucky coalfields.
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Modest increase
Full-time students at Ashland Community and Technical College will be paying an average of $60 more in tuition this fall under a modest 2.86 percent increase approved Friday by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System Board of Regents.
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The next step
The people — or at least those who took the time to vote in Tuesday’s special election — have spoken. The issue of alcohol sales in Grayson has ben settled for at least the next three years.
In an outcome that surprised many, Grayson voters rather convincingly for the legal sale of alcohol in the city for the first time since 1937. With 511 voters answering in the affirmative to the question, “Are you in favor of alcoholic beverages in Grayson, Ky.?” as opposed to 393 voting “no,” the results were not even close. The measure passed in all seven of the city’s precincts. -
Top Father
In the Spade family, the vote was unanimous. Both 12-year-old Emma Spade, who will be a seventh-grader at Verity Middle School this fall, and Emma’s 11-year-old brother Will, who attends Hagar Elementary, both thought so highly of their dad — Ponderosa Elementary School principal Matt Spade — that they both wrote essays nominating him for the Ashland Breakfast Kiwanis Club’s annual Father of the Year award, presented annually on the Tuesday before Father’s Day.
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An unselfish act
Even before the start of the recent Boyd County Health Department’s Bicycle Rodeo, Gavin Eckard said that if he won one of the two bicycle given away at the event, he would give his new bike to someone who needed it more than he did.
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Crop still banned
When their colleagues in the U.S. Senate rejected their efforts to legalize industrial hemp production as part of the Senate farm bill, Kentucky’s two Republican senators — Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and freshman Rand Paul — reacted to the Senate refusal to include their hemp proposal in the bill by saying they would oppose the comprehensive farm bill.
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It's not the breed
Lorie Akers wants the Ashland City Commissioner to adopt an ordinance banning pit bulls in the city. Since she claimed her Chihuahua Paco was attacked and killed by a neighbor’s pit bull while the little dog was chained in the back yard, it is understandable that Akers is worried that her children and other pets could be endangered by pit bulls.
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A necessary evil
The shifting of the tax burden that began when the Ashland Board of City Commissioners first adopted the payroll tax in the 1990s continues as the mayor and four elected commissioners prepare to increase the payroll tax from 1.5 to 2 percent while at the same time decreasing property taxes.
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No time to read
The complaints of two leading legislators about a provision added to a complex pension reform bill approved by the 3013 Kentucky General Assembly points hat can happen when legislative leaders wait until the final days or even hour of a legislative session to bring major pieces of legislation. In so doing, they force legislators to vote on bills they have not even had time to read.
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To the polls
On Tuesday, residents of Grayson will discover if attitudes about the sale of alcohol in the city have changed in the past 42 years. It is an important question, and we encourage registered voters to take the time to go to the polls Tuesday.
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