COALTON - Compared to other industrial parks being developed in Kentucky, EastPark "has a lot going for it," a top state economic official said during a visit to the park Monday.
The thousand-acre park that straddles the Boyd-Greenup county line and stretches into Carter County shows signs of remarkable success, said Hugh Haydon, commissioner of the Department of Regional Development in the Cabinet for Economic Development.
The speed with which the park has been prepared for occupancy - two major companies have opened their doors, another is poised to open soon, Ashland Technical College has broken ground on its new campus and two speculative buildings are under roof - is nothing short of remarkable, said Haydon, who worked with the park's governing board in the infancy of the project.
Good leadership is the reason, he said.
Haydon recently returned to his state post after a stint in the private sector.
Touring the park gave him the chance to see bricks and mortar and roads where he and the park's board of directors had once had to visualize, he said.
"Seeing the development that's occurred is the really gratifying part."
EastPark is in the midst of a shift from a focus on development to one on marketing, he said.
Locating ATC at the park is a tremendous asset, he said. "It gives the park curb appeal."
Namely, prospective businesses will see the college as a convenient source of ready and willing workers. "The most important factor in economic development is the availability of educated, trainable workers," he said.
EastPark is one of 10 regional industrial parks being developed in Kentucky using coal severance tax money. A coalition of five counties - Boyd, Greenup, Carter, Lawrence and Elliott - makes up the Northeast Kentucky Regional Industrial Authority and counties share in tax revenues generated from the properties that locate in the park.
Conceived almost a decade ago, the park and the road that runs through it broke ground in 1998.
The adjacent Northeast Kentucky Industrial Parkway is scheduled for completion in 2004. Construction already has begun on the last leg; within a couple of weeks much of the highway will be open to through traffic when work is completed at its intersection with Ky. 207 west of Flatwoods.
Kentucky New Era
With walking cane in hand, Walter Waddell strolled the walls of pictures that hung in the gallery of the Hopkinsville Community College auditorium building. He was on a search for images of himself when he was the subject of a photographer's eye over a year ago.
None were on display, but he remembered vividly the time spent with a certain photojournalist.
"I don't know his name, but I had a lot of fun," Waddell explained. "I drove him around the county. He got to see smoke coming out of the barn."
Waddell was one of several people who turned out Friday night for "Hoptown," an exhibit featuring 50 snapshots taken by student and professional photojournalists in October 2001 as part of The Mountain Workshops, a traveling series conducted annually by faculty at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green and top newspaper photographers from across the country.
At the conclusion of every workshop, which just finished its 27th year in Cave City, a book is produced, documenting the lives and culture of the community's diverse residents.
The photo exhibit will be on display in the college's auditorium gallery until Dec. 1. The book, "Hoptown," also is available for sale through the Heart of Hopkinsville office in the downtown district.
Images also can be seen on the Internet at www.mountainworkshops.org.
Many who attended the exhibit were shadowed by a photographer for a week, like Waddell was.
But others came to see how cross–sections of Hopkinsville were captured on film.
"There's so much history. I just think it's beautiful," commented Carol Aiken, who was viewing the prints with her young son Daniel.
Daniel spotted a picture of a newborn crying while being handled by a maternity nurse in a hospital.
"Look at that, Daniel. Isn't that amazing," Aiken told her son, the two sharing a moment together.
Hopkinsville was chosen as the site for the 26th annual workshop in early 2001.
Tony Kirves, owner of Southern Exposure and a former photojournalist for the Kentucky New Era, was contacted by Mike Morse, Kirves' former photojournalism professor at WKU and director of The Mountain Workshops.
"He told me that Hopkinsville was being considered for this," recalled Kirves, also vice president of the Heart organization. "This was a great gift for us."
Morse, who began the workshops in 1976 soon after WKU's photojournalism program was launched, added that the gift was "a life–changing experience between the photographers and the subjects."
Once workshop officials finalized the decision to camp in Hopkinsville for a week, arrangements then were made to house the students at the First Baptist Church Activities Building on South Main Street.
A number of story assignments were proposed, and a sophisticated network of digital equipment was put in place.
"It takes on a life of its own," Morse commented. "Every community we go to, the people are very receptive."
In addition to the photo exhibit, a 15–minute multimedia presentation of workshop participants, interviews and music was played at Friday's event -- all telling a story about a time in Hopkinsville.
There's the story of Danielle White, a 17–year–old single, working parent relying on friends and family to provide daycare for her 4–month–old daughter, Deyana.
"I'm trying to be a good role model," said White, who wants her daughter to go to college.
Then there's the story called "Rock of the Church," about the Rev. Gerald Baker, pastor at SS. Peter and Paul Church.
"If you're not happy in Hopkinsville, it's a personal problem," he stated in his interview.
Later, students were seen eagerly drawing their photo assignments out of a hat.
Lauren Clifton, a student at WKU, was assigned to photograph Augusta Freeman, a 75–year–old blind woman who cares for her 101–year–old mother, Linda Bland, who also is blind.
Clifton told how she met Freeman at Durrett Avenue Baptist Church. They held hands as they talked about the project that Clifton longed to do.
It was not meant to be. Freeman decided to keep her family's life private.
"Of course, I cried," Clifton said in her interview. "But to me, it was more than a story. It was personal, to sit there and hold her hand. I have that image in my head. I know what I got out of this."
After the presentation ended, many returned to the gallery walls to see again the pictures that told special stories of times and people in Hopkinsville and Christian County.
They, too, got something out of this.
The News-Enterprise
Memories and words from haunting pasts hang from clotheslines in the Morrison Gallery on the campus of Elizabethtown Community College.
T-shirts made by domestic violence survivors and victims' loved ones are being displayed in an effort to raise awareness. The exhibit, The Clothesline Project, is on display at the gallery until Thursday.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
"The exhibit makes a tangible statement on how real domestic violence is," said Amanda Johnston, who works in the ECC academic support services office.
The shirts are created at shirt-making sessions around Kentucky, which are facilitated by professional therapists. The women are able to share their experiences with the group at that time, Johnston said.
The Clothesline Project was established in Louisville in 1991 to educate the community about violence against women and to alert perpetrators that women will no longer be silent. More than 500 women in the central Kentucky area have decorated shirts, which are color-coded depending on the type of abuse inflicted upon the artist.
"Together, the women affirm that although something bad has happened to them, they have done nothing wrong and should not be ashamed," said Debbie Hoblitzell, director of The Clothesline Project, in a prepared statement.
"Survivors of abuse who decorate shirts break the silence every time the exhibit is displayed. Those viewing the shirts have a better understanding of the devastation of violence and the need to work for peace."