JULY 2008 NEWSLETTER
EXISTING BUSINESS

KAED Came To Henderson!

The Kentucky Association for Economic Development held its spring conference in Henderson April 16-18.  Over 125 economic development professionals from around the entire state attended the three-day event. 

Governor Steve Beshear was the special guest speaker at the E.ON-US Community Award for Innovation luncheon.  Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corporation won the “Governor’s Award for Innovation”.   Breakout sessions were held on “Partnering on Trade”, “Partnering on Workforce”, “Partnering on Existing Business” and “Partnering to Grow Entrepreneurs”, with numerous guest speakers presenting.

Activities for attendees were a golf outing at the Players Club, historic downtown Henderson walking tour/shopping, a blues café with free refreshments and live music at Riverbend Arts Academy and a “Birds and B’s Reception/Bar-B-Q at the John James Audubon Museum.

Meeting the Training Needs of the Existing Businesses

On May 29th E.ON-US partnered with Northwest KY Forward to sponsor a 6-hour Safety & Health Seminar held at the new UK Extension Expo Center in Henderson.   Attendees represented all four counties with total registration at sixty.

Kentucky OSH (KOSHA) trainers with the Department of Labor, Division of Education and Training, came from Frankfort to present an overview of office safety, back care, lockout/Tagout, developing an ergonomics process, accident investigation, exposure control plan for bloodborne pathogens and the new rule on personal protective equipment. 

“Our HR manager reported that this was one of the best OSHA seminars that he had ever attended,” said Jeff Jones, General Manager of Trelleborg Automotive Americas in Morganfield.  “A lot of valuable information was taught that Trelleborg could benefit from.  I appreciate Northwest Kentucky Forward sponsoring a much needed service to our business.”

Free safety and health training for employers is available by contacting the following website: www.labor.ky.gov/osh/educationtraining

Existing Business Visits

All 131 existing businesses in the four county region received a visit during the fiscal year of July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008 and 14 programs for HR professionals, General Managers/ Plant Managers and 3 special education programs were held.

During the fiscal year, 4 expansions were completed which created 68 new jobs.  As of the end of June, 6 existing businesses had expansions pending.  Bluegrass State Skills Grants & Skills Training Incentives totaled $165,066, with the WINs Grants through Henderson Community College totaling $330,454.

New Minimum Wage

Remember that the new minimum wage of $6.55 per hour took effect on July 1st.   That hourly rate will increase to $7.25 on July 1, 2009.

Existing Business Program of Work

The 2008-2009 “POW” can be viewed on our website www.northwestky.com under “Existing Business” on the left side of the screen.  The “POW” is a guideline for the work we do for our existing businesses in the four county region.

NWKF Job Data Base

Remember to use our data base at www.northwestkyworks.com when looking for the “right employee”.  We currently have over 7,000 job seekers looking for work!