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Chamber of Commerce Brings Agenda to State Capitol

Chamber of Commerce Brings Agenda to State Capitol
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By Bill Hughes
Feb. 14, 2019 | PADUCAH
By Bill Hughes Feb. 14, 2019 | 05:47 PM | PADUCAH
A large group of local business and community leaders spent Wednesday in Frankfort promoting the area during the 2019 General Assembly.

Each year the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce organizes a trip, and President Sandra Wilson said this year they had about 60 people participate, including Mayor Brandi Harless, County Judge-Executive Craig Clymer, members of the Paducah City Commission and McCracken Fiscal Court, and people representing local businesses and educational interests.

"While we have different folks going throughout the session, it's a concentrated effort on one day to talk about western Kentucky, to talk about our needs and to hear from them about how things are progressing through the legislative session," Wilson said. 

The group was joined at a luncheon by chambers of commerce from Christian County, Mayfield-Graves County, and Murray-Calloway County. Since all of them have identified infrastructure needs and transportation funding as a top priority for their communities and the state, they invited Secretary of Transportation Greg Thomas to be the keynote speaker at the event.

Wilson said, "He did a great job talking about the need for funding and how it's determined, and all of the road construction projects that need to be done, bridges and all of that. So, even though we had about 125 people in the room, it felt like a very intimate conversation with him about the need for infrastructure in our state."

After that, groups split up and there were two options for meetings, but Wilson said most participated in one led by Dr. Anton Reese of WKCTC that involved two people from the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. Another meeting discussed the RISE Program for business start-ups at Murray State University with a representative of the Office of Entrepreneurship in the Cabinet for Economic Development. 

Another session included talks with representatives from the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, the Office of Film and Tourism Development, and the Arts Council. 

Governor Bevin's Chief of Staff Blake Brickman met in another session and discussed economic development, while Deputy Secretary Bruce Scott from the Energy and Environmental Cabinet participated in a meeting was important for several groups who traveled to the state capitol.

"We wanted to have our DOE contractors give them an update on some of the things they have going on with the clean-up at the site. We had representatives from Phoenix Paper with us to talk about an update there. So that was a really informative meeting for exchange about the new company that's come in here and an update on DOE," Wilson said. 

Later in the day, all of the western Kentucky groups came together again for a meeting with Richard Drennan, Director of Administration of GenCanna Global, to get an update on their developments in downtown Paducah and Graves County. GenCanna's headquarters is in Winchester, which is less than an hour away from the capitol.

Wilson said, "They were willing to come over and meet with our group and the Mayfield group, just to show us the pictures - the renderings - of the new building and what it will look like, and talked about their plans here in Paducah." 

She said legislators from local districts joined the groups at the larger sessions to discuss varying topics, and the chamber made sure to pass along their 2019 legislative agenda to those who are participating in the General Assembly. 

You can see a copy of the chamber's agenda by clicking the link below.

Here is a list of who participated in the trip:
Glen Anderson, Interim President / CEO, Paducah Economic Development
Jim Arndt, City Manager, City of Paducah
Bill Bartleman, Commissioner, McCracken County Fiscal Court
Lucas Bremer, AVP-Investment Portfolio Manager, U.S. Bank
Jason Brown, HR Business Partner, Phoenix Paper Wickliffe, LLC
Patrick Brumley, Manager - Business Development, Beltline Electric Co., Inc.
Hannah Chretien, Executive Director, Ballard County Economic & Industrial Development Board
Craig Clymer, County Judge Executive, McCracken County Fiscal Court
Troy Courtney, Director of Business Development, Swift & Staley Inc.
Mason DeJarnett, Territory Manager, Fabick Cat Power Systems
Jim Dudley, VP Business Development, KeeFORCE
Lee Emmons, VP Institutional Advancement, West KY Community and Technical College
Cade Foster, Chief Compliance Officer, Jim Smith Contracting Co., LLC
Jennifer Frazier, Director, Murray State University-Paducah Campus
Richard Grana, President, IMPEX
Craig Guess, Director of Business Development, Bacon Farmer Workman Engineering / Marcum Engineering
Brian Harper, Superintendent, McCracken County Public Schools
Brandi Harless, Mayor, City of Paducah
Cory Hicks, Business Services Director, Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership
Brent Housman, Senior VP – Wealth Advisor, Hilliard Lyons Housman Financial Group
Heather Jackson, Grants Manager, Ray & Kay Eckstein Charitable Trust
Daniel Jones, Board Chair, Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce; Co-Owner, Strawberry Hills Pharmacy
Eddie Jones, Commissioner, McCracken County Fiscal Court
Scott Kirkpatrick, Technical Manager, Phoenix Paper Wickliffe, LLC
Brenda McElroy, Commissioner, City of Paducah
Mike McGregor, Project Manager, Bacon Farmer Workman Engineering / Marcum Engineering
Darlene Mazzone, President, Mazzone Communications
Julie West-Morganti, Senior Sales Representative, Vulcan Materials Company
Jonas Neihoff, President / Owner, Socially Present
Kevin O’Neill, VP – Regional Workforce Training & Economic Development, West KY
Community and Technical College
Laura Oswald, Director of Marketing, Paducah Convention and Visitors Bureau
Jay Page, Barkley Regional Airport
Jeff Parker, Commissioner, McCracken County Fiscal Court
Shannon Provance, Vice President, HDR Engineering, Inc.
Dr. Anton Reece, President, West KY Community and Technical College
Bradley Shoulta, FNB Bank
Craig Tatum, General Manager, Phoenix Paper Wickliffe, LLC
Jessica Vasseur, Public Affairs Manager, Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, LLC
Shawn Washer, Vice President, HDR Engineering, Inc.
Ralph Young, Business Advocacy Committee Member, Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce

Leadership Paducah Class #32
Addie Bozarth, Williams, Williams & Lentz
Michael Campbell, i5 design group, inc.
Jeff Canter, Peck Flannery Gream Warren, Inc.
Tammy Courtney, Swift & Staley
Jason Fort, Jennings & Associates
Joe Hayes, Paducah Police Department
Chris Hill, Entreneering
Rhiannon Jenkins, U.S. Bank
Mary Katz, The Carson Center
Jim Landry, Keuler, Kelly, Hutchins, Blankenship & Sigler, LLP
Ben Lawson, MP Lawson Construction
Michael Onuoha, Mercy Health Lourdes
Michelle Smolen, City of Paducah
Eric Straub, Whitlow, Roberts, Houston & Straub

Chamber Lobbyist
John Cooper, Capital Link

Chamber Staff
Sandra Wilson, President, Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce
Fran Johnson, Vice President - Governmental Affairs, Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce

On the Net:

Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce 2019 Legislative Agenda
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