DAYTON, Ky.
- A 4 1/2-block area that once was among the first to flood in this Campbell County river city may prove to be its economic salvation.
Last year, the city that used to struggle each year to balance its budget had a $105,000 surplus, thanks in part to tax revenues from the industrial park, said Dayton City Administrator Dan Groth. This year, Dayton is looking at a $328,000 surplus, largely because of the city's conservative spending and revenues from its industrial park, he said.
''The monies it generates just in payroll taxes is tremendous,'' Mr. Groth said.
Built in the shadow of the floodwall in 1984, Dayton's industrial park generated $140,601 in payroll and occupational tax revenues last year - more than one-third of the city's payroll and occupational tax revenues for 1996.
Former Dayton Mayor Gil Lynn says that's pretty good when one considers that the city collected only $5,700 a year from the site before 1984, the year that Hasco Tag Co. opened at Second and Kenton streets.
''This has been pretty much the salvation of Dayton,'' said Mr. Lynn, who now serves as an economic development consultant to the city. He added that Dayton is prospering because of the foresight of city fathers, who changed the zoning in 1978 to accommodate the proposed industrial park, and later began acquiring property for it.
The industrial park, which is bordered by the flood levee on the north, Fourth Street on the south, Clark Street on the east, and Main Street on the west, now has 14 businesses, with room for 16 more.
Inquiries about Dayton's industrial park have recently increased, largely because of growing businesses' lack of expansion room in neighboring urban communities, Mr. Groth said.
Saving a company
One such firm, Woodcraft Manufacturing Co. Inc., will open its new 20,000-square-foot building in Dayton's industrial park next month. The company is moving to Dayton, after it was unable to expand in Southgate.
Others, such as the Willow Green Co., approached Dayton officials after the firm was displaced by the planned Newport aquarium.
The 2-year-old company, which has been shipping portable lighting lamps and decorative accessories from its unfinished building in Dayton for about three weeks, owes its existence to the help it received from Dayton entrepreneur Bill Doran and Dayton officials, said Dave Meyer, Willow Green's chief operating officer.
''We can't thank them enough,'' Mr. Meyer said last week. ''Without Dayton and Bill Doran, we would've been a bankrupt company.''
Dayton helped the company - which had less than three months to find another site - by fast-tracking the zoning process and approving a $1.2 million industrial revenue bond issue to help Willow Green purchase land in the industrial park and build and equip a 30,000-square-foot building.
Mr. Doran, owner of the nearby Holland Metals, learned of Willow Green's plight through the owner of RADAC, another industrial park tenant, which was leasing Willow Green's owners space in Newport.
Because Willow Green's move came during its peak selling season, Mr. Doran supervised the construction of the company's new building, while the company's owners hit the road selling their wares. He also let the young company store its merchandise in his facility, and he has provided trailers for use as temporary offices, until the permanent ones are finished this week.
More development to come
To show its gratitude, Willow Green, which includes six Dayton residents among its 24 employees, plans to hire as many local workers as possible, and the firm eventually wants to sponsor ball teams and do projects for Dayton schools and the city, Mr. Meyer said.
In the future, Dayton - which has added an average of a business a year to its industrial park - hopes to continue that pace, hopefully with the help of a federal grant that would allow the city to clear a larger area in its park for potential businesses, Mr. Groth said.
In the past, the money to cover property acquisition, demolition of homes and relocation costs has come from the $8 million federal Urban Development Action Grant that the cities of Covington, Dayton, Bellevue and Newport loaned the management of the former Interlake Steel for a leveraged buyout of the idled mill.
However, with Newport Steel's recent payoff of the loan - 13 years early - Dayton received $1.3 million, which is currently collecting interest, as city leaders decide how best to use the funds, Mr. Groth said.
A six-member steering committee of city leadership is now studying how best to use that money, as it draws up a plan to make the best possible use of Dayton's industrial park.
''There's plenty more to come,'' Mr. Lynn said. ''This is just the beginning.''
