Wednesday, January 27, 1999
Silver Grove awaits word of 'rebirth'
Ex-railroad town getting new plant, life
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SILVER GROVE — Business at the Silver Grove Carryout hasn't been quite the same since the Ohio River Flood of 1997.
“We had been doing pretty good before that,” owner Chuck Bachmann said Tuesday, “just starting to make some money. But the flood kind of set things back for us, and it seems like for the town, too.”
But things may be looking up.
A one-time railroad town of about 1,100, Silver Grove is hoping for a new wave of prosperity with today's expected announcement that LaFarge, a French maker of drywall and other building materials, will build a $100 million plant that will bring 100 to 150 jobs.
State and local officials have said little publicly about the announcement other than identifying the company and saying the plant will be built in the city's vacant railyards.
Details, such as when construction will begin and what tax incentives the company received, were not available Tuesday. LaFarge officials did not return phone calls.
Gov. Paul Patton has scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m. today at Silver Grove High School to make an important economic development announcement for Northern Kentucky, according to a statement from his press office.
Residents and business owners anxiously await the news.
“We've been hearing about LaFarge for a while. Everybody in town is talking about it,” said Jerry Pelle, 58.
“A new big factory would bring a lot of money to the community, the fire department, the school. It will be good for us. We need it here,” Mr. Pelle said.
Just next door, his brother Bobby owns Pelle's Cafe, a tavern and sports bar. A large sign on the outside wall reads “Welcome Gov. Patton & Hopefully LaFarge.”
“I think most people expect that it will happen,” Mr. Bachmann said. “The governor wouldn't be coming here to tell us we didn't get it. That would be kinda mean.”
At Pelle's Tax Service, bright color photographs hanging on the wall speak volumes about the tiny town's history. Some show locomotives and trains, like the kind that used to line the railyards that once sat across Ky. 8 from the town.
Others show buildings, including Mr. Pelle's, that appear to be floating in the brown water that flooded the town nearly two years ago. Just up and across the river from Coney Island and River Downs, Silver Grove is often flooded when the Ohio rises and backs up the many creeks that flow through the town.
“I can remember more than once leaving the house in a rowboat or a motorboat because we were getting flooded,” said former Campbell County Attorney Paul Twehues Jr., 55, who grew up on Fourth Street.
Like many who have called Silver Grove home, Mr. Twehues' family came to town when his father, Paul Sr., landed a job at the railroad in the late 1940s.
“Just about everybody worked at the railyards,” Paul Twehues Jr. said. “And the town was nice. It was literally a railroad town and the railroad did everything, even providing water and electricity to the residents.”
Silver Grove drew its name from a summer resort, at the mouth of Four Mile Creek, that was named for a large grove of silver poplar trees. Created by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad in 1912 to house its employees, the town was abandoned by the railroad in 1948, prompting residents to incorporate it in 1951.
Even though the railroad no longer controlled the town, the railyards — which run for more than a mile between Ky. 8 and the river — stayed open until the early 1980s, Mr. Pelle said.
“When the railyards closed, that hurt the town,” he said. “We lost a lot of jobs, and some businesses closed. So people are excited about the new plant coming.”
With construction crews building the plant, and the facility's workers, Mr. Bachmann sees the potential for new customers at his carryout.
“I make deli sandwiches here ... so I'd like to see an increase in the lunch and daytime traffic with the new company coming in,” Mr. Bachmann said. “It'll help me and it'll help the town.”
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