Tuesday, July 20, 1999
Plant will give town a new life
It could be gold mine for Silver Grove
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SILVER GROVE — With one traffic light, a single police officer, 1,102 residents and one of the smallest school districts in Kentucky, this city may not appear ready for the massive building materials plant about to be built within its borders.
But City Treasurer Jerry Pelle says looks can be deceiving.
“We're ready,” said Mr. Pelle, who operates a tax service on Ky. 8, the main road through Silver Grove.
“We've needed something like this for a long time. It's going to help the community,” he said.
Monday morning, Lafarge Corp., a French company and one of the world's largest producers of wallboard, formally broke ground on a $90 million gypsum wallboard manufacturing plant. It will be built between Ky. 8 and the Ohio River on the site of the old CSX railyards.
The plant, which was announced by Gov. Paul Patton in January, will be the largest maker of wallboard, also know as drywall, in North America. It will stretch for nearly half-a-mile along Ky. 8 and have the capacity to make 900 million square feet of wallboard a year.
About 100 people will be employed at the plant when it opens in the spring, and more than 200 construction workers will build the facility.
Hiring will begin in the fall for the permanent jobs, according to Lafarge spokesman Ted Pile.
Local officials and residents say the plant will help boost the economy and fortunes of a community that was born as a railroad town.
Silver Grove drew its name from a summer resort at the mouth of Four Mile Creek,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.
But when the railroad left, so did many workers and businesses, hurting the local economy, said Mr. Pelle, 58.
Silver Grove had a chance to grow and develop in the early 1980s, when state transportation officials contemplated building the AA Highway through town.
But many Silver Grove residents feared the highway would rip the town apart and bring too much development too fast. They lobbied state officials for an alternate route for the highway that runs into eastern Kentucky.
It eventually was built in the center of the county, starting in Wilder and running through Cold Spring and near Alexandria.
Those areas have flourished and continue to grow because of the highway, while Silver Grove has languished.
“That was mistake to fight the AA Highway,” Mr. Pelle said. “That could have really helped us. But at least we have this plant now, and it's going to be good for the town.”
Silver Grove city and school officials aren't yet sure just how much tax revenue they will receive from the plant.
But Lafarge already has given $5,000 to Silver Grove schools for scholarships that went to five members of the school's 1999 graduating class.
“And they have pledged to give us $5,000 for scholarships every year as long as they are here, which we hope will be a long time,” Superintendent Bill Brown said.
The company also has provided money and resources to start a fine arts program at the school, Mr. Brown said.
Lafarge Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer John Piecuch said one of the reasons Silver Grove was chosen was because of the “ethics and values” of the community.
“The citizens here were the deciding factor in locating our plant here,” Mr. Piecuch said.
Silver Grove Fire Chief Randy Steinhauer said the all-volunteer department has adequate fire-fighting equipment to handle emergencies at the plant.
The tax revenue generated by the plant for the regional fire district might enable the department to hire its first full-time firefighters in a year or two, Chief Steinhauer said.
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