Thursday, August 19, 1999
Training center tops N. Ky. wish list
Bridge walk, two studies also picked
BY KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — A job training and business services center that will help local businesses keep their competitive edge is on the top of a list of capital construction projects that Northern Kentucky leaders will take to Frankfort in January.
The Northern Kentucky Consensus Committee announced its list of priorities Wednesday night at Northern Kentucky University.
At the top is the NKU Metropolitan Education and Training Services Center (METS) that will cost $10 million to $12 million.
“Work force is, for most employers, the No. 1 challenge that's going to inhibit their expansion,” said NKU President James Votruba. The center could assess a company's training needs and custom design programs that would help em ployees apply the latest techniques.
“This is the most important thing,” said Jim Willman, chairman-elect of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. “In Northern Kentucky we are growing very rapidly, but we do not have a huge influx of population.”
It could also be used as a tool in recruiting top companies to the area, said Gary Bricking, chairman of the consensus committee and manager of the Union Light, Heat & Power Co.
The committee also voted on an $8 million project that would turn the L&N Bridge into a pedestrian walkway to join Kentucky with riverfront amenities
on the Ohio side.
“With this move toward the downtown areas, people love to walk,” Mr. Bricking said.
Members also voted to endorse two studies. One is a $700,000 study that would examine how to renovate the former NKU Science Building that will be vacant when the new natural science building is finished in 2002.
The committee also wants the state to dole out $125,000 for a comprehensive market and engineering study on the feasibility of a “personal rapid transit system” called Sky Loop.
The Sky Loop would implement an advanced transit system that would link the downtown and riverfront areas of Cincinnati, Covington and Newport, supporters say.
Each electrically powered car, which would ride on an elevated rail, would carry up to three people directly to their destination. With the swipe of a card, riders would tell the computer exactly where they want to go.
John Vissman, vice president of Forward Quest was surprised but pleased.
“It tells me that many of the leaders of this community think it may answer some of the problems with traffic and smog,” he said.
Several other projects were put into a separate list. They received no votes, but w the committee considers them important.
Among them:
• $1.9 million for renovation at the Behringer-Crawford Museum,
• $290,160 for Bellevue Harbor development
• $4.4 million for renovation of the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center
• $10 million for Covington West Riverfront development
• $1.6 million for a Dry Creek regional park development
• $11 million for a Kincaid Park Lodge and Dining Facility
• $5 million for a museum at Big Bone Lick State Park
• $125,000 for a Northern Kentucky Special Events Center
“With the number of projects the committee had to consider, the voting was extremely tough,” Mr. Bricking said. “Even though the state's cash is projected to be tight during the next biennium, we are committed and optimistic that we can secure funding for some of (the) key projects.”
The consensus project was started in the late 1980s to give the region a united voice in trying to win funding for projects from Frankfort. Prior to that individual groups, governments and others would try on their own for money, giving the perception to lawmakers and state officials that Northern Kentucky was a fractured, divided region.
In many instances the process has been successful. Projects backed by the consensus committee that have been funded including the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, the juvenile detention center in Newport and the NKU science center.
But it's rare for a project to be funded the first time it's requested. And even though the consensus project is designed to show unity, particular projects - including the convention center and detention center - landed in the middle of well-publicized political battles between local Democrats and Republicans.
“We will always be better together than we are separate,” Mr. Bricking said. “So let's move forward.”
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