COVINGTON — Business leaders here say they are encouraged by City Commission candidates' proposals to shift economic development efforts from the riverfront to downtown Covington.

        “Obviously, we support everything that's happened on the riverfront,” said Cindy Shirooni, chairwoman of the Covington Business Council, representing more than 200 businesses. “But now it's time to take it south.”

        In campaign literature and at a candidates' forum Thursday, the six people running for City Commission called for extending Covington's riverfront successes to include the central business district.

        “The development of our city must not stop at Fourth Street,” challenger Alex Edmondson wrote in his campaign literature. “We need to continue that development, through our corridors and into our neighbor hoods.”

        Challenger Tony Milburn and first-term Commissioner J.T. Spence said Covington needs a strategic plan for development. Mr. Milburn said he also supports an effort by a group of business people to form a nonprofit incubator for high-tech companies on Covington's Madison Avenue.

        “Development had to happen on the riverfront first, because that's the most desirable location,” said Donna Salyers, whose husband, Jim, owns the building where the business incubator is proposed. “Now it's time for it to move (downtown).”

        On Friday night, Mrs. Salyers, the owner of Fabulous Furs, held a grand opening at the faux fur company's new headquarters at 601 Madison Ave.

        The $1 million project — financed in part through a low-interest, short-term loan from the city — more than doubles the 10-year-old company's showroom space and triples its office space.

        Challenger Craig Bohman, former president of the Wallace Woods Neighborhood Association, said that while he supports the planned Riverfront West project and the redevelopment of the Odd Fellows Hall at Fifth Street and Madison Avenue, he wants to look for ways to invest in neighborhoods.

        Write-in candidate Jimmy Williams said that Covington needs to get rid of prostitutes, gangs and graffiti to generate more commercial interest downtown and on the east side.

        “I would love to see a Kmart or a Wal-Mart (downtown),” Mr. Williams said.

        Mr. Edmondson, Mr. Milburn and Mr. Spencesaid the city's economic development department needs to be fully staffed. In recent years, that department has seen its full-time employees drop from five to two.

        “We shouldn't take a year to hire a zoning specialist,” Mr. Spence said.

        Mr. Edmondson also proposed that the city hire an attorney whose sole responsibility is to inventory run-down, abandoned buildings and take the owners to court to get the properties back on the city's tax base.

        Within two weeks, the city should get the results of a study of the northern part of Covington's downtown, said Commissioner Jerry Bamberger, who is seeking re-election. . The study focuses on the area from Greenup Street west to Madison Avenue and Fifth Street north to the Ohio River.

        Mr. Spence voted against the study, saying the study area should have covered the entire downtown.

        To turn the city around economically, Mr. Spence said, Covington must reverse its 20-year decline in home ownership, Mr. Spence said.

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