Paducah Delegation to Lobby in Washington |
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A Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce delegation will spend two days in
Washington, D.C., next week in what is foreseen as an annual trip to tout
key economic development issues. Eighteen business and governmental leaders, including Mayor Bill Paxton and Judge-Executive Danny Orazine, will leave Barkley Regional Airport at 6 a.m. Tuesday on a chartered plane and be met in Washington by 12 others flying separately. Chamber President Glenn Denton said the trip is funded by the participants and donations from local businesses. Tuesday and Wednesday are filled with meetings with five of the seven members of the Kentucky congressional delegation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue, Federal Aviation Administration official Kate Lang and others. Tuesday's activities will be capped by a large afternoon reception with Gov. Paul Patton, Kentucky lawmakers and chiefs of staff in the Senate Office Building. Senior managers of USEC Inc., which runs the 1,200-job Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, will attend. Invitees include McCracken County residents who have moved to Washington and Washington residents with local ties. "We're going up there with a very set group of priorities for this trip with a real intent on making it an annual event," said organizer Tracie Deaton, business development manager for Hamilton- Ryker. She and Denton said key issues pertain to the future of the diffusion plant, development of a regional industrial park in north Graves County, airport improvements and the status of interstates 66 and 69, which will run through the region. USEC will decide by the end of the year whether to build a 500-job gas centrifuge plant in Paducah or Piketon, Ohio. By early next decade, the new plant will replace the outdated diffusion plant, and USEC says Piketon has the edge because it has a centrifuge complex and lacks Paducah's seismic problems. Paducah is trying to gain ground by convincing the Tennessee Valley Authority to lower power prices as part of an incentive package. "If we get the centrifuge plant, there will be wonderful boon to our economy with spin-off businesses and jobs," Denton said. "If not, we still have the same focus with development of the industrial park, airport and interstates. The chamber realizes we've got to think big picture and long-term, and that's what we're starting to do with this trip." He said the main purpose of the visit is to continue talking with and thank lawmakers for their support. Denton credited local liaisons for senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning and Rep. Ed Whitfield, as well as chamber lobbyist John Cooper, for helping coordinate the trip. As published in the Paducah Sun on September 18, 2003 By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 |
