COMMUNITY PROFILE: Campbellsville and Taylor County

An 'A' for Attitude
Self-reliance, hard work, cooperation mix for success in Taylor County

“We’ve always had to do for ourselves to some extent. It’s enhanced our survival skills,,” said the Rev. John Chowning, chairman of Team Taylor County, the umbrella organization that encourages economic development around Campbellsville. “We’re better off now than when we were a company town for Fruit of the Loom.

“While there was a good deal of despair when Fruit of the Loom pulled out, there was also this sense of determination that emerged as well. There’s a special spirit among Taylor Countians. They’re resilient, proud and compassionate. Campbellsville is not perfect, but it’s a good place where people still care about people. That might sound a bit hokey, but that’s alright because it’s true. We’re unique in today’s culture.”

A lifelong professional in economic development and education, Chowning is the former director for economic development on Congressman Ron Lewis’ staff. He also has chaired the board of Campbellsville University. Accepting the call to ministry fairly recently, he pastors Saloma Baptist Church, a rural congregation that has been part of Taylor County’s spiritual landscape for 130 years.

Having a multifaceted professional experience has given Chowning a unique perspective on why Campbellsville – Taylor County has pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat. The appeal of the area is one of the reasons Chowning left the hustle of the halls of power in Washington, D.C.

“One of the reasons I left Ron Lewis’ office was to help officials create Team Taylor County,” he said. “There was an industrial foundation here that owned land, a strong Chamber of Commerce and a tourism office with a lot of potential. Instead of having all these entities scattered about, the city and county government came together and formed Team Taylor County as an umbrella organization for all of them.”

The idea behind Team Taylor County was the desire by local leaders to make a strong, unified approach to creating a healthy local economy.

“The community’s economic development efforts are based on the premise that communities experience longterm growth and sustained development when the community works as a team with a unified vision,” said Campbellsville Mayor Paul Osborne.

The mayor said that, for years, a strong push for a diverse local economy was not a top priority due to the belief that Fruit of the Loom would always be a part of the local economy.

“You could have heard a pin drop when word came down of the closings at Fruit of the Loom and Batesville Casket,” Osborne said. “Officials were scurrying for answers and residents were searching for work. For more than 50 years the community had maintained a level of relative prosperity. Fruit of the Loom provided a place for about 3,500 people to work and the plant rarely allowed the unemployment rate to rise above five percent.

“That’s why the news came as such a shock to many. The security of a single large employer meant that the community poured its money into parks, healthcare, a library and other interests. It was believed that future economic development was unnecessary.”

That belief, Osborne pointed out, was very much mistaken. The creation of Team Taylor County was meant to create a unified effort to tackle the task at hand. That task was to pull the community out of an economic disaster area.

The organization and its efforts were funded by a countywide occupational tax. “That was the first step in the process,” said Taylor County Judge Executive Eddie Rogers. “We had a great asset in the work ethic of our people. There are folks here who worked at Fruit of the Loom for 30-plus years and never missed a day. But to get help from Frankfort or the federal government, we had to show that we wanted to help ourselves first. We approved the occupational tax and that was not a popular move. But it made our local government financially stable and qualified us for economic development grants.”

“I’m not one who likes new taxes, but in this case it’s a textbook case of how government can facilitate success,” Chowning said. “The payroll tax has given us the ability to get local funding to leverage state and federal funds.”

According to Chowning, the leaders of Team Taylor County and its predecessor organization, Taylor County United, evaluated the community and determined that it had three major needs on the path of local economic diversify and strength.

“The first need was for a new, cohesive economic development organizational framework,” Chowning said. “That became the industrial development authority here. The city and county government took the lead and formed a strong board of directors for that organization.

“The second need was for improved highway access to Campbellsville. We worked on renovating Highway 210, which was not completely rebuilt during the ’80s and ’90s like so many other Kentucky roadways. With Congressman Ron Lewis’ help, $8 million of the federal budget was earmarked for renovating that highway last year, so that’s a success that’s on the way.

“The third thing we identified was the need for technology and telecommunications access locally. We came up with a proposal for the Campbellsville University Technology Training Center and its interactive communications facility. Thanks to Sen. Mitch McConnell, a grant came through for that and it’s now a reality. Mayor Osborne, Judge Rogers and I also put together a technology training task force. That group has issued a report discussing the need for widespread broadband high-speed access in our community. In a unique partnership with the Kentucky League of Cities and a private entity, that is now available through wireless broadband. We now have plans for the Heartland Commerce and Technology Park, which will lure technology-related companies to Taylor County.

“The new Commerce and Technology Park will probably be comprised of about 300 acres. The kind of businesses that will locate there won’t be smokestacks, but state-of-the-art. The place is going to be aesthetically pleasing, with a boulevard entrance, walking trails, fire protection and child care on site.”

And local officials are more optimistic than ever regarding Taylor County’s economic future.

“From setback to comeback, we’ve only just begun in Taylor County,” said Judge Executive Eddie Rogers, summing up Campbellsville’s can-do philosophy.

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