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 Welcome to BgkyHomepage.com! Dedicated to bringing you all the latest news from and around the Bowling Green, Ky area. Local news, sports headlines, obituaries, local movie theater listings and more.
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Each week, the Daily News profiles a locally owned business.
Name of business: Tanglez Hair Studio
Location: 2530 Scottsville Road
Type of business: Hair studio
When did it open? October 2008
Owner: Nina and Jimmy Helms
Number of employees: 10
Specialties: Hair coloring, cutting, massages, eyelash extensions, perming, up-dos, men and children cutting.
How did the business get started? Through prayer. My husband found this location and thought it was a dream come true. We’ve prayed that if it was meant to be that God would open the doors, and he did.
What is your background? I was in banking for 12 years and always wanted to go to cosmetology school. With three children, I went.
What’s your business philosophy? If you look good, we look good.
What issues are affecting your industry? We have done wonderful through this economic issue. With people losing their jobs, some cut back on hair, but for the most part, we haven’t seen a huge issue.
What are the factors that make your business successful? Customer service and a nice, clean environment. We are hair stylists who listen and care for the clients’ needs - they enjoy that.
How do you handle competition? We wish everyone the best. There are plenty of people in Bowling Green and surrounding counties for all hair stylists to be busy.
What is your advice to someone thinking about opening a business? Have a plan and goals. Pray and go through the doors that God opens. Read The Full Article At
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News about area businesses and businesspeople. Kentucky Blue Gas to increase drilling Kentucky Blue Gas Co., a producer and processor of natural gas in Bowling Green, recently launched an expansion plan that includes drilling more than 30 new natural gas wells through the end of 2010 in Warren County. Three wells have already been drilled and completed and are producing natural gas.
“We have achieved two momentous milestones this year,” Roopesh Aggarwal, a senior Kentucky Blue Gas official, said in a news release. “Launching our gas processing plant this past summer and now executing a concentrated drilling plan reaffirms our position as a local energy leader dedicated to providing clean-burning natural gas for the people of Bowling Green.”
The gas processing facility at 425 Power St. sells its natural gas to a local natural gas utility company for consumption in the Bowling Green area.
Hitcents celebrates 10th anniversary
Hitcents, a Bowling Green-based technology and software solutions business, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
During the celebration, Rep. Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, and Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Chairman Todd Davis made remarks.
Hitcents was started by twin brothers, Chris and Clinton Mills, when they were in high school. Their offices have grown from two computers in their parents’ home to employing more than 40 workers in 20,000 square feet of office space at the Western Kentucky University Center for Research and Development.
Zargham named VP at Jagoe Homes
Douglas Zargham has been named vice president of architecture at Jagoe Homes, which has an office in Bowling Green, and will serve as a full-time architect at Jagoe’s home operations in Owensboro.
Zargham will manage the architecture and design team for Jagoe’s custom home division. Jagoe Homes designs and builds houses and communities in seven Indiana and Kentucky communities.
Zargham is a registered architect, a member of the American Institute of Architects and certified by the National Council of Architecture Registration Boards. He holds a master of fine arts degree and a bachelor’s in architecture from the University of Miami.
Alliance’s Akers receives SIR Award
Brandon Akers, vice president of Glasgow-based Alliance Corporation, recently received the Skill, Integrity, Responsibility Award at the Associated General Contractor’s of Kentucky’s annual banquet. The SIR Award is the highest honor an individual can get within the association and the construction industry. It’s given to industry leaders who have made and continue to make outstanding contributions to the AGC of Kentucky and to the construction industry.
Akers serves as executive vice president and oversees the Prestonsburg operation. Beginning his career in 1995, Akers has experience in the field and with administrative duties. He specializes in educational and specialty projects. Akers is a certified LEED Accredited Professional by the United States Green Building Council and appointed by Gov. Steve Beshear to the Kentucky High Performance Building Advisory Committee. He is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University with a major in construction technology.
English honored for public advocacy work
Charles E. English, of English Lucas Priest & Owsley law firm in Bowling Green, was one of three attorneys recently honored by the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy and the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender Corp. He provided pro bono legal representation in a case that helped secure additional funding for public defenders throughout the state.
Along with English, Jon L. Fleischaker and Sheryl G. Snyder were honored.
The three attorneys filed suit against various state lawmakers and officials after the Kentucky General Assembly failed to provide adequate funding for public defenders in the 2008 to 2009 biennial budget. The suit’s contention was that by underfunding and understaffing public defender offices, the state was failing to discharge its constitutional duty to provide a defense to indigent persons charged with crimes. An agreement was reached to increase funding for public defenders.
“Public defenders are essential to the legal system in Kentucky,” English said in a news release. “It is critical that public defenders are properly funded to ensure that those charged with a crime have adequate representation.”
English is a member of the American Bar Association Board of Governors and is a former member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. He is a life member of the Judicial Conference for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He is a member of the Kentucky Supreme Court and Court of Appeals Judiciary Nominating Committee. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and is a past president of the Kentucky Bar Association.
English received a bachelor’s degree and a juris doctor from the University of Kentucky. He was named to the University of Kentucky College of Law Hall of Fame in 2004 and served on the faculty at Western Kentucky University for nearly 30 years.
ConnectKentucky seeks nominations
ConnectKentucky, a Bowling Green-based independent technology-based economic development organization, is soliciting nominations for four ConnectKentucky Technology Awards. The awards will be handed out during the 2010 Tech Day on Feb. 18.
The awards include:
The Corporate Citizenship Technology Award, which goes to a company, organization or foundation that has successfully shaped its mission and business strategy to promote broadband technology adoption in the state;
The Small Business Technology Award, which goes to a small business that has successfully used broadband technology to broaden their customer reach and provide a positive example of technology use and capabilities in the state;
The Student Technology Award, which goes to a Kentucky high school student who has recognized the benefits of using broadband technology and promotes and implements its use in creative and inspiring ways; and
The Student Post-Secondary Technology Award, which goes to a Kentucky college student who has recognized the benefits of using broadband technology and promotes and implements its use in creative and inspiring ways.
ConnectKentucky encourages nominations from local leaders, schools, nonprofits, businesses and private citizens. Nominations will be taken until Jan. 30. A downloadable version of the nomination form is available at www.connect
kentucky.org
Nominations should be mailed to ConnectKentucky, Donna C. Drury, 311 W. Main St., Frankfort, KY 40601, or e-mailed to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Read The Full Article At
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While gift retailers depend on Christmas shopping, another type of business is banking on sales this winter.
Textbook stores usually are flooded with customers this time of year as college students finish the semester and look to sell their books. It’s an important time for textbook shop owners, who rely on used book sales and, therefore, rely on students who swap their textbooks for cash.
“We’re very seasonal,” said Justin Parsons, regional manager for Book Fool - a pop-up textbook shop that temporarily operates in Bowling Green and other cities. “Students are wanting that money right before Christmas. They’re wanting money for their break.”
Book Fool operated until Friday in a parking lot at the intersection of Broadway Avenue and U.S. 31-W By-Pass. The shop sells and buys used textbooks in about 25 college towns throughout the South, Parsons said.
The Nashville-based company has traveled to Bowling Green the past couple of semesters, mainly because it houses Western Kentucky University students and is close to Nashville, Parsons said.
“We’re here mainly to give students a second option,” he said.
Used books tend to be about 25 percent cheaper than new books. Many shoppers search for used textbooks so the buy-back season is essential to business, said Robert Hall, owner of University Textbook and Supply in Bowling Green.
“The buying back is hugely important,” he said, adding that during this time of year, students also purchase WKU merchandise for Christmas gifts. “We give out cash for books and they turn around and buy a shirt and a hat for Dad.”
In fact, the WKU winter term begins Jan. 4, and “it’s growing every year,” Hall said. This year is “the most enrollment ever for winter term.”
While some students purchase books for winter term, the textbook store is gearing up for a rush next month when students begin to buy books for the spring semester.
“Over 20,000 students are trying to buy their books over a few days,” Hall said. “So our Christmas rush comes the week of the 25th of January.”
And while many retailers battle a sluggish economy this holiday season, some textbook store owners said the recession has helped business.
During a recession, more people go back to school and, therefore, buy textbooks, they said.
“The economy actually, in a sense, helps our business for the fact that the government pays more people to go to school when the economy is bad,” said Patrick McCormack, manager of Textbook Brokers in Bowling Green.
“Therefore, we sell more books.”
This buy-back season has been good for the local textbook shop, mainly because it has done more marketing this year, McCormack said.
Textbook buy-back “is the most important thing we do,” he said. “The reason being is the used book market is what saves students money.” Read The Full Article At
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All right, I’m sick of this. It’s time to stand up and say “No!” to big government. The last thing we need is for the federal government to get involved in Medicare.
That great private system was created in 1965 because government already was doing such an inadequate job providing health care for senior citizens. The next thing you know, they’ll want to meddle in Medicaid, interfering with insurers’ private benevolence to those who can’t pay.
That is how it works, right? I’m pretty sure of this - and according to a recent Public Policy poll, 39 percent of the American people agree that the feds should stay out of Medicare.
That’s the kind of perceptive understanding that will get us through this health care debate. I’m sure those same people will agree that government has no business doing things to benefit people. What’s it for, anyway?
Next thing you know, somebody in a posh office, who knows nothing about your needs or medical problems, will be telling you which doctors you can see and which you can’t. Oh, sure, they’ll say you can go see “out of network” doctors - but you’ll pay more for that. Why would we want to abandon private insurance, where that never happens?
And government costs never come down, so every year it’ll become a little more expensive. I’m so glad that private insurance premiums have remained nominal and unchanging for so many years, with no nonsense about increasing liability or more expensive treatments.
Sure, they’ll try to argue that basic health care benefits us all in the long run, citing reams of evidence that preventive care is far cheaper than treating emergencies.
Don’t believe it; that’s just more liberal spin. They’re only mad that using hospital emergency rooms as primary care providers is so efficient and affordable.
What could government-backed insurance possibly give us that we don’t already get from private companies?
Should the government get involved, I predict that we will indeed see “death panels” of faceless bureaucrats deciding “this isn’t covered,” “it’s an experimental treatment,” or your illness is “the result of a pre-existing condition,” no matter how many years you’ve paid your premiums.
That just won’t happen under a private system; insurance companies would never deny care. So why does the government feel the need to meddle?
They say they want everyone to have insurance coverage. To me, that’s just an excuse for more people to deliberately get sick. We’ll see a wave of new chain-smokers and fat-eaters out to bilk the system, trading a few months of pain, disability and invasive surgery for that sweet government insurance check.
If some government involvement is inevitable, we must at least preserve some private option, a last resort for those whom the government turns down or who can’t afford subsidized premiums.
Otherwise, we’ll end up like most of the rest of the developed world. Sure, some people say that government-backed insurance results in wait times no longer than Americans have now, and an average per-patient cost that is considerably lower. But who cares about that, when some principle or other - no matter how ill-defined - is at stake? It’s as though they want our taxes to pay for actual public services.
It’s telling that one of the first major proposals for government-run health insurance, available to all Americans, came from the notoriously liberal President Richard M. Nixon.
As Investor’s Business Daily so truly said in August, if renowned physicist Stephen Hawking was British, he surely would have died by now under the United Kingdom’s government-backed National Health Service.
Those carping statements from naysayers such as Hawking himself, alleging that he is British, is treated under the National Health Service, and is actually still alive after an unprecedented 46 years with Lou Gehrig’s Disease - those are just partisan nitpickers.
But it could be worse. We could end up like Sweden, which has arguably the most comprehensive and heavily subsidized health care of any major country.
In the dismal Scandinavian government-mandated night, one baby in every 364 dies, and those who survive the risks of infancy can only look forward to an average 80 years of life.
Meanwhile, in the robustly private United States, just one baby in 159 won’t make it, and they probably would have been serial killers anyway.
Those who dodge infant mortality and serial killers have the bright promise of an average 78 years under private insurance (or not).
Remember when the government tried to take over Social Security?
Thank goodness that was stopped, and our promised pensions remain invested in the stock market. We know that will never fail us.
Despite that success, though, I know this fight won’t end.
It’ll only move on to a new intrusion in our lives. Next thing you know, the government will want something to do with national defense. Read The Full Article At
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