The regularly scheduled meeting of the Bowling Green - Warren County Bicentennial Commission held in the offices of Planning & Zoning, 1141 State Street, Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky, on Thursday, August 22, 1986, at 4:00 p.m.

Commissioners Present:
Mike Reynolds, Co-chair, Gary P. West, Don Stringer, Tommy Adams, Danny Whittle, Herbert Oldham, Charles Hardcastle, Dr. Jerry Martin

Also Present:
Julie Allen, Stan Reagan, Richard Sowles, Lena Sweeten, James A. Dale, Jr., Scribe

MR. REYNOLDS: The first thing I'm going to ask for an approval of the minutes of the last meeting. All of you have had a chance to receive a copy of the minutes of the August 15th meeting. Jim has kindly passed those around a few minutes ago. Could I have a motion on that?

DR. MARTIN: So move.

MR. OLDHAM: Second.

MR. REYNOLDS: All in favor, please say aye.

(MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY).

MR. REYNOLDS: Thank you. Treasurer's report, Tommy.

MR. ADAMS: Mike found out that we are going to have to get our own federal ID number.

MR. REYNOLDS: We'll have a number by phone tomorrow. So we can use that to open our account. Last week we agreed to open an account at First American. They have a better rate for us. So that's what we'll do.

MR. ADAMS: How much money should I ask for?

MR. REYNOLDS: We do need at least something to start with. We've had previous discussions, Mayor Hardcastle, H.B., and, Dr. Martin, in previous meetings about what the county had allocated and what the city had allocated over the period. And Tommy you may recall that and bring everybody up to date on that real quickly.

MR. ADAMS: The county is 25,000. Is that right, Julie?

MS. ALLEN: We did 15,000 in this budget year. We'll do the remainder next budget year.

MR. ADAMS: The city allocated all of theirs in the next budget year.

MAYOR RENAUD: My understanding it's available now, 25,000.

MR. ADAMS: We've got available 40 then.

MR. REYNOLDS: So now that everybody has heard that I know we've got promotion and publicity, envelopes, maybe phones to get started on. Would someone suggest a figure we ought to make a request or voucher for?

MR. ADAMS: I thought maybe if we got five from each.

MR. REYNOLDS: Do we have a motion to go ahead and make the allocation?

MR. WHITTLE: So move.

DR. MARTIN: Second.

MR. REYNOLDS: All I favor please say aye.

(MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY).

MR. REYNOLDS: So if you'll make that request through the appropriate paperwork with the county treasurer and the city treasurer.

MR. REYNOLDS: Our next agenda item is a report from the Committee on Committees. Danny, if you'll led us off there, please, sir.

MR. WHITTLE: Okay. I just got a fax just today from Ray Buckberry. And he is announcing that Eddie Barber of National City Bank has agreed to become chairman of the Funding & Finance Committee. So that makes all of our five major committees chaired now.

Program is H.B. Clark. Research & Resources is Dr. Jerry Martin. Funding & Finance is Eddie Barber. Promotions & Publications is Charlie Hardcastle. And Volunteer Personnel is Romanza Johnson.

MR. REYNOLDS: I want to personally thank the Committee on Committees for getting with and selecting such capable people and letting them also agree to serve such capable personnel as you have just read off.

I think one of the things that has really caused those committee chairs as much or more concern about getting started as anything is -- well, what is the statement? We don't have anything drafted in written form as a mission statement. Charles, your committee is expected to do this. Or, Dr. Martin, yours is expected to do this or H.B. or all the others. And I'm not trying to gloss over your report, but I think we can move on to say let's talk about this.

Julie has handed me a minute ago suggested committee duties, something that's been worked up by Julie and some of the others in the last several days.

What does my committee do? Where am I going? What are we expected to do? And this gives an outline that we can at least work from, tear up, do something with. It says what a Fund Raising Committee ought to be in charge of or what their commission, what Program Committee and so forth down the line are expected to do.

MR. WEST: I worked the opening session of the Warren County's booth at the Kentucky State Fair. I had two people that asked me, "Do you have a brochure on your Bicentennial, the events and everything you got coming up?" So that was right out of the chute. There were people with an interest out there. When they saw Bicentennial they asked for this. So this would be something that we would start thinking about getting some information that we can hand to people, not only our citizens but travelers going up and down the highway on what we've got going on.

MR. REYNOLDS: One of the things on the new business category I hope to discuss is setting a date and setting a time for a kickoff announcement or news conference or whatever. We can work towards that from here.

DR. MARTIN: You have to have a mission statement so we know what we're doing. I think one of the first things we're going to have to have is a logo and if there's going to be a motto or official logo of the Bicentennial that's going to go on T-shirts, letterhead, signs, anything else that needs to be in place pretty quickly.

MR. HARDCASTLE: Yesterday we had a meeting of several people together and kindly informally wrote down about four committees or five committees. One for brochure type or one that does printing. Somebody else is responsible for media relations, and another one was with a logo, to work with a logo people to do that sort of thing.

But we were kindly floundering a little bit to know exactly what our mission is, what we need to do, what's going to be ours.

MR. REYNOLDS: My suggestion would be that if you're chair take this and your committee come back with what you want to do and we'll just stamp if it's something reasonable.

MS. ALLEN: We do have under the function of the Promotion & Publicity Committee this logo and theme design. It needs to be done now. They're in the works of getting that organized and moved. We have a list I've provided Stan with of all the names and addresses and phone numbers that I put together from everything, printers in town to people up at Western to free-lance individuals that might be able to submit applications.

MR. HARDCASTLE: We can send these out to the professionals to send back in a logo and a slogan or slogan differently from the logo, have two. And then we have a press release saying now anybody that wants to do it put it in.

MR. WEST: One of my slogans is, "Looking Back But Moving Forward." Another one is, "200 Years Uniting The Past With The Present." The by was the Bicentennial is it's your past. But do we want to kind of bridge to the future? All kinds of people will have ideas out there like that.

MR. HARDCASTLE: The Hobson House is going to do special display of things of what it was a hundred years ago and what was done directly toward the Hobson's and toward the house, what they were doing in celebration a hundred years ago.

MR. REYNOLDS: Do you want to call ours Celebration 200? What Danny is passing out is someone's effort to not put together a mission statement but to identify some of the feature points that you would want to work towards. Each of the committee chairs can take that list and do with it as you may and come back to us with what you think it ought to be or how that can blend into it. Maybe next week we stamp them for approval; whatever you come in with or their discussion if necessary. Does that sound reasonable to everybody and put that, make it happen next week? Any problem working with that?

MR. REYNOLDS: Volunteers have been sought by advertising on the Government Access Channel on cable TV.

MR. WEST: I don't think we have promoted enough. It's a personal a feeling I get from being out in the community. What we need to do are things like the Noon Show on WBKO. We need to at least document that we're making a story for the Daily News. Some PSA's can be prepared for radio stations announcing that we need volunteers.

MR. STRINGER: The chairs have their own ideas about who they need on these committees. The Research Committee obliviously needs people who know something about the history of the community.

MR. REYNOLDS: I just want to mention the available pool that we're going to have. We have been working with Jim Highland at Western. We are coordinating a press conference probably within the next three weeks. We're working with Western with the new pool of volunteers that they will have. All the freshmen will have to put in twelve hours of community service time. And they will be coordinating with Dr. Wilder's office.

The county, the city and I believe maybe United Way; there's another agency or something working with us on that. So there will be another big pool of people to just help for like a day of an activity or something like that.

MS. ALLEN: I've tried to speak to Dr. Wilder. Unfortunately he's been out because of surgery. He's supposed to be getting back with me next week on the actual logistics of how the Commission can get involved. So we will have further information on how to provide the Commission and Romanza, her committee, with that information.

MR. HARDCASTLE: This is a year plus program. And when I've dealt with volunteers, volunteers normally burn out in about two or three months. So it's kind of like fighting a war. You need to move in troops and then you move in another fresh troop. You just keep flooding it in there.

So as you get one group of volunteers, on the next phase you bring in more new volunteers. You just keep flooding them in, because the others will get killed and fall off. Bring in new ones.

MR. REYNOLDS: Let's switch gears just a minute and go to each committee chair and ask each one of you to report on where you are and what you need and how you're coming.

MR. CLARK: All right. Actually I have the minutes for the meeting that we just had already typed up. It's just a coincidence they came out right. I split my committee into two areas; one of them being an activity committee. They are going to be responsible for reviewing, recommend for approval and coordinate and schedule events and activities that are submitted to the Bowling Green Bicentennial Commission for inclusion in celebration. They will coordinate with the other committees, work with the activity owner, the person that submits it for a submission of the form which we revised.

In talking with that I've got two people. One of the names is Alisa Carmichael who is with the Public Library. Also cochair for that committee is Duncon McKenzie with the Capitol Arts Commission.

I chose those two people for one particular reason. Each of them are dealing in public entities and I thought it very important for this committee to think inclusion to make sure that all social and ethical and any other kind of networks or neighborhoods or community as a people would be involved. I felt like both of those two had a lot of those outlets that I don't have in my circle of companions.

I came up with a general information flow which may add to some of the discussion we just had of how things happen. At some point we're going to have a vehicle for community input, either a phone in here or Mayor's office or Judge's office.

As information it's going to be one of two types of information. It's going to be Jane and John Doe wanting to volunteer. "What can I do?" Or it's going to be Jane Doe or John Doe or their organization have an activity or an event. They want to be included.

If it's just a volunteer, "I just want to be involved," I see that going down the path. We just discussed of getting it to the Volunteer Committee or screening them and sending them to where they best fit, based on that 30 second phone conversation. If it's an activity we'll immediately turnaround and send them a little form that says, "What is this? When is it? What kind of funding do you need," kind of the details of it.

Then I will assign one person on that subcommittee to work one-on-one with that event owner to clear up the ideas so that all committees don't get involved in it.

Either I or the owner of that event or one of the subcommittee members more likely will come to this Commission and say, "We have reviewed this with all committees. We think this particular one needs to have a stamp of approval of the Bicentennial Commission."

Then go back to that person and say, "Yes, your even is blessed. Go for it. Here's some resources. We'll work that event."

The second committee that I set up is what I call the Special Events Committee. That's a subcommittee that's going to be cochaired by Steve Ellis of Ellis Interiors. He seems to be more interested in doing events. I also asked Julie Allen to cochair this one. The two of them could get together and actually run events.

What I see this committee doing is to plan, submit for recommendation, organize and hold special events that are held by the Bicentennial Commission; coordinate with other committees, like Research and Funding and Volunteer for success of the event.

We have two recommendations for this Commission. The first event that we'd like to submit for your blessing is the mock legislation. That's a reenactment of the December 14th legislation that proposed Warren County held at the county courthouse on Saturday December 14th.

Judge Buchanon has already talked to some legislators to get involved. As far as funding there may some funding from this committee as it's raised here. Also we are going to focus on the bar association, because we thought some of those would be great actors if we didn't have enough. That would also -- no offense to the lawyers.

MR. REYNOLDS: Performer is a better word.

MR. CLARK: That's our first project. Any thought or questions or feedback? The second event is the Birthday Bash, and this is a private fund raising event during the Bicentennial kickoff week, the Christmas parade on the 14th; having a fund raising dinner with the Judge Executive and the Mayor and other guests like the Governor; held at the Bowling Green Warren County Convention Center Tuesday, December 10th or the 12th.

There would be a lot of other needs from the various committees like the Research Committee; be good to have some actual slide shows and things going on. There would be promotional assistance needed.

One other event that's been submitted is a driving tour. Alisa Carmichael is working on that.

MR. REYNOLDS: Dr. Martin, Research and Resources Committee report.

DR. MARTIN: We wanted to get Lowell Harrison involved, but he's behind on his manuscripts and had to decline. Charlie Henry has agreed to participate and be on this committee.

I contacted Mike Morris and discussed with him the possibility of having some of the students do a special project or something in the journalism department to cover some of these events. He may come on with us.

I talked to George Sites who is the president of the Southern Kentucky Photography Club. I think what they will do is probably take an interesting project and the members will photograph, have a show probably taking a couple of the best photographs out of that work.

I don't think we can depend on the photography club assigning a photographer to be at a certain event on a certain night and expect them to come back with pictures that we want.

As far as acquiring some historical data, I called J.C. Kirby and asked him to come up with a history of funeral homes and morticians in Warren County as far as back as he can go.

I asked Carl Kell and Harry Peart to do the same thing with the accountants and C.P.A.'s.

Dr. Richard Grise agreed to come up with a history of medicine. I talked to Jess Funk. Of course, Ray Buckberry has already done a good bit of work in that. Charlie Bryant said that he would try to review and summarize and bring up the date that history of literary clubs.

I talked to Top Orendorf and asked him to try to come up with an overview or history of attorneys and judges and the court system in Warren County.

I asked Richard Lacefield and the two Holland's, pharmacists, to do the same thing. I plan to do the same thing for dentists. I talked to Bob Kirby, Pete Mahurin and Herb Smith. They're going to try to come up with some history of the banking and investment companies in Warren County.

I also contacted the Warren Association of Baptists. They're going to send out to every one of their member churches a request for information as far as the date their church was founded, the sequence of lists of pastors and dates if they can and other historical data that relates to each church.

I also contacted the Bowling Green Warren County Ministerial Association. They're going to do the same thing.

Then I contacted Reverend Freddie Brown. There's two black associations that he's going to get me information on. We're going to try to contact each church and get some historical data from each one.

I also contacted the Bowling Green Board of Realtors. We're going to try to gather some information about the Board of Realtors and real estate business as it relates to Warren County, particularly the history thereof.

MAYOR RENAUD: What about a history of industry in Warren County?

MR. HARDCASTLE: 200 years ago this certainly was an agrarian economy or an agrarian community. The original people here were all farmers or hunters or something of that sort. 200 years ago that's what everybody was.

DR. MARTIN: Don Stringer is going to get a history of the newspaper, too.

MR. WHITTLE: Somebody mentioned industry. Jan Johnson from the State Heritage Commission is going to get some grant money to help put together a National Registry nomination for the limestone quarries in Warren County. Cut limestone quarries had an impact all over the country. The Pennsylvania State Library is made out of limestone from Warren County.

MR. HARDCASTLE: The Promotion and Publicity Committee had a meeting and set up four tentative committees. We're recruiting people for those. There was discussion about our direction. We're here to help your Program Committee. My thought is that when you have a program if we can coordinate to what you need to be done with the programs, publicity and things of that sort.

And then the programs that don't belong to a particular program why, we would like to go ahead and do those things, like the logo, like the Good Morning America waive that some of them have promised we will have that. The school bus from C-SPAN is going to be here at some time.

One thought that came up is that our logo is an important sort of thing and that we receive some type of royalty from it to be used for officially historically sanctioned events.

When you're promoting something you need to have a purpose, a buildup to that. We would appreciate it from a PR standpoint that the major focuses down through the year be outlined to us as quickly as possible with a mission statement to say, "What do we really want to accomplish?"

Now, the other thing came up is when you're going to have your first kickoff press conference whatever you want us to do in that standpoint. We're here to serve. Alan Palmer is chairman of the event on the logo.

MR. REYNOLDS: Ask him to have that up and available for us so we can approve it so we can have at our initial press conference as a backdrop.

MR. HARDCASTLE: It takes about three weeks they tell me.

MR. REYNOLDS: Either the first or second week of September to announce this.

MR. HARDCASTLE: It won't happen. I'd like to tell you it will but it won't. Our mission statement, we're going to do that today.

I'd like to introduce one of our members on there, Richard Sowers. He is a volunteer and I asked him to come to kind of see what we're doing so that if I'm not there or something else, why, he understands.

MR. REYNOLDS: Thank you for volunteering. You're welcome any week any time.

MR. STRINGER: You're probably going to want copyright protection on that logo. We can take care of that for you.

MR. REYNOLDS: Romanza is not here, but Charlie has mentioned how she needs to recruit and replenish her troops on the Volunteer Personnel Committee.

We talked about our mission statement development and give each of the committee chairs here a copy of an outline. Is there any other comment on the responsibility of a committee before we move ahead. These outlines that you have in front of you for each committee; what we want you to do, if you will, is take those and implement them between now and next week. We're probably going to rubber stamp what you bring us. If there's room for any other comment from the Bicentennial Commission, it's right now.

MR. REYNOLDS: Old business.

DR. MARTIN: I think we need to discuss a little further about the photographer. We're going to need pictures. I don't think this club will do it on a basis that we can depend on them every event. Because if Public Relations or Program or someone wants pictures, where are we are going to get them? Who is going to provide them? We may have to go with a professional photographer. I don't know how you get bids from photographers.

But I think that if we could probably get them if we'd supply the film and then in any publications give them the byline or the credit stating "photo made by". They would probably accept that in lieu of a salary or stipend. I don't know that, but I think we could probably work that out.

I think photography is going to be an issue that -- the newspaper is going the cover some of it, but there's going to be some events that they're not going to make perhaps interesting enough to send a photographer. We need to think about that. We need to document as best we can the events of this year.

MR. STRINGER: I do some photography. I don't mind shooting picture.

MR. REAGAN: A number of people on the Publicity & Promotions Committee have experience with 35 millimeter camera. If need be the committee members could pick up camera and run.

MR. HARDCASTLE: If we send out a logo we need to have a mission statement or something or other to put with that, because we think that influences what the logo will be.

MR. REYNOLDS: A theme.

MR. HARDCASTLE: A theme of some sort, because that's going to influence what kind of design or what kind of thing they're going to come up with.

MR. WHITTLE: This will be out of turn but I will challenge everyone in this room by next Wednesday to write down a mission statement for this Bicentennial Commission and by prepared to defend it or yield to someone else's. I will bring one and distribute it to everybody. I think groups or individuals in this room, if you choose to be groups, can describe a mission statement for this Commission. Let's get this going next week.

MR. REYNOLDS: What we are also asking for is a theme or slogan, Celebration 200, or 200 Looking Backward Or Forward, whatever it may be. And at one time we thought about sending that out to the schools and the logo, too.

MR. HARDCASTLE: It was our feeling the logo should be done by professional people.

MR. WHITTLE: Why are we having a Bicentennial celebration and what do we hope to accomplish that's going to last to the next 200 years? Not in terms of a project but in a frame of mind. That needs to be said with some conviction and let it be something that is convincing and stimulating to the community at large. And it's not a two or three word catch phrase. That's a slogan that you can use, but it's something that will guide the efforts of this Commission during the next year. And that's what I view a mission statement and I don't have it yet in my mind. But I think amongst us all we can come up with a few words that are going to say what this Bicentennial is all about.

MR. REYNOLDS: Put that on next week's agenda along with the mission statements that the committees are going to turn in to us or finalize.

MR. HARDCASTLE: What's our goals and objectives? What are we wanting to sell?

MR. WHITTLE: Our past, our future.

MR. HARDCASTLE: Past and future.

MR. WEST: We're talking about how it started, how we got to where are now, the present. So we're talking just trying to bring the past to the present.

MR. HARDCASTLE: We're celebrating our past and looking to our future or something of that sort. We put this out generally like that for the professionals to come up with. And then do a separate thing even maybe go out to schools and say, "Give us a slogan," and hope that you get each -- by each class I don't think necessarily by each student but by each class; if they would develop a slogan of some sort.

Press conference or whatever it is, press conference or do a press release or release saying, "Hey, can you give us a slogan?"

MR. REAGAN: Good sound promotion, from our committee's standpoint what we would need to see is maybe one slogan rising out of each school or from each area. But within their school there could be a vehicle to bring a vehicle of awareness about the Bicentennial and then discuss that perhaps.

MR. REYNOLDS: Any other comment on that?

MR. WHITTLE: It seems to me that our community is lacking in a civic pride or even a boosterism that I think we had even when I first came here in the early 70's. I felt it more then than I do now. And I think that bringing a thousand people together to work on various aspects of this Bicentennial can restart that civic pride, that sense of awareness of our community and our great assets and how well we get along and how well we don't get along and how well we can agree and how well can disagree without coming to fisticuffs. That's the kind of thing that I think this by can bring about.

The more people we involve the more people we get excited about it and the more people that we can identify from our past that made a difference -- from what I've read about this community and its beginning everything that I've read concentrates on individuals and how they contributed to this community and to make it what it finally has become. But it wasn't an organization. It wasn't a group. It wasn't a fiscal or a city council or it wasn't the queen's appointments. It was a bunch of individuals.

And if we can show through this Bicentennial and through the history we can uncover how important one person can be to an entire region, to a community, to a county, to a city; then I think we can begin to convince some of the kids at Greenwood High or at Bowling Green High or at Moss Middle School or wherever that they, too; one person can make a difference.

And if we can get any little bit of that kind of thing passed forward that you can make a difference because look at all of these people that did from Thomas Moore to the Long Hunter who carved his name on the beech tree. These people made a difference. They were one person. You can, too. If we can get that moving and that thought moving in our community, then we've done a heck of a job.

MR. HARDCASTLE: What you want is to generate excitement.

MR. WHITTLE: I think so. About what we are and about our community. It really bothers me to have the headline on the newspaper or the headline on the six o'clock news being the restaurants are full and motels are full. We had had this Sweet 16 and they don't say anything about getting a thousand girls together to play basketball and all of their families and all the camaraderie that can come with that and all the exposure that Bowling Green as a civic institution. And all we get is the headline that says, "These poor suckers, we lured them into town and they're going to spend money in restaurants and stay over night and buy a motel room." That's not the headline.

The headline is, "We are a community that can accept these people. We want them here. We're proud to show ourselves off." It's a little crass, I think, that kind of headline.

MR. WEST: Mr. Chairman, in all due respect to Mr. Whittle I'm really glad the hotels are hotels are full and the restaurants are full.

MR. REYNOLDS: We selected last week the start date, but I don't think we finished with the ending date. December 7 through 14 is sort of our kickoff. We did not finalize whether January 1, January 2 of 98 or whether March 1 of 98 was going to be our end date. And for the lack of anything else I think we should select the day to get it done so that we can then work on a calendar, events and so forth inside our end date. Somebody propose an end date.

MAYOR RENAUD: I propose March 1.

MR. HARDCASTLE: Do you think that's too long?

DR. MARTIN: What was the date that the city officially -- I think it was 14th or something of March. We should use the same date that it officially started.

MR. WHITTLE: It would almost be exactly 15 months from December 14th to March 14th or right in that vicinity. 15 months is not all that much longer than a year.

MR. REYNOLDS: That gives them a little more bye on their exact date. We ought to be into exact dates and some regards when we can. It's more historically significant. Do we have a motion that those be the start and end dates?

MR. CLARK: Do we have the exact date?

DR. MARTIN: We'll come up with that.

MR. REYNOLDS: Moved my Mayor Renaud. Second.

MR. ADAMS: Second.

MR. REYNOLDS: All in favor, say aye.

(MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY).

MR. REYNOLDS: Thank you. We need to pick a date for a news conference. What time of day or day of the week gives us the best balance, whether it be for your paper or anybody else's publication? What day of the week? Monday. What date in September at Monday, 9:00 a.m. would we like to do this?

MR. HARDCASTLE: It will take us from three weeks to a month to develop a logo and a slogan. We're at August 22. First week of September. You have Labor Day.

MR. REYNOLDS: Monday, September 23, at 9:00 a.m. Next meeting four o'clock next Thursday, same location.