SUMMER 2002

Team Work Makes
the Dream Work

Farmers Seek Bigger Piece
of the Pie

Missouri Hog Farmers Patch
Together a Solution

Searching For Affordable
Homes in the Country

Spanning the Region

Have You Heard

Calendar

Resources

Cincinnati Conference

East St. Louis Conference

Free Subscription Via U.S. Mail

Team Work Makes the Dream Work
After Factories Close, Leaders Unite to Turn
Economy Around

Industrial recruiter Kevin Sheilley, left, and Mayor Paul Osborne of Campbellsville, Ky., stand outside Frost-Arnett Co., a bill collection agency that came to town in 1999. (W.D. McCubbin photo)

What do you do when life delivers a bunch of lemons? If you're smart and resourceful, you make lemonade.

That's exactly what Campbellsville, Ky., decided to do a few years ago when a series of factory closings caused the unemployment rate to soar to 26 percent.

For a span of 50 years, while Fruit of the Loom operated an underwear factory in the area, the local unemployment rate never rose above 5 percent.

At its peak, Fruit of the Loom employed 4,000 people. By the mid-1990s, that number dropped to 3,200. In June 1998, Fruit of the Loom shut down its Campbellsville factory to relocate to Latin America. Fruit of the Loom was the primary employer of Taylor County, home to 22,000 residents. The majority of the factory's work force had never worked anywhere else. ...FULL STORY