By Martha B. Jacob –

The Brown County Chamber of Commerce met in regular session on Thursday, Jan. 19 at Hospice of Hope Ohio Valley, in Mt. Orab.
One of the main topics of conversation was the upcoming 2017 Business Breakfast which will include presentation of the Drucker Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“This year the Drucker Award will be presented to HealthSource of Ohio,” said president of the Brown County Chamber of Commerce, Brian Elliott. “Most everyone knows that a new HealthSource has just opened up in Georgetown and we are all very excited about it.
“This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award will go posthumously to Rumpke Regional Vice President Todd Rumpke.”
The Business Breakfast will be held on Monday, Jan. 30 at the Georgetown Church of Christ Fellowship Hall. Doors to the event will open at 7 a.m. and breakfast will be served at 8 a.m. Tickets are $17 for members and $30 for non-members.
Kelly Cole, Brown County Economic Development Director spoke briefly in the absence of Commissioner Barry Woodruff.
“I have a couple of things I’d like to mention,” Cole said, “I’m glad to see so many bankers in the room.
“At the end of 2014, the Southern State building in Fincastle was purchased ‘Close To Home’ which is an assisted living facility. This marks their fifth facility in Ohio.
“The company takes abandoned facilities, like Southern State and retrofit them for a different use.”
Cole said the facility is hoping to open to the public in March of this year.
What began as a $2.5 million project has now escalated to just under $3 million.
“We have now, hopefully submitted our last plan for fire issues regarding the building, which have caused ongoing problems,” she continued. “They have, however, begun looking for a facilitator to operate the facility which will have 40 to 50 jobs available with 48 rooms available.
“As part of that project they applied for money from us, and we wrote and received a half a million dollar grant from the State of Ohio which we loaned to them. This is important to us now, because this money will come back to the county. We can then reloan those funds. Currently we have about $50,000 in that account.”
Cole said that by September or October, the county should be able to reloan the money at approximately two or three percent interest.
Cole briefly discussed receiving the county’s 7th CHIP Grant (Community Housing Improvement Grant) for low to moderate income homeowners.
“This grant can be used to make repairs to homes, partial or full house repairs,” Cole said. “I’m looking for applicants right now.”
Hosts of the chamber meeting, Hospice of Hope Ohio Valley welcomed everyone to the meeting and talked a little bit about why Hospice is so impotant to the area.
Marketing manager for Hospice, Michael Parker told the crowd of nearly 40 that the Hospice of Hope meeting room can be rented to the public and anyone was welcome to do so.
“Hospice of Hope are in six counties in Ohio,” Parker said. “We are one of the largest rural Hospices available in the United States. There are about 5,500 Hospices across America and 139 in Ohio.”
Parker said that the Brown County Hospice of Hope in Mt. Orab was the top provider out of the 12 Hospices in Kentucky and Ohio. Parker talked about all the services that Hospice of Hope provides, including providing care and support for persons in the last phases of a life-limiting illness, helps in controlling a patient’s pain and provide emotional an spiritual support for both the patient and their family.
The next meeting of the Brown County Chamber of Commerce will be held on Thursday, Feb. 16 at HealthSource in Georgetown at 8 a.m.