Local News fom April 29, 2010 issue

The Crittenden Press Full Version (PDF)

Woman critical after Friday fire
An elderly Marion woman was severely burned in a mobile home fire early Friday morning and was flown by helicopter to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville where she was in serious condition at press time.
Rescue personnel said Dorothy Metcalfe, 84, had severe burns over about 30 percent of her body.
According to reports, the woman and her great-grandson, Eddie Knight, were at the home on First Street when it caught fire during the middle of the night. They were sleeping in bedrooms on opposite ends of the trailer. Knight pulled his great-grandmother to the door of the burning mobile home where Marion Policeman George Foster helped him to get her out of the trailer.
The fire started at about 1:25 a.m., and Marion Fire Department was on the scene for about two hours. About a half dozen other mobile homes are in the small trailer park, but the others were not damaged. The mobile home was owned by Double Rainbow Rentals, LLC.

Bank secures $50K funding for
Murray State aid to local graduates
Crittenden County High School students seeking higher education at Murray State University will benefit from a $115,000 endowment created, in large part, by Farmers Bank & Trust Co., of Marion.
MSU President Randy Dunn formally accepted the bank’s gift during last week's quarterly meeting of the Farmers Bancorp Board of Directors.
The Crittenden County Murray State University Endowment will begin providing college scholarship money to Crittenden County High School graduates in 2011.
Farmers Bank pledged $50,000 over a five-year period, and those funds will be matched by the State of Kentucky's endowment matching program known as Bucks for Brains.
The $100,000 will be combined with an existing Crittenden County Alumni Scholarship Fund created several years ago, making the total endowment about $115,000.
The endowment will be managed by the MSU Foundation, which invests and oversees financial gifts to the university.
In thanking Farmers Bank for its gift, Murray State’s president said the gift will serve as a legacy to Crittenden County.
“This is a major gift and a show of support for the community of students who come to MSU, and we are excited that this might serve as a model for other similar gifts in the future,” Dunn said.
The Farmers Bank established a similar endowment at Madisonville Community College several years ago. Today, the Crittenden County Endowment for Excellence at Madisonville Community College has a market value of $160,000 and will award nine $1,100 scholarships to Crittenden County students for the 2011 academic year.
“This gift is an extension of the bank and the community to support students who attend Murray State. Its legacy will outlive all of us in this room,” said Farmers Bank board member Alan Stout, who is chairman of the Board of Regents at Murray State. “We hope this will be an open-ended gift, and we hope others will want to contribute to an endowment that is committed to educating Crittenden Countians.”
Farmers Bank's connection to Murray State is long-standing.
Hollis Franklin – for which a residence hall on the Murray State campus is named – was an executive vice president at Farmers Bank from 1946-1958, and served on the MSU Board of Regents from 1947-1956. Many of the banks current employees have also been educated at Murray State.

Par 4 adds new line; couple of employees
Par 4 Plastics, an injection molding company in Marion, has added a new manufacturing line to make parts for spin-on oil filters.
Plant Manager Tim Capps said the company will add a job each shift in conjunction with the new product line. Par 4 currently employs 101 workers and is the second largest manufacturer in the county.
The line will include the manufacturing of a dozen different parts for Champion Laboratories, which makes oil filters for large trucks and heavy equipment.
Par 4 invested about $500,000 in tooling and other equipment to start making the new products. The line is expected to generate about $750,000 in sales in its first year. Par 4’s total sales last year were about $10 million.
“This gets us into a niche market that could provide more opportunities,” Capps said.
Par 4’s biggest customers are in the automotive industry. Its primary products are parts for Toyota and Remington Arms, and it also makes plastic snuff cans.