News from January 3, 2008 issue

Local News
The Crittenden Press (PDF)
(Selected pages from Sections A & B)
WARNING: PDF files will take longer to download, especially on low-speed ISPs.

Xtreme Tracker headquarted in Marion
MARION, Ky. – Right now the possibilities appear endless for Xtreme Tracker.
The maker of a cellular-linked, Web-based GPS tracking device for heavy equipment will begin manufacturing operations in Marion within in a few months.
The company, located at the former Tyco building which is now Tyler Manufacturing in the industrial park, will hire several people in the coming year. Its president Jeremy Breedlove, 31, of Eddyville anticipates $25 million in sales during the first year.
Xtreme Tracker has developed one model to date – the XT1 – which is an electronic device that can be mounted on the dash or other surface of a piece of equipment such as bulldozer, loader, trackhoe or tractor. Xtreme Tracker takes information from the machine and sends it to an Internet-based data center which provides maintenance and security information to the owner of the equipmenet.
A radio-frequency identification card, which looks much like a hotel key card, will virtually replace the ignition system for such equipment. By using the cards or a 10-digit code, the operator will be able to crank the machine. Data is sent from the XT1 to the company Web site where owners can monitor the usage of their equipment and even track its location via global positioning satellites.
Xtreme Tracker officials hosted a product-launching meeting at the Marion Ed-Tech Center the week before Christmas. Plans regarding production of the device were laid out by Breedlove and many of the company's partners, which include Par 4 Plastics and Tyler Manufacturing – two local manufacturers. Par 4 and Tyler will be in on the plastic molding of the housing and final assembly of the unit. The two Marion companies were also involved in the initial development of the device.
Between new hires at Xtreme Tracker and Tyler Manufacturing, there will be about 40 jobs created over the next year.
Job applications will be accepted at a later date for various positions. The company will make an announcement in a few weeks regarding how and where application may be made.
Google, Siemens, nPhase/
QUALLCOMM, AT&T and Genie Industries are among the other partners on the project. It has been a highly technical process, requiring many of the brightest engineers in the country to develop the XT1.
Prototypes of the device have been tested in the field for the past several months in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, St. Louis and Eddyville. The company is gearing up for a pre-production run of the units which will help it troubleshoot and fine-tune the device before full production begins this spring.
In addition to the manufacturing and final assembly of the XT1, sales and data monitoring services will be handled from the Marion headquarters. Round-the-clock monitoring will be conducted in Marion for the anticipated thousands of units that will be sold the first year alone.
Breedlove said the device will sell for about $1,250 per unit and there will be a monthly connection fee, much like the subscription for cell phone service. The XT1 has various applications for the heavy equipment owner or rental company, but among its most redeeming values will be its security features.
If a piece of equipment fitted with an Xtreme Tracker device is stolen, the unit sends out an alert and the equipment can be tracked via GPS. If the XT1 is disabled or tampered with, it stores vital information in its memory board which can be retrieved at a later time. Also, if the XT1 is disabled or tampered with the equipment will not start.
Breedlove said that $3.2 billion worth of equipment is stolen each year in the United States, making the Xtreme Tracker a real value for the heavy equipment and related industries.
The U.S. government is also interested in the XT1 for its military and military contractor benefits. Henry "Hawk" Ruth, a senior military analyst with the U.S. Army in Fort Campbell, was among those attending the recent meeting in Marion. He said the XT1 has many capabilities when it comes to governmental applications.
In Iraq, for instance, Ruth said the government contractors such as Halliburton are charged with all sorts of construction projects that officials here would like to more closely track.
"That's a great marketing area for Xtreme Tracker," Ruth said.
Additionally, Ruth said the device could be used by the military in vehicles like the Humvee.
"If a pilot of a helicopter looks down and sees that Humvee ... he could find out information such as who is driving the vehicle and where it's going and what radio frequency it's on so he can communicate with the driver.
"There are lots of capabilities like this," Ruth added.
The XT1 will include a variety of features including remote disabling of a piece of equipment, theft alert, electronic activity logging, mapping, real-time software updates, remote communication, maintenance data retrieval and something called Geo-fence violation.
The Geo-fence feature allows the owner of the equipment to set parameters for where and when the machine can be used. In other words, the owner of a bulldozer could require that it be in a certain one-acre area and operated only during pre-determined hours. If goes outside the designated area or Geo-fence, the XT1 can shut down the machine. Similar features could replace time cards for operators. A trackhoe, for instance, armed with an XT1 would know exactly how long a particular operator was behind the controls.
"It's a remarkable product for a company with two pieces of equipment or one that is responsible for thousands of pieces of heavy equipment," said Todd Cook, of Precision Product Design of Elizabethtown, Ky.
Cook's company was responsible for the housing design of the XT1.
"It's all Web-based so anyone with a computer and Internet can operate it," Cook added.
Kris Carlson of Marion is chief information officer for Xtreme Tracker. He has been active in the development of the Web-based monitoring system.
"Even if someone tries to steal a piece of equipment, we have sensors that let us know if the XT1 is tampered with and if they try to cut the battery cables, the XT1 has its own 30-day power supply," Carlson said.
While much of the design and development work has been done in Marion by Breedlove, Carlson, Par 4 president Joe McDaniel, and Par 4 and Tyler Manufacturing employees, there have been countless other private contractors and consultants that have worked on the project. Breedlove said Xtreme Tracker currently has two full-time employees, but he's already starting to hire sales associates and other workers.

TOP LOCAL STORIES OF 2007
Iraq war homefront top news
From the war in Iraq to a deadly disease among the whitetailed deer population, our top 10 news events from 2007 featured heroes and legends, openings and closings and one hot, dry summer.

1
While it marked the country’s fourth year of fighting a war in Iraq and an ongoing second deployment for Marion’s Kentucky Army National Guard unit, last year brought home the best and worst of battle.
The news of an extended deployment in the Middle East was hard to take for the friends and families of the 44 soldiers who served with B Company, 2nd Battalion, 123rd Armor. It became more difficult when on March 19 two of those soldiers were injured, one critically, by a roadside bomb.
The entire unit was welcomed home in July by more than 500 people gathered at the Carson Davidson National Guard Armory, but they would not forget those injured and a Leitchfield, Ky., native, Sgt. Thomas W. Clemons, who died of a heart attack while in Iraq.
Spec. Chase Matthews of Dycusburg and Sgt. Jonathan McMackin, a Marion native, as well as a Minnesota soldier running convoy protection with the local unit, all suffered wounds from the March attack.
Matthews would lose a portion of both legs and numerous other injuries, including a badly damaged left arm. The soldier underwent many surgeries and continues rehab at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., but returned home for a visit the first time in August to a huge welcome home and 23rd birthday party.
McMackin suffered a broken leg that required a lengthy recovery. But, in November during an official military recognition of the Guard unit’s effort in Iraq, McMackin received a Bronze Star for his efforts to save his fellow soldiers while fighting off insurgents in the March 19 attack.
The unit returned to duty after a three-month layoff from training, and continues transformation from a tank unit to a detachment of A Company, 206th Engineer Battalion in Leitchfield.

2
Weather woes came in as the No. 2 entry on the top 10 list.
From a spring freeze to the hottest August ever for Crittenden County, Mother Nature battered farmers and pocket books at the grocery store.
Farmers had to cope with the one-two punch of a spring hay harvest lost to a hard April freeze followed by one of the driest, hottest summers on record. Keeping livestock, which number twice the human population of Crittenden County, fed and watered became an exercise in futility. To survive, farmers sold off record numbers of cattle at local livestock markets.
The pinch was felt at the grocery, too, as crops of seasonal fruits and vegetables withered in the summer heat that gripped much of the Southeast. The effects on meat and produce prices could linger for years, according to some economic forecasts.
Locally, August daily temperatures averaged 83.7 degrees, almost 2 degrees warmer than the next hottest August – 1980.

3
The $7.7 million construction of a new county jail was the costliest venture to make the list, coming in at No. 3. While it could be as early as the end of this week before county inmates are transferred to the new 44,000-square-foot facility, the 133-bed Crittenden County Detention Center was unveiled to the public in December.
Jailer Rick Riley is hoping to begin recouping some of the county’s money by housing state inmates as early as this month. Discussions to house federal inmates are also ongoing.

4
The announced closure of the USDA office in Marion was another blow to the local agriculture community.
At No. 4, the eventual consolidation of farm and other landowner services offered at the Crittenden and Livingston County USDA offices into one Salem location was the second ag story to make top news. While the Marion office remains open for now, the final decision to close the office has been made at the state level, as was discussed in June by USDA Farm Service Agency state director Jeff Hall at a heated public forum.
Susan Champion, supervisor of both the Marion and Salem FSA offices, said the date of closure of the Marion office is still uncertain. She said it depends on a number of factors, including passage of a new federal farm bill.

5
Marion named a new police chief for the first time in 19 years, making No. 5 on our list.
The retirement of 32-year Marion Police officer Kenneth Winn as chief made way for the promotion of Assistant Chief Ray O’Neal, who took over the reins of the police department in August.
Thus far, things have progressed smoothly for the new chief with the help of City Administrator Mark Bryant, Mayor Mick Alexander and others within the city ranks.
“I’ve not been thrown any real curves,” O’Neal said, adding that Winn has made himself available for questions and guidance as needed. “He’s been a big help, and I’m glad to have somebody around for that.”
Winn, after a brief stint as codes enforcement officer for the city, has now settled into a new courthouse job as trial commissioner.
Meantime, O’Neal has implemented some new policing programs and expects to begin the search to fill the only open slot in the department in a few weeks. Officer Jerry Parker, the newest patrolman, will hit the streets in March when he graduates from the police academy.

6
At No. 6, five people died on Crittenden County roadways in five separate accidents last year. All five killed in 2007 wrecks were from Marion. It's been 11 years since more people were killed in county accidents.
On Dec. 2, Robert K. Eanes Sr., 43, died in a single vehicle accident on Sisco Chapel Road. He was a passenger in an SUV driven by his 18-year-old son, Gary. On Nov. 6, Robert Shawn Tabor, 27, died when his truck left Ky. 70 near the Mexico community, striking a building, two signs and an earthen embankment. Four months prior on July 29, Ronnie Hobbs, 57, died from injuries he received in a motorcycle accident earlier in the day near old Dam 50. On June 12, Doris Ann Taylor, 75, died from injuries received in a U.S. 641 wreck near Mott City. The first fatality of 2007 occurred on Jan. 29, when Carson Dale Hackney, 53, was killed on U.S. 60 West in Crittenden County.

7
Looking at cost-saving measures to help an ailing budget, the Crittenden County Board of Education explored the option of a four-day school calendar.
This seventh-ranked story drew lots of ink, but after the four committees put together to gather facts on the proposal gave their first report, the board of education decided to nix the idea. Board Chairman Ronald “Red” Howton said the cost-savings, less than $16,000 annually, did not outweigh the upheaval to lives that a revised calendar would cause.
Out of the ashes of exploring acadmeic programs undertaken by four-day school systems like Webster County, Crittenden County Schools Superintendent John Belt has put together a standing committee of educators to look at changes in curriculum that could improve academics among students.

8
The first Crittenden Countian in 40 years to earn a starting position on a Division I college football program gave Brad Hart the No. 8 spot on the list.
No. 55 was part of a ground-breaking Kentucky football team. As short- and sometimes long-snapper for the Wildcats’ special teams unit, Hart kept his job all season as a walk-on and earned a scholarship to return next year to the back-to-back bowl-winning team.
As part of the squad, Hart enjoyed eight wins, including Monday’s Music City Bowl victory over Florida State and wins against No. 1 LSU and in-state rival Louisville. UK broke the AP Top 10 twice finished the year at 8-5.

9
Gordon Guess broke the top 10 with his retirement as head of The Peoples Bank, one of two locally-operated banks in Marion.
Guess retired in May after coming back home in 1973 to run the business his father founded 62 years ago. While retired from banking, Guess remains active in the community and in pursuit of personal interests.
The bank is now headed by Terry Bunnell, a Glasgow, Ky., native, who serves as the CEO and chairman of the bank’s retooled board of directors.

10
Rounding out the top 10, a summertime outbreak of hemorrhagic disease among the prized whitetailed deer population threatened the herd and late-autumn deer season that is an economic boon to the county. In fact, deer hunting is attributed to having raised rural property values to more than $2,000 per acre.
Local wildlife biologist Philip Sharp called it the most widespread outbreak of hemorrhagic disease he remembers, but ensured that the disease cannot be spread to humans, even by consumption of deer meat. The virus is transmitted by gnats and flies and results in fever, labored breathing and swelling of the head, neck and tongue.
As time passed and killing frosts eliminated the spread by insects, the worries subsided and the 2007 hunting season was one of the best on record.

As an honorable mention, the county’s first African-American was crowned Miss Crittenden County during the opening night of the fair.
Breanna Cozart, a senior and star athlete at Crittenden County High School, took the crown in July, beating out nine others in the annual beauty pageant.