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Who would have guessed that just off the bustling thoroughfare of Hustonville Road, tucked away in the back of a subdivision is a little piece of “pear-adise” known as the residence of Roberta and Morris Traynor. Morris' parents bought the house adjacent to where they now live back in 1964, the year he married Roberta. “Boy, that's a long time, 47 years ...” Morris says, as Roberta teases him. “Well, Morris, now, I'm not quite sure how to take that ...”   ­The Traynors' kitchen counter, an earthy-colored marble, pairs nicely with the bright green pears stretched in a long line, drying off after a good washing.

Editor's Note: This is the first installment of a four-part series that looks at Danville's gains and losses in industrial recruitment over the past decade. Joe Gibson views his tenure as president and CEO of the Boyle County Industrial Foundation from 2000 to 2005 as a bridge between the old ways of attracting manufacturing companies to the county to a more modern approach. To Gibson, the county's industrial and political leadership should have crossed that bridge sooner.

Danville and Boyle County leaders are trying to assess the economic fallout after two large employers announced closings and another confirmed a possible move out of state this month. Following reports that Kmart will shut its doors next year, Red Wing Shoes announced last week that it will begin a phased plant closing in February. Intelligrated, the company that now owns FKI Logistex, has said it plans to consolidate all of its operations near Cincinnati where Intelligrated's other operations are located if Ohio passes incentives totaling $24 million in December as expected.

Another set of floor plans for a proposed renovation of city hall was revealed at Thursday's Facility Steering Committee Meeting, this time showing quite a bit less square footage. But the architect and construction manager let the committee know that a budget is necessary to move forward. Architect Monica Sumner said she was asked to come up with alternate plans after she "heard there was some discussion in the community about the size growing. " Last month, Sumner showed a floor plan that combined two earlier plans and resulted in a 16,950-square-foot layout for renovating the existing city hall and building a new addition.

Three up. Three down. Every large-scale retail and residential development pitched to Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission and Danville City Commission in recent memory has struck out. Mayor John Bowling wants it to stop. He wants the City Commission to decide where the city is to grow by deciding where to extend sewerage. He wants to start by looking at the south side of the Danville bypass. That line would eventually run all the way to Junction City.

LIBERTY - Emily Godbey Fox left Casey County to complete her education, but she always intended to return close to home to work. Fox says many people in the county have to go away and stay away to find work, but she did not want to leave. "I thought maybe I could come home and make a difference. " Fox, 23, is now a field representative for the Center for Rural Development in Somerset and lives in Jamestown, just south of the Casey County line. Her duties are to spread the word about the Rural Development Center in 24 counties by fostering mutually beneficial relationships with key audiences, including local government officials, civic, community and business leaders and other community organizations.

Keshia Reed likes a different look, so when she decided to only wear skirts she found a thrifty way to use her pants and make a fashion statement. Using a purple batik fabric, she ripped out the inseams of her jeans and sewed the material in place to make a skirt. "I like to be unique. That's why I picked out this fabric," says the fair-haired junior at Boyle County High School. She often pairs the skirt with Converse tennis shoes. "I wear it with some Chucks or if I want to look more formal, some boots.

It was noted as a "momentous occasion" by architect Jeff Pearson, one of many people who attended the groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the Boyle County Public Library expansion project. Library Director Karl Benson said the need for an expansion has been evident since books began being stacked on top of stacks of books. The expansion project will add 17,500 square feet, making the new facility total 35,000 square feet. "It's exciting to see how this has grown over my tenure of 30 years," he said.

After setting a goal to raise $2 million, Campaign for the Library members announced they achieved that mark after 27 months and are still looking for more donations for the expansion of the Boyle County Public Library. The announcement was made Thursday morning following a library board meeting in the Community Room of Farmers National Bank in Danville. Co-chairmen of the public campaign, Betsy Wilt and Marty Deim, spoke to an audience of nearly 40 people about the events leading up to reaching the goal.

The Boyle County Industrial Foundation elected directors and heard a report on local industrial activity for the past year at its annual stockholders meeting Monday, according to a press release on the meeting provided by Joe Gibson, president of the foundation. Alan Turbyfill, John Albright and Pam Rogers were re-elected directors of the foundation, class of 2007, joining John Stigall, John Caywood, John Roush and Carl Metz, class of 2005, and Walter Goggin, Greg Caudill, Steele Gregory and Jim Jacobus, class of 2006.