Frank Boyett column: Henderson's sale of land to Sandefur center came back a thousand-fold
The city of Henderson planted a seed 25 years ago to help the Hugh Edward Sandefur Training Center but ended up reaping the fruits two decades later that satisfied a long-standing hunger.
The short version of this story is as follows: The city sold property to HESTC in late 1996 so it could erect a new sheltered workshop building in Henderson Corporate Park. Meanwhile, for more than two decades, the city was dealing with problems associated with its Public Works Garage on outer Fifth Street, which was too small and subject to flooding. But erecting a new building was too expensive. In the spring of 2015 HESTC sold its building back to the city, which was renovated and as of the fall of 2017 housed the Public Works and Gas departments, as well as other functions.
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It was a win-win for all involved, and here is how it came about.
In early 1967 parents of children at Riverview School set up a planning committee to create a sheltered workshop, after toying with the idea since mid-1966. (A sheltered workshop attempts to rehabilitate the physically and mentally disadvantaged and has a license from the U.S. Labor Department to pay less than minimum wage.)
In its early stages the sheltered workshop was referred to as Riverview Training Center; the Sandefur name didn’t crop up until The Gleaner of Nov. 10, 1967, which also noted that federal funding had been assured.
Organizers arranged a free lease of the old Douglass High School at Clay and Alvasia streets and The Gleaner of Dec. 10, 1967, reported that the workshop’s first executive director had been hired. He was Lowell Robertson, who had been running the workshop program at Eastern State Hospital in Lexington.
The Hugh Edward Sandefur Training Center opened Jan. 22, 1968, according to The Gleaner of the following day, but there was no fanfare or ribbon cutting. They had a grand total of four clients.
A little more than a year later, in The Gleaner of Feb. 9, 1969, the community learned that the first director had submitted his resignation so he could move back to Danville to be closer to family. Robertson agreed to stay as long as needed to get a replacement trained.
But that wasn’t necessary. The Gleaner of Feb. 28, 1969, reported Bruce Milburn of Danville had been hired – and he hit the ground running. He needed to, because the center had only $10.59 in the bank and one other employee.
Over the next several years he nurtured the operation to fill the old school and had to expand to the former Atlas Tack warehouse on Atkinson Street. Milburn began looking for a permanent home where the center could consolidate operations.
The Gleaner of Nov. 11, 1975, reported HESTC had bought the former Tri-State Plastics Co. plant on South Main Street for $125,000 from Ashland Oil Co. “This is the biggest and most important step the center has ever taken,” Milburn said. “I don’t think we’ll ever outgrow the new location.”
And it didn’t. But the new building was an old tobacco factory, the majority of which could not be air conditioned. And that made for uncomfortable working conditions during the high heat of the summer.
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As years went on Milburn proved his worth as a manager, forging alliances with numerous local industries and businesses, and building up a cash reserve of $3 million – quite an accomplishment from the initial four clients. By 1995 HESTC had annual sales of more than $2 million.
On Nov. 7, 1996, according to minutes of the Henderson City Commission, HESTC board president Pat Lake wrote a letter to the city manager asking to buy a nine-acre lot at the entrance to Henderson Corporate Park. The board wanted that lot, now occupied by Sitex, because it was on an existing HART bus route.
Commission members were reluctant because that was the most-desirable lot in the park. They instead offered to sell five acres carved off a 25.8-acre lot at the rear of the park and said they would try to get $100,000 in state funding to build a road to it.
The Gleaner of Dec. 11, 1996, reported the city had agreed to sell the property for $2,500 an acre. On June 24, 1997, the city sold approximately another 1.5 acres. That was just a few days after the groundbreaking.
U.S. Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, a man who had lost his right arm and both legs in Vietnam, was the keynote speaker at the groundbreaking on June 20, 1997. HESTC spent $2.8 million erecting it at 1449 Corporate Court and occupied it in 1999.
Milburn retired in 2002 and at that point HESTC had annual revenues of $2.5 million. A series of executive directors followed him -- and the revenue stream began falling. By the time Mark Chumbler took the helm in September 2014 it had dropped to $250,000, according to a 2015 article written by Chuck Stinnett.
One of the things Chumbler did to get out from under the debt load and overhead on the 51,358-square-foot building was to sell it to the city of Henderson for $1.92 million, according to The Gleaner of March 6, 2015.
The commission took less than two minutes to approve the purchase and the mood was jubilant because the building held the key to solving longstanding city problems.
The city had been trying for years to find an affordable way to replace the Public Works garage built in 1967. Efforts began about the same time it sold HESTC the Corporate Court property in 1996.
In late 2007 the commission voted to buy 44.7 acres off Kentucky 351 to use as a site for a new public services complex. The estimates of that municipal service center came in at $24 million, though, so the commission shelved that plan and sold the land, except for the historic Springhill Cemetery property.
In 2009 city officials looked at buying the former PB&S Chemical Co. plant on North Adams Street but that idea was rejected because of environmental concerns.
The city allowed HESTC to stay in the building while it looked for a smaller home. It found it in the former ATM servicing center at 1030 Market Street, which measures 13,000 square feet. “It has worked out,” said Executive Director Julie Wischer. “We have a better layout and more green space. It’s allowed us to grow into something that better meets today’s needs.”
How so?
“We are no longer a sheltered workshop. We walked away from sub-minimum wage in January 2020. Our goal is not to employ people here forever but to get them ready to work out in the community.”
HESTC left its former building in February 2016, she said.
Renovation of what is now called the Henderson Municipal Service Center began in April 2016, according to a 2017 article Donna Stinnett wrote for Henderson Family magazine. Total cost of renovating it – not including the purchase price -- it was $6.5 million, according to project manager Dylan Ward. A ribbon-cutting was held Oct. 18, 2018.
Public Works director Brian Williams said the new building has solved a lot of headaches. One wing is occupied by the city Gas Department and another is home to Public Works. At the rear is a City Garage for maintenance of city vehicles. Miscellaneous other services are also housed there.
The complex has expanded across Corporate Court, where shelter has been erected to store vehicles and materials.
100 years ago
A streetcar returning from Union Station crashed into a car at Second and Alvasia streets and injured three people, according to The Gleaner of Dec. 11, 1921
Mary Jones and driver Ruby Hall were not seriously injured, but Hall’s 6-year-old son Charles was badly cut by flying glass.
75 years ago
A total of 31 people in Henderson County had died violent deaths as of mid-December, according to The Gleaner of Dec. 17, 1946.
The year’s list had appeared to have ended but had a gruesome coda: Four deaths in four days. They included Betty June Todd, 2, who died when her clothing caught fire; Gurley Smith of Evansville was killed when a truck he was riding in was hit by a train near Robards; Marvin Ashley was hit by a car just south of Henderson; and B.D. “Benny” Foster was killed in an oilfield accident.
50 years ago
Telephone customers in the Henderson vicinity gained the ability to dial long distance direct in June 1970, but The Gleaner of Dec. 12, 1971, reported the idea was beginning to catch on.
Sid Price, local manager for South Central Bell Telephone Co., said “our local customers are using it more and more all the time.” Part of the reason was cost, he said. A direct dial call from New York City to Los Angeles on weekends cost 70 cents for three minutes. If handled by an operator, however, the cost was twice as much: $1.40.
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.
This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: City’s sale of land to Sandefur center came back a thousand-fold
