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  • Walt Smith puts some finishing touches on his faux log cabin in Corbin. The cabin was built using concrete planks formed from old used timber. The log cabin is located beside the Smith's business, Antiques and Accents, at the intersection of 25E and the Corbin Bypass. Photo by Erica Bowlin

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July 26, 2010

Corbin company awarded $1,000 for concrete logs

The Times-Tribune

CORBIN — By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer

Walter Smith’s Olde Kentucky Logs, of Corbin, was awarded $1,000 in the first phase of Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation’s business idea competition.

Smith and his concrete logs were written about in last weekend’s Neighbors section of the Times-Tribune.

The Business Innovation & Growth Center (BIG) last week announced six winners in the first phase of its BIG Idea Competition.

Entrants submitted one-page summaries of their businesses.

Olde Kentucky Logs are made of concrete using molds made from actual 150-year-old logs.

The business grew out of Walter and Bobbi Smith’s wishes for a log house at their Antiques and Accents business on U.S. 25E south of Corbin.

But those things are hard to find and even more difficult to buy.

So, Walter, with his construction background, decided to try molding the logs from concrete.

The molds were designed from 150-year-old logs and the completed concrete logs are hollow with sides about an inch-and-a-half thick.

Bobbi said that as a result of the Times-Tribune story, “We have had so much response and we actually think that a big manufacturing thing” may develop.

“We’re excited and we are having a lot of people drop by to look at it, and have a couple of potential orders,” she added.

Other winners in the first phase of the BIG Idea Competition are:

•Awesome Labs of Lexington, which has created an optical touch-screen that lets users interact with large, life-size interactive displays;

•B2 Solutions of Somerset, whose software automates and streamlines documentation necessary for Federal Drug Administration approvals to get new products on the market quickly;

•NuForm Thermal Management of Sadieville, which recycles coal ash and turns it into material to replace chemical flame retardants in foam insulation;

•Monumental Builders of Jamestown, which makes a product that can use recycled material to make cultured stone concrete blocks for construction; and

• STATShift.com of Versailles, which makes customized web-based medical staffing software company linking health care facilities that have staffing shortages with health care workers.

The first phase of the competition included applications from entrepreneurs who have ideas to create or expand a business in Kentucky.

Jim Carroll of Kentucky Highlands explained Thursday that 47 companies entered the contest and even though six businesses have been chosen in Phase I, all who have entered are eligible to present their plans in Phases II and III.

And, he said, even businesses that haven’t entered the contest yet may still do so by beginning with material for Phase I.

Phase II runs through Aug. 20. The Executive Summary Competition requires a three- to six-page synopsis of the companies business plan.

Three winners each will get $2,500.

The final phase will be an oral presentation competition September and October.

The winner will get $10,000 and a year’s free rent in Kentucky Highlands’ Business Innovation and Growth Center.

The runner-up will get $5,000 and six months rent in a semi-private work space.

For more information, contact Carroll at Kentucky Highlands at 606-864-5175.

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