The Bluegrass and Beyond

LONDON — This is one of those stories that drives preservationists crazy: an historic home is about to be demolished for a parking lot. But it also is a story that should drive every taxpayer crazy, especially those angry about wasteful government spending.

It is a story about a project that would spend nearly $1 million in state money — and perhaps millions more in federal money — to provide more parking space in a downtown that already seems to have plenty of it.

The story has its roots in the massive courthouse construction program that since 2000 has built 65 new judicial centers around Kentucky at a cost of more than $880 million.

The Herald-Leader published a series of stories in 2008 questioning the high cost and management of that program. Kentucky lawmakers and John D. Minton Jr., who inherited the program when he became the state’s chief justice last year, have vowed to look for savings and improve oversight.

Laurel County’s new $23 million Judicial Center opened this summer. In a special meeting Sept. 21, the Laurel County Fiscal Court approved the Judicial Center Project Development Board’s request to spend $930,000 in “leftover” money from the courthouse bond issue to buy a residential block across Broad Street for parking.

The sale would require the current property owners to remove four houses and all trees on the block so it could become a gravel lot. Eventually, county officials hope to get federal money to build a parking structure for the Judicial Center and the nearby federal courthouse.

This deal outraged some Laurel County citizens, because one of the four houses to be demolished is one of the few 19th century houses left downtown. The Pennington House is thought to have been built in 1875, but possibly as early as 1847. It is a handsome Victorian building once owned by Dr. Henry Pennington, who founded what is now Marymount Hospital.

The Pennington House would be demolished for parking for the new Laurel County Judicial Center unless plans change. Photo by Tom Eblen

The Pennington House is owned by Tom Weatherly, who uses it for his law office. He has taken good care of the house, but he has been trying to sell it for years. The county would pay him $397,750 for the property, but he must clear the land.

On Friday, more than a dozen people attended a Fiscal Court meeting to ask for time to figure out how to save the Pennington House, either by finding another site for a Judicial Center parking lot or moving the house.

“Any community can have a gravel parking lot, but only London can have the Pennington House,” Chris Robinson told Fiscal Court members. He spoke on behalf of the booster group London Downtown and the Cumberland Valley Board of Realtors.

“It may need lots of work and rehabilitation, but once it is gone the history inside is gone forever and cannot be replaced,” Robinson said. “Every avenue should be explored before the wrecking ball is taken to any structure.”

Robinson said the house could be moved to another site and restored, and the Realtors’ board is willing to help. He asked for more time to explore possibilities and perhaps raise money for a costly move.

But Donna Horn-Taylor, a local architectural designer, said there are many alternative parking sites. Indeed, there is plenty of vacant or under-utilized land around the Judicial Center, and the county already owns much of it.

“The best thing is to leave the house where it is,” Horn-Taylor said. Then money could be raised to buy it from Weatherly and adapt it to enhance the downtown, which has made progress toward revitalization.

Laurel County Judge-Executive Lawrence Kuhl, who also is on the Judicial Center Project Development Board, promised to meet with citizens this week to discuss alternatives. He also acknowledged at the meeting that downtown has plenty of parking space, although it would require lawyers, jurors and Judicial Center employees to make a short walk.

In fact, three short blocks away, there is a fancy brick-and-concrete parking structure built four years ago with $5 million in public funds. There were only a few other cars when I parked there Friday, and several London residents told me it is rarely more than half-full.

It would be a tragedy to see the Pennington House demolished. It is the kind of historic building that towns across America are restoring for new uses that boost civic pride and the local economy.

As state government faces painful budget cuts, and the federal government grapples with massive debt, it also would be a tragedy to waste millions of public dollars on parking space that isn’t needed.

If state lawmakers and court officials are serious about reining in Kentucky’s costly courthouse building spree — and citizens really want to cut wasteful government spending — an unnecessary parking lot in downtown London would be a good place to start.

What were the hits and misses of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games? What can we learn from the experience?

That is what I asked readers last week, and more than three dozen sent thoughtful, detailed responses.

Almost everyone thought the Games were a success, and there were several ideas for the future.

Everyone agreed that the competitions were amazing, the Kentucky Horse Park venues excellent and the LexTran shuttles outstanding. Kentuckians were praised as friendly and hospitable hosts.

“It was an amazing experience — the people, the state, the athletes — we took home lifetime memories,” wrote Hillary Hulen of Medford, Ore. “My niece is even considering a Kentucky college as a result of this trip.”

Kudos went to the International Museum of the Horse’s Gift From the Desert exhibit, and the Kentucky Experience and Alltech Experience pavilions. Alltech’s drew special praise for its science exhibits, kids’ activities and designer Deirdre Lyons’ inclusion of Kentucky artists.

Alltech employees received praise from people familiar with how they helped shore up weaknesses in the Games organization. And several readers thanked the company for bringing 64,000 local schoolchildren to the Games.

What could have been done better? Readers complained that many people were kept away by high ticket prices. Stands were often filled at the last minute with discounted and even free tickets, and that angered spectators who had paid full price.

Everyone thought the food was overpriced and mediocre. “There should have been a greater emphasis on local food and regional specialties,” wrote Sarah Gaddis of Frankfort. “I agree that Papa John’s (pizza) is both local and tasty, but we could have done better.”

There should have been more maps and signs at the Kentucky Horse Park. Jane Jacobs of Georgetown had a great idea: Every person who bought a ticket should have received a “daily sheet” with a map and a schedule of events that day.

Games volunteers did a great job of shuttling elderly and disabled people around in golf carts, and a few tractor-pulled wagons were added, but readers thought more public shuttles were needed between venues. And there should have been a drop-off point at the front gate.

The biggest complaint, by far, was about price-gouging by some hotels and car-rental companies. A modest price increase was expected, but when visitors are charged several hundred dollars a night for a room at a budget motel, that’s just greed.

Readers had some good ideas about how Lexington can build on the Games’ legacy. The Kentucky Horse Park now has some of the world’s best equestrian facilities — built at great public expense — and care must be taken to maintain and use them for long-term economic payoff.

LexTran was widely praised for excellent performance and getting thousands of locals on a bus for the first time. Several readers mentioned that Keeneland should partner with LexTran for a similar shuttle service, reducing the need to turn Keeneland’s lovely meadows into vast parking lots during racing meets.

“What about a Legacy Horse Trail at the Kentucky Horse Park?” suggested Cynthia Day of Lexington. “It would be great for citizens and visitors alike to be able to actually ride a horse. Perhaps volunteers could assist in the development, building and maintaining a horse trail system at the park.”

The Games showed what can be accomplished with good public-private partnerships, readers said, especially when led by local business dynamos such as Jim Host, the Games’ first chairman, and Alltech president Pearse Lyons.

Several readers suggested that Lyons would make a good governor, mayor or University of Kentucky president. He might not be interested in any of those jobs, but his vision, energy and ability to get things done make him Lexington’s top go-to guy for civic projects.

I thought Lexington developer Tom Padgett had the best idea of all: “The Games gave us a set of goals and, most important, a deadline. Perhaps the city and Commerce Lexington need to come together to establish a list of 10 things that need to be accomplished over the next five years, with various timetables. They should span a variety of categories, from the arts to infrastructure.”

The Internet has been shaped by a series of bright, young entrepreneurs whose ideas changed everything. Peyton Fouts hopes to be the next one.

On his 25th birthday Wednesday, the Lexington man is launching OuiBox.com, a multi-platform Web site with a unique writing tool Fouts developed. It harnesses Internet search engines to research papers as you write them.

Fouts said he has spent five years creating OuiBox with help from about 100 consultants, lawyers and programmers around the world. He thinks the site could become huge, and a group of experienced local investors agrees. Members of the Bluegrass Angels investment group have invested several hundred thousand dollars in the company.

“I wanted to make a system that would change the world,” Fouts said. “Not just change it, but better it.”

OuiBox is a free site that brings together a user’s email, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts, plus has its own social network, news, calendar, photo, music, video and blogging applications. Each application is branded with “oui,” the French word for “yes.”

The main application is OuiWrite. In addition to searching for relevant sources as you write, the software can automatically format a paper in MLA, APA or Chicago style and create footnotes.

“For math you have a calculator, and for English you have OuiWrite,” said Fouts, who is initially targeting middle, high school and college students. The site includes software that lets parents set limits.

Fouts has a pay version of OuiWrite for legal research, and he hopes to earn money from selling related iPhone apps and limited advertising. But most revenue will come from getting a cut of purchases users make from online retailers through the site. Fouts said he has spent years negotiating agreements with most major retailers. A portion of OuiWrite’s cut will go to charities, especially those that help orphans and abused children.

Fouts recently formed a board, and OuiBox’s first director is Bart Van Dissel of Lexington, one of the Bluegrass Angels investors. He is a former Harvard Business School professor and former management consultant with the prestigious firm McKinsey & Co.

Van Dissel said OuiWrite initially attracted him to the company. After showing it to his two college-age children, he recalled, “they immediately said, ‘I’ve got to have this.’”

In addition to OuiBox, Van Dissel said computer code that Fouts developed and is patenting to more accurately track online purchases made through the site could prove profitable for the company. Others have already approached them about licensing it, he said.

Van Dissel said Fouts is “very different” from other technology entrepreneurs he has worked with. “Most don’t have the combination of creating a grand vision and the focus and detailed knowledge and discipline to make it happen,” he said. “I can speak directionally at a very high level and he gets it immediately.”

Fouts grew up in Lexington, one of six children of a lawyer and former teacher. He was home-schooled until the eighth grade, then went to Lexington Christian Academy. Fouts said he got the idea for OuiBox the day after he graduated from the University of Kentucky at 19 with degrees in English and communications. He also had studied computer programming.

Fouts said he sleeps about three hours a night and spends most of his time developing OuiBox on seven Apple computers in his Masterson Station home, where he lives alone. He relaxes by building Lego structures and volunteering as a youth group leader at Southland Christian Church. Faith has been a driving force for Fouts. “I told God that if He gives me the ideas, I’ll make them happen,” he said.

Last fall, Fouts threw a party at Lexington Ice Center for the Southland teenagers and a couple hundred of their friends to recruit them as OuiBox testers.

“They have been a valuable sounding board,” he said.

Fouts has hired Miss Teen America 2010, Katie Himes of Cynthiana, as a celebrity endorser. He has hired YouTube bloggers to promote OuiBox online. And he is giving away several iPads to people who register and tell their friends.

One potential marketing strategy is enlisting school systems as partners, with OuiBox’s charity cut of purchases going to those users’ schools. In addition to generating revenue, the strategy could help ease concerns teachers might have about OuiWrite. Van Dissel said he recently approached the Fayette County Public Schools and is waiting to hear back.

Fouts hopes to have 100,000 OuiBox users by Christmas and a million within a year, which Van Dissel thinks is “highly optimistic.” That kind of traffic would require a big increase in rented server space — and millions more dollars in second-stage investment.

“I feel that this is my calling,” Fouts said of OuiBox. “My main goal right now is to get students on there and wow them. If I’m not wowing them, I’m not doing my job.”

Dr. Alan Daugherty and his team are out to stop some of America’s biggest killers.

Daugherty heads the Saha Cardiovascular Research Center, the core of which is a laboratory the size of a football field in one of the University of Kentucky’s sprawling new medical buildings on South Limestone Street.

The center has become an important catalyst for the study of causes, prevention and treatment of heart attack and stroke, the nation’s No. 1 and No. 3 killers.

That research will be showcased Friday (Oct. 22), when about 250 people gather at Lexington Center for the 13^th annual Gill Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Day. The conference seeks to connect researchers, promote the center’s work and bring in top speakers.

Dr. Xiaofeng Chen, a post-doctoral student, works at the Saha Cardiovascular Research Center. Photo by Tom Eblen

This year’s speakers include Dr. Joseph Loscalzo, chairman of the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief physician at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Dr. Garret Fitzgerald, director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Heart disease is Kentucky’s biggest health problem, claiming an estimated 30 lives each day. Lifestyle is a big contributor: a fatty diet, lack of exercise, smoking and a high rates of diabetes and obesity.

One key area of research at the Saha Center involves aortic aneurysm — a condition that causes a bulge to develop in a primary blood vessel and eventually burst. The cause of the condition, which primarily affects men older than 55, isn’t known, but it ranks as the nation’s No. 10 killer.

“The only treatment now is to not get too far away from a vascular surgeon,” said Daugherty, an Englishman who has been at UK for 13 years. The goal of his research is a drug therapy that would be cheaper and less risky than surgery.

Daugherty said much of his research involves genetic manipulation of mice to figure out what cells cause this aortic weakness and what can be done to stop it.

Most of the Saha Center’s funding this year came from the federal government through nearly $8.2 million in competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health and $600,000 from the Veterans Administration. Other grants include $271,000 from the American Heart Association and $160,000 from the American Diabetes Association.

“It’s important for people to understand that this money doesn’t just go to an ivory tower somewhere,” Daugherty said. “It is pumped into the local economy through creation of jobs.”

Nearly 100 people work at the Saha Center, including 20 core faculty members and many other researchers and physicians doing advanced studies.

Three physician researchers also see patients part-time, “which is pretty unusual,” Daugherty said. “But we want our basic science to be well matched to our clinical problems.”

For example, Dr. Dennis Bruemmer does basic research into vascular disease and its links to diabetes. He spends about 30 percent of his time seeing diabetic patients at UK’s Kentucky Clinic, which helps him understand how the disease plays out in real life.

“We see a lot of the more-complicated patient populations, both with risk factors and complications from those,” said Bruemmer, a German who came to UK from the University of California at Los Angeles.

One key to the center’s success has been its modern facilities. Many of the sophisticated machines used in this research cost several hundred thousand dollars each “and didn’t even exist five years ago,” said Dr. Andrew Morris, a researcher.

The 5-year-old building itself is a benefit, because the open lab design allows researchers to easily talk and compare notes.

“Chit-chatting can be very helpful,” Daugherty said. “Having an environment where people can interact is important, because breakthroughs often come when you least expect them.”

Dr. Alan Daugherty, left, and Dr. Dennis Bruemmer. Photo by Tom Eblen

Finishing some of the work Sam Barnes started

Fifth Third Bank President Sam Barnes and his wife, Sue, were to have chaired the American Heart Association’s annual fundraising ball on March 26.  But in one of life’s sad ironies, Barnes died in July of a heart attack.

Sam Barnes

Former Keeneland President James E. “Ted” Bassett has agreed to serve in his place, and this year’s Central Kentucky Heart and Stroke Ball at Lexington Center will include a tribute to Barnes, who was one of Lexington’s most beloved and effective business leaders.

“I was delighted to do this because of all that Sam did,” Bassett said. “This will provide the community with an opportunity to pay tribute to Sam. His leadership will be hard to replace.”

Ted Bassett

Also being honored at this year’s ball is longtime Lexington broadcaster Ralph Hacker, a heart disease survivor. The events main sponsors are Nurses Registry, Central Baptist Hospital, Saint Joseph Hospital and Fifth Third Bank. For more information, call (859) 278-1632.

Money raised at the ball goes to support heart and vascular disease research. The University of Kentucky has received more than $2.7 million of that funding.

As the dust settles from the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, we should take stock of what we learned.

For the most part, the Games went well. But, as with any big undertaking, there were hits, misses, near-misses and things we would do differently next time.

That is why, before the holidays, someone needs to get all of the principals together — as well as a diverse group of engaged bystanders — to record and analyze the experience before our collective memory fades and life goes on.

This isn’t a job for elected officials, especially in an election season. A better choice to lead this effort might be a small task force from Commerce Lexington, the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau and the United Way of the Bluegrass.

Some of the knowledge we would capture could help Central Kentucky attract and host other big events in the future. But the focus should be bigger than that. Lessons learned from the Games could be applied to broader goals of economic and community development.

For example: What did the Games teach us about our region’s strengths and weaknesses? How could the public-private partnership models used for WEG be applied for other endeavors? How could LexTran’s success during the Games be leveraged to re-imagine the role of public transportation in Central Kentucky? How could the Games’ volunteer spirit be kept alive and used in other ways?

We don’t have to wait for the big shots, though. What do you think were the Games’ hits and misses? What lessons did you learn? Where should we go from here? Email your thoughts to: teblen@herald-leader.com. If I get enough good responses, I will write about them.

University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. is retiring in June after a decade in the job, and the Board of Trustees’ chairman last week appointed a committee with an ambitious timetable to find his successor.

What does Kentucky need in the next leader of its flagship university? Another businessman? A statesman? An experienced academic administrator? Superman?

Honestly, I’m not optimistic about what this presidential search process may yield, especially in this economic and political environment.

Education would do more than anything else to improve Kentucky’s economy and quality of life over the long term. And it is not just about more math and science. Without a serious focus on creating excellence throughout the university’s academic core, UK will never be a national “top 20″ in anything but the salary lavished on its basketball coach.

That won’t be easy. Kentucky is, after all, a poor state. And that makes me wonder why we continue to fund the costly administrative overhead of two major public research universities, UK and the University of Louisville.

If Kentuckians wanted to get the most bang for their education buck, they would merge UK and U of L under a single president, board of trustees and administrative structure and put the savings into teaching and research. Except for the rival sports tails that wag the academic dogs, it could make a lot of sense.

More focus, more cooperation, less overhead cost. There will never be a better time to consider the idea than now.

I couldn’t resist stopping by the University of Kentucky last Tuesday to see former President Bill Clinton speak to several thousand people in front of the Main Building at a fund-raiser for Senate candidate Jack Conway.

Conway and Clinton. Photo by Charles Bertram

Covering presidents and would-be presidents has been a part of my job for more than 30 years. Still, there is always something exciting about seeing a president. My wife and I once interrupted a vacation in coastal Georgia to take our young daughters to see then-President George H.W. Bush arrive at the local airport.

I had a special reason for wanting to see Clinton this time. Fifty years ago, on Oct. 7, 1960, my mother took me to the same spot in front of UK’s Main Building to see John F. Kennedy, who was then campaigning for president, speak from the back of a flat-bed truck.

I don’t know if my vague memory of JFK is real, or simply the product of being told about it many times. I was a 2-year-old in a stroller that day. Still, like last Tuesday, I am glad I was there.

Kennedy rides down Lexington's Main Street. Herald-Leader photo

DANVILLE — Stephen Rolfe Powell prepares to create art the way the former semi-pro tennis player used to get ready for a match: push-ups, sit-ups and a lot of stretching.

Powell does his quick workout on the floor of an empty classroom near his Centre College studio, where a furnace is heating clear glass to more than 2,000 degrees. His four-person crew arranges tools and gets ready for action.

Powell is soon skillfully wielding a hollow steel rod, gathering more and more glass from the furnace and rolling it smooth on a stainless-steel table. When the glob on the end of Powell’s rod weighs nearly 30 pounds, he carefully rolls it over a heated mosaic of more than 2,000 bits of colored glass that will determine the finished piece’s pattern and texture.

The pace quickens as Powell and his team add just the right amounts of fire, air and motion to manipulate the glass. By the end of this increasingly frantic dance, they will have created a graceful vessel with two squiggly necks that is a symphony of light and color.

“For me, the making of the work is more important than the end,” Powell said. “If I couldn’t go in the studio and make work, I’d be a basket case. It’s a drug for me. When I’m in that process and things are going, especially at the end, I’m aware of nothing else.”

The finished vessel, which might sell for $25,000 or more, is the kind of work that has earned Powell an international reputation as a glass artist. This year, it also earned him the Artist Award as part of the Governor’s Awards in the Arts. He will accept the prize Oct. 28 at a ceremony at the state Capitol with his wife, Shelly, and their two sons, Hawk, 11, and Oliver, 9, by his side.

“I sort of feel humbled by it,” Powell said, “When someone says, ‘What do you do?’ I rarely say I’m an artist. I say I work with glass. There’s no question winning this award gives some kind of legitimacy to what I do.”

The award caps a big year for Powell, 58. The Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga recently presented a major retrospective of his work. Several of his pieces were shown in The Alltech Experience pavilion at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Powell, who is on partial sabbatical from his job as an art professor at Centre, recently bought the old Coca-Cola plant in Danville and is converting its 23,000 square feet into artistic work space.

When singer Tony Bennett performed at Centre’s Norton Center for the Arts earlier this month, he spent some time creating glass art with Powell. Bennett, an accomplished painter, also worked with Powell the last time he sang in Danville.

Powell said his success sometimes seems surreal because it wasn’t until age 28 that he even discovered hot glass.

As a student at Centre, Powell studied painting. After graduation in 1974, he returned to his hometown, Birmingham, Ala., to coach and play tennis and paint. “I got this studio in an old office building and kept waiting for somebody to discover me, but it never happened,” he said, laughing.

Powell taught art at his old high school and an Alabama state prison. Then came graduate school at Louisiana State University, where he was attracted to ceramics because it allowed him to do new things with color and light.

Then he discovered glass.

“I fell in love with it immediately,” he said. “I like fire and excitement and spontaneity and I have an athletic background. So glass was just it.”

Powell returned to Centre to teach in 1983 and created a hot glass studio with local corporate help. “It turns out this is a glass mecca,” he said. “Corning, General Electric, Phillips — they all have plants in this area.”

Powell’s father was a teacher, and he surprised himself by becoming one, too. “I don’t know why teaching is so satisfying and such a strong part of what I do, but it really is,” he said.

Powell said most of the Centre students who take his glass classes don’t plan artistic careers. Even among the art majors, only one or two each year will focus on glass. Still, several have risen to the top of their craft.

Two former students now run university glass programs: Ché Rhodes at the University of Louisville and Lexington native Patrick Martin at Emporia State University in Kansas. Two others are rising professionals: D.H. McNabb of Seattle and Brook White, who started Flame Run studio in Louisville.

Powell’s current crew, except for business manager Mitzi Elliott, are former students. “I really depend on that crew,” he said. “What I do is a real team effort.”

Powell said Centre’s support also has been critical to his success. “I just can’t imagine I would have had the same experience at another college,” he said.

One example: Centre awarded an honorary doctorate in 2004 to Powell’s mentor, Lino Tagliapietra, a Venetian glass master who never attended college. “When I said he’s the best in the world, they trusted me,” Powell said. “That meant a lot.”

Powell has focused his artistic expression on creating vessels because it is a form everyone can relate to. But he tries to keep experimenting with shape, color, pattern and effect. His vessels often have sensuous shapes, and he gives them wacky three-word names, such as Autumn Jealous Cleavage and Bombastic Moxie Gulp.

Now that he has more work space in the old Coca-Cola plant, Powell is interested in experimenting with large installation pieces. He recently completed one for the newly expanded and renovated Boyle County Public Library: 365 colored glass globes hung from the ceiling with aircraft cable.

What does Powell want people to take away from his art?

“I hope my work makes you step back and take a breath and pull away from the rest of the world and just have a moment of pleasure,” he said. “That’s about all I can come up with.”

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A bit of election humor, courtesy of the High Street YMCA in Lexington.

We did it. Now, what do we do next?

After five years of planning and anticipation, the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games have come and gone. The Games went well, and almost every visitor I met remarked on how friendly Kentuckians were.

There were a few glitches, of course — and there would have been more without last-minute infusions of money and skill from the title sponsor, Alltech. But the world’s top equestrians seemed to be pleased with the Games, and they raved about the Kentucky Horse Park’s facilities.

The Games attracted a half-million people, including several hundred journalists, 6,000 volunteers and 63,000 students whose admissions were paid by Alltech’s business partners. I suspect more paying spectators would have come had it not been for some overpriced tickets and hotels.

We don’t know yet if the Games made or lost money, but such calculations usually involve a lot of fuzzy math. We may never know if the estimated $107 million in public investment in facilities and infrastructure was immediately recouped in overall economic impact.

But the new facilities at the Kentucky Horse Park — already a big economic engine for this region — will pay dividends for decades as the park is able to attract more, bigger and better events.

“This is not about the next 16 days,” park director John Nicholson told me on opening day. “The success and notoriety of these Games will ensure that we remain the horse capital of the world for the next 50 to 100 years.”

That is important, especially considering the growth of the sport horse industry in Kentucky as Thoroughbred racing battles decline. Veterinarian Tom Riddle of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital estimates there are twice as many sport horses in the region as there were five years ago.

Beyond the horse industry, only time will tell how successful the Games were at attracting long-term economic development to Kentucky. They certainly didn’t hurt. The Games showed visitors Kentucky at its best, and NBC’s television coverage amounted to a long video Valentine.

When it is all said and done, though, the Games’ most significant legacy may be what they taught Kentuckians — and especially Lexingtonians — about themselves.

The Games forced politicians to get serious about long-needed infrastructure improvements. Good planning and logistics prevented the traffic jams many had feared.

LexTran was a star performer. Thousands of locals rode LexTran buses for the first time — and all of those I talked with were impressed. Just as the beautiful new Legacy Trail has promoted fitness and alternative transportation, LexTran’s performance helped affluent Lexingtonians see the value and potential of good public transportation.

Lexington’s investment in downtown paid off as more than 175,000 people, according to police estimates, flocked to the city center for Games-related concerts and festivals, as well as new bars and restaurants.

The entertainers were good. But what impressed me most were the large crowds, which, for the first time I can recall, truly reflected Lexington’s diversity. “I think we witnessed something really interesting downtown,” said Urban League President P.G. Peeples.

I lived in Knoxville before, during and after the 1982 World’s Fair and in Atlanta before, during and after the 1996 Olympics. Neither event went as smoothly as Lexington’s WEG.

Those events’ most important legacy to Atlanta and Knoxville, even beyond significant infrastructure improvements, was civic confidence. Leaders and citizens in those cities gained the confidence to again try new, different and ambitious things. I sense that same confidence in Lexington this week, and it must not be allowed to dissipate.

The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games showcased Kentucky and underscored the value of preserving its beauty and developing its potential. The Games showed what we can accomplish by working together with specific goals and firm deadlines.

After a few good nights’ sleep, Kentuckians must get back to work. We must figure out how to harness this energy and confidence to achieve bigger, more important things than a sporting event — things that will improve Kentucky’s long-term economy and quality of life. We need specific goals and firm deadlines.

Lexington and Kentucky performed well for 16 days in the international spotlight. If we can do that, what else can we do?

Anne Cecilie Ore began riding at age 11 and was soon a show-jumping competitor. Trouble was, she could barely see the jumps in front of her and had no peripheral vision.

Ore’s eyesight kept getting worse. By age 14, she was totally blind.

But blindness has never stopped Ore, who turns 32 on Monday, from achieving her equestrian dreams.

The resident of Olso, Norway, trains in Germany and is an active para-dressage rider in Europe. She competed last week as part of the Norwegian para-dressage team at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, but was disappointed with her 6th and 7th-place scores.

Before leaving America, Ore had one more goal to achieve. She had always wanted to learn reining — that Western-style sport of flashy horsemanship where riders gently guide their mounts through dizzying spins and sliding stops in a cloud of dirt.

When WEG board member Becky Jordan heard about Ore’s wish, she knew how to make it come true. She arranged for Ore to have a reining lesson with her daughter, Lyndsey, 22, a two-time world champion who performed at the Games’ reining exhibition Sept. 30.

Ore arrived at the Jordans’ Scott County farm Saturday morning with a delegation from the Norwegian team in tow. Lyndsey Jordan introduced her to Blazin, a laid-back, 10-year-old quarter horse who wore the first Western-style saddle Ore had ever used.

With Jordan calling out cues, Ore walked Blazin around the ring, then they cantered. Within 15 minutes, Ore and Blazin were a team. There was no obvious sign that the rider couldn’t see where she was going.

“It was just amazing to me how well she was able to go around the arena,” Jordan said afterward. “Once she made the first couple of laps around she knew exactly where she was.”

Within a half hour, Jordan had given Ore the spurs off her boots and was teaching her to guide Blazin through spins and sliding stops.

“The cues are a little different from sport to sport,” Jordan said. “But I would tell her what my cues were and she just had it. She knew exactly what she was doing. Her posture and positioning on the horse were just beautiful. She’s a very good rider.”

When it was time to dismount, Ore was all smiles.

“It was like a dream since I was 11,” she said. “The really fun stuff was the sliding and the spins. When the spins are slow you get really dizzy, but when you go faster you are not so dizzy. Not like I had imagined it.”

Ore wasn’t the only one smiling.

“She is fearless,” Becky Jordan said. “That was just amazing.”

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Some of the key performers at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games won’t win a medal — or even get on a horse.

But the show could not go on without the 6,000 volunteers who came from around the world to assist competitors, take tickets, direct traffic, drive golf-cart shuttles and perform a million other vital but unglamorous tasks.

“These people are absolutely critical in the entire scheme of the Games,” said Alltech President Pearse Lyons, whose company has been giving volunteers donuts each morning and snacks each afternoon. “They are the face of the Games, and without them we could not have put on such a successful show.”

You see volunteers everywhere at the Kentucky Horse Park, wearing yellow or blue Ariat polo shirts and caps — and, usually, a big smile.

Unfailingly cheerful volunteers greet me each morning as I step off the LexTran shuttle and each evening as I leave the park. All day, I see volunteers managing lines, giving directions, answering questions and ferrying people around this giant obstacle course of pedestrians, golf carts and bicycles.

“People just need information and direction; that I’ve got,” said Amy Waddingham, a volunteer from Colorado, who was energetically organizing school groups and moving them through the front gate like a veteran traffic cop.

The volunteer corps is getting good reviews.

“Some of them are a little bit too strict to the rules, but they are very friendly,” said Giel Hendrix, a journalist from the Netherlands. “They have made a good impression.”

“We’ve been getting a lot of good reports,” said Erin Faherty, WEG’s volunteer services director, whose management team arrives at 4:30 a.m. each day to begin checking in that day’s volunteers. “But there have been some logistical challenges, especially getting people where they need to be, when they need to be there, on a 1,200-acre park.”

About 1,200 volunteers work the Games each day. A record 1,700 volunteers were on duty last Saturday, when the park had its highest attendance of 51,000 people for the cross-country competition.

Volunteers work at least six nine-hour shifts. In return, they get food and free grounds-pass access for any day of the Games they’re not working. They get to keep their uniforms.

Volunteer planning and coordination began several years ago. By January, Games officials had confirmed about 1,200 volunteers.

Last winter, officials launched an aggressive campaign to recruit general and security volunteers — especially Kentuckians who wouldn’t have to spend a lot of their own money for lodging during the Games.

“My husband is always going on fishing trips with the boys, so this is my to-do,” said volunteer Becky Kauffman of Southern Pines, N.C., who was driving media shuttles. She was lucky to have a high school friend in Lexington to stay with, she said.

The trick for organizers is having enough volunteers at the right places and the right times so they are neither swamped nor bored.

Most volunteers said they were well-trained, except when it came to enough familiarity with the park layout to give directions. “There have been some issues, but I’ve been surprised by how well it’s going,” said volunteer Sue Stodola of Frankfort.

But Nadja Davidson of Carp, Ontario, was critical of the training, organization, food and logistics for volunteers. Davidson said she drove 16 hours from Canada and was spending $1,600 to stay in the area to volunteer. She felt Games organizers had been “inhospitable to volunteers … I would treat strangers in my own home better.”

“The organization for us has not always been on the top, but, on the whole, it is working,” said Sven Hedberg of Sweden, who is a volunteer translator. His sister lives in Mount Sterling, so he and his wife had a free place to stay.

“It’s been wonderful,” said volunteer Tom Timm of Niles, Mich. His wife, Linda, a teacher, agreed: “I had to take an unpaid leave to do this, but it has been well worth it.”

In addition to the Games volunteers, several hundred Rotary Club members from across the country have worked concession stands to raise money to fight polio.

Many Rotarians are professionals — such as the lawyer behind the checkout counter at lunch the other day, and the architect who was cleaning up trash at picnic tables. They both told me they were having a great time.

“We’ve had so much fun!” said former Lexington Vice Mayor Isabel Yates, an 80-something Rotarian who spent four days working at coffee stands with her friend, Beanie Pederson. “We’ve met people from everywhere — New Zealand, Australia, Brazil. It has really been something.”

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The temporary stands at Rolex Stadium were reflected in the lake as people passed by Friday evening on their way to the jumping competition at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. The photo below shows just how big those horse murals are. Photos by Tom Eblen

Pearse Lyons was a busy man when the earthquake shook Haiti in January; he was running a global biotechnology company and getting ready to host the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

But Lyons was shaken, too. After flying down to see the devastation for himself, the founder and president of Nicholasville-based Alltech decided the best thing he could do for Haiti was to create jobs to help the long-impoverished nation build a sustainable future.

The company started a Haitian fair-trade coffee business, adopted a school and worked with the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre program to create a children’s choir, bringing 24 children up to sing at the Games.

If there was any doubt that Alltech’s Haitian Harmony project has taken on a life of its own, you just had to be at UK’s Singletary Center on Tuesday night when the world-famous Irish band The Chieftains and their musical friends from Ireland, Lexington, Nashville, New York and Canada joined with the singing Haitian children for a benefit concert that rocked the house.

“When you get an invitation like this, you can’t refuse,” said Paddy Moloney, who has led The Chieftains for nearly a half-century. “This was our way to help. The thing hasn’t gone away; (Haiti’s) just as bad as ever.

“It’s a pity we didn’t have another day to rehearse so we could have done some Haitian music,” Moloney said, adding with a wink: “But it was a hell of a show.”

Lyons said Moloney and friends agreed to donate their services after Shane Ryan, who owns Lexington’s Castleton Lyons farm and Europe’s biggest discount airline, Ryanair, agreed to fly The Chieftains over from Ireland on a private jet. Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, who performed at the Games’ opening ceremonies, returned from a gig in Florida to join the benefit.

“We had a meeting of the Irish minds,” Lyons said, adding that his brothers John and Lorcan helped with the arrangements. The Chieftains got to see the Games’ cross-country competition Saturday before a private dinner downtown with Ireland’s equestrian team.

“The hospitality has been just amazing,” Moloney said.

The concert raised more than $53,000 from donations and sales of tickets and Haitian coffee, but Lyons said the most important thing was raising awareness of the project.

The children’s choir returns to Haiti on Thursday, and Lyons and UK Opera Theatre director Everett McCorvey have been thinking the same thing many others have: How will these children ever be able to cope back home after having such an amazing trip?

“I have a personal responsibility for these 24 children,” Lyons said. “There’s an outpouring of compassion for these children, but at the end of it we have to give them a future. They will have an education. We will follow through.”

There is talk of scholarship funds for them and others, of a traveling choir and ways to expand the concept to other Haitian schools, but nothing has been decided. With this concert and others, Lyons hopes to have recruited lots of help.

“The audience was really with us,” Lyons said, “and that was the important thing.”

When you invite thousands of people from around the world to visit your home, the question is always in the back of your mind: What do they think?

Since the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games began 10 days ago, I have been asking international athletes, team officials, journalists and spectators what they think of the Games, Kentucky and its people.

The answers have been remarkably consistent — and overwhelmingly positive, except for a few complaints about some price-gouging or the occasional glitch.

The first thing everyone comments on is the Kentucky Horse Park, with “fantastic” being the most common adjective. Athletes and team officials especially like having all of the venues in one place — even though the park’s vast size means a lot of walking.

Rana Omar, left, of the United Arab Emirates played Monday with Brianne Beerbaum, 7 months, who was with her nanny, Nina Leonoff of Germany. Photo by Tom Eblen

The next thing mentioned is the friendliness and genuine hospitality of Kentuckians — from the army of always-cheerful WEG volunteers to folks on the street.

“We haven’t met a sour-faced person yet,” Canadian spectator Jan Simmonds said, then gave me a sly smile. “Oh, wait, I did see one lady frowning yesterday.”

Games officials are getting high marks for organization, even if some Europeans don’t think they are quite up to the German efficiency of the 2006 Aachen Games, which were at a much smaller park.

“Very, very good organization and very friendly people,” said Miguel Angel Cardenas of Seville, breeder of the top Spanish dressage horse Fuego XII. How do these Games compare with the 2002 Games in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain? “This is bigger and better,” he said.

Oliver Lazarus, a show jumping competitor from South Africa taking part in his first World Games, rode the LexTran shuttle with his mother and grandmother one day last week.

“We came into the city to have a look, and it’s really nice. I’m enjoying it a lot,” said Lazarus. “Three people came up and introduced themselves and asked if we were having a good time.”

Annika Wulff of Sweden was getting to see more of Kentucky than many international visitors. She had rented a car and was staying at a bed-and-breakfast in Mount Sterling.

“It’s a lovely, lovely place, and all of the people are so friendly,” Wulff said. “We like Kentucky very much.”

Simmonds, Joann Beger and Chris Collins came down from Edmonton, Alberta, and were having a terrific time. The three friends were staying in a guest house and trying a different restaurant each night.

They took a carriage ride around downtown one evening — “We felt so elegant!” Beger said — and planned to visit a couple of art museums and take in a performance of La Bohème at the Opera House.

“We’ve just had loads of fun,” Beger said. “We’re just overwhelmed by the hospitality.”

The only significant complaints I heard were about the high prices of food at the Games and expensive rates for mediocre motel rooms around Central Kentucky.

Lodging was a sore point for some international journalists, who were paying high rates for normally budget-priced motels in Richmond and taking WEG shuttles to the Horse Park. (Officials had tried to house the media in Lexington but couldn’t find enough hotels willing to negotiate acceptable rates.)

Just like many Kentuckians, internationals find the weather this time of year baffling. “It is cold, then hot, in the same day,” said Yasukazu Chatani, an eventing manager with Japan’s team.

Michael Barnes, a salesman from Sydney, Australia, had to be in the United States for a couple of trade shows and came to the Games while he had a few days free. Having been to the last two Kentucky Derbys, he was worried about traffic snarls and shuttle bus snafus.

“To be honest, I was concerned about the infrastructure,” he said. But Barnes was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the Games were running and by the fast, efficient and cheap LexTran shuttles.

“The Games are great, and the countryside around here is just stunning,” he said.

Barnes noted that this past weekend marked the 10th anniversary of the close of Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Games, the success of which brought an enormous boost in civic confidence. He predicted the same for Lexington.

“It boosted our confidence because Sydney was able to pull it off,” he said. “Kentucky seems to be pulling this off quite well.”

The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games had been in town for a week, but this seemed to be the day everyone said, “Let’s do it!”

And why not? It was Saturday. The weather was perfect. And it was cross-country day. Even locals who aren’t equestrians know that cross-country is the annual highlight of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event — horses and riders racing across fields, splashing through water and making breath-taking jumps.

The record crowd of 50,818 started building early, creating the closest thing to a traffic jam Lexington has seen during the Games. Cars waiting to exit Interstate 75 North at Ironworks Pike backed up for more than a mile at times.

As usual, some of the happiest spectators were those on one of the LexTran shuttles running continuously from downtown to the Kentucky Horse Park.

“This is a historic event,” said Holly Codell of Lexington, and not just because she was taking her son, Jack, 12, to one of the world’s great sporting events.

“We’re riding a LexTran bus for the first time,” she said, snapping an iPhone photo of Jack, who looked ready to die of mother-induced embarrassment. “This was so easy, and the bus is nice and clean.”

After several days of entertaining horse-crazy friends from Boston, Codell said she was developing new appreciation for her hometown. “You forget living here how beautiful Lexington is,” she said.

The horse park’s advantage — a huge facility with all of the venues in one place — has also been its curse during the Games, forcing visitors to walk long distances to see everything. But there seemed to be more directional signs and shuttles on Saturday. There were many more maps, posted at strategic locations or being passed out by volunteers.

On the cross-country course, cheers went up each time a horse and rider cleared a jump. Locals smiled each time the announcer mentioned one of the Kentucky-named jumps in his proper British accent: Fort Boonesborough, Red River Gorge, Land Between the Lakes.

Everyone seemed to be an amateur photographer. Crowds gathered around each jump with fancy cameras, small point-and-shoots and even cell phones waiting to capture the decisive moment.

“I’m getting some good shots with my wimpy little camera,” said Vanessa Deroux, who came from Seattle to see the Games. “This is great. I couldn’t miss the opportunity.”

For those who needed a diversion from horses, Land Rover was offering free test drives on its own cross-country course. Several hundred people waited in line to drive a Range Rover through water, over hills and across a tilting wooden bridge.

While much of Lexington’s population seemed to be at the park, there were plenty of internationals, too. Many proudly wore their national colors, or literally wrapped themselves in their flag.

Monika Gottschalk and Christiane Somerfeldt of Cologne, Germany, were decked out in tri-color clothing and had German flags sticking out of their backpacks. This was their fourth World Equestrian Games, and they were having a blast: spending all day at the horse park and shopping downtown and at Fayette Mall each evening. “All of the people here are so friendly,” Somerfeldt said.

The Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau’s “Big Lex” blue horse stickers seemed to be especially popular with Europeans. One Italian journalist had a dozen decorating her backpack.

After leaving the crowds on the cross-country course, I was surprised to see so many people in the other side of the park. The giant food tent was packed at lunch for the first time during these Games, and the Normandy, France, pavilion was jammed with people trying to watch the cooking demonstrations.

The trade fair was doing a booming business, and the Alltech Experience and Kentucky Experience pavilions and Equine Village were comfortably crowded.

“Come on ladies — you need a Corvette. Your hair would look so good in the wind!” Daryl Lyons called out to passersby at the Kentucky Experience, where he was selling $20 raffle tickets for the $80,000 Bowling Green-made sports car.

“We’re having fun,” said Christian Hahn of Prospect as he and his three children, ages 2, 4 and 6, took a pizza break. “We did the kidzone, rode a pony, pet a penguin and now we’re going to find some horses to watch.”

As John Morgan and his wife, Linda Carroll, wandered the cross-country course, they said they had been going to WEG events all week, from the endurance race to one of the James Beard gourmet dinners.

“We’re about WEG’d out,” he said. “But it has all been just fantastic.”

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