The following editorial appeared in the Paducah Sun on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. It is reprinted here with permission.

The engine driving Paducah’s economy looks an awful lot like a towboat.

When the political candidates parading through Paducah over the past few weeks kept referring to the city as the Inland Waterways Capital, they weren’t just blowing smoke (i.e., buttering up voters). As business editor Joe Walker established in the lead story of his Business page Sunday, Paducah enjoys a unique distinction in the river industry, made all the more remarkable in light of the city’s relatively small population.

Geography has a lot to do with it. Situated at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, with the mouth of the Cumberland and the mighty Mississippi just a stone’s throw away, Paducah obviously benefits from its location. But if geography were the only factor, Cairo, Wickliffe or some other city located along the Mississippi and Ohio might become the river trade’s inland hub.

Instead, it happened in Paducah. Whether that was the result of sound planning, the business savvy of a handful of barge company owners, the proximity to coal fields in southern Illinois and western Kentucky, or a combination of factors, the river industry has been a boon to Paducah. Not even the major cities along the Ohio and Mississippi, with the exception of New Orleans, have the concentration of river industry companies that Paducah boasts.

That’s why any examination of Paducah’s economy has to begin on the waterfront.

Recognizing the industry’s growing presence, the city appropriately renamed South 2nd Street “Marine Way.” The industry’s new buildings on Marine Way are not warehouses but showplaces that enhance the downtown of a city that prides itself in its distinctive architecture.

Crounse Corporation’s new 17,000-square-foot headquarters is not only aesthetically pleasing, it is environmentally responsible, the first in western Kentucky to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for green construction.

AEP River Operations is the latest major barge company to discover the Paducah advantage; the company has announced plans to build a 24,000-square-foot operations center on Marine Way in a beautiful new building that will complement the Crounse and Ingram Barge buildings.

Two dozen barge companies are either headquartered in Paducah or have major operations centers here. Combined with 150 support firms, the river industry employs thousands — more than any other local industry.

The Seaman’s Church Institute, started as an Episcopal Church mission over 170 years ago, now is the largest mariners’ agency in North America, training hundreds of mariners each year in just two locations — Houston, Texas, and Paducah.

Ronnie James of James Marine is branching out with plans to build a new Hilton Garden Hotel at the east end of downtown in the vicinity of the new barge company buildings. The economy has delayed his plans, but when he and Kansas City hotel developer Don Culbertson build the hotel — site work is expected to begin around the first of the year — it will provide convenient accommodations for mariners in town for training at the Seaman’s Institute, as well as seminar training space for the river industry.

This year’s energy crisis has sparked a renewed push for energy independence. That will benefit coal-producing Kentucky, and particularly Paducah, since coal accounts for more than half the loads on the river barges.

The built-in transportation advantage, with rail and interstate highway intersecting the river at Paducah, has attracted investors who hope to build a 2,000-employee coal-to-liquid fuel refinery in Paducah. The plant and the river industry will enjoy a symbiotic relationship that is sure to lure additional support companies. Success begets success.

While the big E’s — energy, economy and elections (finally over, thankfully) — have dominated the headlines, the river industry has quietly leaped forward in Paducah. The city’s economic future looks bright, thanks to that little towboat.

A portrait of Paducah's waterfront in the 1860s—this historic riverfront community sits at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio rivers.