WICKLIFFE, Ky. - As you drive into Wickliffe, Kentucky first impressions tell you one thing. 

David Phillips mayor says, “It was devastating, businesses began to close….”

The last few years have been particularly hard according to Phillips.

“People began to move, there just wasn’t the activity through Wickliffe and in Wickliffe that there was prior to that.”

The town’s last standing grocery store, has sat empty since the new year.

Across the highway, is another reflection of a fading community.

“And that is a piece of the first log delivered to the plant and that’s a piece of the first paper, off the first reel of paper and it’s got the date on that 1970.”

Wickliffe mayor David Phillips was barely 20 years old when a sprawling paper mill opened just south of town.

And for a community with a population hovering around 800 the employer became central to its way of life.

Phillips says “it hired 350 people right off the bat. So all the young people went to work down there. The town grew. There was a lot of activity around town.”

Feeding off the mighty Mississippi…the mill powered the town for more than four decades.

“I was in the pulp mill most of life, that’s where i was hired in and stayed..”

Mayor David Philips logged 46 years at the mill,

Along the way managing the lumber yard, then the pulp dryer and finally helping to develop training and advancement programs.

He says its impact on the area was massive. “There was a trickle-down effect; you had loggers, vendors of all kinds so it was about a 450 million dollar a year, tickle-down economy from the plant.”

A rise in internet publications foreshadowed the mill’s demise.

After several years of falling production and a change in ownership the Wickliffe paper mill closed in 2016.

“We thought it would sell quickly, you know we thought in the first year it would sell. That didn’t happen."

According to the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce from June 2009 to December 2017, Ballard County experienced a net job loss of more than 1000 positions. 

Craig Tatum with Phoenix Paper says“this is the wood yard. This is where we store the chips. This is the raw material where we make the pulp out of.”

Georgia born Tatum is in charge of bringing the paper mill back to life.

After more than two years the plant was sold and is being retooled to produce different kinds of paper products than what the previous operation made

“The owner sold to our parent company Shangying International, a Chinese firm and formed our company phoenix paper.”

 Phoenix began hiring contractors to retro-fit the mill, and hourly employees were hired soon after.

“At start up our target is around 230 (employees) and we’re about there and that’s just to get us up and running. Our plans are to grow that a little bit more as we bring on more of the operation.”

Phoenix paper is expecting to launch its production Thursday may 23^rd.   But already is already changing lives, in Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois.

So if first impressions tell you one thing,

“We start cooking about 9:30 10 o’clock.”

Stepping into Mike’s Place 

“BLT!”

Says something completely different.

“Order in!”

“We sell a lot of pizzas, a lot of Stromboli, a lot of calzones, chuchwagons.”

In the heart of Wickliffe, this is a bonafide “lunch rush.”

“Cheeseburger.”

“You know the guys down there only have 30 minutes for lunch.”

Co-owner Mike Hargrove, took a leap of faith last fall.

Opening a small diner with his wife.

He says, “When we bought the place like i said it was a god thing we didn’t even know the plant was going to open. This was supposed to be a mom and pa ice cream sandwich shop and it has turned into a restaurant.”

In fact “Mike’s Place” is the only sit-down restaurant in Wickliffe.

With the launch of Phoenix Paper, the line at Mikes Place starts to grow at 10 am and last until 11:30.

The staff of 7, catches their breath, and gets ready for the second rush at noon.

For now it is the order of things.

“So it’s going to help Ballard County, McCracken County, Carlyle County, it’s going to help build the community back up.”

Mayor David Philips can’t predict the future.

But absolutely feels the paper mill is what Wickliffe needs.

And while visible scars are revealing,

They do not begin to tell the story of a town’s soul.

“We felt in Wickliffe we were extremely lucky to get the plant the first time but to get it reopened a second time is a major miracle.”