Jason Sheer is a hands-on businessman in the truest sense.

“I’ve got the hammer in my hand and we are going at it,” the co-owner of the Tin Roof said Tuesday in a telephone interview.

Sheer was working at South Limestone and Maxwell streets where the live-music restaurant chain is about to open its newest location, probably in February.

“It always depends on the city and when we can get our liquor license,” he said.

The license won’t be issued until the building near the University of Kentucky campus is finished and fully furnished with everything from the stage and bar to tables, chairs and glassware.

The location is a former Huddle House restaurant that has been greatly expanded, including the addition of a large party deck.

“You won’t recognize it,” Sheer said, and he was right.

After the structural work was done by professionals, Sheer and other Tin Roofers swooped down to do the finishing work, like installing the bar and, at this location, barn wood wall covering from a sawmill in Lancaster.

“We do a lot of the finish work ourselves rather than trying to explain what we want to carpenters and painters,” Sheer said. “We just think it’s easier and more fun to do it ourselves — and cheaper, too, for that matter.”

The company has venues in Nashville and Franklin, Tenn., that offer live entertainment from name artists — Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney and Jon Bon Jovi, to name a few — as well as local artists who may be well-known only to family, friends and the make-believe audience in their showers.

For now, Sheer says anyone who wants to work or entertain at the new Tin Roof should call co-owner Wes Stephens, who helped him install the bar and barn wood on Tuesday, at (615) 480-8686. The Lexington Tin Roof will have a Web site, Sheer said, but it’s not ready yet.

The first baby of the new year gets the headlines, but the last baby of the old year puts bucks in daddy’s and mommy’s pockets real fast.

“Mere minutes can mean major tax savings,” says Lezlie Shivar, district manager for H&R Block in Lexington.

Babies born on Dec. 31 bring a retroactive tax exemption of $3,500.

“To get that same tax break,” Shivar noted, “parents of babies born … on Jan. 1, will have to wait until they file their 2009 taxes — in 2010.”

To call attention to the financial rewards of good family planning or good luck, as the case may be, H&R Block presented gift baskets to the last babies born in 2008 at two Lexington hospitals, Central Baptist and St. Joseph East.

The winners are Shannon and Robin Melton of Nicholasville, parents of Weston, who was born at Central Baptist at 11:03 p.m. Wednesday, and Amanda and Bret Hamilton of Hillsboro, whose twins, Wyatt and Garrett, were born at 3:12 and 3:14 p.m. at St. Joe.

The early bird gets the worm, but the late bird gets the cash.

Alltech is having so much fun as the first-ever title sponsor of the World Equestrian Games that the Nicholasville biotech company is doing it again — in Europe.

The international group that oversees equestrian sports, the Fédération Equestre Internationale, even combined a couple of championships to create the first-ever Alltech FEI European Jumping & Dressage Championships to be held at England’s Windsor Castle in August.

I say, jolly good show!

It’s Alltech’s first big foreign equestrian sponsorship, says company spokesman Billy Frey. “We are so pleased with what’s been going on with the (Alltech FEI World Equestrian) Games and the potential that holds for us that we said, ‘Hey, this is a unique opportunity in Europe to partner with the FEI once again’ so we decided to do it.”

Unlike the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2010, the Windsor competitions are open only to European riders, Frey noted. But they are very popular in Europe, which is the No. 1 market for Alltech’s animal feed products.

“When you get into the world of sponsorships, different opportunities present themselves,” he said. “We strike at the ones we think are the best, and the alliance with FEI was a good one.”

Other such big deals are possible, he said.

The company already has some smaller ones. There was the Alltech Olympia Grand Prix at The London International Horse Show in December and in May, there will be the Alltech Royal Windsor Grand Prix during the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

Is Alltech on its way to becoming as famous as Rolex for sponsoring equestrian events?

Looks like it.

“Norman” might have been Lexington’s earliest winter casualty.

During the city’s first significant snowstorm a couple of weeks ago, a car jumped the curb in front of 203 South Limestone Street “and just hit him and killed him stone dead,” said Liza Hendley Betz. “Everybody was just heart-broken.”

You see, Norman is the 3-foot tall wooden leprechaun that has stood in front of Failte, The Irish Shop, since Hendley Betz opened the imported-products business in 2001.

Norman is one-of-a-kind, created especially for Failte, which means “welcome” in Gaelic, the native language of Ireland. Hendley Betz is Irish, having emigrated from Dublin in 1996.

Norman — “my little fellow” to Hendley Betz — has become “a bit of a landmark,” she said.

“The kids used to come around and kiss him as they came into the shop, and you could look out the window and see people getting their picture taken with him.”

The problem now is that customers assume the shop is closed because they don’t see Norman on the sidewalk near the front door.

Norman has been on duty every day since 2001, except for a brief time a couple of years ago when he was “kidnapped and stolen,” Hendley Betz says. He was recovered and “we have had him chained up out there ever since.”

Norman is now in the care of a carpenter who is making repairs while saving as much of the original wood as possible.

It’s a long process because of the extent of the damage, holiday delays and so forth, Hendley Betz said.

“We are trying to get him fixed as quickly as possible, but he was hit pretty bad. … He got cut off right at the legs.”

Pittsburgh Steelers fans should get to know Royce Pulliam. He’s about to get connected with the best seats in Heinz Field, where the Steelers play their home games.

Here’s how it works.

Pulliam is the founder and chief executive of the Lexington-based Urban Active Fitness chain.

Urban Active is partially owned by Laurel Crown Partners LLC, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm.

Laurel Crown’s principals are the brothers Stephen and Laurence Paul who, along with some of their relatives, have just been approved by the National Football League to become part owners of the Steelers.

That’s one way to get the best seats in the house.

By the way, it’s been about a year since Pulliam, a Cynthiana native, created Urban Active Fitness by renaming his 25 Gold’s Gyms.

There are now 32 Urban Active locations and the company says it has one of the 20 largest fitness chains in the nation. New locations include St. Matthews, Florence and Bellevue, Ky.

After a year that “far exceeded our expectations,” Pulliam says “numerous locations (are) in the design-and-construction pipeline,” with East Coast and Midwest cities high on the expansion list.

And, yes, Virginia, there is an Urban Active in Pittsburgh. Can’t say you’ll find any Steelers there, but you might meet your new best friend: Anybody named Paul.

Got a letter from my bank the other day.

It said I had written a check that bounced, but my bank’s overdraft-protection program had covered it.

The amount was $800,085.

My brain swelled as I tried to figure how long it would take to repay this debt on a journalist’s wages.

I stopped counting at about 40 years when I realized that I had never written a check for more than a few thousand dollars, much less $800,085.

I called the bank.

My check was for $85, the customer service associate said. It was deposited at another bank where a coding error added $800,000 to its value.

No wonder it bounced.

The coding error was discovered by my bank.

“It’s all taken care of,” she said. “It won’t affect your account.”

I was so relieved I forgot to ask why my bank had nearly put me into cardiac arrest by reporting a mistake that had already been corrected.

My epitaph might have been, “Struck down by a coding error.”

The problem is in the name.

They are “Christmas tree farms” so naturally we think they are in rural areas.

Actually, three of the 22 Christmas tree farms in Kentucky are in Lexington and one is in Louisville, according to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

These farms are a mile or two from the suburbs or maybe on islands of farmland within the city. One of the Lexington farms is on Redding Road in the city’s southern suburbs, although it isn’t selling trees this year.

Consider this: “Most of the state’s Christmas tree farms are located in Central Kentucky,” the department says, including 10 in Fayette and surrounding counties.

So you might be able to cut a fresh tree after driving no farther than to the tree lot where you got that import from Michigan or North Carolina last year.

You can find out at www.kychristmastreefarms.com.

Toyota or Chevy.

Japanese or American.

Rock or hard place.

Ask Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.

He recently bought 85 Toyota Camry Hybrids, instead of Chevrolet Malibu Hybrids, for the Indianapolis police.

Good move?

Kentuckians think so. The Toyotas are made in Georgetown.

Indianapolis auto workers are mad and Ballard’s political foes want an investigation.

He faced a tough choice.

Malibu Hybrid parts are made in Indianapolis and Bedford, Ind., but Toyota has plants nearby in Princeton and Lafayette.

And while Malibu Hybrids cost less, Camry Hybrids get better mileage. The city will recoup the higher purchase price in a few years.

So ‘”Buy American’ is a far more complex idea than the slogan allows,” the Indianapolis Star says in an editorial supporting Ballard’s choice.

After this dust-up, he may tell Indianapolis cops to forget Toyota and Chevy, and start walking their beats again.

Imagine not having to leave your seat and stand in line to get food and drink during University of Kentucky games at Rupp Arena.

The Cats always make a big play when your back is turned and if you wait for halftime, the crowds are huge.

Collin Wallace and David Ward have got you covered.

They are co-founders of FanGo, a food delivery service that’s now available in some parts of Rupp Arena.

If you sit in sections 232 through 236 or 32 through 36, you can use your cell phone to order food at www.textordergo.com/fango.Fans in sections 32 through 36 can choose delivery or “expedited pickup” at a nearby concession stand without waiting in line. Fans upstairs in sections 232 through 236 only have expedited pickup.

Prices are the same as at the concession stand and the order is charged to your credit card. There’s no delivery fee. Sponsors cover that cost.

Upper-level “seats are so closely spaced that delivery becomes a significant inconvenience to other patrons,” Wallace said in an email interview. “We are currently trying to engineer a way around this challenge.”

FanGo plans to expand its service arena-wide for the 2009-2010 basketball season and to Commonwealth Stadium for the 2009 football season, he said.

“We do not have any agreements with other universities and cities; however, there are quite a few that have expressed significant interest so we are carefully considering those opportunities,” Wallace said.

“One thing that we have learned in business is to think big, plan small and work hard, so that is what we are trying to employ in releasing our products.”

Some people know him as C.M. “Bill” Gatton. Others as Carol Martin Gatton. Either way, they take note when he speaks.

The Kentucky native has made millions from cars, banks, real estate and other businesses — enough to endow UK’s Carol Martin Gatton College of Business and Economics with $14 million in 1995.

A year earlier, he bought three Nashville-area Saturn dealerships and now owns five in Tennessee and Alabama.

General Motors’ survival may be in doubt, Gatton told a Nashville newspaper, The Tennessean, last week, but not Saturn’s.

“I don’t think there’s any chance GM will shut Saturn down,” Gatton said. “GM will explore options to sell the whole division and I believe there would be other automakers interested in taking it over.”

He said he has “no idea” who the new owner might be, but analysts say it might be an European or Chinese automaker looking for an established dealer network.

Gatton said he was so convinced of Saturn’s future in 1994 that he “paid more for them than I would have paid to get four different Lexus stores.”

“I’m not worried, because I’ll bet even if GM sells the division to somebody else, it will still be called Saturn and will still have the same dealers,” he said.