The Buzz

Jim Sawyer was driving to his rural Fayette County home one evening after the recent ice storms when he saw some Kentucky Utilities workers using bucket trucks and flood lights to work on power lines damaged by the ice.

When he got home, he learned that the outside temperature was in single digits and the wind chill was minus 2 degrees.

“Those people were out there in that terrible weather working to restore power for us and we just drive by in our warm vehicles and don’t appreciate what they do,” he said.

So Sawyer, the owner of Sawyer’s Downtown restaurant at West Main Street and Broadway, has talked with a KU executive, who happens to be one of his customers, and is getting the names of the KU workers who restored power after the storm.

Each of the employees will be given a dinner for two at his restaurant.

“I want these people to know we appreciate what they do,” Sawyer said.

Even if there are hundreds, he is going to give them a free meal.

It may take a while to get the names because KU is still battling to get everyone’s lights back on, but “I’m going to do this,” Sawyer said. “Nothing is going to stop me.”

We’ve all heard the warnings about scammers taking advantage of homeowners after the recent the ice storm.

But Sharron Townsend says we should also be alert for legitimate tree services making “honest mistakes.”

Townsend and her husband, Larry Bender, have a house surrounded by trees in Lexington’s Lansdowne neighborhood.

“A tree service came to our house BY MISTAKE last week and proceeded to trim four trees without our permission,” Townsend wrote in an e-mail.

“They literally decimated one of the trees,” leaving the 40-plus year old Chinese elm looking “like an arm with five stubs-like fingers.”

After discovering the carnage when she got home from work, Townsend called the owner of the tree service, which she declined to identify.

He said it was “an honest mistake – they were to have gone to our neighbor’s house across the street.”

That’s bad enough, but there’s a kicker or two.

“We had used the offending tree service a few years ago to trim a tree in our front yard,” Townsend said. But after they drove their bucket truck over her waterline and made ruts in the yard, “we told them … we would never use them again.”

Townsend had even posted a sign in her yard that read, “‘No work needed. Thank you’ as we had been inundated with drive by offers. They said they read the sign and thought that it meant every other tree service that might come along, but not them.”

They left her with new ruts in her yard, piles of limbs and a tree that looked like it was part of a post-war landscape.

The owner of the tree service agreed not to charge Townsend for the company’s work and to remove the limbs.

As for the Chinese elm, “he said not to worry — that the tree would grow back.” “Well, not in my lifetime!” she replied.

“So, we may think we only need to be wary of fly-by-night operators,” Townsend adds, “but we should also be afraid that a local company will stop by the wrong house and decimate your trees!”

Toyota, long branded an innovative company, is holding a contest to get even more creative ideas from anyone anywhere.

The grand prize includes a $13,000 VIP tour of its Georgetown plant, its largest North American facility.

The company has a Web site, ToyotaWhyNot.com, where it encourages individuals to submit ideas related to safety, water, land, air, community and energy.

It also highlights innovations already implemented by Toyota, such as recycling water at its plants.

So what does a VIP tour mean at Georgetown?

Plant spokesman Rick Hesterberg said the details aren’t finalized, but part of it will include a walking tour with a Toyota executive who will discuss the famed Toyota Production System.

It also includes VIP tours of the 21c Museum in Louisville, as well as Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest.

After the two-day visit to Kentucky, the winner and a friend will head to New York City to meet with “prestigious New York innovators” and take VIP tours of various sites around town.

One place the winner won’t see is Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport.

Toyota is flying the winner into Louisville.

If Dairy Queen’s new Sweet Deals option turns out to be a roaring success, Warren Buffett will have Lexington to thank for it.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investment firm owns International Dairy Queen and Buffett is a big fan of DQ food. He is often seen having lunch at a DQ near his office in Omaha, Neb.

(Even billionaires must be on tight budget these days.)

DQ test-marketed Sweet Deals in Lexington in 2008 and was so pleased that Sweet Deals is being permanently added to the menu at thousands of DQs from coast to coast.

“Our successful test in Lexington set the stage for us to roll out Sweet Deals nationally,” said Michael Keller, DQ’s chief brand officer.

With Sweet Deals, customers can mix and match from nine menu items “for more than 20,000 possible combinations,” DQ says.

Choices include cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chicken wraps, French fries, onion rings, a side salad, a medium beverage and a small sundae or soft serve cone.

Lexington DQ franchisee Billy Rose says “We want our customers to know we have a meal that’s customized for what they want, when they want it and that they have a freedom of choice not only in what they order, but how much they would like to order.”

Now, if we can just find out what Warren Buffett orders, we can be on our way to earning our first billion bucks

University of Kentucky economist Ken Troske told the audience at the 20th Annual Economic Outlook Conference on Tuesday that the value of his retirement savings account had taken a beating due to falling stock prices in 2008.

The Dow Jones average dropped 35 percent last year, he said, but there was a silver lining.

“It’s good I had enough money to lose this much money,” Troske said.

Another speaker had a suggestion for those who are finding life hard in Kentucky: Consider moving to North Dakota.

Unemployment is about 3.3 percent, the banks are profitable and the home foreclosure rate is among the lowest in the nation, said Merl Hackbart, associate dean of UK’s Gatton College of Business and Economics.

Besides, it’s been so cold in Kentucky recently that North Dakota’s legendary winters will seem like a stroll on the beach in July.

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.