One of his own.

Kelsey Starks, the host of News Quiz and Inside Louisville is from Owensboro, and so is her dad, Kirk Kirkpatrick.

Recently, they got together to discuss the changes they've seen in his lifetime and the success of the Riverfront project and the people who make Owens Borough a very special place to live.

While I am fortunate enough to be here in Owensboro with the man many refer to as the master of ceremonies in Owensboro, I refer to him as Dad and I am really excited to introduce all of you all to him, and he is excited to introduce you to Owensboro.

So you have lived here your entire life?

Yes, I am.

And tell me why.

What made you want to stay?

Well, right after college, I had a good job here.

And I met my wife.

She had a great job in Washington, D.C., and thought, well, we'll move there.

But she wanted to be closer to family, too.

And we said, let's start here.

We had other offers throughout the years, and then we had, you.

And all of a sudden the priorities changed.

We looked at education and looked at safety of the community and it just fit in.

And a lot of people don't realize Owensboro has a really diverse economy here.

We do.

We're very fortunate.

The main business in this region is agriculture here, and it's difficult to overestimate the impact it has had.

But there are huge corporations here in Owensboro.

In fact, I think there are about 60 national headquarters of businesses located here.

If you've ever had Ragu spaghetti sauce or bertolli spaghetti sauce, they came from Waynesboro.

They can ship a million jars of spaghetti sauce a day.

That's 150 semi-trucks.

And let's talk semi-trucks.

The on Spring River Port Association.

They're here on the river.

And, of course, they transfer products up and down.

If you took all the products that they shipped in one year and put them in semi-trucks back to back, it would go from Owensboro to New Orleans.

So you've lived here your entire life.

You've seen a lot of changes in that time.

What are some of the biggest changes here in Owensboro?

Well, there have been a lot of changes, but there's been one dramatic dynamic change, and that's what I call our renaissance back in 2006 or seven.

Part of downtown was boarded up.

It was not going forward.

And that means you're going backwards.

And the community, I think, as a whole, our corporate citizens, boys and girls, everybody just kind of got together and said, we've got to do something different.

Right.

On the coattails of the River Park Center came a $110 million riverfront that includes one of the number one parks in the world, as well as a mile of probably the most beautiful riverfront on the Ohio River.

What about other communities who are also struggling, a small town downtown?

What can they take away or learn from how Owensboro was able to transform?

Well, I think the thing that has influenced so many of them is the example that we set.

It can be done.

How do you pay for something like this?

Well, I thought it was very unique that the community decided to tax themselves and what they did, they put an insurance premium tax on everybody.

So that meant it wasn't just for people that were working, it wasn't for rich people only or whatever.

Everybody had a share of it.

If you had an apartment, your insurance wasn't very much.

But if you have a yacht and a $4 million home, you'll be paying more.

So everybody had at least a little bit in the project, and I think that's what made it such a community benefit and one that drew this together.

One of my favorite things is how you and others and so many people here take such pride and really give back.

And not just in a small way and big ways and make real change in this community.

That's truly what Owensboro was about to me.

Owensboro is so unique.

It's large enough that you can have an impact, but it's not so large that it's daunting.

But let me give you a couple of examples.

Here is the mayor's assistant.

She's probably 23 years old.

She signs a grant for a walkway.

It would be about a quarter of a mile long.

And if they can come up with matching funds, we could have like a quarter mile green walking area.

Well, people thought, why do we need a quarter of a mile green walking?

She didn't see the quarter mile.

She called, but it was a emerald necklace around the entire city walkway, not a quarter of a mile.

Today, the green belt is 17 miles long and is one of the greatest assets to our community.

And it's all because of Sue Fallon.

Another example, here's a guy who is an art major.

He just wants to do something different, says, I think I'll make a big mural on the side of this building.

Well, that sounds great until you realize the amount of work that he didn't care, this one person, Gary Blofeld, ends up making a million mural the size of a building that becomes an iconic part of Owensboro.

Maybe another good example is the bridge itself.

Good friend of mine 20 years ago said he had seen the David Letterman show.

And when the David Letterman show opened, there were lights on the bridge in New York.

Why don't we put lights here in Owensboro?

Well, it was a great idea, but it $50,000 back then.

It really was a pipe dream, except for David.

And he said, no, we're going to do it three years later.

He actually had a news conference on top of the bridge.

I don't mean on the bridge.

He stood on top of there, and I know he did, because I was up there, too, announcing that we were going to light the bridge, even that we didn't have all the money yet.

That next day, a lady whose husband had helped build the bridge donated $10,000, and from there tonight, you'll see the bridge a lot different than when Dave lit it.

But it's going to be beautiful.

And then there's Terry Woodward, the Bluegrass Museum Hall of Fame.

It was an idea that he's been working on for 25 or 30 years, but it's a reality today because of his passion and desire to make this happen.

Those four people all had help.

But I can assure you that without those four, those four elements in Owensboro would not be here.

And that, to me, is the essence of the Owensboro community.

It's all about the people.

Thank you for letting me introduce you to one of my favorites.

Back to you.