Home City Ice has purchased Bowling Greens historic Phillips Ice Service.Representatives from the company met last week with Phillips Ice Service customers and followed up with a letter notifying them of the change of ownership from the Bowling Green staple to the Cincinnati-based company with a history dating back to 1896. Officials at Home City Ice, as well as Phillips Ice Service former majority stake-holder Wayne Marion, didnt return calls to discuss the sale. Phillips employees declined to discuss the sale. Before the purchase, Phillips Ice Service employed 18 to 20 in downtown Bowling Green. Fred Higgins, who owns several Minit Mart convenience stores in the area, has been doing business with Phillips Ice Service for as long as he can remember. He has also done business with Home City Ice and doesnt foresee any changes resulting from the switch in ownership. He described Phillips Ice Service as a staple of the community. In 1971, Higgins returned from the military service and Minit Mart was doing business with Phillips Ice Service. The business relationship has continued ever since.I remember tales about them hauling ice out to Beech Bend. It would have been on the Fourth of July, Higgins said. David Garvin, whose family used to own Beech Bend, remembered back to the days the amusement park employed 500 to 600 people and when snow cones were popular. We used to be Phillips Ices biggest customer. We had a truck called the ice truck, a three-quarter-pound truck. They would slide out 300-pound blocks of ice. You couldnt pick them up, youd have to slide them, Garvin said. Fully loaded, the front end of the truck would point straight up. Wed take that ice and chip it up, Garvin said. Theyd divide the 300-pound blocks into 100-pound blocks, down to the 25-pound blocks that would be given out to the snow cone carts. The 300-pound blocks would be also be busted up into 50-pound blocks. Those were what I think would fit in a refrigerator, and then the (electric) refrigerators came, and the ice businesses went down, Garvin said. For much of the time, Higgins interaction with Phillips Ice Service involved the late Roy Cabell Phillips Sr., who passed away in January 2003. He couldnt have been more helpful, Higgins said of his business relationship with Phillips. He was a good person and a good friend. Since his passing, Ive missed him dearly. Hes one of those people who made Bowling Green special. When asked if Bowling Green had lost something in the sale, Higgins replied he wasnt aware if there would be any changes in the ice business. It very well could be good for Bowling Green, in that they have the capabilities of growing it more, Higgins said. Home City Ice sells across all of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois as well as parts of Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and New York. The family-owned, multi-million dollar company is currently run by Tom Sedler, along with his sons, Tom Jr., Ted, Tim and Terry. Tom Sedlers brother, Pat, and Pats sons, Mike and Joe, also help run the business. The Cincinnati company has been expanding its business through acquisition since the 1960s. Before acquiring Phillips Ice Service, it purchased Polar Ice Inc. in 2000, a company whose coverage included Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Illinois. Phillips Ice Service has been at 438 State St. since 1947, but the company has provided ice to Bowling Green for much longer. Roy Taylor Phillips began Kentucky Ice in 1923 in what is now Mariahs restaurants parking lot, just two blocks from its current location. The ice plant itself was on the riverfront. His son, Roy Cabell Phillips Sr., delivered ice in wagons during the 1930s.Its not clear if the business will stay or leave the historic District, which is the subject of multi-year renovation plan. Part of the citys plan has designated certain businesses, such as Phillips, as a nonconforming use for the area, but there were no immediate plans to push for a move.