EDMONTON – Spirits were high Tuesday among Metcalfe County officials, largely because Kentucky’s spirits industry is reaching new heights.

Edmonton and Metcalfe County government and business leaders were joined by a crowd of more than 100 people who turned out to hear Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announce the final piece of funding that will bring a new employer making staves and, eventually, bourbon barrels on a 6.8-acre site in the county’s Southside Industrial Park.

The business, Pennington Stave and Cooperage, will become the first tenant in the industrial park largely because Metcalfe County native Chad Pennington saw an opportunity in an industry that has grown despite the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

“During the pandemic the Kentucky bourbon industry is up about 30%,” Pennington said. “That shows how strong that industry is.”

Indeed, the Kentucky Distillers Association said bourbon production has increased by more than 350% in the past two decades. Kentucky bourbon distilleries filled 2.1 million barrels last year, the highest production year ever.

Looking to cash in on that growth, Pennington has consulted with “Moonshiners” Discovery Channel television series star Tim Smith, who attended Tuesday’s event in his trademark overalls.

Pennington and Smith see great potential in a business that will take white oak logs and turn them into the staves that are used to make bourbon barrels.

“You see new distilleries coming to Kentucky every day,” said Pennington, a 2001 Metcalfe County High School graduate. “In doing our research, we found that one of the biggest obstacles in the bourbon industry is buying barrels. What we hope to do is step in and fill that gap.”

Pennington said the business will initially employ about 20 people making the staves that are then sold to cooperages that make barrels. Plans call for the plant to be open by the end of the year, producing about 25,000 staves per day.

Pennington and another private investor plan to spend $3.5 million to equip the building, but the investment could quickly grow.

“Eventually, we want to make staves that are used to make our own barrels,” Pennington said.

That will mean construction of another building and will boost employment to about 60 people.

Smith, who stayed busy posing for photos with “Moonshiners” fans Tuesday, said he believes in the business plan and in Pennington.

“Chad has big goals for this company,” Smith said. “He has the vision, and he doesn’t like to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Pennington’s plans quench the thirst of Metcalfe County officials wanting to bring employers to the 38-acre industrial park.

“That’s 30,000 square feet of hope,” said Matt South, chairman of the Edmonton/Metcalfe County Industrial Development Authority. “It has been a long time coming.”

South and Metcalfe County Judge-Executive Harold Stilts explained that the work to bring Pennington’s business to the industrial park started nearly three years ago, only to hit a roadblock.

“We got part of it funded, then the pandemic hit,” Stilts said. “But we never gave up.”

With help from Barren River Area Development District staffers and the Department for Local Government in Frankfort, Pennington’s project was boosted by a $500,000 grant from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, a $1 million Community Development Block Grant and the $616,900 from the Appalachian Regional Commission that Beshear announced Tuesday.

South hopes Pennington’s business will jump-start an industrial park built after the Edmonton Industrial Park near the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway reached capacity.

U.S. Rep. James Comer, a Monroe County native, said at Tuesday’s event that he’s optimistic that Pennington Stave and Cooperage can lead to growth in largely rural Metcalfe County.

“I want to thank Mr. Pennington for taking a risk,” Comer said. “I think this is the beginning of something big. You’ve already filled up one industrial park. This is the beginning of another.”

– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.