KYData.biz

Carter County

Grayson
Published May 15, 2026 Reviewed May 15, 2026 26 disclosures

Reports are dated; investigate on the ground before acting.

Population
26,400
Seat
Grayson
Region
Eastern Kentucky
Candidates
6
Capital range
$75K–$650K
Last reviewed
2026-05-15

Carter County sits in Northeastern Kentucky along Interstate 64 and the AA Highway (KY-9) on a base of about 26,400 people. Two home-rule cities — Grayson, the seat, and Olive Hill — sit roughly twelve miles apart along I-64. A single county-wide school district runs both towns' high schools, and a $120 million consolidated high-school and career-technical-center capex breaks ground in March 2026.

Two Olive Hill DOD-prime apparel manufacturers carry the county's federal procurement footprint. Carter Industries makes Nomex flight suits and combat-vehicle-crewman coveralls for DLA Troop Support; the federal contracting record shows $40.8 million across 59 awards over three years. Pennsylvania Apparel carries an additional $8.6 million across 89 awards on a high-cadence DLA recurring profile. The two together — $49.4 million across 148 awards — define the Olive Hill cut-and-sew supply chain and are not work a new founder can win directly.

Two regional service organizations operate from inside Carter County serving the same five-county footprint of Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup, and Lawrence. The Northeast Kentucky Community Action Agency runs Head Start, LIHEAP, weatherization, and senior services from Olive Hill. The FIVCO Area Development District runs regional planning, aging services, workforce development, transportation coordination, and a revolving-loan fund from Grayson. Carter is the only county we have reported where no acute-care hospital sits inside the county boundary — emergency care routes eastward to King's Daughters in Ashland and westward to UK St. Claire in Morehead.

Six candidates run from $75,000 to $650,000 in founder capital. The strongest two are the Olive Hill DLA compliance practice and the outpatient and transport bundle compensating the missing hospital; the other four sit in school-capex sibling trades, regional-aggregator audit work, KCU and state-park visitor services, and an accessible-vehicle fleet on the dual corridor.

01

What this place actually is.

Carter sits in Northeast Kentucky along I-64, about 130 miles east of Lexington and 25 to 30 miles west of Ashland in Boyd County. Grayson is the county seat at roughly 3,700 residents; Mayor Troy Combs leads under the mayor-council home-rule form set out in KRS 83A. Olive Hill is the second home-rule city at roughly 1,500 residents; published city officials include Mayor Jerry Callihan, Clerk-Treasurer Steff Thomas, and City Attorney Derrick Willis. Hitchins is an unincorporated community. Carter is a small county by Kentucky standards — about 64 people per square mile across 410 square miles.

Geographic position is on Interstate 64 with three Carter interchanges (Olive Hill at KY-2, Grayson at KY-7, and the Grayson-AA Highway interchange at KY-1947). AA Highway (KY-9) is a four-lane limited-access expressway running northwest from Grayson through Greenup toward I-275 and the Cincinnati metro. US-60 parallels I-64 through both cities. Adjacent Kentucky counties are Greenup, Boyd, Lawrence, Elliott, Rowan, and Lewis. Carter has no out-of-state county adjacency. The dual I-64-plus-AA-Highway corridor is the dominant geographic fact.

The federal business-mix data places Carter at 405 establishments, 5,253 employees, $174 million in annual payroll, and 1,649 nonemployers — a thin services bench relative to the population. Retail Trade leads by establishment count at 109 establishments. Health Care and Social Assistance runs 31 establishments and 743 employees — with no county-resident acute-care hospital, this sector is outpatient bench plus NEKCAA programming plus nursing-home and assisted-living capacity. Manufacturing does not surface in the top ten by establishment count even though Carter Industries and Pennsylvania Apparel show prominently in federal procurement. Median household income runs roughly $42,000 to $45,000 county-wide, about 65 to 70 percent of the Kentucky median.

Two operating businesses carry the dominant federal-procurement footprint. Carter Industries operates at 198 Caleb Powers Lane in Olive Hill under NAICS 315210 and 315990; per published company materials the company makes the CWU-27P Nomex flight suit and the ICVC combat-vehicle-crewman coverall for DLA Troop Support Clothing and Textiles. Federal contracts on record show $40.8 million across 59 awards over three years. Pennsylvania Apparel operates in Olive Hill under NAICS 315220 with $8.6 million across 89 awards on a high-cadence recurring profile. The combined $49.4 million across 148 awards defines the Olive Hill DLA supply chain. Neither company is work a new founder can win directly — both are DLA-prime-registered, hold CAGE codes, and sit inside DLA's existing-source posture for the specific National Stock Numbers they fill.

Two regional service organizations operate from inside Carter serving the identical Boyd-Carter-Elliott-Greenup-Lawrence five-county footprint. The Northeast Kentucky Community Action Agency sits at 539 Hitchins Avenue in Olive Hill. The agency was chartered in 1965, holds $19.3 million across two HHS awards on the three-year window, and operates Head Start, LIHEAP, weatherization, senior centers, and housing-assistance programs across the five-county service area. The FIVCO Area Development District sits at 32 FIVCO Court in Grayson. FIVCO is one of fifteen Kentucky Area Development Districts chartered under KRS 147A.050, was founded in 1968, holds a 25-member board drawn from the five counties, and runs regional planning, aging services, workforce development, transportation coordination, a revolving-loan fund, and Local Development District functions for the Appalachian Regional Commission. The two headquarters sit about twelve miles apart along I-64.

Kentucky Christian University is the sole county-resident higher-education institution at 100 Academic Parkway in Grayson. KCU was chartered in 1919 as Christian Normal Institute by Restoration Movement Christian-church leaders and renamed Kentucky Christian University. Enrollment runs about 500 students. President Dr. Terry Allcorn has been the sixth president since 2019 per published KCU communications. The university announced institutional debt elimination in June 2025. Federal contracts on record show $5.49 million across 11 Department of Education awards, primarily Title IV student-aid pass-through. Knights athletics compete in NAIA. No KCTCS member college operates a Carter-resident main campus; Ashland Community and Technical College is in Boyd County.

Carter Caves State Resort Park sits at 344 Caveland Drive in Olive Hill and is operated by the Kentucky Department of Parks and Recreation. The Lewis Caveland Lodge carries 28 rooms, 12 cottages, and a campground under 2025 renovation per parks.ky.gov. Cave-tour programming includes Cascade Cave, X-Cave, and Bat Cave. The on-site restaurant carries banquet capacity of roughly 225. Grayson Lake State Park straddles Carter and Elliott counties. The lake itself is an Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Little Sandy River; the surrounding park land is KDPR-operated. The park carries a 71-site campground, Hidden Cove Golf Course, the Bruin Boat Ramp, and the Beech Hemlock and Lick Falls trails.

Carter has no county-resident acute-care hospital. Inpatient and emergency-room flows route outbound. King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland is the primary eastbound destination, about 25 to 30 miles via I-64 and US-60; King's Daughters integrated with UK HealthCare and announced acquisition of the Bellefonte Centre building in Russell in February 2025 for redevelopment as King's Daughters Health Park, with a Greenup-resident outpatient facility scheduled to open in summer or autumn 2026. UK St. Claire in Morehead is the secondary westbound destination, about 30 miles via I-64. Tertiary referrals route to UK HealthCare in Lexington and across the West Virginia line to Cabell Huntington Hospital and St. Mary's Medical Center. The Carter-resident outpatient bench is thin: Carter Walk-In Clinic in Olive Hill, the Carter County Emergency Ambulance Service District, and a possible federally qualified health center satellite.

Federal contracts on record across the three-year window total $641.3 million across 1,598 awards to 42 distinct awardees. The Kentucky Department of Transportation pass-through carries $44.4 million across 20 awards covering FHWA Surface Transportation Block Grant work plus AA Highway corridor and I-64 maintenance plus state-route and bridge work, with operational personnel at KYTC District 9 in Flemingsburg and private contractors. Carter Industries' $40.8 million and Pennsylvania Apparel's $8.6 million carry the DOD apparel-manufacturing total. NEKCAA's $19.3 million and FIVCO's $190,000 carry the regional-aggregator total. KCU's $5.49 million carries the Title IV channel. The Housing Authority of Olive Hill carries $1.94 million across 22 HUD awards, and a multifamily and senior-housing cluster — River Run, Logan Trace, Pine Ridge, Chapel House, Friendship House, Pathways Properties, Poplar Plains, and Gateway Homeless Coalition — aggregates roughly $5 million in HUD and USDA Rural Development funding.

Carter County Schools is the sole county-wide K-12 district covering all of Carter, including both Grayson and Olive Hill. There is no separate Grayson Independent District and no separate Olive Hill Independent District; the legacy Olive Hill High School was merged into West Carter High School in an earlier consolidation. District headquarters are at 228 South Carol Malone Boulevard in Grayson. Superintendent Paul Green Ed.D. leads the district per published district materials. Enrollment runs roughly 4,000 to 4,100 across about eleven to twelve schools, including East Carter High School in Grayson and West Carter High School in the Olive Hill area, corresponding middle schools, and seven or eight elementary schools. A consolidated comprehensive high-school and co-located career-technical-center capex of roughly $120 million is in active phasing with next-phase groundbreaking in March 2026 per Carter County Times. A state-legislative earmark of approximately $37 million is named in the same reporting. A $4.1 million federal-funds rescission in May 2025 affected the site-preparation phase per WEKU and WCHS.

The multi-municipal layer runs through the Carter County Fiscal Court at 300 West Main Street Suite 227 in Grayson under Judge-Executive Brandon Burton, who oversees the road department, jail, and county clerk integration. Fiscal Court holds $389,000 across one USDA award. The City of Grayson sits at 401 North Main Street under Mayor Troy Combs. The City of Olive Hill sits at 225 Roger Patton Drive under Mayor Jerry Callihan, Clerk-Treasurer Steff Thomas, and City Attorney Derrick Willis, and holds $234,000 across one DHS award for FEMA or emergency-management work. The Housing Authority of Olive Hill operates the public-housing portfolio at $1.94 million across 22 HUD awards. The Carter County Public Library District runs a main branch in Olive Hill plus a likely Grayson branch. The Olive Hill Area Chamber of Commerce coordinates the western-Carter chamber roster.

Six candidates run at founder capital from $75,000 to $650,000. The first sits downstream of the Olive Hill DLA cluster as a three-document compliance practice — CMMC readiness, DPAS procedure documentation, and Berry-Amendment chain-of-custody — for the regional Berry-Amendment supplier bench. The second compensates the missing hospital with a sequenced outpatient, occupational-medicine, non-emergency-medical-transport, and telehealth-spoke bundle. The third runs sibling-trade work — FF&E install, construction-clean, and finishes punch-list — around the $120 million school capex and the steady-state district floor. The fourth runs facilities, compliance documentation, and single-audit CPA services for NEKCAA, FIVCO, the Housing Authority of Olive Hill, the multifamily cluster, the Fiscal Court, and the two cities. The fifth runs visitor services across KCU, Carter Caves, Grayson Lake, and the I-64 corridor outside the scope of state-park concessioners. The sixth runs a Carter-resident accessible-vehicle fleet across Medicaid NEMT, FIVCO Section 5310 senior routes, and Ashland-MSA shift-transport on the dual corridor.

Carter Industries Inc.
DOD-prime apparel manufacturer; roughly 100-300 employees estimated · 198 Caleb Powers Lane, Olive Hill. NAICS 315210 (Cut and Sew Apparel Contractors) and 315990. Per published company materials manufactures the CWU-27P Nomex flight suit and the ICVC combat-vehicle-crewman coverall for DLA Troop Support Clothing and Textiles. Federal contracts on record show $40.8 million across 59 awards over three years. Procurement-record context for the compliance-services candidate; the candidate sells to the regional supplier bench, not direct to this prime.
Pennsylvania Apparel, L.L.C.
DOD-prime apparel manufacturer · Olive Hill. NAICS 315220 (Men's and Boys' Cut and Sew Apparel). Federal contracts on record show $8.6 million across 89 awards on a high-cadence DLA recurring profile of roughly 30 awards per year. Corporate relationship to Carter Industries and exact facility address are not publicly confirmed as of May 2026. Procurement-record context only.
Northeast Kentucky Community Action Agency (NEKCAA)
Regional five-county community-action agency · 539 Hitchins Avenue, Olive Hill. Chartered 1965. Serves Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup, and Lawrence. Federal contracts on record show $19.3 million across two HHS awards covering Community Services Block Grant, Head Start, LIHEAP, weatherization, and senior services. Primary anchor for the facilities-services and compliance candidate; secondary anchor for the school capex sibling-trade and transport candidates.
FIVCO Area Development District
Regional ADD with a 25-member board · 32 FIVCO Court, Grayson. One of fifteen Kentucky ADDs chartered under KRS 147A.050. Founded 1968. Serves Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup, and Lawrence. Federal contracts on record show $190,000 across one DOT award. Operates regional planning, aging services, workforce development, FTA Section 5310 and 5311 transportation coordination, a revolving-loan fund, and Appalachian Regional Commission Local Development District functions. Primary anchor for the facilities-services and the accessible-vehicle candidates.
Kentucky Christian University (KCU)
Private four-year university, roughly 500 enrollment · 100 Academic Parkway, Grayson. Chartered 1919 as Christian Normal Institute and affiliated historically with Restoration Movement Christian churches and churches of Christ. President Dr. Terry Allcorn has held the office since 2019 per published KCU communications. Institutional debt elimination announced June 2025. Federal contracts on record show $5.49 million across 11 Department of Education awards. Knights athletics compete in NAIA. Primary anchor for the visitor-services candidate.
Carter County Schools (CCS)
Single county-wide K-12 district, roughly 4,000-4,100 enrollment · 228 South Carol Malone Boulevard, Grayson. Superintendent Paul Green Ed.D. per published district materials. East Carter High School in Grayson and West Carter High School in the Olive Hill area. A $120 million consolidated comprehensive high-school and career-technical-center capex breaks ground in March 2026; a $37 million state earmark is named in Carter County Times. A $4.1 million federal-funds rescission in May 2025 affected the site-preparation phase per WEKU and WCHS. Primary anchor for the school-capex sibling-trade candidate.
Carter County Fiscal Court
County government · 300 West Main Street Suite 227, Grayson. Judge-Executive Brandon Burton oversees the road department, jail, and county clerk integration. Federal contracts on record show $389,000 across one USDA award.
City of Grayson
Home-rule city under KRS 83A; roughly 3,700 residents · 401 North Main Street. Mayor Troy Combs serves under the mayor-council form. County seat.
City of Olive Hill
Home-rule city under KRS 83A; roughly 1,500 residents · 225 Roger Patton Drive. Mayor Jerry Callihan, Clerk-Treasurer Steff Thomas, and City Attorney Derrick Willis lead the city. Federal contracts on record show $234,000 across one DHS award for FEMA or emergency-management work.
King's Daughters Medical Center (Ashland)
Boyd-resident regional acute-care hospital — cross-county referral destination, not Carter-resident · Ashland, Boyd County, about 25 to 30 miles east of Carter via I-64 and US-60. Integrated with UK HealthCare per published King's Daughters and UK HealthCare communications. Primary eastbound inpatient and emergency-room destination for Carter residents. Acquired the Bellefonte Centre building in Russell in February 2025 for redevelopment as King's Daughters Health Park; the $7 million Greenup-resident urgent-care, imaging, and family-care facility is scheduled to open in summer or autumn 2026.
UK St. Claire (Morehead)
Rowan-resident regional acute-care hospital — cross-county referral destination, not Carter-resident · Morehead, Rowan County, about 30 miles west of Carter via I-64. UK HealthCare satellite since July 1, 2024. Secondary westbound inpatient destination for western-Carter residents in Olive Hill and Smoky Valley.
Carter Caves State Resort Park
KDPR-operated state resort park · 344 Caveland Drive, Olive Hill. The Lewis Caveland Lodge carries 28 rooms, 12 cottages, and a campground under 2025 renovation per parks.ky.gov. Cave-tour programming includes Cascade Cave, X-Cave, and Bat Cave. On-site restaurant with roughly 225-person banquet capacity. Primary anchor for the visitor-services candidate.
Grayson Lake State Park and USACE Grayson Lake
KDPR-operated state park on a USACE reservoir · Carter and Elliott straddle. The lake itself is an Army Corps reservoir on the Little Sandy River; the surrounding park land is KDPR-operated. 71-site campground, Hidden Cove Golf Course, the Bruin Boat Ramp, and the Beech Hemlock and Lick Falls trails. Secondary anchor for the visitor-services candidate.
Carter Walk-In Clinic and Carter County Emergency Ambulance Service District
Thin Carter-resident outpatient and EMS bench · Carter Walk-In Clinic in Olive Hill provides urgent-care and walk-in primary-care service. The Carter County Emergency Ambulance Service District holds $154,000 across one DHS award. A possible federally qualified health center satellite — Big Sandy Healthcare or similar Eastern Kentucky FQHC — may operate in Olive Hill. No county-resident acute-care hospital exists.
Housing Authority of Olive Hill and multifamily cluster
Public housing authority and HUD-USDA multifamily portfolio · Olive Hill. Federal contracts on record show $1.94 million across 22 HUD awards. The adjacent multifamily and senior-housing cluster — River Run, Logan Trace, Pine Ridge, Chapel House, Friendship House, Pathways Properties, Poplar Plains, and Gateway Homeless Coalition — aggregates roughly $5 million in HUD and USDA Rural Development funding.
Olive Hill Area Chamber of Commerce and Carter County Times
Member chamber and newspaper of record · Olive Hill. The Olive Hill Area Chamber coordinates the western-Carter chamber roster of roughly 29 distinct members. The Carter County Times at cartercountytimes.com is the local newspaper of record. A separate Grayson chamber may exist.
02

The candidates.

6 business openings the data points to. Each carries a candidate page with the operating math, named operators to call, and the acquisition or build path. Capital and Year-3 ranges are surfaced here; full assumptions live on each candidate page.

Candidate register 6 ranked openings math, operators, and next calls inside each memo
Rows are clickable
By reader profile
Existing operator pivoting
DOD apparel-supplier compliance services from Olive Hill Outpatient services bundle for a county without a hospital School capex sibling-trade work in Carter County Visitor services across KCU and Carter's two state parks Three-legged accessible-vehicle fleet on Carter's dual corridor
03

Who to call this week.

Who to call. The contacts below are public-record offices and operations leads for the anchors. Use them to test or kill each candidate's thesis quickly. We have phone numbers where they are publicly listed; for the rest, the address points to the front desk.

Tier 1

  • Northeast Kentucky Community Action Agency
    Procurement officer for facilities-services, Head Start food-service, weatherization sub, single-audit, and compliance documentation at 539 Hitchins Avenue, Olive Hill.
    (606) 286-4443
  • FIVCO Area Development District
    Procurement officer for facilities-services, AAA Title III aging, FTA 5310 and 5311 NEMT, ARC Local Development District revolving-loan-fund administration, and single-audit at 32 FIVCO Court, Grayson.
    (606) 929-1366
  • Kentucky Christian University
    Campus-services director for FF&E, interior finishes, facilities-services, food-services, technology-services, and visitor-services at 100 Academic Parkway, Grayson.
    (606) 474-3000
  • Carter County Schools
    Facilities director and finance director for the consolidated comprehensive high-school and career-technical-center capex with March 2026 next-phase groundbreaking. 228 South Carol Malone Boulevard, Grayson.
    (606) 474-6696
  • Carter County Fiscal Court — Judge-Executive Brandon Burton
    Procurement officer for road department, jail, courthouse facilities-services, single-audit, and USDA Rural Development pass-through at 300 West Main Street Suite 227, Grayson.
  • City of Grayson — Mayor Troy Combs
    Procurement officer for municipal facilities, USDA Rural Development utilities sub, and small-DOT pass-through at 401 North Main Street.
  • City of Olive Hill — Mayor Jerry Callihan
    Procurement officer for municipal facilities, DHS and FEMA preparedness pass-through, and small-DOT at 225 Roger Patton Drive.
  • Housing Authority of Olive Hill
    Procurement officer for HUD operating-fund, capital-fund, facilities-services, and tenant-services.
  • Carter Caves State Resort Park
    KDPR superintendent's office for special-use permits, cave-tour-adjacent experience-vendor, and outfitter posture outside concessioner-reserved scope. 344 Caveland Drive, Olive Hill.
    (606) 286-4411
  • Grayson Lake State Park
    KDPR superintendent's office for outfitter and marina-and-recreation sub posture outside concessioner-reserved scope.
    (606) 474-9727
  • Carter Walk-In Clinic (Olive Hill) and Carter County Emergency Ambulance Service District
    Outpatient bench coordination and EMS non-emergency-overflow handoff posture for the outpatient-bundle candidate.
  • Olive Hill Area Chamber of Commerce
    Chamber-roster referral surface across the western-Carter member base.
  • Carter County Times
    Local-news placement, verification, and editorial calendar at cartercountytimes.com.
    (606) 286-4201

Tier 2

  • SBA Kentucky District Office (Louisville)
    7(a), 504, Microloan, HUBZone, and 8(a) referrals across all six candidates.
    (502) 582-5971
  • Kentucky APEX Accelerator — Eastern Kentucky office at Morehead State
    Federal-procurement counseling, DIBBS bid-match, and SAM.gov supplier-portal registration support for the compliance-services candidate.
  • Advantage Kentucky Alliance — the NIST MEP affiliate at the University of Kentucky
    CMMC, ISO, and lean-manufacturing programming for the compliance-services candidate.
  • Kentucky Housing Corporation
    Multifamily and senior-housing financing referrals plus HUD multifamily property-management sub paths.
    (502) 564-7630
  • Kentucky League of Cities Buying Network
    Multi-municipal cooperative-purchasing referrals across Grayson, Olive Hill, and regional small cities.
    (859) 977-3700
  • Kentucky School Boards Association cooperative bid
    K-12 cooperative-purchasing referrals around the CCS $120 million capex sub-tier for FF&E, finishes, and technology.
    (502) 783-0000
  • AICPA and the Kentucky Society of CPAs
    Single-audit Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 federal-grant-recipient referral channel for the regional-aggregator candidate.
  • FMCSA National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners
    DOT-physical certification referral channel for the occupational-medicine lane of the outpatient-bundle candidate.
  • Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services NEMT program office
    Statewide broker carrier-credentialing pathway and per-mile rate structure for the accessible-vehicle candidate.
04

Operators in this market.

Top operators across the Olive Hill DOD apparel-manufacturing record, the two Carter-resident regional five-county service-organization headquarters, KCU as the higher-education anchor, Carter County Schools and the $120 million consolidated-high-school capex, the Fiscal Court and the two cities, the dual state-park tourism overlay, the Housing Authority of Olive Hill and the multifamily cluster, the thin outpatient bench inside the absence of any county-resident acute-care hospital, and the Olive Hill Area Chamber referral surface.

Market posture labels
Active in market Institution Out-of-county
Operator
Role
Market posture
  • Carter Industries Inc.
    Olive Hill DOD-prime apparel manufacturer
    Active in market
    198 Caleb Powers Lane. NAICS 315210 and 315990. $40.8 million across 59 DOD awards over three years. Procurement-record context for the compliance-services candidate; not a direct customer.
  • Pennsylvania Apparel, L.L.C.
    Olive Hill DOD-prime apparel manufacturer
    Active in market
    Olive Hill. NAICS 315220. $8.6 million across 89 DOD awards on a high-cadence DLA recurring profile. Corporate relationship to Carter Industries is not publicly confirmed as of May 2026.
  • Northeast Kentucky Community Action Agency
    Regional five-county community-action agency, Olive Hill-headquartered
    Active in market
    539 Hitchins Avenue. Chartered 1965. $19.3 million across two HHS awards. Head Start, Community Services Block Grant, LIHEAP, weatherization, and senior services.
  • FIVCO Area Development District
    Regional ADD chartered under KRS 147A.050, Grayson-headquartered
    Active in market
    32 FIVCO Court. Founded 1968. 25-member board. $190,000 across one DOT award. Regional planning, AAA Title III aging, workforce, FTA 5310 and 5311 transportation coordination, revolving-loan fund, and ARC Local Development District functions.
  • Kentucky Christian University
    Private four-year university
    Active in market
    100 Academic Parkway, Grayson. Chartered 1919. Roughly 500 enrollment. President Dr. Terry Allcorn since 2019 per published KCU communications. Institutional debt elimination announced June 2025. $5.49 million across 11 Department of Education awards.
  • Carter County Schools
    Single county-wide K-12 district
    Active in market
    228 South Carol Malone Boulevard, Grayson. Superintendent Paul Green Ed.D. per published district materials. Roughly 4,000-4,100 enrollment. East Carter High School and West Carter High School. $120 million consolidated-high-school plus career-technical-center capex with March 2026 next-phase groundbreaking; $37 million state earmark; $4.1 million federal-funds rescission in May 2025.
  • Carter County Fiscal Court
    County government
    Active in market
    300 West Main Street Suite 227, Grayson. Judge-Executive Brandon Burton. $389,000 across one USDA award.
  • City of Grayson
    Home-rule city under KRS 83A
    Active in market
    401 North Main Street. Mayor Troy Combs. Roughly 3,700 residents.
  • City of Olive Hill
    Home-rule city under KRS 83A
    Active in market
    225 Roger Patton Drive. Mayor Jerry Callihan, Clerk-Treasurer Steff Thomas, City Attorney Derrick Willis. $234,000 across one DHS award.
  • Housing Authority of Olive Hill
    Public housing authority
    Active in market
    Olive Hill. $1.94 million across 22 HUD awards.
  • Multifamily and senior-housing cluster
    USDA Rural Development and HUD multifamily portfolio
    Institution
    River Run, Logan Trace, Pine Ridge, Chapel House, Friendship House, Pathways Properties, Poplar Plains, and Gateway Homeless Coalition. Roughly $5 million combined over three years.
  • Carter County Emergency Ambulance Service District
    County-level EMS district
    Active in market
    $154,000 across one DHS award.
  • Carter Walk-In Clinic
    Urgent-care and walk-in primary-care
    Active in market
    Olive Hill. One of the only Carter-resident primary-care points of service inside a county with no acute-care hospital.
  • King's Daughters Medical Center (Ashland)
    Regional acute-care hospital — Boyd-resident
    Out-of-county
    Ashland, Boyd County. Primary outbound inpatient and emergency-room destination, 25 to 30 miles via I-64 and US-60. Bellefonte Centre acquired February 2025; $7 million Greenup-resident King's Daughters Health Park opens in summer or autumn 2026.
  • UK St. Claire (Morehead)
    Regional acute-care hospital — Rowan-resident
    Out-of-county
    Morehead, Rowan County. Secondary outbound destination for western-Carter residents, about 30 miles via I-64.
  • Carter Caves State Resort Park
    KDPR state resort park — cave-tour, lodge, cottages, campground
    Active in market
    344 Caveland Drive, Olive Hill. Lewis Caveland Lodge with 28 rooms and 12 cottages plus campground under 2025 renovation. Cave-tour programming across Cascade Cave, X-Cave, and Bat Cave.
  • Grayson Lake State Park and USACE Grayson Lake
    KDPR park on a USACE reservoir
    Active in market
    Carter and Elliott straddle. 71-site campground, Hidden Cove Golf Course, Bruin Boat Ramp, Beech Hemlock and Lick Falls trails.
  • Olive Hill Area Chamber of Commerce and Carter County Times
    Member chamber and newspaper of record
    Active in market
    Olive Hill. Roughly 29 distinct chamber members. The Carter County Times is the local newspaper of record.
05

Acquisition register.

Businesses for sale or near succession in Carter County. The Carter slate runs at founder capital from $75,000 to $650,000. Tier 1 covers the smallest capital lanes with single-credential entry. Tier 2 covers multi-counterparty bundles serving the regional aggregators and the missing-hospital outpatient bench. Tier 3 sits at the top of the founder band where the school capex sibling-trade and the visitor-services portfolio touch real-estate or bonding gates. The bridged list preserves two larger acquisitions to revisit later.

Strongest

Strongest succession signal

  • A solo-founder credentialed-services practice serving the regional Berry-Amendment supplier bench downstream of the two Olive Hill DOD-prime apparel manufacturers. The bundle runs three documents — CMMC readiness, DPAS procedure documentation, and Berry-Amendment chain-of-custody — across roughly 200 to 500 cut-and-sew, narrow-fabric, and notions-distribution establishments across Eastern Kentucky, East and Middle Tennessee, western West Virginia, and southern Ohio. Mid-career DOD-supplier IT-security, quality-systems, or federal-acquisition practitioner with willingness to add the Cyber-AB Certified CMMC Professional credential inside a 9 to 15-month arc. Name withheld pending consent
    DLA-supplier compliance practice — $75K–$200K founder capital
    • Cyber-AB Certified CMMC Professional and Registered Practitioner Organization credentialing
    • Apparel-industry quality-management or Berry-Amendment supply-chain familiarity
    • Working customer base of 6 to 12 active retainers across the regional supplier bench by end of Year 1
    • 18-month working-capital reserve
    Call the DCMA Lexington office and the Eastern Kentucky APEX Accelerator counselor at Morehead State.
Mixed

Some signals, not all

  • A Carter-resident outpatient services bundle composed of five operational lanes — Olive Hill or Grayson primary-care and urgent-care, occupational-medicine and DOT-physical anchored to the Caleb Powers Lane apparel-manufacturing cluster, intra-Kentucky Medicaid non-emergency-medical-transport dispatching to King's Daughters east and UK St. Claire west, rural-telehealth-spoke contracted with a hub system, and a folded licensed-childcare co-location surface. The founder enters one lane at $150K–$400K and adjacents into a second and third lane over months 12 to 24. Name withheld pending consent
    Outpatient and transport bundle for a county without a hospital — $150K–$400K founder capital
    • Nurse-practitioner or MD primary-care provider credentialing, or NRCME-registered occupational-medicine provider, or fleet-operator with KY for-hire passenger motor-carrier authority under KRS 281
    • Kentucky Medicaid managed-care credentialing across the six-MCO panel
    • Carter-resident or Eastern-Kentucky-resident operational base
    • 12 to 18-month working-capital reserve to absorb payer credentialing cycles
    Call the Carter Walk-In Clinic ownership office in Olive Hill and the Kentucky Medicaid NEMT broker carrier-credentialing manager.
  • A two-principal partnership serving NEKCAA in Olive Hill, FIVCO in Grayson, the Housing Authority of Olive Hill, the multifamily and senior-housing cluster, the Fiscal Court, and the two cities. One principal runs facilities-services and compliance-documentation; the other carries the Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 single-audit CPA practice. The combined book runs $200,000 to $700,000 in annual recurring revenue across the dual-aggregator structure. Name withheld pending consent
    Regional-aggregator facilities and single-audit CPA bundle — $150K–$450K founder capital
    • AICPA single-audit qualified CPA on the audit side plus facilities-management or compliance-documentation tenure on the operations side
    • Carter-resident or Olive Hill or Grayson operational base
    • Recurring book stabilized across six to ten counterparties by end of Year 2
    • 12-month working-capital reserve
    Call NEKCAA's executive director and FIVCO's executive director.
  • A three-legged single-fleet operation from a depot in Olive Hill or Grayson. The legs share vehicles, drivers, dispatch software, insurance, and FMCSA compliance — Kentucky Medicaid NEMT through the statewide broker, FIVCO Section 5310 senior routes plus Title III congregate-meal pickup, and Ashland-MSA shift-transport for Carter-resident commuters without reliable personal vehicles. The dual I-64-plus-AA-Highway corridor is the operational reason one fleet absorbs all three legs. Name withheld pending consent
    Carter-resident accessible-vehicle operator — $140K–$320K founder capital
    • Prior NEMT, rural-transit, or school-bus operator tenure
    • Kentucky Medicaid NEMT broker carrier credentialing plus FMCSA driver compliance
    • Two-vehicle launch fleet with one wheelchair-accessible vehicle
    • 60 to 90-day working-capital reserve against Medicaid reimbursement cycles
    Call the Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services NEMT program office and FIVCO's transportation-coordination director.
Long tenure

Long tenure, no exit signal yet

  • A multi-discipline trade practice running across the $120 million Carter County Schools consolidated comprehensive high-school and career-technical-center capex window from March 2026 site preparation through 2030 commissioning. Three lanes — FF&E receiving and install, construction-clean and final-detail, and finishes punch-list — combine with a steady-state floor across the other CCS schools, the KCU campus cycle, municipal scopes, NEKCAA and FIVCO headquarters cycles, and the dual state-park cycles to underwrite Year 1 independent of consolidated-project timing. Name withheld pending consent
    School capex sibling-trade operator — $250K–$650K founder capital
    • Prior multi-discipline crew-management or sub-trade-operator tenure
    • Five-channel public-sector procurement literacy (KSBA cooperative bid, KY Finance Cabinet master agreements, KDE School Facilities Branch BG-process, general-contractor sub-trade buy-out, CCS direct-bid)
    • Payment-and-performance bonding capacity through a regional surety broker
    • Working-capital reserve against general-contractor pay-app cycles
    Call the CCS facilities director and finance director and the KDE School Facilities Branch CCS-project liaison.
  • A multi-anchor visitor-services operator at the intersection of Kentucky Christian University, Carter Caves State Resort Park, Grayson Lake State Park, and the I-64-plus-AA-Highway corridor. Five primary founder lanes — multi-anchor day-tour and shuttle, Carter Caves cave-and-karst guided-experience operating outside concessioner-reserved scope, Grayson Lake paddle and small-boat outfitter, KCU mission-aligned auxiliary and faculty-staff-services vendor-of-record, and an I-64 corridor boutique-lodging or short-term-rental portfolio. Name withheld pending consent
    Visitor-services portfolio across KCU and the dual state parks — $200K–$600K founder capital
    • Prior hospitality or visitor-services operator tenure
    • KDPR special-use-permit literacy and KCU institutional-vendor relationship development
    • KY Tourism license plus passenger-endorsed CDL Class C on the day-tour and shuttle lane
    • 12 to 18-month working-capital reserve
    Call the Carter Caves State Resort Park superintendent's office and the KCU campus-services director.
Bridged

Already-bridged operators — reference benchmarks, not targets

Operators whose succession transitions are publicly executed. Included as the local pattern, not as acquisition opportunities.

  • Two larger acquisitions are preserved for the next pass: an operator-acquirer transaction at a Pennsylvania-Apparel-adjacent DOD apparel-manufacturing operation conditional on confirmation of the corporate relationship to Carter Industries, and a Level-1 textile-testing-laboratory acquisition or roll-up serving the Berry-Amendment supplier bench. Both sit above the founder-tier capital range and depend on facts not yet confirmed. Name withheld pending consent
    Acquisitions deferred for a later pass
    • Pennsylvania Apparel corporate relationship to Carter Industries publicly confirmed
    • ISO/IEC 17025 textile-testing-laboratory acquisition target identified across the Northeast-Kentucky or Mid-South region
    • DLA Troop Support existing-source posture for sustainment NSNs verified
06

What we ruled out — and why.

We ruled these out because each one loses to a stronger candidate already on this list. Four features run side-by-side in Carter: the Olive Hill DOD apparel-manufacturing record, two regional five-county service organizations headquartered inside the county, the absence of a county-resident acute-care hospital, and a single county-wide K-12 district carrying a $120 million consolidated-high-school capex.

Cuts below either credit non-Carter work to Carter, lean on captive-prime dynamics that erase founder margins, displace too many small incumbents at once at sub-scale, or sit above the working-operator capital envelope.

Non-Carter work that should not be credited to Carter

  • King's Daughters Medical Center and Bellefonte Centre redevelopment
    King's Daughters is Boyd-resident in Ashland; the Bellefonte Centre redevelopment is Greenup-resident in Russell. Both are primary outbound healthcare destinations for Carter residents but neither is Carter-resident as a procurement counterparty.
  • UK St. Claire and Morehead State University
    Both are Rowan-resident in Morehead and serve as secondary destinations for western-Carter residents. The Rowan County report carries them.
  • AK Steel/Cleveland-Cliffs Ashland Works and Marathon Petroleum Catlettsburg Refinery
    Both are Boyd or Greenup-resident heavy-industry operations and figure here only as Ashland-MSA outbound-commute destinations.
  • Lewis County Primary Care Center
    Lewis-resident federally qualified health center with a Carter place-of-performance attribution on federal awards. The recipient headquarters is Lewis-resident and the operator is not Carter-resident.

Captive-prime dynamics that kill founder margins

  • Direct DLA prime-contractor competition with Carter Industries or Pennsylvania Apparel
    Both Olive Hill primes hold DLA-prime CAGE codes, DCAA-compliant accounting, DCMA audit posture, and DOD past-performance for the specific National Stock Numbers they fill. The compliance-services candidate sells to the regional Berry-Amendment supplier bench downstream of the two primes, not direct to either prime.
  • Berry-Amendment apparel manufacturing entry at prime scale
    The Berry Amendment fiber-to-finish domestic-sourcing chain requires multi-mill domestic-fiber sourcing plus domestic-thread, trim, and finishing. Entry-cost floor exceeds $1 million and sits above the working-operator envelope.
  • King's Daughters and UK St. Claire enterprise food-service, environmental-services, and laundry contracts
    Both regional hospitals' enterprise-level service contracts are sole-source-locked at the prime tier. Cross-county Carter-resident founder entry against captive primes fails on principal-displacement math.
  • Kentucky Medicaid NEMT broker direct state-prime contract
    The Kentucky Medicaid NEMT broker prime is competed at the state cycle; founder-replication math at the state-prime tier requires multi-state past-performance beyond the working-operator envelope. The accessible-vehicle candidate runs as a Carter-resident sub-tier carrier under existing state primes.
  • KDPR concessioner direct contract at Carter Caves Lodge or Hidden Cove Golf Course
    State-park concessioner contracts are competed via the Kentucky Finance Cabinet eMARS procurement cycle with multi-year past-performance gates. The visitor-services candidate operates outside concessioner-reserved scope on the bill-outside, run-inside-on-permit pattern.
  • School capex general-contractor or major-sub prime contracting on the $120 million CCS project
    General-contractor and major-sub prime contracting is captured at the regional construction-prime tier with KDE School Facilities Branch BG-3 and Kentucky Model Procurement Code 45A compliance posture. The sibling-trade candidate operates at the FF&E install, construction-clean, and finishes punch-list sub-tier.

Mechanics already published in other counties

  • Cumberland Gap National Park outfitter mechanic
    The federal-recreation anchor in Bell is National Park Service Cumberland Gap National Historical Park under NPS Commercial Use Authorization. Carter has no National Park Service unit; the state-park overlay runs under KDPR. Different credential stack.
  • Daniel Boone National Forest outfitter mechanic
    The Forest Service and Army Corps anchor in Rowan is the Cumberland Ranger District plus Cave Run Lake under USFS Special-Use Permits and 36 CFR 251 Subpart B. Carter's federal-recreation surface is the Army Corps reservoir at Grayson Lake under 36 CFR 327 alone; no Daniel Boone footprint.
  • Pikeville Medical Center and UPIKE-KYCOM osteopathic mechanic
    Pikeville Medical Center and the University of Pikeville osteopathic school are Pike-resident. The Pike County report carries them.

Sub-scale founder economics

  • Curated downtown Grayson or Olive Hill specialty retail
    Downtown foot traffic is structurally thin and national-platform competition is heavy. KCU-affinity merchandise is gated by the KCU trademark office.
  • KCU international-student concierge services
    Roughly 500 enrollment carries an international-student cohort well below the take-home-floor economics. Sub-scale.
  • Multi-principal IT managed-services provider across NEKCAA, FIVCO, CCS, KCU, Fiscal Court, the two cities, and the small police departments
    Stacks eight or nine principal types at small scale, each with an existing incumbent. Incumbent-displacement across that many counterparties at small scale does not pencil.
  • Multi-PD body-camera redaction across Grayson PD, Olive Hill PD, and the Carter Sheriff
    Each agency currently uses Tyler, Spillman, CentralSquare, or equivalent; incumbent-displacement across three principals at small scale does not pencil.

Capital wrong-sized for working operators

  • Pennsylvania-Apparel-adjacent operator-acquirer transaction
    Acquisition of an Olive Hill DOD apparel-manufacturing operation conditional on confirmation of the corporate relationship to Carter Industries sits above the working-operator envelope. Preserved on the bridged list for a later pass.
  • Level-1 textile-testing-laboratory acquisition
    An ISO/IEC 17025-accredited textile-testing laboratory acquisition serving the Berry-Amendment supplier bench requires lab-accreditation and method-coverage gates above the working-operator envelope.
  • Medicare-certified home-health or hospice acquisition at the King's Daughters or UK St. Claire perimeter
    Certificate of Need-gated under KRS Chapter 216B with Medicare-certified survey, DME bonding, and transfer-of-ownership gates above the working-operator envelope.
07

Frequently asked questions.

What are the largest employers in Carter County, Kentucky?
Three categories carry most of the payroll. Two Olive Hill DOD-prime apparel manufacturers — Carter Industries and Pennsylvania Apparel — make Nomex flight suits and combat-vehicle-crewman coveralls for DLA Troop Support. Two regional service organizations — the Northeast Kentucky Community Action Agency and the FIVCO Area Development District — operate from inside Carter serving a five-county footprint. Carter County Schools enrolls roughly 4,000 students, and Kentucky Christian University in Grayson runs at roughly 500 students.
Why does Carter County have no acute-care hospital?
Carter is the only county in the reports we've published where no acute-care hospital sits inside the county boundary. Emergency-room and inpatient flows route eastward about 25 to 30 miles via I-64 and US-60 to King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, integrated with UK HealthCare, and westward about 30 miles to UK St. Claire in Morehead, a UK HealthCare satellite since July 2024. The Carter-resident outpatient bench is thin — Carter Walk-In Clinic in Olive Hill and the county EMS district carry most of it.
What business opportunities exist in Carter County under $200,000 startup capital?
Two candidates on this report fit that range. The DLA-supplier compliance practice runs $75,000 to $200,000 in founder capital and sells CMMC, DPAS, and Berry-Amendment documentation to the regional supplier bench downstream of the Olive Hill apparel cluster. The accessible-vehicle operator runs $140,000 to $320,000 and combines Medicaid non-emergency-medical transport, FIVCO Section 5310 senior routes, and Ashland-MSA shift-transport on the dual corridor.
What is the $120 million Carter County Schools capex?
Carter County Schools is merging East Carter High School in Grayson and West Carter High School in the Olive Hill area into a single new consolidated high school co-located with a career-technical-education center. The publicly announced budget is approximately $120 million, including a $37 million state-legislative earmark. Next-phase groundbreaking is scheduled for March 2026 per Carter County Times. A $4.1 million federal-funds rescission in May 2025 affected the site-preparation phase per WEKU and WCHS.
What do NEKCAA and FIVCO do, and why do they matter for business openings in Carter County?
Both serve the same five-county footprint of Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup, and Lawrence from Carter-resident headquarters twelve miles apart. NEKCAA at 539 Hitchins Avenue in Olive Hill runs Head Start, Community Services Block Grant, LIHEAP, weatherization, and senior services. FIVCO at 32 FIVCO Court in Grayson runs regional planning, Area Agency on Aging Title III, workforce development, FTA Section 5310 and 5311 transportation coordination, a revolving-loan fund, and Local Development District functions for the Appalachian Regional Commission. Both carry federal-grant single-audit requirements plus multi-site facilities and compliance-documentation demand.
What is the Berry Amendment, and how does it apply to the Olive Hill apparel cluster?
The Berry Amendment under 10 USC § 2533a requires DOD purchases of covered apparel and textile items to be 100 percent domestic origin from fiber to yarn to fabric to finished article, with chain-of-custody documentation running back to the fiber producer. Carter Industries and Pennsylvania Apparel both operate under that requirement on DLA Troop Support Clothing and Textiles contracts. The compliance-services candidate on this report sells Berry-Amendment chain-of-custody documentation to the regional supplier bench downstream of the two primes, not direct to either prime.
Who runs local government in Carter County?
Judge-Executive Brandon Burton leads the Carter County Fiscal Court at 300 West Main Street Suite 227 in Grayson. Mayor Troy Combs leads the City of Grayson under the mayor-council home-rule form set out in KRS 83A. Mayor Jerry Callihan leads the City of Olive Hill, with Clerk-Treasurer Steff Thomas and City Attorney Derrick Willis serving as published city officials. Superintendent Paul Green Ed.D. has led Carter County Schools per published district materials. President Dr. Terry Allcorn has held the office at Kentucky Christian University since 2019 per published KCU communications.
What are Carter Caves and Grayson Lake?
Carter Caves State Resort Park sits at 344 Caveland Drive in Olive Hill and is operated by the Kentucky Department of Parks and Recreation. The Lewis Caveland Lodge carries 28 rooms, 12 cottages, and a campground under 2025 renovation. Cave-tour programming runs across Cascade Cave, X-Cave, and Bat Cave. Grayson Lake State Park straddles Carter and Elliott counties — the lake itself is an Army Corps reservoir on the Little Sandy River; the surrounding park is KDPR-operated. Together with KCU and the I-64 corridor they form a multi-anchor visitor-services surface.
08

How we read this place.

How we read this place. Carter is a Northeastern Kentucky county of about 26,400 people on Interstate 64 and the AA Highway, between Lexington 130 miles west and Ashland 25 miles east. Grayson is the seat; Olive Hill is the second home-rule city twelve miles away. Four facts shape the report. The Olive Hill DOD apparel-manufacturing record at Carter Industries and Pennsylvania Apparel runs $49.4 million across 148 awards over three years and is a regulatory-pressure source, not a customer for working operators. Two regional five-county service organizations — the Northeast Kentucky Community Action Agency and the FIVCO Area Development District — are headquartered inside Carter, twelve miles apart along I-64. Carter is the only county we have reported where no acute-care hospital sits inside the county boundary; emergency care routes eastward to King's Daughters and westward to UK St. Claire. A single county-wide school district carries a $120 million consolidated high-school and career-technical-center capex with March 2026 next-phase groundbreaking.

Six candidates run at $75,000 to $650,000 in founder capital. They cover the compliance services downstream of the Olive Hill DLA cluster, the outpatient and transport tier compensating the missing hospital, the sibling trades around the school capex, the facilities and audit work for the regional aggregators, the visitor services across KCU and the two state parks, and a single accessible-vehicle fleet on the dual corridor.

Several factual corrections shape the published frame. Carter is the only published county with no county-resident acute-care hospital. The State of Kentucky DOT pass-through carries $44.4 million of the federal-procurement aggregate, with operational personnel at KYTC District 9 in Flemingsburg and private contractors; the work is Carter-resident, but the operating entity is not. The combined $49.4 million Carter Industries plus Pennsylvania Apparel total is procurement-record context, not founder-addressable demand. The Northeast Kentucky Community Action Agency and the FIVCO Area Development District serve the identical five-county footprint of Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup, and Lawrence. Kentucky Christian University announced institutional debt elimination in June 2025. The Daniel Boone National Forest is not Carter-resident; Carter sits east of the forest's primary footprint.

Source families. We pulled the federal business-mix and contracting data, the BLS and Census demographics, the Kentucky Secretary of State business-entity filings, the KDE School Facilities Branch and KSBA records, the FIVCO and NEKCAA published materials, parks.ky.gov and USACE Huntington District records, the HRSA Health Center Program directory and Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services managed-care records, the DLA Troop Support and DOD CMMC published guidance, and the local-news capture from the Carter County Times, WEKU, WCHS, and the Ashland Daily Independent.

Source families
Federal business-mix and top-awardee data (jurisdiction Carter County, FIPS 21043)
Captured May 2026
Census ACS 5-year and County Business Patterns 2024
ACS 2024 release; CBP 2024 vintage
USAspending federal award-level records
Three-year window through May 2026
Kentucky Department of Education School Facilities Branch and KSBA cooperative-bid records
2025-2026
FIVCO Area Development District and NEKCAA published materials
2025-2026
Carter County Times, WEKU, WCHS, and Ashland Daily Independent
May 2025 - May 2026
parks.ky.gov, USACE Huntington District, and Kentucky Tourism Cabinet
2025-2026
DLA Troop Support published item-master, DOD CMMC program guidance under 32 CFR 170, and Berry Amendment 10 USC § 2533a
2024-2026
KCU communications and KCU Board of Trustees records
2024-2026
HRSA Health Center Program directory, Kentucky CHFS, and Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure
2025-2026
FMCSA National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners and Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services managed-care records
2025-2026

Full source register with claim-level provenance is maintained internally and available on request.

09

Acronyms used in this report.

Show all 77 acronyms ↓
AAA — Area Agency on Aging
Older Americans Act Title III designation administered through state units on aging.
ACS — American Community Survey
Census Bureau 5-year estimates.
ADD — Area Development District
Kentucky regional planning structure under KRS 147A.050.
AICPA — American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
ARC — Appalachian Regional Commission
AV — Audio-visual
BG — Building Grant (project-funding form)
Kentucky Department of Education School Facilities Branch construction-document gates BG-1 through BG-4.
CAGE — Commercial and Government Entity code
Issued by the Defense Logistics Agency.
CBP — County Business Patterns
Census Bureau establishment and payroll data.
CCAP — Child Care Assistance Program
Kentucky CHFS subsidy program.
CCP — Certified CMMC Professional
Cyber-AB credential.
CCS — Carter County Schools
CDL — Commercial Driver License
CHFS — Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
CMMC — Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification
32 CFR Part 170 under DOD.
CMS — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
CON — Certificate of Need
Kentucky KRS Chapter 216B.
CPA — Certified Public Accountant
CSBG — Community Services Block Grant
HHS Administration for Children and Families.
CTE — Career and Technical Education
CUI — Controlled Unclassified Information
CWU-27P — Cold-Weather Underwear Type 27P
Nomex aircrew flight-suit National Stock Number designation.
DAIL — Kentucky Department for Aging and Independent Living
DBE — Disadvantaged Business Enterprise
DCAA — Defense Contract Audit Agency
DCMA — Defense Contract Management Agency
DHS — U.S. Department of Homeland Security
DLA — Defense Logistics Agency
DMS — Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services
DOD — U.S. Department of Defense
DOT — U.S. Department of Transportation
DPAS — Defense Priorities and Allocations System
15 CFR 700.
EDA — U.S. Economic Development Administration
FAR — Federal Acquisition Regulation
FF&E — Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment
FIVCO — Five-County (Area Development District)
Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup, and Lawrence.
FMCSA — Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
FQHC — Federally Qualified Health Center
HRSA Section 330 designation.
FTA — Federal Transit Administration
FTE — Full-Time Equivalent
GC — General Contractor
HCBS — Home and Community-Based Services
Medicaid waivers.
HHS — U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
HRSA — Health Resources and Services Administration
HUD — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
ICVC — Inclement-weather Combat Vehicle Crewman
DOD coverall designation.
ITAR — International Traffic in Arms Regulations
22 CFR 120-130.
KCU — Kentucky Christian University
KDE — Kentucky Department of Education
KDPR — Kentucky Department of Parks and Recreation
KEDC — Kentucky Educational Development Corporation
KSBA — Kentucky School Boards Association
KYTC — Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
KRS — Kentucky Revised Statutes
KAR — Kentucky Administrative Regulations
LIHEAP — Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
MCO — Managed Care Organization
Kentucky Medicaid panel.
MEP — Manufacturing Extension Partnership
NIST regional program.
MSA — Metropolitan Statistical Area
NAICS — North American Industry Classification System
NEKCAA — Northeast Kentucky Community Action Agency
NEMT — Non-Emergency Medical Transportation
NIST — National Institute of Standards and Technology
NRCME — National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners
FMCSA DOT-physical examiner program.
NPS — National Park Service
OSHA — Occupational Safety and Health Administration
PSC — Kentucky Public Service Commission
REAC — Real Estate Assessment Center
HUD physical inspection program for public housing.
RPO — Registered Practitioner Organization
Cyber-AB registration.
SAM — System for Award Management
SAM.gov federal contractor registration.
SBA — U.S. Small Business Administration
SSP — System Security Plan
NIST SP 800-171 documentation.
STR — Short-Term Rental
UEI — Unique Entity Identifier
SAM.gov registration.
USACE — U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
USDA — U.S. Department of Agriculture
WAV — Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicle
10

Disclosures.

Items we have not independently confirmed, items under active litigation, and items where the responsible party is not publicly named. Listed so a reader can weight the report accordingly.

  • Unverified Carter Industries current employment level and active-contract status on the CWU-27P Nomex flight suit and ICVC coverall lines
  • Unverified Pennsylvania Apparel corporate relationship to Carter Industries (sister entity, co-located, or independent)
  • Unverified Pennsylvania Apparel exact Olive Hill facility address, employment level, and DLA-contract scope
  • Unverified NEKCAA executive director, finance director, and 2025-26 program-mix detail
  • Unverified FIVCO executive director, finance director, and 2025-26 program-mix detail including AAA Title III service-area performance and revolving-loan-fund activity
  • Unverified FIVCO Transit operating-entity structure (FIVCO-direct, separate nonprofit, or sub-contracted private carrier)
  • Unverified Current Kentucky Medicaid NEMT statewide broker identity and per-mile and per-trip pricing for Carter geography
  • Unverified Current Title III AAA transportation sub-contractor roster under FIVCO and NEKCAA across the five counties
  • Unverified Kentucky Christian University Board of Trustees roster, 2025-26 strategic plan post-debt-elimination, and 2026-27 enrollment
  • Unverified KCU NAIA Mid-South Conference 2026 membership status
  • Unverified Carter County Schools facilities director, finance director, and the consolidated capex named general-contractor
  • Unverified CCS consolidated capex delivery method (construction-manager-at-risk, design-build, or stipulated-sum), guaranteed maximum price, and phased disbursement schedule
  • Unverified Kentucky Department of Education School Facilities Branch BG-3 status and named CCS-project liaison
  • Pending Carter County Schools $4.1 million May 2025 federal-funds rescission operational consequence
  • Unverified Carter Walk-In Clinic current ownership, succession plans, and competitive posture
  • Unverified Big Sandy Healthcare or other Eastern Kentucky FQHC Carter-resident satellite-clinic operational status
  • Pending King's Daughters Health Park Greenup-resident facility opening date and anchor-tenant list
  • Unverified Carter Caves State Resort Park 2026 campground renovation completion and Lewis Caveland Lodge restaurant and banquet operating status
  • Unverified Grayson Lake State Park Hidden Cove Golf Course operating status
  • Unverified Lewis Caveland food-service concessioner identity and contract term
  • Unverified Carter County HUBZone boundary status per the current SBA map
  • Unverified Kentucky Educational Development Corporation Carter and CCS membership status
  • Unverified Ashland Community and Technical College Carter-resident regional center operational status
  • Unverified Carter-resident HUD multifamily cluster current property-management identity across River Run, Logan Trace, Pine Ridge, Chapel House, Friendship House, Pathways Properties, Poplar Plains, and Gateway Homeless Coalition
  • Unverified Kentucky Public Service Commission coverage requirements for for-hire passenger transport in the Carter geometry
  • Unverified Kentucky telehealth-parity and originating-site facility-fee regulation under KRS 304.17A-138 current statutory posture
END
Published
May 15, 2026
Last updated
May 15, 2026
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Independent. Not affiliated with any chamber, EDO, or government office. Reports are dated; investigate on the ground before acting.