By Vanessa Overholser - Staff Writer
CNHI
March 16, 2010 — A new Dairy Queen (DQ) restaurant is coming to downtown near the campus of Morehead State University. Demolition of the former Jerry’s parking lot began Saturday.
During a meeting with the Morehead-Rowan County Lakeview Heights Planning Commission Feb. 26, DQ owner Steve Caudill and store manager Perry Prather met with the commission to present and discuss plans for the DQ to be constructed next to the Gattis Pizza on Main Street in Morehead.
“Everything is a go,” said Prather Friday afternoon during a telephone interview. “They should be doing some demolition today.”
Prather said he was very excited about Morehead having another DQ in town.
“It's pretty amazing,” Prather said. “I have always wanted to have a DQ toward downtown. We are going to name it the Eagle DQ and we will name the one by the high school the Viking DQ.
“I am from here and so I knew this location,” Prather said. “ I grew up here. All my life it was always at the other end of town.”
Prather said he wanted all of the customers who enter the new restaurant to feel at home.
“This is their hometown DQ,” he said. “I feel like DQ belongs to the town and the community. That is how we want the people to feel like.”
The idea to bring another DQ to the Jerry’s lot in Morehead came about during a meeting with property owner Roger Thomas, Prather added.
“We had dinner and talked to Roger about the property about six months ago,” he said. “Since I am from here. I knew Roger and I knew that the Jerry’s property was available.”
Caudill paid $500,000 for the property, he added.
“We are very excited about coming here to Morehead,” Prather said on the behalf of Caudill and the DQ crew. “We are going to bring some jobs to the community.
“I love Morehead,” Prather said. “I am glad to come to Morehead. I can't wait to get it going.”
The construction project will take 90 days to complete. The completion date is planned for June 15. The DQ crew plans to open the restaurant by July 1, he said.
“This new DQ building is going to be state of the art,” Prather said. “We will provide quick and quality service to our customers. We will be competitive. We will bring a good service to Morehead. We intend to be second to none.”
Prather said the process for obtaining the approval form the planning commission for the construction of the DQ restaurant has been smooth.
“They were great to work with,” he said. “We are extremely happy with the commission.”
The DQ store will bring 62 jobs to the downtown area. There will be 60 crewmembers and six managers hired.
