The Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce has announced the recipients for its Annual Awards Dinner, Oct. 14 at Ohio University Southern in Ironton.

The prestigious Business of the Year Award for 2010 goes to Big G Inc. In 1990, Big G Inc. was organized to do business as Pickett Concrete. At that time, there was a plant in Chesapeake and three trucks. John Galloway and his sons, Jim and Todd began updating the plant and establishing a customer base. Pickett Concrete has since been expanded with a plant in Coal Grove and Morehead. Now 25 trucks travel the area with a wide variety of services.

In 1997 Concrete Poured Walls began doing business under the corporate title. This group under the leadership of Jim, does vertical forming and placement of concrete.

In 2008 Premier Precast Products was born. This group manufactures sanitary and storm sewers, box culverts, water storage tanks and much more. John heads up this group.

Today, Big G Inc. has 45 employees and continues to grow.

Receiving the George Patterson Business Person of the Year is Bob Clyse. Upon graduating from college in 1978, from The Ohio State University, Bob joined his father helping to co-manage the Clyse Oldsmobile dealership. At that time the firm had 10 employees. In 1989 the GMC Truck franchise was purchased from Fairchild Buick GMC. In 1993 Bob purchased the dealership from his father.

In 1997 the Pontiac franchise was purchased from Schafer Motors making it Bob Clyse Oldsmobile Pontiac GMC. In late 2007 the Buick franchise was acquired from Greenup Chevrolet Buick. It had been 20 years since Ironton had a Buick dealer. This year the expansion continued with the acquisition of the Chevrolet franchise from Higgins Chevrolet.

Currently, the firm employs 43 people.

Plans are being developed and a major commitment has been made to General Motors for an extensive showroom and facility upgrade at the former Higgins’ Chevrolet property. The plan is to relocate the Bob Clyse showroom by the summer of 2011.

The chamber is proud to present the Business Entrepreneur award to co-recipients for 2010. Riverside Physical Therapy with locations in Proctorville and South Point is being recognized for its faith in Lawrence County and the business community. Riverside is an outpatient clinic specializing in the treatment of orthopedic and spine disorders. Joe Lambiotte manages the Proctorville location with Scott Coffman in charge of the South Point operation. Continuing its aggressive approach to expansion, Riverside will be move its operation to a new building on State Route 7 directly behind Three Gables Surgery Center.

The move should take place by early next year. It will be a larger facility which will allow for further growth.

Tri-State Rehab Services is also a recipient of the Business Entrepreneur of the Year award. Tri-State Rehab was founded in 1997. Owners Joe Isaac and Paul Castle started the company with the goal of providing quality physical therapy while adding a personal touch to their services.

The firm’s mission is to provide the highest quality of physical therapy possible. Joe and Paul strive for 100 percent customer satisfaction while conducting business in an ethical, honest and efficient manner.

Tri-State works towards bettering the community where it operates by becoming involved in philanthropy and other worthwhile causes.

Tri-State Rehab has locations in Ironton, New Boston, Ashland, Louisa, and Huntington.

The Chamber will present its annual Public Servant of the Year Award to the Lawrence County Solid Waste District. Dan Palmer, Stephanie Helms, Steve Hileman, Mike Conaway, and Jeff Crippen make the wheels go around. “The Clean Machine” provides a vibrant and energetic effort in making the entire county a more beautiful and pleasing place to live.

The crew at the solid waste district has gone well beyond their scope of operation to dive deep into downtowns and villages and their beautification efforts.

The district has responded quickly and efficiently to the needs of numerous volunteer agencies and their own cleanup projects.

For the first time, the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce is handing out a Young Professional of the Year Award. The LCYP is a new sub-committee of the Lawrence Chamber. The initial award is being given to Casey Baker.

Casey is a native of Lawrence County and saw the need for a young professionals group in the county he grew up in. He is now president of the group and has been instrumental in its success over the first year of existence. Casey is an attorney for Huddleston Bolen in

Huntington. He has been an associate with the law firm since 2008. His primary practice areas are in business and transactional law, specializing in real estate, bankruptcy, commercial, tax, and corporate matters.

The LCYP’s claim to fame in 2009 was the planning and implementation of the “Secret Santa” project. Through the program, more than 400 needy children were given clothing and toys at Christmas.

The awards dinner will be held at OUS in Ironton in the Riffe Building, Mains Rotunda.

The reception will begin at 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 p.m. The keynote speaker for the evening will be Andrew Doehrel, president and CEO of the Ohio State Chamber of Commerce.

Bringing greetings from the Coahila Chamber of Commerce in Mexico will be its director, Miguel Monroy. Reservations must be made in advance.

There will be no admission the night of the dinner. Please RSVP to the Chamber of Commerce at 740-377-4550. The reservation deadline is Oct. 11. The cost is $35 per person.