■ The Jessamine County Chamber of Commerce annual awards dinner was Jan. 24 at the R.J. Corman Hangar in Nicholasville. The winners for 2012 are: Rob Amburgey, Civic Award; Horne Engineering, Small Business of the Year; Safety Resource Officers Jacob Jones, James "Griff" Howard, Billy King, and Sam Wade, President's Award; Kentucky Underground Storage Inc., Industry Award; Connie Sunda, Service Award; Dave Latham, Hall of Fame; S&S Tire, New Business of the Year; Geri Polvino of Edward Jones, Outstanding Business Leader of the Year; Sam's Club, Business of the Year; and Cathy Lowe, Chamber Ambassador of the Year.

■ Messer Construction Co. has been recognized by the Tri-State Minority Supplier Development Council, as Agavé Keystone Corp. of the Year with less than 1,000 employees for the eighth year in a row. Messer was chosen by a panel of certified minority business owners for its inclusion efforts in both Louisville and Lexington.

In 2012, Messer had a total corporate supplier diversity spend of almost 12 percent, or about $85 million.

■ More than 20 employees of the Big Ass Fan Co., ranging from engineers to sales personnel, have passed LEED certification exams. Most recently, 16 members of the sales staff have earned the LEED Green Associate credential.

Newly certified LEED Green Associates are Dusty Bailey, Allison Blanton, Jessica Brinkman, Justin Burhoop, Jason Carroll, Cory Creekmore, Jessica Czirr, Ginna Dombroskas, Chasidi Eason, Brad Holbrook, Jason Hollan, Cory Kress, Joe Lacny, Thomas Lesser, Lance Piper and Jeff Proctor.

LEED Accredited Professionals include Josh Eddy, Isaac Fedyniak (LEED AP BD+C), Dawn Harrington (LEED AP DB+C), Brian Smith and Christian Taber (LEED AP DB+C).

■ United Way of the Bluegrass has named Stites & Harbison as the inaugural winner of the Raising the Bar award. The firm raised nearly $20,000 for the United Way campaign with the highest participation per capita among all local law firms.

Raising the Bar is a new initiative at United Way of the Bluegrass as a way for Lexington-area law firms to "raise the bar" on their community outreach efforts.

Compiled by Dorothea Wingo