BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BELLEVIEW BOTTOMS -- Four years ago, Chuck Baker was climbing the corporate ladder at a Cincinnati bank.

Chuck Baker, who owns Belleview Grocery, chats with lunch customers John Mieman, center, and Dan Fancis. (Patrick Reddy photos) | ZOOM |

Long hours. Low pay. Lots of stress.

"I was in it," said the affable Mr. Baker, "but I didn't like it."

So he dropped out of the rat race and into Boone County's Belleview Bottoms, trading his management job and 32 employees for a country general store that had seen better days.

"My buddies thought I was nuts or they laughed at me," he said, smiling as he retells the story.

"But it was the best thing I ever did. I love it down here.

"I love Belleview."

Belleview Bottoms is a 20-minute drive from Florence, the epitome of Northern Kentucky's surging growth over the past two decades. Yet this simple, pretty, quiet country town that sits between the drifting Ohio River and the tree-covered hills of western Boone County could easily be found in one of the commonwealth's more rural counties.

"I love it here because it's still country," said lifelong resident Marty Mitchell as he ordered a sandwich at Mr. Baker's Belleview Grocery, the place locals refer to simply as "The Store." Mr. Mitchell, 35, loves to hunt the plowed fields, steep hills and sandy riverbanks for Native American artifacts. He had two arrow heads clasped in his fist and another on a piece of leather around his neck as he paid for his lunch.

"Found these today," he told a visitor as he slowly opened his hand. "Usually, if you look hard enough you can find something."

Over at the Belleview Baptist Church, which has been around for more than 100 years, Pastor Steve Alford has a simple answer when asked what he likes about the town.

"Because people are like family down here," said the Rev. Mr. Alford, a low-key man who rests his hands on his rectory desk as he chats.

"I know people always say that about small towns, but it's true. People will talk to you, help you out, care about you, but they don't bother you or get too noisy. It's real nice. It's why people like it here," he said.

"You find a place like this, you stay," said Joyce Depue, a teller at the Bank of Kentucky branch on Ky. 18, the main road through Belleview Bottoms.

"We came over a few years ago from Monfort Heights (outside) Cincinnati, and we just love it. It's country, but you're still 20 minutes or so from the stores and the mall and the city."

Ms. Depue prides herself on knowing just about everybody who comes in the picturesque bank building, notable for its huge vault. "If they come up here and I don't know them," she laughs, "they're probably lost and looking for directions."

Roy Mobley, 64, has lived in the Boone County hamlet of Bellview Bottoms for more than 25 years. | ZOOM |

Located along the river between Petersburg and McVille and not too far from Rabbit Hash, Belleview Bottoms is an unincorporated hamlet that boasts a school, two churches, a bank, a taxidermy business, two cemeteries, some ball fields, a volunteer fire department and "The Store."

"Who wants something to eat," Mr. Baker chortles to the crowd at his lunch counter, on usual days a mix of locals and truck drivers from the nearBY sand and gravel pit.

The menu includes hamburgers, deli sandwiches, pizza, fish sandwiches, french fries -- even prime rib on "Evenin' Eats" night, a sign out front proclaims.

Mr. Baker, 38, is a Ludlow native who had no experience in the grocery business and had never lived in the country. But he and his wife, Donna, and their three boys -- Matt, 14, Mark, 12, and Luke, 8 -- love the 26-acre tract they bought, the house they built and the store they bought, cleaned up, fixed up and doubled in size two years ago.

"At first I just couldn't picture myself doing this and living in the country," Mr. Baker said, as he served up what looked to be an absolutely delicious cheeseburger.

"Now, I can't imagine doing anything else or living anywhere else."

Small-town life suits, even amuses him. "I think I have the only fax machine in Belleview," he laughs.

Well digger Pat Mackey, 44, doesn't say what he likes about Belleview. He shows it.

"You want to know why I live here?" he asks a visitor to town. "Go drive down Middle Creek Road where I live. You'll know why." Maybe a mile from the store, Middle Creek Road winds off of Ky. 18 -- the main road into Burlington and on to Florence -- like the unseen snakes that probably slither among the moss-covered trees alongside the pavement.

Middle Creek is swollen this day from the recent spring rains and rushes BY houses and barns that sit far from the road, a winding, narrow stretch of pavement that looks like it can't handle more than one car at a time.

A mist hangs over the tops of the trees and the only sounds are the fast-paced water and the sweet song of a bird hidden deep among the dark green flora.

Pat Mackey has made his point.

It is this natural setting, this small town life, that residents hope is not fleeting.

The growth that has transformed so much of Boone County from rural to suburban is pushing out from Burlington, down Ky. 18 toward the bottoms of Belleview.

Residents here still "haul water" to their homes, Ms. Depue says.

But if city water lines are ever laid all the way to Belleview Bottoms, along with the convenience will come development.

"That's all that's really kept us from growing too much now," Mr. Baker said. "People in other parts of the county are subdividing farms and selling them off for houses.

"You can't really blame them. And it's probably inevitable that it will happen here, too" he surmises with a quick shrug of his shoulders.

"But until it comes, we'll just keep enjoying life the way it is. Because life sure is good in Belleview."