NEW HARTFORD - Perhaps Kathy Ackerson personifies New Hartford in her determination to come back.

During a time when the Butler County town of about 700 is whirring back to full vigor after last summer's tornado and subsequent flood, so is Ackerson, a two-time survivor of cancer who recently launched her own screen-printing business, Outer Galaxy, at 404 Packwaukee St.

Ackerson, 57, has been in the screen-printing business for about 20 years. But during all that time, she said, she worked for somebody else.

Now she's on her own.

She launched Outer Galaxy in February.

"The other place I worked at they used chemicals, and I got cancer twice, and I left there and my kidneys were shutting down," she said.

She's not certain any of the chemicals brought on separate bouts with breast and ovarian cancer.

Nevertheless, in her own operation, she uses "environmentally safe" chemicals in her own screen-printing process.

"I use soy-based chemicals, which are quite a bit more expensive but, healthwise, it's quite a bit better for me and the environment," she said. "It doesn't have the side effects for your kidneys and liver, breathing it daily."

Last summer's flood actually wiped out another business venture - a day care in which Ackerson was involved.

"The flood went through, and we had 3 feet of water," Ackerson said. "I didn't feel comfortable opening it back up."

Between the flood and the expensive morass of state regulations, Ackerson opted out of the day-care business.

But she also didn't want to leave the eight children under her daily charge stranded, she said, so she helped find other day-care situations for the children.

Then she went about the task of cleaning up the building and readying it for her current business venture.

"We had lost computers and everything else, so we totally gutted and redid everything," she said.

Rebuilding took awhile, she said, because there was no flood insurance to cover losses.

"Mainly it was buying programs, computers, equipment, a vinyl cutter," she said. "You can stick $30,000 into it real easy."

Costs aside, it was an opportunity for her to do what she really wanted to do: screen printing.

"I wanted her to," said her husband, David. "She enjoys doing it. She's creative. She'll pick up stuff people like and creates something on the computer. They like it and buy the stuff."

She opened the business Feb. 20.

"It's been slow but picking up," Kathy Ackerson said.

A lot of her customers are from the Dike-New Hartford vicinity, she said.

"I have great customers," she said. "We have a lot of them who are local."

Ackerson has turned out T-shirts for the New Hartford Fire Department and designed signs for the New Hartford Diner, which opened for business in January.

The business also can churn out vinyl lettering and banners, Ackerson said, adding that there may be some interest among area little-league baseball teams for shirt orders.

"We're a very tight-knit community," she said. "Everybody is there to help anybody that needs help. That's one good thing about living in a smaller community."

That spirit is helping New Hartford climb back from the misery of last summer's weather onslaught, said Gordon Ballhagen, a longtime member of the City Council.

"It's nice to see cars downtown," he said. "We're not quite there yet, but people are rebuilding."

Ackerson's business is illustrative of the comeback, Ballhagen said.

"Any business in the city is a great thing," he said. "It brings other people, other business into town. It's good for the town. It's all good."

Contact Jim Offner at (319) 291-1598 or jim.offner@wcfcourier.com.