Archive for the ‘Garrard County’ Category

Congratulations to the Garrard County boys’ basketball team, which had a record 13 3-pointers in their 102-51 win over Lynn Camp on seniors night tonight.

Nathan Mick in Garrard County’s economic development office has taken on Tyler Lane, a January 2011 graduate of Centre College from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Tyler will work with Nathan on economic development for at least 20 hours a week until May 6. Some of the things Tyler will be doing with Nathan include:

Mr. Lane will be assisting with continued efforts to recruit businesses to Garrard County; updating and improving the GrowingGarrard.com website; marketing Garrard County events and updates through social media and the Garrard County online community calendar; conducting business research; volunteering for projects and events in partnership with the Garrard County Chamber of Commerce; and helping to represent the Garrard County Economic Development Office at meetings and events in Garrard County and throughout Central Kentucky.

The Lancaster city council discussed a bunch of different things last night, including:

• Chief Allen Weston’s plans to add three part-time officers while cutting back on overtime costs
• Donald Aldridge’s request to modify a school water bill that was thousands of dollars more expensive than usual because of a leak that drained more than 700,000 gallons
• A vet who wants to use the old hospital emergency room in city hall for a monthly spay/neuter clinic because the animal shelter doesn’t have space and he doesn’t work with the humane society anymore
• The need to complete installation of a pair of lagoons at the water plant to solve an EPA violation by December of this year
• The need to replace or upgrade a sand filter at the sewage plant that’s backing up the system

Stories on all these things are coming down the pipe soon, with a story about Weston’s policies and plans landing in today’s paper.

Garrard County School Board Member Joe Brown has been honored by the State School Board with the Proudfoot Award for outstanding school board member.

From the Herald-Leader article:

Brown has served 24 years on the Garrard school board, the past decade as chairman. During his tenure, the district built new middle and high schools and three elementary schools. He also led the board through three superintendent searches.

Congratulations Joe!

An upcoming Garrard County agricultural event this summer is hoping to find more sponsors so they can lower admission prices and provide advertising for businesses.

The Field to Fork Festival is going to be a day-long event that combines several different aspects into something unique. Event organizer Deborah Messenger (formerly president of the Paint Lick Sportsman’s Club) told me there will be booths where businesses can put themselves on display, a farmers market providing locally grown food from throughout the area and workshops focused on everything agriculture, from starting with the right soil all the way up to how to sell your goods. It seems like an event that blends well with Garrard County’s prominent agricultural base and focus on local production. Pike Valley Farms is one of the local food producers participating.

Even people who don’t have a farm can come and learn how to grow their own food in their back yard or on their front porch. “You can produce enough in a square foot to feed a family of four and a lot of people do not realize that,” Deborah told me.

Deborah said right now the admission price is set at $35 because of the costs associated with putting on the event. But if enough sponsors can be found to provide $3,000 in funding for the event, the admission price can be knocked down to $10 per person, opening up the festival to a lot more people. “We have tried to make this economically feasible regardless of someone’s purse,” she told me.

Businesses, organizations or individuals interested in helping to sponsor the festival have three different sponsorship levels available, each with its own amount of advertising and perks. If you’re interested, you can check out the sponsorship levels here, or check out more info about the festival in general here.

A departing message from Amy Cloud for Garrard County:

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Garrard County Chamber. It was truly with a heavy heart that I accepted this new position. The folks in Garrard County welcomed me with open arms from day one and I loved every minute of it. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity in Jessamine County and for that reason only, would I leave my friends in Garrard County.

Amy Cloud, who has worked part-time for the Garrard County Chamber of Commerce, is going to take over as the Jessamine County Chamber of Commerce director. The move was announced recently at the Jessamine County chamber’s annual awards banquet. I’ll be talking to Amy for some more info soon. In the meantime, the Jessamine Journal has a story about Amy’s appointment here.

UPDATE: Just got the following info from Natasha Lacy with the Department of Transportation. The slide was on the northbound side of U.S. 27 this time — the opposite side from last time. The slide was approximately the size of a pickup truck bed. A Transportation Cabinet road crew finished cleaning up the slide this morning, after Camp Dick firefighters cleared the road last night. Natasha said the slides occurred well outside the limits of the U.S. 27 widening project, so construction is probably not to blame.

Ronnie Wardrip just confirmed there was another rockslide on U.S. 27 last night, and several vehicles were damaged. There was a rock slide on U.S. 27 on Jan. 18, 12 days before this one. I have a call in with the state department of transportation office in Lexington and I’m waiting to find out more details, including whether construction on the new U.S. 27 is causing these slides.

Bluegrass 911 dispatch confirmed rocks fell last night and hit at least one truck, causing unspecified damage. Deputies and Camp Dick Fire Department responded to the scene. It looks like Camp Dick probably moved the rocks out of the roadway since the road cleanup crew couldn’t get there until the morning.

The story in the Advocate about Bluegrass 911 looking to expand is here. You can check out some of my raw notes from my interviews with John Wilson and Rockcastle Judge-Executive Buzz Carloftis here.

I’m working on a story about a pair of father/son duos who work at the Garrard Ambulance Service, along with another story about the recently completed Ambulance Service building expansion and the emergency operations center that’s been installed there.

I’m also learning about Garrard’s efforts to merge Rockcastle County’s 911 services into Bluegrass 911, which would make it a three-county 911 service.