Avery Countryman is first baby of 2012

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The first baby born in Somerset in 2012, Avery Countryman, is pictured with some of the gifts from Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital. Little Avery was born at the hospital at 1:47 a.m. on New Year’s Day.

January 7, 2012

Anonymous Commonwealth Journal The Commonwealth Journal Sat Jan 07, 2012, 08:41 AM EST

Somerset — One local couple welcomed a new baby into their family —and the community welcomed the first birth of 2012 as well.

Jessica and Hunter Countryman were excited to welcome Avery Countryman, who was born at 1:47 a.m. on New Year’s Day at Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital. Avery weighed 5 lbs, 9 ounces.

Avery and her mom were showered with gifts from the hospital in recognition of Avery’s arrival as the first baby born at LCRH in 2012. The Treasure Chest also provided a bouquet of a dozen pink roses for mom.

“Each time a new baby is born, there is certainly cause for celebration,” said Susan Ramsey Wilson, LCRH director of marketing and community relations. “But, the first baby born in the New Year is always extra special.”

Wilson noted that the New Year’s baby is symbolic of the joy brought by all the little ones born throughout the year.

“We deliver some 1,600 babies each year at Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital,” she stated, “And Avery certainly has gotten us off to a good start for 2012.”

Avery joins a big brother, Christian, age 6. Avery’s maternal grandparents are Eric and Bonnie Bell and Wilma and HobertWoods. Her paternal grandparents are Debbie Countryman and the late George Countryman.

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Water Hazard
Money is in the federal budget for continued normal operation of the Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued safety guidelines for hundreds of fishermen who enjoy trout fishing in the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam.
James Gray, project leader for the hatchery, said there have been no recent accidents below the dam. However, last summer, sudden opening of a sluice gate overturned a boat and a man and woman had to be fished out of the water, he said.
Fishing from the bank and from boats is highly popular immediately below Wolf Creek Dam. The often turbulent waters are teeming with rainbow trout stocked from the nearby hatchery.
Continued operation of the nearby trout hatchery was in doubt last year because $6.3 million to operate the facility at Wolf Creek and eight other national fish hatcheries was left out of the FY12 budget. The money has since been restored, Gray noted.
The hatchery at Wolf Creek produces 1 million trout each year with an annual budget of $907,000. “We’re operating normally,” said Gray.

March 22, 2012 1 Photo
Historic Masonic building gets well-deserved facelift
The large crane reaching to the top of the Masonic Building downtown is lifting workmen this week as they repoint bricks on the west side of one of the oldest structures in Somerset.
Bricks and mortar on the face of the Masonic Building reportedly are more than 120 years old. The building at 104 North Main Street just north of the courthouse was renovated or rebuilt about 1890 when it was purchased by Somerset Masonic Lodge No. 111.
There are conflicting memories whether an old hotel building, called the National Hotel, was torn down and the existing Masonic structure was built at the site, or whether the building, reportedly in bad state of repair, was renovated by the Masons. Herb Stone, a Somerset plumber who took care of the building for 40 years, said the original building definitely was renovated.

March 1, 2012 2 Photos
E'town execs offer hints to help resurrect Virginia Cinema
Like a slow-moving film plot, progress on the long-defunct Virginia Cinema seems to drag. Like the quest of any movie hero, the road to renovation is filled with obstacles and potential pitfalls.
But film-lovers know that the cavalry always rides in to save the day ... and local officials are hoping to find a little extra help from out of town as well.
The offices of the Downtown Somerset Development Corporation hosted a couple of special visitors on Wednesday: Emily West and Heath Seymour from Elizabethtown, Ky.
Apropos to their town’s on-screen heritage (given the 2005 movie “Elizabethtown,” based on the western Kentucky community), the two were on hand to help share their own experiences renovating a deserted movie theater and turning it into something citizens can be proud of — the same thing Gib Gosser, executive director of the Downtown Somerset Development Corporation (DSDC), hopes can be done with the Virginia Cinema on East Mt. Vernon Street.
“The Virginia Cinema project has really been floundering over the last six or seven years,” said Gosser. “We’ve been trying to get it off the ground and there’s not been much progress.”
Enter West and Seymour. West is the executive director of the State Theater in Elizabethtown — its version of the Virginia Cinema, a grand old movie house that had fallen into disrepair after it closed in the early 1980s — and Seymour is Elizabethtown’s counterpart to Gosser, as executive director at Elizabethtown Hardin County Heritage Council.

February 23, 2012 1 Photo
Unearthing History
“It’s a little curious.”
Martin Shearer, executive director of the Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation, was talking about apparent tunnels and walkways beneath the ground where the former Ferguson Shops were located. The development foundation, current owner, is preparing the land for possible industrial sites on property vacated by Crane Company in 2006.
“To rehabilitate the area, we’ve got to find out what’s below,” said Shearer. Both he and Mark Bastin, assistant executive director, admit to be completedly confounded by the unexpected, man-made cavities beneath the surface.

February 23, 2012 2 Photos
Oasis Cafe opens at Eagle Heights
Officials and well-wishers gathered Saturday morning to celebrate the grand opening of the Oasis Cafe with a ribbon cutting. The cafe, located on 115 Jordan’s Way off Ky. 914 and near Eagle Heights Church, is a full service restaurant with a lunch a dinner menu. Cafe will become the “Hope Kitchen” Monday through Saturday between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and will serve free meals to those in need. The Oasis Cafe is located at the same campus at the Oasis Care Center and Thrift Store.

February 19, 2012 1 Photo
Refining Moment
The plant manager of Somerset Refinery, evolving into Continental Refining Company, is one who Pulaski countians would call “one of us.”
Kristopher Gibson, son of Doyle and Deidra Gibson, is a native of Somerset. So is his wife, the former Kristen Flynn. Both Gibson and his wife are graduates of Somerset High School. They have two little Pulaski countians with another on the way.
Kristopher –– everybody calls him Kris –– knows his way around Somerset Refinery. He started working at the refinery as “summer help” in 1994 while still in high school.
Gibson earned his way up through the ranks in the maintenance department; as process operator and then operations manager. In 2006, Gibson left Somerset to work for Marathon Oil in Catlettsburg. He returned to Somerset Refinery in 2008 as plant manager.

February 16, 2012 3 Photos
Howl About That
A growing population of wild hogs has recently been making news in western Pulaski County while coyotes, a more widespread pest, continue to be a problem in many parts of the county.
Wayne Adams, who lives on Pitman Road off Ky. 192 along Pitman Creek, is totally frustrated with the number of coyotes around his place. He believes one of his dogs has been killed by coyotes, and he killed a coyote Sunday night attacking his other dog.
“I’ve got a night light outside and we feed our dogs out there,” said Adams. “Coyotes come into his yard all the time ... we see them.”
Adams said his little Blue Heeler, an Australian cattle dog, disappeared about a month ago and he is convinced coyotes killed him. His other dog, a mixed Blue Heeler and collie, was attacked by a coyote Sunday night shortly after dark.

February 15, 2012 1 Photo
A Sister Among Brothers-In-Arms
Somerset Police Department on Monday officially welcomed the first female officer in nearly two decades into its family.
“Make no bones about it, we take care of each other as brothers, and we’ll take care of our sister too,” said Acting SPD Police Chief Major Doug Nelson during Monday’s Somerset City Council meeting.
Newest SPD officer Courtney Brittle took the Oath of Office during the meeting from Pulaski District Court Judge Jeffrey Scott Lawless with a generous number of family and friends in attendance.

February 15, 2012 2 Photos
A Ray of Sunshine
Katelyn Collins has a smile that can light up a room, and it seems to do just that wherever she goes.
“She’s just so happy,” said Lisa Criswell, a Hopkins Elementary School 3rd grade teacher, who has worked with Katelyn for almost two years. “All the kids kind of feed off (her).”
Katelyn, a third-grade student at Hopkins, has seen her fair share of obstacles. She was born four months early in 2001 to mother Tawana Collins. She was one of a set of twins. The other twin did not survive.
Katelyn was born with several health issues.

February 12, 2012 2 Photos
Newspaper veteran name Publisher of Commonwealth Journal
SOMERSET — A fourth generation newspaperman has been named publisher of the Commonwealth Journal.
Rob McCullough, 50, who started working in a newspaper mailroom when he was 15, officially assumes his duties today. He succeeds Jack McNeely who has accepted a position with the Daily Mountain Eagle in Jasper, Alabama.

February 2, 2012 1 Photo
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