Features
- Features
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Mike Goff has had many meanderings in Pulaski County
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Online campaign aims to get 8-year-old girl a new wheelchair, special equipment for van
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Motorsports Hall-of-Famer’s life affected by late Cornett
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County Farm Cemetery is revisited
- Annual Pulaski Farm Bureau breakfast is held
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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. -
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.
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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. -
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. -
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.
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