Somerset — Summer break is now a thing of the past for students of all major local school systems. Science Hill and Pulaski County youngsters are more than a week into the 2009-2010 school year, while students at Somerset Christian School and those in the Somerset Independent school system returned to classes this week, on Monday and Wednesday, respectively.
Somerset Superintendent Dr. Teresa Wallace and public relations director Cloyd Bumgardner agree that the first day of school for Somerset Independent students was a smooth one.
“It was uneventful,” Bumgardner noted. And that’s just what school officials were hoping for.
Students at Hopkins Elementary — 549 of them — were welcomed to school by returning principal Fonda Crawford.
The 406 students at Meece Middle School will be getting to know their new principal, David Horseman, while visitors to the school will be getting used to a new check-in procedure. Visitors must now speak to a secretary at a window in the lobby before entering the school.
Somerset High School’s 471 students also have a new principal following the retirement of long-time Somerset employee Jeff Perkins. Mark Murray moved into the principal’s office July 1.
“The buses operated smoothly, our teachers are hard at work, and our principals are busy learning the students’ and parents’ names,” Bumgardner said.
Local News
Somerset students are back in class
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Pulaski County is not at war. The booming you may hear at dusk is mock cannon fire to scare away birds.
Stuart Spillman, environmental director for the Lake Cumberland Health Department, said at least three cannons are on loan from the department to residents who want to scare away swarms of starlings and blackbirds settling in to roost.
He said a cannon is being used by a resident on Laura Lane off Ky. 39; another is in the Oak Hill Road area and a third is on Ashurst Street in the eastern part of Somerset.
Spillman said a timer on each cannon allows it to “fire” at whatever frequency is desired. The cannons must be used as the birds circle before going to roost. “After they settle in, nothing will chase them out,” Spillman said.
The Health Department doesn’t operate the cannons unless there is a specific complaint in an area where there are lots of birds, Spillman noted. He said so far this year the birds are not as bad as in the past. -
Boil water advisory is lifted countywide
The water controversy that Pulaski County has been boiling over — so to speak — for the last week is finally over.
At 10 minutes after noon Wednesday, the “boil water” advisory for the Western Pulaski Water District was lifted — almost a full week after the problems began around 1 p.m. last Thursday.
Prior to that, the Somerset Water Service — along with the other water providers in its system, including Science Hill Water, Southeastern Water, and Eubank Water — lifted their advisories, with Somerset on Saturday afternoon and the last, Southeastern, by Monday morning. Western Pulaski was the last in the system to complete sample testing for potential contaminants, due to not being able to access its Pikeville-based testing lab until Monday.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler thanked the public for its patience and understanding during the duration of the boil water advisory — put in place to keep citizens from drinking water that could have been contaminated after an accident last Thursday at the water plant site — and also thanked all the city employees for their hard work during this time.
“The boil water advisory went about as well as would be expected,” said Girdler.
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