Representatives from Pulaski County Judge-Executive Barty Bullock’s office were in Frankfort Wednesday trying to get money to extend county-maintained boat ramps and assure drinking water supplies while repairs are underway at Wolf Creek Dam.
Deputy Judge Donnie Girdler and Administrative Assistant Lori Hines said they discussed the situation with Senate President David Williams and Sen. Vernie MaGaha of the 15th Senatorial District which includes Pulaski County. Williams lives in Burkesville and is acutely aware of the Lake Cumberland situation, Girdler noted.
Girdler and Hines said they made the following requests to the Governor’s Office of Local Development (GOLD):
. $300,000 to extend 11 of the 23 boat ramps maintained by Pulaski County. A dozen of the 23 ramps are so far out of the water that it is not feasible to construct extensions.
. $600,000 to enable Western Pulaski County Water District to provide water to Alligator Boat Dock No. 1. The dock is planning to move to the Jabez community and into the water district’s service area. Some $100,000 of the money would be to lay an 8-inch line across Fishing Creek, an improvement necessary to service the marina.
. More than a half million dollars to assist the city of Somerset with a $1.2 million project to extend its water intake at Waitsboro in case Lake Cumberland has to be pulled down about 30 feet lower than at present. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has advised all communities that get water from Lake Cumberland to be prepared by December 31 in the unlikely event that the lake is forced to 650 feet above sea level. The level is now at about 680 feet.
. Get an undetermined amount of money to assist the city of Burnside with a $673,000 project to lower its intake on Pitman Creek to the creek channel.
. $150,000 for the Bronston Water Association to extend lines to at least seven houses where wells have gone dry since the lake has been lowered.
Girdler and Hines said Gov. Ernie Fletcher has directed communities affected by the low lake level to submit estimates of the cost of necessary projects. They said the House of Representatives did not put anything in the budget for the water projects and they want the Senate to include the requests in a line-item budget.
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County officials seeking repair funds for ramps
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Big Bang Theory
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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