The gym is currently part of the Forkland Community Center and is used for community functions.
Danville got the largest part of the money including $200,000 for a sewer distribution and sewage disposal plant, and $60,000 for streets and sidewalks.
City Engineer R.C. Terrell said extensive improvement to streets, oiling, repairing, building drives and completing sewers was part of the road project.
The road project included 147.2 miles for highways, roads and streets, 16 bridges and viaducts; 800 culverts;12 miles of ditch and pipe; 3.13 miles of sidewalks and paths; and 3.13 miles of curbs.
Other plans were to work on three schools; build recreational, garage and storage buildings; grandstands and bleachers; and two playgrounds. The project also was to build water main aqueducts and distribution lines; add 125 water consumer connections, 2.06 miles of sewers, 60 sewerage service connections, 330 sanitary privies and purchase 67 acres for drainage drained.
Open house
The local WPA sewing room over the Danville Laundry on North Third Street sponsored an open house during National WPA Week in May 20-15, 1940, to allow the public to visit the training center and inspect the work room and sewing.
More than 1,570 garments were made and turned over to Boyle Fiscal Court during the past month.
During a dinner the same day, employees of the professional and service division gathered to hear Florence Kerr, assistant commissioner of the WPA, in a radio broadcast
Nursery school projects and adult education classes, sponsored by the WPA, also was open for inspection during National WPA Week.
A tea at the Neighborhood Home was planned with demonstrations in homemaking; and a visit to the black WPA adult education classes on Lebanon Road also was planned.
James Cross, WPA adult education teacher at the Civilian Conservation Corp camp, who is teaching eighth grade, will host open house. H.A. Cocanougher, superintendent of Boyle County Schools, directed the tests for the class.
The WPA library project in Perryville also was open each day during the special week.
WPA helped to generate jobs
The WPA was instituted by PresidentFranklin D. Rooseveltin an executive order under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of April 1935, to generate public jobs for the unemployed.
Between 1935-1943, the federal government appropriated $13.4 billion to provided 8 million jobs for men and women. Only 13.5 percent of employees were women in 1938, its top enrollment year.
During its tenure, workers nationwide constructed 651,087 miles of roads, streets and highways; and built, repaired or refurbished 124,031 bridges, 125,110 public buildings, 8,192 parks, and 853 landing fields.
In addition, workers cleaned slums, revived forests, and extended electrical power to rural locations.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a program designed to address the problem of jobless young men aged between 18 and 25 years old. CCC camps were set up all around the country.
The camp in Boyle County was located on land belonging to Bessie Cecil Delong and Bluegrass Pike. It was expected to house 200 young men to work on local conservation projects in Boyle County.
When the project ended, the WPA had employed more than 8,500,000 individuals nationwide on 1,410,000 projects with an average salary of $41.57 a month, and had spent about $11 billion.
Information for the article also was taken from websites: http://www.ccclegacy.org/; and http://www.u-s-history.com.
