Highway

HARRODSBURG - It's official. The stretch of U.S. 68 from the intersection of 152 to the Boyle County line is now the Charles H. McGinnis Memorial Highway. The highway was dedicated Monday morning in front of the Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Church on U.S. 68. "This is one of the greatest honors anybody could get," said Troy McGinnis, son of the late judge-executive. Charlie McGinnis, as he liked to be called, lost his two-and-a-half-year battle with cancer in September 2003.

Dear Editor, Who is responsible for cutting trees away from a state highway? To me it is elementary - the state. But it is not done. I've talked to a Garrard County magistrate about my problem of trees hanging over the road so you can't see to get out of my driveway for more than a year and a half. And still no trees have been cut back away from the highway. The trees hang over the guardrail on Ky. 52 west of Lancaster. It's a guessing game to pull out onto the highway.

To the editor: As a resident who has traveled U.S. 68 from the county line to Ky. 29, ferrying my children back and forth to school for the past 16 years, let me thank everyone involved from funding to construction for providing a safe and attractive highway to navigate after years of treacherous trips on the old road. While I am a cautious driver, I don’t understand the need for the extremely conservative 45 mph speed limit. That seems excessively slow for such long expanses of highway with few intersections.

Ky. 52 east of Danville was temporarily shut down Tuesday afternoon after a woman crashed her car into a utility pole. Boyle County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene to discover the woman had lost control of the car while going around a curve. Police said the wet highway played a factor in the accident. The woman was not injured and refused transportation to the hospital. Police said the utility pole was damaged, and the highway was closed while cleanup took place.

— In addition to the structure fire detailed on page A1, firefighters also responded to an injury accident at 2:43 p.m. Sunday on Highway 15 past Pilot View Elementary School

Jackie Dale Owens was reportedly taken to Fort Logan Hospital Sunday afternoon then airlifted to the University of Kentucky Hospital, but on Tuesday the university hospital had no record of him. The Harley-Davidson Sportster he was driving collided with a Nissan pickup driven by Jordan Smith. No charges were filed in the accident, which occurred at Carpenter Road and Highway 698 at about 4:20 p.m. when Smith tried to turn left and the two vehicles hit head on, said Dep. Chad Smith. Smith said he found no evidence that Owens was wearing a helmet.

The annual McKinney Family Reunion will take place Saturday, July 26 from mid-morning until late afternoon, at Jackson's Chapel United Methodist Church, Spout Springs on Highway 82 between Hargett and Clay City. A potluck dinner on the ground will begin at 12:30 p.m. All descendants of Wilde McKinney and Elizabeth Jane Matthews McKinney are invited to bring a dish and participate to get to know members from other branches of the family tree and to help fill in gaps in the genealogy database.

WAYNESBURG - A 16-year-old Lincoln County High School student died Friday of massive head injuries as a result of a motorcycle crash, said Lincoln County Coroner Bill Demrow. Sheriff Curt Folger said Luke Slone, of 760 Ky. 1781, was riding a dirt bike on the highway near his home. Slone popped a wheelie and lost control of the bike, Demrow said. He was not wearing a helmet and died of massive head injury around 7 p.m., Demrow said. Folger said that Slone had recently bought a helmet, but had left it at home.

Dear Editor: In the July 29 issue of The Advocate-Messenger, Ali Ahmad-Hukle wrote an important letter with information citizens of Danville needed to know. He wrote about how upset Mayor John Bowling became when a member of the audience, the Rev. Steve Wolfgang wanted to speak on the subject that was being discussed, that of highway improvements on East Lexington Avenue. Bowling wanted Wolfgang to wait until the end of the meeting, but Commissioner Jamey Gay suggested that this was the appropriate time for comments concerning the highway.

The "Kick-Off" weekend for the Lincoln County Area Wide Crusade will be Saturday and Sunday, March 17 and 18. The Building A Successful Family Conference will be held from 6:30 till 8:45 p.m. on Saturday, March 17. The families of our community are welcome and encouraged to come. There will be a Believers' Rally on Sunday, March 18 at 4:00 p.m. This event is designed to bring together the people of our churches to build enthusiasm and encourage participation in the crusade itself.

Ky. 52 east of Danville was temporarily shut down Tuesday afternoon after a woman crashed her car into a utility pole. Boyle County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene to discover the woman had lost control of the car while going around a curve. Police said the wet highway played a factor in the accident. The woman was not injured and refused transportation to the hospital. Police said the utility pole was damaged, and the highway was closed while cleanup took place.

BURGIN - By action of the Kentucky General Assembly, Ky. 152 in Mercer County will be designated the Jack Coleman Sr. Memorial Highway. The portion of roadway is from milepoint 10.976 to mile point 18.894.  The sign will be unveiled in a ceremony 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Burgin School gymnasium. Members of Coleman's family and Rep. Kim King also will attend. Coleman was born in Mercer County and played basketball for the University of Louisville from 1947 to 1949. After averaging 14 points per game in his final season, Coleman was drafted by the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball Association.  He played for nine seasons in the NBA with the Rochester Royals and the St. Louis Hawks, amassing 6,271 points, 5,186 rebounds and 1,749 assists.

LANCASTER - Proposed improvements to U.S. 27 in Garrard and Lincoln counties may be years away, but hundreds of residents interested in how the project will impact them and their communities showed up for a hearing Tuesday night to see the latest plans. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's most recent preferred alternative, on display Tuesday during a public hearing at Garrard Middle School, would make U.S. 27 a four-lane, divided highway from the intersection with Ky. 34 at Camp Dick Robinson in Garrard County to the U.S. 150 bypass in Stanford, including creating a western bypass around Lancaster.  Project manager Ananias Calvin III with the Transportation Cabinet's District 7 office, said the work, estimated to cost about $138 million, would likely be done in three phases starting at Ky. 34 and heading south.

Clinton Roberts, grandson of Clint and Margaret Fisher of Danville, joined the U.S. Navy as a Seabee right after graduating high school in Frankfort in 2010. Since then, he's been to Chicago, Afghanistan and Spain. But it was in Southern California where Roberts and his team provided a miraculous saving hand for a woman and her two daughters. In January, a semi-truck traveling down a California road and loaded with gravel hit a BMW from the rear before plowing through a bridge railing, falling 100 feet and bursting into flames.

Several local roads and bridges are slated for upgrades or replacement as part of a two-year, $3.5 billion transportation budget passed Friday by the Kentucky House of Representatives. House Bill 267 will likely see some changes as it works its way through the Senate, where it was received Monday, but many officials said they are pleased with what they've seen so far and confident that vital projects will get the necessary funding. Among the biggest projects in the biennial spending plan is the long anticipated Ky. 33-Ky.

Volunteers will be out in force next week to spring clean District 7 highways. The Transportation Cabinet announces that Adopt-a-Highway Spring Clean Week will be March 18-24. “The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet appreciates the efforts of our Adopt-a-Highway volunteers who help keep our highways and communities beautiful and litter-free,” Transportation Secretary Mike Hancock said. Nearly 800 groups participate in Kentucky's Adopt-a-Highway program, which was established in 1988.

Lincoln may seem like a quaint county, with its autumn dressed street corners complete with mums and bright orange pumpkins. During the month of October, just as the leaves change colors and fall to the ground, the county, too, changes into an ominous place. Trick-n-treat in Lincoln tends to be more trick than treat. Bob's Place Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch is the first stop along this frightful trip through the county, located on KY 78, across from the Stanford Drive-In. All right, probably not really a scary destination at all, unless you have a fear of getting lost in corn fields.

I think, I believe and I know that it is outrageous for homeowners in Junction City to have to pay $60 for drinking water, and then pay $80 for pouring it back down the sewer every two months. If this isn’t highway robbery, I will eat my hat! Homeowners in Danville think they have it rough in paying for utilities. They need to move to Junction City or Perryville for a while and see how they like these high water and sewer bills. I saw in the paper today that water rates may go up to an extra $4 per month in Danville.

STANFORD — The state Transportation Cabinet will honor a fallen Stanford police officer by erecting signs on U.S. 150. Signs honoring Gary E. Kidwell, who was killed in the line of duty during a traffic stop in 1991, will be placed at the Lincoln-Rockcastle county line where U.S. 150 intersects with Copper Creek Road. The signs, which will go up in 30 days, will say “In Memory of Officer Gary E. Kidwell.”  Kidwell, who was 41, was fatally wounded the night of Jan. 20, 1991, on Goshen Road in Stanford by Thomas Wade Watkins of Stanford.