Summer

Traffic is moving a bit slower on the Mountain Parkway and likely will for the remainder of the summer. One lane in each direction will be kept open during the construction of a bridge, but the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Department of Highways announced the closures will keep traffic slowed around the 10- and 11-mile markers on the Parkway. The construction is part of the Mountain Parkway and Kiddville Road Interchange Project. The lane closures took effect May 8 and are expected to remain in place for approximately four months, according to a press release from the cabinet.

One of my favorite outdoor activities is working in my own vegetable garden. I was very fortunate to grow up as the son of a vegetable farmer. As part of that experience I was heavily involved in my family's gardening operation. I still have many memories of family moments with my mom, dad and sister. That experience taught me that gardening is a great family activity. Of course the garden was a bit larger than the traditional small backyard garden but, I have often thought about what others were missing out on. Many people today do not know where their food comes from, or what it takes to produce the food that they purchase.

The Jessamine County YMCA is introducing specialty camps this summer, providing weeklong experiences to delve deeper into sports and science. Program director Caitlin Keck said she wanted to start the offerings after seeing the popularity of the organization's activities during the school year and the lack of programming in the summer. “We have our soccer leagues in the spring and the fall, and we have our basketball leagues -  they're all a certain time of the year, and in the summer, we don't have anything for them, really,” Keck said.

One of our most popular activities, 4-H summer camp, is enrolling now.  July 8-11, we will be taking about 100 local youth to Boyle County 4-H summer camp at the J.M. Feltner 4-H Camp near London, along with other 4-H'ers from Lincoln and Powell counties. The deadline is  June 14, but we've already filled about 25 percent of our beds. Our theme this year is “4-H University” and activities, costume and decoration contests will feature campus highlights such as Greek life, Game Day, a Toga Party, Rush and even Formal.

Boyle County High School principal Will Begley knows coming off a NIT loss rather than a national championship might not create quite the same buzz for the John Calipari Satellite Camp at Boyle June 10, but he also knows Kentucky basketball fans. “I don't know what kind of crowd to expect, but Kentucky is Kentucky and fans love their hoops and love coach Calipari,” said Begley. Due to gym capacities there will be a limited number of spots available for the nine camps across the state, including the one at Boyle.

The quiet of summer after commencement at Asbury University won't last long - the school is launching a program of eight residential camps for high-schoolers in early June. Asbury piloted the idea last year with a couple film camps. This year, it has added a broad sampling of other offerings and branded the program “ImpactU.” “We want to serve the community and then also give high-school students an opportunity to experience Asbury in a residential setting and get a little taste of different majors and focuses,” said Mark Troyer, Asbury's vice president for enrollment management.

Families in Jessamine County will soon have a new option when it comes to care for their elderly loved ones. Bridgepointe at Ashwood Groves, set to open this summer, will offer assisted living apartments and day-care services. About two dozen people attended a luncheon held on Monday to give information to those interested. Bridgewood, which will be operated by Christian Care, will offer pastoral care as part of all its services, according to a presentation given at the luncheon.

Construction on the long-awaited Cheddar's Casual Café near Walmart will begin in the next few months, Danville officials announced Wednesday. Representatives of Greer Companies, a Lexington-based firm with eight Cheddar's locations in Kentucky, have been trying to get the new restaurant off the ground for years. Complex planning and zoning issues have stalled the process. Jody Lassiter, president and chief executive officer of the Danville-Boyle County Economic Development Partnership, gave the news at Wednesday's EDP meeting.

Dean's List Spencerian College - spring and summer, Chris McPherson, of Harrodsburg, biomedical engineering technology.

WILMORE - It's no big news Asbury University sent students to help broadcast the London Olympic Games this summer - the institution has had students working in broadcasting for every Olypmics since 1984. What was big news was that of the eight journalism students who went across the Atlantic in July, one was from Garrard County. Courtney LeMay, now a senior, is majoring in media communications as well as journalism and thought her chances of going to London were gone when she didn't hear back about going with the media-communications department.