Wilmore

The Wilmore City Council has vowed to focus on the pending budget issues plaguing the city and define a plan in the next few weeks that may be hard to swallow but could be the best medicine for the small Jessamine County community. On the second and fourth Monday of every month, until the final approval of the budget in July, the council will meet in a special session to go over each line item in the proposed fiscal year 2013 budget and compare it with FY 11's and FY 12's budgets.

It's been just more than four months since a massive tornado tore through the western Alabama city of Tuscaloosa, killing dozens. In all, more than 240 died in Alabama in the tornado outbreak April 27. While a short period of time has passed, much work is left to be done, and Wilmore-based GO InterNational is seeking 10-12 volunteers for a mission trip scheduled for Oct. 16-23. “Homeland Missions is a new field for us,” GO president Bert Jones said. “GO has typically been international, but we really believe the Lord is leading us in this direction for the last year or so.” Jones said stateside missions can reach another segment of people who cannot afford international trips.

A rainy Monday morning didn’t slow down a group of Wisconsinites who are using their spring break to renovate an outdoor pavilion for a Christian group in Wilmore. The structure was known as the old children’s tabernacle during the 120 years the property was owned by Wilmore Camp Meeting. Confrontation Point Ministries purchased the 9-acre tract on East Main Street in October, and executive director Andy Bathje said the pavilion was the first major renovation the organization wanted to take on. “The former children’s tabernacle here — or outdoor pavilion, as we’ve been calling it — was just in really bad shape; it was just an eyesore in general, and we thought it would be something that we could kind of flip and improve,” he said.

To the editor, I am writing this letter to share my disappointment for a crime that took place in Wilmore a few weeks after my family and I moved here. My bike was stolen right off of our back porch. We called the police and told them what had happened. Our neighbors also had three bikes and their car stereo stolen. A couple months after my bike was stolen, one of my dad's professors suggested that someone out of town stole it and sold it to a pawn shop or for spare parts.

The Wilmore City Council took a step forward in the process of approving a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, passing the first reading of the budget written by chair of budget and finance Jim Brumfield Monday night. Several allocations will be different from last year’s budget the way it stands right now — city employees would get a 2-percent raise, the budget would include funds to contribute to the school-resource-officer program for Jessamine County, and Wilmore residents would see a 4-percent increase in their water and wastewater fees.

The question over whether the city of Wilmore should take over the public cemetery operated by the C.E. Crouse family for more than 50 years is still unresolved. During a special-called workshop Monday night, council members bantered back and forth on the subject, with one side feeling the city has a moral obligation to take it over, while the other side insisted that it would not be in the city's best interest fiscally. There was added pressure to Monday's workshop, when Mayor Harold Rainwater told the council that he had received an email from the Crouse family indicating that the end of its operational management was imminent.

The Wilmore City Council agreed to the immediate demolition of the structure at 101 S. Maple St. Monday night in what Mayor Harold Rainwater said was an urgent requirement. The property, formerly the home of Crouse Concrete, Inc., was recently purchased by the city, with the lien satisfied by the bank and the deed put in the records on March 15. Abandoned for more than a decade, the face of the building is ghostly and its gravel parking lot sits on South Maple Street between several well-maintained homes.

In honor of National Salute to Veterans Week, U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler toured the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore and visited with residents on Monday afternoon. The congressman met with a handful of vets, some of whom had served as far back as World War II, and asked them about their tours of duty.   “I deeply appreciate your service more than you know,” he said. “It's not just me that appreciates your service; there are a lot of people out there that appreciate your service.” Chandler also shook everyone's hands while listening to their stories of battles and friends lost.

With the task of creating a budget looming, Wilmore city leaders haven't decided if they can support financially a school resource officer program in Jessamine County middle and high schools, Mayor Harold Rainwater said Monday. "You're throwing us a curve this late in the (fiscal) year," he told Superintendent Lu Young, Nicholasville Mayor Russ Meyer and Maj. John Branscum of the Nicholasville Police Department after they requested a potential $50,000 from the city council. "I'm not sure how we're going to respond to it, but I strongly support it (the SRO program)

Wilmore residents have begun making an adjustment to a new practice. Lori Hudson, DC, opened Higher Health Chiropractic Wed-nesday in her office at 405 N. Lexington Ave. Hudson, who graduated from Texas Chiropractic College in Pasadena, Texas, specializes in sacral occipital techniques, a practice that uses adjustments of the spine to cure ailments ranging from back pain to headaches. "I really want to help people in Wilmore to feel better," Hudson said. Hudson, a member of the American Chiropractic Associa-tion, said she decided to come to Wilmore after her husband suggested it. I was looking for a place to open up my practice," Hudson said.