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Pumpkin patch kids
Found: 1 Month 1 Week 5 Days 15 Hours 17 Minutes ago
Bowling Green Daily News - Photos by DAVID W. SMITH, The Daily News
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Four-alarm fire chars acres of land
Found: 2 Months 1 Week 1 Day 6 Hours 45 Minutes ago
Evansville Courier & Press - More than 75 firefighters fought a grass fire in Warrick County Sunday.
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Grass fire burns 40 acres
Found: 2 Months 1 Week 1 Day 12 Hours 6 Minutes ago
Evansville Courier & Press - NEWBURGH ? About 75 firefighters from departments in three counties battled a grass fire south of Victoria National Golf Club Sunday.
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Try-Athlon keeps kids active
Found: 2 Months 2 Weeks 2 Days 4 Hours 31 Minutes ago
Bowling Green Daily News - The temperature was in the 60s and a stiff breeze was blowing as 40 children jumped one at a time into the pool at Russell Sims Aquatic Park on Saturday for the first leg of the Kid’s Try-Athlon and Fun Run.
Twelve-year-old Ryan Osborne, who came across the finish line first in the final segment of the event - a run - was a bit short on breath, but said the water had been fine.
Ryan hadn’t trained for the event, so his parents, Kani and Rick Osborne of Bowling Green, wanted to make sure he walked around enough to prevent cramps.
“You need to keep moving,” his dad said. “Have him keep his arms up; he can breath easier,” his mom added.
Kani Osborne commented to friends that Ryan had been behind some in the swim but was able to gain ground in the biking with his long legs.
Other children crossed the finish line grabbing at their sides; a few were smiling as their tan little bodies crossed the line.
Kurt Tyree, 9, and Will Tyree, 8, hadn’t really trained much for the event, except the swimming portion - as part of a swim team.
Participating in the event had been Will’s idea, according to parents Robyn and Craig Tyree of Smiths Grove.
“His uncle is a triathlete, so he has always wanted to do this,” Robyn Tyree said.
Standing on the sidelines of the pool before the race began, Robyn Tyree asked her husband how deep the pool was - 4.5 feet.
She signaled Will to stretch out on his dive so he wouldn’t go too deep in the pool.
Ann Lundy Games, 13, of Bowling Green was one of the oldest competitors, since 13 was the cutoff. She used to run cross country and likes to bike and swim, so the event was a natural for her, she said. Her mom, Aimee Games, said she was just hoping that Ann Lundy would make it across the pool.
Friends Angel Semirck, 11, and Emily Nole, 11, said they were looking forward to the event.
Angel of Woodburn was there with mom, Stephanie Semirck, and Emily of Bowling Green was with parents Renny and David Nole.
Angel said she tries to encourage her friends and family to be active.
“All my cousins are in this,” she said.
Emily says she is eager to participate in physical activities.
“It helps you in the future,” she said. “You will be in shape and live longer.”
The event was sponsored by The Healthy Weight Kids Coalition of Southern Kentucky - a coalition of health-related professionals and organizations with the goal of preventing and treating the serious problem of obesity in children.
— For more information about the organization, call Dr. Rick Voakes at 782-7577 or visit www.healthyweightkids.org.
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Taxi owner ready to roll
Found: 2 Months 3 Weeks 5 Days 16 Hours 20 Minutes ago
Bowling Green Daily News - Taxi service could be returning to Bowling Green as early as Thursday.
Dan Spears, the owner of Franklin Taxi, said he anticipated the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet would grant him the authority this afternoon to operate the taxi licenses he purchased Aug. 19 at an auction of Yellow Cab’s assets.
Spears said a conversation he had Tuesday with the cabinet’s deputy director of legal services indicated it was likely he would be granted the temporary authority to operate 50 cabs in Bowling Green and its suburbs. He also anticipated that the state will approve transferring five additional certificates from Yellow Cab - two to allow transport of disabled people in Warren County, two for all trips originating in Simpson County and one for trips originating in Woodburn.
“We’ve done everything we could to satisfy the paperwork end,” Spears said.
If approval is granted as Spears expects, he hopes to be able to dispatch cabs to Bowling Green as early as Thursday.
Temporary authority to operate lasts six months and involves filing paperwork with the transportation cabinet.
Spears said permanent authority is also granted through the cabinet, with the applicant submitting a letter of formal request, proof that the business is insured, supporting documents proving the community needs the service, a list of other businesses performing a similar service in the area and how they might be affected by an additional provider.
Spears said he has obtained letters of support from local officials and state legislators stating the need for Franklin Taxi to serve the area.
Bowling Green lost Yellow Cab when it closed suddenly July 26. Former owner Joe Boyd, who incorporated as Royal Coach Enterprises and did business as Yellow Cab, previously told the Daily News that rising fuel costs, increasing insurance rates and decreasing Medicaid reimbursements led to Yellow Cab’s demise.
The taxi company’s primary customer base was Medicaid patients who rode for reduced rates to doctor appointments.
The state-appointed Medicaid travel reimbursement broker changed July 1 from Somerset company LKLP to Owensboro-based Green River Intra-County Transit System, which resulted in Yellow Cab’s reimbursements being reduced by half.
Spears, who had been operating a seven-vehicle fleet in Simpson County as Franklin Taxi, outbid 12 other potential buyers in an auction of Yellow Cab’s certificates Aug. 19 at Citizens First Bank in Bowling Green by Ron Kirby Auctions.
He also bought a seatless van for disabled riders at an auction of the company’s 42 vehicles and various office equipment Aug. 19 at Kirby Auto Auction in Franklin, though the remaining vehicles went to numerous other buyers.
“I’m trying to get geared up so we can hit the road with 15 vehicles in addition to the vehicles I operate in Franklin,” Spears said.
Spears said he is building his fleet primarily with Toyota Scion xB cars, along with vans for disabled riders purchased from local and out-of-state dealers.
Several of Yellow Cab’s former drivers found employment as drivers for GRITS, transporting riders for non-emergency medical services.
Former Yellow Cab drivers who remained unemployed have inquired about openings at the expanded Franklin Taxi, Spears said.
During the weeks the city was without Yellow Cab, Community Action of Southern Kentucky began offering a temporary taxi service, though that service was severely limited.
“We hope the cab company meets the needs of the residents,” said Donna Tooley, director of transportation for Community Action of Southern Kentucky. “We believe offering choices to the community benefits everyone.
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Festival of Sand
Found: 2 Months 4 Weeks 1 Day 20 Hours 46 Minutes ago
Bowling Green Daily News - Giant sand sculptures, a massive sandbox and a mountain of sand dominated the scene Saturday during Community Day for Scotty’s Contracting and Stone’s Festival of Sand, held outside Russell Sims Aquatic Park.
Sand was not the only draw at the festival, though, as there were free activities, games for children and a chance to enter a raffle for $10,000.
The seventh annual festival is one of the largest fundraisers for Kids on the Block, a nonprofit educational puppet troupe that offers programs in elementary schools to teach students about physical challenges, medical conditions and social and safety issues.
Nine teams representing different corporations, churches and schools worked Thursday and Friday to build sand sculptures representing something related to Kids on the Block’s educational program.
For example, Briarwood Elementary School, which won first place in the sculpture competition among schools and churches, built a structure about safety. It featured the school’s mascot, a husky, sitting atop a lifeguard chair overlooking a swimming pool, while another husky sat poolside with a safety rope to keep watch on a swimmer.
“We hope we’re going to have a lot of people coming through here,” said Kids on the Block executive director Debbie Hays shortly after Community Day began Saturday morning.
Spending the better part of two days pounding sand into forms and sculpting a figure in temperatures that reached the mid-90s proved to be exhausting but rewarding work, according to Hays.
“Briarwood felt their design was a little more than they could do, but they were amazed that they had done it,” Hays said.
In addition to the school/church and corporate sculpture contests, the festival awarded a Bowling Green Choice Award to the team whose sculpture earned the most public support through the purchase of “sand dollars” for $1 apiece to help support Kids on the Block.
The winner was St. Joseph Catholic School, whose sculpture got public support amounting to $169. Briarwood Elementary came in second with $141.
Also, Community Day was the first dfor people to register for a raffle to win $10,000 - the drawing will be held at another Kids on the Block fundraiser, Twilight Thunder Cruise, on Sept. 20.
Teams had several weeks to practice their sculptures, working from drawings and receiving assistance from master sculptors, led by Greg Mills, a professor of construction management at Western Kentucky University.
On Saturday, Mills and his team of sculptors were completing their own sculpture - an Olympic-themed creation featuring an intricately detailed Chinese dragon and three Kids on the Block puppets, on an Olympic medal stand with the Great Wall of China in the background.
Mills said there were challenges in teaching the finer points of sculpture to the teams, but those obstacles were overcome quickly.
“The hardest part is that most kids in art classes are drawing two-dimensional pictures on paper,” Mills said. “Once you get them thinking about art in 3-D and getting used to that concept, things turn out pretty darn decent.”
Susan Tweedy of Bowling Green attended Community Day with her children Ian and Grace, who both attend T.C. Cherry Elementary School.
“We’re here to support our school,” Tweedy said. “Can you imagine being out here all day ... in the heat, working with sand on the blacktop for such a good cause?”
Winners included:
Corporate Division — Scotty’s Contracting and Stone, first place; Pan-Oston Company, second place; Houchens Insurance Group, third place.
School/Church Division — Briarwood Elementary School, first place; Woodburn Baptist Church, second place; St. Joseph Catholic School, third place.
Other participants were Adairville Elementary School, T.C. Cherry Elementary School and Todd County Middle School. St. Joseph also won the Spirit Award.
Bowling Green Choice Award — St. Joseph Catholic School, first place; Briarwood Elementary School, second place.
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Shifting sands at annual fest
Found: Minutes ago
Bowling Green Daily News - Sweaty and caked with grime, Frank Wright smiled when he reflected on the effort he and his partners put forth Friday for Scotty’s Contracting and Stone’s Festival of Sand at Russell Sims Aquatic Park.
“At first I thought we’d just come out here, work at the sand a little bit and, boom, we’d have something,” said Wright, the youth minister for Woodburn Baptist Church.
Instead, Wright and members of other churches, businesses and schools spent the better part of Friday completing their sand sculptures in the seventh annual festival.
Proceeds from the festival benefit Kentucky Kids on the Block, a nonprofit, educational puppet troupe that offers programs on physical challenges, medical conditions and social and safety issues for children in kindergarten through sixth grades.
Nine teams built sand sculptures at the festival Friday, most of them beginning their work Thursday night, pounding giant piles of sand and mixing them with water to create casts from which figures would be carved.
Each team’s model represented something related to Kids on the Block’s educational programs.
Wright’s group focused on a sculpture addressing childhood obesity, coming up with giant models of characters from the Christian animated film series “VeggieTales,” urging children to “eat your veggies.”
The sculpture earned the church second place in the school/church team division at the awards ceremony held late Friday afternoon.
Debbie Hays, executive director for Kids on the Block, said the festival is the primary fundraiser for her organization - last year, the event raised more than $30,000 to fund programs at local elementary schools, and Hays wants to improve on last year’s numbers with this festival.
“Most of the teams came out (Thursday) night at 6 p.m., pounding out and bonding sand until 10 o’clock,” Hays said. “This is hard work and it’s hard to get teams to commit and spend two days off work doing this. Everybody was so tired at the end of (Thursday) and here they are again still working.”
About 200 tons of sand were trucked in Thursday by Scotty’s, according to company vice president Mike Law.
Jane Watts, administrative assistant for Pan-Oston Company in Bowling Green, helped her team build a sculpture addressing the issue of single parenthood - two dinosaurs napping in the shadow of one of their parents.
“You see so many divorces and single parents today, but this is something that’s always been with us,” Watts said. “People back then had to survive that way, too.”
The group from T.C. Cherry Elementary School built a sculpture highlighting diversity, with a sand sculpture of a globe wearing a graduation cap, surrounded on either side by sculptures of Kids on the Block puppets - one wearing a Chinese rice hat and the other wearing a Mexican sombrero.
T.C. Cherry kindergarten teacher Lara Mattingly said the sculpture, “Hats Off to Diversity,” was a collaborative effort of students and teachers, with some practice sculptures built beforehand.
“We thought that the theme of diversity tied well with what happens every day at the school, since students are interacting with each other and living in a diverse world,” Mattingly said.
The top three finishers in both the corporate and school/church finishers were recognized Friday, but the festival continues from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. today with Community Day.
The day will feature food vendors, free children’s activities, tattoos, face painting, a duck pond and basketball. A cornhole tournament will be from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and requires a $20 registration fee.
Also, the sculptures will remain on display and the public, for $1 per vote, can have their say in the Bowling Green Choice Award.
Winners Friday included:
Corporate Division — Scotty’s Contracting and Stone, first place; Pan-Oston Company, second place; Houchens Insurance Group, third place.
School/Church Division — Briarwood Elementary School, first place; Woodburn Baptist Church, second place; St. Joseph Catholic School, third place.
Other participants were Adairville Elementary School, T.C. Cherry Elementary School and Todd County Middle School. St. Joseph also won the Spirit Award.
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Hot, dry conditions perfect for brushfires
Found: 3 Months 16 Hours 2 Minutes ago
Bowling Green Daily News - Recent dry, hot weather in the region has created conditions that increase the risk of grass or other outdoor fires.
The city of Bowling Green has had nine natural vegetation fires that have started thus far in August, said Marlee Boenig, spokeswoman for the Bowling Green Fire Department.
Most of those started in mulch and at least one was started by discarded cigarettes, she said. All of them were small and were put out with either a small amount of water or a fire extinguisher.
“We’ve been lucky so far. Things could have been worse,” Boenig said.
The problem is often that people don’t realize how dry the vegetation is outside as it nears drought conditions, she said.
A lot of people in the city also aren’t aware that they need to get a permit to burn brush - fires that, under current conditions, could get out of hand, she said. With the permit, the fire department provides rules for outdoor burning, such as making sure to soak the area near the fire’s location.
Right now, however, it’s best that people not start any outdoor fires, said Bob Skipper, chief of the Woodburn Volunteer Fire Department.
“We had one call where they had a fire in the backyard the night before and the embers from that fire caught the front yard on fire the following morning,” Skipper said.
Part of the danger this year is that last year’s dry weather is still having an impact, Skipper said.
“The pond(s) on my farm and on a lot of other farms I’ve seen are lower this year than they ever got last year,” he said.
Last year, conditions were dry enough that exhaust from farm equipment could have started a field fire, he said. And though this year hasn’t seen that level of dryness, it may not be too far away. There is reason for hope, however: The National Weather Service is reporting a 30 percent chance of rain through Wednesday.
According to the Kentucky Drought Monitor, done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Warren County is currently classified as abnormally dry, as are Logan, Edmonson and parts of Barren and Butler counties. Simpson, Allen and part of Barren are listed as being in a moderate drought, while the majority of Butler County is not classified as dry at all.
Even though Allen County is dry, it hasn’t resulted in more fires so far, said Mike Cooksey, chief of the Scottsville Volunteer Fire Department.
“I can’t remember the last time that somebody had a field fire around here,” he said.
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Cab service returning
Found: 3 Months 3 Days 8 Hours 15 Minutes ago
Bowling Green Daily News - Franklin Taxi owner Dan Spears assumed ownership Tuesday of Bowling Green’s Yellow Cab, buying the defunct taxi company’s certificates in an auction by Ron Kirby Jr. at Citizens First Bank on Ashley Street.
The certificates will allow Spears, who has owned Franklin Taxi and its seven-vehicle fleet for four years, to operate 50 cabs in Bowling Green and its suburbs. Two certificates will allow transportation of disabled people in Warren County, two for trips originating in Simpson County and one for trips beginning in Woodburn.
Spears said other bidders among the 13 who registered for Tuesday’s auction walked away with the other five certificates for sale, which included two to transport disabled people for trips originating in Barren County and one each for trips originating in Smiths Grove, Metcalfe County and Edmonson County.
Spears declined to disclose how much he paid for the certificates.
“I initially want to open with 15 new cabs and five vehicles (to transport disabled passengers) and eventually work back close to the same numbers Yellow Cab had,” Spears said shortly after the auction, adding that he intends to continue doing business as Franklin Taxi.
Before the auction, James Carter, a former dispatcher for Yellow Cab who is now unemployed, passed out business cards to most of the people who had registered for the auction.
“I hope that Bowling Green gets cab service back, the transportation situation improves and I get a job,” said Carter, who had worked for Yellow Cab for 24 years under three different owners. “I need to put some beans in the pot, so to speak.”
Yellow Cab has been dormant for more than three weeks, shutting down suddenly July 26.
Joe Boyd, former primary owner of Royal Coach Enterprises, under which Yellow Cab operated, had said a combination of rising costs related to fuel prices, increasing insurance rates and decreasing payments from the state-appointed Medicaid travel reimbursement broker contributed to the closing.
Although Boyd eventually assumed too much debt to keep the business afloat, Spears said he would turn to him for guidance in helping to reintroduce the taxi service.
“I think Joe ran a really good business, but a lot of things hit Joe all at once,” Spears said.
The proverbial last straw may have been the decreased Medicaid payments the company received for taking patients on Medicaid to doctor appointments.
Much of Yellow Cab’s ridership consisted of Medicaid patients.
According to Boyd, when the agency handling Medicaid reimbursements changed from Somerset-based LKLP to Green River Intra-County Transit System at the beginning of last month, Yellow Cab’s reimbursements for transporting patients were cut in half.
Spears said that Franklin Taxi is reimbursed through GRITS as well, and he has seen reduced payments.
Even so, Spears is confident that he can operate his now-expanded business without falling too deeply in debt, looking to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles.
“I’m looking to begin operating as soon as the state will allow me,” Spears said.
At the auction for Yellow Cab’s 42 vehicles and various office equipment Tuesday night at Kirby Auto Auction in Franklin, Spears for the most part disregarded the line of cars and vans, most of them between the 1997-2003 model years, that made its way across the bidding floor.
Almost all the vehicles, many still equipped with a two-way radio and meter, had been driven at least 100,000 miles and many had been driven more than 250,000 miles.
Thirty-eight of the 42 vehicles were driven to the auction lot from the former Yellow Cab office on Shive Lane.
The four cars that had to be transported to the lot also had to be pushed by a tractor through the garage where the bidders gathered.
The vehicles were bought by various parties for different purposes, including the owners of a Louisville cab company, which purchased three vehicles for its fleet.
Spears, meanwhile, paid $3,200 for a large van with the seats removed to accommodate disabled passengers.
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Over the Limit Under Arrest effort continues through holiday
Found: 3 Months 3 Days 8 Hours 15 Minutes ago
Bowling Green Daily News - Area law enforcement agencies will use sobriety checkpoints during next several weeks to crack down on drunken drivers.
The effort is part of the National Drunk Driving Over the Limit Under Arrest crackdown, which started Friday and continues through Labor Day on Sept. 1.
The Bowling Green Police Department will conduct checkpoints Friday and Saturday night the next two weeks.
City police will man checkpoints at Veterans Memorial Lane near Clay Street, University Boulevard near Old Morgantown Road and Scottsville Road near Cypresswood Way from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.
These roads were chosen because of the high traffic volume, said Officer Barry Pruitt, spokesman for city police.
“The goal of this is to impact as many drivers as possible,” he said.
Although citations are not the primary goal, the department is taking the effort seriously, Pruitt said.
Kentucky State Police has begun its portion of the effort, said Trooper Todd Holder, spokesman for state police.
“We’re maximizing our force through checkpoints while saving on fuel,” he said.
Fewer people drive under the influence because of education and publicized enforcement efforts, Holder said.
This effort ties into the KSP effort called Friday Nights Blue Lights, where troopers go to various football games and shortly before its conclusion, leave to set up a checkpoint near the stadium, Holder said.
“The goal of this effort is remind parents, students and football players to wear their seat belts and that all other safety equipment is being used correctly,” he said.
The Morgantown Police Department was at a checkpoint this past weekend with state police where three people were arrested for DUI, said Chief Billy Phelps.
“We intend to do several more during the enforcement effort,” he said.
Typically, areas participate in these efforts using overtime paid for through either a state or federal grant. In this instance, Morgantown officers are participating during normal shifts.
“Until recently, we had never participated in these efforts. We’re making a legitimate effort to be a proactive law enforcement agency,” Phelps said.
The strategy has been working. The crime rate this year in Morgantown appears as though it will be lower, Phelps said.
Law enforcement agencies will set up sobriety checkpoints
The following police checkpoints may be established anytime during the Over the Limit Under Arrest crackdown that started Friday and continues through Sept. 1 - Labor Day - in Warren County:
U.S. 31-W By-Pass at Ky. 240 in Woodburn; Ky. 242 in Rich Pond, at Old Louisville Road, Massey’s Grocery, Hardy & Sons Funeral Home; Ky. 185 at Miller Road; U.S. 68 at Blue Level Road and Carl Jordan Road; Ky. 101 at Allen County line, Ky. 1297 and Three Forks; U.S. 231 S. in Alvaton, U.S. 231 N. at Brookwood Road; Ky. 880 at Rock Creek Apartments, rear side of the airport and Ky. 1435 north; Ky. 884 at Ky. 242; Smallhouse Road at Elrod Road; Ky. 622 at Larmon Mill Road; Beech Bend Road at Double Springs, Garvin Lane and Ky. 185, one mile north of the Bowling Green city limits.
State police checkpoints in Allen County may include:
Ky. 101 at Ky. 1533, U.S. 31- E, Jefferson School Road, Ky. 234 and the Warren County line; U.S. 31-E at Ky. 482, Ky. 1147, Barren County line, Tennessee state line, Jefferson School Road and Harrison School Road; Ky. 100 at Monroe County line, Ky. 99, Ky. 1421, Walker’s Chapel and Simpson County line; Ky. 98 at Monroe County line and near the boat ramp; U.S. 231 at Mount Union Church Road and at Allen County High School, and Ky. 252 at Ky. 517.
In Barren County:
Ky. 70 at Ky. 314 and Ky. 255; Ky. 1846 at Old Lexington Road; U.S. 31-W at Edmonson County line, Ky. 255 and Hart County line; U.S. 68 at Bon Ayr; U.S. 31- E at Allen County line and Jack Turner Road, and Ky. 249, south of Glasgow.
In Butler County:
U.S. 231 at Natcher Parkway, Ky. 403 and Ky. 70; Ky. 70 at Ky. 411, Ky. 185, Ky. 3182, Ky. 1117 and south side of Green River Bridge; Ky. 79 at Old McKendree Chapel Road and Ky. 79; Ky. 403 at Horseshoe Bend Road.
In Edmonson County:
U.S. 31-W at Barren County line, Ky. 100 and Ky. 259; Ky. 259 at Brownsville limits, Ky. 728, Ky. 70, near Kyrock School and at Ky. 185; Ky. 728 at the dam; Ky. 728 at Hart County line.
In Logan County:
U.S 68 at East Auburn Bypass, Ky. 102, Southern States Fertilizer, Russellville Bypass, fairgrounds entrance, Ky. 1151 and Todd County line; Ky. 1293 at Ky. 107; Ky. 96 at Ky. 102; U.S. 431 at Tennessee state line, Ky. 591, Adairville Truck Stop, Logan Memorial Hospital, Russellville N. Bypass, Epley’s Station, Ky. 1040, Ky. 106 and Peach Orchard Road; Ky. 103 at Ky. 1038; U.S. 79 at Russellville Bypass, Old ITW Plant, railroad curve and Todd County line; Ky. 103 at Simpson County line; Ky. 178 at Ky. 1151; and Ky. 100 at the sawmill.
In Simpson County:
U.S. 31-W North at Ky. 1008 and at Reasonover Drive; U.S. 31- W South at Macedonia Road, Kentucky Stone Entrance, Geddes Road and Lake Springs Road; Ky. 73 at Ky. 100, Rapids Grocery, Robey Bethel Grove Road, Ky. 1008, Ky. 100 and Simpson County line; Ky. 103 at Ky. 100 and Turnertown Road; and Ky. 585 at Ky. 621.
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