The News Journal Blog – Page 17 of 3019

Whitley BOE approves plans for turf softball, baseball fields

Athletics upgrades at Whitley County High School are planned to continue, as initial construction documents for a project at the baseball and softball fields have now been approved.

The Whitley County Board of Education took the first steps in the next phase of upgrades at WCHS during their regular monthly meeting last Thursday, where they unanimously voted to hire Ross Tarrant Architects to perform the work on the fields as well as documents relating to the upgrades. Ross Tarrant has been the architect for the other recent construction and upgrades at that campus, including the football field, Career and Technical Education Building and the track at Whitley County Middle School.

Beth Bauer, a project manager with Ross Tarrant, was present for last week’s meeting. According to Bauer, the project at the baseball and softball fields would consist of converting the existing natural sod to artificial turf. The approved documents include drainage and the stone bases.

“It’s a full system,” said Bauer.

While the project still has to go through the bidding process, Ross Tarrant has estimated the cost of the project to be approximately $2.1 million.

A site survey was also approved by the board during last week’s meeting for the two fields, which is expected to take four weeks to be completed.

Once work begins, it is anticipated to be complete before the start of the next baseball and softball season.

In other board of education business:

– The board’s yearly evaluation of Superintendent John Siler was performed during a closed session at last week’s meeting.

Board members met in executive session for approximately one hour to complete the evaluation, which is done using a competency-based system where the superintendent and board work together to gauge performance, identify areas of competency and determine any growth needed for the superintendent to focus on in a given year.

The system is based around seven standards of leadership for the superintendent—strategic leadership, instructional leadership, cultural leadership, human resource leadership, managerial leadership, collaborative leadership and influential leadership—and superintendents receive one of four grades, ranging from “growth required” to “exemplary.”

Upon returning from executive session, Board Chair Brenda Hill announced that Siler had received an “exemplary” grade in all seven standards.

– Board members voted to accept a grant from the Kentucky Department of Education for preschool development. The grant will provide the school district $300,000 between July 1 and Dec. 25, 2025.

Zac Hart rocks Green Space in first Country Meets City of year

Photo by TIMOTHY WYATT

The first Country Meets City event of the year was held last Friday in downtown Williamsburg at the Green Space on Main. Though he currently resides in Nashville, Corbin-native Zac Hart returned to Whitley County to perform a variety of original music as well as pop and country classic hits for those in attendance. The next Country Meets City event is scheduled for July 26 beginning at 8 p.m.

Yellow Jackets travel to Oregon to compete in Nike Outdoor Nationals

It was another successful spring season for the Williamsburg High School track and field team. The Jackets and Lady Jackets managed to compile a long list of achievements during the past season, but junior Nate Goodin and senior Lylah Mattingly gave performances worthy of a trip to the recent Nike Outdoor Nationals competition in Eugene, Ore. (more…)

CHS Class of 1979 celebrates 45th class reunion

Photo by DEBORAH WARREN /Recap by J. BILL SOSH

The Corbin High School Class of 1979 held a 45-year reunion at The Corbin Center on Saturday, June 22. There were 120 in the senior class. The class honored the 21 classmates who have passed on and cherished the good memories it made with them. Of the 99 who remain, 41 were in attendance. Included in the picture are a couple of friends who were along for part of the journey but who didn’t graduate with the class. The Class of 1979 was the first CHS graduating class to attend all four years in the new school building that opened in the fall of 1975. Front row: Beverly Clouse Messer standing, the rest all kneeling, Billy Joe Davis, David Ballou, Brien Freeman, Wes Tipton, Angie Green Watson, Jeff Tipton, Laurie Bruce Lutz. Second row: Lori Kinder Henderson, Adam Ward, David Least, Pam Farmer Felts, Kelly Gregory Blackwood, Shari Koch Sevier, Barry McDonald, Sandy Chesnut, Kimberly Wilson Cord, Nancy Hensley Haggerty, Bill Martin, Jerry Combs. Third row: Kimberly Sasser Croley, Paula Smith Sylvester, Sharon Walker Bollinger, Janice Manning, Marty Helton, Cindy Harvey, Robert Gosser, Sherry Mills Pace, James Calhoun, Brenda Forcht Beloin, Cathy Ingle Green, Lisa Hill, Renee Sneed Hinojosa, Lisa Gilbert Hopkins, Scott Santos. Fourth row: Barry Simms, Jay Barfield, J. Bill Sosh, Dave Huff, Kyle Woolum, Karl Sawyer, Jim David Bonza, Kyle Whitehead.

Local charity group holds walk for veterans, first responders in Williamsburg over the weekend

Kerstin Colliver, who is one of the founders of Horses Healing Heroes, noted that the 2.2 mile walk that the group held in downtown Williamsburg late Saturday afternoon may sound like an odd distance, but it was chosen intentionally as a reference to the frequently quoted statistic that 22 veterans and first responders die by suicide each day.

About a dozen people turned out for a 2.2 mile walk in downtown Williamsburg late Saturday afternoon to raise awareness about veteran and first responder suicide rates. Whitley County’s Horses Healing Heroes organized the walk and is hoping to do more to help struggling local veterans.

“You see 22 everywhere. The thought was to let people know what we were doing we wanted to surround things with the number 22. We did it on June 22, and it is a 2.2 mile walk,” Colliver said.

“The point is we are driving home that 22 number and we want to decrease that and we want to save our vets and our first responders. We want to make sure that they have resources they need. There are resources there that they may not know about.”

(While the 22 figure is frequently quoted, she added that the number of suicides per day has unfortunately increased to about 41 per veterans and first responders.)

Horses Healing Heroes got its non-profit status approved in April.

“We are a 501(c)(3) that provides equine therapy to veterans and first responders, who are disabled or have PTS (Post Traumatic Stress), pretty much any vet that wants to step on the property can at no cost,” Colliver said.

Colliver, who has been around horses since she was five years old and has a natural ability with them, got the idea for the program because of her brother, who served nine tours in Iraq.

“When he was an emotional mess it kind of made all of us an emotional mess, and I decided that I needed to change something with it. I took him out and we went horseback riding. He got to save me that day because I was riding a horse in training,” Colliver said.

During that ride, Colliver got to see her brother smile, which was something she hadn’t seen him do in three or four years.

“He had slumped shoulders. He didn’t seem like he was constantly looking for danger. To see him physically relax, I said, ‘I’ve got something here.’”

Colliver, her husband, John, and her neighbor Stephanie Keim in Lexington sat down one night, decided that life was too short and started the program.

It was a fluke that they ended up in Whitley County though.

Keim worked as an airplane mechanic lead at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport.

They were initially looking for place in northern Kentucky.

“I found this place. I fell in love with the pictures and made the appointment. We got in the car and we were going south. I said, ‘what did I do?’ We went Williamsburg not Williamstown. We got down here and everything felt like home. It was meant to be,” Colliver said.

Colliver, who works at home for UK Healthcare, and her husband moved from Lexington to Whitley County about four year ago. They started with Two Angels Horse Farm LLC, which provides lessons and training for children and adults.

“All of the proceeds from that will go straight into the non-profit to take care of the horses that we rescue, and to keep the veterans program completely free,” she said.

The farm is located off Red Bird Road near the McCreary County line.

Keim had to wait a little longer before she could move down. First she had to transfer to Knoxville to work.

“It eventually worked out and here we are. One day I will be able to quit my full-time job and she will be able to quit her full-time job, and we can just focus on doing what we like and giving back,” Keim said.

Groups that took part and set up booths for Saturday’s event included: the Brick Oven, VFW Post 3167, Bethany’s Hope, Shale Oak Wine Tasting, Clover Hollow Farm, Horizon Health, and the Brain Injury Association of Kentucky.

“We look forward to doing more things like this,” Colliver said.

Colliver gave a special thank you to Williamsburg Mayor Roddy Harrison, who came down Saturday at 9 a.m. setting out barrels, trash cans and helped with overall set up for the event. She also thanked VFW Post 3167, who she had known for less than 24 hours before they made Saturday’s largest donation, $200.

For more information about Horses Healing Heroes email the group at horseshealingheores@yahoo.com. Kerstin Colliver can be contacted at (859) 913-6621 and Keim can be contacted at (859) 816-8167.