BUSINESS SPOTLIGHTB1 Your Community Recorder newspaper serving Burlington and Hebron E-mail: kynews@communitypress.com
Volume 6 Number 26 © 2009 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Lots of fair fun
Be sure to check out the Boone County Fair program inside this issue. The program is full of fun and interesting fair stories, as well as a schedule of events. – SPECIAL SECTION, INSIDE
Recruit to ship out
Military enlistments are up, according to a local Army recruiting station commander. And while other high school graduates are enjoying their summer vacation, 18-year-old Patrick Ferrell of Burlington is planning to spend the last half of his summer at boot camp in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. – LIFE, PAGE B1
All-Stars win state
The Boone County 8U KABA Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth All Star team won the state championship at the Cal Ripken 8U Eastern Kentucky State baseball tournament July 17-19 at Fern Creek Park in Louisville. – SPORTS, PAGE A12
Massey to run
A school board member may step up to the national stage. Boone County Schools Board of Education Member Ed Massey has gotten the green light to run for secretary treasurer of the National School Board Association (NSBA). – SCHOOLS, PAGE A10
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COMMUNITY RECORDER
Dinsmore advocate celebrates 80th By Gail Chastang
Community Recorder Contributor
An 80th birthday party was held on July 19 at Dinsmore Homestead for Christine Godsey of Burlington, an active volunteer at the homestead for 20 years. More than 100 family members and friends were on hand for the occasion. Godsey had requested that instead of gifts, friends and family make donations to the Dinsmore Homestead Foundation. A retired school teacher, Godsey was there when the home first opened to the public in the fall of 1989, and knows how the educational programs have been enhanced to benefit children in Boone County elementary schools and the general public. “It took three years and quite a few volunteers to inventory the contents of the home,” said Godsey. “I had just retired after 25 years of teaching and this inventory was an education for me because I found things I had never before seen. All the contents of the house are original to this family and span over five generations. It’s also unique because they left all their papers here, their letters, deeds and their farm records –
more than 300,000 pieces of paper which Martha Breasted, the last living relative, had artifacted into a historical museum in Tuscon, Ariz., where she lived.” Godsey said Dinsmore has always been an educational site with the first program for school children held in 1990 and the first Pioneers to the Past day camp in the summer of 1991. “This year we added a new camp called Miss Julia’s Day Camp for Young Ladies,” said Godsey. “Elementary school girls were taught Victorian dances, how to use a fan and the messages that the fan sends, and how ladies dressed back then. They also had a tea party.”
About Dinsmore Homestead
In 1839, James Dinsmore of Louisiana purchased approximately 700 acres in Boone County. When the house was completed in 1842, James, his wife and three daughters settled there, growing grapes, raising sheep and growing willows for a basketmaking business. Daughter Julia, who never married, inherited the farm in 1872 and operated it successfully for 54 years until her death in 1926 at
GAIL CHASTANG/CONTRIBUTOR
Christine Godsey, front right, is pictured here in front of the Dinsmore cook cabin with her daughters, (front) Janet Kelley, (rear) Paula Provenzano and Lynda McNeely. The cook cabin was constructed around 1840 and the Dinsmore family lived in it until the main house was completed in 1842. age 93. She was the last person to occupy the house. In 1987 the Dinsmore Homestead Foundation was formed, and a year later acquired the home, original outbuildings and furnishings, and 30 acres of land. All but three of those original buildings are still standing. The Dinsmore Homestead is a unique historic site where visitors can learn what rural life was like in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Nature enthusiasts enjoy the hiking trails developed in cooperation with the Kentucky Nature Conservancy and the Boone County Parks Department. It is a resource for students and scholars and an area where artists can sketch and paint. Those who enjoy antiques and historic interiors delight in touring the house that contains the origi-
nal accumulated belongings of five generations of the Dinsmore family. The home is open for public tours from 1-5 p.m. on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from April 1 through Dec. 15. “What we’re in desperate need of right now is a modern building with office space, bathrooms, exhibit space and classrooms,” says Godsey. “We also need monetary donations because we raise our own funds to keep this open. It is a public-owned, public served site, and the perfect place to teach American history. The Dinsmore family had connections with almost every U.S. president from George Washington to George H.W. Bush.” For more information, visit www.dinsmorefarm.org/ or call 859-586-6117.
Trip scandal enters judge’s race By Paul McKibben pmckibben@nky.com
The hotly contested race for Boone County judge-executive has become even more intense. Controversy involving the Kentucky Association of Counties and how it implicates Boone County entered the campaign last week. Commissioner Cathy Flaig, who is challenging Judge-Executive Gary Moore in next year’s Republican primary, is questioning a 2005 trip to Hawaii by county officials including Moore, among other allegations. A statement her campaign issued said “at the time Flaig deemed the Hawaii trip as an abuse of taxpayer funds and refused to take the trip.” Moore in an e-mail to the Recorder said four years ago he attended the National Association of Counties annual meeting July 15-17, 2005. He said Commissioners Charlie Kenner and Terri Moore and thenCounty Administrator James Par-
sons accompanied him. He said some spouses also traveled with them but at their own expense. Moore said the funds primarily used for the trip were from a fund budgeted annually, specifically for conferences, training and travel that the Fiscal Court unanimously approved for fiscal year 2006. He said he used his personal SkyMiles (frequent flyer miles by Delta Air Lines) to pay for his own airfare. He said KACo volunteered to pay for his hotel room which saved county tax dollars. “It’s interesting that Commissioner Cathy Flaig has attended many of the NACo and KACo meetings but chose to select one that she missed,” Moore said. KACo is supported by taxpayers. How officials spent money has been the subject of numerous articles in the Lexington HeraldLeader, where the newspaper found abuses. KACo is being audited by state Auditor Crit Luallen’s office. The newspaper has also reported that the Hawaii trip was fund-
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ed by KACo, but KACo told the Recorder they do not possess any documentation showing it paid for Moore’s plane ticket or hotel. Moore took two other KACofunded trips, the Herald-Leader reported. The newspaper said KACo paid for Moore’s hotel in Washington, D.C., in March 2007. The newspaper reported KACo paid Moore’s hotel and flight to Kansas City in summer 2008 for a NACo trip. Moore said he attends several of the annual NACo legislative and annual conferences. He said “from time to time KACo has offered to cover some of this expense, saving the citizens of Boone County budgeted tax dollars.” Flaig said in an e-mail she has only attended NACo and KACo events that she deemed useful in serving Boone County taxpayers and ones that required only reasonable travel expenses. “While I have personally paid for some expenses, any expenses that have been paid by the county for my travel has always been for
modest accommodations,” she said, later saying she has never accepted any expensive gifts or any travel from KACo or NACo to attend an event. Moore takes issue with Flaig bringing up the Hawaii trip now. “I feel the citizens of Boone County want to select a judgeexecutive based on their record and vision for the county which is why I will make that the focus of my campaign,” he said. “Perhaps Commissioner Flaig feels compelled to launch negative attacks because she has no real vision to move Boone County forward.” Flaig said the issue surfaced because of the ongoing KACo investigation. She said she believes “that the public deserves to know who has participated in this misuse of tax dollars.” She said her “vision for Boone County is to have a county government that lives within (its) means, gives tax relief to working families, respects property owners’ rights and is business friendly.”