B OONE COMMUNITY RECORDER Your
75¢ Community
Recorder newspaper serving Burlington and Hebron
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2012
MAKING HISTORY A18 Cooper's cross country team won the boys team title.
BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS
Enrollment wave keeps Burlington wing standing By Justin B. Duke
jbduke@nky.com
BURLINGTON — Thanks to constantly growing enrollment, an old building is getting new life. The Boone County Schools Board of Education approved a $835,000 HVAC project for Burlington Elementary Oct.11. While the board regularly approves projects like these for its 23 schools, this one stands out because it’s for a place that should no longer exist. The project is focused on the original wing of the school, built in 1939 as part of the New Deal’s Public Works Administration. It will install a geothermal heating and cooling system and remove the steam-powered boiler, radiators and window air conditioner units. In 2000, work finished on the school’s new wing, and it included a similar geothermal system. The old wing wasn’t included in the system because the district
The old wing of Burlington Elementary will get a new geothermal HVAC system. JUSTIN B. DUKE/THE COMMUNITY RECORDER originally planned to tear it down after the new wing was open. “Burlington’s population continued to grow, so we had to keep it open,” said Superintendent Randy Poe. For a few years, the school’s original wing housed the district’s student services department, but eventually the school’s enrollment grew to the point where that department had to be relocated, Poe said.
“It started classroom by classroom,” he said. Even with the added space the old wing offers, Burlington Elementary’s current enrollment is 71 students over the building’s 800-student capacity, and eventually another school will need to be built to to accommodate all the students in the area, Poe said. Since the plan was to level the area after the new wing was built, it didn’t get upgrades at the
time. This means opening up the old classrooms takes some work. “Since we’ve moved students into the classrooms that we’ve shut off, we’ve had to bring those up to date,” Poe said. This means updating technology to current standards and ensuring safety. The old wing of the school currently has 73-year-old radiators in the ceilings of classrooms. At the Ralph Rush Staff Development Center, which was the original Florence Elementary, a ceiling collapsed in a shutdown classroom because of old radiators in the ceiling, Poe said. This means that along with providing a more efficient HVAC system, the project will make the building safer and help it to last longer – something the district will need from all of its buildings. “We have come to the conclusion that we will never be able to keep up with the construction, and we’ll have to utilize the space we have,” Poe said. Visit nky.com/burlington for more community news
ROSARY MARCH
The Rev. Adam Purdy of Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Walton addresses the crowd gathered for the 16th annual Rosary March held Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Boone County Justice Center in Burlington. MARTY WHITACRE FOR THE COMMUNITY
Craft show benefits breast cancer By Stephanie Salmons ssalmons@nky.com
BURLINGTON — An annual autumn craft show that has netted some $57,000 for breast cancer research continues this year. The Boone County Extension Homemakers will host its Fall Arts and Crafts Show from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, at the Boone Cooperative Extension office, 6028 Camp Ernst Road, Burlington and aims to raise even more.
YOGURT INSPIRATION Family gets idea for a business while on South Carolina vacation. A7
The show began in 1998, in memory of former family and consumer sciences agent Rebecca Brooker, said coordinator Linda Padgett. Proceeds will be donated to the American Cancer Society for breast cancer research. “She died of breast cancer in 1998 and we’ve had one every year since she passed away,” Padgett said. “We do it in her memory.” Brooker always thought the homemakers should “showcase
their crafts,” she said. In addition to Brooker, the Homemakers have lost several members to the disease and several members are breast cancer survivors, Padgett said. “One of these days, we hope to find a cure for breast cancer,” she said. There will be 45 craft booths, offering items from jewelry to quilts and floral arrangements to art. According to Padgett, door prizes will be given through the
WILLKOMMEN Koeppe family opens German restaurant at a familiar location on the Boone, Kenton line. A8
day and there will be a silent auction as well as food. “We’re just proud to ... promote research since we’re a research-based organization working for UK (University of Kentucky),” said family and consumer sciences agent Katie Smallwood. While Smallwood says the show is a fun fall tradition, it’s important to “put money back into research that goes to make our community healthier.”
Contact us
News ........................283-0404 Retail advertising .......513-768-8196 Classified advertising .......283-7290 Delivery ......................781-4421 See page A2 for additional information
Ghost stories highlight local history By Stephanie Salmons ssalmons@nky.com
With a long and sometimes sordid history, Boone County isn’t a stranger to local lore and ghost stories. Residents will soon have the chance to delve deeper into the county’s creepy history. Just in time for Halloween, the Boone County Public Library is hosting haunted tours of two historic homes and a presentation on the ghosts of Petersburg. On Oct. 20, the library is partnering with the city of Walton and Friends of Gaines Tavern for the Haunted Gaines Tavern ghost walk. Required tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the Walton City Building or reserved online at www.bcpl.org. Those attending can arrive after 5 p.m. and the last house tour starts at 7:30 p.m. Expect to be there at least an hour. Local history coordinator Bridget Striker said there have been rumors about the Gaines Tavern being haunted for more than a century, the first article about it appearing in the Boone County Recorder in 1899. The house itself dates back to around1812 or1814, though a tavern dating back to approximately 1800 existed on the property before that, she said. In the course of her research Striker has been able to verify murder and suicides happening at the site. Striker said people have reported seeing apparitions and voices, being touched and doors slamming. The Haunted Dinsmore tour follows Oct. 27. Admission is also $5. Those attending can arrive after 5 p.m. and the last house tour starts at 7:30. Sign up on the library’s website. Striker said there have been reports of apparitions in the house and looking out the window. There have been several deaths in the house and on the surrounding property, she said. What’s nice about the Gaines and Dinsmore tours is that visitors will “hear the little bits of history that may not be on the main tours you see through the day, but really get into the nooks and crannies of See GHOST, Page A2
PROPERTY HISTORY Anyone interested in knowing about the history of a property can contact Boone County Public Library local history coordinator Bridget Striker at 859-342-6442, ext. 8131, or email bstriker@bcpl.org.
Vol. 9 No. 43 © 2012 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED