SPORTS
A11 Your Community Recorder newspaper serving all of Boone County
Pitching lifts Ryle baseball.
COUNTY RECORDER
Email: kynews@communitypress.com Website: NKY.com
Volume 135 Number 32 © 2011 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
T h u r s d a y, M a y 1 9 , 2 0 1 1
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Boone vets visit D.C. memorials By Stephanie Salmons
ssalmons@nky.com
Prom photos ready for scrapbook
In our continuing coverage, the Recorder shares photos from the Conner High School prom on April 30 and the Cooper High School prom on May 7. LIFE, B1
Youth league to get artificial turf
When the fall football season starts, young players may not have to play in the mud. The Boone County Pee Wee Football League is installing artificial turf on its league field on Hopeful Church Road in Florence. NEWS, A3 STEPHANIE SALMONS/STAFF
Kenneth Lanter, a World War II veteran from Union, prepares to visit the military memorials in Washington, D.C., thanks to Honor Flight Tri-state.
It’s only 6:15 a.m. at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, but the already-large crowd is growing as people chatter, buzzing presumably with excitement. Some 70 veterans and 79 guardians gathered at the airport May 10 to leave for a day-long trip to Washington D.C., thanks to Honor Flight Tri-state. The visit includes stops at the World War II, Korean War, Vietnam, Iwo Jima and the U.S. Air Force memorial and other city sites. Honor Flight is a nonprofit group that honors veterans by providing them a free trip to Washington, D.C., to see the memorial built in their honor. This flight was donated by the Simply Money Foundation. There are typically five trips a year, Honor Flight Tri-state director Cheryl Popp said. “They love it.” William Byrd, of Walton, had been to Washington, D.C., before but hadn’t seen the memorials, he said.
Byrd enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941, before the attack on Pearl Harbor. During World War II, Byrd said he was in the Pacific Theater. He started on the island of New Caledonia and then went “island hopping” and was in the Philippines when he returned home. Byrd fought in both World War II and the Korean War. He re-enlisted after World War II then was “among the first ones in” when the battle in Korea started. “Some of them said they’d do it all over again,” Byrd said. “I don’t know if I would or not.” Byrd was traveling to Washington with his grandson, Aaron Byrd. Theirs is a military family, Aaron Byrd said. In addition to his grandfather’s military service, Aaron’s father was a colonel in the Army while Aaron himself went to West Point and served in Iraq. “This is our history,” he said. “We need to honor and respect and revere our veterans. I wanted
See MEMORIALS on page A2
Early school budget calls for 50 layoffs By Justin B. Duke jbduke@nky.com
Sportsman of Year nominations open
Friday, May 20, is the time to start voting for the third annual Community Recorder Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year online contest. For more details, see the story in this week’s sports section. SPORTS, A11
Shakespeare set at Boone Woods
A group of students will turn a park into the Globe Theatre. The Northern Kentucky Homeschool Shakespeare Company is presenting “Twelfth Night” at the Boone Woods Amphitheater May 20-22. SCHOOLS, A7 For the Postmaster
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Boone County Schools is preparing next year’s budget and may lose 50 employees. The Board of Education approved the $147 million working budget at the May 12 meeting. The final budget isn’t due until October. “This is still anyone’s guess,” said Superintendent Randy Poe.
The district has seen some growth in local revenues, but it may not be enough to keep up with forthcoming funding cuts, Poe said. “We still have a number of looming issues,” he said. The budget anticipates cuts from both federal and state funding. Because of the cuts, 50 positions would be eliminated. Any position currently funded by a grant would be eliminated –
these include paraeducators, special educators, reading coaches and other positions, Poe said. While there is still time for changes to occur before the final budget is passed, Poe isn’t optimistic. “I doubt there will be any good news for two years,” he said. Poe is worried that the current cuts are just the beginning. “The funding picture from the federal government is only getting
worse,” he said. The Board of Education passed the working budget unanimously, but they weren’t happy with the situation they were forced into. “Can we call it the ‘non-working’ budget?” board member Karen Byrd asked. “It doesn’t work for me.” Poe echoed Byrd’s sentiments. “This has been the most challenging budget to work with,” he said.
1960s crash victims memorialized By Stephanie Salmons ssalmons@nky.com
Roadside historical signs marking two 1960s plane crashes will be dedicated Saturday, May 21. The marker for the crash of American Airlines flight 383 will be dedicated at 2:30 p.m. at the 5500 block off River Road (Ky. 8) in Constance while the marker for the crash of TWA Flight 128 will be dedicated at 3:30 p.m. in the 900 block of Petersburg Road (Ky. 20) in Hebron. Survivors of the doomed flights will be on hand to unveil the markers. Speakers include Boone County Judge-executive Gary Moore, local history coordinator for the Boone County Public Library Bridget Striker and Becky Riddle of the Kentucky Historical Society. On Nov. 8, 1965, Flight 383 left New York heading for Cincinnati. The plane crashed into a hill-
side north of what was then called the Greater Cincinnati Airport. The aircraft’s right wing initially clipped a tree and cut through additional trees before hitting the ground and sliding 113 yards. There were four survivors while 58 people died. A little more than two years later on Nov. 20, 1967, TWA Flight 128 heading to Cincinnati from Los Angeles crashed into a Hebron apple orchard. The accident killed 70 of the 82 people on board. It remains the worst accident in Kentucky aviation history. It was determined that error by the planes’ crews were probable causes of both crashes. The Flight 383/128 Memorial Group Inc. has been working the past several years to honor those who lost their lives in the accidents. “We’re just ecstatic to finally be able to get both of the markers set up with the state of Kentucky,” said Mark Free, one of the group’s
founding members. Free, who grew up in the Bluebird subdivision near the airport, saw the explosion from the 1967 crash. “I never forgot it,” he said. Even after all this time, emotions of those who were involved are still “very, very raw,” Free said. The markers will allow future generations to remember the accidents, he said. Another co-founder, Linda Holbrook, was an 18-year-old telephone operator working the night of that crash and handled phone calls from families looking for information. “It was sad,” she said. “These people were desperate.” Now the group is doing something they couldn’t do 45 years ago, Holbrook said. “It’s long overdue,” she said. According to Holbrook, the group hopes to have a bronze plaque with the victims’ names
STEPHANIE SALMONS/STAFF
Linda Holbrook stands next a roadside historical marker in Hebron that marks a 1967 airplane crash. The memorial, located on Ky. 20, along with another marker noting an earlier 1965 crash, will be unveiled and dedicated Saturday, May 21. installed within the next six months. “These plane crashes needs to stay in public consciousness,” she said. For more about your community, visit www.nky.com/hebron