Your Community Recorder newspaper serving all of Boone County
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COUNTY RECORDER
E-mail: kynews@communitypress.com T h u r s d a y, A u g u s t
6, 2009
W e b s i t e : N K Y. c o m
B E C A U S E C O M M U N I T Y M AT T E R S
Library director retiring
Linda Oakes at Lincoln Woods Park
Volume 133 Number 46 © 2009 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Enjoy the fair
The Community Recorder is accepting your digital photos of fun at the Boone County Fair. We ask that each photo include a brief caption describing the action and identifying people in the photo. Send your photos to ndaly@nky.com.
By Paul McKibben pmckibben@nky.com
Fair baby contest winners photos
Each year the Community Recorder publishes a Boone County Fair results special section in September. At that time we will publish photos of the baby contest winners. If your child wins in the baby contest, send your photo by Aug. 25 to ndaly@nky.com or mail to Nancy Daly, Recorder, 228 Grandview Drive, Fort Mitchell KY 41017. Be sure to include the child’s name, category and what place the child came in.
Milking a goat
PAUL MCKIBBEN/STAFF
Tory Putterbaugh of Burlington milks a goat Monday during the Boone County 4-H & Utopia Fair at the Boone County Fairgrounds in Burlington as mother Annita Putterbaugh feeds the animal.
Help plants, reduce waste
Want to reduce what you send to the landfill and create a natural fertilizer at the same time? Consider putting up a compost bin. Bonnie Hampton of Hebron, who’s been composting since about 1970, shares her experience and describes the benefits of composting. – LIFE, PAGE B1
Students get a ‘Jump Start’
Moving up to middle school can be a stressful time, but a program is showing there’s no need to fret. R.A. Jones Middle School hosts its annual Jump Start program to help incoming sixth-graders “gain confidence and alleviate fears” about moving to middle school, said teacher Terri Webb. – SCHOOLS, PAGE A8 For the Postmaster
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Walton, Boone schools take swine flu precautions By Nancy Daly ndaly@nky.com
School districts in Boone County are taking a proactive approach to preventing a swine flu outbreak. Walton-Verona Schools, which starts school on Aug. 6, is diving right in to build awareness of the H1N1 virus during the first two weeks of school. “When you look statistically at what swine flu is doing right now, it really is comparable to what we have seen in a normal influenza season,” said Becky Acuff, a public health nurse assigned to the high school and middle school. “That’s what is a little bit alarming.” Also, Acuff added, “right now it’s a flu that we don’t yet have a vaccine for.” “We’re really going to work hard with our kids during the first two weeks of school. I’m going to get with each student in the first two weeks about how to prevent getting sick,” Acuff said. Nurses will discuss with students the importance of hand washing, covering your cough and coughing or sneezing into your elbow. “We’re going to talk about being physically active, getting plenty of rest, drinking plenty of fluids and eating healthy,” she added. Students will be encouraged to stay home if they have a fever,
“We are going to have to increase our surveillance with our families. We can’t do this alone. It’s going to take cooperation from students, families and everyone here at school.”
Becky Acuff Public health nurse at Walton-Verona schools
sore throat, cough and typical flu symptoms. The school has a policy of sending students home if they have a fever over 100 degrees. They can’t come back to school until 24 hours after the fever has subsided. New this year, nurses will be doing follow-up phone calls to students who are home with a fever to check on their progress. “We are going to have to increase our surveillance with our families. We can’t do this alone. It’s going to take cooperation from students, families and everyone here at school,” Acuff said. The Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Department has planned a swine flu workshop for school nurses and health officials on Sept. 9, said spokeswoman Emily Gresham Wherle. Ten cases of swine flu have
been reported in Northern Kentucky, seven of them in Boone County. Wherle said a vaccine is in development and is not expected to be available until at least midOctober. The Centers for Disease Control has identified the following priorities of who should get the vaccine: Pregnant women, people who live with or care for children less than 6 months old, health care and emergency services workers, children ages 6 months to 24 years old, and people 25-64 who have chronic health problems. The week of Aug. 3-7, a school nurse and a safety director from Boone County Schools are participating in a state-sponsored Pandemic Influenza Exercise, a simulated session on handling a swine flu outbreak. “We did have some cases (of swine flu) last spring,” said Kathy Reutman, executive director of student services. After that the school refined its strategy, she said. “The big thing is awareness, keep making sure we remind children and teachers to cover their mouth when they sneeze, washing their hands, all those proactive things, staying home when they’re sick.” Boone County Schools open on Aug. 19 and Reutman said they expect to refine their swine flu strategy more after the pandemic exercise this week.
After more than two decades of serving the Boone County Public Library as its director, Lucinda Brown is returning home. Brown, a Florence resident, is retiring on Aug. 31 and will be moving back to Marietta, Ohio, where she was born and grew up. She said her primary reason for retiring is her mother, who turned 90 in March. “So, I’m going Brown home to not take care of her, like nursing care ... like she can’t take care of herself, but to be there and just to be a companion for her,” Brown said, though mother and daughter won’t be residing at the same place. Brown became director in April 1985. She previously worked for the Campbell County Public Library. She has a bachelor’s degree in school library media from Marshall University and a master’s degree in library information science from the University of Kentucky. Brown said she entered the profession “because when my mother was carrying me she was a school librarian and I’m sure she inhaled book dust and it traveled through her system right into me and I was predestined to be a librarian from before I was born.” As a child, Brown (who also loved horses) said she remembers her mother bringing home every Marguerite Henry and every Walter Farley book, all of the authors back in the day who wrote horse stories. Brown said when she was a little bit older she would be one of those children under the blankets with a flashlight reading her book and staying up too late reading. She said she started reading fairly adult level books by the time she was probably 12. She currently likes to read mysteries now and also listens to books on tape. During Brown’s tenure, the Boone County library has undergone lots of change. When she started, its only branch was the Florence one. Since then, branches were added in Hebron, Union and Walton. It manages the Chapin Memorial Library in Petersburg. A new Main Library opened last year in Burlington. The library has also kept up with the technological times. Brown said the library is close to cutting-edge. “Our biggest accomplishment, I think, is that we have been able to keep up with the growth of this county,” she said. Brown will be replaced by Greta Southard, executive director of the Public Library Association. Her first day is Sept. 8.