City looking for new fire station home
It's back to the drawing board, literally, for engineers working on a concept for a new fire station in Marion.
City firefighters sat down Monday evening with city council members for their input on preliminary schemes for a new firehouse. The meeting was to help steer plans for a new station in a direction agreeable to both city government and its volunteer firefighters.
Of the seven proposed sites, all displayed with an engineer’s rendering of what the facility might look like, only two seemed to satisfy the criteria for both firefighters and the city. Those two locations are The Crittenden Press parking lot at the corner of Bellville and College streets and the city’s own gravel lot on East Belleville Street behind Five-Star Food Mart. Other sites, including revamping City Hall once Peoples Bank relocates its drive-through branch, could be put back on the table before city council next meets on Oct. 21.
Ronald “Red” Howton, the city’s fire chief, said accessibility is the most important aspect once the old, cramped fire station on East Bellville Street is replaced. A corner lot with access from two streets is preferred, he said.
“Size is not important,” he said of the structure itself.
The engineer’s conceptual design for the building is currently two bays and a two-story office/training area, but some expressed a need for three bays and different arrangements on proposed lots. Both parties hope to decide on a location at the next council meeting.

Cumberland’s level causes concerns
Gerald Barnes says he had never seen the Cumberland River as dry as it was last Thursday morning.
Barnes is 67 years old, grew up near the river and lives within sight of it now.
“I don't believe I’ve ever seen it that low,” he said.
As Barnes was speaking, Crittenden-Livingston Water District was pushing an eight-inch hose into the river, trying to get it deep enough to draw water to feed into the utility's plant at Pinckneyville. The Cumberland River was so low it had receded below the intakes that the water district uses to pull raw water from the reservoir. The intakes are near the river's bank. They can’t be too far out into the river or near the channel because boat traffic might hit them, explained Donnie Beavers, superintendent of the water district.
Last Wednesday Beavers was notified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that extremely low levels could be expected on the Cumberland. The water shortage in the river was due to several factors, including a two-year drought, the drawing down of Lake Cumberland to repair Wolf Creek Dam, the rising Mississippi River and an aged and inadequate Dam 52 near Paducah.
Barges scheduled to pick up limestone at the new Warren Paving Rock Quarry just up river from Pinckneyville were stalled on the Ohio River until the water level went back up Saturday. Even then, the barges couldn't be loaded to capacity.
Jeremy Montalta, a supervisor at the quarry, said 24 barges and three tugs were idled on the Lower Ohio for two days at a price tag of $14,000 per day.
“We need about 10 feet of water to load 16,000 tons on our barges,” Montalta explained late last week. “Right now, we have about eight feet.”
The river dropped to gravely low marks last Thursday morning, prompting the district to bring in a special 60 hp pump from Henderson to help draw water out of the river. A long hose was pushed into the Cumberland River and the pump sucked up the water and dumped it into a large riverside well. From there, the water was fed into the district's plant where it was treated and distributed to customers as drinking water.
Had it not been for the mobile pump, capable of drawing 2,000 gallons a minute from the river, the plant would have gone dry late Thursday.
Beavers explained that water levels have not traditionally been so low on the river. However, this is the second time this summer the water plant has been in jeopardy of losing its raw water supply.
“It happened in July and we didn't have any notice at all,” Beavers said. “The Corps of Engineers didn’t even realize our location on the Lower Cumberland. Now they know, and they’re keeping us well-advised when something like this is about to happen.”
Beavers said that because Lake Barkley is already near winter pool, there’s no safety net nearby when the Cumberland drops way below normal.
The Corps, which manages the flow of water on inland reservoirs, raised wickets on Dam 52 near Paducah late last week. That helped restrict the flow of water on the Ohio, which in turn held more water in the Cumberland. By Friday, the Cumberland River was back up to sufficient levels for water district intakes to work properly. On Monday, the river had risen three feet and the water district was back to operating as usual.
Beavers said a meeting with the Corps of Engineers has been scheduled for next week to discuss the possibility of putting the district's intakes farther out into the river so that such issues may be averted in the future.

Congress OKs $750,000 for EOC
Congress has approved funds that include money for an Emergency Operations Center in Marion. The funding is part of the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2009 passed by both the House and Senate last week.
The bill bankrolls the federal government through March 2009 and provides funding for defense, military and homeland security operations as well as various other spending measures. Among projects approved was $750,000 for the Crittenden County Emergency Operations Center.
“We’ve been trying to get money for this for the last two or three years,” said Judge-Executive Fred Brown. “I’m just elated.”
Brown said the EOC will likely be built in the industrial park on the south end of town near the Marion Ed-Tech Center and soon-to-be-built health department. It also could be located downtown near the current rescue squad building at what’s commonly called the jockey lot. That and other decisions about the scope and size of the center will be made later, the judge said.
Brown envisions a metal building capable of handling a variety of emergency response activities and equipment.
“I think the rescue squad, HAZ-MAT response team, emergency management and even the fire departments, if they wanted to, could be in there,” Brown said.
Brown said a consolidated emergency center is critical for the long-range well-being of the community. He said weaknesses in the local system have been identified recently during natural disasters, including the major ice storm last winter.
Congressman Ed Whitfield and Sen. Mitch McConnell and voted in favor of the overall measure. Sen. Jim Bunning voted against it.

Marion native pens 2 Harlequin romance novels
Her pen name may throw you off, but Trish Milburn is someone many Crittenden Countians will remember. And now the world will see her name on the cover of two Harlequin romance novels.
Known in school as Patricia Cash, the now-married Milburn grew up in Marion, and in 1989 graduated from Crittenden County High School, where she excelled in speech and drama. She says she gravitated toward writing since she wasn't a math genius and did not have a passion for dissecting frogs in biology class.
Milburn holds a degree in print journalism and began earning a living working for several newspapers in Kentucky and Tennessee. Now the Tennessee resident has earned the designation of published author.
Her debut release published by Harlequin American is titled "A Firefighter in the Family," and is available at amazon.com. She has a second novel due out in May 2009 titled "Her Very Own Family." From her Web site, a description of the book: "Miranda 'Randi' Cooke left her family and her hometown on the Gulf Coast of Florida behind when a mistake she made as a firefighter led to tragedy. Now her job with the state fire marshal’s office has brought her back to Horizon Beach. Not only will she have to hunt down an arsonist, but she’ll also face the estrangement from her family and have to decide if she wants to give her love for former firefighter Zac Parker a second chance."
Milburn will speak at the Crittenden County Public library at 6 p.m., Tuesday as well as sign copies of her book.
In the last few years, Milburn has been a finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s top award for unpublished manuscripts, the Golden Heart. She has been a finalist eight times, in fact.
"I was fortunate enough to win the Golden Heart twice in 2004 in Romantic Suspense and in 2007 for Young Adult. On July 24, 2007, I finally got “The Call” and sold my first two books, young adult titles, to Razorbill, a part of Penguin Young Readers Group. On Oct. 26, 2007, I was thrilled to sell two romances to Harlequin American."
The first of the young adult novels, “Heartbreak River,” will be printed under the pen name Tricia Mills and will be out in April 2009.
Milburn said she gets ideas for her books in a number of places.
"A story idea can be sparked by something I read in the newspaper or in a magazine, by something I see on TV, a movie, even a bit of overheard conversation. It might be a tiny idea when it begins, but it often leads to something interesting," she says on her Web site, trishmilburn.com