News from Sept. 25, 2003 issue


Planners want to build new middle school
Local planners are talking about a new middle school on their list of capital improvements for the Crittenden County School District.
A laundry list of projects has been compiled by the school system's Local Facility Plan Committee including a replacement for the district's oldest building, the middle school built in 1949.
Committee members point to a number of improvements needed at the middle school and say when funding is available, a new facility for grades six through eight should be top priority.
The Local Facility Plan outlines a wealth of capital improvements needed at each school from a greenhouse or nursery production building at the high school to new physical education and fine arts centers at the elementary school.
The plan, submitted recently to the superintendent, was developed by a committee of parents, teachers and community members who solicited input from parents and teachers at each school and prioritized needs and wants. The formal document, presented this month to the Crittenden County Board of Education, is required by the Department of Education.
The board of education will hold a public hearing at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 14 to discuss the plan.
Among the greatest needs on the facility plan are an additional access road at the elementary school and a new physical education facility for CCES.
"Mrs. (Angela) Starnes is always getting moved out of the gym, having PE in the halls or in the lobby," said Joyce Travis, a parent member representing Crittenden County Middle School on the facilities committee. "We have no idea of a proposed site, and we don't decide where to put it or other things, we just decide what is needed."
Currently, the CCES gym is used for lunch, for physical education, for programs, assemblies, performances and for many other special activities taking place in the school. During lunchtime, students are crowded into half of the gym's makeshift cafeteria while other activities are ongoing in the other half.
CCES assistant principal Karen Nasseri said an architect might decide to put the PE and fine arts centers in the same building, but they would not share space.
"Right now, there is no place for performances. We have speakers and performances on a weekly basis and sometimes two or three things in one day, so it will be nice to have space for kids to perform, to do their talent shows and Christmas programs," Nasseri said.
If a fine arts center, which would include a stage, is constructed at the elementary school, Nasseri said the bleachers likely would be removed from the existing multi-purpose room and office space added. She says there is currently no space allocated at CCES for occupational and physical therapists who work with students each day, nor other specialists who come into the school to work with children. A long-range goal is to construct a conference room needed by the site-based council and school committees.
Committee members say an additional access road to the elementary school is greatly needed. One idea discussed by the committee would loop a new road from Country Club Drive across vacant farmland into the back of CCES. The committee cites safety concerns and congestion at the school as reasons an additional access road is needed.

14-year-old seriously hurt in ATV accident
Adam Hodge, 14, of Crayne was seriously injured in a four-wheeler accident Sunday afternoon about 3 p.m.
Hodge, driving a Honda 250 Fourtrax ATV, pulled out of Chapel Hill Road and into the path of a Chevrolet flatbed farm truck driven by Van Hunt of Marion, who was westbound on Reiters View Road.
Hunt, 44, was unable to avoid a head-on collision with the four-wheeler.
Hodge suffered multiple injuries with the most extensive damage to his feet. He was taken to Crittenden Hospital by ambulance then airlifted to Kosair Hospital in Louisville. According to family members, doctors had to amputate his left foot and Hodge was still in serious condition Tuesday.
The accident was one of two in the area last weekend involving ATVs. In Trigg County a 26-year old man and his seven-year-old son were both killed when the father lost control of the ATV on Ky. 124 and hit a tree. They both died of head injuries.
Kentucky law prohibits the operation of ATVs on public roadways. Injuries from ATV accidents have increased 200 percent in the last 10 years, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Trooper Bob Winters investigated the accident near Crayne.