Today's News

Because of lower-than-expected construction costs, the Shelby County Public School system estimates that it will save over $1 million on six upcoming building projects.

District officials estimated they would be shelling out $3.2 million dollars this summer to complete the construction of several local projects. However, when the district received all of the construction bids on the projects, they came in at just over $2.1 million. That's a total estimated savings of $1.04 million.

Next Monday, the nation will once again take time out to honor its veterans, a tradition that America has observed for 140 years.

Memorial Day ceremonies will take place at Grove Hill Cemetery at 11 a.m., beginning with a welcome by Col. Roger C. Green Jr., Army (ret.), post commander of VFW Post 1179.

After Jim Morris of Post 1179 delivers the invocation, the speaker will be Col. Ron Turner, an Iraqi war veteran and currently the chief of staff of the Kentucky National Guard.

The placing of the wreath will follow his speech.

"I can't believe I have my sunglasses on," said Susan Travis, as she opened the ceremony Friday night for the Relay for Life event held at Shelby County High School.

The rain, that had fallen earlier that day, made the field too wet and campsites were moved to the SCHS back parking lot.

"We've really been blessed," continued the chair of the Relay for Life committee in Shelby County, as she spoke of the 'can do, won't take no' attitude. "We have to celebrate, remember and fight back," she said about the cancer that people that night were fighting to find a cure.

Nearly all of the prairie settlers found on their way across North America is now gone. But if efforts at Red Orchard Park pan out, visitors can get an idea what those early settlers may have seen when the crossed the country in their covered wagons. And they may hear the increasingly rare call of the bobwhite quail to boot.

On Tuesday, Shelbyville/Shelby County Parks workers planted 15 acres in Red Orchard Park to a mix of grasses that mimic those found in the short grass prairies of bygone days. Kentucky originally had hundreds of thousands of acres of prairie lands.