Agriculture Commissioner James Comer to visit Hopkinsville

Agriculture Commissioner James Comer will be traveling to Hopkinsville Monday afternoon to reportedly meet with Christian County Clerk Mike Kem and local 4-H and FFA officers.
Commissioner Comer will be encouraging residents to make a donation to the Kentucky 4-H, Kentucky FFA organizations and Kentucky Proud program when they decide to renew their farm license plates.
According to Commissioner Comer, FFA and 4-H gives the states youth opportunities to participate in constructive activities while they learn the value of hard work and discipline.
Kentucky FFA reportedly has 15,000 members, while 205,000 students in the Commonwealth are involved in 4-H programs.

Commissioner Comer will be in Hopkinsville Monday at 2:30 p.m. at the Christian County Clerk’s office located at 5-11 South Main Street.

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Officials hope to re-open bridge by Memorial Day

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear was at Kenlake State Park this morning, where he announced plans to repair the Eggner’s Ferry Bridge.

Governor Beshear says an emergency contract has been awarded to the same contractor that repaired the Sherman Minton Bridge in Louisville to repair the Eggner’s Ferry Bridge, which was severely damaged when the Delta Mariner Cargo Vessel knocked out two spans earlier this year.

A news release says the contract includes the repair of the structure, which is supposed to be re-opened by the Memorial Day weekend. The contract came in at a low bid of 7 million dollars to Hall Contracting of Kentucky—the same group that repaired the bridge over the Ohio River between Kentucky and Indiana on I-64.

The Transportation Cabinet gave serious consideration to using a ferry service in the meantime, but ultimately chose not to do so, according to the release. The bridge carried 2,700 cars on a daily basis and a ferry could only carry 40 per hour.

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03/08/2012/am

Two reportedly injured in Parkway wreck

Two people were reportedly injured in a wreck on the Pennyrile Parkway in Christian County this morning.       

The incident happened around 10:45 near the 2 mile-marker in the southbound lanes, with Kentucky State Police the Christian County Sheriff’s Office and Hopkinsville EMS responding to the report of two people with injuries.

Few other details are available, with more to be released later by KSP.

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03/08/2012/am

Power outages were caused by lightning

Officials with Pennyrile Rural Electric say this morning’s power outages were caused by lightning.

Two separate outages were reported, with the first one coming around 6:20 in southeastern Caldwell Co. and northwestern Christian Co. The outage affected customers on Hopkinsville Road in Caldwell and the Dawson Springs Road area in Christian.

302 customers were in the dark due to that outage, which began when lightning caused a pole to catch fire, according to Pennyrile spokesman Brent Gilkey.

Crews worked through heavy rain to replace the pole and get the power turned back on.

Elsewhere, power was out in the Blue Springs and Lake Barkley State Resort Park area of Trigg County later in the morning. Linemen got both jobs done as quickly as possible in less than ideal weather.

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03/08/2012/am

Clarksville man charged with attempted break-in

A Clarksville man was arrested early this morning after allegedly attempting to break into an Airport Road residence.

The report from Clarksville Police Officer David Johnson says the incident happened around 12:20am at 151 Airport Rd, where a woman called dispatch and said a man had broken a window in an attempt to get inside.

When police arrived, they reportedly found 38-year old Anthony Chandler of Jack Miller Blvd. bleeding from his hands and yelling at the victim to let him in.

The victim, identified as Betty Shaw of Clarksville, told police that Chandler was caught trespassing Wednesday, allegedly asleep underneath the apartment complex. Ms. Shaw told him to leave when he returned and that’s when he allegedly punched out the window.

Chandler was charged with aggravated criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

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03/08/2012/am