Fayette Alliance Blog

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Sewer overhaul could mean eventual 137% rate increase

Beverly Fortune, 8.24.11, Kentucky.com

Flushing your toilet and taking a shower could get steadily more expensive in Lexington.

Starting in about 2013 and continuing through 2026, Lexington sewer bills could increase as much as 5 to 10 percent yearly as the city spends an estimated $540 million to overhaul its sanitary sewer system, according to projections presented to the Urban County Council at its committee of the whole meeting Tuesday.

The average sewer bill could jump 137 percent by 2026 to $71 a month, according to the projections. The sewer bill today for a Lexington household of 2.5 individuals using 80 gallons of water per person per day is about $30… Read more at Kentucky.com

Inspect private property as part of sewer fix

Staff, 8.24.11, Kentucky.com

Forgive us if you’re reading this while dining, but the topic is sewage. Also, money.

Specifically, how to get the most bang for the half-billion bucks that Lexington residents and businesses will be paying to fix the leaky system that carries away the nasty stuff we’d rather not think about until it backs up into our basements, when we can’t think of anything else.

Heavy rains also send raw sewage spilling into Lexington’s creeks and streams, which is why the city, like others, is under a U.S. court order to clean up its act… Read more at Kentucky.com

New BCTC campus a vital piece of Lexington’s future

Workers graded the grounds at the former Eastern State Hospital, the future Bluegrass Community and Technical College site. Mark Cornelison | Lexington Herald-Leader Staff

By Tom Eblen, 8.17.11, Kentucky.com

…”This campus will be a beacon for a brighter future for many Kentucky families,” Beshear said, noting the need to educate and retrain workers for a rapidly changing economy.

The neighborhoods and shabby industrial areas around the old, fenced-off Eastern State property are buzzing with speculators because of the expected demand for new commercial and residential development around the campus. The area is a logical path of growth for the restaurant district emerging along Jefferson Street.

“I think this campus will revitalize and add a great deal of energy to this part of town,” Vice Mayor Linda Gorton said. “Think of the thousands of people who will be coming and going from here every day. It’s another piece of the puzzle of this whole end of town sort of being renovated.” …Read more at Kentucky.com

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Construction begins on new BCTC campus; Eastern State Hospital takes shape

By Cheryl Truman, 8.16.11, Kentucky.com

Construction began Monday on the first building at Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s new campus on the grounds of what is now Eastern State Hospital, even as a new hospital takes shape farther north along Newtown Pike.

Construction on the new Eastern State Hospital at 1350 Bull Lea Road should be completed by December 2012, and the $28.3 million BCTC building is expected to be ready by spring 2013…Read more at Kentucky.com

Dave Overton, a member of Bluegrass Cycling Club and a volunteer at Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop, helped Morgan Fannin, 7, up a hill on a blocked-off section of Shropshire Avenue last week. Overton has been teaching bicycle skills and rules of the road to East End kids involved in the Isaac Murphy Bicycle Club. Each kid who attends two of the club's three classes this summer will receive a new bike and helmet. Tom Eblen | Lexington Herald-Leader

Club seeks to get kids on path to fitness, fun

By Tom Eblen, 8.10.11, Kentucky.com

Writer Frank X Walker was bothered last summer when he attended opening-day festivities for the Legacy Trail and saw only a few other people of color.

“I got to thinking about what I could do to change that,” said Walker, 50, who has ridden a bicycle since he was a child in Danville. Walker’s 73-year-old father is an avid cyclist, and his son rides a bike to classes at the University of Kentucky.

Walker had recently published Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride, a book of poems based on the life of the great 19th-century black jockey. Murphy’s home in Lexington’s East End neighborhood stood where the trail will begin when it is completed. That gave Walker an idea that many others in Lexington were quick to embrace…Read more at Kentucky.com

In the August edition of Lexington’s Sk!rt Magazine, Alliance Director Knox van Nagell is featured as a prominent member of the Lexington community working to build a more sustainable city for all of us.

Alliance Director Knox van Nagell

Some excerpts from Knox’s profile:

Shoes I Covet: Cowboy Boots.

Favorite Feminist: Amelia Earhart.

My Pet: Clark the Dog, Moses the Cat.

Three People I Want At My Dream Dinner: My husband Matt, daughter Caldwell, and Katherine Hepburn.

View the full profile at Skirt.com