| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
Western Bypass: Doug Campbell photo has lots of answers Catfish Plus owner, also a commercial pilot, sends photo from 24,000 feet up, 13 minutes from Lexington, which shows, in one take, the complete progress of the new road. It tells more than words the exact status of construction By Ed Waggener With a single photo taken from 24,000 feet, about the same distance straight up as it is on the ground from the KY 55/KY 706 Y to Old Zion, Columbia Pilot and catfish restauranteur Doug Campbell has answered a lot of questions on everybody's mind about the Western Bypass around Columbia. The photo accompanying this story was received overnight and was picked as the best among six sent. Campbell, besides being a commercial pilot, also owns catfish outlets and personally runs the one in Columbia, now badged "Catfish Plus," and so, prefaced his letter by saying, "If I'm not frying something, I'm flying something." On the day the photos were taken, he says, "I was at the controls of my favorite steed, a Cessna Citation, which I pilot for some very nice folks in Lexington. "A direct route from Red Stick, Louisians, to Lexington, KY takes you directly over Columbia, KY. I thought my fellow citizens might enjoy seeing the dirt work beginnings of the bypass around Columbia from 24,000 feet up," he wrote. "I alterered my course a bit to the west in order to snap these photos, but ATC didn't seem to notice or care. I was on the gound in Lexington 13 minutes later," he added. What the photo shows After over 50 years of waiting for a bypass, a lot of Columbians still find it hard to believe it's so close to a reality. Technically, one might say that it is already built. Friends who have four wheel drive pickups already say they've driven it from Campbellsville Road to KY 61 South. Superintendent Darrell Treece briefly noted in the last meeting of the Adair County School Board that he had been assured that access to the Adair County School Campus could come as early as late this fall. The Doug Campbell photo from 24,000 feet shows that this could probably happen. Dry weather has allowed incredible progress in the first few weeks of excavation. From Pelham Branch Road to the Adair County Schools campus the road could foreseebly be complete in a few months. From the school campus to Greensburg Road, the work appears, from the ground and from the air, to be more challenging. But word we've received from a reliable source McDonald's coffee regular is that he's been told from Very High Up that the road will be blacktopped in sections, as segment is ready. Comments being heard are that the contractors are going all out to complete this job for Governor Fletcher, who made completion of the Western Bypass a commitment to Adair County in his first race for Governor in 2003. Getting any part of it complete before the November 6, 2007, election would be a major validation for him, a fact which is not lost on local commentators. The photo also answers questions we've been receiving from folks who want to know where the road starts and ends, and, most of all, it's relationship to landmarks such as the schools, Christian Life Center, Majestic Yachts and Image Analysis, and how the curiously engineered Fishhook on the southern terminus will look. The excavation in the photo does not show that, but it does point to its path outside the Adair Youth Development Center, and the Green River Animal Shelter to connect with KY 55 across from Industrial Drive. That area also includes the Columbia Church of the Nazarene complex and the pilot's boyhood home, the residence of his mother, Ruth Ann Campbell. Photo shows open areas, green space, possible park locations A very interesting aspect of the photo is the amount of open, undeveloped land within the bounds of the Western Bypass and mostly within the City of Columbia. Several large dense green areas of woodland, privately owned but community treasures, are evident. Some of the open spaces are now being surveyed for possible park locations, some are being monitored for protection for their cooling effects in summer and flood prevention year-round, and, likely, all are being considered for residential and/or commercial development. Columbia needs airport, improvement, too Campbell is a member of the Columbia-Adair County Airport Board and couldn't resist putting in a word on that, adding, "By the way, I am unable to land this small corporate jet in Columbia because our runway is too short. The bypass will be a great help to our economy and growth. But our 'reconfiguartion' and posturing to attract industry must be multi-faceted and an airport which can handle a corporate twin turbine or jet is probably more important than most people realize," he signed his letter, "Doug Campbell, Fish Cooker and Jet Flyer." Because of people like Doug Campbell, more Adair County leaders are getting behind an effort to extend the length of Columbia-Adair County Airport. The airport runway is currently being repaved at a cost of over $400,000. County Judge Ann Melton is working to obtain funds to buy the land needed to extend the airport to make corporate jet flight in and out of Adair County possible. She's obtained a commitment from landowner Kenneth Scott to sell 20 acres on the west end of the present runway for $50,000 an acre. "I know it may seem like a lot of money," she said, "but if a grant can be obtained to buy the land, it will more than prove its worth in a short time." Melton says that she doesn't want to speculate on the prospects of getting the grant money, but said, "I'm going to try. We're getting a lot of help from Frankfort right now just by asking."> Editor's note: A big ColumbiaMagazine.com thank you to Doug Campbell for this extraordinary photograph. If you enjoyed it, stop by his Catfish Plus restaurant, on Campbellsville Road, enjoy a seafood dinner in shade of the big elm tree, and give the flyer fryer thanks for all he does, in person. -Ed Waggener This story was posted on 2007-06-28 05:18:45
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know.
More articles from topic News:
Gradyville roadside markers installation Thursday at 8:30am CT Dylan wins 2 of 2 robotics contests at Texas A & M Chamber ribbon cutting at Xtreme Fitness Emily Griffitt Anderson murder: Trial-Faith & Phone records VBS at Millerfield Brethren in Christ, July 16-20, 2007 3 National meetings brought people from 15 states to CU Film, Night at the Museum at the library Putman authority describes boundaries of fabled realm 5th District Little League Baseball Tournament here July 6-11 Adair Fiscal Court Special Called Meeting agenda June 28, 2007 View even more articles in topic News |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
