Latest news with #Wireman
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Eastern Kentucky braces for potential flooding during the calm in between storm
SAYLERSVILLE, Ky. — The longtime Little League coach watched the water slowly recede from the sports fields in Saylersville. Water receding was a welcome sight for Matt Wireman, the coach-turned-county-judge executive in Magoffin County. In 2019, just six weeks into the position, Wireman experienced his first disaster: a flood. "We have navigated 10 or 11 disasters since," Wireman said, including three floods already this year. Wireman, a resident of the county for more than 50 years — except for his time in the Army — cannot remember another time there has been this much rainfall. He'd just gotten off another Zoom call where Kentucky Emergency Management briefed officials statewide on potential weather threats. For a few short hours on Saturday, he and the rest of Eastern Kentucky were able to soak in sunshine and 75-degree weather. Then the rain started to sprinkle. As Wireman steered his black Ford F-150 south on Church Street, the Magoffin County Rescue Squad looked over its water rescue boat. The crew had already been out multiple times on Friday to rescue people who drove into high water as flash flooding occurred across the county. Just beyond the squad's station stood a brick and wood sign welcoming drivers into downtown Saylersville (pronounced SAL-yers-vil), proudly proclaiming the town the "Birthplace of the Licking River." "The Licking starts on the southern tip of Magoffin County," Wireman said. It's the Licking that could cause problems in Magoffin if the 1 to 3 inches of rain state officials warned Wireman about instead shifts east and turns into the threat of 3 to 5 inches. "Five inches would be catastrophic for us," Wireman said. But there's nothing he can immediately do besides warn people of flooding they've seen repeatedly over the last six years. Largely, 'the cut' near the south edge of town that rerouted the river in the mid-1990s does its job and keeps water away from downtown. But in 2021, more than 100 homes were damaged, when the Licking River hit its third-highest crest at 20.36 feet since the cut-through was finished in 1997, according to the Saylersville Independent, the local newspaper. And it's the Licking River that could cause problems in Pendleton County — where Falmouth and Butler residents were ordered to evacuate by 8 p.m. Saturday. The Licking River is expected to rise to 41.5 feet, per the National Water Prediction Service. Flood stage is 33 feet. The small, impoverished community of Falmouth is no stranger to catastrophic flooding. In March 1997, the river rose more than 24 feet above the flood stage, sending water rushing into town — killing five and flooding nearly 1,000 homes. The flood reached 50 feet at its height, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, breaking the record for the worst flood in the town's history. The Licking River flows all the way north, where it meets the Ohio River in Cincinnati. Wolfe and Powell County also faced flooding overnight as storms continued to come in waves, and the Red River spilled over roadways in Clay City, leaving Main Street impassable. Around 2020, Wireman asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers what he could do to stop the town from flooding after a February 2019 flood filled downtown and forced a nursing home to evacuate. "The Corps said they'd have to do a study and I could apply for a grant for the study," Wireman said. That study alone, he said he was told, would cost between $700,000 and $900,000, and the grant would allow a 50/50 match. "My general fund is $2.2 to 2.7 million," he said. "And they told me it'd be 10 to 15 years before the work was done." Wireman slowed his truck as he drove over the river in another part of the county, near the U.S. Geological Survey's tracking box, which informs the national agency of the tributary's levels. The muddy brown water had slowed from where he had originally started surveying spillover near the cut. "The calm before the storm," he said as he began to accelerate, "for now." Stephanie Kuzydym, an enterprise and investigative sports reporter, can be reached at skuzydym@ Follow her at @stephkuzy. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Eastern Kentucky watches weather as storm moves east
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Taking steps toward riverport project
GREENUP The Greenup County Fiscal Court will pay $2,500 to the City of Wurtland to put in 2-inch sewer and water taps at the Greenup-Boyd Riverport in Wurtland. Judge-Executive Bobby Hall said during Tuesday's fiscal court meeting that Wurtland and Boyd County's fiscal court will each toss in $2,500, too. Strawser Construction — based in Columbus, Ohio — will build a 9,500 square-foot building on 4 acres at the riverport, Hall said. He said the project will be complete between Oct. 1 and Nov. 1 of this year. 'That will be 30 new jobs in Greenup County,' Hall said. He thanked Wurtland Mayor Bobby Reynolds for his role in the project. Reynolds was in attendance for Tuesday's meeting. A groundbreaking for the project will take place sometime in April, Hall said. Other notable items from Tuesday's monthly meeting: • Kevin Callihan, Director of the Greenup County Ambulance Authority, recognized Garth Wireman, Greenup County's emergency management director, after Wireman was placed in command of the state Emergency Operations Center a couple weeks ago. 'To my knowledge, that's the first time anyone outside of Frankfort has ever been put in that position,' Callihan said. Wireman drew a standing ovation from everyone present on Tuesday morning. 'It was a very good experience,' Wireman said. • Hall expressed excitement in his report about UK King's Daughters' future plans in Greenup County, which include a $7 million medical office building project and a $3.5 million investment into The Bellefonte Centre on Ashland Drive. 'We are excited for the medical services they will be providing our citizens and we are excited that more jobs will be coming to Greenup County,' Hall said. 'Everybody wins.' Work on those projects will not begin until July, Hall noted. • Hall spoke about county roads and tiles, and he asked all citizens to help keep tiles and ditches clean. 'We have found litter, cut brush, toys, tricycles, Big Wheels and tires, clogging up these tiles,' he said. 'Our solid waste department and inmate program pick up thousands of bags of trash every year. This helps tremendously, but when the tiles are full of toys, this forces water to create a different path. These tiles are made for water flow. Replacing tiles is not cheap and clogged tiles creates flooding. Please help us by keeping these items out of the tiles.' • Greenup County Library Director Tim Gampp provided an update on the splash pad in the works. He said Greenup Mayor Lundie Meadows has agreed to install a tap that runs through the city. 'Right now what's taking a little bit of time is we're trying to figure out how the runoff is going to work,' Gampp said. Gampp said the library will have its Summer Reading Kickoff — which usually draws about 500 people — on Thursday, May 8. Live music, inflatables, miniature golf and more are included in the event that is slated for 6-8 p.m. • The Greenup County Ambulance Authority reported 646 calls for February — increasing the 2025 tally to 1,286. Total number of miles logged in February: 17,077. • Hall proclaimed March 11 'Cheerleader Day' in Greenup County, recognizing achievements by Greenup County varsity and junior varsity squads, Pride Athletics cheerleaders and Raceland cheerleaders. • He also read a proclamation for Arbor Day, which is April 4. (606) 326-2664 | asnyder@
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New modern American restaurant to open in Eldorado
House meats dried for 28 days with green chile chimichurri and mole rojo. A bean and mushroom cassoulet, complete with oyster mushrooms and local beans. After trading Jackson Hole, Wyo., for the Eldorado area south of Santa Fe about three years ago, Paul Wireman is poised to open a restaurant with a flexible menu that will offer meats and produce from the southern Rocky Mountains and a modern American style of cuisine. The new Fable Restaurant and Market is slated to open its doors in the Agora Shopping Center at 7 Avenida Vista Grande, Suite B6, in Eldorado in the next few weeks. On its opening, it will become one of several restaurants in a growing residential area. A sample menu teases a variety of entrees and starters featuring strong regional influences. "We're really trying to be connected to this community. There's definitely a need for some more food choices out here, without having to drive into Santa Fe," Wireman said. "We're just excited to be offering a delicious product to the community." Wireman is waiting to secure a liquor license before opening the restaurant, which will have the capacity to sit about 60 people indoors, along with an outdoor patio that could hold about 40 people. But a market selling produce, sandwiches and other goods is already open, serving lunch during the day. "It's a restaurant-market concept. So we have take-and-bake meals, soups, stocks [for soups] and sauces. We bake focaccia and cookies everyday," Wireman said of the market. The market is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Friday and offers "grab-and go lunch" each day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. except on Sundays. On Saturday, the market is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The restaurant, which is not yet open, plans to be open from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed Sunday, Wireman said. The restaurant aims to have a smaller menu that changes often. The Fable Restaurant and Market will open in the space that was occupied by Arable, a restaurant that closed last year. "You can come in and have a drink and a casual meal. If you want to have a more elevated experience, we will have those options as well," Wireman said. Wireman has cooked professionally since the early 2000s. He was the co-owner of Trio: An American Bistro in Jackson Hole before opting to move to Lamy with his family a couple of years ago. He was also the co-owner of a modern American steakhouse on the Jackson Hole town square called Local Restaurant & Bar. The Fable Restaurant and Market marks the latest chapter for Wireman. After selling the restaurants in Wyoming, Wireman's family embarked on a road trip across 30 states but kept circling back to the Santa Fe region, eventually deciding to resettle here, lured by the high desert landscapes; his children go to school in Eldorado. He characterized the restaurant as a family operation. His wife, Jessica Wireman, will play a role in the front of the house and develop the restaurant's wine list, while a friend from Jackson Hole will help lead the restaurant's kitchen. An application for the restaurant received by Santa Fe County related to the liquor license request seeks to define what the sensibility of the restaurant will be. "The menu will feature local produce and proteins sourced directly from the farms and ranchers of the southern Rocky Mountains. Drawing on our love of the American West, we are proud to work with small family farms and feature specialty items grown in fresh mountain soil,' states the application. Other culinary options in the Eldorado area include Upper Crust Pizza Eldorado, Taste of Maggie's Cocina and Fusion Tacos El Dorado. Entrees included on a sample menu for the Fable Restaurant and Market include beef filet, hand cut with asparagus and duck egg, priced at $42; red chile beef short ribs with scallion gnocchi and Tucumcari cotija cheese, priced at $32; and a summer vegetable pasta, priced at $26. A burger is priced at $18 on the sample menu. The interior of the restaurant features a green motif on the walls as well as faux brick — "farmhouse meets modern," Wireman said.
