Remembering 2022 in Carroll County

Carroll County Fiscal Court held a first reading of an ordinance to dissolve the West Carroll Water District Board. Advertisement of the first reading was not published in The News-Democrat and so the process was started again.

The West Carroll Water District has turned over all of its assets to Carrollton Utilities, all of the board members have resigned and the board is to be dissolved via the ordinance.

Public invitation for dedication at the CCCD Nature Center at Camp Kysoc

The families of Yvonne Robertson Marx and Caleb Service donated funds for the development of additions to the CCCD Nature Center at Camp Kysoc, including a memorial bridge and pond, and a circular tree bench as part of the center’s new memory walk through the woods.

“Yvonne was raised in Carrollton and also held her first teaching position at one of the local schools,” her sister Theresa Robertson said. “She valued the community and maintained life-long relationships there. It seems very fitting that she should be memorialized in a beautiful setting that will benefit Carrollton residents and visitors alike.”

Robertson said her family moved to Carrollton from South Carolina and she and sister considered Carrollton home even though they moved away from the community after graduating from college.

Caleb Service was an active duty soldier when he died in 2017 due to injuries suffered in an automobile accident. He was an Army Ranger instructor for Reconnaissance and Surveillance Learners, teaching military personnel to jump out of airplanes at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

“It is an honor for the Camp Kysoc Wildlife center to give us an opportunity to do this in Caleb’s honor,” said Caleb’s mother, Beverly Service. “Caleb was an avid outdoorsman. As a family, we continue to grieve him. We will never forget his courage, his laugh, and his sense of adventure. We will miss him the rest of our lives. Nature is known to have healing properties for grief. This will give us and anyone else an opportunity to sit and reflect on a life gone too soon.”

Downtown burns

The Carrollton's historic downtown changed dramatically when a fire reignited, fully engulfing and destroying the 1891 Siersdorfer Building on the corner on Main and Court Streets.

The building housed two popular retail stores, Maguana’s Unique Gifts and Flowers and Artful Gifts Etc.

A fire started approximately 4 p.m. on Monday, March 21, behind the building. The first fire damaged the storage and work room on Maquana’s side of the building. Carrollton Fire Department had the fire contained quickly keeping the damage from spreading further.

The smoke damage, however, extended to both business and the apartments located above the retail shops.

“We saw the smoke coming from the back and went outside and saw the flames,” said Maguana’s employee Mary Beth Gosser.

Artful Gifts owner Dinah Marshall said, “We are so glad that no one was injured or died because of the fire, it is just a building and that can be replaced.”

Maguana Qualls seconded Marshall's remarks. “We are so thankful no was hurt and even though the building held our blood, sweat and tears, it was just a building.”

Remembering Tilley

Editor’s Note: This story written by Dave Taylor and published Nov. 10, 2010 is a fitting tribute to John P. Tilley who died March 14, 2022 at age of 90. The News-Democrat and Trimble Banner honors the memory of Tilley by reprinting the feature story.

Well-known among older generations of Carroll Countians as a very active figure in local political circles, John P. Tilley now spends his days in retirement at his home on Deatherage Drive in Carrollton.

Tilley spent nearly all of his working career in public service. He joined the local U.S. Army National Guard unit at the age of 17 and remained active in the military until 1975.

“We were called to active duty during the Korean Conflict,” Tilley said of the Carrollton unit. “That was in May 1951. I didn’t go to Korea. Some of the Guard members did. I went to the west coast in preparation for going, but they decided I didn’t have sufficient time left” on his initial term of enlistment.

After returning to Carrollton, Tilley became active in local politics and was elected Carroll County sheriff in 1961. According to the law then existing in Kentucky, a sheriff could not succeed himself after completing a four-year term so Sheriff Tilley ran for and was elected Carroll County Judge. The term “judge-executive” did not come into play until 1976 when the state Constitution was changed, Tilley said.

On April 19, 1968, during Tilley’s first term as county judge, with a war escalating half a world away in Vietnam, the 570 members of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Battalion, 138th Field Artillery of the Kentucky National Guard learned they were being ordered to active duty by President Lyndon B. Johnson. They were to report to Fort Hood, Texas for four months of training in preparation for deployment to Vietnam.

Though Tilley, as an elected official, wasn’t required to go, he said he felt a responsibility to the men he had trained with. He took a leave of absence from his post as county judge and appointed K.E. McDowell to serve as county judge pro tem.

McDowell announced on Jan. 23, 1969, his intention to run for county judge in the May primary. Less than a month later Tilley filed, ran for, and won re-election while serving in Vietnam.

When the primary results showed Tilley the victor, he (while still in Vietnam) removed McDowell from the position of judge pro tem, effective at 12 a.m. the next morning, and appointed Mabel Shirley who had held the pro tem position for more than a year earlier.

Shortly after the primary election, Tilley returned to Carrollton briefly as the official military escort for the return of the body of Sgt. Luther Malcolm

“Freedom isn’t free,” he said. “We must be prepared to protect our freedom and I think that’s one of the major things that government is supposed to be doing. The people of Carroll County have been extremely good to me. I tried to perform my duties both in the military and as a civilian in an official capacity and time’s running out. I’ll be 79 next month, so I’ve been down the road.”

School Board names Casey Jaynes as new superintendent

At its April 12 meeting, the Carroll County Board of Education named Casey Jaynes the next superintendent of Carroll County Schools. The board offered the position to Jaynes by unanimous consent, and he officially began his duties on July 1.

“I am honored to have been selected for this position, and I am excited to meet the students, staff and community of Carroll County,” Jaynes said. “I grew up in Madison, so I know that Carroll County is a wonderful place. Many thanks to the board for giving me this amazing opportunity to help lead a great school district.”

Having worked in public education since 1998, he began his teaching career as an information technology instructor at Henderson County High School. In 2005, he moved into administration as an assistant principal at Logan County High School and then into the principal’s role at the same school in 2008. During his time at Logan County High School, that school was ranked as a School of Distinction as well as named to US News and World Report’s “America’s Best High Schools” Bronze Level for 2013 and 2015. The school also outperformed on Advanced Placement exams, being recognized by the College Board for three consecutive years. Additionally, LCHS ranked in the top 50 on ACT scores from 2013-2015 compared to all Kentucky high schools. In 2015, Jaynes became the Director of Middle School and High School Teaching and Learning for Boone County Schools and has served there since.

Jaynes earned a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Hanover College in 1989. In 1999, he completed an additional associate of science in technical education from Western Kentucky University and in 2001 completed a master’s degree in educational administration from Murray State University. He later went on to complete coursework for an educational specialist certification in educational administration from the same institution. Jaynes is currently working on a doctorate in educational leadership.

“I have been very fortunate in my career to work with amazing people who make life better for kids,” Jaynes said. “As superintendent, I look forward to working with the staff and the community of Carroll County to make our schools the best that they can be for everyone.”

The News-Democrat leaves 6th Street

As many of you know, The News-Democrat consolidated its office with The Madison Courier at the end of June as both papers are owned by Paxton Media Group.

Our desks and our computers moves but our coverage did not.

Across the country, news rooms are shrinking. The trend is nothing new. A National Summit on Journalism in Rural America was held in Shaker Village near Danville, Kentucky, and Penny Abernathy, of Northwestern University, who has been following the landscape of rural journalism for years, said that the recent rate of mergers and closures is double what she expected, leading to what she calls news deserts.

Jody Lawrence-Turner, the executive director of the Fund for Oregon Rural Journalism, told the summit audience that her state has lost one-fourth of its newspapers since 2004. “Nobody is watching them,” she said in reference to the half of incorporated cities in her state that lack a news source.

We’ll be watching Carroll County.