2022 – What a year!
At the buzzer, Lady Hornets Kassady London and Braelyn David celebrate their 2nd straight year as 16th District Championship winners after defeating Clinton County. Photo by Johnnie Tarter
By PJ Martin
Editor
The Herald-News
The year 2022 has been a busy one. Perhaps, we were trying to make up for the time we lost to the quarantine and Covid in 2020 and 2021.
Perhaps one of the biggest changes to affect us all was the updates to West Stockton Street as the change from 4-lanes down to 3-lanes was made. There was quite a bit of confusion for several days.
The Edmonton Metcalfe County Chamber of Commerce awarded the 2022 Educator Idol Award to Ms. Kay Harbison of Summer Shade and the 2022 Educator of the Year Award to teacher Scott Roach of Edmonton.
As part of a 3 county region, Metcalfe County received much-needed grant money from the state for clean water and better roads presented by Governor Andy Beshear. Then in October, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman visited Edmonton to present the $986,000 CDBG-CV grant to build a larger food pantry at Bowling Park. The Lt. Gov. also brought the $497,961 Cleaner Water grant to the City of Edmonton to install water lines on two roads.
We celebrated the 150th anniversary of Summer Shade on Founder’s Day and crowned the first Queen of Summer Shade 104 years young Margaret Vibbert.
The Edmonton State Bank has been in business since 1897 and celebrated its 125th year with a celebration in September at its home office location in Edmonton.
The City of Edmonton began planning for the Memorial Park project which will include the reconstructed Mosby Ridge Bridge and a walking trail, community building, and amphitheater.
The 40th Pumpkin Festival saw the return of the outhouse race after a 2-year hiatus. The community rallied around the festival as the event was sorely missed in 2020 and 2021.
The 3rd weekend in August saw the return of the Sulphur Well Homecoming along with flooding rains which cut the celebration a bit short.
The Chamber of Commerce presented the 28th Annual Jim C. Coleman Community Service Award to Kim Shirley Smith at the Chamber Christmas Banquet.
The 2022 Christmas Parade will go down in the books as the first nighttime parade in Edmonton and what a grand parade it was. The entries were decked out in Christmas lights and the floats were grander than in past years.
Retirements and Losses
Amy Neighbors retired from MHCC in January and handed the reins over to Cody Brooks Amy then set her sights on politics. She ran for and won the crowded primary for District 21 in the KY House of Representatives. She made Metcalfe County history as the 1st woman from Metcalfe County to earn a seat in the House of Representatives.
The Metcalfe County School system has seen several well-known faces retire throughout 2022 including Tammy Allen, Emily Coffey, Jamie Howard, Edward Reed, Ivy Waddell, and Sherry Keltner.
A long-time doctor also retired in July. Many patients said goodbye to Dr. Paul Dunn at his retirement from the Edmonton TJ Health Clinic where he had practiced since it opened.
City Hall also had a long-time city employee Alicia Reed retired in October.
In 2022, we also suffered the loss of several well-known people and mourned right along with their families.
In February we lost Judy Childers a lady well-known for her work with the band boosters, alongside her husband Ken at the farmers market, and many charitable organizations.
April saw the loss of Dean Rowe after a short illness. Dean was a realtor, entrepreneur, and recent co-author of a book about Metcalfe County.
The former Ford Dealership owner, Royse Smith passed away in July. Then in August, Dr. Gary Hogan a most beloved doctor in Edmonton for many years passed away.
Perhaps the most tragic of all occurred in October when a fire ravaged the home of Tom Emberton. He was able to save his wife, but then sadly lost his own life.
New Businesses
The Family Dollar/Dollar Tree opened its doors on February 17th bringing a much-needed discounted shopping option to the county. Also on Highway 68 is a new garage beside Bob’s Auto and the Flying Horse truck stop just outside Edmonton.
The month of March saw the beginning of an extensive remodel and addition to the Metcalfe County Public Library. The beautiful new library held its open house on December 16th.
The long-awaited Metcalfe County Museum opened its doors in August inside the first floor of the historic courthouse. A huge amount of work by the Historical Society went into gathering the information and items plus creating the displays in the museum.
The long-awaited Pennington Stave and Cooperage is still in the works as the building fit-up is close to completion and equipment is being moved in. The stave part is due to begin operation sometime in early 2023.
Sports
The Metcalfe County School system named two new coaches, Heidi Coleman as tennis coach and Alex Pennington as head softball coach. Then in December, Cole Poynter was announced as the new Lady Hornets softball coach.
The Lady Hornets basketball team took the 16th District Tournament for the 2nd year in arrow.
The Lady Hornet Volleyball team was also the winner of the United States Marine Corps and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Awards.
The Hornets 10U little league team won runner-up in the district tournament securing them a place in the state championship competitions.
The Metcalfe County Hornets football team went undefeated for the season with a 10-0 record for the first time in 19 years and won 2A District and went on to a 12-0 record. The team went on to end the season as runners-up in the regionals in the 3rd round of the KHSAA playoffs with a 12-0 record.
Celebrating 150 years of Summer Shade wouldn’t be complete without Mr. Rollin Harbison’s 1930 Model A being driven by his grandson Chris Harbison and accompanied by his wife Kelly Jo. Photo by PJ Martin
The MCHS Hornets football team had one of its most successful seasons in almost two decades and claimed the Class 2A, 3rd District Championship. Photo Facebook/Metcalfe County School
