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A6 Wednesday, April 11, 2012 | LOCAL/STATE | www.kentuckynewera.com
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THIS AREA’SLARGEST
SELECTION
BY DENNIS O’NEIL NEW ERA STAFF WRITER
Elkton City Councilheard a proposal for theseparation of water linesowned by the city and theTodd County Water Dis-trict during its Mondaymeeting.
Terry Frogue, utilities di-rector for Elkton, said thatat one time both city linesand TCWD lines were su-pervised by one superin-tendent. As TCWD hasgrown, it has installedwater lines around the citylimits that have intermin-gled with city lines. Whenleaks occur, there is confu-sion over whose responsi-bility it is to fix them, hesaid.
“(The water district) hasgotten to the point wherethey want to be their ownthing,” Frogue said. “Theywant to know what’s oursis ours and what’s theirs istheirs.”
Frogue formulated theproposal with TCWD. Itoutlines transfers of own-ership for several waterlines between the city andthe water district. It alsostipulates that, in the fu-ture, the city will claim de-velopment rights to eightproperty areas borderingthe city limits should thoseareas require water serv-ice.
The water district alsoproposes installing watermeters at the start of twocity lines connected to
TCWD lines. The water dis-trict pay for the meters andmonitor them, Frogue said.Under the proposal, thewater district would re-ceive a 15 percent share ofrevenue generated fromthe lines.
After hearing the pro-posal, council membersvoted to table its discussionuntil a future meeting.Frogue said he has been ne-gotiating the lines separa-tion for two years and therehave been many false startson the project.
“(The water district) asksme to submit plans, I sub-mit plans and they don’tlike them,” Frogue said.“(The water district) comesback with their own plans,the council doesn’t likethem. It’s an endless backand forth.”
In other business: The council authorized
an application for a$150,000 grant from theLand and Water Conserva-tion Fund for renovationsto Elkton City Park. Therenovations would includerepairs to the park’s tennisand basketball courts andthe construction of a pavil-ion. The council agreed to
hire an architect to outlinereconstruction of the Elk-ton Police Department’sroof. The project will be bidout based on the architect’sspecifications.
REACH DENNIS O’NEIL at 270-887-3237 or [email protected].
Committee hears proposalon water lines separation
BY DAVID SNOWFOR THE NEW ERA
Fort Campbell High School had its firstSTEMposium Monday and Tuesday in theschool library.
The STEMposium is part of a larger ed-ucational initiative that focuses on Sci-ence, Technology, Engineering andMathematics. For the STEMposium,FCHS students built robots and then hadthem respond to auditory and visual com-mands and even direct programming.
“We’re trying to get as many robots inour school as possible,” physics teacherPhil McCarty said. “Kids live in a virtualworld now. I grew up hands-on somethingall the time, and we’re trying to bring thatback.”
Using equipment provided by Lego, stu-dents gathered in groups to work on dif-ferent kinds of robotics. While somegroups constructed and programmed ro-bots, Daniel Freeman of Fort KnoxSchools set up an entire robotic city inwhich robots were programmed to makeit more environmentally friendly. The ro-bots activated wind turbines, put solarpanels on houses and took down smoke-stacks.
Several professionals came to assistwith the STEMposium, including AmishiCastelli of the U.S. Department of Trans-portation,
“I’ve been talking about what I do for theDepartment of Transportation as an envi-ronmental scientist,” Castelli said. “I’vebeen talking about what my education isand what my background is so that thekids who are interested in science careerscan at least see an environmental scientistand see what the day-to-day life is like.”
Gwen Ziegler of Fort Knox Schools pro-vided instructional support for the first
STEMposium at Fort Campbell.“It’s really interesting, because these ro-
botic kits are actually elementary. They’rebuilt for ages 8 and up,” she said. “But, be-cause they are involved so much in theprogramming, it creates a really good toolfor critical thinking and problem solving.”
The STEMposium has proven to be pop-ular with Fort Campbell students, and theadministration intends to build on its suc-cess.
“This will be an annual event,” LillianButler said.
Butler added that the school is trying toencourage girls and minorities to take aninterest in scientific fields. Those are de-mographics that are typically under-rep-resented in those fields.
Students have taken field trips to a locallandfill and Kentucky Dam to see the waythat those areas are productive whilebeing ecology-friendly.
“It’s given them some real-world experi-ences as well as practical experiences,”Butler said. “They have to do a lot of re-search and building. It’s just fabulous thatyou can cover four disciplines in oneclass.”
The Department of Defense EducationActivity, which operates school systems onposts nationwide and around the world, isoffering four STEM classes: green tech-nology engineering, robotics, gaming andbiotechnology. Fort Campbell Schools hasthe green tech classes this year and schoolofficials hope to get the robotics classesnext year.
For more information on the STEM ed-ucation initiative, visit the websitewww.stemedcoalition.org.
DAVID SNOW is the editor of the Eagle Post. Reach him at 270-887-3295 or [email protected].
DAVID SNOW | FOR THE NEW ERA
Ethan Gibson (left), Jaemin Ko and Josh Clifton build a robot with an auditory sensor Tuesday at Fort Campbell.
Students build robots as part of the STEMposium initiative
KENTUCKY BRIEF nE. Ky. educator to be surprised with award
PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) —An eastern Kentucky edu-cator is set to be awarded$25,000 as part of a nation-wide recognition program.
The Kentucky Depart-ment of Education says thewinner works at PikevilleHigh School and will be sur-prised with the MilkenFamily Foundation Na-
tional Educator Award onTuesday.
The winner’s name willnot be released until afterthe award is presented.
Fifty-one Kentucky edu-cators have won the awardsince 1993. Winners are cho-sen by state-appointed pan-els and can be teachers,principals or specialists.They are allowed to use themoney in any way theychoose.
ELKTON CITY COUNCIL n
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