Rowan Review - June 2026
The end of June marks our halfway point for the year, but it also marks a new beginning for your county as we move into our new fiscal year.
What does that really mean for you?
FIRE PROTECTION IN ROWAN COUNTY
This isn’t new, but Rowan County has four volunteer fire departments;
Elliottville Volunteer Fire Department
Farmers Volunteer Fire Department
Haldeman-Hayes Crossing Volunteer Fire Department
Route 377 Volunteer Fire Department
The individuals who give their time and risk their lives to protect us in our times of need; they are not new either. We don’t believe that kind of dedication can be bought, and if it could be, then we know we certainly could not afford it. One thing we do believe in is doing the best we can to give these folks the resources to make your community safer.
Additional dollars have been allocated this year to the four volunteer departments in the Fiscal Court’s new budget. With these funds that come available July 1, they will each be able to pay certified firemen to be on duty at each department out in the county – ready to respond to your need.
That is big, and that is new, and we are all very excited about it.
The ultimate goal is to have daytime coverage every day across the county. We know that we won’t be able to fully staff every day at the beginning – we don’t have enough people just yet – but this is how we’re going to start. Daytime staffing will do wonders to make sure all equipment and apparatus are operationally ready and properly maintained, and it means that when you call for service, help is not very far away at all.
If you’ve ever considered getting involved with your volunteer fire department, please reach out to your Fire Chief. There has never been a more exciting time to be a Rowan County Firefighter!
EMERGENCY SERVICES
While we’re working in this vein, there are a couple more important emergency services updates along the way.
Last week, Rowan County submitted an application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “Assistance for Firefighters” grant program. Our goal is to completely replace two of our three backline ambulances in our fleet that were purchased back in 2015. 11 years? Doesn’t sound like a long time to have a vehicle, does it?
Many folks don’t know this, but it isn’t at all uncommon for us to put 10,000 miles on one of these ambulances in a month’s time, and they’re usually moving down the road at a pretty quick clip. It doesn’t take long at that rate to wear a vehicle out, even with the garage keeping up with all the maintenance and repair work for the fleet.
We have asked for $710,000 to purchase two new ambulances and boxes. It’s an extremely high expense for this county, but it’s not an expense we can defer for too much longer, and so we are very hopeful of being awarded later this year. The turnaround time on this grant application was one of the shortest we’ve worked on, and so we would like to thank Rowan County EMS Director Homer Lewis, Assistant Director Cindy Glover, Treasurer Michele Jessee, and Rose Fryman and Jocelynn Gross with the Gateway Area Development District for each of their parts in putting this application together.
Before we move on, we’re going to take this chance to remind you. Rowan County has a new emergency notification system. We need you to sign up online by visiting our Rowan County Emergency Management page on our website, but if you do not have time to create a full account right now, you can still receive limited updates by texting:
• ROWANWEATHER to 888777 for weather alerts
• ROWANROADS to 888777 for road alerts
Note: During severe weather events after business hours, if you find trees down across your road or other conditions have made it impassible, we ask you to please call the Morehead Dispatch non-emergency line at (606) 784-7511, and they will relay it to us immediately.
SENIOR CENTER RECEIVES FINISHING TOUCHES
Everybody’s gotten well settled in at the new Rowan County Senior Center over on Clearfield Street. Lots of laughs have already been had and many meals shared, but we still lack the last bit to make it the perfect home for our senior community.
In the next couple of weeks, Standafer Builders will be completing the backyard exercise walkway that allows our seniors a good place to walk, exercise and be in nature. They only lack a small footbridge installation to be finished, and we’re currently trying to figure out how we’re going to keep our seniors from running footraces back there.
We’ve got on order some permanent cornhole boards, as well as some nice, recycled rubber benches ready to install. Out front we’re adding an additional sidewalk, erecting a privacy fence to protect the neighborhood, and building a dumpster corral to keep everything looking neat and sightly. In addition, we’ve also received a bid for a new senior center van that will replace our old home-delivered meal van and serve that program into the future.
AND NOW YOUR MONTHLY DOSE OF RECREATION NEWS
As we speak, the rubberized playground surface at the park is being installed and will be ready for play in the next few days. We hope that you’re proud of this new playground, and we’re hoping your kids are enjoying it as well. We got some comments on Facebook saying that while everyone liked the new playground, some shade out there would be very nice.
Well, it’s not always the case, but we’re way ahead of you on this one!
We’ve designed a second pavilion that we will construct between the basketball courts and playground. The new pavilion will be roughly twice the size of our existing pavilion and will help to provide shade for users of the playground and sports complex. We’re going to get that project moving later this summer, so just like anything else we build out there, you’ll get to watch it go up in real time.
Speaking of places to find shade, we have a new woodland hiking trail that has been blazed around the perimeter of the park. It’s brand new, and we’ve just preliminarily marked it for now, but we plan to improve the path more as time goes by, and foot traffic will help us. Right now, you can begin the trail in the stand of trees behind the restroom area. Let us know what you think!
But if fishing is more your speed, then this is breaking news. Fish and Wildlife has stocked additional catfish in the large pond. Knock yourselves out, just remember to observe the regulations like you were fishing anywhere else in Kentucky!
MORE GREAT THINGS HAPPENING
There’s something truly great happening in Rowan County each and every day. A couple of weeks ago, Samone Ratcliff and the volunteers with JustServe helped to distribute a tractor trailer load of food from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Humanitarian Food Program, operating out of the county warehouse at American Legion Way. About 20 pallets of shelf stable goods went into local food banks, churches and other food security organizations that helpedtransport it directly to where it is needed.
We’ve worked with Samone several times over the years, and we appreciate her work in our community very much. When it first began, we learned that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were not only responsible for the complex distribution of this food, but they actually grew it themselves at farms across the country. Fruits. Beans. Wheat. Pasta products. Peanut butter. You name it; they grow, process, package, and truck it across the country to help people in need.
This is always beautiful thing to behold, learn about, and be a small part of. People helping other people for nothing but gratitude in return.
And to wrap up with another great piece of news, the Cooperative Extension took over 100 kids down to 4-H Camp this month. Everybody came back very tired, so we think it means they had a good time. Just like everything else, the costs of sending 100 kids to camp are higher this year than ever, but through the generous, giving nature of our community, and the hard work of our County Extension office, all of these kids went at a reduced rate, and some of them got to go for nothing. The Fiscal Court allocated an additional $10,000 this year towards this cost to help as well.
These programs are important to our youth. The kids create lifelong friendships, build leadership and life skills, and this gets them involved in something positive and educational.
We’re very proud of our Extension Service in Rowan County and how hard they work to enrich the lives of these children, it’s a mountain of work that certainly doesn’t do itself. Check out their programs this summer on their Facebook!
That’s all for now.