2008 T-Shirt Design

The Bardstown Boaters are looking for feedback on the possible new design for the 2008 club shirt.

Please leave your comments below. Or you can discuss these shirts in the club forum.

City Recycling Program

The City of Bardstown will make its entry into recycling later this year. For a growing number of residents, adopting a recycling plan is coming none too soon. Others are apt to be a bit more wary and perhaps even a bit skeptical as to benefits vs. costs of recycling.

The city’s approach — taking baby steps into a program rather than diving head first without knowing if there’s water in the pool — seems to be a wise one. What the city intends is to form a cooperative effort with Nelson County and Nelson County Industries. The plan calls for establishing two centralized drop sites, unmanned, one in the city and the other in the county, for persons to drop off recyclables. To begin, the city plans to accept No. 1 and 2 plastics, mixed paper, aluminum, cans and cardboard. At this point glass will not be accepted. Local government is hoping to receive a grant, paying for about six trailers with multiple bins.

This will be an excellent way to gauge true community interest in recycling. Lots of people can talk a good game; proof in the pudding will be measured in tonnage.
Some are disappointed that curbside service is not being offered. There are known positives and negatives, however, with curbside programs. More than 10 years ago, a piece in The New York Times Magazine seriously questioned the benefits, charging that “recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America” and noting curbside service “uses more energy than it serves.”

There are certainly those who would rebuff such statements as it is clear that basic recycling of aluminum, cans, glass, and plastics has far-reaching benefits to the environment.

While there is some debate whether curbside recycling is more or less expensive than regular trash pickup, everyone agrees there are costs involved. Is it government’s responsibility to subsidize the costs? Are those clamoring for curbside service willing to pay $8, $10, $12 or more per month (in addition to their garbage bill)?

Thus, the city’s direction in entering recycling slowly is not only a start but is a calculated decision that makes sense. As we go down the green walkway, also we are reminded of the adage of employing the two R’s (reduce and reuse) before the third R (recycling) even becomes an option. Now that is something on which all of us can agree.

Never Forget: Flood '08

Heavy rain in the area Wednesday resulted in flood warnings and road closures this week. The National Weather Service, Louisville, put the Rolling Fork River near Boston under a flood warning through Friday evening. Minor flooding of the river was reported early Thursday at 35 1/2 feet. Flood stage for the Rolling Fork River is 35 feet.

Some roads but mostly ditches became flooded after “a lot of rain,” Wednesday, Nelson County Road Department assistant supervisor James “Kroger” Phillips said. Two roads were closed due to flooding— D. Head Road, which is designed for water to go over it when the pipes are unable to handle the amount of water coming through them, and Old Nelsonville Road, which is near the river and therefore prone to

flooding, Phillips said. Water on both roads was still “way up,” Thursday and remained closed. Phillips said the roads would be monitored throughout the day Friday.

The National Weather Service recommends that if drivers or passersby approach flooded roads not to attempt crossing, especially at night. Flooding is expected to subside this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service, Louisville.

Beech Fork Overnight Trip Planned

The Bardstown Boaters are planning an over night canoe trip on the Beech Fork on April 18-19th. This will serve as a information gathering expedition for the Paddle Pickup as The bardstown Boaters will be looking for a new section of the river to clean up. Please feel free to join in on this laid back flat water trip down our most local of water ways.

You can discuss the details of the trip in the forum at this link. You can find out more information about this year's Paddle Pickup here.

Elkhorn Acres Meeting

Darrin Hines of the Viking Canoe Canoe Club, Jay Thomas of the Bardstown Boaters, Dave Stawicki of Elkhorn Paddlers, Zina Merkin of the EAMG and Kevin Colburn and Mark Singleton of American Whitewater held a meeting last night to discuss the Elkhorn Acres. A representative from the BWA was not present.

Addressed in the conference call were the concerns listed in David Quarel's letter and immediate actions that could be taken in response including keeping a porta john at the property and reporting any commercial or other unapproved activity.

The main focus was AW's (landowner's) request to develop a local governing council for the property so-to-speak consisting of the parties participating in the conference call to act on AW's guidelines.

Everyone agreed that each club could provide one or two individuals to commit to participating in this council. As planned for the call nothing was written in stone and all were asked to return to each club or organization and get a consensus and a round of opinions on how this should be handled.

Each were asked to follow up with an email to spell out their club's intentions and any concerns or opinions. There will also be a follow up conference call to discuss, date and time to be determined. The same personnel will be on this call.

A request was made to start a thread on AW's forum for open discussion on the matter and when it is up all can comment on it rather than on several different club forums.

Phillip And Meagan Sisk March Volunteers Of The Month

Phillip aka "Bubba" and Meagan Sisk are American Whitewater's volunteers of the month for March 2008. This couple from Lexington, Kentucky help each year to make the National Paddling Film Festival a great event. Phillip has been a long time festival volunteer and has coordinated much of the National Paddling Film Festival road show events for the past few years. This year Meagan jumped in at the last minute to make sure all the festival attendees had full bellies both nights at the festival.

This year was the 25th National Paddling Film Festival and the event raised over $3,000 for American Whitewater's stewardship efforts. AW would like to thank everyone who volunteered to make the event such a success, especially Bubba and Meagan!

Kokatat will be proving Phillip and Meagan with free Outer Core Shirts to thank them for their suport of AW's river stewardship efforts.

Recycling in Bardstown

The Nelson County Recycling Center is open on Monday from 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m., Wednesday from 4:00p.m. - 6:00 p.m. and on Friday from 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. You can also go anytime and leave your recyclables by the gate. The center accepts all plastic soda bottles, milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles. For paper they only accept newspaper. No office paper or magazines. For aluminum they only accept coke and beer cans. Click on the picture for more info.


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Avon Whitewater Park

The whitewater park builders from Riverestorations.org have completed work on the Avon Whitewater Park in Colorado.

The park was designed by Glenwood-based River Restoration and features three river runs for kayakers Baby Bob, Bob Jr. and Bob Sr., graded from beginner to advanced. Baby Bob provides kayakers who are still wet behind the ears with an opportunity to sharpen their skills. The intermediate freestyle kayaker can throw around some moves on Bob Jr., and Bob Sr. provides challenging entertainment for the most advanced of freestyle kayakers. The terrain is groomed along certain parts of the river and rock beds have been built up bank side to provide kayakers easy access to the water. Additionally, the park features new wetland plantings and a beautifully constructed spectator viewing terraces.

Bardstown Recycling Programs

This blog entry is a brief guide for all Bardstown and Nelson County residents who may be looking for a place to recycle their used goods.

There are 4 recycling facilities in Nelson County and each deals with specific materials. Download this PDF file for the Nelson County list of recycling centers. These recycling centers except different types of recyclable materials, from car batteries to paper, plastics and aluminum.

Another way to to recycle is to Freecycle!

The Freecycle Network is a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns and thus keeping good stuff out of landfills. Click on the Freecycle logo to go to the Bardstown & Nelson County Freecycle group page.

And for more good information on how to recycle your junk, visit the Kentucky Division of Waste Management.

We'll see you on the river and at the local recycling center!

Help The Bardstown Boaters

Each year the Bardstown Boaters asks our membership base to help us keep the club alive. One of the main ways that the Bardstown Boaters do this is by renewing our affiliate membership to American Whitewater.

We are now asking for a small donation so that we can raise the $75 needed to renew this affiliate membership. American Whitewater restores rivers dewatered by hydropower dams, eliminates water degradation, improves public land management and protects public access to rivers for responsible recreational use.

Your donation will fund river stewardship work throughout Kentucky and the United States. Support your rivers!