Area Death

Yvonne Crawford, 83, of Marion died Thursday. Gilbert Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Don't rain on my parade!

Organizers of the Marion Christmas Parade are hoping the rainy weather clears up this afternoon in time for the 5pm holiday parade.

As of this morning, plans are for the event to be held as scheduled on Saturday.

Snack with Santa is also being held from 2-4pm today at Marion Baptist Church.

Former Mayor Mickey Alexander and his wife Susan are grand marshals of the parade.

The event is co-sponsored by Partners Insurance of Marion and Crittenden County Chamber of Commerce.

Area deaths

Sylvia Mae Watson, 87, of Salem died Wednesday. Boyd Funeral Directors and Cremation Services is in charge of arrangements.

George “Georgie” Hendrick Harris, 77, of Salem died today. Boyd Funeral Directors and Cremation Services is in charge of arrangements.

Joan D. Fox, 78, of Chandler, Ind., formerly of Tolu, died Wednesday. Gilbert Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

TRAFFIC ALERT: US 641 to Close Monday

DETOUR
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U.S. 641 just south of the Crittenden-Caldwell County line will be closed for several days to all through traffic beginning Monday, forcing a 10-mile detour for travel between Marion and Fredonia. The closure is for extensive paving for the connections between the old and new U.S. 641 roadways just north of Fredonia in Caldwell County.

Neither local media nor the community had any forewarning of this anticipated closure until about 1pm on Thursday.

A marked detour will be provided for southbound traffic via Ky. 70 at Mott City and Ky. 902 at Dycusburg. Northbound motorists will get on Ky. 902 and Fredonia and take Ky. 70 at Dycusburg to get back onto U.S. 641 at Mott City.

The detour is expected to be in place starting at 8am Monday. The road could be closed all next week.

Once the site just south of Fredonia reopens, there will be a stop sign for southbound traffic. Traffic should then be running on the new U.S. 641 between Marion and Fredonia.

See next week's issue of The Crittenden Press for a projected opening of the new road and further details.

River Road closing in Livingston County

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet plans to close a section of Ky. 137 also known as River Road in Livingston County on Monday so a cross drain can be repositioned. 

The closing will be right in front of Birdsville Campground three miles east of the intersection with US 60. 

The work is expected to be completed on Monday with traffic returning to normal by 3:30pm.

Newsy Week with Christmas Trimmings

Get ready for a Big Christmaslike Saturday in Marion!

The annual Christmas Parade will be held Saturday evening and Santa will be at a local church earlier in the day. Get all the details about how Marion is beginning to Look a Whole Lot Like Christmas in this week's printed edition of The Crittenden Press.

In this week's newspaper you will read about the parade grand marshals and find out when Santa plans to visit Crittenden Hospital.

In news, there could be some clouds building around plans to build a disc golf course at the park. You will want to follow the money on this one.

A one-time Crittenden County state champion is going back to the football title game Friday in Lexington. Read all about this Marion man's emotions as he retraces some 33-year-old footsteps.

And, there is another story you will not want to miss. A group of local missionaries traveled out of the country last week, lost their clothes and ran out of water, but they're dying to go back. Blessings abound in their story. 

The county's deer harvest is playing second fiddle right now. See our sports section for a breakdown of the rifle deer season harvest figures. 

The Crittenden Press is full of articles to inform and entertain you. These are stories about Marion and Crittenden County. You will not find or hear them anywhere else. Get it The Press regularly by subscribing, or grab this week's issue at any of our participating vendors.

Area death

Donald Beavers, 84, of Marion died Tuesday. Gilbert Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Salem man arrested in hit and run case

Chris A. Fitzgerald, 49, of Salem has been arrested in connection with a hit-and-run accident on Butler Road in rural Livingston County.

Fitzgerald faces a variety of drug and traffic charges. He was lodged in McCracken County Jail. See The Crittenden Press Dec. 6 printed edition for details.

Trask, former WMJL station manager, dies

Former WMJL radio station manager Blair Trask died unexpectedly on Thanksgiving Day at a hospital in Indiana.

Trask, 60, is widely credited with having helped to build WMJL from a low-powered, rural Kentucky AM station into a modern broadcasting company. He did everything at the station from on-air broadcasting to engineering, said Brad Dossett, who was at WMJL as programming manager shortly after Trask left in the late 1980s.

When he passed away, Trask was living in Floyds Knob, Ind., where he was broadcast co-owner-operator of WXKU 92.7 and WZZB 1390/99.3 in Seymour and WUME 95.3 and WSEZ 1560 and WKLO 96.9 in Paoli.

Trask was born in Louisville and graduated from Western Kentucky University. Shortly thereafter, he landed a job at the radio station in Marion. Dossett said George Patmor, who was co-owner of WMJL at the time, thought “Trask hung the moon.” 

Dossett said Trask helped design and build the studio at WMJL’s headquarter’s on Old Morganfield Road after the station moved from its previous location in downtown on East Bellville Street.

“He was an electronics guy, but Blair could do a little bit of everything,” Dossett said.

“At a small station like that, you had to. This was before they added the FM frequency. Blair can be credited with making (WMJL) into a real radio station with the programing ideas he brought in the 1980s. He knew radio,” Dossett added.

Trask is survived by his wife, Kelly Oma Anderson; his children, Taurean (Vanessa) Trask, William Trask and Claire Trask; a brother, Everett A. (Becky) Trask IV; sisters, Myra (Bo) Mattingly and Jane (Wayne) Meredith.

A graveside service was held Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018 at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. Voss Funeral Service in Seymour, Ind., was in charge of arrangements.

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Don't be alarmed by police cars

Don't be alarmed if you happen to see a number of police vehicles parked at local schools today.

Kentucky State Police are conducting a training exercise on the high school/middle campus and the elementary school campus today in Crittenden County.

New 641 intersections pose possible danger

When the first traffic begins to flow on the new U.S. 641 from Marion to Fredonia in a few days, drivers will need to be vigilant to potential hazards.

As the first new highway in Crittenden County in decades, U.S. 641 blazes a 5.2 mile-trail of unknowns across a landscape that just five years ago was mostly farmland and wooded areas.

Click to Enlarge this map of
the new highway and its
intersections.

There will be new intersections with county roads, untested pavement and regular crossing points for animals like deer that have yet to be identified, as well as unmarked areas of potential flooding in downpours and other unknown risks engineers cannot account for.

State highway officials are asking motorists to be particularly engaged in driving as everyone becomes familiar with the new highway and its crossings at county road intersections. During the construction phase, drivers have largely ignored stop signs at those intersections.

"We have folks who have been crossing without stopping and looking due to the lack of cross traffic," said Keith Todd, a spokesperson for the Department of Highways. "We’ll have standard stop signs up at all of the intersections, if they are not up already. Stop signs mean exactly that, stop."

"If you’ll recall, the first couple of years the U.S. 60 Morganfield Bypass opened there were a couple of fatal crashes due to drivers failing to stop on the cross roads or failing to see oncoming traffic," Todd added.

For more on this subject, see The Crittenden Press printed edition from Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018 where the complete article appears on the front page. Subscribe here to the full version of the newspaper online or by mail, starting at just $2.95.

Area deaths

Rev. Ronnie Cunningham, 75, of Symsonia, formerly of Marion, died Saturday. Collier Funeral Home in Benton is in charge of arrangements.

Wanda Sue Shewmaker, 88, of Marion died Saturday. Gilbert Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

James S. "Jim" Roberson, 78, of Marion died Saturday. Gilbert Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Joan Garcia, 76, of Salem died Friday. Boyd Funeral Directors and Cremation Services is in charge of arrangements.

Mechanical issue idles ferry today

UPDATE2

Ferry has reopened.

UPDATE: Repairs taking longer than expected. Could be almost dark before it’s running again.

ORIGINAL POST

The Cave in Rock Ferry is temporarily closed today, Thanksgiving Day, due to mechanical issues.

The ferry shut down abound shortly after 11am and is expected to be back up and running about 2pm.

Blessed and Thankful

A grateful heart we have at The Crittenden Press for this community, our customers and readers.

We are grateful for so much more, but you are a big part of our blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving, and don't forget Small Business Saturday all over Marion this weekend. See our promotional video (top left on this page) about Small Business Saturday and the deals you'll encounter.

Area Death

World War II veteran, William Earl Clarke, 95, of Marion died Monday at Christian Care Center in Kuttawa. Myers Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Local Holiday News this Week

This week's printed edition of The Crittenden Press is smoking full of local news that you will find nowhere else.

From the latest update on US 641 to what local shoppers can expect in town this weekend for Small Business Saturday, your Crittenden Press is blazing the news trail this holiday season.

Perhaps the most interesting article this week is one about a local woman who will be testing her knowledge on Jeopardy! next week.

Although football season just ended – and we have plenty of coverage from the state quarterfinal game at Campbellsville – it is now basketball season. Our annual Rocket Basketball Special Section is included in this week's newspaper.

And speaking of Small Business, there's one in town that is a finalist for a national award and we couldn't be more proud for them.

Some "Friends" are kicking up smoke over at the library. Check out what's going on.

Coming up are the final days of the rifle deer season. Grab a Press to see where Crittenden County ranks when it comes to whitetail deer hunting. You probably won't be too surprised.

There’s only one source of comprehensive news and sports coverage in Marion and Crittenden County. Never miss out on what’s going on in your community. We have our ear to the rail and always keep you posted on what’s happening. Subscribe today to ensure that real news reporting continues in your community. Get the printed edition or read the entire paper online with a subscription to The Press, starting at just $2.95.

Copyright 2018

The Crittenden Press

Consider avoiding traffic jams on I-24

With heavy Thanksgiving Holiday traffic along I-24, local motorists might serve themselves well by avoiding the interstate between the Lyon County scales and Calvert City.

Long delays are expected in both eastbound and westbound lanes.

The traffic jams are on either side of the Tennessee River Bridge as lane restrictions on the bridge are requiring one-lane traffic in both eastbound and westbound directions. On Wednesday, traffic was backed up about five miles in one direction.

Avoid this particular of I-24 if you are in a hurry.

Small Business Saturday

Black Friday savings at Feagans

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Livingston man faces charges

Robert E. Mallory, 29, of Smithland has been arrested on a variety of theft charges. 

Livingston County Sheriff's Deputies along with Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources officers executed a search warrant today at Mallory's residence on Heater Store Road and recovered several items taken from thefts and burglaries in recent weeks.  

Mallory was arrested and charged with one count of felony theft, felony receiving stolen property and felony burglary. 

Deputy Shannon Edging is the lead investigator. The investigation is ongoing and additional arrests are possible, Accor to Livingston authorities.