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Editor’s note: The Murray Sentinel is not affiliated with Bazooka Reloaded. We bear no responsibility regarding its editorial content. Please direct all inquiries to Bella at bazookareloaded@gmail.com or call 442-BAZOOKA (442-229-6652).
Editor’s note: The Murray Sentinel is not affiliated with Bazooka Reloaded. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of The Sentinel.
I was privileged to become acquainted with President Carter’s personal executive secretary, Susan Clough, while she and my father resided at Louisville’s Treyton Oak Towers.
When my Dad introduced Susan to me as Jimmy Carter’s secretary, I was skeptical. Returning to his apartment, I checked sources and confirmed that Susan had not only worked with Carter in his four years in the White House, but during his tenure as Georgia’s governor. The President had summoned Susan, a divorced mother of two, to Washington to serve in his administration.
Photo provided
Susan was genuine, engaging, and open to my endless questions about the President and her experiences in the White House. To my great joy, she embraced my increasingly lonely Dad as a friend and equal in spirited discussion and debate. They complimented each other in a unique way.
As my Dad’s health declined, he required hospitalization and higher levels of personal care at Treyton Oak. Susan regularly reached out to express concern for him and support for me. Her hugs and encouraging words were a comfort to both of us.
I anticipated my Dad’s death much like the nation anticipated President Carter’s death — an equally dreaded but desired inevitability. When death came for my Dad on a cold Sunday afternoon in January, grief interrupted my plan to reach out to the handful of Treyton Oak residents and employees who had become our friends to share the news.
A few days after my Dad’s death, I called the front desk at Treyton Oak to ask to speak with Susan. The person on the other end of the phone explained to me that Susan was dead. She had died one week before my Dad.
Her obituary offered additional insight into the woman my Dad and I came to know under the most extraordinary circumstances:
“She was an integral part of the [Carter] administration and contributed in many ways, apparent to those who read the Camp David Accords. Susan was keenly intelligent. She was humble, dedicated, and tireless. She valued everyone she met, from waiters, servers and secretaries to kings, prime ministers and ambassadors. She expected the same from all and gave the same to all—honesty and respect.”
That shared commitment to service, love of country, and egalitarianism bound Susan and my Dad in a late life, and all too brief, friendship.
MURRAY – At today’s Murray-Calloway County Hospital Board of Trustees meeting, Board Chair Steve Owens advised that no decisions have been made regarding how to proceed with the search for a new top executive after the candidate initially selected declined the contract offered earlier this month.
After current CEO Jerry Penner officially announced his retirement in July, the board decided to form an internal committee to conduct the candidate search instead of hiring a third party. Trustee Amy Futrell chaired the search committee, which included Owens, Vice Chair Summer Cross, Chief of Staff Dr. Nicholas O’Dell and Trustee Dan Renick.
Over 150 people applied for the position which Penner has held since April 2011. The search committee narrowed the pool to 10 candidates and interviewed them via Zoom. Five were selected for in-person interviews, but one withdrew their application over salary concerns. In October and November, the four remaining candidates were interviewed by the full board.
In a special called meeting on Dec. 5, the board unanimously voted to offer the position to Tonda Haigler, who currently serves as system vice president of ambulatory services for Baptist Health of Central Alabama. One week later, the board announced that Haigler did not accept the offer.
“Over the past several months, through the course of numerous meetings and discussions, with input from the medical staff, directors, and public; it was felt that Tonda was the best candidate to lead the hospital,” Owens stated in the press release. “An agreement was drafted and discussed with her, and after receiving assurance from Tonda that she would accept the position if offered, the public vote was held. Just as we felt that Tonda was the best choice to lead our facility, her current employer felt the same and she has since informed us she will not be leaving her current employer.”
The release further advised that the board would determine “how to proceed with a renewed search” at the next board meeting.
“We’ve not actually finalized our method of moving forward yet,” Owens said in today’s meeting. “I did ask Mr. Penner to look into the cost and availability of search firms. I think he looked at three of them. We have not decided to do that, but if we were to, this is what it would cost.”
Penner advised that he had heard back from two of the three firms he contacted. As for the timeframe, one firm estimated it would be four months until they could begin the recruitment process, and the other estimated six months. He further advised that the cost for the firms to conduct the search would be approximately one-third of the first-year’s salary of the new chief executive.
Calloway County Judge-Executive Kenny Imes asked that the firms’ satisfaction and retention rates be a factor in the selection process. “Once they place a CEO and that particular board accepts, then what’s the longevity of tenure (we can expect)?”
“That would be interesting for us to look at,” Penner replied. “They did mention that if – and each of them have not had huge history with this – but they also have a guarantee so if, for some reason, a person doesn’t work out after a year, then they’ll restart the search for you at no cost to us. So, there is some guarantees that go along with that as opposed to going, ‘Sorry you spent your money, and we didn’t hit home.’ But those are far and few (between). But I did not get a retention rate. I can find out.”
Penner added that one of the firms has “history” with at least one other healthcare organizations in the state. “So, there are some potential references we could reach out to and see how those searches went for that organization when they found their CEO.”
With that, the discussion concluded, and the board went into executive session related to personnel matter. No action was taken following the executive session.
In her newest book, “I Could Name God in Twelve Ways,” writer Karen Salyer McElmurray invites readers to accompany her on a journey that begins with deep roots in Kentucky and branches out across the world, moving back and forth in time with ease. On the title page, presumably in her own handwriting, McElmurray has scrawled the word “essays,” but the writings also qualify as memoir, meditations, travelogues, teaching tools, and life lessons. Readers can take their pick, as this enthralling assemblage can be read in sequence, in random sections, from front-to-back, back-to-front, and any order in between.
McElmurray likens her renderings to “word quilts…blue and somber.” Like a quilt, the individual pieces can be admired for intricate design and rich details, as well as the meticulous stitches that hold them all together. The essays provide endless opportunities to reflect on the many ways the author names God, with readers encouraged to do their own exploring.
The first paragraph of the first essay, “Blue Glass,” beckons the reader with a description of hands, the lifeline breached by an x-shaped scar and the shape of a half-moon. Right away, there are angles and curves to consider. Where to begin?
We are in an unidentified breakroom where is a tall man in a track suit takes in the paper pajamas the narrator wears and remarks she must be new to 1 North.
The second paragraph takes us back to the night before, the emergency room, an Ativan-filled IV, and someone shouting, “Oh my God, oh, my God,” as nurses talk about a patient with delirium tremens. McElmurray Imagines, “an empty Four Roses whiskey bottle lying in a ditch beside some abandoned house.”
“I begged them to admit me,” she says.
All this happens on page one. By the end of that first essay, the reader trusts McElmurray’s deft lead, following her into a childhood that, in her words, “had nearly eaten me alive.” We also delve into her medical history and her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease. Along the way are encounters with other associates on 1 North, a trek that lands “somewhere between meanness and beauty.”
“If we are lucky,” McElmurray adds, “we learn to ride through that country, all the windows down and the wind in our faces, telling us we are alive.”
With an overture that stirring in the first essay, this reader could not resist hitching a ride. As a result, I read “I Could Name God in Twelve Ways,” straight through in one sitting. Even now, weeks later, it tops the stack on my bedside table so I can flip through the pages randomly before I go to sleep, stopping to reread a word, a sentence, or even a whole essay that captures my fancy and colors my dreams.
The other night I re-read the piece titled, “The Land Between,” in which water is the metaphor that propels McElmurray’s recollections of famous authors, favorite films, and limnology, the study of inland aquatic ecosystems. She reflects on the way entire towns have been flooded to create manmade lakes, displacing residents who have lived on the land for generations, much like former residents of what is now Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky.
“All stories are water, really,” McElmurray declares.
She tells about a 1952 Ford sedan being raised from the bottom of Lake Lanier, the skeletons of two women inside. Delia Mae Parker Young and Susie Roberts had been missing since April 1958. For decades, their disappearance had been a topic of speculation, but the discovery of their remains spawned an explanation:
“How that night in 1958 Susie and a companion drove to a local roadhouse, the Three Gables, where they enjoyed a few drinks. How they filled Susie’s car up at a gas station and left without paying. How a watch found in the Ford sedan, all those years later, was set at 11:30.”
In every essay, McElmurray’s sentences plunge below the surface, sink in the mud, rise to the top, sometimes floating peacefully after being buffeted about by rough currents. Always a teacher, she challenges readers to create their own accounts of a certain slant of light just before dawn.
In her imagination, she creates a house, a boat just beyond the dock, and a father and daughter fishing.
“The girl is laughing. They’re playing music. Patsy Cline. ‘I Fall to Pieces.’”
As the girl trails her fingers along the surface, the author urges the rest of us to, “See how she looks down into the still water, wondering how far they reach, whether there is such a place, the faraway bottom of a lake.”
Pathos and peace, repression and redemption, mortality and memory, are just some of the concepts Karen Salyer McElmurray explores in her essays. With grace and good will, she delivers on her promise to name God in twelve ways, inspiring readers to engage in a courageous search of their own.
Recipient of a Governor’s Award in the Arts, Constance Alexander has won numerous grants, awards, and residencies for her poetry, plays, prose and civic journalism projects. She is also a founding board member of The Murray Sentinel and currently serves as our board secretary.
Between Christmas next week and New Year’s Day the week after, the public meeeting schedule is a bit sparse – there are two meetings on Monday, and that’s it – so we decided to stick them together in one post. Of course, if any special called meetings are called between now and then, we will update this post.
Monday, Dec. 23
The Murray-Calloway County Hospital Board of Trustees Finance Committee will meet at 11:30 a.m., and the full MCCH Board of Trustees will meet at noon. Both meetings will be held in the hospital’s Garrison Boardroom and via Zoom (call 270-762-1102 for Zoom connection details). See agendas for both meetings below.
There are no other regularly scheduled meetings through Jan. 3.
PADUCAH, Ky. (Dec. 20, 2024) – As a safety precaution, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) District 1 has closed Panther Creek Bridge at the 11.021 MM on KY 280/Speaker Trail in Calloway County after it was damaged due to flash flooding.
KYTC bridge inspectors found one of the bridge approaches had extensive erosion damage when portions of Calloway County received five inches of rain over a 72-hour period.
Repair efforts started today and are expected to continue for several days.
KYTC District 1 will provide timely updates.
The average daily traffic count on KY 280 is approximately 294 vehicles per day.
– The Calloway County Fiscal Court will hold a work session at 8 a.m. at the Miller Courthouse Annex. See agenda.
Wednesday (Dec. 14):
– The Murray-Calloway County Hospital Board of Trustees Investment Committee will meet at 8 a.m. in the hospital’s Garrison Boardroom and via Zoom (call 270-762-1102 for Zoom connection details). See agenda.
– The Calloway County Fiscal Court will meet at 9 a.m. at the Miller Courthouse Annex. See agenda.
Thursday (Dec. 15):
– The Calloway County Board of Education will meet at 6 p.m. at the Board Office.
The Calloway County E-911 Communications Center is launching a new program to better assist our responders, community, and farmers in the event of needing an emergent response. This program will gather information, such as locations of their tobacco barns, number of barns on the property, and other information from local farmers to provide first responders with vital information prior to arrival.
Every year we receive multiple calls advising that a barn may be on fire from people who are unaware of the fire curing process. Many that aren’t from the area may not be aware that fire curing tobacco is a common practice in Western Kentucky. This process produces a light-colored, or white, smoke to be produced and expelled from a barn. Several barns throughout the county are close to roadways and able to be seen, resulting in many of the “false alarm” phone calls we often receive.
White smoke escapes from the vent of a tobacco barn. (JESSICA PAINE/The Murray Sentinel)
The 911 Communication Center is requesting that all farmers fill out a registration form that is located at the Calloway County Sheriff’s Office, 701 Olive St., or by printing it off from the Calloway County website (callowaycountyky.gov and click “Forms”). Once filled out the form can either be sent to the e-mail listed on the bottom of the form or dropped off at the Sheriff’s Office.
The information that you will provide will be used to create a map that is designed to show where these tobacco barns are located along with all other information provided attached. This will be used when receiving a call to better identify who the barns belong to, surrounding structures, and better informing responders of the area to respond more efficiently. The information will also help both the Dispatch center and the Fire Department in making contact with the property owner in the notification process of any damages that have been caused due to a fire.
We would like to thank all that participate and hope to see a significant positive effect from this in all future Tobacco seasons. The center is always looking for ways to improve itself and the dispatchers that keep it running. We would like to thank the Community for their help in getting this program running and responders for their patience as we are beginning and working through any issues that may come forward in this process.
MURRAY, KY – Murray-Calloway County Hospital’s (MCCH) Board of Trustees met tonight in Executive Session to discuss the CEO search.
“As you all know, the board selected Tonda Haigler at last Thursday’s public meeting to succeed Jerry as the next CEO. Over the past several months, through the course of numerous meetings and discussions, with input from the medical staff, directors, and public; it was felt that Tonda was the best candidate to lead the hospital. An agreement was drafted and discussed with her, and after receiving assurance from Tonda that she would accept the position if offered, the public vote was held. Just as we felt that Tonda was the best choice to lead our facility, her current employer felt the same and she has since informed us she will not be leaving her current employer. At the next board meeting on December 23, the board will determine how to proceed with a renewed search,” stated Steve Owens, Chair of the Board of Directors.
MURRAY – For the first time in more than a year, the storm siren on Glendale Road sounded today.
After failing to sound during quarterly tests last December and March, the city decided to replace a storm siren located on Glendale Road that had problems off and on for years. The old siren was removed and new hardware installed in July, but the unit remained unfunctional until yesterday, when the long-awaited technician arrived to complete the installation.
“What we were doing today was the final install on the Glendale Road siren,” Murray Police Chief Sam Bierds told The Sentinel yesterday. “We’ve had everything in; we just had to finish up the wiring. So, the contractor came down, put the wiring in, put the batteries in. The batteries have to charge in the box for 24 hours before we run the test.”
The siren was tested at shortly after 3 p.m. and worked as expected.
The City of Murray owns four storm sirens located within the city limits – one on the south end of Doran Road; one in the Village Medical parking lot on Glendale Road; one near the entrance of Riviera Courts, a mobile home park on U.S. 641 N; and one at the Murray-Calloway EMS building (formerly Fire Station 1) downtown, which is the only one of the city’s sirens that is activated manually.
The Glendale Road siren is not the only one in town to have problems in the past year. The siren outside Riviera Courts, which also has not sounded during a quarterly test since last December, again did not sound during the quarterly test last Friday.
“That’s just something we’ve been running down with the technician,” Bierds said. “I may be reaching out to a different company to see if, maybe, a different set of eyes can try to figure out what’s going on. We can get it functional and then the failure just moves. So, we fix one part, and it will work; then another part will fail. And it may be another case, too (like the Glendale Road siren), where it starts to ‘nickel and dime’ us to the point where we want to buy a whole new system for it. We’re just going to have to figure that out at the City Hall level how we’re going to move forward on that.”
