Ohio County Times

Animal Control officer Josh Wright lures horses into a trailer with corn feed while seizing them from their owner, Stacey Basham of Beaver Dam. Dustin Bratcher/Times-News photo

BD man charged with animal cruelty

A Beaver Dam man turned himself into police after a warrant was issued for his arrest on Monday for animal cruelty. Stacey Basham, 36, was charged with a misdemeanor count of animal abuse after state and local animal control officers found a dead horse and another that looked like it had been starved. Deputy Randy Taylor and animal control officer Josh Wright escorted a horse trailer to the property just off Bethel Church Road, seizing four horses, a goat, and several dogs and cats. Wright said he and a state officer from the Department of Agriculture inspected the animals last Thursday and found no food or water. But when they arrived to confiscate the animals, the horses were eating on a round bale of hay. “When we were here on Thursday, there was no food or water,” Wright said. “It was our perception they were not getting enough food or getting fed properly.”

Country club put up for sale:County has applied for $400,000 community grant to buy property

For sale. A nine-hole golf course with a clubhouse, outdoor swimming pool, four cart shed buildings, one shop building and a lake. That’s not the official classified listing but after operating more than 35 years as a private organization, the Ohio County Country Club is going public — not for the purposes of drawing more golfers but to find a buyer. There’s no sign on the property announcing the sale but Mark King, president of the County Club, confirmed last week that the board is looking for a buyer. A sale price of $300,000 has been rumored but King said there has been no figure set. “We’re exploring any potential buyers,” King said. “We’ve never set a price and if there’s one being talked about it has never come from the board.”

In the background from one of the golf greens sits the clubhouse of the Ohio Country Club. The Country Club, which has been put up for sale, features a 9-hole golf course. Dustin Bratcher/Times-News photo

Buford man facing murder charge after head-on collision kills Utica woman:Winn accused of driving intoxicated

Robert Winn

Horse Branch man dies in single-vehicle accident

A Horse Branch man was killed in an automobile accident last Thursday on Round Hill Road. According to the Kentucky State Police report, Jimmy L. Ashby Jr., 27, was driving a 1995 Chevy pickup truck when he ran off the the road, struck a ditch and then overturned. Ashby was pronounced dead at the scene by the Ohio County Coroner Larry Bevil.

School board hopes pump tank will solve Horse Branch school’s wastewater problem

It didn’t take the Ohio County Board of Education long to act on the recommendation of the Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet in regard to the faulty sewage disposal system at Horse Branch Elementary School. Representatives of the cabinet recently visited the school and found no less than five wastewater violations growing out of the school’s aged septic system. Most of the problem was blamed on malfunctions in the system’s lateral field. The board, in a special-called meeting last Thursday, voted to follow the recommendation of Superintendent Soretta Ralph and install a new pump tank system that is expected to remedy the problem.

Times-News, sister paper win 1st-place KPA awards

The Ohio County Times-News took home a first place award for best investigative story or series at last Friday night’s Kentucky Press Association’s annual awards ceremony in Louisville. The award was given to Editor Don Wilkins for his story “Pentagon shows no record of POW claim.” Sam Ford, a writer for the Times-News and the Central City Leader-News, was also awarded first place in the best feature story category. Ford’s story “Kindred Spirits” ran in the Muhlenberg Leader-News, a sister paper to the Times-News.