Midway area leads the way in preserving land via conservation easements to Bluegrass Conservancy

The Midway area has the most concentrated set of tracts dedicated to conservation through the Bluegrass Conservancy, according to a map published with a story in Saturday's Lexington Herald-Leader. The map appears below; a chart with the story showed that Woodford County has accounted for more than half of the acreage on which the private, non-profit group holds conservation easements, which permanently bar development of the properties.

Reporter Andy Mead's story was datelined Midway because it focused on Suzi Shoemaker, left, and her Lantern Hill Farm east of town on US 421-62. "It is among the best in the world in what it can produce," she told Mead. "I would like to see future generations have the opportunity to raise horses here. Whether they want to or not, they will have that opportunity." (Herald-Leader photo by David Perry)

Mead explains that the easements "are voluntary agreements, tailored to the needs of each owner and property, that keep the land as open space as a defense against suburban sprawl. The land remains in private hands, and the owners can qualify for tax benefits, including income tax, estate tax and property tax reductions." (Read more)

Midway to open pharmacy school in Paintsville

Midway College plans to open a school of pharmacy in Paintsville, Ky., in the fall semester of 2011. "We are a college that has been built around the health sciences," President William B. Drake said. "This move to the doctoral level for a pharmacy program is a natural extension of that." The pharmacy school will be the first in Appalachian Kentucky, much of which is plagued by abuse of prescription drugs.

The school's first home will be the Mayo Campus of the Big Sandy Community and Technical College. Drake said the site was selected because of "extrordinary community support. That included "an investment of financial resources and multiple land parcels currently being considered as possible donations for the school's eventual permanent site," Susan Baniak of Business Lexington reports.