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Finishing unfinished developments

Planning and Zoning and the City of Danville are working to finish a trio of developments that were never totally completed by the developers that built them.

Centre Estates Drive will be getting sidewalks this summer; Maple Tree Place will be getting a retention basin; and details are being worked through to install streetlights on Fox Harbor Drive.

These are all projects that should have been done years ago, when the roads were first put in. In each case, the developer failed to complete the work, so a letter of credit was cashed by Planning and Zoning and the money to finish the work was put into escrow.

It’s been 14 years since the Centre Estates and Maple Tree Place funds were put into escrow; and it’s been nine years for Fox Harbor.

It shouldn’t have taken this long to wrap things up, but now that we’re here, it’s good to see P&Z and the city cooperating for the good of local residents.

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All Wrapped Up art project adds color to Danville

The All Wrapped Up project recently completed by Danville High School art students has added a lovely splash of color to the city.

Students and their teacher, Shelly Stinnett, knit and collected hundreds of colorful scarves, wraps and other fun things, then used them to decorate public spaces at the Community Arts Center, the Boyle County Public Library and Centre College.

The project was funded by a grant from VSA Kentucky, an organization that supports inclusive arts programs.

The decorated spaces are colorful and fun. Just walking by them on the street will bring a smile to your face.

If you haven’t seen the displays yet, there’s still time — All Wrapped Up will be up through Wednesday. Once the event is literally all wrapped up, the items will be donated to youth services centers.

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Alumni support for the Bate Bulldog

Alumni of Bate High School turned out in force last week to support their mascot, the Bulldog, and ask the Danville Board of Education to reconsider a proposed mascot change.

In March, the board announced a plan to change all of the school mascots in the Danville Independent School District to Admirals, in an effort to maintain unity from preschool to high school.

That sounds like a great idea without any additional information. But the Bate alumni who spoke last week had lots of additional information to provide.

The Bate Bulldog is one of the last remaining symbols of the school’s legacy, they said. That legacy is one of providing education for Danville’s black communities, going all the way back to the school’s namesake, J.W. Bate, who provided education for black people at a time when that was not done.

“Nobody else wanted us. If it hadn’t been for Professor Bate, we would have all been uneducated,” said Ronnie Arrington, a 1964 graduate of Bate, back when it taught students through the 12th grade.

We think the alumni make an excellent case for keeping the Bulldog as Bate’s mascot. We also think there are nothing but good intentions behind the proposed mascot change. School officials were hoping only to do something good for their district. Now that they have more information from the Bate alumni, we hope they decide to keep the Bulldog around.