VOTE NOW: 2024 Beautify the Bluegrass finalists
Voting is now open to select the winner of the 2024 Beautify the Bluegrass Governor’s Award.
Kentucky’s electric cooperatives partner with the governor’s office and Kentucky Living in this annual initiative to recognize local efforts to improve public spaces, preserve our state’s natural beauty and help communities shine.
Read about each finalist here and then click the link below to vote for your favorite. Voting ends August 28. Only votes submitted by the public during the voting will be used to determine the Winner. A visitor may vote one (1) time per day during the voting period.
Beattyville Highway 11 welcome sign
For those entering the city limits of Beattyville, this welcome sign is their first impression of the city. This project was a team effort. Supported by a donation from Jackson Energy, the City of Beattyville purchased supplies and materials from local lumber and hardware businesses. A crew of 24 Jackson Energy employees volunteered their time to completely renovate the sign, including pressure washing the brick pillars, installing new landscaping timbers and a fresh layer of mulch, replacing lights with solar lamps, removing damaged electric lines, giving the sign a fresh coat of paint, adding flower planters, and mounting new flags flying high on each pillar.
Landscaping for Habitat for Humanity Training Center
More than 20 volunteers from Big Rivers Electric Corporation and Kenergy Corporation planted a landscaping barrier on the roadside property of the Habitat for Humanity Owensboro-Daviess County Training Center. It’s a one-of-a-kind training facility that will help homeowners learn how to maintain their home and property with hands on training before moving into their Habitat for Humanity house. Volunteers planted trees and shrubs by hand and with the assistance of cooperative equipment. The landscaping creates a natural noise barrier for the center. Volunteers also included two contractors from Paric and Cooperative Building Solutions. Planning for this project began in April.
Works of art that bloom
With the help of a grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women’s Art as Activism, Devan Horton created a large batch of botanically-based, plantable art materials. Horton created watercolor paints and paper from various items like marigolds, golden rod, onion skins, indigo, weld flowers and walnuts, recycled newspaper, leaves, and grass. With the handmade watercolors and paper, Horton organized an event for her Bellevue community to create their own works of art with her handmade materials. The artworks were then planted at a vacant lot that neighbors consider a blighted area. The lot, which Horton now calls “Perennial” bloomed into a native pollinator meadow this year and will continue to return each spring. Horton says the project symbolizes the collective good that can be accomplished with the hands of many different people.
Danville’s downtown streetscape project
This two-year project has transformed the Main Street area of downtown Danville. The $6 million project helped the Main Street become more pedestrian friendly with new wider sidewalks, buried utilities, and 60 new trees. Restaurants and coffee shops now have outdoor dining areas for customers. The Weisiger Park fountain also got an upgrade and created a main gathering spot for downtown. The goal of this project was to make the area more appealing for people to experience and create a safer environment for pedestrians.
Friends of Red River trash cleanups
The Friends of Red River (FORR) hosts monthly stream/river cleanups from May to September. The group has removed tons of garbage and thousands of tires from Kentucky’s only nationally designated Wild and Scenic River. An 11.5-minute documentary called River Cowboys: Keeping it Wild was created in 2024 by FORR and the Kentucky Waterways Alliance. That documentary highlights the history of the Upper Red River Cleanup, the issue of illegal dumping in the Red River, and offers solutions to make a difference in your own community. FORR hosted a premiere for the film at the annual Wild & Scenic Red RiverFest at Red River Gorge and more premieres in Kentucky cities are being planned. The Wild & Scenic Red RiverFest benefits the FORR.
