Pam Morris crowned 1973 Miss Pulaski County Fair

Jul. 29—Talk of the town 50 years ago was centered around the need for a new hospital, as we have seen over the last several weeks of Pulaski's Past. By the end of July 1973, although a solid game plan had been presented by a privately owned company, officials still hadn't taken the leap and committed to such a drastic change from their norm. It would take a few more years before the situation was finally resolved and a new hospital was built.

Don't miss the guest editorial, which harshly condemns trash-littered Lake Cumberland — a complaint we still have to this day.

Before we get to this week's edition... I don't often give credit to the people who labored to put these newspapers together years ago, so this week, let's look at the star-studded staff of The Commonwealth-Journal in 1973.

Publishers were Mrs. George A. Joplin, Jr. (Barthenia Sallee) and Mrs. Murray K. Rogers (May Berry Williams), widows of the former leaders of the Somerset Journal and The Commonwealth, predecessors to The Commonwealth-Journal. Beloved managing editor was George A. Joplin III, son of George Jr. and Barthenia, better known as "Jop," and now memorialized in a mural on the side of the newspaper office building. Assistant managing editor at the time was Bill Mardis, who, for other than a brief period of time in the late 1990s and early 2000s, remained a valuable part of the CJ staff until his death in 2021, and is also part of the CJ building's mural. News editor was Ken Shmidheiser, another individual whose journalistic contributions spanned many decades in this area. Bill Bowden was sports editor; Mrs. A.B. Waddle, society editor; Herschel Whitis, advertising director; Jerry Adkins, circulation manager; and Clifton J. Gibson, plant superintendent.

Speaking of Mr. Mardis, I have to say that I hated to have to edit out a large part of his article about the condition of burley crops in the county for this week's edition. Mr. Mardis had a unique way of storytelling, and that article was a fine example of such.

Next Saturday, we will be moving on to another decade. So one last time, here's what was newsworthy in Pulaski County this week in 1973, from the pages of The Commonwealth-Journal.

City to Decide Hospital's Future

The question of whether or not to give Extendicare, Inc., a Louisville based investor-owned hospital corporation, the preliminary authorization to begin finalized plans toward the construction of a 193-bed privately owned hospital in Somerset will be put to vote in a specially called meeting of Somerset City Council Thursday night. If the city fathers rule favorably on the resolution presented by Extendicare last night in a joint meeting of City Council and the Municipal Hospital Commission, the only governing body left to rule on the proposal will be the Hospital Commission which must also adopt the same resolution before the first phase of negotiations with Extendicare ... can begin. The resolution, however, is not legally binding and can be vetoed if the city changes its mind before a finalized agreement ... is reached. ... Extendicare's presentation at last night's joint meeting comes after a long and often hotly contested debate over the future of the city's growing hospital needs which local physicians say are reaching a critical level. Dr. Stephen Kelley, chief of the medical staff at Somerset City Hospital, made an impassioned plea to the city governing body for immediate action on the hospital situation and was firmly supported by a large delegation of local physicians at the meeting. ... Dean Grout, vice president of Planning and Acquisitions with Extendicare reiterated his company's proposition to build a ... hospital here on a 15 — 20-acre site for a total of $8,320,047 excluding land, with the provision that the city of Somerset agrees to cease the operation of City Hospital as an acute care facility when the new hospital goes into operation. Extendicare would further agree to: buy all useable equipment of the existing hospital at book value, construct a physicians' building to accommodate approximately 30 to 35 physicians..., and employ all present personnel at Somerset City Hospital. An advisory board would be set up to run the Extendicare hospital which would consist of two or three doctors, the administrator and members of the community. ... "All decisions would be made on the local level here in Somerset," he said. ... "About one month ago Extendicare studied Somerset City Hospital and its existing facilities and reviewed the health care needs of today and of the future," Bob Leftwich, director of development with Extendicare, said, "and we have concluded that a new facility is the answer to the hospital situation for Somerset." Referring to a structural and architectural review of City Hospital ..., Leftwich pointed out one of the major problems found by the architects was that the site acreage is extremely small and contiguous acreage is limited for future growth and acquisition. Among the other problems pointed out by the architects were the many outstanding building code violations which would be of major proportions to correct. ... Grout reinforced Leftwich's recommendations by stating four reasons why the Council should approve Extendicare's proposal: -The city will have a totally new hospital at no cost to the community. -A new hospital would be easily expandable to 350-400 beds with plenty of parking and good accessibility. -The community will receive an estimated $100,000 in taxes from Extendicare each year. -The hospital will be good for the economy of Somerset. Many theories have been discussed for the future use of City Hospital if the Extendicare plan is passed ... and among them is the possibility of utilizing the building for a city government office complex as suggested by Mayor Wilson. .... Others favor selling or leasing the structure to an extended care or nursing home organization.