County honors Ford

Jay County Commissioners honored Portland-born astronaut Kevin Ford this morning by proclaiming it Kevin Ford Appreciation Week.

State Rep. Bill Davis (R-Portland) asked the commissioners to sign a resolution honoring Ford, who piloted the space shuttle Discovery on its latest mission and landed Friday night in California after spending two weeks in space and flying about 5.7 million miles around the planet.

"I thought it would be a nice way to honor him," Davis said.

"Quite a guy," agreed commissioner Faron Parr.

"Oh geez, just amazing," Davis added.

Ford, whose older brother served as a state senator prior to his death, piloted the mission, which included bringing supplies to the international space station and performing three spacewalks to perform installations.

"The average person wouldn't be able to do all that training," said commissioner Milo Miller Jr. of Ford's 4,600 flight hours and his work in NASA since being selected to join the program in 2000. "He did a fine job."

In other business this morning, the commissioners:

•Approved drainage plans for Katelynn's Place, an apartment complex that is being built on Lafayette Street in Portland. The project recently received $5.4 million in stimulus funds.

•Approved a combination of drainage assessments for two adjacent parcels owned by Carmen Johnson, 101 Dogwood Lane, Portland.

•Approved a county-backed loan for a septic system for Toby D. and Rosa J. Eicher, 10525 West 600 North at a cost of $8,328.[[In-content Ad]]