Ashland projects boost progress

ASHLAND -- Ashlanders can now brag that they have everything.

A Starbuck's opened in Ashland over the summer along the main thoroughfare of Winchester Avenue, just a few blocks away from the Paramount Arts Center.

The well-known coffee chain is just the latest in a string of new businesses and new business announcements for the city, which will welcome a Kohl's and Steak 'n Shake at the Melody Mountain development just off U.S. 23, and a Cheddar's restaurant and new, super-sized J.C. Penney at the Ashland Town Center mall.

Ashland also is moving toward the long-awaited development of its riverfront, and is coming to the end of a project which saw the repainting of the Simeon Willis and Ben Williamson memorial bridges in the city colors of blue and green.

Residents have now moved in to the Providence Hill development, a $30 million project which put 214 apartments on the crest of the hill opposite U.S. 23 from Melody Mountain.

The city did lose one of its landmark establishments late last year, when the Bluegrass Grill closed its doors after 60 years of serving Twin Burgers and Flying Saucers. The property was bought for $500,000 by the city's largest employer, King's Daughters Medical Center, and recently demolished.

KDMC sits across 22nd Street and Lexington Avenue from Ashland's Central Park.

The city has made progress on its streetscape project, burying power lines on Winchester Avenue between 12th and 15th streets, and installing new sidewalks and vintage electric lamps.

City work crews also are putting in small parks and building new homes in some of the more dilapidated areas of the town off of Blackburn Avenue in an effort to spruce up appearances.