Saturday, July 26, 2008 8:39 am

Governor Beshear was the keynote speaker at the Murray Calloway County Chamber of Commerce dinner last night. Our source reports that “a fine time was had by all.”

Speaking to a full house, the Governor committed to finishing KY Highway 80 as a four lane road. He also committed to finishing work on the bridges over the Kentucky River. The current bridge is a heavily traveled narrow two lane that has seen more than its share of accidents.

 Highway 80 goes from KY 641 (the road into Murray from the Purchase Parkway) to cross Kentucky Lake. A portion of KY 80 is four lane, but the road narrows before the Kentucky Lake Bridge.  

Tom Berry of the Murray Ledger and Times at the Murray paper reported Friday morning that the plan had changed from an all four lane road to a "super two" - a two lane road with wider shoulders and gentler curves. See story Murray Ledger & Times   The Governor's commitment comes after hard work and persuasion by Calloway Countians to persuade him and the Transportation Cabinet to return to the original plan.

Local leaders and candidates were in attendance to hear the Governor: County Judge Larry Elkins, Senator Ken Winters, Rep. Melvin Henley and US Rep. Ed Whitfield, who one observer described as looking “terrible”.

The Governor will be back in the Jackson Purchase later this week to cut ribbons, hand out big checks and attend a picnic in the small Graves County town. of Fancy Farm.