A widow in Kentucky is set to lose her home of more than 50 years because a new highway project is planned to cut right through her living room.
Janet Arnett, 76, said she and her late husband, Lowell, bought 63 acres on Mountain Parkway in Saliersville in 1969 with the intention of settling there and raising their family. Waimato.
The couple lived in several mobile homes for the first 29 years and built their current permanent home in 1998.
Lowell passed away in the house in 2015, leaving Janet Arnett to manage it alone for nine years.
The final phase of a 45-mile road remodeling project through eastern Kentucky is planned to seize the land and force Arnett from her home.
Arnett’s family said in a statement: “Mountain Parkway expansion and prominent land are about to take this home and the surrounding land away from her.”
“She’s losing everything.”
Magoffin-Floyd would be a “four-lane, undivided, limited-access highway from US 460 in Salyersville (Magoffin County) to Kentucky 404 in Prestonsburg (Floyd County).” It is planned. According to the project website.
Arnett was initially told she could lose some of her property to the project, but current renderings show the new highway running straight through her home.
“Yes, they are ‘buying’ it from her. But she doesn’t care about money. She wants to spend her remaining years in her home,” Arnett’s daughter, Lanessa DeMartis, said in her statement.
The house may not look big in photos, but it means so much more to Arnett.
‘It’s a small house, but to me it’s a mansion,’ says a dissatisfied homeowner. He told YMT.
Arnett’s family said her home was a gathering place for family events and memories were made over the years.
“When I was growing up, Mamaw’s house was always a place of refuge,” Arnett’s granddaughter Zoe Parker told the magazine. “We cooked together. This is where I grew up playing in streams, catching crawfish and catching lightning bugs.”
“This was the center of our family. And Mamaw’s house will always be Mamaw’s house, whether it’s in the right place or close to the road, but when Mamaw’s house is demolished… That’s a big deal,” Parker added.
The family says they want local infrastructure to be improved to help “honest, loving and sincere people”, but not if it affects their beloved grandmother.
“I mean, if you want to build a road, that’s fine. But leave me alone. Build it in front of me. Build it behind me. Look, I just want a house.” I just want to be there. You know,” Arnett told the outlet. “Why did you have to go through my house?”
“Our mother/mommy has become collateral damage in this process. It’s not fair,” the family’s statement reads.
Arnett’s proposal to move the road to the front or back of her home was rejected after officials argued that development and structural issues precluded any other placement, the paper said.
The family has sent petitions to officials across the state, including Gov. Andy Beshear’s office, but they feel they haven’t been heard enough.
Parker created the petition to raise awareness of local politicians who want to keep her grandmother’s home intact.
