Community shoulders weight of repairing Boyle Co. community center hit by flooding

It serves as a pillar for a rural central Kentucky community.

The historic Forkland Community Center in Boyle County was devastated when flash flooding waters filled the building’s basement last month.

The area is no stranger to high waters, but community leaders quickly found their flood insurance will not cover the majority of damages from the incident. The rehabilitation of the building now rests on the shoulders of those who have depended on the center for decades.

"It was the livelihood of the whole neighborhood. We were kind of isolated,” community center Vice President Doris Purdom said.

Purdom has quite the history with the building. Before it became the Forkland Community Center, the building was once a school house. Purdom graduated from the school in 1949.

Purdom now serves as the vice president of the center, and hopes future generations will be able to make their own memories there.

“That's what it's about. We want to save it for future generations,” Purdom said.

Members of the community center, along with some volunteers, were hard at work today trying to preserve what’s left of the building.

“Right now it seems to me that history is the most important thing we are preserving, because there's nothing much like it left anymore. We do things the old way,” lifelong community center member Guy Ingram said.

Today, you could find these men and women scraping wallpaper off the walls, replacing flooring and restoring the other damage inflicted by the abrasive flood waters. Purdom said there’s still work to be done before their planned reopening date in six weeks, but wasn’t worried about any shortage of help.

"Oh, we will get done,” Purdom said.