Owsley County High School greenhouse repaired after storm damage

High winds tore up the Owsley County High School greenhouse in Booneville, but the space is open again for students who have been growing flowers, tomato plants and pepper plants. School leaders said the damage was severe, then praised the hard-working people who repaired it and put the greenhouse back into service.

The turnaround matters because the greenhouse is tied to more than one class period. Owsley County High School said students had been working hard that semester to bring the greenhouse back, and the April 27 post announcing that “The Owsley County FFA Greenhouse is OPEN!” showed the facility was again feeding the county’s agriculture work, student growing projects and plant sales.

That work sits inside a longer-running local effort. Grow Appalachia says the Owsley County Farm-to-School Gardening Group has been a partner site since 2013, working with the Owsley County Board of Education to support the Owsley County FFA program and keep hands-on learning active while helping increase local food access and production. In a county of 4,051 people, according to the 2020 Census, that kind of facility carries weight well beyond one campus.

The school did not say exactly how long repairs took, how much the storm damage cost or which workers completed the job. But the response points to a coordinated effort that fits the Owsley County School District buildings and grounds department, which handles repair and maintenance of facilities, troubleshooting and repair of mechanical systems, and construction projects.

The greenhouse also sits in a region where damaging wind is not a one-time problem. The National Weather Service office in Jackson documented severe storms on April 13, 2022 that produced tornadoes and straight-line wind damage across central Kentucky, and its past-weather archive shows multiple eastern Kentucky wind events in recent years. For Owsley County High School, getting the greenhouse repaired quickly means the FFA and farm-to-school work can continue without losing another stretch of growing time.