HARDIN COUNTY, Ky. — An unofficial landmark in Hardin County, Kentucky was the center of controversy over a proposed bypass a few weeks ago.
After receiving severe community backlash, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) changed their priorities for the bypass.
The original plan they favored would have displaced several residents, including those living in the "Pink House."
Rita Miller and her husband are the owners of the "Pink House," which welcomes people as they enter Glendale from the north. She started a Facebook group to save the home, which reached thousands of members.
"It's a moment I didn't think would ever happen," Miller said.
In a tinier, pinker house in her backyard she enjoyed the relief of knowing her forever home is safe, asking her Alexa to play a favorite of hers—"What a Wonderful World."
Miller and her husband put a lot of work into over the past 30 years on the big home—and the accompanying eight in the back. She picked the unique color just because she likes it. A delicate filigree trimming the front of the house was finger-painted pink. Miller designed and cut all the complicated patterns. Over the past eight weeks, she stressed over a potential bypass that could've taken it away from her.
"All the people who went and filled out the study and made comments for the 'Pink House' — and for the whole community — there's just not enough thanks for them," Miller said.
Because of the public outcry, KTTC's study plan for the Glendale bypass states, "Any future build concepts considered should seek to minimize residential impacts." Now, they want the bypass to move further north, just a fraction of a mile up the road from Miller's home at the intersection of Oxmoor Drive and New Glendale Road.
"It's wonderful that our house is being saved," Miller said. "But with this win that we got, there's going to be other farmland or other homes that are going to have to be taken in order to get the highways to Blue Oval."
The Transportation Cabinet says their highest priority is the bypass leading to Mud Splash Road and Glendale Hodgenville Road. They want to keep traffic out of Glendale proper. As we've seen in the past, those train tracks in the middle of town can be tricky to cross for larger vehicles.
Miller originally started her 'Save the Pink House' Facebook group as a way to document her home. Now that her home is safe, she said those thousands of followers will see more pictures of the place soon.
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