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Nicholasville, Kentucky Information?

My family and I live in Southern California. We are looking to move to the country to a small town, but close to a large city for jobs/shopping, etc. I need some info on Nicholasville, KY in regards to raising a family with kids, weather, natural disasters, shopping, niceness of residents, homes, shopping, farmer’s markets, etc. Any information would be greatly appreciated!!! I’m really looking for info from someone that lives there or knows first hand what it’s like. Thank you so much!!!

This is long, but I hope some of this helps:

I live in Jessamine Co. (Nicholasville is the county seat). My husband who has lived in big cities (Chicago, Milwaukee) likes living here too. Most people are very nice. Tends to be a little slower paced.

Real Estate…Lots of folks are also spilling over from Lexington/Fayette Co. into surrounding counties. Northern Jessamine Co. is almost like a Lexington suburb. Housing is more expensive to buy or rent in Lex than other areas of Ky. Which is why some live in another county, but work and play in Lex.

You can find housing information on Lexington and all the surrounding counties at http://www.lbar.com/

Schools…the public schools don’t have a great rep. However, their special needs program is a good one if you need that. There a few private schools and several parochial schools in Lexington and some of the surrounding counties, and a couple home school groups in Central Kentucky.

http://www.jessamine.k12.ky.us/

Things to do…
-Lexingtonians love to eat out! Most places happily welcome kids, having kids eat free nights or some other kind of specials. Good news if you have kids, fair warning if you don’t.
-Basketball is a kind of religion in central Ky. Just accept that we “bleed blue”…let’s just not talk about this past season
-The Kentucky Horse Park (International Equestrian Games will be here in 2010) in Lexington, regional horse farms and distilleries, and Toyota plant in Georgetown all offer local tours
-Kentucky state parks are some of the best in the country. Near by: Cumberland Falls, one of the only 2 places globally you can see a Moonbow; Natural Bridge, great place to hike; Lake Cumberland, nice to house boat on
-Cincinnati, just over the river from Northern Kentucky, has an aquarium, zoo, train museum, natural history museum.
-Louisville, on the western side, has Louisville Slugger museum, the Derby (though I lived in KY 36 yrs and never been).
-Opera, Broadway shows, and ballet are all put on in Lexington, Louisville, and Cincinnati by local and national touring companies.
-If you’re a reader, you must check out Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington. Huge selection, kids reading program year round, and a cafe with an outdoor patio overlooking a pond with ducks (one nested on the patio 2007), geese, and fish. Nice place to go a spring day.

Shopping…Fayette Mall and Hamburg Place offer many shops. Fayette Mall is one of the largest indoor malls in the state. Hamburg Place has retail, professional and residential developments consisting of in-line stores and free-standing restaurants and stores.

http://www.shopfayette-mall.com/

http://www.hamburgplace.com/

-There used to be a Farmers Market, but the owner of the pavilion they used died, and it hasn’t been restarted anywhere else in the county. You do see lots of people selling on the roadside out of their trucks. There is also a farmers market in Lexington, open Tues/Thurs/Sat near downtown and open on Sun at a different location (this one’s closer to Nicholasville)

http://www.lexingtonfarmersmarket.com/

Kid specific things…Gymboree Play & Music and Kindermusik in Lexington
-1 pool/water park in Nicholasville and 2 in Lexington

http://www.ymcaofcentralky.org/jessaminecounty.asp?Action=NicholasvilleAquaticCenter

http://www.lfucg.com/parks/aquatics_locations.asp

-children’s museum in Lexington

http://www.explorium.com/

-2 nature parks and the University of Kentuck’ys arboretum in Lexington

http://www.lfucg.com/parks/mcconnell.asp

http://www.lfucg.com/parks/raven.asp

http://www.ca.uky.edu/arboretum/

-kids summer reading program at the library, and reading programs for toddlers and pre-schoolers during the school year

http://www.jesspublib.org/calendars/

Weather…summer tends to be hazy, hot, & humid. Big drought in 2007.
Winter tends to be cold and icy. Big snow is unusual. The state classifies the majority of the county’s roadways as third level priority or lower for snow removal, accessing one of the highways in bad weather may not be possible.
Tornados are rare but do occur. Numbers may vary based on specific locales. We have plenty of watches, very few warnings, and I can only remember 2 tornados over the last 18 yrs. But we had horrid straight line winds this spring.

Good luck!

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