Lexington Herald-Leader from Lexington, Kentucky • A1

VOLUME 38, No. 295 STAY CONNECTED KENTUCKY.COM FACEBOOK.COM/KENTUCKYCOM TWITTER.COM/HERALDLEADER FRIDAY OCTOBER 23 2020 SATURDAY OCTOBER 24 2020 $2.00 Strong storms late See 12B Classified 6B Comics 7C Local 3A Obituaries 8A Opinion 11A Sports 1B CUSTOMER SERVICE To subscribe or report delivery issues, 800-999-8881 or kentucky.com/customer-service BONUS forSUBSCRIBERSActivate your account for exclusive online content: kentucky.com/activate DEBATE Subscribers will find coverage and analysis of the final debate between President Trump and former Vice President Biden in eEdition at kentucky. under the navigation tab. Extra EXTRA AP photos PHOTOS BY RYAN C. HERMENS The demolition of the Kirwan-Blanding towers on the University of Kentucky campus should be completed within a time, UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said.

Deconstruction of the towers has progressed to the point where high-reach excavators can move around the structures, taking down about four floors at a time. Previously, contractors could only remove a floor per week of the originally 23-story towers. But when crews reached the 12th floor, the excavators could make quicker work of the structure. The maze of utility tunnels beneath the towers will be filled in with rubble from the originally 13-acre, 11-building dorm site. Of the low-rise dorms, only Blanding IV is standing since the contractor was using it as an office, but Blanton said it too should be coming down within the next week.

University officials expect the site to be a green space complete with sidewalks connecting Complex Drive with the center of campus. UK DORM DEMOLITION SPEEDS UP Students in Fayette County Public Schools will continue at-home learning with limited face-to-face instruction until winter break, school board mem- bers said Wednesday night at a meeting. Schools will continue to offer two-hour in-person afternoon classes called targeted instruction on an increasing and expanding basis, but board members essentially scrapped the previously discussed idea of returning to face-to- face instruction in Novem- ber. At-home learning or non-traditional instruction will continue to be off- ered. District officials plan to return to full in-person learning five days each week in January provided COVID-19 conditions warrant and the positive case incidence rate is not too high.

Parents can also opt for virtual learning instead, officials said. Lexington is in a coro- navirus surge currently. School board members did not embrace a hybrid model of two days in per- son and three days each week of virtual learning that had been discussed. That was viewed as too complicated. hybrid model created much concern and confusion for our families and our said school board member Tyler Mur- phy.

seeing the framework presented today, it was apparent that the time and effort re- quired to implement less instruction would not be beneficial to our children or our staff. There simply enough time for our schools to design and implement an effective path forward to make a return in November feasi- Rather than split stu- dents into two groups, all students are expected to attend together once in- person instruction fully returns. Superintendent Manny Fayette schools return to face-to-face until 2021 BY VALARIE HONEYCUTT SPEARS SEE FAYETTE, 2A Gov. Andy Beshear reported 1,330 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Thursday, making it the fourth-highest single- day increase, and 17 addi- tional virus-related deaths. more cases than we ever Beshear said.

be having more than 1,000 cases every Kentucky has now confirmed 92,299 cases of the virus and 1,380 deaths. difference be- tween now and March is we know how to stop this he said. ques- tion is how we increase our he said, when it comes to convinc- ing more people to wear a mask, socially distance and wash their hands. With no sign of Ken- escalation slowing down, the governor said the state is just plan- ning for how to deal with the surge, but going to be looking for addition- al recommendations we can make to communi- on how to better control virus spread. Be- State sees 1,330 new virus cases, 17 deaths BY ALEX ACQUISTO SEE CASES, 2A An 82-year-old Lexing- ton woman has died after she was shot while getting out of a car outside her home in the afternoon, according to police and a family member.

Alice Carter, 82, was shot in the 500 block of Fifth Street and pro- nounced dead just after 4 p.m., the office said Thursday. Lexington police responded to the area just before 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday after a report of multiple shots fired. Police found Carter shot at the scene, Lt. Chris Cooper said Wednesday.

Carter was an innocent bystander who was hit when multiple people in separate vehicles ex- changed of gun- police spokeswo- man Brenna Angel said. and a family mem- ber were getting out of their car at the time of the incident and were com- pletely uninvolved with the shots being Angel said. Carter had just gotten Gunfire exchange kills grandmother, a former UK nurse BY JEREMY CHISENHALL AND MORGAN EADS SEE SHOOTING, 2A.