long story short, i may have a job opportunity in Somerset, and my wife and i have been talking about heading to TN or KY...

so, what is the somerset area like? mostly rural from what i can tell, but are there any areas to stay away from? in the long run we will be looking to buy a home with a few acres, so urban / suburban areas are out. any towns we *should* be looking at for one reason or another?

how difficult is it to get CLEO sign-off's on NFA equipment in that area? i thought KY had a must-sign provision, but i've had a hard time finding good info on the subject. lastly, does KY allow loaded long-arms in a vehicle? it's prohibited here, but i was only able to find the KY statutes on loaded pistols in a vehicle (GTG in a glove box as installed by the original manufacturer, but not in a center console or under the seat, etc.)

thanks for any help!

Somerset is a nice place for the most part from my knowledge. no bad areas per se that I know of.  Plenty of opportunity for space.  Not too far from Lexington area (hour and a half I would say) and the only down side is that E'KY like many places gets pill head and meth heads gone wild.  They have a small but ok gun show several times a year and a decent pawn shop to shop at as well as tons of eating places.  During the summer there is a HUGE car show that goes on once a month. And I mean HUNDREDS of classic and modded cars.

The Revised statutes were changed about 2 years ago and you can have a loaded gun in ANY manufacturer installed enclosed space...including the center console of the vehicle...but also could include the sunglass flip out door space,  or I have even heard the map pocket is ok as well.

Good Luck.

thanks for the info.

just noticed you can't even apply for a permit until you have been there for at least 6 months... how much of a PITA is the KY course? it appears that KY will honor my ME permit thought, even as a non-res. that certainly helps.

i should also ask, any NFA dealers in the smoerset area?

Somerset is a pretty nice area! BTW, this isn't true anymore, any OEM compartment is good to go now!

Somerset is not a bad area at all.  You are near two very large lakes, so water sports is really big.  Several State owned Wildlife management areas so you will have access to decent hunting until you get to know some of the locals.    Somerset is by the Daniel Boone National Forest and located just to the South East is the Big South Fork Wilderness area.  Once again this means there is a lot of public land available for hunting and other outdoor activities.  I have not been there for several years but there used to be a large shooting range operated by the Forest Service that would be about 1/2 hour from Somerset.  (Cost $7.00 per vehicle, 4 shooters per vehicle)

Be very careful purchasing property until you learn the area.  Due to State owned areas and National Forest there is large chunks of property for which you might only have access to part of the time, due to snow, rain, flooding etc.  (Forest Service lets mother nature take care of snow removal so if you need to use their roads for access you may be snowed in or out for extended periods.)

I could think of a lot worse places to live, and have lived in some of them, than Somerset.

Hope this helps.  We can always use another 2nd supporter in the state.

Except for your Lib enclaves of Lexington and Louisville, you display respect and logical thinking you will not have any problems with the police over your weapons or getting your paperwork signed.  You jump out of your vehicle pointing a gun at a State Trooper and they will not brother counting the holes in you.  ( Small donations to the re-election campaign never hurts either.)

There is a Class 3 dealer down there, his name eludes me but pretty nice guy and sets up at every Somerset gun show so not hard to find.

The CCDW course is 8 hours sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture and watching a film. There is a test at the end but very easy if I remember and its open booklet.

The shooting part is putting 20 rounds in a man size target and 21 feet...easy.

I live in Somerset.  I am not aware of any NFA dealers local, but I have yet to be bitten by the NFA bug so no urge to find one.  As for areas to live, there is no "bad part of town" because town is not really that big.  I don't recall the most recent census data, but it was something like within the city limits there are approx. 12k people.  In the county, the 2nd largest in the state there are approx. 60k.  Wife and I currently live in a subdivision but are in the same boat looking for some land.  Depending on your preferences I can say that land prices have not fallen during the housing bust and have basically stayed the same to a gentle rise the entire time.  We are looking for mostly wooded, but most of that land unless you want straight up hillside or 30 min. from town are at min $1500-2k per acre.  We went to auction about 3 months ago for 35 acres with 5 cleared acres went for $5500 per acre and that was 20 minutes from town.  

If you want a range, there is only one and that is the outdoorsman club (yearly membership) off of HWY 192.  Fairly nice place but their bread and butter is skeet/trap so that part of the facility is very nice.  Rifle/Pistol range is adequate.  The other range that was a part of the national forest and a public range has been closed and keeps on getting postponed for reopen with most thinking it will never reopen.  

Three high schools (if you have kids) with one city school system and the county system operating the other two high schools.  I personally don't see a difference but perception in the county is the "southern" school district and feeder schools are best, but since I'm the child of two teachers, I believe school is what you make of it and don't necessarily believe that one school is better than the other.

Somerset is a nice place.  I have traveled extensively, having been on 5 continents and a big chunk of the US and I have yet to find a place that has been attractive enough to entice a move.

I live about 2 hours north of Somerset but have been down there a lot in the past and lately. I can only agree with most of what has been said.

It is a good place.
Laurel and Cumberland are close by with Dale Hollow and Green River not far so if you like to bass, striper, or walleye fish you are in the right place. The only downside is the Buckeye Navy that still invades Cumberland every weekend and holiday in the summer.
There is a lot of public land to the east.
It always seems to be 5 degrees warmer down there in the winter.
Snow is rarely an issue.
While not next door, the Rockcastle Shooting Center is not too far.
Again not next door but the BGSL has IDPA, USPSA, Steel Challenge and other events about 2 hours north.
You can get to Lexington in 2 hours or less.
You can get to I75 pretty easy for more distant destinations.

Guys name I was looking for is Kevin Douglas Firearms out of Whitley City KY.

Out of all the surrounding counties, I would live in Somerset if I could pick.  I do live in a neighboring county but Somerset has more to offer.

lot of good info, thanks guys.

i did notice after i had posted that the 6 month requirement on CCW permits, and the compartment carry had been changed. bonus on both counts.

my wife has started looking into her job situation, thought it'll be fairly easy for her as she is in the medical industry. ideally she would like to find work as a school nurse though, as she could work to the school calender and we could cut (significantly) back on our day-care expenditures.

it appears that the area may be somewhat tourist-y though, is that correct?

thank you.

School nurse if I remember correctly actually works for the health department, as far as Somerset being tourist-y is false, think pit stop for supplies for the lake crew.

ok, could be.

i read somewhere that lake cumberland "events" generate a significant portion of somerset's revenue.

it's not a big deal one way or another. i currently live in an area with significant lake tourism. problem here is all the tourists are from MA, NY, and NJ...

If the OP has a current CCW permit in Maine he can actually skip the class.  One of the new laws passed this year lets someone who moved to Kentucky use their out of state carry permit for a limited number of days after becoming a Kentucky resident.  If they apply for their Kentucky CCDW permit within that time frame they are exempt from the training requirement.  I think it is something like within 60 days of moving here.  Maine doesn't recognize Kentucky's permit but Kentucky does recognize Maine's.




 






 

I wonder what the allure is, my son's girlfriends family came down from upper Ohio to the lake this summer. They took him with them but I was like "Why Lake Cumberland?" Must be some good tourism advertising up there.

looks like i'll be there for a few days in the next couple weeks (don't know exactly when yet).

anything i need to see while i'm in town?

awesome!

 


















 

thanks SWIRE.

i will actually have a little time to kill at least one afternoon and night, so the resort might be just the ticket.

so, it's a bit early but my wife and i have started looking (online) at local available real estate. we are finding a lot of properties that are fairly suitable, save for one issue...

why are there no private wells? what is the deal with everyone being hooked up to city water? is there some kind of regional issue / legislation?

we have looked fairly closely at about 40 listings, and only one out of that entire group (25 mile radius of somerset) had a private well... having minicipal water here is uncommon unless you live in the city. suburban and rural areas are almost entirely private drilled wells.

No legislation that I'm aware of, just most places have access to public water.  My wife used to live with a lady off HWY 452 and they had well water but most other houses on the road had public water.  Unless you just want well water most places you are going to look at have water access at the road.  You would have to pay to run the pipes to your house, but that is it.  

I can only think of 3-4 people that I know in the county that have well water and honestly I've never bothered asking them why.

Everyone pretty much switched to city water when it came available, they had to leave the well/spring water due to cross-contamination regulations.

That won't work with a resident of Maine. The new law only applies to states that have  "reciprocity" with Ky. and they still have to take the class to get a Ky. license. They have to apply within 60 days of becoming a resident of Ky. and the out of state license is only good for 120 days max . An instructor can charge no more than $75 for a training course plus up to $10 for actual range expenses..