It's one of the sure signs of autumn. Just like the first frost and falling leaves, the making of sorghum molasses signals the end of summer and preparation for the cold winter months ahead.

Although the tradition has dwindled down to a hand full of those who raise the sugar cane, extract the juice and cook it down to a thick sweet syrup, a few do just that to keep the tradition alive.

Early on a recent crisp morning, Carl Fannin and his daughter, Loretta Burchett, of Old Trace Road, started the process, which would yield several quarts of the finished product by the end of the day.

The machine to squeeze the cane to extract the juice was originally powered by a horse or mule, later powered by a tractor or other engine, and now by an electric motor.

The juice is stored in a large holding tank while it waits to travel down a hose some 75 feet to the evaporating pan or "card".

Traditionally the heat on the approximately three by 12 foot flat pan, with a maze of troughs created for the juice to run through all the cooking down stages, would have been provided by burning wood. Fannin has upgraded to a propane gas burner to provide the heat for the task.

Burchett, who assists Fannin with each step, says her father has always had a great deal of patience.

During the cooking down process, he continually monitors the steady stream of raw juice running from the hose into one end of the evaporating pan, constantly skims, stirs and opens and closes the gates along the maze, and keeps an expert eye on the thickened syrup during the final stage until it is ready to be released into a waiting container as the finished product.

Fannin says it takes about three hours from the time the juice runs into one end of the evaporating pan until it is cooked down and released as syrup at the other end of the pan.

Fannin said he has been producing sorghum molasses for about ten years, although he had been around it all of his 70 odd years. A project, he said, to continue the tradition as well as to earn a few more dollars on the farm.

One difference Fannin noted this year is the lack of yellow jackets, usually numbering in the hundreds around the sweet cane stalks and in the evaporating shelter. This year, he said, none were to be found.

About 200 quarts of syrup will be made this season. Fannin said they have made up to 700 quarts. He raises about two or two and a half acres of cane in a field adjacent to the juice extractor and evaporating shelter.

Officials from several agencies last week converged on First Care Family Practice at Garrison to seize patients' records, question workers and patients, and gather information on what some of the officials called "Questionable practices".

Sheriff Bill Lewis said his office had received complaints from people living near the clinic, located just south of the AA Highway on Ky. Rt. 1306 in the building that had housed Hall's Cash and Carry. Deputy Eldon Riffe said the clinic opened nearly a year ago in the building.

Lewis said the initial complaints were concerning parking problems and vehicles parked on the highway in front of the clinic.

Lewis said several citations were issued and several vehicles were towed from the area. He added that complaints continued to come in, on an almost daily basis, that patients were being "over medicated".

Totals from Kentucky pharmacies indicted that over a 101-day period that the clinic was open, 46,160 prescriptions for controlled substances were issued involving 4,121 patients. Lewis added that the figures were from pharmacies in Kentucky only and that when figures from Ohio and other states were tallied that the totals would be much higher.

Lewis said that in April he contacted the State Attorney General's Office, Special Investigations Division, and requested assistance in conducting a joint investigation regarding the nature of Dr. Fortune Williams and his Garrison medical practice.

Lewis said an investigator with the office, Ronald Burgess, was assigned to the case along with Robert Kelley, an investigator with the Office of State Drug Control.

Lewis said that over the course of the first phase of the investigation, it was determined that some 35 patients' records should be more closely scrutinized.

Last Wednesday those officials, along with Eric Tout and Charles Wells of the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure, uniformed and plan clothes officers, entered the clinic with an administrative subpoena to confiscate the records.

Within minutes of the officials entering the building and positioning themselves around the facility, nearly all of the waiting patients had dispersed and left in their vehicles.

Lewis, after checking driver's licenses of some of those on the lot, discovered that some did not have valid licenses and ordered them to get licensed drivers to retrieve their vehicles.

Others there, including some local residents, said they were there for chronic pain problems and elected to visit the clinic because it is closer than driving to other physician's offices several miles away.

Board members discussed concerns over rides and safety and agreed to have a representative of Dakota Enterprises attend a meeting to address those concerns with members.