Anyone who has recently made a trip toward Somerset, or on the interstate near Cookeville, Tennessee, has undoubtedly noticed giant metal crosses on the side of the roadways.

The most recent cross to be erected was across KY 90 in front of Connie’s Corner Market in Wayne County.

Clinton County is now in the process of getting its own cross erected on KY 90 just east of Junction Station at the intersection of US 127 Bypass.

Jaime McCutchen, Pastor of Beech Bottom Baptist Church, has worked closely with the Crusaders for the Cross, a group responsible for having erected several crosses in the area.

Clinton County’s cross will go up on KY 90 beside Metal Workz / Dirt Workz building owned and operated by Michael Warinner.

McCutchen said Warinner donated the land and dug the hole for the foundation the cross will be sitting in.

Once completed, the cross measures 60 feet tall by 40 feet wide. The foundation base for the cross was poured last Wednesday.

Working on this project hasn’t come without some forms of opposition, McCutchen said.

“There are a lot of people saying you could have fed a lot of people who needed it rather than spending that money on a cross for the side of the road,” McCutchen said. “There are a lot of churches and individuals who spend money on the needy, but it’s their money they choose to donate. There have been businesses and a lot of individuals. People have donated ground, material, equipment, and time.”

McCutchen said he hasn’t had any dealings with any of the previous crosses that have been erected in the area.

“This one isn’t mine either,” McCutchen said. “I don’t want people to think this is mine. Bro Melvin Sisson, who is an evangelist out of Pulaski County, was involved with Les Calhoun, who wanted to get a cross up in Somerset. He got started and got some guys to get in with him and got the cross up in Burnside, Kentucky. Since then they have put several up in Pulaski County. They also put one up in Wayne County and now they have put another one up in Wayne County.”

McCutchen said he saw the one in Somerset and the two in Wayne County and wondered to himself if Clinton County could ever get one.

“I put it up on Facebook how I would like to see one in Clinton County,” McCutchen said. “So I got to talking to Bro. Sisson to see what all we would need to do.”

McCutchen said anyone who wants to donate to the funding for the cross, he sends them the address for the Crusaders for the Cross so they can send donations directly to them.

“They don’t make any money off of this,” McCutchen said. “If there is any money left over from the previous cross it goes to the next cross and so on, so if there is any money left from our cross it will go toward the next one.”

So far, around $22,000 has been allotted and donated towards the Clinton County cross.

McCutchen said when it’s all said and done, the cross will cost anywhere from $47,000 to $50,000.

Bro. Sisson said it usually takes somewhere around three to four weeks of fabrication to build the cross, weather permitting.

The cross is built on the ground and then raised and put into place.

“It’s touching people’s lives,” Sisson said.

McCutchen believes now that the project has been started, it will urge people to help out.

“A lot of people like to wait until something gets started before they donate,” McCutchen said. “They like to see if the project will actually happen first. I know from our county, I know from our church, we have sent $5,000 and I know one church has sent $1,000 and are going to have a business meeting and probably send more. I feel like now there will be more churches get involved now that it’s happening.”

McCutchen said regardless of who donates, it’s a community wide project.

“Crusaders for the Cross is wanting to see these crosses go up and they depend on the communities to get behind it in order to see them go up,” McCutchen said.

Both Albany Mayor Steve Lawson and Clinton County Judge/Executive Ricky Craig support the cross 100 percent.

“I stand with this cross and support it 100 percent. I am so grateful and humbled that our small county is making such a strong and bold statement to the rest of the world,” Craig said. “Some people may look at this cross and only see metal and steel. I look at it and see the number of people who will see it and the witness it makes to the world. This county maybe small but we are proclaiming to the world ‘This is God’s Country.’”

Lawson feels like it could be something someone looks to when all hope is lost.

“In this day and time, when so many people don’t have a church, I hope these crosses would be a reminder that they are not alone,” Lawson said. “That there is someone they can turn to when they have no place to go. I hope it reminds them there is someone bigger than all of us. That someone cares about them.”

Construction has begun on the foundation and frame of a large cross on KY 90, near the intersection with US 127.