Meeting in regular session last week, the Electric Plant Board of the City of Vanceburg heard an encouraging report from Superintendent Phil Kennedy regarding the Southern Lewis County Water Project.

Kennedy said that bids for the project were opened the previous week and that he was ecstatic because all bids came in under the engineer's estimated costs.

G&W Construction offered the apparent low bids on contracts XIV-A and XIV-B for water line extensions. The bid of $1,263,400 for contract XIV-A was $417,600 under the engineer's estimate, and the bid of $841,953 for contract XIV-B was $314,022 under estimate.

The engineers will review all the bids to make sure everything is in line with specs for each job. In all, bids were $772,192 less than the engineers had estimated.

Kennedy said funding will come primarily from loans and grants totaling $4,197,000. The cost of the project is estimated at $3,294,783. With contingencies, the total available for use in additional water line expansions is about $1.2 million.

"We will have many additional opportunities for more lines to be installed adjacent to the original project areas," Kennedy said. He also said they would extend lines to side roads in the project areas where it is feasible.

Meeting in regular session last week, the Lewis County Fiscal Court moved to reverse a decision made by the previous Court on December 9 to obtain insurance coverage with the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo).

Although KACo's All Lines Fund program was cheaper by about $21,000, it left a large gap in prior acts coverage. In case of a lawsuit filed on events occurring more than two years ago, the county would be left unprotected under KACo's plan.

The insurance package with St. Paul Insurance Company covers the county for any lawsuit stemming from any incident dating back to the year 1987.

In order to get prior acts coverage under KACo's All Lines Fund program, the court was advised by KACo to obtain it from St. Paul because KACo does not offer that coverage. The additional cost would have been $36,000. That more than erased the $21,000 savings on less costly premiums offered by KACo.

For the policy period any claim that occurs can be filed. In previous acts coverage for the period, the policy covers retroactively and the amount of the coverage remains the same. In a claims made policy, the amount of the retroactive coverage is updated to keep pace with current values.

With that in mind, the court moved to cancel with KACo and renew the contract with St. Paul Insurance Company.

Third District Magistrate Keith Chapman said he did not think the previous administration did anything wrong since they acted on what information they had at the time. He added, however, that they were either under-informed, misinformed or misled.

Deputy Dewayne Stone said a vehicle, operated by LeAnn Howard of St. Paul, was traveling west on the roadway when she drove onto a patch of ice and slid off the road.