Meeting in regular session last week the Electric Plant Board of the City of Vanceburg heard a dismal forecast for future utility rates.

When asked about natural gas prices superintendent Phil Kennedy said that they are up and he sees no end in sight.

Kennedy said, "We'll lose money on natural gas this year."

He also predicted higher electric rates because the current contract with American Electric Power expires December 31, and the company will have to pay much higher prices for electric power when they negotiate a new contract. That means that rates consumers pay for electricity will increase substantially next year.

Kennedy also related that higher fuel costs are hurting the utility company the same as it is other agencies that rely heavily on motor vehicles. He told the board that the increased fuel costs has taken the company about $20,000 to $25,000 over budget.

In his routine report the superintendent told the board that the company has had two scary events in the recent past.

On Sunday night, April 10 a major forest fire in the Flat Hollow area came close to some electric poles. He said that he has hired a logger to bulldoze around the poles to keep any future fire from reaching them.

He also reported that about a month ago a similar situation near South Portsmouth did burn up 25 feet on one 85-foot pole. 

Plans call for that pole to be repaired with a new technique using a fire retardant wrap to stabilize and protect the pole. That procedure is thousands of dollars less expensive than replacing the pole. 

Kennedy informed the board that the State Highway Department has authorized the utility company to pay a certain amount for the easements for the new road from the Vanceburg-Lewis County Industrial Park at Black Oak to the AA Highway. Then the state will reimburse the company for the total cost.

He said that he knows nothing new about the power plant coming to Lewis County, and that he is working on the response to Grayson's latest proposal regarding customers in the St. Paul area.

The superintendent explained that he has requested some funds from the Fiscal Court from the $25 million bond money the state has made available for water projects. The court will receive $500,000 for the county, and Kennedy asked for $400,000 of that money so the company can obtain a loan from Rural Development that will enable them to immediately begin the 2004 Water Project. That request was tabled at the April Fiscal Court meeting until all the requests for that funding are in from other agencies in the county. The Western-Lewis-Rectorville Water District and Sanitation District One in Tollesboro have also asked for a share of those funds.

Kennedy said that whatever else happens they have to stabilize the water tank on Salt Lick that is being affected by a nearby slippage due to recent heavy rains.

The board approved the financial reports and the April invoices before adjourning.

This month's regular session of the Lewis County Fiscal Court began nearly an hour late due the delayed arrival of Second District Magistrate Todd Ruckel. Third District Magistrate Keith Chapman missed the meeting due to health problems. He was scheduled for heart surgery on Friday, April 15.

The court moved to adopt Deerview Lane into the county road system after Road Foreman Dane Howard reported that the street exceeded the county's requirements. He said that the road is black topped and in excellent condition.

Last month the court tabled approval of a bid by E&E Construction, Vanceburg, on the Holly Road project because the bid did not include the total cost of the work. Howard told the court the total at $5.00 per linear foot for the piling would come to minimum of $12,000 and would not exceed $18,000 and is well within the project’s budget. He said that the local crew is doing most of the work in house. With that information at hand the court approved the bid by E&E Construction.

A request by Phil Kennedy, superintendent of the Vanceburg Electric Plant Board for $400,000 available to the county through the state’s bond funds for water and sewer projects was tabled again this month until all the requests from other local entities could be heard. The funds available to the county through the program total $500,000.

Rick Hilterbrandt, General Manager and Chris Stewart, HMB Engineer from the Western-Lewis-Rectorville Water and Gas District appeared before the court to also request some funding for their current project from the same source of revenue.

Hilterbrandt said that the project would serve over 212 households and would include 35 miles of water line. He informed the court that the construction plan is 50 percent complete, and about 75 percent of the easements have been obtained. He stated that if the district has to borrow a lot of money to complete the project then the customers would see a rate increase to pay for the project.

John Thomas, Chairman and Bob Applegate, Commissioner also attended the meeting.

Tony Hunt, Manager of Lewis County Sanitation District One, also appealed for funds to help get a sewer project finished that would serve the Tollesboro Industrial Park, Pine Valley and Ribolt. He said they were looking at about $12,000 per customer to serve the area.

Hunt pointed out that Pine Valley would have about 35 customers and Ribolt 56.

Joe Harp from Harp Enterprises and Charles Hall representing the Board of Elections explained the changes coming in the election process in Lewis County.

Harp Enterprises provides the voting equipment for the county.

Harp informed the court that new election laws mandate providing accessibility to voting machines for voters with disabilities to vote without assistance. They can still request help if they wish.

The current equipment is satisfactory but needs to be upgraded to comply with the law. The upgrade will be totally funded by federal and state funds.

Hall told the court that only two of the 14 precincts in Lewis County meet the regulations for accessibility to voting sites. That means that some precincts will have to either be totally renovated or voting locations changed. Some of the precinct voting sites can be altered with minor adjustments but some are old and may have to be relocated. Final decisions have not yet been made regarding these changes.

Hall said that the Board of Elections is open to suggestions.

The court approved the annual agreement with the Montgomery County Regional Jail Adult Detention Center. The agreement permits Lewis County to transfer inmates to Montgomery County if the local facility should become overcrowded. The agreement is renewed every year even though the Detention Center has never had to take advantage of the arrangement.

The 2005-06 Lewis County Fiscal Court Annual Budget was presented to the court. No action was necessary but the clerk noted in the minutes that the budget has been presented as required.

The court also approved the 2005-06 County Road Aid Cooperative Contract. This is the program that is providing the funds for the Holly Road Project.

The court approved reimbursing Jailer Tim Underwood for a $500 reward he paid for the capture of an inmate that recently walked off a work detail. Underwood requested that such a reward be made a policy of the Detention Center but that request was not granted at this session. Magistrate Milt Stanfield said that he did not think a reward would be necessary, because once an inmate escaped it became a matter for law enforcement to handle. County Judge Executive Steve Applegate agreed.

Underwood still appealed for the policy change. He said that the state pays the Detention Center $836 per month for housing state inmates, and when they escaped that money would be lost.

The inmate referred to was captured within two hours after the announcement that a $500 reward would be paid for information leading to the apprehension of the escapee.

Lewis County Treasurer Kathy Dillow reported that the total of all county funds comes to $3,592,826.50. Disbursements totaled $2,998,428.62 leaving an unencumbered cash balance of $594,397.88. The report was approved.

The court also approved all the claims and transfers for the General, Road and Bridge and Jail Accounts.

Before adjourning Judge Applegate announced that the cleanup week was a tremendous success. He said that a total of 279.32 tons of old appliances and junk plus 18,150 old tires were disposed of. The estimated cost came to $47,324.30. Applegate said that some of that was paid by the state, some by Buffalo Trace and some by the county. He noted that the Lewis County Solid Waste Department made 61 pickups for the disabled and senior citizens throughout the area.

He also announced that the next regular session of the Lewis County Fiscal Court is scheduled for Monday, May 9, at 9:30 a.m. in the third floor courtroom of the courthouse. 

The meetings are open to the public

By Al Owens

Meeting in regular session last week the Lewis County Board of Education learned that it has received a certificate from the Kentucky School Board Association for being honored at the 2005 KSBA Conference in Louisville as one of the 52 districts statewide to implement all Advancing Student Achievement To Proficiency (ASAP) indicators during the past year. Each board member received a pin commemorating the honor.

Superintendent Maurice Reeder, Jr. also announced that the JROTC underwent an inspection and did exceptionally well. They only missed five points out of several hundred. All the cadets were present and in uniform at the inspection.

He told the board that the vocational school had a review and did exceptionally well, too. They scored well above the average. They had to score a minimum of 2.5 and scored above 3.0 points. The inspection covered carpentry, welding and drafting.

Reeder said that on Friday, April 15 the school would have a half-day session. The students will go home about noon but the teachers will stay all day and prepare for the upcoming testing session. The testing window for Lewis County Schools is April 18-29.

The superintendent concluded his remarks by saying that the renovation and construction at Tollesboro Elementary School is coming along nicely.

The board approved the annual contract with Primary Care for bus driver physicals. Reeder said that Primary Care has done an excellent job with the program. The physicals cost $56 per driver.

The board also approved the contract with Primary Care for School Health Service at a cost of $37,500. That provides two nurses in the school system.

Every winter the bus drivers that take their buses home have to use their own electricity to heat up the diesel engines or the buses won’t start. The board moved to pay each of them $1.00 per day for the 36 days they had to follow that procedure during the past season, a total of $36 per driver.

At the request of the graduating class the 2005 graduation date was set for Saturday, May 28 at 6:00 PM at the football field weather permitting. If not then the ceremony will be moved into the gymnasium. This year parents will receive preferred seating.

The board approved a maintenance project at the Middle School to upgrade the fire alarm system and to install one make-up air unit to combat the moisture problem in the facility. The project totals $149,942.

The board also approved the installation of lighting on the girls’ softball field at a cost of $99,355. BG-3’s for both those projects were also approved. 

That simply involves state mandated paper work to inform state officials about the projects.

At the request of County Clerk Shirley Hinton the board authorized use of the Central Elementary gymnasium for Primary Elections for four precincts in order to accommodate voters with disabilities.

The board approved the second reading of the revised Code of Conduct. It is the same as last year with a couple of minor changes.

The board approved a contract with Eric Bloomfield for auditing services for the year. Bloomfield did that work last year and did an excellent job. His fee of $12,500 is much lower than that offered by other auditors.

Each school has selected gap reduction targets for the year. The board approved those targets.

Belinda Forman explained that each school is required to pick one gap reduction target but some have two. She said that district wide most of the schools selected the free and reduced lunch group as their target. That was done because that group includes several other groupings such as gender or special population groups.

Forman explained that if test scores between the groups totaled more than ten points then that indicates a learning gap.

She said that Garrison Elementary had no substantial gaps. Neither did Laurel Elementary because their enrollment is small but Laurel did pinpoint a gap between the boys and the girls in arts and humanities. The girls perform better in those fields than the boys.

Central Elementary selected the free and reduced group and plans to improve the poorer performing students overall test scores to the 73 percentile.

Tollesboro Elementary wants to move their free and reduced lunch group up to a 79.

The Middle School plans to up their free and reduced lunch students up to a score of 69.

The High School has chosen two groups. The free and reduced lunch group is targeted with a goal of improving to a 73 score by 2006. The disability group has a goal of reaching a score of 41 in the same time frame.

The board approved a phase concept for renovations and additions at Tollesboro Elementary. The work will be done in phases due to budgetary restrictions. The project will be paid for through a bonding program.

Phase I will include a media center and lobby. Phase II calls for a new administration area and renovating the library to make two preschool rooms with a playground. Phase III will have a new kitchen and cafeteria built and a hallway leading to the gymnasium. This work can be done while school is still in progress.

The whole project is part of the school system’s facility plan approved a few years ago.

A Garrison man was injured Saturday morning after the vehicle he was operating left the roadway and eventually came to rest near CSX Railroad tracks east of Vanceburg.

Deputy Joe Paul Gilbert said the incident happened about 7:00 a.m. when a 1985 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe pickup, operated by Lester Caseman, 20, of Garrison, was traveling west on Ky. Rt. 8 just east of Black Oak.

Gilbert said the pickup went off the right side of the road, jumped a culvert, struck a utility pole, and traveled through a ditch adjacent to CSX tracks. He said the pickup traveled some 300 feet after leaving the road before coming to a stop.

The utility pole was split nearly in two and the pickup sustained substantial damage including having all four tires blown out.

According to Gilbert, Caseman walked to a residence some distance away to ask for assistance. Caseman was later taken to Southern Ohio Medical Center in Portsmouth, Ohio, by Portsmouth Ambulance.

The accident disrupted traffic on Ky. Rt. 8 and halted CSX traffic until the pickup could be removed from the scene by wreckers pulling it up a steep embankment.