Meeting in regular session last week the Lewis County Fiscal Court heard a renewed request from a resident on Willim Branch to have some blacktopping and repair work done on that road.

Randy Thornton reminded the court that he had appeared before them about a year ago.

County Judge Executive Steve Applegate told Thornton that the blacktopping for this year is already set, but his request for blacktopping would be considered for next year.

Applegate added that the road department can currently do some patching and ditching where a slippage occurred that endangers the school bus and other vehicles traveling the road.

Magistrate Keith Chapman clarified that the state, not the fiscal court, determined where the funds from the recent grant for blacktopping were spent. The state chose the roads for the funding based on its priority list.

Applegate stated that with assistance from the state the county has actually done well blacktopping the roads with the means at hand.

Ron LeMaster from LeMaster Insurance representing the St. Paul Insurance Company and Sue Porter from KACO presented their respective companies' proposals for health insurance and workers compensation insurance for the next fiscal year.

LeMaster said that the total for the premiums for both coverages would total $169,632.75. Porter told the court that KACO's complete coverage would total $135,125 and would offer the same benefits.

In a lengthy discussion Magistrate Chapman questioned Porter about KACO's viability as a company and asked about the company's financial worth.

Porter told him that KACO now serves 109 counties with coverage in the state.

Approving a motion by Magistrate Todd Ruckel, the court tabled the issue to give the court a chance to compare the two proposals until a recessed session set for Monday, November 22, at 9:30 a.m.

Following the recommendation of Road Foreman Dane Howard the court moved to close a portion of Kilbreth Road as requested by Brian Stamm. According to required procedures a public hearing will be advertised and held on the road closure.

County Attorney Clayton "Buddy" Lykins Jr. had some questions about preventing inmates from taking advantage of the program by falsely claiming problems just to get out of jail.

Sheriff Bill Lewis asked about the time the new questioning procedure would take. The procedure calls for 12 questions to be asked every prisoner booked in at the jail to see if they had any inclination to commit suicide or to hurt themselves.

Lewis explained that some of the people were upset and the booking was unpleasant at times and questioning under those conditions would not be effective.

Jefferson said that nothing says that the questions could not be asked later when the inmate had calmed down.

The matter was tabled for further consideration and will also be acted on at the November 22 recessed meeting.

Without any discussion the court approved the routine and annual recycling agreement with the Mason County Fiscal Court.

Quincy resident Elly Columbia appeared before the court to request that the last part of Daren Drive in the Columbia-Underwood Subdivision have its name changed to Columbia Drive.

Columbia said that her family had built that part of the road and would maintain it themselves at no cost to the county.

The question arose whether the road is part of the county road system. If it has not been accepted into the system and is on private property then the court can take no action on it, and the owners can do what they wish with it. The court determined to check on the road's status and report back to Columbia.

If the road is in the county road system then the regular procedures for such an action would be taken.

The court moved to donate its annual gift of $200 to the Vanceburg Police Department for its Christmas Cops Program. Each year the department buys Christmas gifts for underprivileged children in the area.

The Lewis County Board of Education met in regular session last week and was presented an award from the Kentucky School Board Association.

Kerri Schelling, the association's Director of Student Support, said, "I'm here to congratulate you on all the wonderful work you have done on behalf of children in Lewis County. In fact, you all have done so well with your CATS scores this year that you've been selected to receive a CATS Progress Award from the School Board Association."

Schelling told the board that every school in this district either met or is progressing in its goals.

She lauded Lewis County Central Elementary by saying that the school was especially impressive. It became the first school in this district to pass the 80 percent mark, which is a wonderful trend.

Schelling explained that the award is not based on this year alone. She said, "It really was based on progress that you all have shown over the past several years."

She concluded her remarks by declaring, "It is with great pleasure that I present this to you from the Kentucky School Board Association."

And with that she handed the award to Lewis County Superintendent Maurice Reeder Jr.

Reeder responded by saying, "We appreciate the school boards for taking time to recognize the school districts, and we accept this. We'll do even better next time."

Reeder told the board that the award from the School Board Association was part of a program to recognize the top 25 school districts in the state as far as progress on the CATS scores is concerned based.

Belinda Forman then updated the board on the district's scores.

She said that all of the Lewis County schools continue to make good progress, and they are all where they should be.

Forman said the district goal for the 2002-04 biennium was 70.2, and the district had a combined index of 72.3. She added that this past year the schools made a 74.5.

The goal at Garrison Elementary was 71.4 and the combined index was a 73, and this past year they had 74.1

Laurel Elementary had a 76.8 goal with a combined index of 76.2 with a score this year of 76.9.

Central Elementary's goal was 66.5. Their combined index was 74.1 but they scored 81.4 this past year.

The goal at Tollesboro Elementary was 71.8. They scored a combined index of 74.5 with a score of 78.0 for this past year.

Lewis County Middle School's goal was 69 and their combined index came just short at 68.8. However, they scored a 69.6 in 2004, so they were .2 behind.

Forman told the board that she has filed a data review for them because four or five mistakes were found in their testing data, and she anticipates that LCMS will meet their goal when the corrections are made.

The high school goal was 69.8. This year's score was 75.3, and that led to a combined index score of 73.6.

Reeder stated that the district was about one student away from being a distinguished district, and that he is proud of the progress all of the schools in Lewis County are making.

Forman then presented the board members with Palm Pilots the teachers use to test the students and actually tested them on the kindergarten level just for demonstration purposes. The test was to determine the recognition of speech sounds.

Eric Bloomfield then presented the financial audit report.

The audit shows that the total revenues for 2004 were $11,557,000, up from $10,893,000 in the 2003 fiscal year.

The total expenses were $11,555,000, and that's up from $11,476,000 in 2003.

Bloomfield noted that the General Fund revenues were up about $650,000 whereas the expenses were only up about $80,000.

He pointed out that the figures show that the board did a good job of tightening the purse strings. This year the revenue exceeded the expenses, and that was the opposite last year.

After hearing the good news the board approved the audit report.

Jerry Ugrin, CEO of the Lewis County Primary Care Center and Lori Holder appeared before the board to explain the new Lifestyle Enhancement Activity Program (LEAP).

Ugrin explained that the program is designed to help the school board employees, bus drivers, etc., as well as the teachers to enjoy better health. He said that would reduce insurance costs and decrease the amount of money paid to substitute teachers who have to be called in to teach when the regular teachers are ill.

Holder explained that the exercise and diet program helped people with their cholesterol, weight and blood pressure. She said that the procedure calls for drawing blood after 24 hours of fasting. The participant is given the results of the blood test and advised on what to do to achieve better health.

Ugrin said that the teacher would pay $5.00 for the blood test. It would be repeated in three months in order to check the participant's progress.

The program is voluntary.

Ugrin stressed that Primary Care would lose money on the program, but he thought it is important to help the people and the community.

The board moved to enter the program after the holidays.

The board approved the annual contract with Medbrook for drug testing for the bus drivers and mechanics. This program has been used for several years and has been efficient and effective.

The board approved the purchase of three new 66-passenger buses and one handicap bus. The large buses cost about $57,000 each, and the handicap bus costs just over $60,000.

The annual Kentucky Interlocal School Transportation Association (KISTA) resolution was also renewed. KISTA makes the purchase of new buses convenient and effective. The board has used them for bus purchases for several years.

Reeder told the board that Accelerated Reader money is extra money provided for the schools on a per child average daily attendance basis.

He said that this year Garrison is getting over $2,300; Laurel is getting almost $600; Central gets nearly $2,700; the Middle School is getting $3,000; the High School is getting $6,100; and Tollesboro is getting almost $1,700.

The board approved the support and Accelerated Reader money.

The board also approved a BG4 for the Middle School's addition and renovation project. The BG4 permits the final payment of bills for the project and closes it out.

Meeting in regular session last week the Electric Plant Board of the City of Vanceburg moved to increase natural gas rates by 10 percent for the December billing.

Superintendent Phil Kennedy told the board that gas rates are going out of sight, and the board would have to pay $9.23 per 1,000 cubic feet in November. Last month the cost was $7.00. And he anticipates that the cost will continue to rise.

Kennedy told the board if they did not raise the gas rates the utility company would lose money.

He reminded the board that he had stored 38,000 cubic feet of natural gas early to try to keep the rates down.

As soon as the cost goes back down the company may be able to lower the rates like it did last year.

In his monthly superintendent's report Kennedy said that Elwood Howe from Rural Development had called him and told him to go ahead with the environmental study for the new water project.

The $1 million project would extend water lines on about ten roads scattered across the county.

The superintendent announced that the company's Christmas dinner would be at The Victorian Rose on Saturday, December 11. Other details will be given later.

A local Boy Scout and Scoutmaster attended the session. Scout Chris Eldred is working on getting a communications merit badge, and attending the meeting fulfills one of the requirements.

He was accompanied by his Scoutmaster, Gene Cooper, from Troop 30 in Portsmouth. Cooper also works for the utility company.

Kennedy noted that several of the company's employees are involved in community activities.

Eldred has been a Boy Scout for five years. After he completes work for the communications merit badge he will then begin his Eagle Scout project. That must be done by his 18th birthday.

The board approved the financial reports and November invoices and then entered a closed session to discuss litigation regarding two different issues.

(AP) When tobacco auctioneers struck up their singsong chants in burley warehouses Monday, it signaled the end of an era.

The auction sales season, which began Monday and continues until early next year, will be the last connected to the Depression-era federal tobacco program that gave leaf growers the security of a price support.

A tobacco buyout passed by Congress and signed by President Bush abolishes the system of government price and production controls and moves future tobacco production into the free market.

"There's a lot of heritage and a lot of history and a lot of memories," said Scott Althauser, a vice president with the Burley Growers Cooperative Association. "It's going to be a time of reminiscing, but yet there'll be a time of reflecting on the future."

Will Snell, a University of Kentucky tobacco economist, said there could be enough demand to keep alive some form of limited auction sales, thought hey would be dwarfed by contract sales now dominating tobacco marketing.