Powell County High School student receives scholarship

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Lexington, KY – Kentucky Blood Center has awarded Powell County High School graduate Erin Jace Fox, of Clay City, a $500 Power of Life Scholarship. Erin Jace Fox is attending Western Kentucky University this fall.

Since 2010, Kentucky Blood Center (KBC) has granted nearly 600 scholarships to Kentucky high schools that host blood drives. The school earns the award based on the number of donations at those blood drives. The high school then selects the scholarship winner(s).

This academic year, 109 high schools hosted more than 300 blood drives and received more than $75,500 in scholarships to present to students for their continued education.

“High school blood donors positively impact the healthcare of this state,” said Bill Reed, KBC’s President and CEO. “This year they provided more than 9,100 blood components, which have saved thousands of lives throughout the Commonwealth. We appreciate their life-saving generosity and are gratefully thanking them by awarding Power of Life Scholarships.”

Power of Life Scholarships are awarded each school year based on the units of blood donated at blood drives hosted by each high school or vocational school. Depending on the blood drive results, a school can receive a scholarship award of up to $3,000. The school has the option to present the scholarship in total to one student or divide it up among several students. Each school determines the scholarship recipient(s), and KBC pays the scholarship directly to the establishment of higher education.

Founded nearly 50 years ago, KBC is the largest independent, full-service, non-profit blood center in Kentucky. Licensed by the FDA, KBC’s sole purpose is to collect, process and distribute blood for patients in Kentucky. KBC provides services in 90 Kentucky counties and has donor centers in Lexington, Louisville, Pikeville and Somerset.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

The city of Stanton held a special meeting on September 7 at Stanton City Hall.

Topics the public spoke to the council about included a program that will offer financial and other types of support to veterans living in the community and attempts to get a wet/dry vote on the ballet in time for the 2018 midterm elections.

Randy Lawson with KY River Foothills spoke to the council about a Supportive Services for Veterans and Families program that he is working with that can be used as a resource for communities to end the homelessness among the Veteran’s living in the community.

Lawson told the council some of the assistance wouldn’t be limited to just housing and to contact KY River Foothills if they hear of any veterans who are in need of any kind of support such as rent payments, security deposits, late, utility payments, utility deposits, emergency food, bedding, and personal vehicle repairs.

Lawson told the council that it was the movers and shakers of the community and would know where to best distribute the information about the program  where it could be used most effectively.

Miranda Campbell spoke to the council in the public comments section of the meeting.

Campbell told the council that she was representing local businesses in the county and presented the Stanton City Council with a petition thats being circulated in the community to hold a county-wide wet-dry vote in Powell County during the 2018 Mid-term elections.

Campbell told the council that she wasn’t at the meeting to get into the positives and negatives of this issue and presented them with a petition and gave them an opportunity to support or oppose the issue.

No action or statement was made by the council.

Stanton City Mayor Dale Allen told the council that an agreement with the Powell County Board of Education to lease the baseball field at the Stanton Park was up for renewal.

The Board of Education wanted to lease the field for the same rate of $5,000 a year for two years.

The council approved a motion to authorize the city entering into an agreement with the Powell County Board of Education to lease the field.

City Attorney Scott Graham gave the council an update to ongoing court battle between the city of Stanton and the owners of New Directions Inc.

New Directions Inc. came before the City of Stanton Board of Adjustments in June for a conditional permit to open a suboxone clinic.

The city of Stanton Board of Adjustments ruled against issuing a conditional permit to allow the business to operate at the proposed location due to what the city called a lack of parking for the number of patients it intended to serve.

According to Graham the clinic was alleging violations of American Disabilities Act by being denied the conditional use permit and the case was being moved from Powell Circuit Court  to Federal Court.

Graham told the council prior rulings made by the Powell Circuit Court including an order that would have allowed the clinic to open while the lawsuit was ongoing had been set aside by the Federal Court until its done with the case and releases it back to state court.

“Where we stand right now we’re in federal court, we’re getting a schedule in order and looking at the federal claims and trying to get those dismissed and out of the way,” Graham said.

Stanton Mayor gave updates on the Stanton Park. Allen told the council that senior citizens had moved out of the building at the park and that building wasnow vacated.

Mayor Allen told the council that the city has already been approached about renting the space and he wants to get tables and chairs to make the building available for use.

Brewer said she was approached about offering tutoring on Wednesday nights that would be geared towards getting high schoolers prepared to take the ACT or SAT tests.

Brewer told the council that churches in the community also wanted to partner using the building on Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s for after school programs.

Brewer told the council that it would be at least mid-October before the after-school programs would start.

The Stanton City Council approved a motion to authorize the building to be used for children’s after-school programs on Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s.

Tommy Mays told the council that the Stanton Park had received a donation for the addition of a flag pole to the park from a member of the community to honor the veterans in the community.

Mays told the council that he was supporting a motion to match the donor’s $2,500 donation for the purchase of the flagpole.

The council unanimously approved the proposed motion.

Mays told the council that Whitaker Bank would be donating scoreboards to be used at the Soccer Field in the park.

The council had a discussion about changing Furnace Road to South Main Street. Mayor Allen told the council that emergency dispatch already had the location listed as South Main and approximately ten people would need to get address changes.

The council agreed to notify those citizens about the change before taking any action.

The council discussed delinquent restaurant tax fund payments from Bruen’s Restaurant and reached a consensus to issue a letter to the business to notify them before it becomes a further issue.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

For the past 27 years Powell County Attorney Office Secretary Vanessa “Poodle” Mathews has been a friendly face that was a staple around the Powell County Attorney’s office in helping assisting anyone in need the help at the Powell County Courthouse. On August 31 Mathews officially retired from the Powell County Attorney’s office.

Mathews says that one of the most rewarding parts of her job while working in the Powell County Attorney’s Office has been getting to help so many people.

“I enjoyed that more than anything just helping the people. A lot of people would come not knowing where to go, or what to do, or which office go in and I just tried to help,” Mathews said. “Helping the people was my favorite thing.”

Mathews start working in the Powell County Circuit Clerks Office in 1977 and was approached by former Powell County Attorney Jeff Stiles when he was looking to start his own solo law practice in May 1980 and needed somebody to manage the office for him.

Ten years later Jeff Stiles would make a run for the election of County Attorney against incumbent John Cox in November 1989. Mathews would follow Stiles to the Powell County Attorney Office the following January in 1990.

According to Former Powell County Attorney Jeff Stiles Mathews was an imperative part of the success of his law career after he we moved to Powell County.

“She was huge help when I moved here after I had just got out of law school at the University of Louisville I really didn’t know anybody and she’s got that great personality and is so great with the public,” Former Powell County Attorney Jeff Stiles said. “Now that I look back  the best decision I ever made was to hire ‘Poodle’ I had a very successful career here, I’ve been elected to four terms and I don’t think any of that would have happened if I hadn’t hired ‘Poodle.’”

“She’s a very empathetic person she could deal with whoever from public that come in, if they were upset she could come them down, she could console people,” Stiles said. “For being the first person that you

Devin Sparks of Stanton examines the capsule ejection module at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility after retrieval.

By Whitney Harder

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 28, 2017) — When you’re developing a small spacecraft that can withstand up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit while reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, a rocket launch is the only way to test your work.

So a group of University of Kentucky College of Engineering students did just that — at 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 13, they watched nearby as NASA launched their project into space on a 44-foot tall rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

“Being that close to a rocket launch was breathtaking,” said Devin Sparks, a mechanical engineering master’s student from Stanton, Kentucky, and team lead on the project, which also involves several undergraduate students.

“The countdown starts, then the rocket starts moving and there is a solid 2-3 second delay before hearing the rocket take off,” he said. “I could feel the intensity of the launch hit my body; it was an experience that I won’t forget.”

The team’s small spacecraft — a 7.5-inch diameter re-entry capsule — reached an altitude of 94 miles before coming back down to Earth. The video above, taken on board the rocket, shows the capsule being ejected from the rocket, before entering the atmosphere.

During its re-entry flight, the capsule tested its thermal protection system (or heat shield), data acquisition and data transmission via satellite. Heat shield technology in general is a high-priority need for the success of NASA’s spaceflights. The UK re-entry capsule specifically could also solve some practical problems.

“For example, if an astronaut needs to send samples back to Earth, they could use a capsule like this,” said UK College of Engineering Associate Professor Alexandre Martin, who is the team’s faculty advisor. “Or if you’re developing a space-approved instrument, you could add the instrument to the capsule, send it into space and see if it operates as expected.”

The UK capsule started as a senior design project, continued for several cohorts of engineering students under Martin and is supported by NASA Kentucky. It was joined by projects from seven other universities as part of the RockSat-X program, the most advanced of NASA’s three-phase sounding rocket program for students.

Fifteen minutes after launch, the rocket with the eight projects descended by parachute and landed in the Atlantic Ocean. During the descent into the atmosphere, the UK ejection module’s cameras burned up and video files became corrupted. But the team was prepared for this — they stored memory cards in a heat-protected box and wrote code to retrieve the corrupted files.

“The wait to recover the files was very intense,” Sparks said. “We were excited to get the video because we felt like it would give us a lot of feedback on what exactly happened in space. After recovering them, we noticed the files had over two minutes of video, so this was a lot better than we expected. Everyone gathered around the laptop and watched with amazement … everything worked as planned.”

Eventually, Martin and the team plan to send the capsule into orbit from the International Space Station. But first, they will conduct a full-scale test on a March 2018 launch.

UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and how you can support continued investment in your university and the Commonwealth, go to: uky.edu/uk4ky. #uk4ky #seeblue

By CECIL PERGRAM

Editor

Hugh and Connie Reed are operating the R & R Christian Youth Center that’s recently opened to the community at 194 Sunset Drive off of Adams Ridge in Clay City.

The center had its first chaperoned lock-in from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on July 7. The center plans to continue to be open every other Friday throughout the summer from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Reed says he hopes that the youth center will continue to grow in the future and that depending on the response he gets from the community he eventually hopes to have a need to stay open every Friday because of the lack of entertainment for children during the summertime. He believes that if that happens the center would be a wonderful asset to the community.

“On a regular continuous basis there is nothing for the kids to do. We have our festivals and that’s fine but if you see a child once a year your not going to have a big positive impact on their life. If your seeing them on a continuous or regular basis hopefully you can make a positive impact on them,” said Reed.

During the event children present received a short lesson about the love of Jesus Christ before participating in other fun activities such as playing ping-pong, volleyball, singing karaoke and more.

The Reeds say that the primary goal of the youth center is to spread the word of Jesus Christ to the youth in Powell County because they believe that the community needs it to combat some of the issues that youngsters are facing in the world today.

“If you talk to people in the community they’ll tell you that drugs are taking over, we’re about Jesus Christ we’re not a drug task force to keep kids off of drugs buts that’s a sideline objective,” said Hugh Reed.

“My wife and I got to hearing people talk and realized that’s there’s a real need in the community for some good clean fun for the kids to do because there’s really nothing for them to do. We’re trying to provide that for them by working through Jesus Christ,” said Reed.

The Reeds had previously worked with the AmVets Post #67 by holding community events for the counties youth.

“They were really good to us over there but the opportunity came up to buy the building on Adams Ridge so my wife and I bought the building and with the help of Albert Combs we renovated the building down to a manageable size from a 8,000 square feet to 1,800 square feet so that’s it big enough to do the activities we wanted to do,” said Reed.

“Albert has been an invaluable resource to us it wouldn’t been done near as quickly without him.” Reed said. “I can’t say enough about the help he has given us. Everybody that donates anything to us is through Jesus Christ just like what my wife and I are doing is through Jesus Christ it’s not us that’s doing it we’re just uplifting his name and that’s what we’re about.”

Reed says that they’ve just got the building to where they can actively start having events to bring kids in and be able to talk to them about the love of Jesus Christ and provide them with good food and quality entertainment.

“Going forward I’ve talked to Lisa Coffey with SPARK and she’s agreed to come up and do some demonstrations about drug prevention.” Reed said. “We’re trying to cover all the aspects with the kids eventually we’ll dwell into the importance of them continuing their education and we’re trying to be a positive influence on children’s lives here.”

“Our primary mission is to show the love of Jesus but we also realize that there is a serious drug problem not just in Powell County but the whole United States. We felt like with our skill set or lack there of that we might be able to influence kids in the age group of 10-to-18 years-old to go on the right path in life,” said Reed.

Reed says that he feels like that he can reach that age group because their old enough to participate in active listening long enough to understand the message and yet still be young enough to have not been tarnished by life. He says that if they’re on the fence of going down the right or wrong path in their life that he can be a positive influence to show them the right way to live or how to conduct themselves.

Reed says that most of equipment that the center is using has been donated through Jesus Christ working through individuals in the community. John and Gail Brewer donated the grill that the center uses to cookout for the children. Donny and Kathy Catron donated the karaoke machine. Albert and Exia Combs helped donate the disc jockey sound equipment.

If anybody in the community has items that they would like to donate in support of the youth center or if anyone is interested in more information about R & R Youth Center they can contact Connie or Hugh Reed at 606-481-2948.

If any parents are interested in having their children participate in the activities at the youth center and don’t have transportation to come to the center they can also contact the Reeds and they say they’ll make sure that transportation will be provided  to get them to the center.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Editor

Over 200 youths from across nine different states came together on a mission trip with the organization, Reach ,to complete numerous home improvement projects  over the course of a week long stay in Powell County.

The campers were working in the county from June 25 through July 1 to help citizens with making home improvement projects such as roofing repairs, building porches and wheel chair accessible ramps at no cost to the homeowners.

Reach missionaries worked on 17 different community projects within Powell County that was selected by the organization after accounting for its budget, the supplies needed, and the skill levels of those that would be attending the camps.

Deana Brooks has participated with Reach work camps in the past in Tennessee and Alabama.

Brooks says that Reach campers spend $400 out of their own pockets to participate in the work camp and some of that money campers spend goes into buying the materials and supplies for completing the community projects.

“Its kind of an amazing thing because kids have so many things that they could be doing, they could be at the beach for a week, but they come and do this kind of work.” Brooks said. “The thing that we love about Reach, it’s more than just people doing a project, they want to get to know the neighbors and let the people show their appreciation back to the kids.”

One example of this relationship building was in regards to one of the adult leaders with Reach who is from New Jersey and works as a investor on Wall Street. Brooks says that when she visited the worksite the man was working on, that he had been moved to tears because the girl at the home he was working on has spina bifida. She had helped the campers by nailing in nails on the ramp they were building to her home.

“When I got there I could still see the tears in his eyes, I thought that it was so neat that somebody from Wall Street is serving in Stanton, Ky. That this a different experience than what he’s used to, but he was very touched by what he experienced at that worksite,” Brooks said.

Brooks says that she can tell that the kids grow by the experiences they encounter on while working on the job sites.

“They are high school kids doing the projects, they have adult leadership from people called troubleshooters, who have a background in construction and are assigned to a number of homes that they rotate to and from to ensure those projects are done correctly. At the same time they’re also teaching the kids how to do it,” said Brooks.

“My sixteen year-old has spent a week roofing and he can tell me about the whole process. I think as parents sometimes we don’t think about getting our kids to use a power tool and help us build a porch. They come here and are taught by people and are doing projects that they’ve never done before so they grow spiritually, socially and emotionally by gaining self-confidence.” said Brooks.

“Being part of Reach has helped me to be exposed to new and different kinds of environments and it’s cool to get to help other people out,” said Abbey Raison from Dayton, Ohio.

Joanna Suarez is from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and was working on building a porch and ramp to Vickie Bush’s home in Clay City. Suarez says that despite this being her fourth Reach work camp that this year has been the best one yet.

“I’ve done four Reach camps ever since I was a Freshman and Stanton has been the most welcoming and generous community that I’ve ever gotten the privilege to serve.  Mrs Vickie and Melissa Campbell has been direct representations of this community they’ve been so welcoming and gracious it has been a blessing to help them its sad to leave its been great. It definitely hard work but I wouldn’t want to do it for anyone else,” Suarez said.

Brooks says that she first found out about the organization Reach in 2012 after a women at her church became seriously ill and made a recovery and upon her recovery she came to members of the church to express the desire to go on a mission trip.

Brooks gives credit to the trip back home from their first youth mission trip in Tennessee leading to the organization later hosting a work camp in Powell County.

“We were coming back home  and I still remember it to this day driving the road from Irvine into Stanton the girls on that trip we’re having a conversation about us needing to get Reach to come to Powell County. In 2015 while on another mission trip we started talking to Reach and asked about the application process they came out and visited the community to assess the needs of the community. They met with school administrators to tour the school and make sure it was set up to where it could host the event. We were ticked to death when they chose us and there has been discussion about them coming back in 2019 and we are hopeful that will happen,” Brooks said.

Reach is an non-denominational Christian summer missionary camp for Middle School and high school students thats been doing mission trips since 1992 to communities in the need of aid. The organizations mission is to make campers have a life-changing experiences that enables them to understand their role in combating poverty.

After 25 years of community service Reach has hosted over 183 mission trips, repaired 6,635 homes and conducted over 2 million hours of volunteer work. If you would like additional information or if you have questions about volunteering you can reach the organization at 1-888-732-2492.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Editor

A Clay City woman will be competing in the Miss Kentucky Scholarship Pageant on June 29-July 1 in Lexington, Ky.

Haley Wheeler, 19, is the daughter of Greg and Cherie Wheeler of Clay City and will be representing the city of Frankfort after being awarded the title of Miss Frankfort.

Wheeler is majoring in speech pathology and minoring in American Sign Language at Western Kentucky University.

Wheeler has the ambition to become a speech and language pathologist in a geriatric rehab and long-term care facility. Wheeler plans to later start and open her own practice in a rural and developing area.

Wheeler’s platform issue is a “Stitch for Hope” for Alzheimer’s Awareness.

Wheeler is being sponsored by the Miss Capital City/Frankfort scholarship organization and has received a $200 scholarship to assist in her studies.

Will be vocally performing the Lesley Gore tune made popular by Grace, “You Don’t Own Me” for her talent presentation.

Wheeler will be competing against 30 other contestants from around the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Contestants will be judged on five categories talent, private interview, stage questioning, evening wear and lifestyle and fitness in swimsuit.

The scoring values of each category are as follows: talent 30 percent, private interview 25 percent, stage question 20 percent, evening wear 15 percent and lifestyle and fitness in swimsuit 10 percent.

The 2017 Miss Kentucky Scholarship Pageant will be held at the Singletary Center for the Arts located on the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.

The pageant will officially start on June 29 with two days of preliminary competition before a final night of competition on July 1.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Editor

The community of Stanton is saying goodbye to a landmark that has been a staple of the community and the city since the 1950s.

The process of deconstructing the video screen at Mountain View Drive-in has started and is expected to be completed in a couple of days.

David and Lorena Baker have owned and operated Mountain View Drive-in since 1957.

David Baker says that when the industry quit making film and switched over to newer equipment that it contributed to him closing down the drive-in because he couldn’t justify the amount of money it would take to keep operating the business.

Baker says that watching them tear down the video screen is emotional.

“Its like losing a member of the family,” said David Baker. “I hate to see it go. It’s amazing to see how many people that came in here that were tourist that wanted to include going to the drive-in as part of their experience while they were here.”

Baker says that in the past when the business was still open other businesses in the community were anxious for him to open up at the beginning of his season.

Baker says that operating the drive-in was a hobby for him that he really enjoyed.

“It was the only hobby I had, I didn’t play golf or fish, I enjoyed the drive-in and loved keeping it open, I did it as long as I could get film. When I could no longer get film there wasn’t a decision to make, there just wasn’t nothing to show,” said Baker.

Baker says that he knows that Mountain View Drive-in meant a lot to the community and that he is going to miss all the faithful customers that he had over the years.

“I looked forward to seeing them, now I’ll seldom get to see them and I want to thank everybody for supporting me and making it possible for me to keep it open it was part of my life that I enjoyed.” said Baker.

“The most talked about thing that happened at the drive-in is an awful lot of people have slipped in without paying at one time or another and they want to come and tell me about now when its too late,” Baker jokingly said.

“Thats the most talked about part of it, but many of the married people today did some of their courting at the drive-in and they remember it fondly.” Baker said. “I appreciate all of them that supported me over the years and helped me keep it open.”

By Cecil Pergram

Times Editor

The Stanton City Council held its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on June 8 at Stanton City Hall.

The council approved a motion to pass the second reading of a ordinance that would change water and sewer rates for citizens living both inside and outside of city limits. Under the ordinance there would be six percent water rate increase starting July 1 of this year for those residents living outside of Stanton city limits with additional rate increases occurring July 1 next year and July 1, 2019.

There will be no additional water rate increase for residents living inside city limits this year because the council had already previously passed and enacted water rate increases for this year. There will be a six percent rate increase for those living outside of the Stanton city limits starting July 1.

There will be a one percent increase in water rates inside Stanton city limits and a six percent water rate increase for residents living outside of Stanton city limits starting on July 1 2018. There will also be a three percent increase in sewer rates for those living inside Stanton city limits and two percent increase for residents who live outside Stanton city limits, those changes will also take effect July 1 2018.

Beginning July 1 2019 there will be a one percent increase in water rates for those living inside Stanton City limits and a six percent increase in water rates for those living outside of the city limits of Stanton. During the same time as the water rate increases there will also be another round of sewer rate increases. There will be a one percent increase in sewer rates to residents who live within Stanton city limits and a three percent increase for those residents living outside city limits.

The council also made a motion for the city of Stanton to complete and submit the Community Oriented Policing Services Grant Application. This year the COPS Hiring Program awards will provide up to 75 percent of the approved entry-level salaries and fringe benefits of full-time officers for a 36-month award period, with a minimum 25 percent local cash match requirement and maximum share of $125,000 per officer position. The city of Stanton needed the council’s approval to apply for the CHP grant.

“We’ve got some guys who are going to retire in the next three to four years and we would like to apply for it again. If we don’t get it we can’t do anything but if we can get the grant then it would be a good chance to have somebody where they would pay 75 percent of their salary for three years, that would be a big deal,” said Stanton Mayor Dale Allen.

The council was made aware of two restaurants that are delinquent with payments of the city’s restaurant tax money.

Stanton City Attorney Scott Graham told the council that he had sent notices to the businesses on March 30 and May 30 advising them the city hadn’t received any returns and they needed to become compliment before the next scheduled meeting of the Stanton City Council.

Graham told the council that one of the two delinquent businesses had came in and paid several months earlier in the week but the council had not had any contact from the other business Mi Finca and that there was no good reason for why they haven’t filed the return.

“We want everybody to pay the tax, the tax should be applied uniformly, everybody should report and file the return if somebody isn’t their undermining the integrity of the ordinance and the tax.” Graham said. “I’m happy that we’ve only had one restaurant not comply, if you told me when we passed this last year that we would only have one restaurant that wasn’t in compliance that would have pleased me quite a bit.”

The Stanton City Council prepared and approved a resolution to authorize Stanton City Attorney Scott Graham to institute whatever legal action he deemed necessary and appropriate in order to bring the delinquent business into compliance.

“They are a number of different things that we could do, we could file a civil action through the court and revoke their business license.” Graham said. “In my opinion we need to take action as soon as possible to send a message that you need to comply with the ordinance.

The council approved a motion to advertise a bid for the city to buy or lease a new security system at the Stanton City Park. Tommy Mays told the council that only one of the 20 cameras that are part of the current security system is in working condition.

Stanton Police Chief Arthur Lacy asked the board to pass a motion for a police officer who was no longer under a six-month probationary period with the police department to be granted the same 40 cent that his peers received during a previous council meeting. The council had voted to not extend the raise to new police officers until they had been with the department for six months. The board passed the motion requested by Chief Lacy.

The council approved a motion on the second reading of the budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

The Stanton City Council’s next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on July 11 at the  Stanton City Hall located at 525 Washington Street in Stanton, Ky.