By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

Dean and Laura Rogers are the owners of Mr. Ed’s Hot Dogs which recently opened on April 2 in Stanton.

Dean Rogers says that he and his wife are both  Powell County natives and recently moved back  after a stint in Lexington.

“We were just looking for something to  keep us busy and allow us to keep the kids,” Rogers said. “We got a couch and television to keep them entertained if needed  we just thought it was really convenient.”

“We had thought about the possibility of opening a bigger restaurant but we just wanted to do something while also keeping it simple,” Rogers said. “We decided to go with the hot dogs and see how it went and so far it’s been good.”

Rogers says that he was blown away by the response of the community since opening on April 2.

“We’ve sold over 1,000 hot dogs everyday that we’ve been open. We sold over 1,200 the first day,” Rogers said. “I was shocked. I had to close the second day because I never thought that we would sell that many hot dogs. We had a line out to the parking lot all day long. It was kind of overwhelming and amazing all at the same time.”

“It’s really been a family effort. My sisters are teachers and we had opening day during Spring Break and they’ve been helping out. My wife’s parents has been a big help and my mother is working in the back right now,” Rogers said. “It’s just kind of been a community effort and ever since Tuesday we’ve had numerous return customers. That really means a lot to see the people that keep coming back. We’ve been blessed to have the response that we have.”

“This location right on the main strip and is probably one of the better locations that we could have picked.” I didn’t know when I was looking at it but when this building was built this was my dad’s office so it’s kind of neat.”

Mr. Ed’s Hotdogs is located at 209 N. Main Street in Stanton and is open from 10:00 a.m.-to-7:30- p.m. Monday-Saturday. If you would like more information you can contact them at 663-7532.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet held a public meeting on March 28 at the Stanton Community Church concerning the reconstruction of KY HWY 213 from West Railroad Street in Stanton to North Bend Road.

Transportation Cabinet officials says the meeting gave residents a first look at how the road improvement project would effect them individually and allowed the public to address any concerns or questions they had about the project.

The project’s improvements include widening KY 213 to three lanes from the end of the current three lane section at West Railroad Street and extending three lanes approximately 1350 ft. north of Church Street. The project would also widen the rural portion of KY 213 from the end of the urban area of Stanton mentioned above to the end of the project and will provide two 11 ft. driving lanes with a six ft. shoulders.

The projects also includes the following:

Construction of a new bridge over the Red River widening the bridge to 34 feet to allow for two 11 ft. driving lanes and two six feet shoulders, constructing concrete sidewalks on both sides of the widened three lane section of the project, making improvements to the intersections of the streets in the urban section of the project, adding a left turning lane on KY 213 southbound at the intersection with North Ben Road/ KY 615.

The project says the existing shoulder at the Stanton Cemetery will be retained along the east side of KY 213 and parking lot is scheduled to be constructed along the west side of KY 213 across from the Stanton Cemetery.

“I’m excited for the project it will improve traffic flow in town and will also address some of the safety issues we have in the city,” Stanton Mayor Dale Allen said. “Thank goodness we are getting a new bridge that was the main part of the project I wanted to see done and it will improve a lot of things we will lose a couple of buildings but with the addition of turning lane in town we hope it will fix some safety issues.”

As soon as the meeting is over there is state certified appraiser hired and they already have the money available to start purchasing the right-of way so sometime in the next little bit the state will start buying the right-of-way and they say they expect that process to take up to a year,” Allen said. “They are ready to go and hopefully construction will begin somewhere around next summer.”

Randall and Beth Richardson are shown with their children Samantha Walters, LaTasha Walters, Blake Walters and Grandson Taylor Carson.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

Randall and Beth Richardson are the proud owners of the R&B Country Kitchen that will be opening later this week in Clay City. The restaurant is scheduled to have a soft opening for businesses in the community on March 28. The doors are scheduled to open at 5 p.m. and the restaurant will close at 9 p.m. There will be a Grand Opening held on March 30.

“We’ve been looking to own a restaurant for the past six years but we never could find anything to suit us,”  R&B Country Kitchen Owner Beth Richardson said. “Somebody told us about this location and we jumped on it because my husband lives in Alabama and he wants to retire so this will be his way of being able to come home.”

“We’ve been working for the past two months to get the restaurant perfect and ready to open,” Richardson said. “We’ve been running radio advertisements to get the word out and we’ve got a huge Facebook following we had a single post reach over 16,000 people.”

“We are very excited to have the soft opening on March we’re ready for the restaurant it’s a been a two month process in the making,” Richardson said. “We’ve had a bunch of support from the local community saying that they’re excited that a new place is coming and they’re just really ready for the soft and grand openings.”

Richardson says the restaurant will be family owned and operated and will serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper menu for customers.

“It’s me and my husband, our daughters and son will all be working at the location,” Richardson said. “We’re going to be a very family oriented restaurant we want everybody to come not from just Powell County because we do we want to attract people from other communities to the restaurant as but we do want the people from Powell County to be our first priority.”

Richardson says that the family hopes to be able to add a back and side deck to allow patrons to eat outside when the weather permits. She also says she hopes to involved in the community and to eventually be able to hold community events at the location. Richardson one interesting part of the restaurant will be a wall dedicated to local veterans.

“Anybody can bring pictures of their loved ones who served their country,” Richardson said. “We are hoping that some of the people in the community will really appreciate the opportunity to do that.”

The R&B Coutry Kitchen will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m.-to-9 p.m. on weekdays and from 6 a.m.-to-10 p.m. on weekends except when there’s live music the restaurant will close at midnight.

R&B Coutry Kitchen is located at 20 Black Creek Rd. in Clay City. For grand opening information, giveaways and more you can visit the restaurant’s Facebook page at R&B Country Kitchen.

Shown left to right John Crowe, Mike Crowe, Jada Crowe and Judy Crowe.

Jada Crowe recently signed on to play golf for the University of Pikeville.

Crowe played on the Powell County Golf team for eight seasons. She was a five time All-region performer and four time state qualifier. Shewas also a member of the 2011 Regional Runner-up team and a member of the 2017 and 2018 Regional winning teams.

Crowe’s other accomplishments include PCHS Invitational medals in 2017 and 2018, Letcher County Central Invitational medalist in 2018 and Top 30 in the Elite North vs South Tournament.

Jada plans to continue her successful golf career this fall in Pikeville.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

The Powell County Senior Center offers  elderly members of  the community many different forms of aid ranging from home meal deliveries, transportation to trips and activities held for them at the center.

One of the many sources of funding that the Senior Citizen Center uses to offer these kinds of assistance comes in the form of  donations from the community to the Remembrance Tree.

The Powell County Kiwanis Club oversees all financial distributions related to the Remembrance Tree and says the costs of adding a leaf to the tree recently decreased including all copper, silver and gold packages.

“They can buy those in honor of someone or in  memory of someone. There’s no restriction,” John Brewer said.”We’ve got some folks who are on a fixed income and we want to make it affordable to them because that’s what the tree is all about.”

“We have to have a fiscal agent to handle the money and that club stepped up and said they would do that they were one of a list of donors who originally donated the money to put the tree up,” John Brewer said. “Any money related to selling leaves on the tree goes to the Kiwanis Club and then once we order a leaf for the tree we get a check to pay for that. The seniors are in turn able to make any trips or something extra for the seniors in the local community.”

Brewer says that he was approached about the idea for the Remembrance Tree by Director Shelia Thomas who thought it would make a nice addition to the building when is was built in 2016.

“This was Shelia’s idea.  She deserves all the credit because she came up with the idea and thought it would be nice to have the Remembrance Tree to put up when the Senior Citizens got the new building as a way to fund the Senior Citizens Fund,” Brewer said.

“A lot of people don’t know about this tree and it will good for the community to know about it and that all the money generated from it is going back into helping this county and these seniors,” Thomas said.

Thomas says that since moving to the new location the Senior Citizens Center has experienced a boost in seniors taking advantage of the addition to the community and that means additional funding is need for the center.

“We used to have around eight people total who would actually come into the building and ate,” Thomas said. “Now we are averaging almost 15 people daily and that’s not when we are holding one of our bigger members. We have 60 active members when we used to have maybe 20.”

“We deliver meals into the community and we can end up delivering anywhere from 800-to-1000 meals a month to the seniors,” Thomas said.

For more information about the Tree of Life you can contact Shelia Thomas or Donna Thorpe at 606-663-5981.

Marh is National Nutritional Awareness Month and Thomas says she has made arrangements with local officials to come help prepare and deliver meals on house calls.

“I’ve done it a couple of times and it’s rewarding to see people’s face light up when they see someone because in some cases that might be the only person they see that day,” Brewer said.

“Some of the people who live in this community they live out-of-state and there’s nobody left here and we are the only people who see them through the day,” Thomas said. “They just depend on us to there everyday and that meals are going to be delivered.”

“We have some seniors who just need somethings from time-to-time like an electric razor to some people that is a really big item to them if they are on a fixed income,” Thomas said. “We take trips to the Belle of Louisville or the Kentucky Events and sometimes in some cases those things can cost $35 or $45 per person and some of the people just can’t really afford that. We want all seniors to have the ability we dividend out a certain amount of money to make the tickets affordable for everybody.”

The Powell County Senior Citizen hopes in the future to add an additional storage building at the facility to allow the center to accept donations from members of the community.

“if somebody wants to make a donation of something that people can use we would like to be able to take advantage of that until its needed,” Brewer said.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

Democratic Candidate for Governor Rocky Adkins scheduled to visit on March 14

Stephanie Horne, the running mate of Democratic candidate for Governor Rocky Adkins recently held a meet-and-greet with prospective primary election voters on February 28 at the Natural Bridge State Park Lodge. The primary election is scheduled to be held on May 21.

Candidate for Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Stephanie Horne recently visited local schools and businesses during a campaign trip to Powell County on February 28.

Horne is the running mate of Democratic candidate for Governor and current House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins.

Horne also used the visit to speak with potential voters during a meet and greet held at the Natural Bridge Lodge.

Horne told potential voters  that she believes that her and Adkins will present voters with a unique ballot during the primary election.

“We are interesting combination he is rural and I’m from a urban area so us coming together is a really special ticket,” Horne said. “We are both passionate about the citizens of Kentucky. We both really want to help Kentucky and to be good for Kentucky. It’s going to take all of us coming together to achieve that.”

Horne said during her visit she spoke with local citizens who voiced their wishes for more opportunities for the youth to stay in the community once they’ve completed their education.

“The people in this community are hardworking people who want good paying jobs and to have graduates have the opportunity to work and live in the community after graduation,” Horne said. “There’s also a need to provide wireless internet access for businesses and to work together with our education system because the entrepreneurs of tomorrow are in our schools today.”

“There’s brilliant people in this community, we want them to stay but we need to provide the infrastructure and technology for them to do their jobs and to still be able to stay in Powell County,” Horne said.

“We believe that we are county friendly and we want to support the local communities and to have a government model that extends from the local level up not govern down from the Governor’s mansion.” Horne said. “We believe that we are here to serve the people of the Kentucky, it’s their governorship and statehouse.”

Other Democratic candidates for includes current Attorney General of Kentucky Andy Beshear running with Jacqueline Coleman, Former Auditor Adam Edelen running with Jill Holland amnd Geoff Young and running mate Joshua French.

On the Republican side of the ticket the ballot for Governor includes incumbent Republican Matt Bevin and running mate Ralph Alvarado, Republican Robert Goforth and running mate Mike Hogan, Ike Lawrence with running mate James Anthony Rose and William Woods with running mate Justin Miller.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Division of Waste Management, Solid Waste Branch recently held a public hearing for residents of Powell Country to voice their concerns regarding an application for a CDD Landfill on Virden Ridge Rd.

The proposed facility by Blaze Enterprises would receive waste from 37 counties within Kentucky and be located 1.1 miles down Virden Ridge Road.

The public hearing gave residents a chance to address concerns such as road safety, damaging nearby watersheds and harm to their property values.

“This will absolutely destroy our property values. If I didn’t already own property and there was a dump going into that community, you couldn’t give me land much less get me to buy it,” Becky Woods said.

The Division of Waste Management will reportedly respond after a final determination regarding the proposed facility has been made and the public comment period has ended.

Solid Waste Branch Manager Danny Anderson told those present that the Division of Waste Management would prepare a transcript of the evenings comments and the branch would issue a statement to address any questions or concerns before the public comment period ends on March 8.

Anyone wishing to make written comments regarding the application for the proposed facility can submit them in writing to Danny Anderson, Branch Manager, Solid Waste Branch, Division of Waste Management, 300 Sower Blvd., 2nd Floor, Frankfort, KY 40601.

Written comments must be received by March 8 on the close of the business day which is the end of the 30-day public comment period.

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

The Stanton city council held a regular scheduled meeting on February 14 at Stanton City Hall.

The council approved the second reading of an amendment to the Policies and Procedures Ordinance to allow for light work duty position for full-time city employees who are on leave for injuries sustained while working for the city.

The amendment to the ordinance would allow for certain injured employees to have the ability to perform light duty work for up to two 90 day periods totaling no more than six months.

Stanton City Attorney Scott Graham says the changes would allow for any full-time employees on medical leave for a work related injury or any kind of workman’s compensation issues to still perform light duty while hurt.

“We discussed a light-duty return to work for employees on a case-by case circumstance,” Graham said. “Currently I our policies and procedures allows for any kind of light duty so we talked about to go ahead and allow in certain situations for individuals to return to work on a light duty temporary basis not to exceed 180 days.”

Stanton Mayor Dale Allen told the council the Stanton Police Department recently had a officer leave the department and asked the council to allow for the city begin advertising it was accepting applications for a law enforcement officer. The council approved a motion to begin advertising the job opening with the Stanton Police Department.

The council approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Allen and Stanton City Clerk Stephanie Faulkner to execute all necessary documents related to receiving and disbursement of Appalachian Regional Commission funds as they relate to phase one of the Stanton Sewer Extension project.

The council approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Allen and Stanton City Clerk Stephanie Faulkner to execute all necessary documents related to securing and disbursement of Kentucky Infrastructure Authority funds as they relate to phase one of the Stanton Sewer Extension project.   

The council approved a motion to accept a budget amendment related to the city receiving $500,000 for the Stanton Sewer Extension project.

The council approved the presentation of the 2017-2018 Audit as it was presented to the council.

The council approved a motion for Mayor Allen to execute any necessary documents related to the renewal of CD’s for a one year-term.

The Stanton city council meets on the second Thursday each month at 6:30 p.m at Stanton City Hall. Stanton City Hall is located at 525 Washington Street.

FCCLA students are pictured with performers from the February 8 assembly

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

The Powell County Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) Chapter recently partnered with the Powell County Youth Center, the Fraternal Order of Police and Whitaker Bank to present an anti-bullying assembly at the high school on February 8.

The assembly was presented by Seven Hills Church from Northern Kentucky.

“We had seen the program previously at another FCCLA event. We saw that it was geared towards high school students and that it was fun and interactive so we thought high school could enjoy and benefit from it,” Kaylee Lane said.

“It’s called Stop the Violence named after the national program catering towards stopping peer to peer violence verbally, emotionally and physically,” Noah Perry said. “People were having fun when it was time to have fun but whenever we got towards the middle of the program and started talking about serious stuff it was dead silent and it clearly had the audience captivated.”

FCCLA students say they thought the program would be response to the results of recent safety survey completed by those attending the high school.

“We had a safety survey in school that recently came up. We don’t think that bullying would be a issue but the survey reflected of the vast majority of people that go here had either been bullied or thought there was areas where people where bullying more often,” Perry said. “So we thought it would be good to take on some sort of activity to mitigate that.”

“There wasn’t enough reporting of bullying so we were thinking that this might be one way of encouraging people to increase reports of bullying so that it can get handled in our schools,” Lane said.

FCCLA students say the program was FCCLA Student Taking Action with Recognition (STAR) event which are competitive events in which members are recognized for proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual project, leadership skills and career preparation.   

By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

CSEPP Director Kevin Babcock, Powell County Judge Executive James Anderson, Magistrate Chad Patton, Magistrate Timmy Tipton, Laura Young with Powell County Schools and Powell County Ambulance Service Director Nathan Hall.

The Powell County Fiscal Court announced the purchase of TraumaMan training system on February 1

The TraumaMan training system was purchased for $30,000 with funds from provided by the CSEPP and will allow for continued education of Emergency Medical Services personnel and improve d readiness to respond to cases of an emergency in Powell County.

Powell County CSEPP will be working alongside with Kentucky Emergency Management and FEMA  to collaborate with the Powell County Ambulance Service and Powell County High School’s HOSA Club to provide training.

“We are looking at spending somewhere around $100,000 this fiscal year on collaborative efforts between the Ambulance Service and the school system, this will help our paramedics here locally to enhance their skills,” Babcock said. “It’s an expensive but useful tool to bring us to the next level a lot of people around us don’t have access to this kind of equipment or expertise.”

“This will ensure that we deliver the best medical treatment for our citizens today and prepare the next generation,” CSEPP Director Kevin Babcock said. “As the CSEPP program replaces medical equipment, the partnership will allow outdated but still usable items to be used for training at the high school.”

“We are going to continue partner with the schools so interested students are prepared for a future in the medical field, they’ll gain access to real world equipment and assist in the annual CSEPP exercise,” Babcock said. “This will give them a better understanding of the need for preparation and training purposes, ensuring the safety of our community.”

Powell County Fiscal Court members says they are dedicated to providing opportunities that better the emergency response in Powell County and will continue to work to seek the funding to maintain highly trained and equipped personnel to respond and assist its citizens.

“The key is that we are making the county better and safer,” Babcock said.  “The fiscal court has done a wonderful job of backing the Ambulance Service and CSEPP program to make sure that we are both meeting our needs.