After six month of undercover investigation, the Lewis County Sheriff's Department arrested Allen Bryant, 49, of Vanceburg, at 10:00 a.m. Friday on one count of unlawful access to a computer in the first degree. The charge is a Class C felony punishable by five to ten years in prison.

The sheriff's department had obtained information from anonymous sources and had received several complaints that Bryan was allegedly pirating illegal satellite access cards in his home.

Sheriff Bill Lewis said that following an extensive investigation, the department found probable cause to obtain a search warrant and an arrest warrant, which were both served early Friday at Bryan's home on Fannin Lane east of Vanceburg. Bryan was lodged in the Lewis County Detention Center on a $10,000 cash or $20,000 property bond.

The department coordinated their efforts with a Dish Network representative. During the investigation, the company helped them to identify equipment and operations used to create illegal cards, Lewis said.

Lewis said that as a result of the search warrants, Deputies Dwayne Stone and Elden Riffe found hundreds of illegal satellite access cards, pirating equipment and computers, Dish Network and DirecTV satellite boxes and dishes.

The hard drives to the recovered computers will be sent to a lab in Frankfort for further investigation, according to Lewis.

Lewis County Sheriff's Deputies Mark Snedegar, left, and Jason Hill look over some of the items confiscated Friday from the home of a Lewis County man accused of pirating satellite TV cards. The charges came following a six-month investigation by the department.

"The pirating of just one of these satellite cards results in defrauding Dish Network of approximately $2,656.04 annually," said a Dish Network spokesman.

Lewis said the sheriff's department is not anticipating the prosecution of those who use the services that satellite card pirates provide, or those who possess illegal cards, rather they would like to get to the root of the problem and stop pirates from continuing this activity.

"We are aware that fixing illegal satellite cards has become a chronic problem in our community and it needs to be addressed," Lewis said.

Meeting in regular session last week the city council heard a report from the accounting firm of Smith, Goolsby, Artis & Reams P.S.C, Ashland, on the annual audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2003.

Staff Accountant John Spears told the council that the audit was clean and the company found no instances of non-compliance or any problems that need to be addressed.

The audit shows that as of June 30, 2003 the city's total assets were valued at $3,309,395. Total liabilities were $562,311. The city's equity was $2,747,084.

Spears said that total revenues for the city except for the sanitation department came to $403,022. The sanitation department comes under the heading of a proprietary fund and is on a separate page. Total expenditures for the city government were $606,716. The total from other funds was $191,993, and the ending fund balance was $742,456.

The accountant turned to the proprietary funds that include the sanitation department and the Electric Plant Board. Operating funds for these entities totaled $111,326. The sanitation department had operating expenses of $119,993. The sanitation fund had a beginning balance of $8,697 and an ending year balance of $2374.

Spears explained that the deposits and investments page shows how much cash the city has in the local banks. Certain amounts are covered by the FDIC, and banks will pledge securities for those deposits. The record shows that the city has uncollaterallized deposits of $394,362 in First Community Bank Lewis County. The institution does not have enough securities pledged to cover that deposit.

He said that in the years past they have but some changes in personnel have occurred there and the person that took care of that is no longer there. Spears called it an oversight.

Mayor William T. "Bill Tom" Cooper and City Attorney E.V. Holder Jr. said they would see that the situation was corrected the next morning.

Holder expressed concern that the audit was dated September 30, 2003, and was not presented to the city council until February 2, 2004.

Spears explained that the September date was the date the fieldwork was completed. After that the information was taken to the firm's office and the report was prepared.

Holder was concerned about any questions that might later arise about matters during that interim.

Spears apologized for turning in the audit late but said one of the senior members of their staff had become ill and his workload fell on the other workers.

Holder told the council that some firms publish the date the fieldwork was completed, the date the report was completed and the date the report was presented to the client.

The council adopted a resolution authorizing Cooper to submit a grant application to the Kentucky Transportation Department Cabinet for $300,000 for streetscape activities in the Renaissance District in the Vanceburg City Limits. The grant comes under the auspices of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.

The subject of annexation was on the agenda but was tabled until the next session because all the paper work was not completed. Cooper said it dealt with some property an owner wanted to have annexed to the city.

Funding for practices will be approved by the Soil and Water Conservation Commission at the Kentucky Division of Conservation, located in Frankfort, as funds are available.