Meeting in regular session the Vanceburg City Council heard a report regarding adult education in the community.

Ann Reeder, Adult Education Manager for the Maysville Community and Technical College, told the council that the school has been awarded the contract for adult education in Lewis County for the year 2005. She said she has completed all the necessary paperwork to get the program started.

The organization is looking for space to rent to conduct the program and will be advertising for bids for rental space in the near future.

Reeder says two full time instructor positions and one part time will be needed. Application notices for those jobs will be published through the college news page and the Department of Employment Services. The positions require a bachelor's degree.

She told the council she was at the meeting just to inform the mayor and the council members so they would know what’s going on in adult education if someone should have any questions. Reeder said that she could be contacted by phone at 606-759-7141, extension 66163 if anyone needs any information.

She said the program will feature the virtual adult education online service, financial aid, GED studies, preparation for post secondary training and work force training.

Fire Chief James "Bubbles" Switzer attended the meeting with good news for the council. He said that ISO has informed him by letter that the public protection classification for the city has been improved from a class six rating to a class five classification. That rating goes into effect on November 1 this year. After that the residents of Vanceburg should see a reduction in their homeowner insurance rates.

Switzer told the council that the fire department has already started work to further reduce the classification to a class four rating. He expressed his gratitude to the mayor and city council for their help and support in making the classification reduction possible.

The mayor informed the council that all the businesses wanting to be annexed to the city have signed the necessary paper work except one. He referred to John Clark who owns the Bulk Plant buildings in town. Clark has been out of town but is expected to sign the paper work this week.

The mayor said that a recessed meeting would be called at Noon on Friday, August 6, for the reading of the legislation to establish the annexation.

The annexation will also include Ginn's Plumbing, Ginn's Hardware, Chigger's, the Tobacco Barn, Jimmy's Car Wash, Foodland and Lykins Oil.

The council moved to authorize the mayor to purchase some additional Dumpsters with funds from the contingency fund if necessary.

The mayor announced that the insurance money from the wrecked garbage truck has been received. The old packer has been repaired and painted, and he is looking for another truck to install it on so the city can have a backup unit when needed. The city council authorized that action at last month's regular session.

Councilman Roy Lawson called attention to several phone calls he has received about young people hanging out at the boat docks after hours. Council member Brenda Lykins said she has also received complaints about the same thing.

The mayor said that Police Chief Joe Billman has reported that most of those young people are 18-years-old or over, and that some of them are college students home for the summer. They mostly just play basketball and go skateboarding. The police patrol the area on a regular basis.

Cooper noted the recent passing of former Vanceburg Mayor Pat Cooper and lauded his performance in office. He said that the former mayor found a way to do a lot of good things in spite of limited funds.

A group of about 47 community leaders and parents attended a Professional Development meeting last Thursday afternoon in the library of the Lewis County High School. The meeting was conducted by some of the high school staff.

High School Principal Jendra Enix explained that the group was asked a question about planning a brochure for the high school, and by giving their answers would help the staff prepare a new brochure.

After enjoying a good lunch the meeting started and the staff framed the question, "If you were making a brochure about Lewis County High School what would you include to highlight what we do?"

Math teacher Carol Campbell led the discussion and gave each of the six groups gathered around their respective tables an opportunity to share their answers after a timed brain storming session.

Jackie Claxon recorded the responses on large sheets of paper and had them hung on the wall.

The ideas included putting a chain on the cover that emphasizes teamwork between the community and the school. Others thought the cover should contain a picture of the high school and of some students and a school slogan. One person mentioned adding the school’s web link to the cover with a description of the curriculum. One table group suggested that the cover include the high school’s mission statement. Someone else proffered the idea of the school’s location in the state.

They had other ideas for the inside of the brochure. One group thought the inside should be divided into three columns, featuring the community, demographics, sports, etc.

One person said that the theme could be "the cutting edge" and share new initiatives and share information about the Marzano strategies based on 30 years of educational research. Other factors mentioned by the various groups were community participation and support, the school ratings from the school report card, academic programs, historical landmarks in the area, extracurricular student activities and the highlights of academic programs and literary and skill components.

Lewis County Sheriff William D. "Bill" Lewis called attention to the county’s low crime rate and to school safety.

She said that the district wanted to move to using research based programs in every area of academics.

The Marzano research reveals what teaching strategies are most effective to date.

After the guests left about 1:30 the teachers remained for the afternoon to discuss the consolidated plan, school-wide procedures, the Marzano strategies to be used and to delve into a book entitled Good To Great.

Enix said that the book is about companies that are really succeeding in the business world and why they are succeeding. The same principles can be applied to education.

Sarah Poppelman also helped conduct the meeting.

Enix explained that the school system does so many great things, and the community needs to know about them. That was one reason for inviting the community leaders to take part in the meeting with the purpose of preparing a brochure to let the public know what’s going on at school.

Marilyn Conway, Library Director at the Helen H. Rayburn Public Library of Lewis County, reports that the library has launched its new automation system. It was started Monday, August 2.

The first patron to check out a book was Ann Burriss, herself a former librarian near Cincinnati. She was at the library when it opened about 8:30 a.m.

Burriss is a Lewis County native that lived away for about 20 years and then moved back home.

Conway said that having a former librarian check out the first book under the new system seems somehow appropriate.

The procedures to check out materials are a little different for the patron. The librarians will now scan the bar code on the book, video, etc. and a machine prints out a receipt for the patron to keep. The receipt contains the name of the materials checked out and the date the material is due back in the library.

Conway said that the entire card catalogue is now on computer, and the old card system has been removed. The information is also on a backup CD in case the computers go down from a crash or from getting a virus.