Meeting in a marathon regular session Monday the Lewis County Fiscal Court heard an appeal from the Lewis County Firefighters Association to establish an ordinance that would bring enhanced 911 to the community. The action would require a $3.00 per phone line per month surcharge to finance the program. Fleming County’s surcharge is $5.00 per month.

According to Marty Strong, president of the Firefighters Association, 5,266 phone lines currently exist in the county.

Strong told the court that after three years an additional wireless charge would be added for cell phones.

County Judge Executive Steve Applegate suggested that the first step would be to establish an advisory board to see if enhanced 911 is feasible.

The cost of establishing a database for the enhanced program would come to about $50,000.

First District Magistrate Milt Stanfield declared that the people are already taxed and surcharged to death. He added that he would hate to see the public pay a surcharge for three years before the service is activated.

That remark reflected the information from Strong that that is the case. The surcharge would be in effect for three years in order to raise the funds to install enhanced 911 before it could be installed and put into action.

Strong informed the court that counties that have the program receive $40,000 annually from the state to maintain the equipment.

He said that all but 16 of Kentucky's 120 counties have enhanced 911. Lewis County is among those that don’t.

The court tabled the matter until the next regular session in order to give the magistrates time to see what the public thinks about establishing enhanced 911.

Regarding the proposed Fire Tax District for the Lewis County Fire Department, Lykins reported to the court that the tax district could be established without going through the petition process. The court authorized the County Attorney to prepare an ordinance to establish the tax district. The ordinance will receive first reading at the court’s next regular session.

The court opened bids for nine black top projects. The bids were submitted as a total package. The Court accepted the low bid of $134,746 from J. Ginn Paving, Vanceburg.

Lewis County Sheriff William "Bill" Lewis presented a proposed ordinance to establish a countywide curfew for young people 18-years-old and under. Orville and Rusty Dyer of Rock Run expressed some concerns about the ordinance and how it would be enforced.

Sheriff Lewis said that the way the ordinance is worded the only people that would be affected are those that are likely to get into trouble. He said that the ordinance is practically the same as the one the city already has in effect.

The court tabled the issue until next month’s meeting when the ordinance will be given first reading. The delay is designed to check the public’s response regarding the curfew.

The court moved to advertise for bids to replace the courthouse windows with heating and air conditioning units. Funding for the project comes from the state money set aside for the Justice Center. The funds will have to be returned to the state if not used but may be legally used to renovate the courthouse.

The court authorized the County Attorney to prepare an ordinance to establish a five-member County Cemetery Board. A new state program recommends that each county establish such a board in order to apply for state funding to maintain county cemeteries.

Meeting in regular session last week the Vanceburg City Council began with City Attorney E.V. Holder Jr., swearing in three new firefighters.

Taking the oath were Allen Bryan, Joshua Gilliam and Harlan Scott.

The council approved the second reading of the Vicious Animal Ordinance that goes into effect upon publication in the local press.

Meeting in regular session last week the Lewis County Board of Education heard several reports on successful ventures in the local school system.

Superintendent Maurice Reeder, Jr., said that the current success story was the Lewis County School Fair including the parade held last Saturday, September 13. The parade began at Central Elementary and proceeded on the usual parade route down town.

Reeder said that for the first time some of the pageants were held at the new state-of-the-art auditorium at the high school.

He said the Barbara Kennedy had conducted testing for scholarships and that testing was completed.

Belinda Forman gave a report on the CTB scores.

She said, "First of all our goal is for every testing area, every subtest, and every grade level to be over 50 percentile."

Forman added that the staff obviously wants the percentiles to go much higher but they aren’t all there yet. She told the board when students score in the 50’s and 60’s they are making gains and doing good things.

She pointed out that the third graders are up from last year. They went from the 52 percentile up to the 61.

Garrison went from the 48 to the 59 percentile. Laurel’s third grade went from the 70 to the 88 percentile.

Foreman stressed that the 88 percentile is very good and is hard to do.

Central’s score, however, dropped from the 64 to the 48 percentile in the third grade. That doesn’t look too good on the surface but when you look back that same class last year scored 37.8. So they came up quite a bit and made a lot of improvement.

Tollesboro’s third grade went from a 51 to the 76 percentile, and that’s very good.

She said that the high school score dropped slightly and remained in the low range, which is a concern. She told the board that the staff will look at that, work with it and see how they are going to handle that to bring the students’ scores up.

Foreman said the Kindergarten through the second grade scores are really good. The kindergarten scored 78.8. The first grade is at 69.7, and the second grade at 58.2.

Barbara Kennedy reported on the SOAR To Success Reading Program. The nationally recognized research-based program is designed to help struggling readers improve and is wonderfully succeeding.

For example Laurel Elementary had a 94 percent gain and averaged a one year-one month gain. Tollesboro Elementary had a 99 percent gain and had about an eight-month gain in average in their school. Garrison Elementary had a 74 percent gain and averaged about a seven-month gain. Central scored a 96 percent gain, which is about a nine-month average gain. The Middle School had an 82 percent gain, an average gain of one year.

Kennedy added that some of the kids gain two or three years in their reading abilities. She said that attendance in the program is a factor. It is an after school program and attendance cannot be mandated for ESS.

She explained that SOAR is a sequential program with five steps in the series of lessons. The staff this year is going to work on getting parental commitment for getting the students here for the program.

Kennedy said that the high school had the greatest gains. The students at LCHS averaged a two-year gain in less than six months. She lauded Ann Royster for her part in making that program so effective.