By Dennis Brown

Lewis County officials presented their monthly activity reports during the September meeting of Lewis County Fiscal Court.

Sheriff Bill Lewis filed his department’s report for activities from August 9, 2010, to September 13, 2010:

* Subpoenas Served   48

* Domestic Related Calls   89

* Civil Summons Served   31

* Felony Arrests   48

* Misdemeanor Arrests   13

* Accident Investigations    10

* Juvenile Investigations   8

* Criminal Summons   4

* Prisoners Transp. to Secure Facility   371 miles

* Juveniles Transported   600 miles

* DVOs and EPOs   12

* Court Bailiff Hours   521

* Prescription Deliveries   1

* Auto Inspections   111

* Funeral Escorts   6

Lewis County Emergency Management Director Carl Chaney reported the following activities:

* Performed all routine administrative/office tasks as required by KyEM.

* Turned in all monthly reports for KyEM.

* Attended FEMA applicants briefing meeting at Grayson for public assistance.

* Working with FEMA public assistance and individual assistance representatives.

* Attended a disaster assessment meeting at Licking Valley.

* Attended a hazardous materials meeting in Fleming County.

* Attended a hazard mitigation meeting at BTADD.

* Provided dispatch coverage.

* Working on FEMA paperwork for May and July flooding.

* Working on 911 issues.

* Working of Flood Plain issues.

The Lewis County E-911 Dispatch Center received a total of 523 calls for service for the following agencies:

* Sheriff’s Department   211

* Vanceburg Police Department   165

* Traffic Stops   93

* Injury Accidents   5

* Non-injury Accidents   16

* Complaints   99

Fire Department calls including fires, traffic accidents and EMS assistance:

* Lewis Co. FD   2

* Camp Dix FD   5

* Garrison FD   8

* Vanceburg FD   7

* Firebrick FD   1

* Black Oak FD   1

* Kinniconick FD   2

* Tollesboro FD   17

* Med Corp Ambulance   103

* Coroner   1

* Emergency Medical Assistance   0

* Non-CAD Events   700

Road Supervisor Dane Howard reported that more than 1,292 tons of gravel and nearly 27 tons of asphalt had been hauled over the previous month.

Graded roads included Slate Point, Slate Hollow, Cooper Fork, McCleese Hollow, Fairgrounds, Paint Lick Road, Toller Hollow, Dry Hollow, Hackworth Branch, Trinity Station Hill,

Covedale Ridge Road and Rock Camp Road.

Howard reported that pipe had been installed or repaired at Rock Creek, Dry Hollow, Black Lick, Hackworth Branch, Sargent Branch, Big Cabin Road, Rock Camp Road, Ghost Hollow Road, Beechy Road, Long Branch, Cedar Hill Road, Tar Fork Road, Blue Springs Road, Spring Branch Road and Burt Logan Road.

Potholes were repaired at East Fork Church Road, Sand Hill, Garrison area, McDowell Road, Riverview Road, Bradford Lane, Hazel Road, Rock Run Road, Bill Chain Road, Osborne Lane, Ribolt-Epworth, Firebrick roads, Scaffold Lick, Creamery Pike and Garrad Road.

Brush cutting/mowing/tree and debris removal projects were completed for Briary Road, Burnt Cabin, Paint Lick, East Fork Church Road, Lower Kinney, Fingerboard Road, Quicks Run Road, Rock Camp Road, Big Cabin Road, Ribolt-Epworth, Bill Chain and Holly Road.

Embankment and other road repairs were made on Rock Creek, Dry Hollow, Burnt Cabin, Heddleston Hollow, Hackworth Hollow, Old Trace, Hackworth Branch Road retainers, Dry Hollow, Greenbriar Road, Trinity Station Hill, Covedale Ridge Road, Buck Lick Road, Toller Hollow, Wilson Road, Swearingen Branch, Thurman Lane, Big Cabin, Oak Hill, Cottageville Church Road, Paint Lick Road, Horseshoe Bend Road, Southern Manor, Rock Camp Road and Cedar Hill Road.

Drainage work was performed on Scaffold Lick and Old Trace Road, bridge work was completed on Flinders Cemetery Road.

Lewis County Jailer Tim Underwood filed the following activity report for August 1– 31, 2010:

Inmate Population:

* State Inmates CC/CD/CI   27

* Traded   0

* Served Out   1

* Paroled   2

* County Inmates   50

* Inmates Booked In   54

* Average Daily Jail Population   72

Fees/Payments Collected:

* Booking, Housing, Medical, Damaged Property   $1,991.99

* Telephone Commission   $0.00

* Class D/CC/CI Pay for April   $15,199.90

Food

* Somerset Food in August  $5,330.99

* GPS System  $820.00

Traveled 300 Miles during the month to Roederer Correctional Complex.

Underwood reported that 18 Class D inmates participated in the work program totaling 1,280 man hours. The agencies they assisted included The Lewis County Courthouse, Justice Center, Sheriff’s Department, City of Vanceburg, Solid Waste Program, Clean Highways Program, Garrison Little League, Garrison Boat Docks, Tollesboro Little League, Lewis County Historical Society, Lewis County Board of Education, Corps of Engineers, Helen Rayburn Library, and the Black Oak, Tollesboro and Camp Dix Fire Departments.

He said 131 bags of waste were picked up in various locations for the Clean Highways Program.

Underwood reported the commissary account at the jail totaled $13,192.49 and the inmate account had a balance of $3,987.32.

The Lewis County Animal Shelter reported 13 total animals picked-up and 62 dropped off; 10 adopted; 57 put down or died; and 66 calls received.

County Treasurer Kathy Dillow reported the total of all county funds for the month of August had a beginning balance of $307,243.06 and an ending balance of $888,694.52. Receipts for the month totaled $1,218,904.83 while disbursements totaled $637,453.37.

Judge Executive Steve Applegate reported on the alternate sentencing program adopted for non-violent offenders.

In the report, hot mix and pipe cleaning tasks were completed on Straight Fork, Lower Kinney, Manley Hollow and Hazel Road.

Signs were repaired or installed at Old Trace Road, Toller Hollow, Big Cabin Creek, Fuller Branch, Flinders Cemetery Road and McCulge Lane.

Mowing, trimming and tree removal were performed for historic building, Licking Valley, Quicks Run, court house, jail, East Fork Cemetery, Lewis County Cemetery, E-911 Center, Health Department and fire station.

Flood cleanup hours totaled 190 and school fair hours totaled 15.

The program reported a total of 1,512 participant work-hours and 29 bags of trash were picked up along roadways.

A group concerned with a dwindling maintenance fund and the rising costs of maintenance are continuing efforts to keep Woodlawn Cemetery near Vanceburg looking nice and not become overgrown.

Charles Stapleton addressed Vanceburg City Council last month to ask for assistance in keeping the cemetery mowed and trimmed next season.

Stapleton said the cost to keep the cemetery mowed continues to escalate, and finding help to get it done is a tremendous task in itself.

Stapleton said sections of Woodlawn Cemetery, also known as Woodland, have become overgrown with weeds and brush. The costs to keep it maintained will drain the fund within a few years. Donations to the fund, he said, are desperately needed.

The historic cemetery is the final resting place for many of Vanceburg’s early citizens and business people. Many of the same names found on the city’s street signs can be found on the headstones and monuments in the cemetery.

There are numerous veterans’ graves scattered throughout the cemetery and one of an Italian man who died while helping to construct the railroad bridge at Vanceburg across Salt Lick Creek.

“Woodlawn is also the final resting place of Vanceburg’s early ‘French Colony’,” Stapleton said. Several members of the Vergne family are interred near the north slope.

The plot was given by a local businessman to allow him to be buried here. His family in Italy was contacted and sent the words to carve into his headstone. It is all in Italian.

Stapleton said there is also an “Indian Section’ on the eastern slope of the cemetery. Plummer Funeral Home had the remains reinterred there around 1959 when the Vanceburg bypass cut through the original burial grounds.

Stapleton said the cemetery has also experienced several disastrous landslides.

In the late 50s, he said, the old road actually broke into two pieces and moved about 100 feet downhill toward the old shoe factory building.

A second, and more damaging, landslide occurred in the 80s when about 25 graves were unearthed on the lower north slope and the vaults lay exposed on the surface.

“The amazingly bright, gold and copper colored vaults sparkled surreally in the morning sun,” he said.

Those graves were reinterred in a newly opened section on the west slope, he added.

“Woodlawn continues to be geologically unstable,” he said. “The earth moves periodically and vertical monuments fall to the ground with regularity.”

Stapleton said that at one time a part of the Pell Cemetery was incorporated into the west slope of Woodlawn.

Stapleton said many people remember a wooden structure in the cemetery that was used for funerals. The building fell in decades ago, he said, and the debris has slowly disintegrated and moved toward the foot of the hill.

Stapleton said that in the 50s a house was built on the old road and a caretaker lived there to keep an eye on the grounds and help curb the vandalism that seems to have always been present.

“Woodlawn bears silent testimony to both segregation and integration,” he said. “Several African-Americans are buried along the bottom of the cemetery. One of these sections has moved and I can no longer find it. The other section is located at the bottom of the hill.”

Stapleton said Woodlawn, with its ancient Oak trees, provides a rich habitat for wild turkey and deer. It is also well known for copperheads and other reptiles, he added.

Stapleton, who regularly walks through the cemetery grounds, said there is a stand of  naturalized daffodils that typically bloom a month earlier than the daffodils a short distance away in Vanceburg.

There are also snowdrops that actually bloom during February snows, he added.

Stapleton said many people have worked to keep the cemetery maintained over the years. Those in recent memory include Bill Dugan, Walter Hickle, Bernice Willim, Winnie Wilson, Gene Dickerson, E.V. Holder Jr., John Holder and others.

“These people have worked very hard to ensure that Woodlawn has remained accessible,” he said.

Stapleton, who regularly hauls a push mower and string trimmer up the hill to battle the vegetation, says volunteers are welcome to visit and “adopt” a portion of the cemetery to keep up. And monetary donations, as always, are a needed to purchase supplies for the seasonal task of keeping the cemetery in shape.

Donations may be sent to Woodlawn Cemetery, in care of John Holder, PO Box 160, Vanceburg, KY 41179.