Meeting in regular session last week the Lewis County Fiscal Court moved to approve the second reading of the Countywide Juvenile Curfew Ordinance. It becomes effective upon publication in the local media.

The curfew basically stipulates that young people 18-years-old and under cannot be out unless with their parents or guardians, are on an errand for their parents or are on their way to or from an event one hour before or after that event between the hours of 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, or between 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Law enforcement officers, however, cannot randomly stop and check vehicles just to enforce the curfew. They must have justifiable suspicion of a law violation before stopping any vehicle.

Lewis County Sheriff Bill Lewis said that the ordinance would not affect law-abiding youth but is designed to deal with those that continually break the law or are involved with drug abuse.

Jim Rummage, Chief District Engineer for the Department of Highways appeared before the court regarding the 2004-2005 Secondary Road Program. He asked for recommendations from each magistrate for a priority road that needs improvement in each of their districts.

First District Magistrate Milt Stanfield requested paving on Big Cabin Creek from KY 57 to the covered bridge. Second District Magistrate Todd Ruckel recommended work on Quicks Run Road, and Third District Magistrate Keith Chapman asked for paving on about four miles of Laurel Road. Rummage said that the state’s funding allotment for Lewis County totals $819,290. That is divided between $389,562 for maintenance and traffic and $429,728 for improvements.

He reported that the state recommends asphalt resurfacing on the following roads: on KY 1306, 6.9 miles from KY 9 to KY 8 at an estimated cost of $337,180; on 2523 (Lions Lane) .4 mile from KY 9 to 3037 at an estimated cost of $29,842; and one mile of KY 57 from .173 miles south of Sycamore Creek Road to KY 8 at an approximate cost of $54,130. Rummage told the court that he would take the state’s estimates along with the estimates on the magistrates’ recommendations and send them to the Rural Secondary Road Program where the work will be prioritized.

The court moved to renew the annual insurance contract for the county with St. Paul Insurance for $83,642. The only other bid was from KACO at $92,720.48.

The court agreed to enter into a lease and agreement with the Nugent Sand Company for dredging sand and gravel on the Ohio River north of Concord and the Carrs communities. The county will receive $3000 annually plus ten cents per ton for anything over 30,000 tons. The Army Corps of Engineers oversees that program. The agreement assures that no damage will be done to any county property.

County Attorney Clayton "Buddy" Lykins, Jr., gave a summary of the county’s mandatory garbage collection ordinance. The Court accepted the first reading of that ordinance.

The court received two bids for the Lewis County Courthouse Window Replacement Project. The low bid came from Trace Creek Construction Company and was accepted with two alternatives. The original bid came in at $114,990 but permitted deductions for clear glass over tinted glass and deletion of a vandal screen. The court enacted both those deductions dropping the project cost to $107,490.

The county government approved entrance into an affiliation agreement with Hazmat Eight-WMD, INC. The agreement permits the Hazmat Eight response team to operate in Lewis County in case of an emergency. The motion included a $2,000 annual donation to the program to defray the costs of recalibrating the equipment, some pretesting and to provide annual physical exams for the workers.

Lewis County Emergency Management Director Carl Chaney told the Court that since 9/11 Lewis County has received $527,000 in emergency equipment. That is funneled from the federal government through the state down to the county.

Lewis County added its voice of support for a pro baseball team in Eastern Kentucky by the court adopting a resolution to show vocal support for the team at the request of the Morehead City Council. No funding was involved in the resolution.

Lewis County Judge Executive Steve Applegate announced that appointments to the 911 Advisory Board of six members is complete.

Advisory Board members are Gary Thomas, Tollesboro VFD; William Lewis, Lewis County Sheriff’s Department; Joe Billman, Vanceburg Police Department; Carl Chaney, Lewis County DES; Keith Chapman, Lewis County Fiscal Court; and Jerry Ugrin, Lewis County Primary Care Center.

Meeting in regular session Monday night, November 10, the Lewis County Board of Education was treated to an in-depth look at the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Act and how it will affect Kentucky schools.

Barbara Kennedy made the PowerPoint presentation. She said that Kentucky was the last state to have its plan for improvement accepted because educators in the Commonwealth have had difficulty reconciling the new guidelines with those set forth in KERA. They did not want to just throw away all the hard work they had done in the past ten years in the KERA program.

The No Child Left Behind regulations will actually begin taking effect in 2004.

Kennedy shared with the Board what would happen to a school in a worse case scenario if it did not meet the goals of the new initiative. Relevant staff causing failure could be replaced and if progress is not then started the end result could be a complete and major overhaul of that school’s system.

Belinda Forman followed Kennedy’s presentation by explaining what a school must do to meet its Adequate Yearly Progress goals. The ultimate goal is to move each school to a 100 percent graduation rate in the high schools.

The board moved to approve Reading First grant proposals for Central and Garrison Elementary schools. Competition for the grants is fierce but if the grants are obtained it would mean $1 million for each school over the next six years.

At the request of Superintendent Maurice Reeder Jr., the board approved two one-half days for Professional Development so the teachers can analyze the data from CATS scores.

On November 21 and January 9 the students will be dismissed at 11:30 a.m. but the teachers will continue to work to digest and analyze all the academic data. The results of the testing will help the teachers and administrators make plans for each pupil’s academic improvement.

Meeting in regular session last week the Electric Plant Board of the City of Vanceburg learned that Grayson Electric might appeal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding the issue of utility charges in the St. Paul area.

Board Superintendent Phil Kennedy said he does not really know what Grayson is going to do and is waiting to hear from them.

Reporting on the Southern Lewis County Water Project Kennedy said that when that project was first started the utility company anticipated about 385 customers. That number is now up to 441 customers with more families planning to hook up. He said that the project is extremely popular.

He told the board that the pump station for Indian is in and is setting on the pad.

Kennedy said, "We’ve got water all the way to Bob Thomas’ now but with this new pump station and filling the tank and getting it sanitized we’ll be able to finish that project."

He informed the Board that the geo-tech people had been in to check the slip at the tank on Salt Lick and the inspectors did not think it was in danger.

Kennedy mentioned the slip because he next announced plans for a new project and Rural Development wants him to include funds for fixing that slip in the project.

He said the new project will be called the Water Line Extension 2004 Project and will cost an estimated $840,000. It will include a new well at Black Oak with water lines extended to Hackworth Hollow, Big Salt Lick, Toller Hollow, Scotts Branch and Fingerboard Road.

He told the board that Fleming County Water buys some water from Vanceburg now but has a big project in progress and somewhere down the road may not want to buy water from us any more. However, Garrison-Quincy may be interested in purchasing some water from Vanceburg.

The superintendent informed the board that he is also looking at sewer projects.

He explained that the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority that provided a lot of grant money for the Southern Lewis County Project is now putting a lot of emphasis on sewers.

Kennedy added that a lot of the company’s lift stations are old and need some work, and a lot of people in some areas want to get on the sewer. He said that he is looking at a five to seven-year plan to start on the sewer to upgrade a lot of things and to add sewer lines on the west end of town and maybe some on the east end as well.

The board authorized Kennedy to seek funding for the Water Extension Line Project 2004 including a new well at Black Oak.

Kennedy announced that the Christmas dinner for this year will be held at Caproni’s in Maysville on Saturday, December 13, and other details will be forthcoming.

He told the board that he has not hired another mechanic but the men are doing their own maintenance and that is working out well.

Governor Paul Patton handed out over $2.8 million to Kentucky communities to help in the revitalization efforts of those downtown areas during a ceremony at the state capitol rotunda Wednesday, November 12.

Vanceburg, one of 12 communities to receive funding, was presented $250,000 for its downtown projects.

When Patton served as a judge-executive of Pike County he said he noticed that grant money from the state level was going into the area but in an uncoordinated way. He also said he noticed how there were several ways in which counties were offered assistance, but little was offered to cities. In the fall of 1996, Gov. Paul Patton appointed a 26-member Renaissance Kentucky committee to study Kentucky’s downtowns and submit recommendations to assist cities with revitalization efforts. With the creation of the program, cities could coordinate its smaller improvement efforts into one larger project.

Renaissance Kentucky helps coordinate grant money by making plans for the future. The first step in the Renaissance Kentucky program is to make a long-range development program for downtown to be achieved over time. There are three levels within the program. A bronze level community is one that has expressed an interest in downtown revitalization and is at the beginning phase of the local revitalization effort. A silver level community is one that has demonstrated local financial support and moderate success with the local program. A gold level community is one that has a strong downtown organization with strong committee involvement and has made strides toward completion of its long-range plans.

On hand for Renaissance Kentucky check presentations in Frankfort last week were, left to right, Jody Lassiter, Deartment of Local Government, Sylvia Lovely, Kentucky League of Cities, Jim Shelton, Representative Robin Webb, Governor Paul Patton, Vanceburg Mayor W.T. Cooper, Amy Kennedy, Patty Kennard, Angie Patton and Kathy Peters, Kentucky Housing Corporation.

"This program makes a difference in the quality of life for those cities in the commonwealth," Patton said of its importance. "The cities are more attractive and appealing because of Renaissance Kentucky."

Other areas receiving money were: Benham, Bowling Green, Cadiz, Campbellsville, Dawson Springs, New Castle, Pikeville, Shelbyville and Versailles each receiving $250,000; Princeton received $195,000 and Somerset received $140,525.