Serving Rockcastle County Since 1887Mount Vernon, Kentucky 40456 - (606) 256-2244 Volume 122 • Number 32 .50 per copy - Thursday, June 26, 2008

Approximately 136 walkers participated in the Relay for Life fundraiser at RockcastleMiddle School on Friday night where $35,100 was raised for the fight against cancer. Car-rying the banner during the opening lap were from left: cancer survivors, Rose Taylor,Margaret Offutt and Steve Pittman.

Helping Cancer survivor Randy Linville, left, sign up for the special Luminary Ceremonyat the Relay for Life on Friday night at RCMS, were from left: Delores McClure, NorreitaThompson and Millie Eaton. The Luminary Ceremony was held to remember loved onesand honor those battling cancer.

Over$35,000raised inannualRelay

for LifeRCMS student KaylaReynolds places a medal-lion over the head of can-cer survivor JerrilynnSmith at Friday night’sRelay for Life. Approxi-mately 60 medallions werepassed out before the open-ing lap.

The Western Rockcastle Wa-ter Associaton maintenancecrew, with the help of localcontractor Clifford Collins,worked more than 52 hours,27 of those overtime, sincelast Friday trying to find amajor water line break in thePine Hill area. 150 to 200 ofWestern’s 4,100 customerswere without water until thebroken line was fixed Tues-day afternoon. Above, isCharles DeBorde, and at leftis Glen Ellison who wereworking on the farm of MarkPoynter’s on Monday after-noon. The leak was eventu-ally found about a 1,000 feetfrom where these pictureswere taken, after Collins builta temporary road along theline. (Front Page Photos by:Richard Anderkin)

Broken westernwater line fixedTuesday afternoon

At Mt. Vernon council meeting

Mayor given authorityto take legal action

After almost 30 hours ofovertime, the construction of atemporary road and searchingtirelessly in a cavernous sectionof Rockcastle County for amajor water line break, some150 to 200 customers have wa-ter again.

“It was the worst problemwe have ever had trying to findthe leak because of where itwas,” said Western RockcastleWater Association managerPaula DeBorde.

DeBorde said her office be-gan receiving complaints onThursday night and Fridaymorning from customers in the

By: Richard AnderkinAfter about an hour in ex-

ecutive session on Mondaynight, the Mt. Vernon CityCouncil voted unanmiously togive Mayor Clarice Kirby au-thority to take legal action tomake sure the city had all fireequipment that was rightfullyits, after many of the city’s vol-unteer firefighters resigned lastWednesday.

The Mayor said Tuesdaythat she only wanted to makesure the city had its equipmentback, including the city’s firetruck from Wynn Fire and Res-cue in Corbin, and to move for-ward.

Kirby said that she was in-formed by former firefighterJack Weaver that some equip-ment, which was owned by thecity fire department, was miss-ing from the city firehouse.

Kirby said Weaver told herthat before he resigned his po-sition as the new chief last Fri-day afternoon.

Kirby said Weaver’s wifeturned his keys in at City Halland said her husband just didnot want the responsibility.

The mayor said that one par-ticularly expensive piece ofequipment, the Cascade Ma-chine, which fills the oxygentanks used by firefighters insidestructures, was missing and thatshe wanted it back because itwas purchased through the city.

“We’ve got some equipmentto work with, some old turnoutgear, but no pagers or radios,”she said.

The Mayor said she did notactually have a written list ofwhat was missing or what wasstill at the fire house.

Jason Hansel, a former vol-unteer firefighter and officer of

In unusual move,

Fiscal Court acceptsboth blacktop bids

It was a 3-2 split vote butthree members of theRockcastle Fiscal Court pre-vailed and bids were acceptedfrom both Greer Bros. and Kayand Kay Contracting for thecoming 2007-08 fiscal year ata special called meeting of thecourt Tuesday afternoon.

After the bids were opened

the department, said Tuesdaythat the group of men who quitthe city’s fire department lastweek had either left or returnedeverything that belonged to thecity fire department and thatthey had even returned thecounty fire truck and thecounty’s rescue truck to thecity’s fire house, at Judge/Ex-ecutive Buzz Carloftis’ request.That request came after asomewhat heated exchange onThursday afternoon betweenCarloftis and Mayor Kirby.

The trucks were removed bythe firefighters after a meetingbetween State Fire Commis-sioner Jeremy Rodgers and thefirefighters who resigned atthat meeting last Wednesday.

Hansel also said the pagersand radios in question were

controlled by the county’sCSEPP program, administeredby Hal Holbrook, Jr.,.Holbrook is out of town thisweek and unavailable for com-ment.

Kirby also told the councilthat Charles Wynn, owner ofWynn Fire and Rescue had notreturned the city’s truck, andthat he said the city owed him$23,000 for repair bills.

The Mayor told the councilthat Wynn had told her earlierthat he would not charge themfor the repairs to the truck be-cause he couldn’t fix it and thathe had offered to buy the truckfor $4,000. Kirby told thecouncil she thought that wasunacceptable.

Burr, Pine Hill and Callowayareas of the county, that theyhad no water or not enoughpressure.

“Of course our crew begantrying to find the leak and be-fore they finally found it andfixed it our people had put in27 hours of overtime,” she said.

The leak was found betweenthe home of Mark Poynter onMcHargue Cemetery Road andthe Old Pine Hill School house,just off U.S. 25.

DeBorde said that in mostcases when a water line breaks

and read and Greer Bros. wasthe low bidder for asphalt andcold mix, Magistrate RalphAllen asked if both company’sbid for asphalt could be ac-cepted because “sometimes weneed to get a job done even ifit costs a little more.”

Allen was referring to thefact that the court was con-cerned that a special $300,000allotment to the county by thestate would not be used beforethe June 30, 2008 deadline andwould have to be returned tothe state. Greer had done about20% of the work in Novemberof 07 and did not return to thecounty until May of this year

Chris Hall

By: Jim CoxGarrard Central RecordThe courthouse flag was at

half-mast this week in honor ofa Garrard County EmergencyMedical Service paramedicwho lost his life on his wayhome from work.

Chris Hall was Garrard County EMT

Local man killed in wreckChris Hall, 34, of Houston

Point, Mt. Vernon, was killedin an automobile accident earlySaturday morning when his ve-hicle went off the right side ofKY 39 about two miles northof Crab Orchard. Hall appar-ently over corrected and the car

went over the centerline. Hecame back to the right side anddropped over an embankment,hitting two trees.

Hall died from blunt forcetrauma to his head, torso andextremities. His body had tobe extricated from the vehicle.The accident occurred about8:30 a.m.

Approximately two and ahalf hours earlier, Hall madehis last emergency run for theGarrard EMS, according to su-pervisor Colby Arnold. Hisshift ended at 7 a.m. He wasstill in uniform when the acci-dent occurred.

Hall, who has worked at theambulance service for one anda half years, will be afforded a

WRVFD Celebrationis this Saturday

Western Rockcastle Volun-teer Fire Department will holdtheir annual Independence Daycelebration on Saturday, June28th, beginning at 6 p.m.

There will be bluegrass and

(Cont. to A16)

(Cont. to A16)

(Cont. to A16)

(Cont. to A16)(Cont. to A16)