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(Whitesburg) Mountain Eagle - 2.26.26 · Eastern Kentucky Newspapers

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Speaker 1: Now we turn to the Mountain Eagle to read news
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from Whitesburg. Your reader today is Bill van Arsdale. We
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will begin with the addition dated February twenty five, twenty
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twenty six, which the publishers have donated to RADIOI as
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a reminder. RADIOI as a reading service intended for people
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who are blind or have other disabilities that make it
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difficult to read printed material. The first story is massive
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window replacement underway at Caudle Library. The Harry M. Caudle
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Library in Whitesburg is receiving its first major exterior upgrade
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since the building was constructed more than five decades ago.
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The Electra County Public Libraries has hired Lewis Brothers Construction
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to replace the massive front windows of the building, which
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were installed in nineteen seventy four on Hobb's five and
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ten cent store, rebuilt on the site after a previous
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structure burned. The original windows were single pane glass with
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virtually no insulation value. The new windows are double pain
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low immissivity low E glass units designed to improve energy efficiency.
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The glass includes a thin, invisible metallic coating that helps
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block ultra violet light, reducing sun damage to books. Carpet
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and furniture while reflecting infrared heat away during summer and
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back into the building during winter. The upgrade is expected
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to significantly reduce heating and cooling costs in the two
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climate controlled floors of the building. The basement level is
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not conditioned. Originally bid at about on one hundred sixty
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thousand dollars, the final cost is expected to be closer
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to one hundred fifty five thousand dollars, according to Brian
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Lewis of Lewis Brothers Construction. The reduction came after required
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asbestos testing of the calk returned negative results. The total
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includes replacement of all front facing windows and doors. Replacing
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the windows is no small task. Each of the four
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main window units originally held three panes of glass approximately
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one quarter inch thick. The lower sections of each unit
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included two panes measuring about ten feet tall by three
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and a half feet wide. Above them, a fan light
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style section spans the seven foot width and adds another
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three and a half feet in height including frames, Each
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unit stands about fourteen feet tall. From the time we start,
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it takes about three hours to demo one of those
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units and get ready to put the new one in.
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Lois said. Demolition involves removing the glass, calk and entire
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frame before installing HUE three hundred pound frames. The replacement
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glass is one inch thick insulated low E glass. Because
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of the increased thickness and double pain construction, the new
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window units include a horizontal mullion across the middle, something
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the original windows did not have. The added support improves
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structural integrity and reduces the weight of each pane. Larger
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panes would require thicker glass to meet wind load standards
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and would be substantially heavier. I'm not saying it would
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be impossible to install low E glass and the original size,
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Lewis said, but it would be impractical. Each of those
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panes would weigh about fifteen hundred pounds, even if the
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reduced size. Installation requires careful coordination. Free workers inside the
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building use suction cups while another operates a man lift
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outside to position each pane safely. The lift has a
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capacity of five hundred pounds, so you can't put two
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men in the basket and pick up the glass. Lewis said.
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Weather has also posed challenges. Work was canceled one day
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last week due to high winds, which can make handling
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large panes unsafe. In addition to the four fourteen foot windows,
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crews will replace a shorter, wider unit above the front entry,
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as well as lower level windows, front doors, and sidelights.
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The building's history stretches back decades. The original George Hogg building,
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which housed RH Hobbs when it first opened, burned in
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nineteen forty nine. Hobbs rebuilt, but that structure also burned
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in nineteen seventy one. The current building was constructed in
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nineteen seventy two with fire resistant material. The only significant
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exterior changes since then were made in nineteen ninety four
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when the library moved in, including the addition of a
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semicircular awning and modifications to the entry glass. Although new
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libraries have been built in Jenkins, Fleming, Neon and Blackie,
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the Harry M. Cabell Library has never undergone extensive renovation,
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aside from interior partitioning and the addition of a circulation
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desk before the library relocated there. The window project represents
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the largest exterior improvement since the lower level was remodeled
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in nineteen ninety nine for Image Entry, a data processing
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company that later moved to Jenkins and has since closed.
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Lewis Brothers Construction also completed minor brick repairs and installed
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metal flashing over a large arch on the front of
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the building several years ago. The next story is judge
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denies key motions ahead of trial in federal case, with
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trials set to begin March third. A surge of motions
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and court orders has reshaped the civil rights lawsuit against
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former lecturer, District court bailoff Ben Fields, and the Leccher
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County Sheriff's office. Since early February, the court docket reflects
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twenty two motions and thirteen orders, underscoring intense pre trial
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maneuvering as the case heads toward a jury. In a
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series of rulings this month, U S District Judge Robert E.
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Weir denied several key motions filed by the plaintiff Sabrina acts,
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as well as some requests by the defense. In one
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order were cautioned both sides that repeated consideration requests were
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testing the court's patience. The court's patients with reconsideration requests
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is near its end, Weir wrote in denying a motion
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to reconsider an earlier ruling. Among the more significant rulings,
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were denied Atkinson's request for a rent of habeas corpus
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that would have required the state to transport former Electra
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County Sheriff Mickey Steins from the Leslie County Detention Center
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to testify in London. He later denied a motion to
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reconsider that ruling. The judge also denied Atkinson's motion seeking
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to prevent Fields from introducing evidence that she consented to
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have sex with him. A subsequent motion to reconsider that
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ruling was also denied. The court has likewise ruled on
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several defense motions, denying some efforts to limit witnesses while
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granting others. Weir approved the defense request to exclude testimony
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from Whitesburg attorney DANGL Dotson, but denied a motion to
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exclude testimony from an expert witness. Atkinson's attorney plans to
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call additional motions remained pending, including proposed jury instructions and
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war deer questions. The lawsuit was filed January thirty first,
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twenty twenty two. It originally named Fields, then Sheriff Steins,
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and East Kentucky Correctional Services Incorporated EKCS of South Shore
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as defendants. Fields worked as a deputy sheriff and court
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security officer. He also performed part time work for EKCS,
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placing electronic monitoring bracelets on individuals released on bond and
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collecting payments. Atkins alleges that Fields coerced her into having
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sex in exchange for keeping her monitoring bracelet deactivated so
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she would not have to pay associated fees. She further
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alleged e KCS failed to properly train and supervise him.
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EKCS is no longer in business and has reached an
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undisclosed settlement with Atkins. Steins was dismissed from the lawsuit
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because the claim was filed against the Sheriff's office rather
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than him personally. Sheriff Billy Jones, who was appointed after
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Steins was later charged with murder in an unrelated case,
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was added to the suit in his official capacity. Fields
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pleaded guilty in Lector Circuit court to third degree rape,
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reflecting that he held a position of authority over Atkins.
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He admitted to having sex with her in the district
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Judge's office after hours and in his police vehicle. In
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the civil case, however, Fuels disputes liability and contends the
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encounters were consensual. He seeks to introduce text messages. He
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says show Atkins sent him a photo of herself wearing
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a bra and made sexually suggestive statements. Barring further delay,
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the trial is scheduled to begin at eight thirty am
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Tuesday in US District Court in London. And In the
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next story, old post Office finds new life. Callen Community
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Center is expanding its footprint in Whitesburg with the acceptance
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of the historic Whitesburg Post Office building as a gift.
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Brooke Smith, a Louible businessman and philanthropist who purchased the
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eighty nine year old building about eight years ago, sent
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donating it to Callen Community Center. Made sense. I didn't
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have a plan for it when I bought it, Smith said,
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I knew it would figure itself out, and it did.
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Smith spent much of his early adult life working on
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projects for coal companies before becoming a successful businessman in Louisville.
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He and his wife, Pamela later founded the Appalachian Impact Fund,
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a social impact investment fund that provides grants to nonprofits
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throughout eastern Kentucky. Smith said he bought the former post
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office building on a whim an initially rented office space
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to small businesses. That arrangement didn't last long. We realized
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the best thing was just to let them have the space,
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he said. Over the years, the building has housed various
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community uses. Smith said nearly every one he meets in
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Whitesburg has a story about the old post office or
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its long time postmaster. The late R. C. Day, a
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Wetlands mitigation group, operated there for several years. More recently,
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Callan Community Center has used the building for the past
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couple of years. In the aftermath of the twenty twenty
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two flood, the Small Business Administration used the space to
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process loan applications for residents who did not qualify for
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FEMA assistance. It's a neat building, it has good bones,
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Smith said, and it says something about where we came from.
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Built in nineteen thirty seven, the structure was announced and
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completed in less than a year during the height of
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the Great Depression. Local workers were hired through federal New
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Deal programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The building was
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designed by Louis A. Simon, supervising architect of the Public
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Works Branch of the U. S. Treasury. Simon later designed
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President Roosevelt's presidential Library and museum. Valerie Iisen of Cowan
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Community Center praised Smith's generosity and said the building will
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continue to serve the public, though plans for its long
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term use are still developing. It will continue to serve
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as a base for the Farmer's Market and for activities.
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Eisen said, we invite the community to share their ideas.
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The gift further expands Cowan Community Center's growing presents in Witsburg.
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In recent years, the non profit has secured state and
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federal grants, hosted the Levitt A m p concert series,
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operated Caine Kitchen in the former Whitesburg High School building,
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and organized a Farmer's market that draws vendors and visitors
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from across the region. The addition of the former post
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office building gives the organization another permanent foothold in the
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downtown area. The center is also preparing to begin construction
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of a pavilion near the Veteran's Museum that will provide
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space for the Farmer's market, restrooms, and a demonstration kitchen.
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The pavilion, designed and manufactured off site, will first be
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assembled on local along with plumbing, electrical and other infrastructure.
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The remainder of the project will be completed under a
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second bid. The pavilion project will be funded through a
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five hundred thousand dollars grant from the abandoned mine Land's
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Economic Revitalization a m l e R program. In the
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next headline. Fifty years later, Scotia remembered on March ninth,
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nineteen seventy six, at eleven thirty a m Blue Diamond
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Coal Companies Scotia mine at oven Fork and Electric County
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blew up that afternoon. Miners from beth Elkhorn and Jenkins
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National Mines in Wayland, International Harvester in Benham, u S
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Steel in Lynch, and Westmoreland Coal across Black Mountain and Apalachia,
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Virginia were called away from their shifts and told to
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gather their mine rescue gear. They were being sent to
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oven Fork in the hope of saving wives. At the
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time of the blast, more than one hundred men were
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underground in Scotia's bottom scene. By mid afternoon, rescue teams
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began arriving amid a scene of confusion, with very little
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information about what they would face underground. They had no
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idea whether there was an active fire, what caused the explosion,
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whether anyone had survived or whether the mine had collapsed.
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The best information came from a Scotia miner who had
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been about two thousand feet from the blast and instead
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of retreating out of the mine, went forward to see
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if he could help survivors. That miner, John Hackworth, ran
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into bad air within about four hundred feet of the
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working face and was forced back, but he was able
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to tell authorities what he had seen. He continued working
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throughout the night, bringing materials in to re established ventilation,
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earning the respect and admiration of the rescue team. With
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Federal mind inspectors managing the crisis, rescue teams went underground
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and began restoring ventilation so fresh air could be brought
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to a point from which they could explore for bodies.
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With fifteen men known to be missing in several hours
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having passed since the explosion, they expected the worst the
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first explosion. The first team sent in to explore was
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from International Harvester. Next was Westmoreland. At around ten pm,
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the Westmoreland team entered this section where the men had
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been working and found the first body. After reporting the discovery,
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the team was pulled to the surface. Replacing them was
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a team from US Steel, which found twelve more bodies
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before running alow on oxygen. Ray McKinney was a member
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of that team. He had worked at Scotia just two
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months earlier before taking a job with US Steel. Now
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he was locating the bodies of men he had once
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worked beside. He knew every victim. Of the twelve men
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found by McKinney and the US Steel team, six had
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survived the initial blast and attempted to walk out, likely
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overcome by the same bad air that had forced Hackworth back.
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They retreated into their workspace and erected a loose barricade,
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hoping to hold out until rescuers with oxygen could reach them.
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They could not. About eight hundred feet farther in were
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the last two bodies near an old locomotive equipped with
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an air compressor to operate the brakes, a system that
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threw a visible spark when it kicked on. At the time,
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no one understood the significance of that detail. Members of
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the beth Elkhorn Mine twenty nine team were sent forward
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to retrieve them. The two men, Scotia miners Roy mc
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knight and Lawrence Peavey, had been working with the locomotive
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that morning. They died milliseconds before the other thirteen. Both
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were large men, and Leonard Fleming of the Beth Elkhorn
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team later recalled how difficult it was to carry them
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more than eight hundred feet back to the fresh air base. Exhausted,
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the team from National Mines joined Beth Elcorn to help
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retrieve the final victim a second blast nearly sixty hours later.
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Most rescuers were home in bed when word came of
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a second explosion at the Scotia mine. Leonard Fleming, who
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passed away in October twenty twenty five, would later remember
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that responding to the first explosion was like going to
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their first ballgame or something, with everyone anxious to do
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their part. Let's go, let's go, let's get in there.
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There might be somebody alive. Fleming said, we're losing time
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and it's count. But he added when that second explosion hit,
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there wasn't anybody wanting to go in. The ones that
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went into that mind didn't want to go in. There
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wasn't anybody saying much of anything. Rescuer Jim Vissini agreed,
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I wasn't nearly as scared the first time as I
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was the second McKinney told a similar story as he wrote,
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A man trip into the mouth of the mine for
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the second time. John Dixon, sitting beside him, asked, do
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you think they know what they're doing here? McKinney responded,
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I don't know how you blow a mine up twice
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in a week. It takes a little bit to blow
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a mine up once. When federal authorities arrived on the
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scene March ninth, the Mine Enforcement and Safety Administration MESA
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took control. When the mine exploded again on March eleventh,
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it became Mace's crisis. Down the borehole. Rescue teams again assembled,
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and the men from International Harvester and US Steel were
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sent into the drift mouth to explore. The mine extended
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three and a half miles underground, and it quickly became
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clear that rebuilding ventilation through the drift mouth would take weeks.
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Another entry point was needed. The previous year, Scotia had
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drilled a thirteen and a half foot concrete lined borehole
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three hundred seventy four feet deep at one of its
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furthest points intended initially for an elevator. By March nineteen
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seventy six, it was simply a hollow ventilation shaft. Westmoreland
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teams were transported by bus to Aeolia, where an aging
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crane lowered men three at a time in a four
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foot square steel basket. The crane was missing a tooth
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in its gearing, causing the basket to drop suddenly about
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every fifteen feet, enough to terrify the men inside. Remembered
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Westmoreland's Gerald Tait and j. R. Kimberlin. At the bottom,
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more than twenty men were assembled, all of whom would
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have to be raised out three at a time if
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something went wrong. Moving toward the second blast site, teams
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leap frogged two thousand, six hundred feet in sequences of
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five hundred feet. As they approached the area where bodies
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were expected, they advanced together. They first saw three Federal men.
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You could see those coveralls. They had reflective material on them.
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Matt Smith of Westmoreland had befriended John Hackworth after the
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first explosion and did not know Hackworth had volunteered to
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return underground. He was right there, lying in a supply car.
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Smith recalled, it had to bend over pretty low with
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that apparatus on to get by, But as you're passing
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him you're looking right down and he's lying on his back.
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Your face is within about a foot of his. And
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to be twenty three years old and really never been
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around death that much, it's a sight you'll never forget.
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After mapping the bodies, the teams hurried back to the borehole.
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We picked them up and laid them down to get
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out of there, Smith said. Back at the borehole, they
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began the slow ascent. In the final basket were three
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Westmoreland men and Bill Clemens, the federal inspector in charge
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during both crises. Initially anxious about the thin steel cable
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separating them from life and death, the men soon realized
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Clemens was crying. He cried like a baby all the
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way up. One rescuer remembered sealing the mine. Two days later,
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Mesa decided to seal the mine and the bodies within it.
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The decision was agonizing for families who wanted proper burials
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for their loved ones. The mine remained sealed until mid
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November two hundred forty three, days before it was reopened
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and the bodies recovered. When investigators returned, they found the
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victims exactly where Gerald Tate and Lloyd Robinette had mapped
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them with b P three eleven seventy six written in
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chalk overhead on a roof bolt plate, the date recorded
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by Westmoreland Captain Bill Person. The mine had not exploded again.
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Persons footprint beneath the plate remained undisturbed. In total, twenty
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six men died in the two explosions, leaving behind twenty
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five widows. The family place filed suit against Blue Diamond
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Coal and Scotia Settlements provided lump sum payments for widows
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and annuities for children. For the families of the three
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federal inspectors who died March eleventh, compensation was limited to
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life insurance policies ranging from nineteen thousand dollars to thirty
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three thousand dollars. Lasting change. The deaths of the twenty
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three Scotia miners and the three federal inspectors led to
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the Mine Act of nineteen seventy seven, which fundamentally reshaped
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Federal Mind Safety Enforcement MESA was reorganized into what is
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now the Mine Safety and Health Administration MSHA. In the
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five years between the Hurricane Creek disaster and Leslie County
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in nineteen seventy and Scotia in nineteen seventy six, one
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hundred two miners died in Kentucky after the Mine Act
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became law. It took until nineteen eighty four to reach
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that number, and from nineteen eighty five until two thousand
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and six to reach it again. Coal Mining remains dangerous work,
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but it is significantly safer because of what happened between
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March ninth and March twelfth, nineteen seventy six in oven Fourth.
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This article was written by Brian D mc knight, a
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professor of history at the University of Virginia's College at
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Wise and founding director of the school's Center for Appalachian Studies.
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Scotia Mine Disaster's fiftieth anniversary to be remembered at events
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On Monday, March ninth. Historian Brian D mc knight will
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lead a public moment of reflection at the Scotia Mine
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Portal site at eleven thirty a m followed by a
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program at the Kentucky Coal Museum in Benham. The next
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story is EXCFO files lawsuit against mental health agency. The
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former chief financial officer of a Prestonsburg based mental health
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agency with offices in Lectric County has filed a whistleblower
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lawsuit alleging she was forced to resign after refusing to
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participate in what she describes as Medicaid and Medicare fraud.
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Rebecca Hall of Prestonsburg, who says she worked for Mountain
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Comprehensive Care Center Incorporated MCCC for twenty six years, has
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sued MCCC and its subsidiary, Mountain Plus Services, Incorporated, in
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Floyd's Circuit Court. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages
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for alleged harm to her physical and mental health, lost
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wages and retirement benefits, and attorney fees. MCCC is not
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affiliated with Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation, which is based in
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Electric County. In her complaint, Hall alleges that MCCC and
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its chief executive Officer, Promad Bishnoid, directed administrative staff to
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submit Medicaid claims through the organization's Federally Qualified Health Center
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FQHC for services that were performed at other locations. Fqhc's
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received higher reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid than other
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types of clinics. Hall further alleges that Bishnoit directed her
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to refrain from responding to Medicaid and Medicare requests for
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clarification of certain charges, instructed her to submit some claims
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as if services were provided by licensed providers when they
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were not, prevented the billing department from establishing updated billing
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codes after COVID nineteen policy changes to reflect audio only
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physician visits, and directed the company's audit department to change
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billing locations despite being advised that doing so would violate
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state law. This concludes the reading of The Mountain Eagle.
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Your reader has been billed and arsenale. Now please stay
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tuned for continued programming on behalf of everyone here at
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Radio I. Thank you for listening, and have a good day.