Latest / Eastern Kentucky Newspapers / Ashland Daily Independent - 3.18.26

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Ashland Daily Independent - 3.18.26 · Eastern Kentucky Newspapers

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Speaker 1: We now turn to the Ashland Independent to bring you
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news from in and around Ashland and Boyd County. Your
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reader today is Jane. We begin with the addition dated
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March seventeenth, twenty twenty six. As a reminder, radioized a
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Our first article discover bodied idd in Greenop County. The
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Greenop County Coroner's Office announce a deceased body was discovered
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on Sunday morning. According to Coroner Neil Wright, the body
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has been identified as Keiley Schuler, a thirty two year
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old woman who had wrecked a vehicle into the Ohio
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River on February tenth in Palmroy, Ohio. A news release
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indicated her four year old daughter was in the car
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with her. Local firefighters rescued the four year old at
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the time, but Schuller's body was not found until a
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little more than a month later. A worker doing a
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routine safety walk discovered Shuller's body near eight of four
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Corps Street in Lloyd. The coroner said the body was
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located on the down river side of Roller nine, making
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the recovery extremely dangerous and very difficult. The coroner's office
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set a rescue boat and crew from the South Shore
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Fire Department executed the recovery mission. Relatives and members of
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the Megs County, Ohio Sheriff's Department made the positive identification.
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The Greenop County Coroner's Office released Schuller's body into the
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custody of the Megs County Sheriff's Office in order to
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continue its initial investigation. I am very proud of the
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combined effort of all the agencies working together, Coroner Neil
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Wright said. The green Of County Sheriff's Office, Kentucky State Police,
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Lloyd Fire Department, SouthShore Fire Department, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife,
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Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Sayouda County Coroner's Office, Meg's
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County Sheriff's Office, Greenop County Emergency Management, Greenop County E
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nine to one one Dispatch, and Boyd County Corner Transport
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assisted our next article, childborn suspects set to serve substantial
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time by Aaron Snyder of The Daily Independent. The attorney
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representing a former pastor facing child pornography charges said both
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the defense and prosecution have reached a verbal resolution. Stephen Garden,
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forty six of Flatwood's, was in Greenop County Circuit Court
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alongside attorney Joe Merkell Thursday. Merkele requested a bond change
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from twenty five thousand dollars to seventeen thousand dollars, which
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Judge Brian McLeod denied. Merkle said a family member of
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Gardens would manage to handle seventeen thousand dollars, which would
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allow Garton the opportunity to get affairs in order before
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serving substantial time. Merkle said Garton showed no signs of
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someone wanting to run, but Cloud said because of the
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charges two counts of possession of matter portraying a sexual
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performance by a miner between twelve and eighteen and two
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counts of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by
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a miner under twelve, the court would not alter the bond.
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According to Kentucky State Police, Garton admitted to KSP to
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downloading and possessing child sexual abuse materials on his personal
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computer and iPad. Garton was listed as the senior pastor
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at Freedom Tabernacle, a non denominational church in south Shore.
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Garden has been in the Greenhow County Detention Center since
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mid January. In other news, Kentucky Power announces lane closures
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traffic changes. Kentucky Power crews begin utility work along Twelfth
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Street in Ashland starting Monday, March sixteenth, requiring temporary lane
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closures and traffic adjustments during daytime work hours. The project
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is expected to take approximately four weeks to complete, weather permitting.
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Work will take place between nine am and three thirty
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pm each day along portions of the twelfth Street. A
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flagging crew will be on site beginning at seven am
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to set up traffic control signage and prepare the work
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zone before the lane closure begins. During construction hours, the
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left lane of twelfth s Street will be closed while
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crews perform work on multiple utility polls along the corridor.
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Kentucky Power has notified the City of Ashland about the
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planned work. Access to businesses will remain available with the
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following temporary adjustments to ensure the safety of the workers
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and the public. The Bob Evans location on twelfth Street
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will have its Twelfth Street entrance temporarily closed, but customers
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will still be able to access the restaurant from thirteenth Street.
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The Starbucks on twelfth Street will remain accessible from its
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Twelfth Street entrants, which will remain open during construction. The
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alley between Starbucks and Desco Federal Credit Union will be
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temporarily closed while crews work on a pole located at
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the entrance. The twelfth Street entrance to Desco Federal Credit
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Union will be temporarily closed while crews work on two
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nearby poles. Customers and continue to access the credit Union
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from Carter Avenue. Crews will be working on multiple poles
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along two blocks of twelfth Street, including the intersection areas
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near Carter Avenue and Mayo Plaza. Additional temporary traffic changes
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include an aero board may temporarily block the Desco entrance
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on Twelfth Street while crews work on the pole at
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Carter Avenue and Twelfth Street. Access will reopen once that
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work is complete. Two parking spaces on Carter Avenue near
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the work area will be coned off. Some parking spaces
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of Bob Evans will be temporarily restricted to create a
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safe work zone. Mayo Plaza between thirteenth Street and twelfth
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Street will be closed during active work hours when crews
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begin work on poles at the corners of Mayo Plaza
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and Twelfth Street. Mayo Plaza will be closed in both
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directions for safety to equipment operating near the roadway. Work
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is also planned on a poll at Central Avenue and
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Twelfth Street. Crews expect to complete this work from the
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adjacent grass area, but if equipment must enter the roadway,
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additional traffic control measures and signage may be required. Later
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phases of the project will include wire pulling operations. Kentucky
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Power will coordinate traffic control plans in advance of network,
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which may occur on a Friday or Saturday. To ensure
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adequate traffic control staffing. Motorists are encouraged to slow down
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and use caution wind traveling through work zones, follow posted
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signage and flagger instructions to and allow extra travel time
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in the area during work hours. If traffic signals are
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impacted during construction, the City of Ashlal will deploy temporary
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stop signs at affected intersections. Police officers may i also
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assist with traffic control during periods of heavy traffic moving
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On Spring Foray Saturday, Olive Hill Spring Foray at Cartercave
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State Resort Park will have Spring Foray on Saturday. Events
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include one thirty pm guided for a hike on Horn
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Hollow Trail, four pm foraging with Josh Yates at the Amphitheater.
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Seven thirty pm UV hike on Natural Bridge Trail. The
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park is at three forty four Caveland Drive. For more information,
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call area code six oh six two eight six seven
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zero zero nine. Boyd Schools Concert slated. Boyd County Public
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Schools will present a Music in Our School's Month concert
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at seven pm March twenty sixth in the Boyd County
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High School Gym. Sign Up for yoga Open Greenup Yoga
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at the Library will be at five point fifteen pm
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March twenty seventh at the main Library branch of the
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Greenop County Public Library. To sign up, visit greenup lib
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dot org, slash register or call area codes six oh
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six four seven three sixty five one four. Eastern Cantata
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to be offered. Williams Greek Community Church will present His
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Name Is Jesus at seven pm March twenty eighth and
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eleven am March twenty ninth. The church is at one
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oh four twenty two Kentucky five. Brandon de Priest is
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Pastor West elected to Honor Society Jacob West of Ashland
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was recently elected to membership into the honor Society of
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Phi Kapa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective all
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discipline collegiate honor society at Purdue University. West is among
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about twenty thousand students, faculty, professional staff, and alumni to
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be initiated into Phi Capi Phi each year. Membership is
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by invitation only and requires nomination and approval by a chapter.
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Only the top ten percent of seniors and seven point
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five percent of juniors are eligible for membership. Graduate students
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in the top ten percent of the number of candidates
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for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff,
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and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction. Phi Capi Phi
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was founded in eighteen ninety seven under the leadership of
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undergraduate student Marcus l Iran, who had a desire to
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create a different kind of honor society, one that recognize
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excellence in all academic disciplines. Obituaries for this week Karen
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Rose Alli eighty six of Ashland, James O'Hara Schlitt seventy
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two of Ashland, Georgia L. Brislin sixty six of Ashland.
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Orville Arbe Smith eighty six of Ashland, David C. Fogel
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sixty eight of Morehead, Lillian K. Fryar sixty eight of Catlitzburg.
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In your view concerns about data centers, I want to
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talk to my neighbors about something important, A proposed data
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center that may or may not be coming to Boyd County,
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and why we need to ask hard questions before anything
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is approved. I have spent considerable time researching data centers
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actually do to the communities that host them. What I
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found concerns me deeply, particularly for accounting hour size. Data
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centers are the massive facilities that run our internet, are
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streaming and increasingly artificial intelligence. They consume enormous amounts of
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electricity and water Nationally. They use four to five percent
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of all US electricity today, headed toward ten to twelve
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percent by twenty thirty. When utilities have to build new
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power lines and infrastructure to support them. Those costs gits
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spread across all ratepayers. You and me. In Virginia, waere
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data centers have exploded. Dominion Energy's own numbers project average
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household electric bills could double by twenty forty five. A
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Carnegie Mellon study projects eight percent higher electricity bills nationally
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by two, with much steeper increases in heavily concentrated local markets.
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Boyd County has about forty eight thousand people twenty twenty
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four consensus. A lot of our neighbors are already making
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hard choices about paying utility bills. We don't have the
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population to absorb what larger communities are already struggling with.
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Water is another serious concern. A single large data center
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can use up to five million gallons of water per day.
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That is not a typo, and those promised jobs once
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construction wraps up. These facilities typically run on a skeleton crew,
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often contracted workers with no long term security. I am
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asking our county leaders to require the following before any
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approval moves forward. Complete public transparency with no secret NDA agreements.
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A requirement that the developer, not residents, pays for all
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new infrastructure, an independent study on what this means for
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our electric bills, binding water protections, and a real community
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benefit agreement with teeth Oldham County, Kentucky said no to
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a data center when residents got organized and got loud.
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We can do the same if we need to. This
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is not about being against progress. It is about making
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sure progress does not come at the expense of the
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people who already live here and are already stretched thin.
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Ask your magistrates and judge executive what they know, and
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demand they tell you. Written by Stephanie Dunaway of Ashland.
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Our next article, Boyd County passes resolution on HB five
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five seven Aaron Snyder of The Daily Independent, the Boyd
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County Fiscal Court approved a resolution urging the Kentucky General
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Assembly to pass a bill that could save the county
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as much as six million dollars a year. According to
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Judge Executive Eric Cheney, under current state law, counties received
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no reimbursement for housing state inmates in their jails. Any
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inmate convicted of a felony is considered state, yet county
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jails often lodged these inmates for months or years prior
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to sentencing with no reimbursement from the state House. Bill
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five five seven, if passed, would require the state to
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reimburse counties for those costs. Commissioner Jeremy Holbrook said, Boyd
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is one of about thirty counties who have made a
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resolution on this bill. We're showing some solidarity, which is good.
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Holbrook said. Cheney said Reps Aaron Thompson from Greenup Scott Sharp,
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Ashland and Patrick Flannery Olive Hill are co sponsors for
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the bill. Suzanne Griffith said during community comment that she
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spoke with Thompson a few months back about the bill.
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She also called the legislative line at one eight hundred three,
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seven to two, seven to one eight one multiple times
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for voicing her support. She said, if you call the line,
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you can choose an option to go to all legislators.
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We really need people to get behind this. Griffith said,
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the more calls, the better. Cheney, this is a major expenditure,
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ranging between five to six million dollars a year. This
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money needs to be in the general Fund to invest
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in roads, parks, economic development projects, code and enforcement, whatever
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it may be. Cheney said, essentially, this is one of
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the many ways the state sticks it to the counties.
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He added, I'm developing a whole list of things the
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state needs to change. Cheney said the bill would also
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create opportunities to potentially cut taxes. Other notable items from
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Tuesday's meeting, The Fiscal Court adjourned its meeting in memory
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of the late Chris Stewart. Former Boyd County Coroner Commissioner
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David Salisbury said Stewart is responsible for bringing the office
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into what it is in modern day. It used to
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be run in a funeral home. Salisbury said, Chris thought
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it deserved to be a medical position. He ran on
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that policy and won. Stewart was a Boyd County EMS paramedic.
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Our prayers go out to his wife and children. Salisbury said,
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Chris was a community guy. He was a true steward
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for our community. We lost a dear guy. The Judge,
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Executive and Commissioners approved on second reading and ordinance to
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terminate the Kyova Tiff Act. In a tiff district, you
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figure up the percentage of property tax portion and operational
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tax portion that the owner of the facility camp Landing
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would receive. Cheney said that could not be spent on
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payroll or go into anybody's pocket. It had to be
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spent on the district itself and to enhancing it. This
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amends that and terminates it to where all that tax
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money will go back into the fiscal Court's coffers. Our
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next article, longtime Lutheran pastor retires by Lee Ward of
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The Daily Independent after more than thirty years. Leading Saint
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Paul Lutheran Church pastor Mark Kloa has announced his retirement. Kloa,
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who was installed on October twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine,
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moved from Illinois to Ashland with his wife Nancy and
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their daughters, Rachel and Rebecca. At the time, Nancy was
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pregnant with their daughter Ruth. One of the first issues
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he dealt with as pastor was women gaining the right
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to vote on church business and being allowed to hold
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certain offices. The church saw its one hundred and twenty
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fifth anniversary in nineteen ninety one and started the Lutherans
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for Life, which included the establishment of a clothes closet
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for babies from newborn to two tea to help mothers
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and expectant mothers clothe their babies. Cloa also is known
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for his radio program titled When You Need a Friend.
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Sharon McDonald, eighty two of Ashland, said she was three
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when her parents moved to Ashland from Wisconsin. Kloa has
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been a part large part of the member's lives for
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a long time, so he's like family. McDonald, who was
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a deacon and president of the church's Ladies group, said
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Jeremy Polland, a member since two thousand and nine, serves
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as a chairman of the congregation. Kloa has played an
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instrumental role in bringing me to faith and keeping me
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in the faith. Relying on Christ, Poland said, noting Kloa
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had been a true leader in faith during his tenure.
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The work we've been able to do, he's always pointing
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us to the Cross, Poland continued, bringing peace. No matter
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how our day ends, there's a piece knowing this isn't
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the end, and we're trying to be better the next day.
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Kloa's last day at Saint Paul was Sunday, March eighth,
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moving on paramount to show The Wizard of Oz restart
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film series The Part Theater Ashland will show The Wizard
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of Oz at six pm March twenty fourth. Doors will
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open at five point thirty pm. Admission is free, but
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donations to the Boyd County Animal Shelter will be accepted
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in lieu of a ticket. Instead of purchasing admission. Attendees
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are encouraged to bring a donation item for the shelter.
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Current needs include dawn dishwashing liquid, bleach ninety nine point
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nine percent disinfecting versions, paper towels, and milk mowed dog treats.
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Donations such as pet food, treats, toys, and other animal
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care supplies are also greatly appreciated and will help support
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the animals in the shelter's care. We wanted to create
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an opportunity for the community to come together, enjoy a
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classic film and support a great local Calls. Director Matt
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Hammond said, we chose The Wizard of Oz because it
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was the first film ever shown at the theater. It's
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a timeless family classic that also features one of the
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most famous dogs in movie history, Toto. The showing will
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mark the beginning of a new family movie series at
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the Paramount. That theater plans to continue hosting family friendly
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film events that give the community an opportunity to experience
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the historic venue together. Hammond said that theater is at
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thirteen hundred Winchester Avenue. For more information, call area codes
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six oh six three two four zero zero zero seven
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or visit Paramount Ashland dot com. Our next article, Ohio
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man pleads guilty to unlawful transaction by Aaron Snyder of
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The Daily Independent. E Franklin Furness Man pleaded guilty to
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an unlawful transaction with a minor Thursday in Greenop County
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Circuit Court, Thomas Manring, thirty one, will have five years
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of probation and is to have no contact with the victim.
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Judge Brian McLeod, as is customary when a case results
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in a guilty plea by the defendant, gave Manring an
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opportunity to describe in his own words what occurred. In
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November twenty twenty five. Manring said he was smoking marijuana
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at a local gas station when police rolled up on
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me and I had a juvenile with me and the
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juvenile was under the influence. Did you supply the juvenile
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with marijuana? McLeod asked yes. Manring acknowledged that was a
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long way to get to that. Huh, McLeod said. Moving on,
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ACTC Lecture series connects students to opportunity. Ashland Commute Unity
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and Technical College recently hosted its Spring lecture series on Thursday,
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February twenty sixth. The lecture series is associated with a
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Transfer program fare that is offered at ACTC each semester,
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which helps students explore academic pathways after graduating from ACTC.
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Students are provided with a unique opportunity to get direct
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advice on how to make their goals of reality, meet
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new friends, and engage in dialogue. Our students enjoy gathering
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and learning, and remote access provides a way for our
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remote students to engage as well. So all in all,
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it was a success, said Megan Horn, ACTC Director Student
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Support Services, TRIO and Transfer Initiatives. This Springs presenters were
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Coy Hall, Janet Thompson, and Kevin Parrott. Hall is a
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professor of history at ACTC, and Thompson is ACTC's Medical
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Information Technology Program Coordinator and Phi Theta Kappa Advisor. Parrott
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is the KCTCS Chair of Global Studies and International Partnerships,
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as well as the Phi Theta Kappa Advisors at Elizabethtown
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Community and Technical College. The Becoming Explorer Transfer Program Fair
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is scheduled for March twenty third through the twenty sixth,
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bringing colleges and universities to ACTC's campus for transfer admissions,
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recruitment and to share program specific information with ACTC students.
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In other news, Ashland approves contract for trash. By Aaron
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Snyder of The Daily Independent, the landfill price per Ton
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in Ashland is increasing by way one dollar and fifty
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cents from last year. Ashland City Commission approved on first
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reading a contract between the city and Rumkey for a
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suitable landfill location for the receipt and disposal of compacted
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garbage collected by the city for a year. During the
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consent agenda portion of Thursday's commission meeting, public Works Director
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Sean Murray explained the bid process. He said Boyd County
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Sanitary Landfills. Rumkies bid was higher per ton than other companies,
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but when you consider all factors, it comes out lower
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for total bid. The contract is not to exceed twenty
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three dollars and seventy four cents per ton for the
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Department of Public Services Sanitation Division. Last year's price per
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ton was twenty two dollars and twenty four cents. The
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total bid amount is two hundred and eighty four thousand,
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eight hundred and eighty dollars, compared to two hundred and
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sixty six one thousand, eight hundred dollars last year. The
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city takes an estimated twelve thousand tons annually to the landfill,
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according to the Fiscal Note on Thursday's meeting agenda. This
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concludes excerpts from recent editions of the Ashland Daily Independent.
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Your reader has been Jane On behalf of everyone here
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at radio. I thank you for listening, keep on listening
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and have a good day.