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Whitesburg Mountain Eagle - 7.2.26 · Eastern Kentucky Newspapers

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Speaker 1: Now we turn to the Mountain Eagle to read news
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from Whitsburg. Your reader to day is Bill ven Arsdale.
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We will begin with the addition dated July first, twenty
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twenty six, which the publishers have donated to Radio Eye
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as a reminder. Radio Eye is a reading service intended
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for people who are blind or have other disabilities that
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make it difficult to read printed material. The first item
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is a photograph of a fox and the caption is
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shy fox caught on camera. Gray foxes are common in
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our area, but spotting one during daylight hours is very
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rare because of their shyness and their hunting food at night.
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Not only did this gray fox show itself during the day,
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it also paused long enough and the yard of juan
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Itita Caudle of Little Cawan to allow her time to
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snap this photo.
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Speaker 2: And the next headline is county.
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Speaker 1: These citizens are urged to take this heat wave seriously.
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Officials are warning residents to take precautions as dangerous heat
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and humidity continue across Kentucky through at least Friday. The
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National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat warning for
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the entire state through eight pm eastern daylight time Friday.
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Prompting local governments to open cooling centers. In Letter County,
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the Recreation Center in Whitesburg has been opened as a
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cooling station. Additional cooling shelters could be opened if conditions warrant.
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Forecasters are calling for daytime highs in the mid nineties,
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with humidity pushing the heat index above one hundred five
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degrees across eastern Kentucky and as high as one hundred
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fifteen degrees in western parts of the state. Knife time
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temperatures are expected to remain above seventy degrees, providing little
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relief from the prolonged heat. The Letcher County Recreation Center
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is open during regular business hours for anyone needing a
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place to cool off.
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Speaker 2: The center is open from.
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Speaker 1: Six am to nine pm Monday through Saturday, and from
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one pm to seven pm on Sunday. Lescher County Emergency
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Management has also issued heat safety guidance on its Facebook page,
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urging residents to stay hydrated by drinking water throughout the day.
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Don't wait until you feel thirsty, stay cool by spending
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time in air conditioned buildings using fans, and limiting time
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outdoors where lightweight, light colored clothing along with a hat
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and sunglasses. Avoid strenuous outdoor activity during the hottest part
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of the day, generally between ten am and six pm.
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Check on elderly neighbors, family members, and friends. Leave children
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or pets unattended in a vehicle. Know the warning signs
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of heat related illness, including headache, dizziness, nausea, a rapid heartbeat,
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heavy sweating, confusion, and fainting. Move to a cooler location immediately,
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and seek medical help. If symptoms worsen. Call nine to
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one one immediately if you or someone else is experiencing
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a medical emergency. The next story is Neon Fire and
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Rescue will base ambulance at Lecture, improving response times. Neon
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Fire and Rescue will station an ambulance at the Lectuer
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Volunteer Fire Department beginning this week in an effort to
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improve emergency response times in the lower end of Letcher County.
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Letcher County Judge Executive Terry Adams announced the plan during
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a special meeting of the Electrofiscal Court on Monday. Adams
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said Neon Fire Chief Carter Bevins has agreed to move
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an ambulance into the fire station while the department pays
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the building's utility costs That will provide ambulance service down
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at the lower end, and people will answer the calls quicker,
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Adams said. To help offset the additional operating costs, Adams
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recommended increasing the county's monthly payment to Neon Fire and
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Rescue by one thousand dollars. Carter has never asked for
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more money, but moving down there could make them become insolvent,
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so it would be my suggestion that we up that
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by one thousand dollars a month, he said. District to
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Magistrate Kenny Anderson, whose district includes part of the area
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formerly served by Letter e MS before that service closed,
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asked whether the county should also consider increasing payments to
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other volunteer fire departments that respond to medical emergencies. Adams
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said he would place that topic on the agenda for
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a special called meeting July tenth. Because Monday's meeting was
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also a special called meeting, Kentucky's Open Meetings Act limited
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discussion to items listed on the published agenda. District for
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Magistrate Chady Smith, whose district includes much of the area
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the Neon service will now cover, made the motion to
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approve the additional funding for Neon Fire and Rescue. The
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motion passed unanimously. Smith noted that utility costs at the
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station are currently modest, but are expected to increase once
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an ambulance crew begins staffing the building around the clock.
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Speaker 2: The next item is the caption of.
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Speaker 1: A photograph getting ready for America's two hundred fiftieth anniversary.
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Chris Adams adjusts one of several American and state flag
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he and his wife, Misty Adams have placed in front
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of their home in the Upper Bottom section of Whitsburg
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in time for Saturday's celebration of the two hundred and
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fiftieth anniversary of Congress officially adopting the Declaration of Independence
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on July fourth, seventeen seventy six. And the next headline
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is Promise Scholars Program launched. Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical
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College SKCTC, in partnership with Partners for Rural Impact PRI,
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has launched the Promise Scholars Program, a summer bridge initiative
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designed to help recent graduates of Electra County Central High
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School successfully transition to college. The Promised Scholars Program provides
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students with an opportunity to begin building the academic, personal
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and career readiness skills needed to succeed in high education
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while becoming familiar with the college environment before the start
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of the fall semester. Through participation in FYE one O
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five SouthEast's First Year Experience Course, students develop strategies for
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academic success while strengthening communication, problem solving, and other durable
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skills that support both educational and career achievement. And in
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the next headline, leftover funds from Biden Bill will pay
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for updates to parks, fire department insurance. Letter County will
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use the last of the COVID nineteen relief money it
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received to repair outdoor playgrounds and assist fire departments with insurance.
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The Letter Fiscal Court voted this week to replace four
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sets of playground equipment that is damaged, outdated, or was
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removed because it was defective. Any money remaining will be
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given to fire departments in the county to pay insurance
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for this year.
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Speaker 2: County Treasurer D. J.
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Speaker 1: Fraser told the court on Monday that it has about
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one hundred ninety six thousand dollars left out of the
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A r p A fund and it must be spent
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by December thirty.
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Speaker 2: First.
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Speaker 1: Arp A is the American Rescue Plan Act signed into
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law by then President Joe Biden in March twenty twenty
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one to keep local governments running and to jumpstart the
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economy after the COVID nineteen pandemic. Judge Executive Terry Adams
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said money has to be used before the first of
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the year or the county will lose it. My suggestion
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is that the Elia Park where the playground equipment is failing,
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the Blackee Park is very sparse in the playground equipment,
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and the Thornton Park that is failing as well. And
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then the Coulson Fire Department. We had a park down
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there and the material or whatever there was defective, so
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we had to pull that out. So I think with
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those four locations that we advertised for new playground equipment
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and not to exceed forty thousand dollars per park. Adam said,
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that's one hundred sixty thousand dollars and then the number
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that's left over that we divide that money with our
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fire departments. He said the county bought two new sets
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of playground equipment for Fish Pond Lake and those cost
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about forty thousand dollars including installation. He said he was
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basing his estimate on those Adam said insurance premiums have
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gone up for the fire departments, and the extra three thousand,
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six hundred dollars each will provide them with some temporary
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relief from this year's increase. The Court voted unanimously to
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approve the use of the money. Also at the meeting,
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money the Court took the following actions. Approved the second
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reading of a budget ordinance that added four million, twenty
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five thousand dollars to the budget for flood repair and mitigation.
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The Court approved the first reading in March, but had
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not yet taken up the second reading required by law,
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made multiple transfers of money between county accounts in preparation
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for the start of the new fiscal year, and approved
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naming the main street of Blackie for Donald Blair US Army.
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The next headline is Jenkins says trash won't be picked
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up July third. Jenkins City officials say Friday's residential garbage
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collection route will be picked up a day early on Thursday,
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July second. Residents whose regular pickup day is Friday are
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asked to have their garbage ready for collection on Thursday.
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City Hall will also be closed Friday, July third. The
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next article is should you go solar?
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Speaker 2: Find out? July seventh.
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Speaker 1: Representatives of Homes Incorporated will be at the Letter County
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Extension Office next Tuesday to help answer a question many
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folks are asking right now? Is solar right for your home?
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As heat and energy bills climb this summer? Homes employees
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will talk about the real costs and savings of solar,
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as well as the installation process. This workshop is geared
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toward home owners and business owners. It is sponsored by
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Watchburg based Appalachian Citizens Law Center, a non profit law
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and policy organization based in Whitesburg, as part of its
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monthly First Tuesday Conversation series. The workshop will be held
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on July seventh at five thirty p m. At the
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Letter County Extension Office. To learn more, call a c
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l C At six O six six three three three
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nine two nine. The next story is Treaty Split Future
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Letter County before America existed, sixteen months before the Declaration
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of Independence was signed and international boundary divided what would
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later become Letcher County. The line was created by the
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Transylvania Purchase, a massive land deal negotiated in March seventeen
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seventy five between North Carolina land speculators and several principal
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chiefs of the Cherokee Nation. The agreement included all land
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between the Kentucky River to the north and the Cumberland
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River and the ridge of the Cumberland Mountain now known
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as Pine Mountain to the south. If someone had stood
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where the old Weisberg High School building once stood, that
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person would have been on land claimed by the Transylvania
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Company in British North America, but standing at the opposite
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end of the Main Street bridge would have placed that
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same person in disputed Indian territory. The boundary followed the
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Kentucky River westward all the way to its confluence with
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the Ohio River at Carrollton. The purchase was negotiated by
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North Carolina lawyer Richard Henderson with the assistance of famed
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frontiersman Daniel Boone, at present day Elizabethson, Tennessee, covering roughly
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twenty million acres, about half of what is now Kentucky.
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The purchase was made in exchange for five wagged loads
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of trade goods valued at about ten thousand British pounds.
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Henderson and his partners hoped to establish Transylvania as Britain's
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fourteenth Colony, but neither the British Crown nor the colonies
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of Virginia and North Carolina recognized the claim. The Treaty
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of Sycamore Shoals, which formalized the purchase, also violated the
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Royal Proclamation of seventeen sixty three, which prohibited private settlement
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west of the Appalachian Mountains. Virginia claimed what is now Kentucky,
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while North Carolina claimed present day Tennessee. To complicate matters further,
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the Shawnee still claimed much of the lands north of
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the Kentucky River, and many Cherokee leaders strongly opposed the sale.
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Among the chiefs who signed the treaty were ata Cula, Coula, Oconostota,
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and Siwanuko. But atakula Cula's son, the renowned war chief
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Dragon Canoe, denounced the agreement, believing white settlers would never
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stop pushing westward. He warned that Kentucky would become a
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dark and bloody land. His prediction proved tragically accurate. Dragon
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Canoe led a faction that broke away to form what
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became known as the chicken AMaGA Cherokee. For years afterward,
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they fought settlers moving into Kentucky and Tennessee. In the end, however,
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events far beyond the frontier overtook the Transylvania Company's ambitions.
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Before British courts could rule on the legality of the purchase,
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the American Revolution began and the Sycamore Shoals Treaty became
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overshadowed by war. In seventeen seventy eight, the Virginia General
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Assembly declared the Transylvania Purchase null and void. North Carolina
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followed suit in seventeen eighty three. By then, settlers had
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already begun pouring into Kentucky. When statehood finally came in
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seventeen ninety two, Kentucky entered the Union as the nation's
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fifteenth state, and the dream of a separate colony called
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Transylvania had faded into history. The next item is the
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continuation of an article named When Television came into Letcher County.
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It describes Rafael Saller and his experiments erecting a tower
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on Cowan Mountain, better known as Town Hill, which stood
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between the School Hill residential area and the community of
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Little Cowan. From that tower, Salier ran a line to
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Forrester Brown's house on College hill that offered what was
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reported to be a good reception both day and night
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of a television station in Huntington, West Virginia. That was
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the beginning of what became Letcher County's officially recognized cable
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television system, one that continued to grow, largely through the
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help of Phil Holston, who joined Salyer Radio within two
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years of his nineteen forty seven graduation from Whitesburg High
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School and would quickly become the company's only cable lineman,
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installer and in home TV repairman. A nineteen fifty four
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Mountain An Eagle column by E. Hampton Barnett described the
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work of Salier and Holston in memorable terms. Ray Saller
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and Phil Holston have done it again, Barnett wrote, calling
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them electric wizards who built a tower above Witchburg and
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brought the wires off the hill and thus pulled TV
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into the valley. Ten years later, Salier and Holston were
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still working to improve and expand the system. The November nineteenth,
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nineteen sixty four edition of the Mountain Eagle reported that
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Salier was publicly opposing a proposal by a group of
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county residents working to raise seven two hundred dollars needed
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to build a TV translator on Pine Mountain that would
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provide a TV signal from wbr TV in Knoxville, Tennessee,
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to antenna equipped homes from the community of Whittaker near
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Neon Junction to the head of sand litt near Weisburg.
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Saal was disappointed that some residents of Whitesburg itself were
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supporting the translator project because they had rather received one
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channel with no guarantee of good reception instead of paying
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the small cable fee the multiple channels his company was providing.
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In a letter to his cable subscribers, Sallier said the
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City of Cumberland has been trying for some time to
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raise about fifty thousand dollars for translator equipment and money
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to service it, and has been unable to do so.
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The Eagle reported. He said that over the past twelve
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years he has not made anything on his cable system,
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but has put profits back into improvement of the system,
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and recently spent thirteen thousand dollars in preparations to extend
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his cable and give five channel service plus FM radio
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and music. Also in nineteen sixty four, Holston was injured
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after falling about sixteen feet from a television tower on
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Cowan Mountain while repairing the cable system. The accident left
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him with a fractured pelvis, an injured elbow, shock, and
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other injuries. He later recovered and continued working in the
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business for many years, most of which he also spent
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as Salier's only TV repairman, in addition to being the
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company's only lineman, before he later had an assistant. By
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nineteen sixty eight, sall Radio Company was identified in the
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trade publication Broadcasting The Business Weekly of Television and Radio
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as owner and operator of a five channel CATV system
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in Whitsburg with two hundred seventeen subscribers. The Federal Communications
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Commission had granted the company a waiver involving program exclusivity
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rules for the signal of w JHLTV in Johnson City, Tennessee.
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The system continued to involve. By nineteen eighty, Sallar Radio
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sold its cable system to Mountain TV Cable of Clintwood, Virginia,
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which then moved the main receiving equipment to Pine Mountain.
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The February twenty sixth, nineteen eighty one edition of The
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Mountain Eagle reported that severe windstorms toppled Mountain Cables new
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tower and antennas above Little Shepherd Trail. The company temporarily
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returned to its old tower and antennas on Cowan Hill
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while repairs were being made. Phil Holston remained part of
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the system even after the change in ownership. The new
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tower fell just after Mountain TV Cable's owner, Morris Hubbard,
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told the Wichburg City Council that cable subscribers in Whichburg
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could expect twelve channel service, crediting Holston's knowledge of local
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reception as one of the reasons why. Hubbard said he
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had never worked in an area where where television signals
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were as difficult to receive as they were in Lecter County.
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He said he was fortunate Holston had remained with the
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company because Holston knew how to get a television signal
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here when there's not any signal over here to work with.
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By nineteen eighty six, Mountain TV Cable had been sold
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to Century Cable, then the fifth largest cable TV provider
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in the United States. Holston stayed on as manager and
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technician until his death in a Lexington hospital at age
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sixty two in December nineteen eighty nine. Century Cable later
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sold its operations to an even larger company, Pennsylvania based Adelphia,
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and the once proud and top quality cable company built
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by Raphael Sallager, quickly fell into such a state of
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disrepair that it became the subject of many meetings of
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the Witchburg City Council.
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Speaker 2: City officials, along with many.
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Speaker 1: Of the company's eight hundred twenty one local customers, complained
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about channels freezing up and receptions so poor that even
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WYMTTV in nearby Hazard was unwatchable. By the time Adelphia
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was forced to sell its operations to cable giant Comcast
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in July two thousand and six, Wisburg Mayor James W.
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Craft and members of the city council were ready to
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stop doing business with any of the country's largest cable providers.
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When Comcast finally took possession of the Whitesburg system in
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September two thousand and six, Adelphia not only had allowed
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the quality of the cable system to decline dramatically, it
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also had abandoned the old Sallar radio building in downtown Wisburg,
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a move that eventually led to the collapse of the
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building's roof. From one channel to infinite choice Perhaps the
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measure of how much television changed in Letcher County is
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how quickly people stopped being amazed by it. In November
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nineteen forty nine, Raphael Sallier made front page news in
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The Mountain Eagle by proving that television signals could be
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received atop Pine Mountain. At the time, most county residents
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had never seen a television set in operation. Less than
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two years later, a group of residents of Jenkins were
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excited to receive a handful of stations through a community
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antenna system erected near Pound Gap. By nineteen eighty three, however,
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television had become so commonplace that cable subscribers were no
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longer celebrating the miracle of receiving a signal. Instead, they
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were complaining about the number of channels available. In April
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nineteen eighty three, one caller to The Mountain Eagle's speaker
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piece feature argued that cable customers in Jenkins, Burdin, Pain Gap,
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and Dunham should only have to pay half their cable
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bills because they received only half the channels available elsewhere.
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Others complained about receiving Tennessee stations instead of Kentucky affiliates
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By the early nineteen nineties, people were beginning to complain
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about too many channels offering little worth watching, either on
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cable or on satellite services such as DirecTV and Dish Network.
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In nineteen ninety two, Bruce Springsteen released the song fifty
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seven Channels and Nothing On, joking that even fifty seven
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cable channels did not guarantee there was anything worth watching.
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At the time, fifty seven channels represented an abundance of
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television choices. With today's hundreds of channels via cable, satellite,
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and streaming services, YouTube videos, and live programming from around
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the world, a person could spend a lifetime watching and
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never see all the options. In Letcher County, what began
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with a single television set on Pine Mountain has become
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part of a world in which viewers complain not about
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having too little television, but too much and at too
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high a cost. The next article is Gabby's Fishing Fever
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by Greg Gabby Cauble finding bass and crappie in the
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summer heat. It seems summertime has arrived for sure in
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our area. Daytime temperatures are reaching into the upper eighties
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and nineties, and the humidity can be very high, making
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it difficult.
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Speaker 2: To fish during midday. When we go fishing this.
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Speaker 1: Time of year, we try to go early in the morning,
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late in the evening, or even at night. The temperatures
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are much more enjoyable, and just as we look for
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cooler places to escape the summer heat, most fish do
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the same. As water surface temperatures reach the upper seventies
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and low eighties on most lakes, species such as bass
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and crappy begin moving into their summer patterns. The fish
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have finished spawning in the shallow areas, and as surface
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temperatures continue to rise, they move to deeper, cooler water
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where they can feed and hold around deeper cover. Bass
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and croppy will leave the shallow spring areas and seek
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more suitable water temperatures for the summer months. Water has
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many layers, and each layer has different temperatures and oxygen levels.
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Bait fish and mental schools also move deeper, and predator
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fish follow them. Some lakes, including car Fork Lake, are
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still not at their normal summer pool levels because of
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spring drought conditions. This changes typical summer lake patterns and
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may cause fish to move even farther in search of
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suitable habitat this in mind when choosing fishing spots. The
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term deeper water can mean different things depending on the lake.
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In some lakes, fish may move only a few feet deeper,
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while in others they may move several feet. Look for
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the first significant drop into deeper water that contains cover.
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These areas often hold active summer bass and croppy. To
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locate active bass, use baits that can be fished from
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shallow to deep water in a single cast. Spinner baits,
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crank baits, and top water lures are excellent choices because
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they allow you to cover water quickly and identify productive areas.
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Once you find a good area, slow down and target
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specific cover with plastic worms or small jigs. This approach
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often helps anglers locate larger fish. Summer can be a
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hot time to be on the water, but if you
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use these tips, it can also provide some hot fishing action.
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This concludes the reading of the Mountain Eagle. Your reader
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has been billed an arsenale. Now please stay tuned for
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continued programming on behalf of everyone here at Radio I.
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Thank you for listening, and have a good day.