Transcript

8.27.26 · The Mountain Eagle

0:01
Speaker 1: Now we turn to the Mountain Eagle to read news
0:04
Speaker 1: from Whitesburg. Your reader today is Bill VanArsdal. We will
0:09
Speaker 1: begin with the edition dated August 26, 2026, which the
0:14
Speaker 1: publishers have donated to Radio Eye. As a reminder, Radio
0:19
Speaker 1: Eye is a reading service intended for people who are
0:21
Speaker 1: blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
0:24
Speaker 1: read printed material. The first headline is Neon Mayor We're
0:30
Speaker 1: tired of this. Fleming Neon Mayor Ricky Burke was frustrated.
0:37
Speaker 1: It was Wednesday morning and he was dealing with flood
0:40
Speaker 1: damage again. Burke contacted the Mountain Eagle just after 7 a.m.,
0:45
Speaker 1: sending photographs of a state-owned bridge that he said had
0:49
Speaker 1: caused water from Yonce Fork to back up into the
0:52
Speaker 1: city again, undoing work that had been completed after several
0:56
Speaker 1: earlier floods. I've had it. People have had it. We're
1:00
Speaker 1: tired of this, Burke said. I have people can't sleep,
1:04
Speaker 1: kids sleeping with their clothes and shoes on because they
1:07
Speaker 1: don't know when they will have to evacuate their homes.
1:10
Speaker 1: People are having panic attacks when it rains. The call
1:14
Speaker 1: came after a week of cleaning up from heavy rain
1:17
Speaker 1: and flooding. Storms began on the night of August 11th,
1:21
Speaker 1: saturating the ground. On the night of August 12th, rain
1:26
Speaker 1: pushed creeks out of their banks and and by the
1:28
Speaker 1: next morning, Fleming Neon was flooded. That night, the rain
1:33
Speaker 1: came again, and Neon flooded once more, with water reaching
1:37
Speaker 1: as much as three feet deep in some buildings along
1:40
Speaker 1: Main Street. At least one car was seen floating down
1:44
Speaker 1: Main Street. The city and surrounding areas were left to
1:49
Speaker 1: clean up for the third time in less than a week.
1:52
Speaker 1: Burke sent a photograph of the bridge carrying Kentucky 343
1:56
Speaker 1: over Yonce Fork into the downtown area. Built in 1994
2:01
Speaker 1: of corrugated aluminum, the bridge, combined with debris washed downstream
2:06
Speaker 1: by earlier flooding, constricts the creek to about half its
2:10
Speaker 1: width just before Yonce Fork joins Wrights Fork. Every drain
2:15
Speaker 1: under the state highway has been stopped up since the
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Speaker 1: 22 flood, not been able to get them cleaned, Burke said.
2:22
Speaker 1: That began to change two days later. Kentucky Transportation Cabinet trucks,
2:28
Speaker 1: heavy equipment, and contractors were in town removing debris and
2:32
Speaker 1: silt from Yon's Fork with excavators and small track loaders
2:37
Speaker 1: and loading the material into dump trucks to be hauled away.
2:41
Speaker 1: Crews had not reached the Kentucky 343 bridge by press time.
2:46
Speaker 1: Shantana Woodward, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's District
2:51
Speaker 1: 12 office, characterized the work as debris removal. I wouldn't
2:57
Speaker 1: say dredging, no. It's just part of our regular maintenance,
3:00
Speaker 1: Woodward said. On Monday, work was underway at the end
3:04
Speaker 1: of Main Street in front of City Hall and the
3:07
Speaker 1: Neon Volunteer Fire Department. A small skid loader had been
3:11
Speaker 1: in the creek in the same area on Friday. Woodward
3:15
Speaker 1: said the work was being performed by state crews and
3:19
Speaker 1: Jigsaw Enterprises. a Pike County contractor for KYTC. She said
3:25
Speaker 1: the cabinet's section supervisor told her crews were cleaning out
3:29
Speaker 1: box culverts. The main street work was being done near
3:33
Speaker 1: a small bridge crossing Yonce Fork. We can normally clean
3:37
Speaker 1: up to 200 feet from a bridge or culvert, Woodward said.
3:41
Speaker 1: On Friday, the creek was just deep enough to cover
3:44
Speaker 1: the bottom of the skid loader's rubber tracks. By Monday,
3:48
Speaker 1: the water in that area was several feet deep as
3:51
Speaker 1: an excavator removed silt from the creek bottom. There have
3:55
Speaker 1: been loud calls for dredging streams throughout Letcher County since
4:00
Speaker 1: the catastrophic 2022 flood. The practice is generally discouraged. While
4:06
Speaker 1: some proponents have argued that environmental concerns involving frogs and
4:11
Speaker 1: salamanders have prevented such work, hydrologists say widespread dredging can
4:16
Speaker 1: speed the movement of water increase erosion, and damage roads
4:20
Speaker 1: and private property along streams. Streams naturally scour their beds
4:26
Speaker 1: and the outside banks of curves while depositing sand and
4:30
Speaker 1: other material along the inside of curves. The next story is,
4:35
Speaker 1: Power Company says funding cuts for tree trimming hurting reliability.
4:41
Speaker 1: Letcher County was hit repeatedly by outages during August storms.
4:46
Speaker 1: Kentucky Power says a reduction in money available to remove
4:50
Speaker 1: dangerous trees near power lines is hurting electrical reliability in
4:55
Speaker 1: eastern Kentucky, pointing to more than 56,000 customer interruptions during
5:00
Speaker 1: repeated rounds of severe thunderstorms this month, including thousands in
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Speaker 1: Letcher County. The utility says 56,289 customer interruptions occurred across
5:09
Speaker 1: its service territory this between August 11 and August 18,
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Speaker 1: and that its preliminary estimate indicates about 58% of the
5:22
Speaker 1: storm-related outages were caused by trees outside Kentucky Power's rights-of-way.
5:28
Speaker 1: More than half of those interruptions occurred in the portion
5:31
Speaker 1: of Kentucky Power's hazard, the company said. The district includes Letcher, Knott,
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Speaker 1: and Perry counties. Kentucky Power outage figures from the storms
5:41
Speaker 1: that began August 11 show 2,447 customer outages in Letcher County.
5:48
Speaker 1: Another round of storms several days later resulted in 802
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Speaker 1: outages in the Whitesburg area August 16th. Kentucky Power said
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Speaker 1: the prolonged weather event that began August 11th brought repeated
6:03
Speaker 1: rounds of heavy rain, strong winds, and severe thunderstorms across
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Speaker 1: eastern Kentucky. More than 19,000 customers were without electricity at
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Speaker 1: the peak, and additional storms continued causing new outages while
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Speaker 1: crews were restoring service. Then another round of severe weather struck.
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Speaker 1: In an August 18th update, Kentucky Power said storms Sunday
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Speaker 1: brought heavy rain and strong winds across its eastern Kentucky territory,
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Speaker 1: and additional storms Monday night caused new outages and primarily
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Speaker 1: in the Letcher County area. The figures are contained in
6:43
Speaker 1: Kentucky Power's storm reports and an August 24th supplemental filing
6:48
Speaker 1: in the company's continuing effort to persuade the Kentucky Public
6:52
Speaker 1: Service Commission to reconsider portions of its February decision in
6:56
Speaker 1: Kentucky Power's most recent rate case. Kentucky Power argues that
7:02
Speaker 1: the PSC's treatment of vegetation management spending sharply reduced the
7:06
Speaker 1: amount available for its Trees Outside of Rights-of-Way program, known
7:11
Speaker 1: as TOR. Unlike routine trimming of trees and limbs within
7:16
Speaker 1: Kentucky Power's utility rights-of-way, the program targets trees growing outside
7:21
Speaker 1: those corridors that could fall onto power lines and cause outages.
7:26
Speaker 1: Kentucky Power says the PSC's February order resulted in approximately
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Speaker 1: $ 11 million less being available for the program in 2026.
7:38
Speaker 1: The company says the reduction would grow to approximately $ 18
7:41
Speaker 1: million in both 2027 and 2028. Kentucky Power estimates that
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Speaker 1: without the reduction, it could have removed approximately 16,500 additional
7:54
Speaker 1: trees outside its rights-of-way across its service territory so far
7:59
Speaker 1: this year. The company argues that the reduction is having
8:02
Speaker 1: consequences for customers. Kentucky Power's figures concerning the August 11th
8:08
Speaker 1: through 18th storms are preliminary, however, and its contention that
8:13
Speaker 1: the PSC's rate decision has hurt reliability is the company's
8:17
Speaker 1: argument in the pending rehearing proceeding. The PSC has not
8:22
Speaker 1: determined that its February rate order caused or contributed to
8:25
Speaker 1: the August outages. In discussing the high number of outages
8:29
Speaker 1: around Hazard, the company cited a 2003 PSC management audit
8:35
Speaker 1: that found mountainous terrain and extensive tree exposure make that
8:39
Speaker 1: portion of Kentucky Power's system more difficult to serve at
8:43
Speaker 1: reliability levels comparable to other parts of the state. The
8:47
Speaker 1: vegetation management dispute is one of five issues on which
8:51
Speaker 1: the PSC agreed to reconsider portions of its February 28th
8:56
Speaker 1: final order in Kentucky Power's rate case, filed in August 2025.
9:03
Speaker 1: Kentucky Power says those five issues together represent approximately $ 15
9:08
Speaker 1: million in annual revenue requirements denied by the commission. The
9:13
Speaker 1: company also says it faces the potential write-off of approximately
9:17
Speaker 1: $ 17 million in vegetation management investments made since the end
9:22
Speaker 1: of the test year used in the rate case. The
9:26
Speaker 1: company also told the PSC that that its return on
9:29
Speaker 1: equity for the 12 months ending in June was 4.06%,
9:34
Speaker 1: compared with the 9.7% return authorized by the Commission. Kentucky
9:40
Speaker 1: Power wants the PSC to allow it to continue treating
9:43
Speaker 1: annual spending on removal of trees outside its rights-of-way as
9:48
Speaker 1: a capital investment, rather than requiring those costs to be
9:52
Speaker 1: recovered entirely as a current operating expense. The company says
9:57
Speaker 1: capitalizing the expenditures allows it to take a proactive approach
10:01
Speaker 1: to dangerous trees while spreading the cost over time. Kentucky
10:06
Speaker 1: Power says removal of trees outside rights-of-way generally is assigned
10:11
Speaker 1: a 30-year depreciable life, meaning customers pay approximately one-thirtieth of
10:17
Speaker 1: the investment each year. plus a return based on the
10:21
Speaker 1: company's cost of capital. Michelle Ross, the company's vice president
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Speaker 1: of distribution operations, contrasted that approach with waiting for trees
10:31
Speaker 1: to damage Kentucky Power's system during storms. So we can
10:35
Speaker 1: either be proactive or we can be reactive, Ross testified
10:39
Speaker 1: during the rate case. I think our customers want us
10:42
Speaker 1: to be proactive. Kentucky Power also says... It is proposing
10:47
Speaker 1: to use deferred tax liability credits to offset the effect
10:52
Speaker 1: on customers' bills of any changes in annual revenue requirements
10:56
Speaker 1: resulting from the rehearing. The next headline is, Ban on
11:02
Speaker 1: data centers cannot be enforced, county attorney says. The two-year
11:07
Speaker 1: moratorium on construction of data centers approved by the Letcher
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Speaker 1: County Fiscal Court last month would be unenforceable. because the
11:15
Speaker 1: county has never enacted planning and zoning, County Attorney Jamie
11:20
Speaker 1: Hatton told magistrates. Hatton gave the fiscal court his legal
11:24
Speaker 1: opinion last week after an opponent of the proposed power
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Speaker 1: plant at Jenkins, a project intended to attract data centers
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Speaker 1: to the area, raised questions about the moratorium. The subject
11:37
Speaker 1: came up August 17th when Elaine Tanner, an opponent of
11:41
Speaker 1: data centers, returned to the fiscal court to ask about
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Speaker 1: the measure. Hatton said he has talked with county attorneys
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Speaker 1: elsewhere in Kentucky who agree that a moratorium would not
11:53
Speaker 1: be enforceable without planning and zoning. Any moratorium we would
11:57
Speaker 1: have wouldn't have any teeth in it because we don't
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Speaker 1: have planning and zoning, Hatton said. He said he plans
12:03
Speaker 1: to attend a conference soon and will continue looking for
12:07
Speaker 1: possible legal options. When you take land rights away, you
12:11
Speaker 1: have to have a process. Hatton said. Hatton said he
12:15
Speaker 1: spoke with the county attorney in one Kentucky county that
12:18
Speaker 1: adopted its own environmental regulations governing land use, but said
12:23
Speaker 1: that is different from imposing a moratorium. The governor did
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Speaker 1: an executive order that put some guardrails up on data
12:30
Speaker 1: centers in Kentucky here a couple weeks ago, but the
12:33
Speaker 1: consensus just from the county attorney's association is that in
12:37
Speaker 1: counties that don't have planning and zoning, really those moratoriums
12:41
Speaker 1: are not enforceable Hatton said. If Letcher County were to
12:46
Speaker 1: adopt planning and zoning, Hatton said, it would have to
12:49
Speaker 1: establish a zoning board and classify property throughout the county.
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Speaker 1: Property owners who objected to zoning decisions would then have
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Speaker 1: a process for appealing those decisions. Tanner questioned statements by
13:03
Speaker 1: Letcher County Economic Development that the Gateway Regional Business Park
13:07
Speaker 1: site is zoned for light industry. Is it zoned? Is
13:12
Speaker 1: it not zoned? Tanner asked. And data center and compressor
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Speaker 1: stations are identified as heavy industry. A natural gas compressor
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Speaker 1: station is already located at the Gateway Regional Business Park
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Speaker 1: in Jenkins. Diversified Energy, formerly known as Equitable Resources, is
13:31
Speaker 1: connected to the compressor station and is also one of
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Speaker 1: the named owners of Project Maverick. which has proposed building
13:39
Speaker 1: a 100-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant at the industrial park
13:44
Speaker 1: in an effort to attract data centers to the area.
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Speaker 1: Opponents of artificial intelligence data centers have raised concerns about
13:53
Speaker 1: increased air pollution from fossil fuel fire generating plants, as
13:58
Speaker 1: well as the heavy demands large data centers can place
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Speaker 1: on electric, water, and sewer systems. Modern data centers increasingly
14:07
Speaker 1: use closed-loop cooling systems with specialized coolants, which can significantly
14:13
Speaker 1: reduce water consumption compared with older cooling designs. The long-term
14:19
Speaker 1: economic outlook for the rapidly expanding data center industry remains uncertain.
14:25
Speaker 1: Some economists believe growing use of artificial intelligence will sustain
14:30
Speaker 1: demand for additional data centers, while others have compared the
14:34
Speaker 1: rapid pace of development to earlier speculative booms, including the
14:38
Speaker 1: dot-com expansion of the late 1990s and the housing boom
14:42
Speaker 1: that preceded the Great Recession. The next headline is, New Superintendent,
14:49
Speaker 1: I Want Our Kids Back. Letcher County Superintendent Josh Johns
14:54
Speaker 1: told school board members this week that he has visited
14:57
Speaker 1: every school in the district since taking office July 1st
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Speaker 1: and is continuing to develop his plans for the school system.
15:05
Speaker 1: I want to get our enrollment back. Letcher County is
15:08
Speaker 1: the place to be, Yance said, noting that attendance during
15:12
Speaker 1: the first five days of school was 97%, and that
15:16
Speaker 1: he wants enrollment to follow. I think we have a
15:20
Speaker 1: great school district. That's not lip service, I really believe that,
15:24
Speaker 1: and I want our kids back. Yance is a Letcher
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Speaker 1: County native who attended elementary, middle, and high school here,
15:31
Speaker 1: and has spent his entire career working in the district.
15:35
Speaker 1: He said his motto for the district is, is rise up.
15:39
Speaker 1: With the flood and everything, that's what we need to do. Rise,
15:43
Speaker 1: Yance said. Yance said he called all district principals to
15:47
Speaker 1: a meeting at the central office and talked with them
15:50
Speaker 1: about what he expects. I want to hold them accountable,
15:53
Speaker 1: and the teachers are going to hold their students accountable.
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Speaker 1: We talked about that, he said. Yance also addressed several
16:00
Speaker 1: staffing issues, including five or six vacant custodian positions at
16:05
Speaker 1: Letcher County Central High School. He recommended assigning one custodian
16:11
Speaker 1: solely to the gymnasium and increasing that position from 205
16:14
Speaker 1: workdays to 240. That would free the remaining custodians to
16:20
Speaker 1: concentrate on the rest of the school. He also recommended
16:24
Speaker 1: changing a custodian position at Whitesburg Middle School from four
16:28
Speaker 1: hours a day to five hours and adding three hours
16:32
Speaker 1: for the same employee to clean the educational center in
16:35
Speaker 1: the former vocational school. Yance said making the position full-time
16:40
Speaker 1: might make it more attractive to applicants. Yance also read
16:44
Speaker 1: comments from a Kentucky Department of Education audit of the
16:47
Speaker 1: district's food service department. The report gave the department high marks.
16:53
Speaker 1: Amber Stewart, director of curriculum, told the board the school
16:57
Speaker 1: year got off to a smooth start for her department.
17:01
Speaker 1: Transportation and Maintenance Director Brian Johnson said the beginning of
17:05
Speaker 1: school was not as smooth for his department. The start
17:09
Speaker 1: of school was delayed because of severe storms and flooding
17:13
Speaker 1: that left trees down and electricity out across the county.
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Speaker 1: Some of the roads, I mean, there's still power lines
17:19
Speaker 1: in the road, Johnson said. Despite the damage, Johnson said
17:23
Speaker 1: the start of school went well once electricity was restored.
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Speaker 1: We were lucky. Even though it was as bad as
17:30
Speaker 1: it was, that we got back as quickly as we did,
17:33
Speaker 1: Johnson said. He said he remains concerned about the possibility
17:38
Speaker 1: of another major flood. We're always cautious, but I will
17:42
Speaker 1: be extremely cautious before I put anyone's child at risk,
17:46
Speaker 1: he said. In other business, the board approved changes to
17:50
Speaker 1: the school calendar because of days lost to severe weather.
17:54
Speaker 1: Director of Pupil Personnel Karen Baker recommended making November 23rd
17:59
Speaker 1: and 24th school days along with January 4th, which had
18:04
Speaker 1: been scheduled as a teacher training day. The board approved
18:08
Speaker 1: the master daily schedule for all schools as now required
18:12
Speaker 1: by state law. School times did not change. The board
18:17
Speaker 1: recognized former superintendent Denise Yance for her service to the
18:21
Speaker 1: district and presented her with a plaque. It also approved
18:25
Speaker 1: an agreement allowing Jenkins Independent Schools to use the Letcher
18:28
Speaker 1: County Alternative Education Center. The board approved extending the Cowan
18:34
Speaker 1: Elementary School Secretary's employment by 20 days, with the additional
18:38
Speaker 1: cost to be paid from the school's allocation. It approved
18:42
Speaker 1: a $ 150 fee for social media software used to manage
18:47
Speaker 1: the district's Facebook page. It approved use of the Letcher
18:51
Speaker 1: County Central High School parking lot for car shows sponsored
18:55
Speaker 1: by the Kentucky State Police and Mountain Shrine Club. the
18:59
Speaker 1: board heard a report from the Letcher County Promise Zone
19:03
Speaker 1: concerning items the grant program purchased for the district during
19:06
Speaker 1: the past year. It heard a request from Contessa Roten
19:10
Speaker 1: to use the former Arlie Boggs Elementary School to provide
19:14
Speaker 1: community services, including shelter for families without homes, additional educational services,
19:20
Speaker 1: and food. The board took no action on the request.
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Speaker 1: The board also approved a compensating property tax rate of 68.1
19:30
Speaker 1: cents per $ 100 of assessed value, an increase of one-tenth
19:35
Speaker 1: of a cent from last year. The compensating rate is
19:39
Speaker 1: designed to generate approximately the same amount of revenue from
19:42
Speaker 1: existing property as the previous year, excluding new property. The
19:48
Speaker 1: board also approved tax rates of 49.6 cents per $ 100
19:52
Speaker 1: of value on motor vehicles and 3% on utilities. Those
19:57
Speaker 1: rates are unchanged. The board later went into closed session
20:02
Speaker 1: to discuss litigation. The next story is, PSC leaves Kentucky
20:08
Speaker 1: power base fuel cost unchanged. Kentucky power customers will see
20:14
Speaker 1: no change in the base fuel cost built into their
20:17
Speaker 1: electric rates as a result of a two-year review completed
20:21
Speaker 1: last week by the Kentucky Public Service Commission. The PSC
20:26
Speaker 1: on August 18th approved a settlement involving Kentucky Power, the
20:31
Speaker 1: Kentucky Attorney General's Office of Rate Intervention, and Kentucky Industrial
20:35
Speaker 1: Utility Customers and agreed to leave the utility's base fuel
20:39
Speaker 1: cost at its existing 3.38 cents per kilowatt hour. The
20:45
Speaker 1: order concludes the Commission's review of Kentucky Power's Fuel Adjustment Clause,
20:50
Speaker 1: or FAC, covering November 1, 2022 through October 31, 2024.
20:53
Speaker 1: The Fuel Adjustment Clause is allows Kentucky Power to periodically
21:02
Speaker 1: adjust a portion of customers' bills to reflect changes in
21:06
Speaker 1: the actual cost of fuel used to generate electricity and
21:10
Speaker 1: power the company purchases from other sources. State regulations require
21:16
Speaker 1: the PSC to conduct six-month and two-year reviews of the charges.
21:22
Speaker 1: During the two-year reviews, the Commission can disallow improper expenses
21:27
Speaker 1: and reset the amount of fuel cost included in base
21:30
Speaker 1: electric rates. In its latest review, Kentucky Power recommended leaving
21:34
Speaker 1: its base fuel cost at 3.38 cents per kilowatt hour.
21:40
Speaker 1: The company said it examined historical fuel costs along with
21:44
Speaker 1: projected costs for 2026, 2027, and 2028, and concluded that
21:50
Speaker 1: expected costs were close enough to the existing base amount
21:54
Speaker 1: that changing it was not warranted. the PSC agreed. Actual
21:59
Speaker 1: fuel costs varied considerably during the two-year period examined by
22:04
Speaker 1: the commission. Kentucky Power's monthly fuel cost ranged from a
22:09
Speaker 1: low of 0.724 cents per kilowatt hour in January 2023
22:11
Speaker 1: to a high of 7.725 cents in December 2022. The
22:13
Speaker 1: average over the two-year review period was 3.747 cents per
22:26
Speaker 1: kilowatt hour. The PSC concluded that the existing 3.38 cent
22:32
Speaker 1: base fuel cost remains an appropriate amount to include in
22:36
Speaker 1: Kentucky Power's base rates. The Commission also reviewed Kentucky Power's
22:41
Speaker 1: fuel purchasing practices and the calculation and application of its
22:45
Speaker 1: fuel adjustment charges. For the final six months of the
22:50
Speaker 1: review period, May 1st through October 31st, 2024, the PSC
22:56
Speaker 1: said it found no evidence that Kentucky Power improperly calculated
23:00
Speaker 1: or applied its fuel adjustment charges or engaged in improper
23:05
Speaker 1: fuel procurement practices. The settlement approved by the PSC also
23:10
Speaker 1: resolved broader issues concerning Kentucky Power's fuel costs during the
23:15
Speaker 1: two-year review. Kentucky Power, the Attorney General, and Kentucky Industrial
23:19
Speaker 1: Utility customers had jointly asked the commission to find the
23:24
Speaker 1: company's fuel charges and credits reasonable, its fuel procurement practices prudent,
23:30
Speaker 1: and its operation of generating units prudent. The case follows
23:34
Speaker 1: an earlier Kentucky Power fuel cost proceeding that resulted in
23:38
Speaker 1: a total $ 16. 9 million credit to customers. The PSC closed
23:44
Speaker 1: the current case with its August 18th order. The next
23:48
Speaker 1: story is Dolly Parton, beloved music star, dies at 80.
23:53
Speaker 1: I am devastated, absolutely, says woman who helped bring Parton's
23:58
Speaker 1: imagination library here. Margaret Hammons sobbed Tuesday as she talked
24:04
Speaker 1: about the death of Dolly Parton. I am devastated, absolutely,
24:08
Speaker 1: said Hammons, a member of the Whitesburg City Council who
24:12
Speaker 1: brought Parton's Imagination Library program to Letcher County more than
24:17
Speaker 1: 14 years ago. I can't believe it. It's just hard
24:21
Speaker 1: to believe she's dead, Hammond said. I knew she couldn't
24:24
Speaker 1: live forever, but I knew when it did happen, it
24:26
Speaker 1: would be a sad day. Parton, the country music legend, songwriter, actress,
24:32
Speaker 1: and philanthropist whose career stretched from the mountains of East
24:35
Speaker 1: Tennessee to worldwide fame, died Tuesday in Nashville at age 80.
24:41
Speaker 1: Her publicist announced her death Tuesday. For Hammonds, Parton's legacy
24:46
Speaker 1: is measured not only in songs and recordings, but in
24:49
Speaker 1: the thousands of books that have arrived in the mailboxes
24:52
Speaker 1: of Letcher County children since 2012. Hammonds was president of
24:57
Speaker 1: the Whitesburg Rotary Club when she started the Letcher County
25:00
Speaker 1: chapter of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library that year. I don't
25:05
Speaker 1: know anybody who has achieved what she has, And everybody
25:08
Speaker 1: loves her, Hammond said. Parton's Coat of Many Colors was
25:13
Speaker 1: Hammond's favorite of her songs, in large part because its
25:16
Speaker 1: story of growing up with little money struck close to home.
25:20
Speaker 1: My favorite song of hers was Coat of Many Colors
25:22
Speaker 1: because that's how I grew up, Hammond said. I come
25:26
Speaker 1: from a family of ten. I was the youngest of ten,
25:29
Speaker 1: and I had no children's books in the home. That
25:33
Speaker 1: background helped make Parton's Imagination Library especially meaningful to her.
25:38
Speaker 1: For me to start a program to give books to
25:40
Speaker 1: kids would just be amazing, Hammond said. Parton created the
25:45
Speaker 1: Imagination Library in honor of her father, who never learned
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Speaker 1: to read. The program mails free, age-appropriate books each month
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Speaker 1: to children from birth until age five, regardless of family income.
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Speaker 1: Just last month, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Letcher County
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Speaker 1: announced that it had passed a major milestone. more than 100,000
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Speaker 1: books mailed to local children since the program began here
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Speaker 1: in January 2012. At the time, program officials said about 1,059
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Speaker 1: children in Letcher County were eligible for the monthly books,
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Speaker 1: and 970 of them were enrolled and receiving them. For
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Speaker 1: some families, organizers said, the books sent by the Imagination
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Speaker 1: Library are the only children's books in the home. The
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Speaker 1: local program was created through the Rotary Club of Whitesburg
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Speaker 1: as a way to improve early childhood literacy and help
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Speaker 1: children arrive at kindergarten better prepared to learn. This concludes
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Speaker 1: the reading of The Mountain Eagle. Your reader has been
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Speaker 1: Bill Van Arsdal. Now, please stay tuned for continued programming.
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Speaker 1: On behalf of everyone here at Radio Eye, thank you
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Speaker 1: for listening, and have a good day.