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Whitesburg Mountain Eagle - 8.27.26 · Eastern Kentucky Newspapers

• 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,
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  Speaker 1: saturating the ground. On the night of August 12th, rain
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  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
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  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
• 2:18
  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
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  Speaker 1: 12 office, characterized the work as debris removal. I wouldn't
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  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
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  Speaker 1: of Main Street in front of City Hall and the
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  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
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  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
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  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
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  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,
• 5:37
  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
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: outages in the Whitesburg area August 16th. Kentucky Power said
• 5:59
  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
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: crews were restoring service. Then another round of severe weather struck.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: In an August 18th update, Kentucky Power said storms Sunday
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: brought heavy rain and strong winds across its eastern Kentucky territory,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and additional storms Monday night caused new outages and primarily
• 6:39
  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
• 7:31
  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
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  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
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  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
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: of distribution operations, contrasted that approach with waiting for trees
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  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
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  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
• 11:11
  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
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  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
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  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
• 12:00
  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
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  Speaker 1: that is different from imposing a moratorium. The governor did
• 12:27
  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
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  Speaker 1: consensus just from the county attorney's association is that in
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  Speaker 1: counties that don't have planning and zoning, really those moratoriums
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  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.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Property owners who objected to zoning decisions would then have
• 12:58
  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
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  Speaker 1: site is zoned for light industry. Is it zoned? Is
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  Speaker 1: it not zoned? Tanner asked. And data center and compressor
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: stations are identified as heavy industry. A natural gas compressor
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: station is already located at the Gateway Regional Business Park
• 13:25
  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
• 13:34
  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.
• 13:49
  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
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  Speaker 1: well as the heavy demands large data centers can place
• 14:01
  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
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  Speaker 1: every school in the district since taking office July 1st
• 15:01
  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
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  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
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  Speaker 1: great school district. That's not lip service, I really believe that,
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  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,
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  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,
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  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.
• 15:56
  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.
• 17:17
  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.
• 17:28
  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.
• 19:25
  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
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: to read. The program mails free, age-appropriate books each month
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: to children from birth until age five, regardless of family income.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Just last month, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Letcher County
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: announced that it had passed a major milestone. more than 100,000
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: books mailed to local children since the program began here
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: in January 2012. At the time, program officials said about 1,059
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: children in Letcher County were eligible for the monthly books,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and 970 of them were enrolled and receiving them. For
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: some families, organizers said, the books sent by the Imagination
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Library are the only children's books in the home. The
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: local program was created through the Rotary Club of Whitesburg
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: as a way to improve early childhood literacy and help
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: children arrive at kindergarten better prepared to learn. This concludes
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the reading of The Mountain Eagle. Your reader has been
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Bill Van Arsdal. Now, please stay tuned for continued programming.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: On behalf of everyone here at Radio Eye, thank you
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: for listening, and have a good day.