Transcript

7.31.25 · The Mountain Eagle

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Speaker 1: Now we turn to the Mountain Eagle to read news
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from Whitsburg. Your reader today is Bill then Arsenal. We
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will begin with the addition dated July thirtieth, twenty twenty five,
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which the publishers have donated to RADIOI as a reminder.
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RADIOI is a reading service intended for people who are
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blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
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read printed material. The first item is the caption of
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a photo close call at Jeremiah. A pickup truck smashed
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into the signpost in front of the four Square Produce
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store at Jeremiah on July twenty third, stopping before it
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hit the concrete block wall. The driver said he took
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a sip from his energy drink, set it down, and
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looked up to find his truck headed straight for the building.
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He was wearing a seat built and his airbag deployed,
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so he was not seriously injured, but his truck was totaled.
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The next story is Neon Fire Department is left to
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fill need after collapse of Letcher Squad. Neon Volunteer Fire
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Department is continuing to look for emergency medical technicians and
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paramedics to improve service after the collapse of Letcher Emergency
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Medical Service Neon Fire Chief Carter Bevins said ambulance services
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in the surrounding counties are responding when Neon Fire Rescue
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is too busy to handle all the calls, but promised
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things will get better. He said the service has enough ambulances,
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has stations at Neon and Whitesburg, and plans to open
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another station in the Jeremiah Letcher area as soon as
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it is possible. The only big problem we have is personnel,
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Bevin said. He said there aren't enough people going to
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school to become EMTs and paramedics since the can Tuckey
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Community and Technical College System took over the programs. Becoming
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a paramedic now takes the same amount of time as
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becoming a registered nurse, so most people are out being
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for nursing instead. State law doesn't allow nurses to work
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in the back of ambulances, and paramedics who work in
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hospitals are paid much less than nurses. The service has
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four licensed paramedics, four certified as Emergency Medical Technician Advanced
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and the remainder are certified as EMT Basic. Bevin said
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emtbs are used only for non critical transfers between hospitals.
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Emergency runs use eMTA or paramedics to provide care. The
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Neon service runs three ambulances during the day and two
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at night and on weekends, but Bevin said one recent Saturday,
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there were five car crashes at the same time and
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the service had to request help from surrounding count He
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said the service is prioritizing nine one one calls. It's
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not our responsibility to transfer for hospitals. That's the hospital's responsibility.
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Our responsibility is nine one one calls, he said. Bevins
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said he wants the service to be within thirty minutes
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of every part of the county and said eighty five
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percent of the runs are now. Meanwhile, Leser County has
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appointed a committee to look at the number of runs
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ambulance services make after complaints from citizens about long response times.
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Edwin Bentley, who was a paramedic at Neon and has
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worked as a flight medic on helicopters for the past
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twenty three years, asked the court last week to appoint
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an advisory committee to pull data on ambulance runs from
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the state database and look at the number of calls,
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response times, and where each ambulance is coming from. That
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will tell us how many ambulances are out there, Are
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those enough or are they really that busy? He said.
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Bentley said the services all draw from the same pool
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of applicants for jobs. That pool is smaller because of
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the structure of KCTCS programs, and money is tight because
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of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. He said. Ambulance services will
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remain understaffed until they change the reimbursement rate and bring
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some training back. Private ambulance services and fire departments used
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to be allowed to teach paramedic classes, but can't under
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the current system. The court voted unanimously to approve creation
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of the Advisory Council, which will include Magistrates Deb Collier
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and Jack Banks, Bentley, and someone from Neon Fire Rescue.
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The next story is animal shelter struggles to handle increase
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in strays. Most from here. Over a hill and up
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in a hollow in Perry County, behind a double row
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of chain link fence, you'll find the real forgotten residence
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of Appalachia stray dogs and stray cats. The Kentucky River
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Regional Animal Shelter is the temporary home of dogs and
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cats that have been abandoned in Letcher, Knot, Perry, and
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Breathwick Counties. Some have been set out on strip mines
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and in parking lots. Some have been taken from their owners,
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half starved or otherwise abused. But in many of the cases,
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no matter what the location, the story is the same.
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With the increased cost of groceries and pet food, pet
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owners just can't afford to feed them any more. The
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largest number of animals, by far, volunteers say, come from
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Letcher County. I wish our county would volunteer, said Christie Robinson.
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I've not seen a single other person here from Letcher County. Robinson,
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who lives at Craft's Collie, was at a volunteer day
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at the shelter on Saturday, an event planned to try
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to highlight the need for help at the center. Volunteers
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can just offer to walk the dogs and give them
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a break from being in cages all day, or they
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can pet and socialize the dogs. In Robinson's case, she
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transports animals to rescue organizations that find them loving homes
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other places. Driving a van donated by a Washington, D c.
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Area doctor to Robinson's nonprofit, Scarlet's Hope, she travels all
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over the Eastern United States taking animals that have been
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mistreated to new families, But there are more animals than
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there are families to take them, and the old Dodge
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van needs the transmission and air conditioning repaired before it
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makes another trip. That means the shelter is now overcrowded
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with two hundred forty dogs and puppies and a room
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full of cats, one of which was giving birth to
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a little of kittens on Saturday. Brooke Reynolds, a teacher
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from the Lexington area, drives two hours every day to
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act as rescue coordinator for the shelter. Most everyone down
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here is a volunteer, she said. Kim Stewart, who works
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as Sanitation department supervisor in Lectter County, also supervises the
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county dog Warden. He replaced the former dog warden and
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has been on a job for just two weeks. Stuart
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said the numbers of abandoned pets is increasing. I've been
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here almost twenty years and I have never ever seen
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anything like it, she said. I've got six here at
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the county garage. Last Friday, the day rescue organizations picked
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up animals, there were twenty five, Stuart said. She said
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the number is that low because people have called saying
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they can't afford to feed their dogs, rather than pick
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them up. Stuart said some rescues and others have donated
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dog food or money need to buy dog food, and
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she and the Dog Warden have taken it to those families.
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If it comes to feeding their kids or feeding their animals,
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They're going to feed their kids, she said. She said
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some people believe the animals will have a better chance
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if they set them out, but many are setting them
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out on old strip mines or where domesticated dogs will
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either die of starvation or be killed by predators. On weekends.
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People riding their side by sides call me every weekend
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saying I found a litter of puppies or I found
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a dog, she said. She said she has been criticized
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recently for giving dogs back to a family at Jenkins,
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but she said the owner took them to his new
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home when they called him. The dog Warden has tried
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to go back again, but Stuart said she hasn't found
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a police officer who is not too busy to go
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back with him. In the next headline, motorcycle wreck is
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fatal to man forty, a Lectri County man died after
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a motorcycle accident late Saturday night on Kentucky fifteen near
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Loggie Hollow at Dry Fork. Dustin Yearie, forty, died Sunday
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at Pike Medical Center after being flown out. Kentucky State
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Police were called to the scene about eleven to fifty
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nine pm Saturday for a report of a motorcycle that
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had hit a guard rail. While the original caller reported
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the accident at Gordon, it was actually just north of
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dry Fork on Kentucky fifteen. Yeari was not wearing a helmet.
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No other information was available at press time. Next is
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a photograph local fire departments received grants from Lectri County
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Farm Bureau. Fire Chiefs from across Letcher County lined up
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to accept one thousand dollars checks from the Letcher County
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Farm Bureau this week. The checks are given annually by
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the local Farm Bureau board. Pictured are Farm Bureau members
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Howard Stanville and Wade Adams, fire chiefs and firefighters, Wallace
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Bowling Junior, Carter Bevins, Mike Ambergie, Sam Sexton, Alan Cornett,
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Preston Blair, Brian Hall, Oliver Munsey, Tony Feugutt, Adrian Collins,
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and a representative of Cumberland River Fire Department, Pine Mountain
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Search and Rescue Chief Paul Miles, Judge Executive Terry Adams,
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Farm Bureau President Shad Baker, and Farm Bureau board members
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Judy Collins, Diane Watts, and Winfreed Eldridge Board members not
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pictured are Michael Burton and Cindy Anderson. The next headline
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is police say man was shot after he fired at them.
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A King's Creek man is in serious but stable condition
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in a Tennessee hospital with at least four gunshot wounds
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after police say he pointed a pistol and fired at them.
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Kentucky State Police had been dispatched to a noise complaint
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around seven thirty p m. At one one one two
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five Kentucky one sixty involving Julian Smith, twenty five of Jeremiah.
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A caller reported to the nine one one dispatcher that
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the neighbors were shooting guns and causing a disturbance. After
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learning there was an active warrant for Smith from an
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earlier incident, dispatch called in Electric County Sheriff's deputy to
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go with the trooper and sent them to the area
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to look for Smith. The two officers reported that upon
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their arrival about eight p m. At the trailer where
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the shots originated, they located Smith, who ran into the woods.
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They said he turned and fired at them with a handgun.
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The two officers returned fire, striking Smith in the mouth, arm, pelvis,
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and buddocks. The officers located the wounded man in the
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woods nearby and rendered aid while waiting for an emergency
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medical services personnel to arrive. He was later flown to
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Johnson's City Medical Center, where he underwent surgery. The names
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of the officers have not been released. A court security
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officer was riding with the deputy in preparation for a
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career in law enforcement, but was not involved in the
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shooting and apparently stayed in the police car. Under Kentucky law,
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court security officers, who are also deputies, have about two
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weeks of training and have no police powers except in
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the court house and the area immediately surrounding it, when
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transporting prisoners, or when serving an order when directed to
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do so by a judge. The Lectter County Sheriff and
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Kentucky State Police Post thirteen in Hazard requested the incident
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be investigated by the Kentucky State Police Critical Incident Response
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Team CIRT investigates officer involved shootings throughout the state as
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requested by local, state, and federal law enform horsement agencies.
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The agency does not release specific details until the investigation
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is complete. In the next headline, Region's higher ground homes
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are being built, but builders see need for much more.
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By Liam Niemeyer. A photograph that accompanies the article is
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captioned an overlook of the finished Thompson Branch community at
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Marlow near Wisburg. One of the flood survivors who moved
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into Thompson Branch notes that he paid a monthly electricity
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bill of only twenty two dollars and fifty eight cents
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as a result of his home's solar panels and energy
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efficient design. The groundbreaking July twenty third for a new
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neighborhood in the Floyd County seat of Prestonsburg wasn't just
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a ceremony for Tom Manning Bevin. The crews working for
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his nonprofit had already started digging trenches to pour concrete
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foundations of future homes. My crew leaders were talking to
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the city building inspector as we were leaving, coordinating the
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inspection of those Footers, said Manning Bevin, president and CEO
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of Frontier Housing and Moorhead will pour and just start
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rocking and rolling. The quick pace Manning Bevin describes is
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one that non profit housing builders in eastern Kentucky have
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tried to keep up with in three years since catastrophic
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flooding inundated eastern Kentucky communities in the summer of twenty
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twenty two. The aftermath of that disaster ruined thousands of
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homes and killed dozens of people, and the region has
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grappled with more devastating floods since, including in February. It
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has also brought about collaborations between Kentucky state government, non
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profit builders, and local officials to develop several higher ground
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communities out of floodplains. Newly built homes have been going up,
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some on former strip mines, and flood survivors are slowly
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starting to move in. Housing developments are still being planned
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in Floyd County. The planned neighborhood called New Hope Estates
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will have thirty four homes funded by federal disaster funds
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previously allocated. Despite builders trying to ramp up construction, the
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need for housing is both vast and urgent. Scott mc
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rennold's the executive director of the Perry County based Housing
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Development Alliance, said his nonprofit has built roughly four hundred
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homes over roughly thirty years. In past years, the nonprofit
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would typically consider twenty homes built in a year as
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a great year. He now expects to build around sixty
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this year, with a total reaching up to one hundred
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forty over two years. We're producing at a scale that
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just a few years ago was not conceivable, and so
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on the one hand, I think this is a great push,
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mc rennel said, On the other hand, I don't know
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that it's sufficient. FAIHI. A network of more than fifty
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non profits across Appalachia, including the Housing Development Alliance and
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Frontier Housing rallied around the slogan housing Can't Wait in
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the wake of the two thousand twenty two floods to
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call on the Kentucky legislature to allocate immediate housing funds
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for the region. It's evolved in the years since into
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a call to action to address the broader housing shortage
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across Appalachia, setting an ambitious goal of building or rehabilitating
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sixty thousand homes through two thousand thirty across the multi
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state region that PHI he serves. That would double the
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pace of housing work that the PHI network does. Reynolds
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said his non profits calculations utilizing census data on housing
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and income, estimate that about forty percent of the tens
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of thousands of people across the primary counties they serve
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of brethett Leslie, Perry, and Nott are inadequately housed. He
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said that can include people experiencing homelessness, people living in
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substandard housing with structural issues, or people paying a disproportionate
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amount of funding on rent or a mortgage. If that
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number is even remotely accurate, then we need thousands of
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affordable units, and even with the flood recovery, we're building hundreds.
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Mcgrenoll's said Collaborations Building communities. One success story is just
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outside the Letter County seat of Whitesburg, eight homes on
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top of a hillside for flood survivors called Thompson Branch.
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It's the second planned higher ground community in the region
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to furnish construction. According to the Office of Kentucky Governor
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Andy Basheer seth Long, executive director of the nonprofit Housing
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Builder Homes Incorporated, that led the construction of the community,
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said One of the flood survivors his nonprofit is trying
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to get into a Thompson Branch home has been living
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in a sixteen foot trailer since the twenty twenty two flood.
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When I walked him through the house, which is a
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modest ranch style house, he was like, my whole trailer
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could fit in this one room, he said. You don't
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know what it's like to live three years in a trailer.
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Long said he hasn't been able to move one way
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or another because there's nothing that's available. The homes at
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Thompson Branch also feature solar panels and an energy efficient design.
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A part of home incorporated his efforts to greatly reduce
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electricity costs for residents in a region that struggles with
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some of the state's highest electricity bills. One of the
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flood survivors who moved into Thompson Branch, he said, was
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tickled to death to have an electricity bill of only
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twenty two dollars and fifty eight cents. Another statistic that
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sticks with long. More than five hundred households in Letcher
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County have used federal buyout programs to move out of
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the floodplain after the twenty twenty two and twenty twenty
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five floods. Those are hundreds of houses that aren't being
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replaced in his community, where still yet three years later,
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feeling a very sharp impact. Long said that federal investment
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is now just really practically hitting the ground to where
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builders are building houses back. The work of building homes
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is just getting underway for Long and other builders. There's
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a planned high ground community of one hundred and fifteen
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homes in Jenkins that's moving forward. Homes Incorporated is also
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partnering with Electra County government on a few other housing projects,
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including turning an old high school building in Fleming, Neon
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into through rental units. They are also one of several
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housing nonprofits involved with a higher ground community called Chestnut
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Ridge in not County Frontier Housing. The Morehead nonprofit is
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also launching a factory in Martin County to build customizable
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modular homes that it hopes can ramp up the production
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of housing in multiple Eastern Kentucky communities. Building out the
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infrastructure to serve these homes and securing and developing the
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land has taken years, nonprofit housing builders told The Lantern.
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Long said the work of actually building the homes is
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just hitting the ground. Builders, including ALONG, will still be
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tapping into the remaining pool of nearly three hundred million
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dollars in federal disaster housing funds allocated after the twenty
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twenty two floods, but builders believe more investment is needed
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to keep building on the boom of construction. FAHI and
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other non profit if A housing builders came before the
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Kentucky legislature last year asking for two hundred million dollars
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to be placed into state housing trust funds to pay
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for housing construction and rehabilitation. Republican leadership, as they were
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crafting a two year state budget, declined to make that
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investment and questioned the capacity of housing developers to effectively
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use that money in a two year timeframe. Long said,
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the progress nonprofit housing builders have made in three years
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shows they do have the capacity to build if given
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the resources. One of the things that have limited capacity
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has been property to build an investment to develop that property.
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If those things are in place, we can build as
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many houses that are needed. Long said, this kind of momentum,
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this kind of investment is what moves the needle. It
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gives impact, It can get attention, it can house people,
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floods and funding. Many aspects of future housing work are uncertain,
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such as how to plan for the next flood or storm.
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The trauma of going through a major flood can remain
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with people. It is hard to heal from that, said
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Courtney Rhodes, and organizer at the nonprofit legal group Appalachian
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Citizens Law Center in Weisburg. She mentioned the anxiety of
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dealing with flash flood warnings earlier this month and hearing
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the news of destructive flooding in Pike County earlier this year.
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There needs to be more affordable housing, she said, but
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it needs to be done in a way that includes
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the input of communities, that includes people with personal connections
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to their land. I think the higher ground communities is
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great in the sense of if people want to move,
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Roads said, you also need to find solutions for people
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who don't want to move away. She believes the construction
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of the Thompson Branch community incorporated local feedback well given
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its close proximity near Witzburg for people who live and
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work locally. Another question for the future what will happen
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under a new administration to federal housing programs that builders
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rely on The Kentucky Housing Corporation, the quasi governmental agency
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that allocates federal housing funding, has spoken out against a
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Trump administration budget proposal that the agency argues could cut
23:27
federal housing monies, including programs for housing construction, received in Kentucky,
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by forty four percent. At a minimum, it's chaotic at
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the federal level, said Jim King, the CEO of five.
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We don't know what the commitment of federal resources that
23:45
have traditionally supported this kind of work will look like.
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He said, his nonprofit members are instead leaning into private
23:54
philanthropy and funding to meet their longer term housing goals
23:58
in lieu of uncertain federal and c state support. While
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he considers the Kentucky governor and the Kentucky Legislature to
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be great partners when involved, he isn't going to be
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limited by their funding choices. I think Eastern Kentucky has
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spent a lot of time waiting for other people to
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show up with resources, and that's quite honestly, that's the
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dynamic I'm actually interested to change, King said. Liam Neimeier,
24:26
reports for the Kentucky Lantern, On nonprofit news organization based
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in Frankfort. This report appeared in the Lantern on July
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twenty eighth. The next article is Don't Miss the Benefits
24:40
You've Earned by Freddie Groves. Whether you're a veteran and
24:45
aren't certain of all the VA benefits you might use,
24:48
or if you're considering signing up with an eye to
24:51
any benefits you might get now or down the road,
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Here are a few of the typical VA benefits. Eligibility
24:59
for or a VA backed home loan. The question that
25:03
often comes up is whether the Certificate of Eligibility COE
25:07
can be used more than once. Answer yes, under certain circumstances.
25:13
If you either pay off the first loan and sell
25:16
the house, or if another veteran with their own eligibility
25:19
buys the house, you could qualify to renew your certificate
25:23
and use it again. For more info, called the VA
25:27
Loan Guarantee Service at eight seven seven eight two seven
25:30
three seven zero two. Education benefits there are multiple programs,
25:37
the most common being the post nine to eleven GI bill,
25:41
and in certain cases the spouse and children can qualify
25:45
for education benefits and career counseling as well. Call eight
25:49
eight eight four four two four five five one for
25:52
more information. And there are so many more benefits support
25:58
for a veteran owned small business, disability compensation, several options
26:03
for life insurance, disability, housing grants, pre need eligibility, determination
26:08
for burial in a VA national cemetery, aid and attendance
26:13
or housebound allowance, health care and Veteran Readiness and Employment
26:18
VR and E. Each benefit comes with its own set
26:22
of eligibility criteria, minimum active duty service, as well as
26:27
qualifying dates. One of the best benefits resources is the
26:32
twenty twenty five VIA, a Federal Benefits Guide for Veterans, dependents,
26:37
survivors and caregivers. Last word was that only a few
26:41
copies would actually be printed, so you'll likely need to
26:45
access the book online unless a veteran service organization near
26:49
you managed to snag or print out a copy. Still,
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it's worth seeing even if you have to view it online.
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The book is very well done and is very detailed.
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If you've arned the benefits, use them. And this concludes
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the reading of The Mountain Eagle. Your reader has been
27:10
billven Arsenal. Now please stay tuned for continued programming on
27:15
behalf of everyone here at Radio I. Thank you for listening,
27:18
and have a good day.