2020-07-22 E-Edition

WIDER LOADS

— An old railroad bridge between the Madison Avenue area of Whitesburg and the Upper Bottom got a facelift recently as part of the effort to build a hiking and bicycling trail as a tourist attraction. The Tanglewood Trail is mostly on the old railroad right-of-way and has been a walking trail for years, but the Letcher County Tourism Commission […]

Grand jury short on members

Letcher Commonwealth’s Attorney Edison Banks had to ask for additional grand jurors from the pool used by the circuit court after some moved or left for scheduled vacations and others were deemed too at-risk for COVID-19 to serve. Under the law, a prosecutor has 60 days to bring an indictment, and the clock is ticking after months of closure due […]

County’s financial picture is growing bleak, court is told

County is short on funds; jail’s meal deal is off

The Letcher County Fiscal Court was warned of hard financial times to come at the July meeting, and bad news from the county jail and county fire departments didn’t help to brighten the picture. County Treasurer D.J. Frazier delivered the annual financial statement to the court this week, and said that the county began the fiscal year with $158,876.60 less […]

Latest indictments name 18

Grand jury names 18 in new indictments

Eighteen people are named in 30 indictments handed down by the Letcher County Grand Jury. They are: • Jeffrey Heath Hampton, 42, of 270 Lick Fork, Millstone, who is charged in two indictments. In one indictment, Hampton is accused of third-degree terroristic threatening of Roy Bentley and/or members of the Bentley household, menacing when he went to the Bentley residence […]

Judge dismisses civil rights claim against sheriff

Judge drops suit

A federal judge has dismissed the civil rights case filed by a former deputy against Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines. U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell signed the order dismissing the suit filed by Alisha Congleton last year. Congleton, who was a sergeant with the Letcher County Sheriff ’s Department when Danny Webb was sheriff, claimed in the suit that Stines […]

Struttin’ Time

Actions, reactions, and a Texas hunt

Ruby Zidaroff, my longtime teacher at McRoberts Grade School, taught me that for every action, there is an equal reaction. I have watched through the years, and she was spot on. The latest action is we have been hit with a very dangerous virus. Now for you who still don’t believe we have this virus, go ask a family member […]

UK lineman Kinnard is eager to improve

Vaught’s Views

No one grows up wanting to be an offensive lineman. Kentucky junior Darian Kinnard is confident any offensive lineman would agree with him because the more glamorous positions are what every youngster envisions he will be playing. “But once you accept you are going to be a lineman, you take more pride in being a lineman because there are not […]

Gabby’s Fishing Fever

Bass are now ‘scattered everywhere’

Bass are now scattered everywhere from shallow to deep. If you are looking for them in mostly shallow areas there are key spots with and without cover to check out. Bass will move along shallow banks in summer looking for shad and small bluegill and crawfish or anything in the water like worms and bugs. When bass are on the […]

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Call 633-7508 from 9 am Tuesday to 9 am Friday.

E-m@il address: In addition to the telephone and the U.S. Mail, The Mountain Eagle accepts comments to Speak Your Piece by electronic mail. Our address is: mtneagle@bellsouth.net . State Route 7, north and south, is a disaster for us to have to travel on. And when they come patching the holes they remind me of a hit-and-miss engine — sometimes they […]