The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Jail workers will get pay hikes, too


Letcher County Jail workers will join the rest of county employees in getting a two-percent cost-of-living raise.

Jail employees had been left out of the pay increase given to other county workers last week when members of the Letcher County Fiscal Court mistakenly thought they had already gotten raises. Jailer Burt Slone told the court at a special called meeting Monday night that some employees got promotions because he had reorganized the jail into a rank structure, but that those raises were for the additional responsibility.

“Those raises were to stand out and take care of the jail and supervise people,” he said, adding that deputy jailers now have ranks such as corporal, sergeant and lieutenant.

District 5 Magistrate Benny McCall said after hearing Slone’s explanation that he felt the court had made an error in leaving the jail employees out of the pay increase. He made a motion to correct the error, and District 2 Magistrate Sherry Sexton seconded it. The court voted unanimously for the increase.

“I apologize for that, Burt, that was probably my misunderstanding,” Judge/Executive Terry Adams said.

The court also voted unanimously to act as the pass-through agency for a Justice Bureau grant application that will pay for a study of “real-time and near real-time data” on overdose fatalities and near fatalities in the region in an attempt to better inform local and regional public health agencies and public safety agencies of the risks in their communities. University of Pikeville and Lincoln Memorial University are applying for the grant.

In other business, the court gave Judge Adams authority to spend up to $20,000 at an auction in Virginia to buy trucks for the sanitation department, paid monthly bills, and approved a list of 12 roads to be added to the county road plan. Most go to public cemeteries, but some are in residential areas, or include homes and a cemetery.

Roads added to the plan include:

Colson Cemetery Road, Isom Cemetery Road, Pine Creek Cemetery Road, Trace Fork of Smoot Creek, Combs Cemetery Road on KY 1148, Old Cemetery Road off Old Dixon School Road, McKnight-Burton Cemetery Road, Maxine Drive, Diana Blair Road, Thumper Lane, Lynville Adams Cemetery Road, and Yawn Cemetery Road.

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