The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Neon council agrees to help Little League teams pay hotel bills





Two Fleming-Neon Little League teams will have their motel rooms paid for, compliments of the Fleming-Neon City Council, as they represent the city in the Little League state championships.

The boys’ team will begin play this week in Bowling Green and the girls are playing in Paintsville. The council voted unanimously at its July meeting to pick up the hotel tabs for both teams.

Council member Karen Hall told the council it had been more than 10 years since a team from the city had been to the state, and City Clerk Janice Banks said the council had the available funds to pay the $2,325 tab.

Hall said she had spoken with officials from the Kentucky League of Cities and was told that the expenditure is legal under the state law because it benefits the public. Council member James D. Collins added that the entire community will benefit from the children’s participation. The check will be written to the Fleming-Neon Little League for motel rooms for the players only. Players’ parents will be responsible for their own expenses.

Airport Board member R.F. Kiser also visited the meeting to inform the council about progress on a Letcher County airport and to invite the public to an Airport Board meeting to be held on July 23 at the Pine Mountain Grill in Whitesburg. Kiser told the council the federal government will pay 95 percent of the estimated $12 million cost to build the airport and the county and state will each pay half of the remaining 5 percent.

Kiser also identified the three remaining possible sites – the old airport near Colson, Carbon Glow, and Stamper’s Branch off Route 7 in Isom. He said the Stamper’s Branch site is easily accessible and has room for expansion and the old airport has neither so he expects the list to be cut to two by the meeting date. Kiser said the airport will be limited to a 4,000-foot runway initially, but could be expanded at a later date, so the ability to expand is important.

Mayor Polis asked each council member to read the Utilities Report in the absence of Water Department Superintendent Carlos Phillips. Polis said Phillips had not felt well at work, possibly from the extreme heat, and had gone home. Council member James D. Collins said he was pleased the water loss had been reduced from 33 percent to 30 percent. Mayor Polis said she was happy to see it kept so low and Collins reminded the council that some nearby communities had much higher losses of treated water.

In other business:

• Police Chief Henry Day was also absent but City Clerk Banks said the proposed purchase of a new police car was included in the 2007- 2008 budget, which was presented for its second reading. The budget as amended passed unanimously.

• The council voted unanimously to deny a request from the Letcher County Sanitation Department to place a Dumpster at Gary Kiser’s place of business near the old entrance to Barlow Lake. The site includes an auction house and a video store. Council member Collins said it would make more sense for the city to get the monthly fee rather than have it go to the county. Mayor Polis said the city could not, under current law, provide a Dumpster for Kiser and he would have to get one himself.

• The council voted to set a regular fee for rental of the city’s roving Dumpster at $25 for setting and picking up the Dumpster, a deposit of $25, and $40 for each time the Dumpster has to be emptied.


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