The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

The way we were

Clips from Mountain Eagle front pages over the past 50 years



 

 

Oct. 18, 1962

The Mountain Eagle is appealing for subscriptions in order to retain the right to carry legal advertisements in Letcher County. The issue of mail subscriptions arose when Dr. B.F. Wright, school board chairman, said he would have to have a list of paid subscribers to both newspapers published in Letcher County in order to determine which is qualified to publish legal statements, such as school board financial reports.

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Supporters of a proposed junior college at Blackey are urging that Letcher Countians in great numbers show up at Haymond to thank Gov. Bert T. Combs for the decision to locate a college at Blackey. The Rev. Raymond Collins said in view of revived efforts to have the school moved to Hazard, it is important that Letcher Countians be present at Haymond when Gov. Combs is there.

Oct. 19, 1972

The October Letcher County Grand Jury returned 30 indictments, including 21 on felony and 9 on misdemeanor charges.

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Preliminary plans for the proposed Fleming-Neon and Letcher High School gymnasiums and multi-purpose rooms have been presented to the Letcher County Board of Education. The gyms, designed by architect John Threadgill, will seat 1,150 to 1,200 persons for ball games and 2,000 for stage presentations.

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”It is cause for some rejoicing in the mountains that the United States House of Representatives this past week voted by an overwhelming margin for federal control of strip mining,” says an Eagle editorial. The editorial goes on to say, “It is unfortunate that the United States Senate did not prove as alert to the harm of strip mining as did the House.”

Oct. 21, 1982

The City of Jenkins has filed a lawsuit seeking to recover more than $45,000 the city claims former Mayor James F. ‘Chum’ Tackett spent “illegally.” The city claims Tackett used the money to pay “illegal” and “excessive” salaries to himself and 17 former city employees named in the complaint as co-defendants.

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Kirby Ison of Mayking has been appointed district engineer for the state Transportation Cabinet’s District 12 office in Pikeville.

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Four murder cases have been set for trial. The trial of Frank Wayne Jenkins, one of two men accused in the 1975 shooting death of William Harvey Johnson, is scheduled to open Nov. 5. Merril Gibson is to stand trial Nov. 22 in the death of 11-yearold Stella Mae Ison, who drowned. Police charge that Gibson killed her by pushing her into a pond at Greenbriar Hollow near Roxana. A murder case against 63-year-old Perry Collins will begin Dec. 6. Collins is charged in connection with the death of his brother, 71-year-old Roy Collins. A Jenkins man, William Norwood LeMaster, is scheduled to stand trial Dec. 13 on charges he shot Billy Wayne Wright to death outside Wright’s home at Dunham in 1981.

Oct. 21, 1992

South East Coal Co. is seeking permission to conduct underground mining operations in Lilley Cornett Woods, the region’s largest virgin forest tract. If no permit is granted, the company has indicated it will ask to be paid for the coal that can’t be mined. State Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet Secretary Phillip Shepherd says the state will review issues such as whether the surface-mining law should be applied to this case and whether the state is obligated to pay the company for mineral rights.

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A federal mediator called management and union negotiators back to the bargaining table to avert a threatened nurses’ strike at seven hospitals in Kentucky and West Virginia, including the hospital in Whitesburg. Talks broke off after a majority of the 445 union registered nurses rejected the latest contract offer by Appalachian Regional Healthcare. Nurses associations in both states notified ARH officials that they would walk out.

Oct. 23, 2002

Thirty-two persons, all of them either property owners or residents of Premium, have sued Nally and Hamilton Enterprises Inc., saying the company’s mountaintop removal strip mine at Premium destroyed their water supplies.

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A special judge will hear arguments in a lawsuit over the Fleming-Neon mayor’s race on Nov. 1, four days before the election. Democratic nominee Marshall Bevins filed suit against non-partisan candidate Harlan ‘Tootie’ Seals challenging his right to run for mayor. Bevins claims Seals is ineligible to run for mayor because he lives outside the city limits and because he dropped out of the race in the spring to run for state representative, an election he lost.

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Hearings will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in Letcher Circuit Court for Jerome W. Boggs and April Dawn Boggs who are accused in the shooting deaths of Timothy L. ‘Blister’ cook and his four-year-old son T.J.


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