The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

The way we were

Clips from Mountain Eagle front pages over the past 50 years



 

 

March 12, 1959

The United Mine Workers of America will hold a meeting for their membership here Sunday. UMW contracts with four ramps in Letcher County expire Monday. The ramps are Colly Elkhorn at Ermine, Elkhorn Coal Co. ramps at Mayking and Kona, and Elkhorn Junior Coal Co. ramp at Thornton.

The Letcher County Schools will have two spring vacations this year — the first being during the State Basketball Tournament on March 19 and 20. The second vacation will be April 15, 16, and 17 when the Kentucky Education Association meets in Louisville.

Glenn Ihrig, Whitesburg High School, and Delmar Adams, Letcher High School, will attend a world affairs institute for young people in Cincinnati this week.

“The Defiant One” starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier is playing at the Alene Theater in Whitesburg.

March 13, 1969

Contractor’s bids were sought today to prepare a 16-acre site in West Whitesburg for use by industry. The Whitesburg-Letcher County Industrial Foundation Inc. formally

advertised for bids in this issue of The Mountain Eagle

with bids to be opened at 11 a.m., March 28, at the courthouse.

Under intense pressure from more than 45,000 striking coal miners, the West Virginia state legislature passed a black-lung compensation law this week, and the three doctors who spearheaded the legislation drive announced plans to carry their campaign into Kentucky.

Snow fell on Letcher County again this week and county schools were closed two days.

Pork loin is 49 cents a pound at the A&P Food Store. Corned beef brisket is 85 cents a pound.

March 15, 1979

In a special, hastily called and possibly illegal meeting Monday night, the Jenkins City Council voted to increase water rates by 15 percent. The council had been planning to raise water rates since last January despite protests from Jenkins residents who questioned the need for the increase.

The Letcher County Board of Education voted Tuesday night to ask the fiscal court for help in repairing the Elk Creek-Carcassonne Road. The school bus for the area stopped traveling the road during the worst winter weather. Since the weather improved and the bus began running on the route again, two springs have been broken on the gutted, unpaved road.

The Whitesburg City Council held the first of a twopart meeting Monday night during which bids were opened for construction of a new bridge connecting the neighborhood in Upper Bottom with Madison Street. The new bridge will replace the old bridge condemned more than a year ago.

Filming of “Coal Miner’s Daughter” got under way in Blackey this week. This is the Universal Studios’ second week filming in Letcher County and scenes have already been shot in Neon and Bottom Fork.

March 15, 1989

What’s going to happen to South East Coal Co. and the people who work there? That question has been going through the minds of many Letcher Countians in the wake of a judge’s decision which could leave the company owing at least $24 million to Kentucky Utilities Co.

Nineteen persons have been sentenced since November under the county’s anti-litter ordinance. According to Letcher District Judge Larry Collins, 52 people have been cited into his court since November 1988 under the ordinance. Of those 52, 19 have pleaded guilty and 15 have not yet gone to trial.

Fire destroyed one home in Jenkins and left the entire city without outside telephone service last Thursday. Fire Chief Paul Thompson said the fire began about 9 a.m. in the home of Sam Baker, located on Improvement Branch in the Dunham section of town. He said that by the time firefighters arrived the two-story home was already engulfed in flame.

March 17, 1999

The Letcher Fiscal Court has stopped the condemnation of property beside the Whitesburg bypass and authorized Judge/Executive Carroll Smith to make a final offer of $345,000 for the 11-acre tract. Smith made the offer to the Willie Lucas heirs last week, family members have not decided whether to accept the offer. The fiscal court hopes to acquire the Lucas property and two smaller adjacent tracts for use as a Little League baseball complex.

Tampa Electric Co. officials will meet this Friday with residents from Dunham and McRoberts to listen to complaints about blasting on the company’s strip mines.

Whitesburg city officials have begun steps to sell the Whitesburg Municipal Airport.

“The Other Sister” and “The Rage: Carrie 2” are playing this week at Whitesburg Cinema.


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