2017-02-08

There’s gold in real maple syrup from trees tapped in Letcher Co.



Real maple syrup calls up a mental image of the Green Mountains and hardy Vermont Yankees in plaid coats and hunting caps, trudging through the snow with a bucket to tap maple trees. But some eastern Kentucky farmers think it might one day call up images from the Kentucky hills, and hearty Appalachian mountaineers. The Letcher County Extension Office held […]

Jenkins stores could sell alcohol next week



Alcohol sales could start in the City of Jenkins as early as next Wednesday following action this week by the Jenkins City Council. The council voted unanimously at its February meeting to approve the “second reading” of a new ordinance legalizing the sale of package liquor and beer for the first time since January 1944, when Letcher County voters narrowly […]

The journey from Nigeria to Kentucky

Vaught’s Views

One of the more unique football recruiting stories has to be Abule Abadi-Fitzgerald and his journey from Nigeria to the University of Kentucky. Steve Fitzgerald has been a high school basketball coach in Florida for 20 plus years. He once helped a friend find a school for a Nigerian basketball player who had been in school in Miami only to […]

Cavaliers win two



Struttin’ Time:

There’s no quitting for Hoss Collins

I love it when stories come to me about our people — the people of eastern Kentucky. I am especially thrilled to write about people I have been a friend with for a lifetime. This is such a story. For the next few weeks, Struttin’ Time will explore the world of a young Letcher County man from Thornton, Will (Hoss) […]

Sponsorship woes at SHR



The beginning of February should find every organization that competes in the Monster Energy Cup Series finalizing preparations for the season opening Daytona 500 later this month. Those preparations shouldn’t have to include an ongoing search for sponsorship, but unfortunately for some teams they still have some races where the hood of their car needs a sponsor’s logo. Stewart-Haas Racing […]

Gabby’s fishing fever

Keeping the odds in your favor

As you might expect, weather this time of year is a big factor on fish and fishing. The temperature might reach 60 degrees one day, then switch to snow and 30 degrees the next, and then be about 50 degrees the next. This season of unstable weather causes some fish, like crappie and bass, to relocate and become inactive at […]

Slower growth produces better meat at farming operation here



Tim Sanders spent 20 years in the Arizona desert before he wandered home to the lush Kentucky mountains and settled into retirement on his grandparents’ farm that he bought from the heirs. “I didn’t intend to start a business when I came back; I just intended to be self sufficient,” Sanders said. Now, going on four years since he returned […]

New steakhouse will offer ‘prime’ cuts, says owner



Ten years after opening Letcher County’s first Mexican restaurant, Charles Colwell is now establishing the county’s first “prime” steakhouse. Prime 606 Steakhouse is scheduled to open March 1 in the Parkway Plaza Shopping Center in West Whitesburg, next door to Colwell’s popular Las Peñas Restaurant, which opened in 2007. “That’s the target date,” Colwell said of the 115-seat restaurant. “It’s […]

County would lose at least 100 jobs if health act is killed



Repealing the Affordable Care Act, commonly called ObamaCare, without replacing it could cost more than 45,000 jobs in Kentucky, according to one study, and at least 100 from a single health care company in eastern Kentucky, the CEO of the company said. But that’s precisely what Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin is urging Congress to do. Bevin wrote a letter to […]