News from March 12, 2009 issue

Local News
The Crittenden Press Full Version (PDF)
Stimulus could remove U.S. 641 speed bumps
The federal government’s $787 billion stimulus package aimed at pulling the nation out of a recession may have breathed new life into the completion of a new four-lane highway from Marion to Eddyville.
On Friday, lawmakers in the Kentucky House of Representatives approved a new state road plan that could shift the nearly two-decades-old hope for relocating U.S. 641 into high gear. By shifting federal money from Kentucky road projects now eligible for stimulus backing, $27 million would be made available as of July 1, 2010, for dirt work on the Crittenden County phase of a wider, straighter U.S. 641.
“This is humongous news,” Rep. Mike Cherry said Friday on his way back to western Kentucky from Frankfort, after the House approved the road plan. “This is a direct result of the stimulus package.”
A lack of adequate funding from the state has been the primary cause for delays in the project’s schedule, the Princeton Democrat said. Shifting federal money from other road projects would make the new road a federal responsibility to fund to fruition no matter the state's economic condition, he explained.
Plans are to build a four-lane highway to replace the existing two-lane U.S. 641. Relocation of the highway would begin just south of Marion and connect to Interstate 24 at the Western Kentucky Parkway.
“U.S. 641 was never going away, but it was slip, slip, slipping,” said Cherry.
If approved by the Senate, along with a measure to freeze the state’s gas tax at 22.5 cents per gallon in order to fund the ambitious road plan, Cherry said grade and drain work on Phase I of U.S. 641 could begin after July 2010. All of 5.2 miles of Phase I construction would be in Crittenden County. The rest of the road will go through Caldwell and Lyon counties and be built in a later Phase II project. Cherry said he has been assured the Senate will okay the tax and road plan this week before lawmakers adjourn for a veto period.
Conceived in the early 1990s as an infrastructure upgrade to help the local economy, a four-lane U.S. 641 has officially been on the drawing board for nearly a decade. Though much of the design work has already taken place for Phase I, funding for the project has been an ongoing delay. Already dwindling state coffers prior to the current recession had pushed back the date for dirt work.
Litigation has also been a hold-up. Three owners in Crittenden County unhappy with the price offered by the state to purchase their land for the project have taken the Transportation Cabinet to court, seeking a better offer.
The second phase of the U.S. 641 project, which is only in the initial design stages, is also included in the revised road plan for Caldwell County.
Friday’s 87-12 vote in the House to freeze the state's gas tax instead of allowing a four-cent drop tied to tumbling prices at the pump allowed for a number of other revisions to the state’s road plan.
Remaining in the plan for Crittenden County are funding for the Cave In Rock Ferry across the Ohio River and for a new state highway department building in Industrial Park North on U.S. 60.
As soon as the deed transfer is completed for the property, Cherry said, construction can begin on the new home for the county’s state road crew. The property where the current garage is located would be transferred to the Crittenden County School District.

Illegal daytime burns claim acreage, frustrate firemen
Until last weekend’s rains, the situation for volunteer firemen was reaching a critical stage as illegal daytime burning of storm debris and garbage repeatedly escaped its intended bounds.
Despite moisture that has reduced the risk of blazes, like two large brush fires late last week that burned about 50 combined acres and destroyed an outbuilding, burning between dawn and dusk remains prohibited across the state. While no charges have been filed against violators in his western Kentucky district that includes Crittenden County, Kentucky Division of Forestry Agent Don Lam said some are being asked to pay back the cost of extinguishing the fires.
“We try, if we can, to collect a suppression fee,” Lam said.
That will be the case for Shannon Travis, whose small brush fire on Coy Watson Road in rural Crittenden County was quickly fanned by high winds across her yard and into neighboring fields. Before being put out by firefighters from Mattoon, Salem, Tolu and Crittenden fire departments, the fire claimed about 40 acres of brush and threatened a neighbor’s home and nine horses fenced in a nearby field. Forestry officials were called in to help, too, creating a fire line with an agency dozer hauled in from Princeton.
That could get expensive for property owners, Lam said.
No injuries were reported from the Coy Watson Blaze or three others responded to by firefighters last Thursday. However, as illegal fires continued to spread Friday afternoon, Malcolm Hunt of Marion lost an outbuilding on his farm south of Marion. The fire, started on neighboring land off A.H. Clement Road, jumped to Hunt’s land in dry, windy conditions.
Several homes, including one belonging to Malcolm’s brother and a volunteer firefighter, Orman Hunt, were in the immediate area but suffered no damage in the 10-acre fire.
“People aren’t obeying the law,” Hunt said at the Coy Watson Road fire, just a day before his own home was threatened.
Kentucky prohibits burning of any kind between the hours of 6 a.m., and 6 p.m., from Feb. 15 to April 30. Violators of the spring forest fire hazard season law could face fines, jail time and the bill to put out the fire. However, Lam said he hates to ticket individuals who mean no harm, but charging for suppression is necessary to cover associated costs.
Neither the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department nor Marion City Police have written or plan to write citations. Sheriff Wayne Agent said Forestry is responsible for filing charges.
Paula Miniard, an emergency dispatcher, said illegal fires continued to be reported this week.

Weekend crime heats up with temps
Marion Police Department had what may have been a record weekend in regard to the number of arrests and alleged criminal activity it investigated between Friday night and Sunday.
Police Chief Ray O'Neal said the department's six-man force was busy answering a variety of complaints and it made six arrests. Charges included three DUIs, operating a vehicle on a suspended license, five drug offenses, a warrant was issued for one man accused of assaulting a juvenile, two men were sought for robbery and police responded to two domestic violence calls.
O'Neal said the springlike weather after a rough few weeks of dealing with the ice storm and its aftermath may have played a pivotal role in the spike in criminal activity last weekend.
"I don't ever remember having this much activity in that short a period of time," the chief said.
Among the most alarming incidents was a mugging Sunday night IN an alley between South Main and Moore streets. Ronnie Newcom, 31, of Marion was on foot walking along the alley between a church and an apartment complex when he was attacked and robbed by two men, one white and one black.
Authorities say that Newcom was beaten with a three-foot long club and robbed of $50. Newcom, who suffered arm injuries, was taken to Crittenden Hospital where he was treated and released. He tried to fight off his assailants, but they knocked him to the ground and took his wallet from his pant's pocket. They took the cash inside and threw the wallet on the ground before leaving on foot, running west toward the nursing home.
Officer Bobby West, who is investigating the incident, said the victim told him that he did not know his assailants. He described the white male as being 5-foot-10 to 6-foot tall, 170 pounds, wearing a T-shirt, baggy blue jeans and white tennis shoes. He said the man had diamond ear rings in both ears and tattoos on his arms. The black man was about the same size with shoulder-length dreadlocks and a patchy beard. He was wearing a T-shirt and baggy blue jeans.
Police are still investigating a fight between several juveniles and at least one adult that happened Friday night after dark near the city's maintenance garage at the end of East Elm Street. The police chief said that an incident at school Friday allegedly prompted the fight later that night.
He said police learned that the fight was to have taken place at Marion-Crittenden County Park's skateboard facility, but was moved when the underage organizers believed the cops were on to their plans.
"There were several juveniles and some adults," O'Neal said. "We have a warrant for one of the adults."
Police are looking for Donald Jacob Beck, 20, of Marion, who they say was involved in the fight. The warrant charges Beck with assault. Police say a 16-year-old boy said Beck hit him in the side of the head with his fist causing the juvenile to temporarily lose his vision. The boy was taken to Crittenden Hospital by his mother, where he was treated and released.
Following the incident, police stopped a car that was believed to have been at the scene of the fight. They said juveniles in the vehicle were detained for questioning and later released to their parents. Police found in the car three air pistols, two clubs and spray paint.

City putting unemployed to work with debris sweep
Armed with reinforcements, the City of Marion is getting ready to begin its second sweep of town, collecting ice storm debris.
City Administrator Mark Bryant said six temporary workers were hired this week to assist in the city's debris removal efforts. The workers will likely be employed for about two months, Bryant said. Most of them were displaced factory workers recently laid off from other jobs.
“We will be making one or two more trips through the city,” Bryant said. “In some areas where there are an abundance of limbs, we skipped over them, in order to stay on schedule. We will go back to those areas when we can."
Limbs are being collected by two crews and chopped up into tiny wood chips which are being piled up behind the city maintenance garage at the end of East Elm Street. The chips will be spread across property purchased last year by the city that lays behind several homes along East Elm. Bryant said water mitigation work is also being done on the property to alleviate mosquito infestation.
The city has estimated that its ice storm damage and debris removal will cost about $150,000.