News from Dec. 18, 2003 issue



Schools closed because of illness

A mixture of the flu and other illnesses prompted the closure of Crittenden County Schools Tuesday through Friday.

By the end of the day Monday, 271 students were absent or left county schools early as a result of sickness. Superintendent Fredericka Hargis was alerted to below-average attendance as early as Dec. 8, and monitored it through Monday when she made the decision to cancel school for the rest of the week. Athletic events will continue throughout the weekend at coaches' and principals' discretion, and final exams at the high school will be administered Jan. 7. Classes resume Jan. 5.

Attendance dipped below 85 percent at the elementary school Monday as nearly 18 percent of the school's children were out sick.

Assistant principal Karen Nasseri said the school's goal is to keep attendance at 98 percent.

By the end of the school day Monday, 104 students were out at CCES, 86 at the middle school and 81 out at the high school.

Hargis said attendance fell throughout the week last week. The attendance on Friday was 90.8 percent.

"I decided Friday to go ahead with school on Monday and put off a decision to close school hoping children would get well over the weekend," Hargis said. "But attendance started at 83.49 percent Monday and ended at 79 percent."

While funding, based on Average Daily Attendance, is a factor when a large number of students are absent, Hargis said the decision to close school was a matter of health not finances.

Each school district's five lowest attendance days are forgiven when Average Daily Attendance is calculated, the superintendent said. That helps reduce the affects on funding during outbreaks of illness or other unforeseen factors.

"You can't be an effective learner if you're not well, and you can't educate when teachers and students are feeling bad in class," Hargis said.

Options for making up the four missed days will be considered by a district committee. However, Hargis said it is premature to decide how to make up missed sick days considering we're just entering snow season. The decision to make up days rests in the hands of the board of education. That decision must be reached by May 15.


Prelude to Annexation:
City pushes for 40% surchage
Although enlarging the city's physical size is not certain at this point, there's a better chance that the issue of annexation will survive another year.

On Monday night, the Marion City Council began the process to adopt a new ordinance that would establish a surcharge on water and sewer customers who live outside Marion city limits.

Beginning next December, residents who are connected to the city's water or sewer system will be charged 40 percent more if they live outside the corporate boundaries. For those customers who generally pay the minimum water bill of $13.45, it means their monthly cost will go up to $18.83.

Likewise, the $10.10 minimum sewer bill will go up to $14.14.

Clearly, the city hopes that a premium for water and sewer outside the city limits will encourage customers in those areas targeted for annexation to join the fold. Eighty-seven property owners have been identified as having water and/or sewer from the city, but live outside its boundaries. Those residents in October were identified for annexation.

Some don't want to be part of the city and say the rate increase will only create a larger uproar by penalizing those who don't want annexation. At least two areas around Marion targeted for annexation have begun to organize petitions to try to stop it.

Robert Hill has lived on Piney Road for 40 years and says the people there who oppose annexation will fight it harder now. He and a small group of residents from the Ky. 506 area were at the November city council meeting, but did not attend this week's meeting when action was taken to implement a surcharge.

"If they want a fight, they'll get one. This doesn't change my mind a bit, it just makes me madder," Hill said when informed about the 40-percent surcharge that is proposed to go into effect Dec. 1, 2004.

"They're going to get a big stink out of this bill raising," Hill said. "It's going to cause a stir, I will guarantee you that."

Hill says he doesn't want to be annexed into the city because there are too many rules and regulations that deal with building codes and how high your grass can get before it has to be mowed.

"Anybody has a right to live where they want to live and I have never wanted to be in the city," he added.

Hill, like 40 of the 87 property owners considered for annexation, has city water piped into his home. He doesn't think that's grounds for being drawn into the city and being forced to abide by its rules and pay its taxes. He says nearly everybody in his neighborhood is against annexation and they have a petition with several signatures.

During Monday's meeting some council members said they needed more information about annexation before moving ahead. Councilman Allen Lynn said he wanted to know who among the 87 property owners did not have sewer and the feasibility of providing it to them. Also, he alluded to those now inside the city who still don't have sewer.

"I want to know who we can help get sewer to before we move on with this or drop it," said Lynn.

City Administrator Garry Barber said the city's maintenance crew has the capabilities to determine who is a candidate for sewer based on elevation, which allows sewage to gravity flow to the treatment plant. He will try to have that information by the next regular council meeting.

Councilman Ronnie "Doorknob" Hughes questioned whether the city could complete all the legal requirements for annexation by the time the proposed 40-percent water/sewer increase goes into effect next year.

"I don't see how we can do it in a year's time if we start tomorrow," Hughes said.

Bart Frazer, the city's attorney, said Hughes is right. He pointed to stringent and sometimes time-consuming legal processes that are mandated by Kentucky statute when cities grow their boundaries.

Councilman Fred Brown suggested the city have a special meeting later this month or in early January to discuss the issue further and to move ahead if there is a consensus to do so.

Burglars hit two homes in Lola
Livingston County Sheriff Tommy Williams says there is no way to know if two recent burglaries near Lola are connected other than the fact that both were in the same area and both within two days. The home of Tom Tedford on Lola Road was burglarized Dec. 10 and Garry Chittenden's home was struck Friday, two days later. Williams said the intruders broke a window in the rear of Chittenden's home to gain entrance. The primary objective of the burglars appears to be guns, Williams said, and the burglars have pulled both break-ins during broad daylight. Guns were taken in both cases, but that was about all, the sheriff said. They ransacked both homes, "probably looking for more guns or money," he added. Williams urges homeowners to keep a list of serial numbers from items in their home, which makes it much easier to recover them in case of theft. "Keep serial numbers of everything, not just guns," he said.