News from July 31, 2003 issue


Judge orders Gilland to turn over guns
The prosecutor and defense attorney argued different interpretations of a Kentucky law last Thursday during Jailer Jerry Gilland's preliminary hearing on charges that he profited while operating a canteen at the jail last year.

Hearing sufficient evidence to warrant a trial, Special Judge Keith Myers remanded the case to a Crittenden Grand Jury which will meet Aug. 5.

Kentucky State Police Det. Robert Melton, who investigated allegations against Gilland in June 2002, testified that Gilland used his own money to start up a canteen at the jail. The investigation alleged that the operation then became self-sustaining and perhaps even profitable.

The detective said Gilland collected between $100-$150 a month on the sale of drinks.

Special Prosecutor Brucie Moore said Kentucky law prohibits a public official from benefiting or profiting from a canteen at a public place like the jail.

Gilland's attorney Don Thomas of Benton said the jailer used his personal funds to start up the canteen and therefore did nothing wrong.

"There is no evidence he used any public funds and he was never written up by the Department of Corrections," Thomas told Judge Myers.

Moore, the special prosecutor form Morganfield, said the jailer should not have used jail inmates as customers to earn extra cash for himself.

"A jailer may operate a canteen for the benefit of recreation for prisoners," she said, alleging that Gilland did not spend the money for the benefit of inmates. Moore said the jail in Union County, for example, operates a canteen, but it is governed by a local board and keeps proper records that indicate how proceeds are spent.

Some local county officials were expecting a plea agreement last week, but Thomas said Gilland was not prepared to plead guilty "to something he did not do."

"He took some money home, but it was his money," Thomas said after the hearing.

Profiting from public funds is a felony, punishable by 1-5 years in prison. Gilland also faces charges of malfeasance of office. The investigators also allege that he was abusing prescription medicine while overseeing the jail, which is a misdemeanor.

Additionally last Thursday, Gilland was arraigned on one count of wanton endangerment stemming from an incident in early July in which he fired a shot from a handgun in the direction of his daughter's boyfriend.

Judge Myers set a preliminary hearing for 9 a.m., Aug. 22 on that charge.
The prosecutor asked for Gilland's bond to be increased. Myers denied that request and instead ordered Gilland to forfeit to the Marion Police Department any firearms in his possession.

 

Hill recalls LST days in Pacific
When the LST-325 passed down the Ohio River in front of Cave In Rock and along Crittenden County shoreline Tuesday night about midnight, there was no one to wave to the crew or no bands playing on shore.

Tuesday's voyage past old Dam 50 and Hurricane Island was quite uneventful in the middle of the night at 9 mph en route to Paducah.

However, music and another LST have quite an interesting local tie. Harold Hill, 83, of Marion was stationed aboard an LST, which is an acronym for Landing Ship Tank, during World War II. Hill said his ship was like the one on tour along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers this summer.

In 1944, en route from Evansville to the Gulf of Mexico, Hill called his mother and asked for some records.

He recalls that his mom gathered up a box of old musical disks, including Glenn Miller and Bing Crosby songs, and a friend stood on the edge of the dam and handed them to him on the ship as it locked through old Dam 50. It would be two years before he would come back to Crittenden County after the war.

Hill, who joined the Navy in the spring of 1942, spent over a year on LST-821 as it went from New Orleans through the Panama Canal and stopped briefly in San Francisco before island hopping across the south Pacific during the later stages of World War II.

"We picked up men from the 77th Infantry Division from the Philippines and were taking them to Okinawa when the armistice was signed," said Hill.

A watchman aboard the LST as it and a convoy of other warships traveled through enemy-laden waters, Hill said he got his fill of the LST and doesn't plan on visiting it this weekend in Paducah.

"I'm not interested in it. I got my fill of it while I was on the ship for nearly two years," he said. "I learned all I wanted to know about the LST."

A gangly, flat-bottomed boat capable of carrying several tanks and other large equipment, the LST on display in Paducah was about to be scrapped in Greece when a group of World War II veterans saved it. The ship was restored and is now making a memorial tour through the heartland of America.

While Hill has no interest in reliving his experience from the war, he does credit his enlistment for bringing together him and wife Ruth. She was also in the military and both were discharged in 1945. Next year, they will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

"We got married in New Orleans in 1944 and when I got home we met in Memphis for a second honeymoon," said Hill, whose wife was stationed at Norfolk, Va.

New business is rock solid
Someone once said there's more profit in rocks than rockets. That's what Donnie Taylor and his partners are banking on as they take unique sandstone from Crittenden County and sell it all around the country.

Conceptual Stone, Inc., has been mining sandstone in far western Crittenden County for about three months. Its quarry is located off Ky. 723 about four miles north of Salem. The old quarry has been operated at times in the past, but not to the degree Conceptual Stone is mining it.

"We're selling all across the country," said Taylor, who was at the Crittenden County Chamber of Commerce office this week to receive the company's First Dollar Award.

The award is presented to new businesses. Jeanne Hodge, executive director for the Chamber, made the presentation.

Taylor, the quarry manager, is a lifelong Crittenden County resident and formerly operated Taylor Gas and Oil on U.S. 60 West. There are other partners in the mining operation.

"We will sell them one at a time or by the tractor-trailer load," said Taylor of the sandstone rocks being taken out of the earth. "What makes them so unique is the color and texture."

The rock types are Osage, a highly textured sandstone with white beds and soft touches of burnt red coloring across the surface, and Nez Perce, a consistent white to off white sandstone with small dots across the surface which provides an unusual design with smooth, even beds.

The stone is being marketed and sold as architectural grade material. Taylor said customers are using it for a variety of applications from poolside landscaping to retaining walls.

Prices vary from $60 to $140 a ton based on variety and volume.
The company currently employs six full-time workers at the surface-mine quarry. Taylor said that plans now include an expansion project which could double the number of employees the company will need in the future.

He also says that a distribution center for other types of sandstone is on the drawing board. The company is working with the Crittenden County Economic Development Corporation to secure an incentive package that would help it expand here, Taylor added.