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Letter to editor: Martin County’s future depends on clean water
Editor: I am now in my 80s, and the water in Martin County has had unnumerable problems for over 60 years. I love my hometown. The people here have done an incredible job in beautifying it, and I would love for it to become a wonderful tourist attraction. But before that can happen, there must
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Dear Editor: Thanks to county road crew
Dear Editor: I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Mr. Eric Phelps, Mr. Titus Marcum, and the county road employees for cutting the weeds up Poplar Fork along the ditch lines and creek banks, as needed. They did an outstanding job which allows the road to look so much better/different. I’m sure
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What’s the drip?
BY MADISON MOONEY Hello Martin County residents. My name is Madison Mooney. I work for the nonprofit LiKEN Knowledge (short for Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network) as their community care coordinator. I have been doing water-related work with LiKEN for over four years here in Martin County. Between my time with LiKEN and the prior four
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Letter to Editor: Dredging streams might prevent future problems
Editor: Twenty years ago I worked as a newspaper reporter in Logan, West Virginia, which suffered from a seasonal flooding problem. After much discussion a dredging project was approved. Because of this project the county went for about seven years before that area flooded again, where it used to flood annually. We recently had a
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Letter to Editor: Response to McCool
Editor: This National Recovery Month, Kentucky State Representative Bobby McCool decided to write about addiction recovery. While he is right that substance abuse is one of Kentucky’s biggest challenges, the truth is that the challenge is about to get even bigger. Most Kentuckians have seen firsthand how difficult it can be to help someone fight
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‘Ain’t America grand?’
Editor: The Cambridge Dictionary defines “gullible” as being easily deceived or tricked and too willing to believe what other people say. Americans must surely be the most gullible people on the planet. We pay a big price for jeans that are ripped to shreds and call it fashionable. We work for multinational corporations for free
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Call to Action: USED will harm schools and districts
BY DR. ROBBIE FLETCHER COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION On Friday evening, March 28, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent an email to all state education agencies notifying us that the U.S. Department of Education (USED) is changing the deadline it previously provided to liquidate COVID relief funds to end at 5 p.m., this past Friday,
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Superintendent Larry James to the Martin County School Board
January is School Board Recognition Month and I would like to express my appreciation to the members of the Martin County Board of Education and recognize them for their service and dedication to the students of Martin County. In Martin County, our community values a quality education as an important step along the pathway to
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Martin County making war on the poor
Editor: I read with dismay and great disgust of one Larry Oaks, a poor disabled veteran, who is being hounded to bankruptcy by our county officials simply because he cannot afford to clean up his place. How can it be that Martin County, the place where the War on Poverty began, now is making war
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A preventable tragedy at Pontiki/Excel coal tipple
The collapse of the Pontiki/Excel coal preparation plant last fall in Martin County, which resulted in the deaths of Alvin Nees and Billy Joe “Bo” Daniels, was a catastrophic consequence of negligence, flagrant disregard for safety regulations and the lack of moral and legal responsibilities. A litany of failures As a report by Kentucky Lantern










