| NEWS | SOURCE |
| Small Business Booming in Prestonsburg | MOUNTAIN NEWS – WYMT.COM (NOVEMBER 16, 2020, BY KIMBERLY KEAGY) |
| Floyd Leaders address COVID-19 escalation in county | FLOYD COUNTY CHRONICLES (NOV. 16, 2020, BY KIMBERLY KEAGY) |
| 80 KENTUCKY COUNTIES NOW RED ZONES | KENTUCKY LEAGUE OF CITIES (NOVEMBER 5, 2020) |
| Prestonsburg Plans meeting on Suddenlink issues | MOUNTAIN TOP MEDIA (BY RALPH DAVIS) |
| PRESTONSBURG ahead of the curve | FLOYD COUNTY CHRONICLE (BY JEFF VANDERBECK BACKYARD BANTER) |
| Floyd County BOE welcomes new School of Innovation | Floyd Chronicle photos by Austin BlankenshipSep 9, 2020 |
| Prestonsburg’s ‘Rails to Trails’ project part of virtual ribbon cutting ceremony | GIL MCCLANAHAN (WCHS NEWS) |
Small Business Booming in Prestonsburg
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (WSAZ) – The city of Prestonsburg is seeing a small business boom, welcoming three new storefronts to the area. Two clothing boutiques are already up and running, and a restaurant will open in the near future.
For Mod Chic owner, Brittany Lamb, it’s a dream finally coming to life.
” I was going to open up a store online, but I decided I wanted to do it right and open a brick and mortar first,” Lamb said. “What better location than to open the store in my hometown?”
Her store sits on West Court Street and with the foot traffic downtown, Lamb says it’s the prime location for a boutique.
Prestonsburg Mayor Les Stapleton is happy to see businesses investing in the area.
“We are just excited … especially in the middle of COVID,” Stapleton said. “We’re tickled to death to have businesses here in town, money turning over, our people enjoying this money and not leaving to go to Lexington or Myrtle Beach.”
Just down the road, Rustic Oak is a clothing boutique led by a mother and daughter duo, Sherri and Kelsi Pennington, who say shopping small goes further than the price tag.
“I think she’s learning every day what it takes to run a business, and it’s not all fun and games, there’s a lot of work to this,” said Sherri Pennington, as she teaches her daughter about the entrepreneurial process.
Floyd Leaders address COVID-19 escalation in county
With the continued escalation of the COVID-19 virus here in Floyd county, a number of the county’s leaders addressed the public Nov. 12 as area hospitals are “near capacity.”
On Wednesday, Nov. 12, a live public service address was conducted at Prestonsburg City Hall, via Facebook live, regarding the continued escalation of the COVID-19 virus. The address featured Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams, Prestonburg Mayor Les Stapleton and Floyd County Health Director Thursa Sloan as they discussed the rise in positive COVID-19 cases here in Floyd County. Last month, Floyd saw its “worst” month regarding cases, Sloan said recently and so far, it looks as though November could be on the same track
“We’ve seen a significant increase in our COVID-19 numbers,” Williams said. “Today we have 50 confirmed cases.”
The reason for the address, according to Williams, is due to officials being recently informed that area hospitals are nearly at capacity.
“We’re going to ask folks to do as much as they possibly can to stay at home and to not be out unless you absolutely have to,” Williams said. “We’ve had nearly 300 cases this month.”
Williams said the concern is that as cases increase, with hospitals in the area near capacity and central Kentucky hospitals over capacity, according to Williams, there won’t be enough beds to deal with the amount of COVID-19 patients.
Starting Nov. 13, Williams said, the Floyd County Court House will be closed until further notice. He added that hopefully it’s only for a few days, but “we have to get a handle on this as much as possible.”
According to Sloan, the already nearly 300 cases, just in November, is “huge escalation” from what was first being seen in April. As far as the county’s positivity rate, which she said the governor’s office was using for “red counties”, for the last seven days Floyd’s positivity rate was approximately 73.46.
Sloan said that with positivity rates such as that, Floyd is well past the mark to be within keeping schooling geared towards online instruction.
Sloan said that the health department is seeing positive cases trending in household and workplace environments.
“If one person in a workplace gets the virus, we’re seeing six employees, or about 50 percent, of them will get it,” Sloan said. “Same thing with families. I’ve seen households with as many as seven or eight get it, so it’s really scary when you look at those numbers.
“It’s not just scary it’s concerning,” she added.
According to Slone, people have done a good job staying within family units, however, with winter months here that strategy is not “working very well.”
Sloan also addressed the importance of quarantining and added that there’s a difference in quarantining and isolating. She added that if an individual tests positive, they need to find a room away from family members and stay there until their quarantine is up, or family members run a great risk of contracting the virus.
Sloan said that, with Thanksgiving coming up, the health department is going to be focusing on educating the public on what needs to be happening going forward, because due to the holiday, she expects a lot of issue to arise.
“We really got to try and educate people on how to try and have the safest Thanksgiving they’ve ever had because times are different and we’re living in a different age,” Sloan said.
Stapleton said that he didn’t have anything to add regarding Williams’ and Sloan’s comments.
“What it all boils down to is use common sense,” Stapleton said.” It’s that easy, use common sense.”
Stapleton did encourage everyone to use a mask and social distance if they have to be in a public setting.
“This is a problem we all have to deal with. We got to figure out how to do this and we’ll get through it,” Stapleton said. “Because we have a lot of smart people out there and they understand that there’s a problem and they’re going to work with us to fix it.”
He did add that the city’s administrative offices will be closed and if any individual needs a license application or need to pay taxes in-person, they can call and set up an appointment where they can speak to someone, socially distanced. There will also be a secure drop box located outside for individuals to use.
Sloan concluded the address stating that the health department has been informed regarding a possible vaccine ready for first responders, as early as December.
80 KENTUCKY COUNTIES NOW RED ZONES
Kentucky’s COVID-19 cases eclipsed 2,000 on Thursday, only the second time the state has surpassed that milestone in a single day. More than 1,000 Kentuckians are now hospitalized because of the virus, and the state’s death toll is currently 1,534.
Governor Andy Beshear announced the new information at his afternoon news conference. The other time Kentucky’s daily number rose above 2,000 resulted from a backlog in Fayette County. Thursday’s 2,318 cases were all newly diagnosed and brings Kentucky’s total to 115,277 since the outbreak began in March. The death toll climbed by 20, and the positivity rate was 6.50%.
Thursdays report included 80 “red” counties, areas that are being asked to follow the state’s red zone recommendations for the next week. Only two Kentucky counties are still “yellow,” and there are no green counties. The Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) designates counties as green, yellow, orange or red based on their weekly cases.
The governor stated that he intends to utilize $200 million to $335 million of Kentucky’s $1.6 billion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds to repay some of Kentucky’s $865 million federal unemployment loan. Senate President Robert Stivers (R-Manchester) released a statement supporting the decision. “We stand ready to continue the conversation on unemployment insurance and changes to state law to minimize the cost to Kentucky businesses while protecting this safety net for employees,” he said. “We urge the governor to place additional funds into the Unemployment Insurance Trust should they be available.”
To help some local businesses cope with reduced occupancy and decreased income, the governor stated on Thursday that the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) is granting a 12-month relief on the state’s alcoholic beverage renewal fees. The change is for restaurants, bars and temporary venues. The fee waiver does not apply to producers, distributors, wholesalers and others that were able to continue operations throughout the state of emergency.
Prestonsburg Plans meeting on Suddenlink issues
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — Residents of Prestonsburg have been complaining for years about the reliability of the city’s cable and internet provider, Suddenlink. Now, Mayor Les Stapleton wants to give residents a chance to tell company officials about their concerns.
Stapleton says he will invite Suddenlink officials to an open meeting of the city council, during which Suddenlink customers can share their frustrations with the service they are receiving.
Prestonsburg has tried to do this once before, but only 11 people showed up for the meeting.
During a Facebook live video to residents on Thursday, Stapleton said the city needs to make a better impression than that to get the company’s attention.
“You know, somebody just said we need a better service than Suddenlink,” Stapleton said. “I agree! But I need your all’s help so we can show people that, yes, there is an interest in making Suddenlink better, or they’re going to work with us. Another group make work with us. But again, we had 11 people at the last meeting. I need people to show up. Getting on Facebook, complaining, it’s not helping.”
Stapleton says the meeting will be held at the Mountain Arts Center, and he will announce the date of the meeting on Monday.
He also asked residents to share their issues with their cable and internet service by emailing suddenlinkissues@gmail.com.
PRESTONSBURG ahead of the Curve
I have said that Prestonsburg has been a very progressive city in Eastern Kentucky and recent events show they are leading the region.
During this hellish COVID pandemic they were ready to implement safety measures to ensure their residents are and will be safe, while they started to open their city to others to enjoy.
While in some cases COVID appears to be, in a sense leveling off, the city has started getting somewhat back to normal. However, it may take a while for complete normalcy.
In recent weeks we have seen talent at the Mountain Arts Center, Jenny Wiley Amphitheatre, the opening of the Prestonsburg Passage Rail Trail, the continued operation of the Sugar Camp Mountain Trails and so much more.
As far as education is concerned, the East Kentucky Science Center is still showing the stars and the moons to all who visit. BSCTC is instituting new courses and better preparing people for job transition and careers. Not only does Big Sandy teach trades, they offer many health care courses, one in particular is the respiratory therapy program, which prepares students for good paying jobs in health care.
Stone Crest is one of the best golf courses in the region and I have never met anyone who played there who had a bad experience.
Prestonsburg has several locally-owned restaurants that serve unique foods and in some cases, also provide entertainment. There has been a little controversy about one restaurant that has music outside, but I think the city and Mayor Stapleton is working out the details to satisfy all involved. The city and mayor have always been fair to the residents and to the businesses that choose to be in Prestonsburg.
Prestonsburg is getting back to business as usual and they are doing it safely, while offering visitors and residents the hospitality that is expected from Prestonsburg.
Next week, the Jenny Wiley Festival will fill the city streets and visitors from all over will once again appreciate the splendor that Prestonsburg has to offer.
The city has gone through great lengths to ensure safety during this event so people can enjoy music, food and fun.
The city has worked hard to prepare for this event and many people are excited to get out and be part of the festivities.
If you think there is not much to do, just go to the city’s website and you will see you have many opportunities to enjoy the glorious mountains, people and resources that make Prestonsburg one of the best emerging cities in the region.
Floyd County BOE welcomes new School of Innovation
On Sept. 2, the Floyd County Board of Education welcomed a number of state and local leaders to Martin where they held the ribbon-cutting for its School of Innovation, which will be giving Floyd County students an opportunity for hands-on focused education. The School of Innovation will serve students from Prestonsburg, Betsy Layne and Floyd County Central High Schools through partnerships with local businesses or educational institutions. Students will be able to partake in pre-engineering, computer science and heavy equipment pathways as the BOE hopes to provide alternative avenues for its students to help better prepare them for their respective futures.
Prestonsburg’s ‘Rails to Trails’ project part of virtual ribbon cutting ceremony
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (WCHS/WVAH) — The City of Prestonsburg has a new walking trail thanks to nearly $2 million from the Abandoned Mine Lands Grant Program.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers took part in a virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday afternoon from the State Capitol in Frankfort. Included in the ribbon-cutting were the Prestonsburg project and two others also paid for with AML Grants.
The new walking trail in Prestonsburg is 8.5 miles long, eight feet wide and used to be a railroad line to an abandoned mine in Floyd County.
“It means tourism. It means health. It means well-being,” Prestonsburg Mayor Les Stapleton said.
“It makes me feel included,” Adam Williamson, of Prestonsburg, said.
Because of cerebral palsy, Williamson is confined to a wheelchair. He loves nature, but due to his disability it made it difficult to be outside. The new walking trail makes that possible and he has already been enjoying the trail.
“When you can do something like that you feel a little more complete,” Williamson said. “I feel more well rounded. I feel more grounded.”
“There’s wildlife on there. I saw a mink on there one day. Minks are pretty scarce around here,” Stapleton said. “There’s beavers and beaver dams along this trail.”
Stapleton said the trail is not finished yet. Crews still need to complete work on a bridge along the trail, and signs will go up along the trail.
“We’re going to be doing some interpretive signs. A coal seam faces up on one of the rock formations. We’re going to explain what the coal seam is and how it is mined,” Stapleton said.
Crews are also adding another 1.5 miles to the trail. In the meantime, a formal grand opening for the trail is being planned for Labor Day weekend.
The Prestonsburg trail along with projects in Perry and Clay Counties in Kentucky are funded with $14 million from the Abandoned Mine Lands Pilot Grants Program.