News from December 4, 2008 issue

Understanding community’s excitment
during playoff run not Rocket science
Crittenden County fans are down-right giddy this week. Their Rocket football team is among the remaining four in the Class A football playoffs. It’s a feeling reminiscent of 1985, conjuring a sense of jubilation.
“We want to blanket the town blue,” said Teena York of Louise’s Flowers, who has been handing out royal blue bows this week to homeowners and businesses.
“It’s the least we can do; they’ve done so good this year,” she said.
Teena and her mother Louise began Saturday night making blue bows, publicizing their freebies and literally doing “homework” to keep up with demand early this week.
A sendoff fit for royalty will climax today (Thursday) as the Rockets get ready to head toward their northern Kentucky showdown with Beechwood, the defending Class A champions and a football powerhouse. A public pep rally featuring many of the 1985 state championship team members will be held at Rocket Arena at 10 a.m., before the Rockets pay a quick visit to the smallest of fans at the elementary school. Then, the team will board a chartered bus and make a pass through downtown before turning toward Fort Mitchell and a 300-mile trip to the state semifinals, which kicks off Friday at 6:30 p.m., Central time. A radio broadcast on WMJL 102.7 FM will begin its broadcast 30 minutes before the start of the game.
School is being dismissed district-wide at 11:30 a.m., Friday so those who wish to travel to the playoff game may do so. The school has scheduled two fan buses for the trip. Anyone from the community may ride the bus for a $30 fee. It leaves from the school parking lot at 11:30 a.m., today.
The team will spend tonight at a motel in Florence, just a few miles from the stadium. Then on Eastern time, there will be a 7:30 a.m., team breakfast Friday, then a trip to the Newport Aquarium. The pre-game meal at Golden Corral is at 1 p.m., right before a walk-through practice on the artificial turf field of Beechwood’s home field. The team will break for rest until the players check out of their motel and head to the stadium at 4 p.m.
Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown said the community is swelling with pride.
“In these economic times, we need something positive to talk about,” he said. “Pride is not just about coaches and players, but about our community in general.”
The excitement over the Rockets being in the final four of high school football is evident from the barber shops to the banks.
So what is it about a football team that can spark such energy and excitement?
“Seeing the community talking about the team and the building excitement with each win is bringing back memories from 1985, and much like now, times were pretty tough back then for most of Crittenden County,” remembers Zac Greenwell, a member of the 1985 state championship team and a voice of the Rockets on WMJL. “We had gone through the inflation of the late ‘70s, and interest rates had been up for several years. There had been many foreclosures and people had lost jobs.
“Having a team to get behind was just what the community needed to take its mind away from other things less pleasant. Much like then, many people have lost their jobs with all of the plants that have recently shut their doors. This team has given the community something good to take our minds off of the struggles that many are experiencing.”
There is plenty of reminiscing about the school’s only football championship, and the excitement is contagious. Many can't help but compare the ‘85 and ‘08 teams.
“I think the two teams are similar because neither have superstars, just a bunch of guys who work and don’t care about any statistic except the end result of the team winning,” said Denis Hodge, from his unique perspective as a member of the 1985 team and current assistant coach for the Rockets.
“This team has shown so much character on and off of the field,” Hodge said. “I have never been prouder of a group of young men.”
The excitement is different for him now than it was 23 years ago.
“The emotion as a player is different because I was just excited for myself (in ‘85), but as an adult, I am excited for the young men, their parents and the community.
“The community support is very important to the players, but the truth of the matter is our kids would play hard in the back yard in the freezing cold with no one watching. That is why they have been successful, and that is why they will be successful in life.”
Head football coach Al Starnes says until this week he could only dream of what it must have been like to have been here in 1985 for the state championship. Now, he knows.
“The support and backing from this community is phenomenal, and the players appreciate it,” he said. “They drive down the street and see the messages on marquees and someone even put a ‘Go CC’ in Christmas lights in front their home on the south side of town. That type of support means more than I can put into words.”
Starnes said the players are proud of their accomplishments to date and desire more. He said anyone who has ever put on a Rocket jersey has a stake in the program and its success.
“Our fans and supporters – some who have never worn a helmet – are all so much a part of this, too,” Starnes said.
Todd Berry is watching the Rockets with a dual sense of pride. He was a lineman on the 1985 team and now shows up every Friday to cheer on his son, junior lineman Aaron Berry.
“It feels great to be on the other side, the community support is exciting, and this has brought the community together,” Berry said.
Berry doesn’t talk to his son about a state championship berth, but instead they keep their football focus on the next game. But make no mistake, it’s in the back of everyone’s mind.
“We have full intention of winning a state championship and will be happy with nothing less,” Hodge said. “Glory is in victory, honor in preparation, competition, hard work and the courage to compete. Glory fades fast but honor is for a lifetime.”

Child support collections increasing
Deadbeat parents in Crittenden County are becoming a rarer breed.
In the last 15 months, the county’s statewide child support rankings have jumped from 102nd among the state’s 120 counties to rank among the best collections efforts in Kentucky.
“Since the end of the fiscal year, we have increased our ranking to 11th in the state overall and third in the state in both collections of current child support obligations and child support arrears,” said Crittenden County Attorney Rebecca Johnson.
The improvement was so drastic, Gov. Steve Beshear recognized Johnson and her collections staff of Brenda Croft and Micki Crider at a recent conference in Lexington. In fact, the trio were given with the Outstanding Improvement Award.
“(Beshear) singled out Crittenden County as one county which, despite having only two child support workers and one of the smallest budgets in the state, was doing an excellent job in child support enforcement,” Johnson said.
The award was based upon the local office’s ranking of 48th in the state the end of the fiscal year 2008.
Johnson credits some of the success with moving the child support office from cramped, dank quarters in the courthouse basement into the county attorney’s office on West Bellville Street. She also credits local law enforcement for helping locate delinquent parents, as well as Commonwealth’s Attorney Zac Greenwell for allowing the county attorney’s office to handle flagrant non-support cases from the filing of charges to trial.
But she saves the highest accolades for closer to home.
“The real credit for our success goes to Brenda and Micki,” Johnson said. “They are very bright women who have worked tremendously hard to create an excellent child support program.”
Johnson said it is her goal for the county to maintain top 10 status for collections. And it’s not for the recognition but for what really matters.
“It translates into more money for custodial parents in Crittenden County to raise their children,” she said.

Thailand vacation changes to ‘mess’
Thom Hawthorne is just hoping to be home for Christmas, as are Paula Collins and Larry Starr. Actually, the trio from Marion were hoping to be home by Thanksgiving before political unrest put a halt on their plans.
Hawthorne, Collins and Starr have been stranded in Thailand now more than three weeks, awaiting protesters to relinquish their grip on Bangkok's airport. The siege, which began the very day the three were to fly out of the Thailand’s capital, was aimed at ousting the country's ruling parties and left the three among the more than 300,000 travelers forced to endure an extended stay in the Orient.
“Things here could be better,” Hawthorne told The Crittenden Press Monday by email “The airport is completely shut down and people are trying to find other ways out. It's a real mess.”
Less than 12 hours later, however, word came that the blockade of the airport by protesters had apparently worked. Thailand's Constitutional Court on Tuesday dissolved the nation's top three ruling parties for electoral fraud in the 2007 vote that brought them to power.
Hawthorne's mother, Sandra Hawthorne, has been awaiting her son's return since the day before Thanksgiving, when he, Collins and Starr were scheduled to return home from southeast Asia. Speaking to The Press Tuesday, she said it now looks promisig that all three will be home by Christmas.
"That would just really make it nice," she said. "We're just grateful that it ended."
For Hawthorne, the trip has been a sort of working vacation, assisting Collins with her china painting classes that have taken the couple around the world. Starr joined his friends for a vacation from his work as a conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Marion and Salem offices.
"Larry was supposed to be back to work the day after Thanksgiving," Sandra said.
"He has a lot of work piling up at home," Thom said in his email of Starr.
Hawthorne and Collins have the fortune – or perhaps misfortune – of owning their own businesses in Marion, Marion Café and Paula's China Shoppe, respectively. While the two have only to answer to themselves, their work, too, has been piling up from their extended stay.
The prolonged holdover for the three has been better than for many others, said Sandra, grateful that her son and friends were never in danger, able to stay in safe house away from the airport.
"He assured us from the very beginning that they were okay," she said of her son. "At the airport it was different. They were warned before they went that (first) morning."
The airport had a Woodstock-like feel, she explained, with food vendors and musicians. However, occasional violence between protesters and opposition left seven dead and dozens injured.
"We are safe here at Paula's daughter's house," Thom e-mailed Tuesday, expecting to wait out the siege for as long as two more weeks. "The embassy said to stock up on food and water."
Besides staying with Collins' daughter, who works for the U.S. government in Thailand, one of Collins' art students put the local trio up in her beach house for a period.
Air traffic in Bangkok resumed at the airport Tuesday, with incoming and outgoing cargo flights scheduled. Still, it could take some time before security and clean-up of the facility allow for travelers to begin heading back home.
Whether the three make it back to Marion before Santa arrives, Sandra Hawthorne's Christmas wish has still came true.
"The most important thing is that they were never in danger," she said.

School officials keeping promise of open communication
When Dr. Rachel Yarbrough took over as superintendent of schools in July, she promised an open line of communication between herself and district personnel, and more importantly, between district administrators and the community. Recent efforts have proven she intends to keep that pledge.
Struggling to stay warm in the frigid air of what was once a bustling elementary school cafeteria, Yarbrough, other administrators from Crittenden County’s school district and board of education members joined parents last month at the Tolu Community Center for a forum addressing concerns and issues within the district. The topics ranged from busing to bugs.
“These opportunities allow us to engage members of the community into meaningful conversations about strengths of our schools/district and suggestions for improvement,” Yarbrough said of the effort, the second of what she has dubbed Crittenden County Community Conversations, or C4 Sessions.
The district took the latest C4 Session to Tolu Nov. 21, drawing a scant few caretakers of children. An earlier session in Marion drew even fewer, but the superintendent plans to continue the forums and expects participation to grow.
“We need to always keep the lines of communication open to people who have a vested interest in the type of educational system that Crittenden County offers,” she said. “With each new C4 Session, I hope to present new information about our progress toward meeting the goals that have been set.”
Chris Cook, chairman of the elected board of education, has attended both C4 Sessions, as has fellow board member Eric LaRue. Both believe the sessions are helping to move the district toward those goals.
“Anytime you get parents involved, it helps us to achieve our goals,” said Cook, who believes the less formal sessions are more inviting for parents to share their comments than monthly board meetings.
Two parents who have attended both C4 Sessions are Kory Wheeler and Denette Moore-Wynn. Each had numerous questions answered during the earlier C4 Session, yet their continued participation encourages Yarbrough for the future.
“I think it is good to have parents who attend multiple C4 sessions,” she said. “They begin to understand the progress the district is making toward setting a higher bar for education, and they can see firsthand the open dialogue that we are trying to establish.”
Two Tolu-area caretakers of school-age children were also on hand at the November session. They were able to share their issues of interest with educators over a bowl of chili and pimento cheese sandwich. Both got answers to their questions, which covered transportation, lice and the learning environment within the elementary school, and both went home with a better understanding of the issues.
Speaking to concerns with policies addressing lice at the elementary school brought forward by parent Jessie Champion, Yarbrough said the most recent community conversation worked just as intended.
“It is a frustrating situation for the parents of students identified (with lice) but when parents understand all that the school is doing to act in a preventative manner, then I feel they better support the efforts,” she said. “I saw this firsthand at the C4 Session. Information helps to dissolve any rumors or misinformation.”
Though the Tolu C4 Session was the last planned for this year, more are sure to come in 2009.
The board of education next meets at 6 p.m., Dec. 16. The meeting will be in the middle school library.

Livingston records lowest jobless rate
While Livingston County had the state's lowest unemployment rate in October, jobless rates continued to rise in Crittenden and 111 other Kentucky counties between October 2007 and October 2008, according to the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training, an agency of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet.
Aside from having the busiest workforce in the state, Livingston and five other counties saw unemployment rates fall over the same period, Two of the 120 counties in the state reported the same jobless rate when comparing the two months.
Livingston and Fayette counties recorded the lowest jobless rates in the commonwealth at 4.6 percent each. Other counties with low unemployment rates were Ballard, Warren and Woodford counties at 5 percent each. Jackson County recorded the state’s highest unemployment rate — 10.1 percent.
Meantime, Crittenden County's unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in October 2008, up from 4.7 in October 2007 but down from 6.4 percent in September 2008. Workers left without jobs due to layoffs in late October from the Rayloc plant in Morganfield will not