Man charged with fleeing from traffic stop
A former police officer was arrested Sunday at his Crittenden County home after fleeing on foot from a traffic stop the night before.
According to Kentucky State Police, James A. Gilkey, 34, was driving an S-10 pickup southbound on U.S. 641 near the Crittenden-Caldwell line north of Fredonia Saturday night when Trooper Darren Holliman initiated a traffic stop. Holliman said the vehicle was operating erratically on the highway.
The pickup pulled halfway off of the road and the driver got out of the vehicle. Holliman approached the driver and was questioning him when Gilkey allegedly shoved the trooper then fled into the darkness on the east side of the highway.
Holliman went after the man and called for backup. Trooper Matthew Foster and Crittenden County Deputy Greg Rushing both responded to the scene. Rushing brought along his tracking dog, but Gilkey was not located.
A warrant was issued for his arrest and Gilkey phoned police the next day and agreed to turn himself in. He was arrested by Foster at his home on Ky. 70 in Mott City, not far from where the traffic stop took place. The highway where he was stopped and the one on which he lives run parallel for a distance in that area, separated by crop fields and forestland. Police think he hid out in the woods near Livingston Creek Saturday night before going cross country to his home.
Gilkey is charged with careless driving, third-degree assault, second-degree fleeing and evading police and resisting arrest. The assault charge is a felony.
Princeton Police Department confirmed that Gilkey was a former officer there in the 1990s and was at one time shot in the line of duty. Since leaving the police department, however, Gilkey has faced a variety of criminal charges and was also arrested for assaulting and fleeing a policeman after an incident at the Caldwell County Courthouse in 2005. He was on parole from Caldwell County criminal charges when the incident occurred last weekend.

Some alternatives to Homeplace cuts
A program that provides low-income residents assistance in finding a way through the complicated maze of the health care system has been sliced to the core by the state. The $750,000 budget cut to the Kentucky Homeplace Program will drastically limit the initiative’s services, most notably eliminating the face-to-face assistance available in Crittenden and 57 other counties across the state.
The downsizing is just another result of the faltering economy and the state's declining revenues.
Earlier this month, Homeplace had funding that supported the University of Kentucky program cut by the Department of Public Health, according to Jim Tolley, director of Pennyrile District Health Department. The cut is not is only partial, but it means Crittenden, Livingston, Caldwell, Lyon and Trigg counties will lose their Family Health Care Advisors that serviced each county at least once a week.
"They were instrumental in assisting clients with prescription assistance," Tolley said of the advisors who often operate out of local health departmetns. "They offered our constituents a resource that was available here."
The reduced funding came as a surprise to both legislators and the program’s director in Frankfort, Fran Feltner. Since the announcement, she said she has fielded about 300 calls from bewildered clients.
Since it began 15 years ago, Homeplace has served 80,000 Kentuckians by acting as advocates for clients by providing information about available care, helping fill out paperwork, obtaining medications and arranging transportation to medical appointments. Free preventative care such as mammograms and pap smears for women were also found with the help of the advisors, such as Jerrell Rich, who serviced Crittenden County.
State Rep. Mike Cherry (D-Princeton) said many people in his district, which covers Crittenden and Livingston counties, used the service to obtain needed prescriptions at no cost. Feltner said clients whose cases are already in the system should follow up by calling the regional Homeplace office in Benton.
“Right now, we’re taking (cases) on a one-to-one basis,” Feltner said Tuesday, adding that delays are likely.
Cherry said in a letter to the many constituents who contacted him angry over the service's cutbacks that neither he nor others in the General Assembly had been given any advance notice of the action.
"I was shocked when informed," he said in the letter, which he shared with The Crittenden Press.
He went on to say that "healing the sick should be among the first and foremost" priorities for state officials on either side of the political fence.
The impact on Kentucky families and the economy is huge. In the last seven months, the program has saved Kentuckians $13 million statewide in medical care by averting hospitalization and finding free care for many.
“It breaks my heart,” Feltner said of the lost services.
Over that same seven-month period, 83 clients in Crittenden County have saved a combined $157,634 in medication and service costs. In Livingston County, teh savings was $95,845 between 80 clients. From July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008, the last full year of service provided by Homeplace, 129 clients in Crittenden County saved more than $320,000. To the west, 114 Livingston County clients saved almost $259,000.
Cherry said there is a possibility that the program could be fully funded again when the new fiscal year begins July 1, but that depends largely on state revenue forecasts. Feltner is expecting Homeplace to return in July.
Meantime, Tolley and Cherry have alternative numbers people may call for help. Tolley said the Western Region Homeplace office in Marshall County can be reached at 1-800-862-0603 to find out what programs are still available to qualified clients. Cherry, meantime, offers the Kentucky Physicians and Pharmaceutical Assistance Program at 1-800-633-8100 and Pennryile Allied Community Services at 1-800-264-0643. The PACS options are through the State Health Insurance Program.
"I hope we haven't seen the last of Kentucky Homeplace, and I'll do all I can to restore all or at least partial funding next fiscal year," Cherry said.
(Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this story.)

Courthouse moving to fill vactant space
When the University of Kentucky's Extension service vacates its offices in the courthouse basement in a couple of weeks, there are plenty of folks wanting its old digs.
Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown said it's not exactly certain yet what's going to happen, but it's looking like the Crittenden County Property Valuation Administrator's offices will move from the main floor of the courthouse to the basement.
PVA Ronnie Heady and his clerks would have a bit more space in the downstairs offices being left vacant by the Extension service.
Brown also said Pennyrile Area Community Services would be using another part of the basement presently occupied by the Extension service. That will allow PACS to move clothing and food service programs from the basement hallway and stairwell into an office.
The space left empty when the PVA moves downstairs will be taken by an expansion of the sheriff's department. Mandi Harrison, office deputy at the sheriff's department, said the proposed expansion could provide privacy for tax collecting and for deputies dealing with criminal and civil cases.
The current PVA offices would be used as offices for sheriff's department.
Judge Brown said the county will be losing almost $3,500 a year in rental revenue when the Extension services leaves. Extension pays $289 a month in rent. Neither of the tenants who stand to get the Extension office space are required to pay rent to the county.

Firefighters busy with weekend blazes
Area volunteers were called to battle several fires late last week, including a blaze that destroyed a Salem family's home.
Lynn and Maxine Sunderland narrowly escaped last Thursday night's fire that gutted their home. The couple, whose 13-year-old son Clint was staying with friends the night of the fire, were not injured. But the Sunderlands were left with only the clothes on their backs, said Thalia Deason, wife of Rev. Raymond Deason, pastor at Salem Methodist Church where the worships.
"They just barely got out," Thalia Deason said Monday, "but (Lynn) was able to save the family dog."
A smoke alarm woke the couple just before 2 a.m., when the fire was first reported, said Donnie Willbanks, Salem Fire Chief.
Deason said the Sundlerands have been attending the church about a year and recently became members. They are active in the church and even attended services Sunday, just three days after losing all of their possessions. The family seemed to be handling the tragedy well, she added.
"They are a blessing," Deason said. "They have been really active in our youth programs."
The family had been staying with Maxine's parents, she said, but on Monday were waiting for electricity to be hooked to a small camper they will stay in at the Kitchens Road property where the charred remains of the home lay. Deason said the Sunderlands have plans to stay in the camper until their home is rebuilt.
According to Willbanks, firefighters got the call about 1:50 a.m. By the time volunteers with the Salem and Burna fire departments arrived, the house was fully engulfed. He said the fire appeared to have started in the living room area, possibly due to an electrical problem. It took firefighters about 15 minutes in the freezing temperatures to get the blaze under control.
The Paducah Area Red Cross donated finances to allow the Sunderlands to buy clothes, shoes and other necessary items to get started over. Deason said donations to the family can be made at Salem Methodist Church on West Lion Drive. She said the church would ensure the Sunderlands get the contributions.
On Saturday, a field fire at the south end of Marion came dangerously close to reaching several homes and claimed a barn and other property in the acreage between U.S. 641 and Hillcrest Subdivision above it.
Rev. Lucy Tedrick, who lives near the end of Old Piney Road, said volunteer firefighters from Marion, Crittenden, Mattoon and Shady Grove fire department, worked feverishly in 17-degree temperatures to save the homes.
"I just appreciate all of the volunteers who came to our rescue," Tedrick said. "They had to fight, really fight it to keep it from spreading."
But the firemen could not save a barn owned by Rob Towery. The building housed a tractor, lawn mowers, a motorcycle and other equipment belonging to nearby resident Dennis Walker. Walker was leasing the barn for storage.
According to firefighter Donnie Arflack, the blaze started from a trash fire that got out of control in Saturday's 25-30 mph winds.
Tedrick said a wall of flames several hundred feet wide was moving rapidly toward hers and others' homes. It came within 200 feet of her home, she estimated.
“I will say that if it hadn’t been for the other departments’ help, we probably would have lost some houses,” said Arflack, a member of both the Marion and Crittenden fire brigades.
Mayor Mickey Alexander added accolades to the all of the volunteers. “They did a great job,” he said.
Firefighters were also busy Saturday battling field fires near Smithland, between Tolu and Salem, near Eddyville and a second blaze inside Marion. The other fire in the city broke out in a grassy area off Crittenden Drive at the same time firemen were fighting the big blaze on the other end of town.
Volunteers from Tolu and Crittenden fire departments joined to battle the brush fire on Ky. 838 near the Crittenden-Livingston County line just before noon.