News from July 31, 2008 issue

Local News
The Crittenden Press (PDF)
(Selected pages from Sections A & B)
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Kimball selling 11,700 acres
One of the most unique pieces of property in Kentucky will likely be broken up into small tracts and sold at a public auction later this year.
Kimball International, the furniture company based in Jasper, Ind., owns 11,700 acres of property in Crittenden and Union counties. It's the largest contiguous, privately-owned parcel in the state at almost 19 square miles. It has more than four miles of Ohio River frontage that is above the flood plain, unusual for the Kentucky side of the river between Henderson and Paducah, and it straddles the Tradewater River for about 10 miles from near Sturgis to Caseyville. The property was previously owned by Alcoa, also known as the Aluminum Company of America, based in Pittsburgh.
Those who keep track of land values say that the Kimball property will be highly attractive to outdoorsmen. Its hunting qualities are well known. Game Trails, a nationally-known outfitter, has had the property leased for a few years and many of the biggest names in deer hunting have been there to tape hunting videos for commercial television shows and DVDs.
Ronnie Heady, Crittenden County Property Valuation Administrator, says it's prime hunting property, and he's curious to see how much it brings.
"I think it will generate a whole lot of interest," said Heady, who notes that the average farm selling in Crittenden County for its hunting or recreational value has been about $2,000 per acre.
Heady said that when paper company Westvaco divested itself of about 7,000 acres in Crittenden and Livingston counties a few years ago, it created a huge spike in demand which more than doubled the selling price of raw real estate.
While land speculators and hunting enthusiasts will be eager to get a shot at buying a few hundred acres that produce trophy whitetails, county leaders are not sure whether news of the sale is good or bad for the local economy.
"Hopefully, it will sell to someone who will do something with it instead of letting in just lay there," said Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown. "I hope someone buys it for the coal reserves and starts mining it. That's my biggest interest."
Crittenden County Coal Company leased and mined a portion of the Kimball property for several months starting two years ago. The coal mining rights were later assigned to Phoenix Coal Co., headquartered in Louisville. Gary Phillips, a spokesman for Phoenix Coal, said his company no longer has a mining lease on the property, but is still working on a reclamation project there from previous mining activities.
The Kimball property has a great deal of agriculture and timber value. Kimball originally purchased the land from Alcoa 10 years ago. Aloca had assembled the large piece of property, buying it from private owners 50 years ago for what was to be a power plant and smelting operation. That never developed and Alcoa put it on the market, asking $13 million.
Kimball wanted the land for its vast amount of standing timber, and in 1998 bought nearly all of Alcoa's original 12,400 acres. Alcoa kept a small piece on the Ohio River where there is a loading terminal.
Marty Vaught, director of public relations for Kimball, said his company's business plan has changed and it's selling off its landholdings and mills in order to concentrate on manufacturing.
"This is not going to be a fire sale," Vaught said. "This is a very significant and unique piece of property. We're going to be doing a lot of promoting and advertising."
While details have not been disclosed, it appears that the property will broken into small tracts and sold at public auction sometime this fall.
"There should be a news release with all of the details coming out in about a month, if not sooner," Vaught said.
While a great deal of the land is rugged timber country, there are about 2,200 tillable acres and 4,000 acres of pasture land, most of it fenced. A couple of Union County farmers lease the land for cattle, pasture and row cropping.
It is perhaps best known for its deer hunting. Game Trails, formerly a subsidiary of firearms and shooting accessory manufacturer Thompson Center, has held the hunting rights the past few years. The Kimball spokesman said it's unclear what will happen with the lease agreement with Game Trails or the farmers.
"Those are the things that our attorneys are looking at right now," he said.
Game Trails already has hunts booked for this fall and so far there is no indication of a change in the status for those 2008 packages.
Crittenden County's judge-executive hopes another coal mining company will be interested in buying at least some of the property and reopening the surface mine. Crittenden County receives at least $1 million a year in coal severance benefits if coal is mined within its borders.
People familiar with the coal reserves on the Kimball property say that it is high BTU coal with a unique market value. The only problem is that it's hard to mine and there isn't too much of it. However, as energy prices soar, Brown said, the value of coal will continue to rise. It's currently selling for about twice as much as it was two years ago.
Michele Edwards, the tourism director in Marion, said the sale of the Kimball property creates some great opportunities for outdoors activities, especially those being pushed right now through Kentucky's Adventure Tourism efforts.
"There are no public lands in this county for hunting or other outdoor uses," Edwards said. "If the state owned public use property in this county it would definitely help tourism and it would give local people some opportunities that they don't have otherwise."
Edwards said that Paddy's Bluff drew thousands of visitors each year before it closed. A privately developed ATV park might be a profitable option for some of the Kimball property, she said. The state's Adventure Tourism law provides some potential for funding and also limits liability for landowners that allow public use of their property.


Merrick new CCHS principal;
Evanko is assistant at school
Just one week before classes return to session in Crittenden County, the high school finally has its new leadership in place.
Todd Merrick has been named Karen Nasseri's successor as principal at the school, almost two months after Nasseri took a position as director of special education for the district. Merrick has 21 years in education, first arriving in Crittenden County in 1990 as a high school English instructor. He has also served the district as consultant for the state board of education and assistant principal at the elementary school for two years.
Last year, Merrick left the district to serve as principal of the elementary school in his native Caldwell County. After only one year in Princeton, he’s happy to be working at home again.
“I'm glad to have the opportunity to come back to the district,” Merrick said Monday.
Though Merrick has less than a week remaining before 400-plus teenagers begin making their way to home rooms, he’s undaunted by the short preparation time.
“There’s never enough time,” he joked. “It’s going to take a few days anyway.”
Merrick will have some help in the person of Kathy Evanko, whom he chose as his assistant principal.
Evanko, of Paducah, replaces Steve Head, who resigned his post at the end of the school year to relocate to Georgia.
Merrick, in fact, knows Evanko well. While he was working for the Kentucky Department of Education as a consultant for two years before becoming an assistant principal at CCES, the two had adjoining offices.
“I know her well and know her qualifications,” Merrick said of his deputy.
Evanko is also familiar to the district, in particular the middle school. In 2006, she was hired to assist the school with its Commonwealth Accountability Testing System through the state’s Highly Skilled Educator (HSE) Program. While at CCMS, she served as a resource for in-house consultation, giving advice to teachers and students.
As principal, Merrick wants to ensure his students – whether they attend college or join the workforce after graduation – are ready for real-world experiences.
“I want to empower our staff to provide the kind of education for students to prepare for higher education or careers,” he said. “They need to be ready for some kind of training beyond high school.”
Compared to just 18 years ago when he arrived in Crittenden County as a language arts instructor, Merrick said the challenges facing high schoolers and their teachers are much greater now.
“They have so many more interests,” he said. “Everything has changed so much.”
Some social changes, too, are hurdles more prevalent than when he was in school as a teenager in Graves County.
“More kids don’t have the stability (at home) we grew up with,” he said. “And so many want to know why they are told to do something.”
Merrick lives in Marion with his wife Regina, who is director of Crittenden County Public Library. She is also a former teacher. The couple has two daughters; Emily, who is a second-year college student; and Ellen, an eighth-grader at the middle school.
Evanko is one of 42 certified highly-skilled educators in Kentucky, and also has 21 years in education, primarily as a science teacher.


Judge moves Damron trial to Webster
Circuit Judge Rene Williams has ordered the Ronnie Damron burglary and sodomy trial moved to Webster County next month due to publicity generated through articles in The Crittenden Press.
Damron's case is set for a third trial on Aug. 28-29 in Dixon.
He has twice been tried for the Oct. 30, 2002, burglary and sexual assault of an elderly woman in the Deer Creek community. The first trial in 2006 ended in a mistrial because the jury failed to render a verdict. Damron was convicted in the second trial in 2007 and sentenced to 70 years in prison. However, that jury's decision was overturned due to a technicality in the jury selection process.
The victim, who was 64 at the time of the incident, has twice testified in court that she knew Damron and that he was the man who shined a flashlight in her face, robbed and assaulted her on her own bed.
Damron has been the Kentucky State Police's only suspect throughout the investigation. He claims that he was in another county at the time.
Damron's public defender, Brad Shuffett, had requested a change of venue, but said that his client did not want the case moved to Webster County because that is where the judge lives. Williams found that argument unwarranted, maintaining in her recent ruling that Webster County meets the requirements set forth by Kentucky law when such cases are moved out their normal jurisdiction.
"In light of the fact that this case has previously been tried twice in Crittenden County and detailed accounts have appeared in the local newspaper and that both the alleged victim and the defendant are from Crittenden County, the Court finds that a change of venue is warranted in order for all parties to receive a fair trial," Judge Williams wrote in her order to move the matter to a neighboring county.
Williams presides over circuit court in Crittenden, Webster and Union counties. All pre-trail hearings in the case will be held in Crittenden County.

Chocolate sensations help fund documentary
The nearing culmination of almost two years of filming and interviews will be sweet reward for those backing filmmaker Sam Koltinsky’s chronicle of Crittenden County. But for Percy Cook, the first fund-raising event to support the documentary-making may have been even sweeter.
Cook admittedly foundered himself on chocolate and coffee last Thursday evening, sampling everything from smothered peanuts to German chocolate cake while strolling through Chocolate Heaven. Billing itself as dessert nirvana, the chocolate buffet last week at the Marion Woman’s Club did more than satisfy the sweet tooth of Cook and a few dozen others; it also raised a considerable amount of money toward the $50,000 needed to fund Koltinsky’s filming.
“It was a successful undertaking,” said Judy Winn, a member of the 88-year-old social club and Fohs Hall Documentary Committee, two of the sponsors of Chocolate Heaven.
Cook, a member of the Crittenden County Historical Society, the third-sponsoring party for the dessert buffet, was also satisfied with the event, though his mind seemed to be on a different page than Winn’s.
“All of it was so good,” he said as he patted his belly.
The money raised will go toward the documentary film, which is currently in production and will be part of a series called “My Kentucky Home.” Crittenden County is the ninth subject of Koltinsky’s films in the series, joining those on other rural counties, including the videographer’s native Caldwell County. He said KET may begin airing the series as early as the spring of 2009.
Many of the interviews conducted for the film over the last few months have been with senior residents of the county, a few approaching or having passed 90. Winn believes the documentary will be a great way to preserve a piece of Crittenden County history through their stories that may otherwise be lost. And a plethora of footage of the county’s natural beauty plus those interviews will ensure the best-possible end product.
“I’m glad it’s not my choice to decide what’s in there,” Winn said.
“Crittenden County has such a diverse history,” Koltinsky added, citing agriculture, the Amish community, Ohio River lore, the fluorspar industry, and unique arts and crafts shops around Marion.
Though filming and fund-raising efforts are still incomplete for the video, delivery of the hour-long movie by the end of the year is the target by both Koltinsky and local underwriters.
“We would like to get it done this fall so we can have it available for Christmas gifts,” said Winn, one of the individuals who got the project started two years ago under the coordinating agency of Fohs Hall, Inc.
Koltinsky, in town for the fund-raising event, said last week he still has interviews and footage to shoot before wrapping up the film and making a final edit. The Princeton videographer is looking to highlight the county’s beauty through its fall colors and varied terrain.
“This year, the colors of the landscape have been so much more beautiful,” he said, anticipating a more vibrant autumn after last year’s drought-plagued season.
At this point, almost two-thirds of the goal to fund the film has been raised through private donations. The dessert buffet take will be added to the $32,000 already collected, but Winn and others touting the documentary will continue to look for private donations.
“This was really the only fund-raiser we have had,” she said of Chocolate Heaven. “We’ve been going to individuals and raising money that way.”
Winn said no other fund-raisers are planned at this point, but she expects more to come. Meantime, Koltinsky was impressed with the latest effort.
“This is a unique, great way to raise money for the film,” he said.
Donations to the film project can be sent to: Fohs Hall Documentary, P.O. Box 1, Marion, KY 42064.