Image 1 of Mountain eagle (Whitesburg, Ky.), April 14, 1966

J J l'IWbe?fch Han'srfrf MOUNTAII IT SCREAMS! u. EAGLE Whitesburg, Letcher County, Kentucky, Thursday, April 14, 1966 Vol. 58, No. 48 Tax raise seen Higher school taxes appear to be in the offing for Letcher County A citizens committee asked by the Letcher County Board of Education to help It find ways of obtaining more funds to build and operate schools In the county has recommended: 1. That the board take the 10 per cent Increase in property taxes made possible this year and rcxt year at a special session of the legislature and apply all proceeds to teachers' salaries. 2. That the board levy whichever of three permissive taxes authorized by the legislature will bring in the most money and apply tnat money to buildings under a priority list recommended several years ago by the state. Members of the Neighborhood Youth Corps look on as County Judge James M. Caudill signs an order proclaiming "Neighborhood Youth Corps Week" in Letcher County. The students are (left to right) J Day, a Cynthia cook, a senior at Fleming-NeoRegina Sergent, a senior at Fleming-Neosenior at Kingdom Come; Donald Sexton, a senior at Letcher; Bob Fisher, a junior n; n; Youth corps project honored school buildings. This is "Neighborhood Youth Corps Week" in Letcher County, proclaimed by County Judge James M. Caudill to honor an anti -- poverty agency which will observe its first anniversary in the county May 10. The youth corps employs 355 high school boys and girls for 10 hours a week at $1.25 an hour. It permits them to earn money to stay in school when otherwise many of them might have to drop out because they did not have money to buy clothing or textbooks or meals. All boys and girls who take part in the program come from families which have an income of $750 or less each year for each person in the family. Youth corps memDers are chosen by committees of faculty members at their high schools. Twenty-eighigh school dropouts have been able to return to school as a result of the youth corps program. All youth corps members work for some public or ht non-pro- fit During the past year they have: Painted the interiors of five Built bleachers, dugouts and concession buildings at two schools. Helped landscape grounds at several schools. Painted four lunchrooms. Developed a playground at one school. Provided janitor service to 14 small schools which previously had none and janitor assistance at all consolidated schools. Served as cafeteria aides for the larger schools and during the summer Head Start program. Served as safety patrolmen at school crossings. Served as clerical aids in most public offices and all county high schools. Served as library aids in all high schools, he public library and many co.nmunity center libraries. Serveu as teacher aids in adult education programs, high schools and elementary schools. Processed ana distributed clothing for the needy, sewed clothing for the needy and made a county-wid- e survey to find the number of poor familiesall under supervision of the Letcher County Economic Opportunity Committee. Worked for the Appalachian Re- - Poverty staff hired Ottis Amburgey, a lifelong resident of Letcher County, was employed this week to direct the war on poverty here. Amburgey has been assistant director of the county program for the past year. Amburgey wa s hired by the Letcher County Economic Opportunity Committee Inc., the focal agency responsible for conducting the war on poverty, at its April meeting Monday night. He was nominated for the job by Varon Campbell, a member of the EOC and of the screening ans selection committee named to help the committee choose its professional employees. Amburgey earlier had been recommended for continued employment in the job of assistant director and had been hired. Ike Caudill, the former county director, had been by the county 'committee over the objections of the screening committee but later had resigned to take another job. The county committee also hired two other professional staff members, both recommended by the screening committee. Ihey are William Banks, a guidance counselor and teacher at anti-pove- rty Letcher High School, as director of the Blackey Community Center, and Mrs, Tom Gish, managing editor of The Mountain Eagle, as information and guidance counselor for the county-wiprogram. Banks has resigned his job at Letcher and Mrs. Gish will resign from her job with the newspaper at the end of this week. (Mountain Eagle Editor Tom Gish was a member of the committee named to screen and select professional staff members, but he did not participate in interviews or committee decisions concerning Mrs, Gish or other applicants for the job. ) The committee approved the nominations by unanimous vote. Amburgey, 45, is a graduate of Bowling Green College of Commerce and has worked as a bookkeeper and accountant. For eight years he was county tax commissioner; he served as chief office deputy under Sheriff Lewis Hall, before Decoming assistant ty director of the program. Banks is a graduate of Plke-vil- le College and holds a on Page 2) de anti-pover- clonal Hospital in the pharmacy, laboratory, cafeteria, Housekeeping, maintenance, business office and admissions department. Youth corps members receive counseling, testing and some supervision from the Neighborhood Youth Corps staff members, who are Ellis Magcard, director, and Rueben Watts and Tom Lewis, assistants. They are supervised on their jobs by staff members of the institutions for which they, work. Youth corps staff membe'rs also help the students get more schooling and find jobs; It's Library Week Next week is national Library Week, and officials of the Letcher County Public Library say they hope local citizens will observe it by beginning to make regular visits to the library. Books, records, pictures, magazines and sports equipment are available for the borrowing, they point out. As a donation from the Whitesburg Rotary Club, the Courier-Journ- al and Lexington Herald will soon be available at the library daily and Sunday. The library is located in the back section of the courthouse and is open from 11 a. m. to 4;30 p. m. Monday' through Friday and from 9 a. m. to 2 p. m. on Saturdays and G:30 to 8:30 p. m. on Mondays. More housing sought The school board, at its April meeting Friday, voted to levy the 10 per cent increase in property taxes and to give the money to teachers. Varon Campbell, president of the Letcher County Teachers' Organization, presented a request from teachers that the board levy the tax increase. His request was supported by J. W. Back, president of the Letcher County local of the American Federation of Teachers, and by Gene Moore, chairman of the Letcher County Citizens' Committee for Better Schools. Estimates are that the tax increase will bring in $22, 544 next year and $24, 798 additional the following year. Campbell said this would permit a $200 salary increase for each teacher. The board decided to study the second tax proposal further before acting on it. The finance committeecomposed of Russell Price, Gene Moore, Remious Day, Mrs. Joe Newell and Mrs. Tom Gish, said it also would (Continued on Page 8) The City of Whitesburg will apply to tiie federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for 100 additional low-re- nt public housing units. City Council approved the application Tuesday night. The city's first 40-uhousing Miners out project is almost ready for occuUnion miners in Letcher County are three times pancy, and there were out on strike today, in an as many applicants as there are effort to force coal operators to housing units available. The construction firm which negotiate a new wage contract. In other parts of the country, built the housing project is insome miners returned to work on solvent, and the bonding comorders from the United Mine pany has taken over to complete Workers of America, but in Easthe work. Don Brown, director tern Kentucky the orders had no of the Municipal Housing Commission, said only touch-u- p work effect. No incideits had been reported is needed to get the houses ready for tenants. in Letcher County. Double funeral he Double funeral services were held tljis morning at Mt. Olivet Regular Baptist Church in "lackey for an elderly man and his daughter. It was the second funeral for Miss Orplia Dixon, who died unexpectedly last Saturday at her home at Blackey. Her funeral was in process Tuesday morning at the Mt. Olivet Church when tier aged father, Ira Dixon, 80, slumped over dead. The funeral for Miss Dixon was halted, and a joint service was scheduled. Miss Dixon, an employee of the local public assistance office for many years, was born at Ulvah. Her mother, Mrs. Phoebe Brown Dixon, survives. Mrs. Dixon also has been ill for some time. Elders I. D. Back, Manus Ison and Ray Collins officiated at the funeral service. Burial was in on Elk Creek the Dixon Mountain. Surviving besides the wife and mother, Mrs. Phoebe Dixon, are Dexter Dixon of Ulvah, and Mrs. Verna Back of Blackey, son and daughter of Ira Dixon and brother and sister of Orpha Dixon; two grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren of Ira Dixon; a sister of Ira Dixon, Mrs. Allie Collins of Indianapolis, and three brothers oflra Dixon, T. A. Dixon of Blackey, I. T. Dixon of Ulvah, and William N. Dixon of Indianapolis. Moore and Craft Funeral Home had charge of funeral arrange -ments. Tragedies sadden community By LARRY CAUDILL The subconscious mind is strange and marvelous and we know very little about it. Maybe that is where we get premonitions, intuition, hunches or maybe dreams or nightmares. Personally I know very little it, but I firmly believe there is such a thing that somehow forecasts coming events. I woke up in the middle of the night for one of my customary periods of insomnia. There was no perceptible dream, or nightmare. Perhaps it was extrasensory perception. Just a firm, fervent feeling that something terrible lay in the immediate future; some tragedy. When I got up the first news was of three deaths of people beloved over a long time in the community. Orpha Dixon, the girl who always found time for a cheery greeting, was dead. She was the daughter of Uncle Ira and Aunt Phoebe Dixon. A former school teacher, Orpha had wo rked for 10 years in the Department of Economic Security at Whitesburg, a tireless and sympathetic social worker. She died in tier sleep. The word came from Beckley, W. Va., that Vinton Caudill's wife, Fanny, had died. Vinton was orphaned as a boy. He was put in the old Stuart Robinson dormitory, later came to our house nearby. He went through Stuart Robinson High School, then Centre College, as a brother to my brother Fred and me. He helped develop and market the carbon dioxide explosive which was used in mining. Fanny had been an invalid for years. The third Item of tragic news was the passing of Mrs. Leslie Cockerham at jackson. Her husband was the Presbyterian minister at Doermann Memorial Church for a dozen years - and never has a personality so impressed itself on a community. He served through the Depression Decade of the 1930's. Many stories are told of the wide diversity of his activities as a minister. He could comfort the bereaved, carpenter a cupboard or pitch in and help hoe out a potato patch. Later in the morning came the phone call that Glenwood Wilson was dead in a train mishap near lexington and there was the problem of taking the sad word to Ms widowed mother, Mrs. Liza Wilson, one of our most beloved and respected churchwomen. But the Grim Reaper had taken only a brief recess from bad news. Tuesday morning the community overflowed little Mount Olivet Regular Baptist Church for the funeral of Orpha Dixon. Elder I. D. Back had just started the funeral oration. He looked down into the family pew and saw Orpha's father, Ira Dixon, 81, slump in his seat. He paused and asked if Dr. Lundy Adams or Mrs. Gladys Buckhold, retired nurse, would come forward. (Continued on Page 2)