October 8, 2009

Powell schools close to help fight flu epidemic
By James Cook, Times Editor

It was just a matter of time. With classrooms emptying and doctor's offices filling up, time was running out on a decision for the local schools administrators. The early flu season that has been sweeping across the nation and the state, has apparently caught up with Powell County. So much so, the Powell County Schools System cancelled classes for this week. But that was not all that was cancelled.
“We’ve talked to doctors and medical professionals and they said if we are going to do this, then do it right,” Superintendent Evelyn Neely told the Times. “There will be no classes, no activities, no games or practices until at least Friday. Maybe that will let everyone get to feeling better.”
However, Powell County Head Start reportedly is still holding classes this week.
The cancellation of all school activites includes practice for the fall sports teams. The football teams will not be able to practice until what was supposed to be game day. "Friday's game will be played on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.," Powell County Athletic Director Monroe Jones announced on Tuesday.
The Lady Pirates volleyball team has rescheduled their Senior Night activities. The original plan was to hold the ceremonies on Thursday, but now Powell will host Montgomery County on Friday night at 6 p.m. The middle school programs are also enduring the moritorium.
The Powell County High School Boys’ Golf Team, which took home the regional runner-up title late last week, will be allowed to compete at the state tournament this week. As will Meghan Mays and Corri Collins, members of the girls’ golf team, who quailified to take part in the state tournament in Bowling Green later this week.
Other county organizations and groups where young people congregate have also decided to shut down for the week. The Upward Basketball Program that is held at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Stanton has shut down games for the week, but will begin play again on Saturday. Church groups have even cancelled Wednesday night gatherings. “We’ve decided to help out by not holding our youth meeting this week,” Mike Estep, assistant pastor of Grace Fellowship, said. “We have about 200 kids every week, so we want to help slow this down if we can.”
“We really didn’t have much of a choice,” Neely said. “Our attendance was steadily declining, not on,y with students but staff members too. A lot of people was calling in sick. So we had to give everyone a chance to get better.”
Neely had advised earlier this year that anytime attendance falls below 89 perecent the school system begins to lose money. More importantly the learing process is interuppted if students are out for a lenghty amount of time and miss classes, while their fellow students continue. Last Friday Neely reported that the school system attendance had dropped to 79 percent. “There were 503 absewnt today district-wide,” she told the Times.
The loss of three of the days this week could possibly be made up later in the year. “We are looking at using a couple of Spring Break days and another day we had scheduled for teachers to make it up,” Neely added. “But it is too early to say. A lot will depend on the weather this winter and whether or not we need to use those days as make-up days.” The school system was already schewduled to have Thursday and Friday off for Fall Break, the first time the system had scheduled such a break.
“We will use the time for custodians and other staff members to get some extra cleaning done this week I hopes of sanitizing the areas and slow down anymore spreading of the flu,” Neely stated. “Our custodial staff has done a great job of the cleaning duties we put in place a few weeks ago to help with this health situation and I applaud their efforts and their work. It has been appreciated.” Since there will be no students, it is believed that the staff’s will have more time to perform some extra cleaning to aid in the process of sanitizing the schools.
As long as there are no widespread outbreaks and the situation seems to improve, Powell County schools will go back in session on Monday, Oct. 12.

Powell County receives 18 more warning sirens
By James Cook, Times Editor

Never turn down anything that will help you and cost you nothing. The Powell County Emergency Management Agency took advantage of that philosophy last week. Madison County received new severe weather and emergency sirens, so they needed to find homes for their old ones. In stepped Powell and Fayette Counties. Lexington took 11, while Powell took 18 of the warning devices. The devices would have cost $250,000 and that includes the control boxes to operate them, which also was given to the county.
“This will help cover the county better during severe weather and emergency situations,” Powell EMA Director Arthur Ashley said last week as he watched the sirens being delivered to the county. Ashley, the Powell County Road Department and transportation provided by a Red River Ranch vehicle, worked together to bring the sirens to Stanton. Roger's Hardware helped with the unloading process.
“These devices can sound the tornado sirens, and they have the capability of allowing us to make announcements. We can let people know about certain events or emergencies that are occurring and they will be aware of what they need to do,” Ashley said. “This will be a project for us to install during the winter, so we can be ready by next spring’s severe weather season.”
With the addition of the 18 Powell County received last week, the county will now have 30 devices to cover the county. “These, like the ones we already have, are made to help alert people who are outside,” Ashley stated. “We can take the ones that are siren only and move them into the more rural areas of the county as a warning device for them. Then we can place the ones with announcement capabilities closer to the cities or areas where there is a bigger concentration of people to keep them informed.” Around large portions of Clay City and Stanton, along with the parks and schools would be areas like Ashley was suggesting.
“We want to use the siren part only for tornado warnings. If we use the sirens too much people will tend not to be alarmed when they are set off,” Ashley added. “We can use the announcements to let areas know of other issues or alerts. That way when a siren goes off, they will know what it is and not have to call around to see why they are sounding.”
Ashley hopes to be able to cover the county more efficiently with the additional devices, including out as examples in areas like Nada, Southfork, Northfork and the Rosslyn and Cat Creek areas. “I hope we can do this, but they have a capability to sound a chime at noon every day. That would be a way to sort of test them and make sure they are working. We could test them once a week to make sure they are functioning and then we know we are ready if they are needed,” Ashley said.
“In the long run we want to make sure everyone in the county gets ample warning and the necessary information they need to stay safe,” Ashley added. “That is why we plan for and try to make sure we are ready for just about anything. These sirens will help a lot.”

Powell has first confirmed case of H1N1
By James Cook, Times Editor
It is official. For weeks it has been rumored, but now it is confirmed.
The Powell County Health Department has finally received confirmation from a state laboratory that there is a case of the H1N1 flu here. But that is about all they are telling anyone.
Joanne Campbell the director of the Powell County Health Department’s communicable diseases section, called the Times late Monday afternoon to confirm the findings. “About all we can say is that we do have a laboratory confirmed case of the H1N1 flu in Powell County,” Campbell said. “Being such a small community, we really can’t say much else without telling people who it is. We don’t want to do that.” When pressed if it was an adult or a child, Campbell repeated that the information could not be given out.
“The state department of public health set up a public H1N1 hotline which opened today (Monday), Campbell said. “The hotline can give people information about the flu, what they can do and how to take care of themselves.”
The hot line can be accessed in two ways. You can call 877-843-7727 from 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. or check out the information on a newly redesigned health alert web site. That web address is www.healthalerts.ky.gov.
Campbell advises people to get a regular flu shot if they can. “The H1N1 vaccines are not here in Powell County yet, but we hope to get some soon,” Campbell said. “We’ll let people know when we do.”