August 9 , 2007

Stanton residents upset over seweage problem
by James Cook, Times Editor
Exactly one week and a day after her latest bout with a sewer line back up, Teresa Adams had to endure the problem again. And this time she says she has had enough.
Late on Friday night, July 27 and early that Saturday morning, following another couple days of hard rain, sewage began backing up into Adams’ home. It is a problem she and her family have endured for 16 years on Promenade Drive. In fact her properties, as well as the Stanton Elementary School property, were once again affected.
“I came home again from working second shift and there was my daughter, Kayla, using blankets to try to stop it from flowing down the hall,” Adams said. “So I got on the phone and called dispatch, so they could send city workers and the mayor down here.”
Adams said a city employee did arrive, and then had to leave. “He said he had to notify Frankfort,” Adams said. “But he showed back up about 45 minutes or so later.” He did not come empty handed. “I had told him that I broke my mop and was out of bleach, so he brought me some bleach and a mop.”
Adams continued, “He came back about 8:30 in the morning (Saturday) and had two new mops.” But he also had a check valve and a backhoe. “They (the city) dug up the line and put a check valve on the line and they say it should stop this from happening again.”
But Adams is not satisfied. “This has been going on for a while now. It is in my vents, under my floors, got under my cabinets and we’re still dealing with the city’s insurance adjuster and contractors over the mess a couple of weeks ago,” she said. “Some of them (contractors) have told me their scared to get under these floors, there’s no telling what they may find and they’re not used to that.”
Adams says that the contractors who have come to look at the residence, are those recommended by the city. “They gave me a few names, said they were the best,” Adams said. “But the ‘best’ don’t really want to get into this mess or into it with the city.” She said estimates have been as high as $40,000 to $60,000. “They told me they estimated high because they are not used to working in sewage cases and they are not sure what they will run into. Even the air conditioning guy said it’s going to be a mess. They will probably have to replace the ducts, some of the floor and parts of the wall.”
Stanton Mayor Dale Allen admits the city may have some sewer line problems, but says it is not clear if the city lines are causing all of Adams problem. “We’re not sure if it is entirely our line, that has not been determined yet,” Allen said. “We have water infiltration and that could be the problem that is why the regional sewer system is so important. The plan has been agreed on by the three local entities and we have submitted it to the state, we’re just waiting for approval. That could take a while, we are just not sure where we stand right now on that plan,” Allen added.
Allen also admitted that more check valves may be going in on Promenade Avenue to help alleviate the situation. “We placed one on her (Adams) line and that should stop it from backing up into her home and push it on toward the manholes, like the one on the end of the street and at the back of the school.”
It is not just Adams that has been suffering with problems in this neighborhood, located just off Railroad Street and behind Breckinridge Street. One neighbor who lives on the opposite side of the street and on a small hill says they have flooding problems and the sewage backup has plagued the house Adams lives in now for a long time.
“We’ve lived here 24 years and the people who lived in that house (Adams house) when we moved in had the same problem,” said neighbor Faye Coffey. “In fact, if it rains hard the ditch line out front backs up and floods into our yard. We’re on a hill and our yard is flooded. It’s not constant for us, but it happens every now and then. It’s bad up here.”
Other neighbors also have concerns. Jeanene Huntsberger, who lives two doors down from Adams, has had sewer problems as well. “It backs up to mine (lines) and Vicky’s,” Huntsberger said. The last couple of times it has been gurgling back up into my tub,” she admitted. “This last time, when it hit her (Adams) home again, I woke up at four in the morning to get ready for work and had to scrub my tub because it backed up into it. So I had to work to take a shower, so I could go to work,” Huntsberger said.
Local photographer Vicky Miller, who also lives on the same side of Promenade Avenue and only three houses from the Adams home, is also concerned. “I don’t want to raise any stink or cause any problems,” Miller said in a telephone interview. “But I’m concerned about some of the issues down here.”
Those issues include whether or not the check valve will cause sewage to backup further and into her home. “She (Adams) told me about what happened and how the city put the check valve in. But if that stops it from getting in her home, will it push into mine or others homes? I don’t want to see her home damaged, and she said the city has five more to place on our lines if we give them permission to, but it is a concern to me and I hope something can be done to deal with this,” Miller said. “I didn’t have anything this time (sewage) but the toilet was blowing bubbles. I’ve never had sewage to come into the house, but it has got pretty close before.”
Miller has also had flooding problems too. “We’ve had surface water, like after a hard rain, and come into the house. In fact it has happened three times this year,” Miller continued. “The ditch lines plug up and they come out to fix them. It works for about one more good rain, they get plugged up again and you can watch the water rise and then move toward the house,” Miller said. “It has gotten into my family room and our carpet is a mess. We just clean it up, shampoo it and try to move on.”
Miller has other concerns about the neighborhood, concerns she has not voiced publicly until now. “We have sink holes down here. I don’t know if that is related to the sewer and flooding problems or if it is some sort of underground stream,” Miller said. “But I tried to fill one in my yard up with yard trash (yard clippings) and you can not fill it up. Since moving in we’ve had a couple other sinkholes develop. In fact my neighbor has one that since last summer has gotten bigger,” Miller added. “It started out as a small one and she placed a splash guard from a gutter drain pipe over it to mark it and now it just about swallows the splash guard.” Miller is concerned, but hopes something can be done. “Like I said, I don’t want any trouble, but I’ve lived here about 13 years and I’ll probably be at the next council meeting just to see what is going on.”
Mayor Allen says he knows there are some problems, but like most cities, those problems are inherited over the years. “We have Bell Engineering conducting smoke tests and we are trying to replace things when and where we can, but money is scarce,” Allen said. “We will try to use any money left over from the testing and the studies to help, but we need money, I guess from some state or federal grants. We placed one grant request in for T-ball parks and were denied. You have over $2 million of request for only $400,000 available funds. Everyone is trying to get projects approved.”
As for Adams and her family, Allen says he is trying to help as best he can. “We let Frankfort know if there is a sewage overflow, as we are supposed to do, we lime everything and then we have insurance adjusters, contractors who have been to her house,” Allen confided. “We wait for their bids, see what the insurance people are going to do and try to negotiate a deal. It just takes time.”
Adams patience is running out of time. “I guess we’ll try to get a petition started and call other media to come to the next city council meeting,” Adams said. That next meeting is scheduled for tonight (Thursday) in the Powell District Courtroom at 6:30 p.m.

Mother of abandoned baby to stand trial November 16
by James Cook, Times Editor
The mother of the baby that was abandoned at the doors of the Powell County Courthouse last week will now stand trial for her actions. That was decided at a pre-trial conference on Tuesday.
Stacey Johnson, 22 of Hardshell in Breathitt County, was arrested on July 30 after she left her nine month old daughter in a car seat. The child was left outside the courthouse doors in the mid afternoon heat. Johnson reportedly asked a work release inmate to watch her child, but was told by the inmate she could not. The inmate, Stephanie Miller, said that Johnson said “she needed a pop” but already had one with her.
According to witnesses and police reports, Johnson left her child unattended for a period of 15 to 20 minutes. Powell County Deputy Mike Kelso took the child inside the sheriff’s office, where an ambulance was called because the baby was unresponsive. The baby was taken to Clark Regional Medical Center and was reportedly doing fine. However, since the child was taken into protective custody, no further information about the child’s condition or location was available.
Johnson was found inside the courthouse in what witnesses and police say was a “disoriented state”. She admitted to taking “ten valium and some meth” on that day. Johnson was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment of a minor and public intoxication. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment the very next day.
Johnson was bonded out on a $5,000 cash bond on Thursday, Aug. 2.
Johnson has also run afoul of the law in other counties. She had a traffic citation in Breathitt County dating back to 2002 and in Perry County in 2003. However in 2004, Johnson had six cases opened in the Breathitt court system. One was a felony case, two were misdemeanors and three more traffic violations were reported.
According to Breathitt Circuit Clerk Patsy Williams, Johnson has an active bench warrant for the 2004 felony case. In that case, Johnson failed to appear to answer felony charges for DUI, possession of a controlled substance, no insurance and not wearing a seat belt. “That warrant was issued on July 31 and we have it in our computer and took it to the sheriff’s office the same day. Then our sheriff’s department usually serves the warrants or faxes them to where they need to go,” Williams said. “The pre-trial officers have access to that; you would have to talk to them about it.”
Starla Chaney, of the Powell County Pre-Trial Services admits that her office did check for any warrants on Johnson. “I called and checked, but if the warrant is not faxed to us, if we do not have it in hand when they are about to be released, we can’t hold them,” Chaney said. “We check with the dispatch and sheriff’s office to see if they have it, but if they don’t then we have to let them go if they are bonded out.”
According to the Powell County Sheriff’s Office, no warrants for Johnson from Breathitt County have been received.
Powell County Attorney Robert King, following the pre-trial conference on Tuesday, stated that Johnson has been scheduled for a jury trial. That trial is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 16.

Man of action believes healing others is payoff
by David J. Griffin, Times Staff Writer
The mother of the baby that was abandoned at the doors of the Powell County Courthouse last week will now stand trial for her actions. That was decided at a pre-trial conference on Tuesday.
Stacey Johnson, 22 of Hardshell in Breathitt County, was arrested on July 30 after she left her nine month old daughter in a car seat. The child was left outside the courthouse doors in the mid afternoon heat. Johnson reportedly asked a work release inmate to watch her child, but was told by the inmate she could not. The inmate, Stephanie Miller, said that Johnson said “she needed a pop” but already had one with her.
According to witnesses and police reports, Johnson left her child unattended for a period of 15 to 20 minutes. Powell County Deputy Mike Kelso took the child inside the sheriff’s office, where an ambulance was called because the baby was unresponsive. The baby was taken to Clark Regional Medical Center and was reportedly doing fine. However, since the child was taken into protective custody, no further information about the child’s condition or location was available.
Johnson was found inside the courthouse in what witnesses and police say was a “disoriented state”. She admitted to taking “ten valium and some meth” on that day. Johnson was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment of a minor and public intoxication. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment the very next day.
Johnson was bonded out on a $5,000 cash bond on Thursday, Aug. 2.
Johnson has also run afoul of the law in other counties. She had a traffic citation in Breathitt County dating back to 2002 and in Perry County in 2003. However in 2004, Johnson had six cases opened in the Breathitt court system. One was a felony case, two were misdemeanors and three more traffic violations were reported.
According to Breathitt Circuit Clerk Patsy Williams, Johnson has an active bench warrant for the 2004 felony case. In that case, Johnson failed to appear to answer felony charges for DUI, possession of a controlled substance, no insurance and not wearing a seat belt. “That warrant was issued on July 31 and we have it in our computer and took it to the sheriff’s office the same day. Then our sheriff’s department usually serves the warrants or faxes them to where they need to go,” Williams said. “The pre-trial officers have access to that; you would have to talk to them about it.”
Starla Chaney, of the Powell County Pre-Trial Services admits that her office did check for any warrants on Johnson. “I called and checked, but if the warrant is not faxed to us, if we do not have it in hand when they are about to be released, we can’t hold them,” Chaney said. “We check with the dispatch and sheriff’s office to see if they have it, but if they don’t then we have to let them go if they are bonded out.”
According to the Powell County Sheriff’s Office, no warrants for Johnson from Breathitt County have been received.
Powell County Attorney Robert King, following the pre-trial conference on Tuesday, stated that Johnson has been scheduled for a jury trial. That trial is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 16.