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Prohibition in the Tri-County area is over at least as far as each of its cities goes. By an nearly two-to-one margin Tuesday, Williamsburg voters decided to follow suit with what neighboring communities are doing and allow alcohol to be sold by the package in stores and by the drink at restaurants that seat at least 50 people. 448 Williamsburg voters cast yes ballots for expanded alcohol sales while 241 voters cast no ballots during the special election. Williamsburg Mayor Roddy Harrison, who spearheaded the petition drive behind Tuesday's alcohol referendum, said he wasn't surprised that the measure passed but was surprised by the overwhelming margin. By contrast, when Williamsburg voters approved the...

How should downtown Corbin be transformed to make it more desirable place to live, work, walk and explore? The first of three “Corbin Forward” meetings will take place this Thursday at 6:00 p.m. and is planned as an effort to come up with answers to those questions and more. The public is invited and encouraged to attend. Corbin Main Street Manager Andy Salmons said Thursday’s meeting will serve as a “the dreaming phase” of an effort to craft a streetscape master plan for downtown. Representatives from Carman and Associates, a Lexington-based landscape architecture and civil engineering firm, will be on hand to listen to ideas and guide the discussion. Carman and Associates has...

Arena Manager Connie Hunt will receive three months of salary and compensation for any unused vacation days in her severance package. Hunt has not returned multiple calls seeking comment on her resignation or what led to the decision. City Manager Marlon Sams confirmed via e-mail Monday that Hunt would receive the severance package, though he provided no details on what led to the decision. When questioned further Tuesday, Sams said the package did not include any extension of Hunt’s health insurance. Sams said the details concerning how much the package will cost is still being finalized. In response to an open records request, city officials disclosed earlier this year that Hunt’s current salary...

Arena Manager Connie Hunt is resigning her position effective Friday. Though Hunt was not in attendance at the special called city commission meeting last Friday, a letter announcing her resignation effective July 1 was presented to the commissioners and read into the record. “I sincerely appreciate the opportunity given to me by the City of Corbin to serve as General Manager of the Arena,” Hunt wrote in the two-paragraph letter dated June 22. “I wish nothing but the best and much success for the City of Corbin and the Corbin Arena,” Hunt added in the letter. Commissioner Suzie Razmus made the motion to accept Hunt’s resignation and Joe Shelton seconded it. The commission...

The creator of a website and yard signs that oppose expanding alcohol sales in Williamsburg through a ballot referendum next week has come forward. Kenneth Sims, creator of the VoteNoJune28.com website, sent the News Journal an e-mail late Thursday afternoon saying that he didn't intend for it to be a secret about who was behind the website and the vote no movement, but he did like the headline in the June 15 edition of the News Journal that read, "Organizers of W'burg Vote No effort a mystery." While he is an employee at the University of the Cumberlands and a member of Main Street Baptist Church, Sims noted that website and...

A Whitley County Grand Jury has indicted a London man for allegedly taking $66,047.54 from Whayne Supply Company over a three-year period. The grand jury issued its monthly report Monday morning indicting Brandon Chase Goins, 32, of London, charging him with 19 counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of property over $500 but less than $10,000. Between Jan. 11, 2012, and July 14, 2014, Goins allegedly converted checks that were the property of Whayne Supply Company to his own use. The checks ranged in amounts from a $780.90 on Nov. 30, 2013, to a $7,632, on Nov. 7, 2013, according to the indictment. On July 14, 2014, which is...

The Corbin City Commission passed the first reading of the city’s $11.420 million budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year, but for the second year in a row, the vote was not unanimous. Commissioner Suzie Razmus, who cast the lone “no” vote in 2015, stood alone again. “I have a fundamental disagreement with the rate of growth of Corbin city government,” Razmus said in explaining her vote. “And the reason why is, year after year, we over-project our revenues.” The projected revenues in the budget are $8.792 million from the general fund. An additional $770,020 is projected from the alcohol taxes. The city will receive $200,000 in municipal aid, which will be used...

The Laurel County Sheriff’s Department has issued a “Golden Alert” for a 59-year-old Lily man. According to Sheriff John Root, Denver King reportedly left a residence on Old Slate Road in Lily in a maroon colored 2008 Ford F-250 pickup truck. While his destination is unknown, it is suspected that King may be headed to somewhere in Tennessee. King is described as a while male, 6’, 225 pounds, with blue eyes, and brown hair cut above the ears. King reportedly has mental issues. Anyone with information concerning King’s whereabouts is asked to contact the sheriff’s department at (606) 864-6600 or (606) 878-7000.

UPDATE: Two Corbin residents have been arrested in connection with a shooting Saturday in Gray, but as of Monday, no murder charges have been filed. Kentucky State Police Trooper Shane Jacobs, public affairs officer at Post 10 in Harlan, said police arrested 33-year-old Lawrence Collinsworth and 33-year-old Jennifer Folgman on charges of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Collinsworth and Folgman each pleaded not-guilty to the charge Monday in Knox District Court. Judge John Chappel ordered Collinsworth to be held without bond in the Knox County Detention Center. Folgman's bond is set at $5,000. Jacobs said the investigation is continuing and more arrests are possibly pending   Kentucky State Police are investigating a...

Did the University of the Cumberlands agree to pay its former president. Dr. James Taylor and his wife, Dinah Taylor, nearly $400,000 annually in salary and benefits upon Dr. Taylor’s retirement and then renege or threaten to renege on that deal as the couple has claimed? Can the university afford to pay someone that much a year for doing nothing, even if that person raised millions of dollars in donations for the school during his 35 years as president? These are the issues that a jury will be asked to consider given the couple’s lawsuit, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in London. “The use of economic coercion against an...