Mark White

Suicide. It’s a tough topic to think about, talk about and write about. Several years ago, I bumped into an old friend that I had gotten to know through work. We hadn’t seen each other in a while. We were both waiting to talk to the same person, and sat there and chatted for probably 20 – 30 minutes. He mainly talked about his wife and his teenage daughter, whom he adored. There was no indication that anything was wrong with my friend. He seemed perfectly normal. Finally, the person we were both waiting to talk to became available. Since what I needed to talk to them about wasn’t going to take long,...

Imagine for a moment putting a bunch of teenagers in charge of guarding keys to liquor cabinets. Chances are one of three things is going to happen. You’re going to have several good ones, who are going to do what they are supposed to do and everything will be fine. There are going to be a few, who will genuinely misplace the key to the liquor cabinet. This will cause big searches and lots of drama trying to find keys that shouldn’t have been lost. Sometimes things will turn out alright despite the misplaced keys. Other times, those misplaced keys are going to end up with some bad results. Then you have the...

Flowers. They are those pretty things that make many women go “aaahhhh” when they get them. This is especially true when the flowers get delivered to them at work. Not only do women get to enjoy that big bouquet of flowers that way, but they also get the added benefit of everyone else making a fuss over them. Many also like the fact that the other women in the office get all jealous over their flowers. (Not that most of them would admit that though. You know I speak the truth on this ladies…LOL.) With Valentine’s Day fast approaching and many men trying to come up with something to buy their ladies,...

I’m not sure how some other first time office holders are doing, but Whitley County Sheriff Bill Elliotte appears to be off to a good start going into the fourth week of his first term in office. Elliotte was elected sheriff in late 2022 and took office at the first of January. Since that time he has implemented a few new programs at the sheriff’s department. Deputies are now doing random bus escorts as part of an initiative designed to catch drivers not paying attention to bus traffic signals. It’s something that I don’t recall hearing about any other area sheriff’s departments doing. In addition, deputies are also patrolling school campuses after dark...

Ghosts. Historically they come in many forms. You have the Headless Horseman from ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” who is often portrayed as a rider on horseback, who, as one would naturally surmise, has no head. You’ve got ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost,’ which is the fun and friendly ghost of a young boy, who died. Casper and his not so friendly trio of ghostly uncles were brought to the big screen in 1995’s Casper, which was a fun little flick starring Christina Ricci. Let’s not forget Slimmer and the spooks, spirits and specters that Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson chased in the iconic 1984 classic “Ghostbusters.” (Roasted marshmallows anyone…LOL.) Then...

The year 2022 might not have been the best year in Whitley County history but compared to the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, it sure looked good by comparison. Among the positives, you had the opening of the Mint Gaming Hall – Cumberland in Williamsburg, the groundbreaking for the Cumberland Run harness racing track in Corbin and the opening of the redesigned and renovated Sanders Café & Museum. Williamsburg, Whitley County and Corbin school districts all announced renovation plans for their football stadiums, including the installation of artificial turf, and the family of a Williamsburg woman, who had been missing for five years, finally got some degree of closure after...

Let me start off this week’s column by wishing a happy 50th birthday to my wonderful wife, Cecelia. She turns 50 today (Dec. 28). Few people are as enthusiastic about their birthdays as my wife is. She would do a month long celebration of her birthday if I would let her. Even though I give her a hard time about being so enthusiastic about her birthday, I am glad that she enjoys it so much. Here’s hoping you have a great 50th birthday Cecelia. You deserve it. Now to touch on a few other assorted topics before I conclude this column: • In the coming days, our newly elected officials will take office,...

I can still remember the first Shop with a Cop program that took place in Williamsburg in 2004. Williamsburg Police Officer Kenny Shaw and Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy Jerry Noe, unbeknownst to each other, had started raising money for a shop with a cop program for their respective departments. After they found out about each other’s efforts, the two projects were merged into one. The result was the collection of over $6,300 used to take 64 less fortunate children on $100 shopping sprees at the Williamsburg Walmart that Christmas season. I can still remember the night that it took place. Nearly every police car from the Williamsburg Police Department and the Whitley...

Just a reminder that the 2022 City of Williamsburg Feels Like Home Christmas in a Small Town Parade is slated for Saturday evening on Main Street, and the Jellico Christmas Parade is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday. A lot of work goes into the planning of community events, such as parades, as well as work put into designing and making floats for such an occasion. A few years back, Williamsburg started offering cash prizes for floats in three categories, church, business and school in an effort to increase the number of participants, and it typically works. First place winners in each of the three categories get $150, second place gets $100, and...

Our founding fathers were some pretty smart folks. When they created this country, they did so with the idea of giving the people a way to peacefully address their grievances with the government. On Nov. 17, we got to see this in action locally as about 100 people gathered at the Whitley County Cooperative Extension Office for a town hall meeting with the U.S. Forest Service over a proposal to log a portion of the Daniel Boone National Forest on Jellico Mountain, including clear cutting about 1,000 acres of land. The meeting was supposed to last for 90 minutes and gave time for the forest service to address the audience about...