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Williamsburg Independent School will be closed Friday as emergency repairs to one of the building’s central air conditioning system units is performed. Superintendent Amon Couch said with the warmer weather expected to last several more weeks, the repairs are necessary. Closing school Friday gives the repair crew additional time to ensure everything is working before classes resume on Monday. Couch said while missing a day of class this early in the year is unforeseen, there are contingency days built into the calendar to make it up. The school board has plans for a long-term fix of the air conditioning system, along with the lighting and ceiling tiles. That work is expected to begin...

Corbin firefighters had to extricate a woman from her car Thursday morning after it ran off the road and struck a tree on the Corbin bypass. Corbin Police Colonel David Maiden said 34-year-old Cassandra Whitlow of Heidrick was travelling west on the bypass near the intersection with Hart Hollow Road in her 2006 Saturn Ion just before 9 a.m. when the wreck occurred. Maiden said Whitlow told him that she was attempting to pull off to the shoulder when her flip-flop sandal became stuck in the accelerator. “The car went up an embankment and struck the tree,” Maiden said, adding Whitlow didn’t say why she was trying to pull off the highway. Corbin...

A Corbin man was taken to St. Joseph London Hospital Tuesday morning after a car and truck collided on U.S. 25 in Lily. According to Sheriff John Root, the crash occurred about 8:20 a.m. when 58-year-old Gary Long of Corbin attempted to turn left from U.S. 25. Long’s GMC Sonoma pickup truck was struck by the Toyota sedan driven by 47-year-old Shannon Sams of Corbin. Long was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph London. Deputy Josh Scott conducted the investigation. Lily Fire Department, London/Laurel County Rescue Squad and Ambulance Inc. of Laurel County also responded to the scene.  

A lawsuit against the Williamsburg Independent School District, former Superintendent Denny Byrd and former Principal Gary Peters has been dismissed in U.S. District Court in London. The parents of the victim, who are identified in the lawsuit only as John and Jane Doe, filed suit on April 29 2015, against the school district, then Superintendent Denny Byrd and then Principal Gary Peters, who have both since retired. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants violated the girl's civil rights, violated federal Title IX laws, had civil liability for commission of a criminal act and that the defendants were negligent and had grossly negligent supervision, retention and investigation of the matter. On Aug. 16,...

Thanks to the efforts of more than 400 student volunteers from the University of the Cumberlands Tuesday morning, about 500 elementary school students from four local schools got a new pair of free shoes, new socks and a new backpack full of school supplies. Tuesday was the fifth year for the 'Shoes 4 the Soul' (formerly Barefoot for Barefeet) event at University of the Cumberlands, which took place over the course of three hours in the O. Wayne Rollins Center. Jennifer Wake-Floyd, one of the organizers of the event, said this was the largest number of elementary school students that have ever participated in the program. The foundation of this event was...

If Superintendent Scott Paul's recent annual evaluation by the Whitley County Board of Education were a report card, Paul would have received the equivalent of five A's and two B's. The Whitley County Board of Education held its monthly meeting on Aug. 11 and met in executive session for slightly over an hour to discuss pending litigation and the superintendent's evaluation. After emerging from executive session, that board approved the superintendent's evaluation, which scored Paul as "exemplary" in five of seven areas, including: instructional leadership, cultural leadership, human resource leadership, managerial leadership and influential leadership. Paul received a score of "accomplished" in the areas of strategic leadership and collaborative leadership. "We are very...

Members of the Whitley County UNITE Coalition got an update on Camp UNITE and were introduced to their new coalition coordinator during their monthly meeting Monday afternoon. About 207 youth from 32 counties poured into Williamsburg July 26 - July 30 for the 10th Annual Camp UNITE, which was held at the University of the Cumberlands. This includes about a dozen campers from Whitley County. "Camp UNITE was a huge success this year," said outgoing coalition coordinator Carl Varney. "It is a huge undertaking but it is by far the best thing we do at UNITE in my opinion." Camp UNITE is for students entering the seventh, eighth or ninth grades in...

The Arena in Corbin is under new management. At a special called meeting Monday morning, the Corbin City Commission voted 4-0 to hire Kristi Balla to be the new Arena manager. Balla, a 1995 graduate of Corbin High School, has previously worked at other venues including the KFC Yum Center in Louisville, the Louisville Palace, a 3,000-seat concert venue, the Norva in Norfolk, Virginia, and the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip in California. City Manager Marlon Sams said it was Balla’s experience and background in the entertainment and events community that set her apart from the three finalists chosen from the 39 applicants. “It was not just in one area but...

The Corbin Police Department’s newest officer made a record drug bust Friday morning, seizing .68 kilograms (1.5 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine found in a car at a local gas station. Officer Mandy Chitwood, who graduated from the police academy in April, along with Officer Steve Meadors were called to the Speedway gas station about 8:30 a.m. in response to a complaint of a suspicious vehicle at the pumps. Meadors said he and Chitwood found to men passed out in the Ford Fusion. “We had to wake them up,” Meadors said, adding the driver, identified at 44-year-old Jerry Hart of Heidrick, gave consent to search his person and a small baggie of a...

Corbin Police say the Williamsburg man seen on video taking an attorney’s pickup truck from the parking lot outside of district court has been returned to Whitley County and confessed to the crime. “He said he just couldn’t help himself,” said Corbin Police Major Rob Jones, the department’s public affairs officer when asked if 30-year-old Johnny Mullis said why he took John Reynolds’ truck on August 9. Corbin Police Colonel David Maiden travelled to Caryville, Tennessee last Wednesday where Mullis was being held after he was apprehended on August 12. Maiden said Mullis had waived an extradition hearing. Mullis is facing two counts of theft by unlawful taking of an auto valued over...