Other Projects
s-Particupated in the Kentucky Supreme Court's Access to Justice Commission and iprovided to the Commission input from Kentuckians on the issue of access to justice.
- Established and for some years awarded a scholarship to financially assist Eastern Kentucky students majoring in an environment-related field.
- Arranged for and partially funded interns from Berea College (Kentucky), Duke University, and the University of North Carolina to work in Letcher County on environmental and government-related projects to improve services to the citizens. Some of those interns, at our arrangement, worked on critical projects to bring water systems to Letcher County citizens whose wells had been ruined and who had no source of potable water except through purchase in gallon jugs. Interns helped to install water lines, geo-mapped existing water lines, and improved automation of County government functions.
- Organized and participated in a petition drive that gathered more than 19,000 signatures and successfully brought medical helicopter evacuation services to the area. The service significantly reduced the time lapse between identification of a medical emergency and transportation to a trauma center. Obtained several hundred thousand dollars in funding to build a facility for themedivac service in an industrial park that was suffering from lack of tenancy, which not only assured timely medical response but brought both jobs and revenue to a county with inadequate income levels and a high unemployment rate.
- Played a significant role in defeating a bill which would have allowed gravel trucks to haul 50% heavier loads than state law otherwise allows, approval of which would have increased deaths, damaged Kentucky roads, harmed air quality, and been an irritant to residents living on those roads.
- Provided funding support for repairs and renovations to an historic church in Letcher County, Kentucky.
- Provided funds to support local community centers which are gathering places and preserve traditional music and other activities.
- Acquired grants for and coordinated cleaning of 15 miles of Eastern Kentucky roads. In addition, Board officers individually cleaned an additional ten miles of highway.
- Applied for and obtained a grant that enabled an elderly neighbor with an income of about $600 per month to replace a failing septic tank which was polluting the North Fork of the Kentucky River
- Obtained a grant and chaired an effort which cleaned approximately 100 tons of trash from the environs of Blackey, Kentucky. The collected pile of trash was sixteen feet deep, as much as seven feet high, and 100 feet long. Obtained additional grants for clean-up/improvement in Letcher County.
Converted a one-acre trash dump in Blackey, Kentucky into a park. That effort required arranging for the land to be deeded by the owners, removing all or parts of four derelict houses, six junked automobiles, and as much as 100 tons of trash (including abandoned appliances, old mattresses, etc), recontouring the land and planting grass, trees and flowers, establishing walking trails, and funding the park maintenance until the County government assumed responsibility. Continue to fund some park maintenance.
- Planted trees in downtown Blackey, Kentucky along the railroad to enhance appearance and to improve air quality by filtering out much of the coal dust given off by coal trains constantly passing through town.
- Negotiated with CSX Railroad to reduce to an affordable level the rent CSX was charging the town of Blackey for the land on which the town playground sits.
- Helped the city of Blackey obtain paving for its broken streets and reduce dust in the town, and helped another nearby small community ,Crase's Branch, do the same.
- Organized and presented a symposium at Berea College during which Eco-Outpost and Letcher County officials described Letcher County's actions toward recycling, county-wide trash removal, clean-up, etc, in the hope of bringing downstate Kentuckians up to speed on the special environment and problems of Eastern Kentucky in this regard.
- Supplement the budget of the Berea College Sustainability and Environment Department to permit special projects.
- Provided funds to Berea College to help support their efforts to educate low-income Appalachian young people.
- Host and arrange meetings, lectures, and entertainment for college classes studying sustainability and Appalachia.
- Created a 30-minute video - The Bears of Kingdom Come - to highlight the attractions of an Eastern Kentucky State Park. To increase tourism to the park, have given away free more than 500 copies of the video, and have given Kentucky State Parks the right to reproduce the video and sell it at Park locations to raise revenue for Kentucky Parks.
- Created several videos documenting Eastern Kentucky traditional practices, including two on blacksmithing, one on molasses stir-offs, and three thirty-minute documentaries on the loss of the once-dominant Appalachian tree, the American chestnut, on making molasses, and on caning chairs. The purpose of such videos is to both highlight tourist attractions and to pass on the tradition of sustainability which still survives in Appalachian Kentucky among many residents..
- Several times arranged for a band to entertain residents at the Hazard, Kentucky Veterans' Home, and took Christmas presents for all the residents of one or more sections of the home.
- Worked, both individually and with others, to curtail logging in several national forests, including one which does not contain commercially-viable timber, a fact later admitted by the US Forest Service, which has now ended such commercial logging.
- Worked to protect the brown bear population on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. Offer a standing reward of $5000 for information which leads to the indictment of anyone unjustifiably killing brown bears on the Central Kenai Peninsula area.
- Proposed and pushed through new regulations to protect the Coho (silver) salmon population on an Alaska river by setting the sports bag limit at a sustainable level.
- Proposed and pushed through regulations to curtail the presence and use of firearms on a popular Alaska river to both protect the bear population and the large number of people who frequent the river.
- Established and for some years awarded a scholarship to financially assist Eastern Kentucky students majoring in an environment-related field.
- Arranged for and partially funded interns from Berea College (Kentucky), Duke University, and the University of North Carolina to work in Letcher County on environmental and government-related projects to improve services to the citizens. Some of those interns, at our arrangement, worked on critical projects to bring water systems to Letcher County citizens whose wells had been ruined and who had no source of potable water except through purchase in gallon jugs. Interns helped to install water lines, geo-mapped existing water lines, and improved automation of County government functions.
- Organized and participated in a petition drive that gathered more than 19,000 signatures and successfully brought medical helicopter evacuation services to the area. The service significantly reduced the time lapse between identification of a medical emergency and transportation to a trauma center. Obtained several hundred thousand dollars in funding to build a facility for themedivac service in an industrial park that was suffering from lack of tenancy, which not only assured timely medical response but brought both jobs and revenue to a county with inadequate income levels and a high unemployment rate.
- Played a significant role in defeating a bill which would have allowed gravel trucks to haul 50% heavier loads than state law otherwise allows, approval of which would have increased deaths, damaged Kentucky roads, harmed air quality, and been an irritant to residents living on those roads.
- Provided funding support for repairs and renovations to an historic church in Letcher County, Kentucky.
- Provided funds to support local community centers which are gathering places and preserve traditional music and other activities.
- Acquired grants for and coordinated cleaning of 15 miles of Eastern Kentucky roads. In addition, Board officers individually cleaned an additional ten miles of highway.
- Applied for and obtained a grant that enabled an elderly neighbor with an income of about $600 per month to replace a failing septic tank which was polluting the North Fork of the Kentucky River
- Obtained a grant and chaired an effort which cleaned approximately 100 tons of trash from the environs of Blackey, Kentucky. The collected pile of trash was sixteen feet deep, as much as seven feet high, and 100 feet long. Obtained additional grants for clean-up/improvement in Letcher County.
Converted a one-acre trash dump in Blackey, Kentucky into a park. That effort required arranging for the land to be deeded by the owners, removing all or parts of four derelict houses, six junked automobiles, and as much as 100 tons of trash (including abandoned appliances, old mattresses, etc), recontouring the land and planting grass, trees and flowers, establishing walking trails, and funding the park maintenance until the County government assumed responsibility. Continue to fund some park maintenance.
- Planted trees in downtown Blackey, Kentucky along the railroad to enhance appearance and to improve air quality by filtering out much of the coal dust given off by coal trains constantly passing through town.
- Negotiated with CSX Railroad to reduce to an affordable level the rent CSX was charging the town of Blackey for the land on which the town playground sits.
- Helped the city of Blackey obtain paving for its broken streets and reduce dust in the town, and helped another nearby small community ,Crase's Branch, do the same.
- Organized and presented a symposium at Berea College during which Eco-Outpost and Letcher County officials described Letcher County's actions toward recycling, county-wide trash removal, clean-up, etc, in the hope of bringing downstate Kentuckians up to speed on the special environment and problems of Eastern Kentucky in this regard.
- Supplement the budget of the Berea College Sustainability and Environment Department to permit special projects.
- Provided funds to Berea College to help support their efforts to educate low-income Appalachian young people.
- Host and arrange meetings, lectures, and entertainment for college classes studying sustainability and Appalachia.
- Created a 30-minute video - The Bears of Kingdom Come - to highlight the attractions of an Eastern Kentucky State Park. To increase tourism to the park, have given away free more than 500 copies of the video, and have given Kentucky State Parks the right to reproduce the video and sell it at Park locations to raise revenue for Kentucky Parks.
- Created several videos documenting Eastern Kentucky traditional practices, including two on blacksmithing, one on molasses stir-offs, and three thirty-minute documentaries on the loss of the once-dominant Appalachian tree, the American chestnut, on making molasses, and on caning chairs. The purpose of such videos is to both highlight tourist attractions and to pass on the tradition of sustainability which still survives in Appalachian Kentucky among many residents..
- Several times arranged for a band to entertain residents at the Hazard, Kentucky Veterans' Home, and took Christmas presents for all the residents of one or more sections of the home.
- Worked, both individually and with others, to curtail logging in several national forests, including one which does not contain commercially-viable timber, a fact later admitted by the US Forest Service, which has now ended such commercial logging.
- Worked to protect the brown bear population on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. Offer a standing reward of $5000 for information which leads to the indictment of anyone unjustifiably killing brown bears on the Central Kenai Peninsula area.
- Proposed and pushed through new regulations to protect the Coho (silver) salmon population on an Alaska river by setting the sports bag limit at a sustainable level.
- Proposed and pushed through regulations to curtail the presence and use of firearms on a popular Alaska river to both protect the bear population and the large number of people who frequent the river.