By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The City of Grayson received state funds in the amount of $400,000 from the Commonwealth of Kentucky toward the purchase of a new fire truck for the city. The check was presented to the city by State Representative Patrick Flannery and State Senator Robin Webb. Representative Flannery thanked the city for the opportunity to be there and said he and Senator Webb were very happy to present the check to the city.
“This was a budget year,” Senator Webb said. “And it was very competitive. I just want to say that the Grayson Fire Department has done a very good job in making the need known.”
Webb said the information presented concerning everything the city fire department does in the city, county, and region helped with the determination to award the funds to the department.
“It was a hard budget session,” Webb said. “It was number one on the mayor’s (Combs) priority list, and we were just happy to be able to deliver.”
“It’s not the whole truck,” Webb said, referencing the projected cost of a new fire truck, which, according to Fire Chief Greg Felty, would be in the $800,000 range. “It’s half the truck.”
Representative Flannery told those gathered that he thought it was appropriate to say thank you to our firefighters adding, “any person who is willing to go into a burning building deserves our appreciation.” Flannery also said he hoped the funds would help the firefighters do their difficult job.
Several guests were on the agenda for the Tuesday meeting to address the council. Kris Morgan from Oxford House Recovery spoke to the council and shared her story of becoming addicted and overcoming that addiction. Morgan introduced herself as “a woman in long-term recovery,” acknowledging that recovery itself is a process. She herself is an alumnus of Oxford House and now does outreach work from Winchester to Ashland.
“I have approximately 30 houses that I help keep on the right track,” Morgan told the council. “I train them to help them follow the model, but each house operates independently. That means there are no bosses, but there is accountability.”
Oxford House has just completed its first documentary, Morgan said.
“I have been doing networking and trying to get a lot of community partners to be part of the documentary showing. There will be a big showing in Lexington,” she said. “There will be one in Bowling Green and also one in Portsmouth, Ohio.”
“And I also wanted to talk about Grayson maybe doing a hub like Recovery Rowan County,” she said.
Recovery Rowan County, she explained, has a hub that helps those in recovery with things such as filling out job applications, help writing resumes, and other things to help them get back on track and give them some recovery capital.
Morgan said that her own struggles with addiction culminated in her being in a federal prison, and when she was released, all she had was “the shoes that the jailer gave me.”
“I didn’t have anything, and I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Morgan told the council. “And I knew that if I went back to the same people and places my life was never going to change.”
Morgan thanked the city for supporting recovery, adding that it was what helped change her life.
Rene Parsons from Business Cultivation Foundation addressed the council and spoke about a collaborative project her organization is doing with Kentucky Christian University that involves the United States 250 Year Celebration. The project is a History Walk that leads people through Grayson where they will be able to learn about the city’s rich past.
“Last year the White House set aside funding for a collaborative, full United Sates Celebration,” Parsons told the council. “They deployed that funding to each state’s Historical Society. The Kentucky Historical Society put out a grant cycle and said if you want your city to be part of this national fabric of America, and you have an idea, then give us your best idea. BCF (Business Cultivation Foundation) applied and we were awarded. We applied with a walking historical tour of Grayson.”
Parsons said the idea was to provide those on the walking tour with an actual passport of Grayson’s history. Kentucky Christian University Professor Gerald Dyson, Parsons said, and his students including Katelyn Justice and Christian Altizer, collaborated with her to bring the walking tour to life. Parsons credited Dyson and his students with doing the lion’s share of the work.
All summer long beginning on June 1, 2026, the Lusby Center at KCU will be open and there will be a section dedicated to the history of Grayson. The passports will be able to be picked up there for free, Parsons said, and it will take them all over Grayson where signs will be posted. There will be a short tour or a longer tour of the city, she said, and at the signs they will be able to use their phones to take a picture of a QR code at each sign. The code will lead those scanning the code to a full history of that spot. Following the path through history will end in downtown Grayson where walkers will be able to avail themselves of the stores in that district.
City council members were provided with temporary passports for the walking history tour and were encouraged to help “Beta Test” the tour before its June 1 launch.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
