By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times

 “I married a lifelong Republican,” Amy McGrath told the crowd who came out to Carter Caves to hear the Democratic candidate for senate speak. “But we’re Americans first.” 

That message, on service and rebuilding a United States Senate that worked together for the good of the American people, regardless of political party, was the gist of the former Marine fighter pilot’s campaign stop in Carter County last Friday. It was also the substance of her criticism of incumbent Senator Mitch McConnell, who McGrath attacked for letting legislation lie on his desk rather than acting on bills that could benefit Kentucky and the nation. McConnell, she said, only seemed to act on bills when they benefited him, his party, or his political donors. She also criticized the system that allowed McConnell to take “dark money” from those donors without revealing who they were. 

“We don’t know what person… or even what country they are coming from!” she said. 

She promised to be transparent about where her funding was coming from and to act on any legislation that would benefit her constituents, no matter what side of the aisle that legislation came from. 

“I can promise you, every piece of legislation that comes across my desk, I’ll ask, ‘How does it benefit Kentucky?’” she told the crowd. 

One of the areas she said she’d like to focus on was infrastructure investment, both replacing and repairing outdated infrastructure as well as what she called “21st century infrastructure” such as improved internet access and cell service. These projects, she said, would both improve quality of life and create much needed jobs for Kentuckians and other Americans. 

McGrath mentioned Republican President Dwight Eisenhower’s interstate highway project, which created jobs and improved transportation, as a model she’d like to follow. Eisenhower, she said, didn’t wait around to see how the project could benefit him or his political donors but moved forward with a project that benefited all Americans. She also noted that cities across the nation and across Kentucky have failing water lines that are 50 years old or older, in some instances, that need replaced. 

McGrath also answered questions from the Times about her support for a woman’s right to choose. As a Christian, she said, she didn’t want to encourage abortion as birth control. But, she added, she also didn’t want to take away a woman’s and her doctor’s right to decide what worked best for them, especially in medical emergencies. She said she felt the number of abortions could be decreased by working to increase access to healthcare and birth control. Late term abortions specifically, which are often the result of health conditions that threaten the life of the mother and the baby, could be reduced by improving access to prenatal care, she said. 

McGrath also gave her support to state representative candidate Kathy Hinkle, who was at the event. 

“It’s not just about Washington, we have to change Frankfort too,” she said. 

McGrath also praised the bipartisan work of Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, and Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams to improve voter participation. 

Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes. com. 

By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times

 A Black Lives Matter rally, organized by Dee Garrett, took place in Olive Hill on Sunday. Protesters, most of whom bussed in from Louisville, marched from the Save A Lot grocery to J.A. “Skinny” Raybourn City Park where they engaged with Olive Hill residents and others from outside the area who showed up either to counter-protest or – according to some online sources – were already in the park for a rally in support of President Donald Trump. It is not known if the timing of the BLM rally, scheduled for 3:30 p.m., was specifically set to overlap with the Trump rally, which was scheduled to last from 1 – 4 p.m. 

While both groups included heavily armed individuals intent on exercising both their First and Second Amendment rights, there were no incidents of violence. There was some verbal sparring between confrontational individuals in both groups, but police were able to maintain the peace and most individuals on both sides engaged in respectful dialogue. 

The Olive Hill police department, with aid from Grayson police, the Carter County Sheriff’s department, and Kentucky State Police, were able to maintain a peaceful environment by positioning themselves between the two groups. No arrests were made, but law enforcement would reposition themselves between individuals when discussions became heated. 

One BLM protester, who declined to identify herself or to speak on camera, told a Kentucky State Police officer that she saw a marked difference between the actions of police in Olive Hill and those of the Louisville Metro Police Department. 

“If the Louisville police acted like this, we wouldn’t have a problem with them,” she was heard telling the officer. 

It was a stark contrast to what some of the protesters seemed to expect based on videos Garrett posted in the lead-up to the rally where he said he had heard Olive Hill was, “the most racist city in Kentucky.” 

That misleading claim, from a 2016 article posted on a travel website, was based on the fact that Olive Hill once had an active KKK Klavern and the small population of the city. While cities like Covington, Newport and Glasgow had two active Klaverns according to the article, they also had much larger populations. Newport and Glasgow – at the time of the report – had more than seven times the population of Olive Hill while Covington had more than 20 times the population. The number of active Klan members and other racists groups in each city were not taken into account. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks hate groups across the nation, does not currently show any active KKK Klaverns in Olive Hill, but they do show statewide organization from three different KKK groups and several other white identity racists groups, as well as four different black separatists groups based in Louisville. The SPLC lists a total of 15 hate groups in the state, with ten of those groups representing white nationalists, neo-confederate, or other white supremacists groups. The other five are black separatists groups. 

Bishop Dennis Lyons, of the Louisville Gospel Missionary Church and the Voice of Louisville Civil Rights Association, said while some of the younger residents of Olive Hill might not be aware of the history of the Klan in the city, it was important to acknowledge and confront that legacy. 

“They don’t understand, because they are of a different generation,” he said. “We’re just raising awareness.” 

But Lyons, who led a prayer with black and white Christians in the park, said he was heartened by the events of the day. 

“This is great because we are talking,” Lyons said. “Communication is the key.” 

Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com

By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times

 During the six years she’s served on the Carter County School Board, Lisa Ramey-Easterling said she has only missed one meeting, and that was when her mother passed away. Ramey-Easterling, who has worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs for nearly 30 years, was first appointed to the board by the state education commissioner to fill an unexpired term, and then ran twice – winning re-election each time. 

The Carter City native, who said she brings the same level of organization to her role as a school board member that she brings to her job as a Health Systems Specialist with the Veterans Healthcare Administration doesn’t take credit for most of the wonderful things to happen with the schools during her time in office. That, she says, is largely the work of teachers, principals, and other administrators in each school and the school system as a whole. But she is proud to support them in the work that they do. 

“I originally had a great role model with my mom,” she said. “Being from Carter City, we looked at (the school system) as a unified county, and I wanted to be a part of building up our county.” 

She said one of her goals when she took office was to get Carter City Elementary – the school she attended through 8th grade – recognition as a National Blue Ribbon school. Many thought that was a pipe dream, she said. 

“But, through perseverance, we got there.” 

Carter City, who was recognized this year, joins Star Elementary as the second school system in Carter County to receive the distinction. With only 62 schools in the entire commonwealth recognized, she said, it’s something the county should be proud of. 

“The fact that we have two is astounding,” she said. 

She said she is also “super proud” that Prichard has consistently been named a proficient school, along with Carter City, and that East and West Middle Schools and East and West High Schools are recognized as “schools of distinction” rating in the top five percent of middle and high schools. 

Ramey-Easterling, who is also the “only sitting board member recognized by the state school board association for completing the Board Member Academy of Study Leadership training certification,” has also served on the Governor’s Scholar Program Review Committee as well as the District Local Planning Committee, where she is working on a strategic plan over the next four years to meet the district’s needs. 

Among the ideas she has implemented, she said, was moving school board meetings around to different school buildings, at least before COVID-19 changed the way the board met, so that teachers and students could highlight the unique contributions they were making in their classrooms. 

“It was my idea to showcase schools and students at our monthly board meetings and to rotate our monthly meetings in our schools,” she explained. “I’m hoping we’ll be able to go back to that (once the pandemic passes.)” 

While the pandemic has changed the way the board and schools operate, she said it’s also presented new opportunities for teachers to use technology in innovative and novel ways. 

It’s not surprising, she said, that the teachers have risen to the challenge. Before the pandemic Carter County schools hosted “approximately 30 districts, approximately 20 percent of all districts in the commonwealth,” who spoke to students, teachers and administrators regarding Carter County’s “standard of excellence and success.” 

Carter County, for instance, was recognized last year for their graduation rates, she said. East Carter High School is also one of three HUB schools in the entire state. This means the school serves as a model for all other schools in the state. 

She said it’s an amazing accomplishment considering ECHS was, at one time, in the bottom ten percent in performance for the state and on academic probation – being run directly by the state. But it isn’t just East Carter High School that she bragged about. She also noted that students at Carter Career and Technical Center regularly test out of apprenticeship programs, especially in the welding programs, with students who are interested in becoming boilermakers ofter skipping apprenticeship and moving directly into making scale pay at the prevailing wage after graduation. 

While she’s proud of these accomplishments, she knows that the pandemic has been rough on teachers, students, and parents. Some parents have not been happy with the way the district responded, but she said they considered all possible options before choosing to follow the models they did. This included considering a staggered return before that option was brought to the board by parents. 

Ultimately, she said, the board had to do what they thought was in the best interest of students, and that meant allowing parents to decide what worked best for them. This, she said, is why they went with an option that allowed parents to choose to send their kids back to school, to utilize NTI and work from home via computer, or to take a hybrid route. 

It’s also why the board chose to provide all students with computers and to set up wi-fi hot spots at all schools so students can download content at the schools to work on at home offline. Some parents were confused initially, she acknowledged, because they thought if they didn’t have internet at home they would have to sit in the parking lot throughout the day. But, she said, the board understood this wasn’t practical and it’s why the district set up the program so parents only needed to visit schools to download content. 

“My mom used to drive a school bus,” she said. “I know how remote some of these hollers are.” 

It’s also why she worked with the board to make sure all students were being provided with free lunches delivered by those bus drivers. 

She also knew that some families would be sending their kids back to school, and that is why she worked with her colleague, Rachel Fankell, to coordinate volunteers who made an additional 500 face masks for students to have as extras in the schools. 

“It’s a national pandemic, and none of us have lived through a national pandemic before. We’ve made some not so popular decisions, but it’s important to realize we take safety as a top priority,” she said. 

She noted that she’s very lucky, in her job with the VA, to get information from the White House and the CDC and, as a board, they’ve stayed in constant contact with state officials as well. 

It’s also why she advocated to give teaches an extra ten days for COVID related issues if they needed them. 

And, she noted, she’s worked to do all of this while also advocating to keep personal property taxes for schools as low as possible and providing pay raises for teachers. Those reasons and others, she said, are why she hopes that voters recognize her work and vote to keep her on the board. 

Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes. com