The News Journal Blog – Page 31 of 3019

Requesting Manpower: Local fire departments struggling with lack of volunteers

“You just don’t see that volunteer spirit like you used to.” That is how Williamsburg Fire Chief Larry Todd described the situation when it comes to the lack of volunteer firefighters in Whitley County, and across the nation. (more…)

Father, son sentenced for stealing thousands in gas meter rigging scheme

The father and son, who admitted to rigging natural gas meters that allowed them to steal thousands of dollars from two local gas companies, have each been sentenced in federal court.

Mark Edward Holbrook was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison last Tuesday in U.S. District Court in London. His son, Marshall E. Holbrook, was sentenced to four months in prison last month. Both also received home incarceration requirements, with Mark Holbrook serving two months and Marshall Holbrook serving six months.

Additionally, upon release from prison, Mark Holbrook will remain under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for two and a half years and Marshall Holbrook will remain under supervision for two years.

The pair pleaded guilty to unlawfully converting more than $1,000 in natural gas from an interstate pipeline system in exchange for plea agreements with prosecutors. Marshall Holbrook entered a guilty plea to his charge late last year. Mark Holbrook entered his plea in January.

The Holbrooks owned and operated Puissant Industries, a company that leased, sold and brokered natural gas for the past 20 years.

According to court records, sometime before 2016, Marshall Holbrook devised a way to manipulate the company’s gas meters in a scheme that they referred to as “propping up the meter.”

He then taught his father how to “prop up the meter,” which the pair continued to do from sometime in January 2016 until at least May 2019.

The manipulation would allow for small, nearly indetectable changes in the way the meter measured gas pressure. As a result, the meters for the entities they serviced would record a higher amount of raw natural gas having flowed from Puissant than what was actually provided.

During the time the meters were being manipulated, Puissant provided natural gas to Delta Natural Gas Company, Inc., which provides natural gas to residential customers in Whitley County, Greystone Equine, LLC and Somerset Gas Service.

As part of their sentencing, Mark Holbrook will be required to pay restitution of $1,207,016 to SGS, and $172,964 to Delta and Marshall Holbrook will be required to pay Delta $239,642 in restitution.

The pair faced up to five years in prison for their charges.

Court records show that Mark Holbrook is required to turn himself over to the Bureau of Prisons by 2 p.m. on July 23, with Marshall Holbrook to follow on July 30.

W’Burg Ind. students present Make-A-Wish Foundation with donation

Photos by TIMOTHY WYATT

Students with the gifted and talented program at Williamsburg Independent School presented the Make-A-Wish Foundation with a donation of $3,349.06 last Thursday during the high school’s end-of-year awards ceremony. Erin Quire (LEFT), an advancement associate with Make-A-Wish of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, was on hand to receive the donation. During the ceremony, Quire thanked students for their hard work. “450 families across Kentucky are waiting for a wish right now, and we have promised them a wish. 130 of those families are right here in eastern Kentucky and this money is going right to them,” said Quire. “You all should be really proud of yourselves. This is going to help a lot of families.”

Corbin High School announces hire of new varsity football coach

The Corbin Independent School District announced Wednesday that they have hired Luke Salmons to be the next head coach of the CHS varsity football program. (more…)

Williamsburg Ind. BOE approves raises for all employees

Employees of the Williamsburg Independent School District will be seeing a little more money on their paychecks this coming school year, thanks to raises that were approved last week by the Williamsburg Independent Board of Education.

During their regular monthly meeting last Tuesday, board members voted unanimously to provide all classified positions—or non-teaching personnel—a $2 hourly raise and all certified employees a 6 percent raise. The raises take effect beginning July 1.

The board’s decision was met with joyous applause by employees who were in attendance.

Superintendent Tabetha Housekeeper commended the staff for their work over the past year. She also made sure to acknowledge that one of the biggest advocates for providing such substantial raises was the board itself.

“These board members, all five of them, they love this place. We have spent countless hours on the salary schedule, countless hours crunching numbers seeing if we can do this and do it the right way for staff. But you know who had your back and was pushing us for more, more, more? These guys,” said Housekeeper. “When we were trying to be conservative, these guys said, ‘If we can do, let’s do it.’”

Other area school districts have also recently provided employees with raises, which were made available due to recent legislation increasing SEEK funding and transportation budgets.

In other board of education business:

– A number of existing positions were abolished during last Tuesday’s meeting, including: director of curriculum and instruction, dean of students, bookstore/school activity and chief information officer.

The duties performed by those positions will be rolled into other existing positions and a variety of new positions that were also created during last Tuesday’s meeting. Of those new positions created were: director of innovative learning, assistant principal of elementary, assistant principal of middle school/high school, elementary MTTS coordinator, director of transportation, director of facilities and teaching and learning coach.

During last month’s meeting, an assistant superintendent position was also created. Since last week’s board meeting, it has been announced that Marc Taylor, who has served as principal since the 2019-2020 school year, will take over that role.

Housekeeper confirmed to the News Journal on Tuesday that head principal interviews will begin next week.

– A special-called meeting of the board of education was held last Monday to perform a superintendent evaluation to gauge Housekeeper’s performance over the past year. That evaluation is done using a competency-based system where the superintendent and board work together to gauge performance, identify areas of competency and determine any growth needed for the superintendent to focus on in a given year.

The system is based around seven standards of leadership for the superintendent—strategic leadership, instructional leadership, cultural leadership, human resource leadership, managerial leadership, collaborative leadership and influential leadership—and superintendents receive one of four grades, ranging from “growth required” to “exemplary.”

Housekeeper, who just finished her first year as the school’s superintendent, received an “exemplary” grade in all seven standards, according to Board Chair Kim Williams.

During last Tuesday’s board meeting, Williams took a moment to commend Housekeeper on her work.

“I just wanted to let everyone know in this body, and frankly, all over this town, we’re very pleased to have her here and we really think things are going in the right direction,” said Williams.

Housekeeper spoke briefly about her goals for the coming year, saying that she is focusing on two key issues to help continue to improve the district.

“Relationships with kids, and teaching and learning,” said Housekeeper. “Every dollar we spend next year, it’s going to support one of those goals.”

District Court Records

Editor’s note: The News Journal publishes only the final disposition of district court criminal cases except for those which are waived to a grand jury or dismissed without condition.