Timothy Wyatt

A jury trial has been set for a Corbin man facing over 250 counts of child porn charges. Read this story and more for just $.99 cents today, or subscribe to get access every day! Please login to view this content. Not a Member? Join Us

Photos by TIMOTHY WYATT Students from Williamsburg Independent School and Corbin Independent School competed in the FIRST LEGO League Challenge in Hazard on Saturday. The event was held at East Perry Elementary, where schools throughout the region competed against one another using robots each team built and coded to perform various tasks.

A Williamsburg home has been considered a total loss following a fire that broke out sometime Sunday afternoon. Read this story and more for just $.99 cents today, or subscribe to get access every day! Please login to view this content. Not a Member? Join Us

A Williamsburg woman facing multiple felony charges stemming from a September crash involving Whitley County Sheriff Bill Elliotte has entered a not guilty plea in her case. Ashley Melton Sulfridge, 41, appeared in Whitley Circuit Court on Monday for arraignment on charges of two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of first-degree criminal mischief, all of which she was indicted on last month by a Whitley County grand jury. A not guilty plea was entered to the charges during Monday’s proceedings. A follow-up pretrial conference has been scheduled for Jan. 30, 2025. Sulfridge is accused of causing a traffic collision that injured the sheriff and another motorist. On Sept. 19, she struck Elliotte’s official 2022 Dodge Ram patrol vehicle and a 2018 GM truck causing over $1,000 in damage to each vehicle and causing serious physical injuries to both Elliotte and the driver of the other vehicle, according to her indictment. The crash occurred just after 9 a.m. along US-25W near the intersection with McKeehan Crossing Road when a vehicle operated by Sulfridge crossed the centerline and struck two vehicles. Elliotte, who did not suffer any major injuries during the crash, told the News Journal later that evening how the crash unfolded. “I was going up the Falls Road behind another vehicle and a lady crossed over into our lane of traffic. [The man in front of me] swerved trying to avoid her and she sideswiped the right side of his truck and come back and caught mine not quite head-on, but pretty close,” said Elliotte. Sulfridge and the man from the other vehicle, who was only identified as an “elderly male,” were both taken to Baptist Health Corbin for treatment of minor injuries. Elliotte initially declined treatment, but was eventually talked into being seen for complaints of a headache. Elliotte’s police cruiser was totaled as a result of the crash. According to an arrest citation, a witness at the scene told police that Sulfridge appeared to be under the influence when she was being put into the ambulance. Police also allegedly found an open Mike’s Hard Lemonade in the middle console of Sulfridge’s vehicle. Police went to the hospital to have Sulfridge submit to a blood test. The arrest citation stated that sometime between when the blood was taken and when more police arrived to perform an interview of Sulfridge, she allegedly slipped out of the hospital. Sulfridge was found to have three active warrants for her arrest at the time of the incident. Sulfridge was later located by the Corbin Police Department. Her arrest citation does not detail where, though Elliotte told the News Journal she was found at a Save-A-Lot in the area. She currently remains jailed in the Whitley County Detention Center in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond.

Photos by TIMOTHY WYATT Corbin’s annual Shop With a Cop event was held last Thursday night at Walmart, where 135 kids were given the chance to shop for Christmas. Corbin Police Chief Rusty Hedrick said each kid had $125 to spend, up from the usual $100 due to generous donations.

The appeal for a Corbin man convicted in 2022 for fatally shooting three individuals at a Whitley County home has been denied. Read this story and more for just $.99 cents today, or subscribe to get access every day! Please login to view this content. Not a Member? Join Us

Photos by TIMOTHY WYATT The Williamsburg Housing Authority held a Christmas party last Wednesday evening at their newly-renovated community room on Mackey Avenue. There were a number of giveaways provided to those who attended, including large bags of age-appropriate toys for each child, which was made possible through a partnership with the local Toys for Tots campaign. Children were also able to get their pictures taken with Santa Claus and the Grinch.

Santa Claus will soon be in town, and it should be smooth sailing once he arrives. A resolution pertaining to the county’s airspace was unanimously approved last Tuesday during the Whitley County Fiscal Court’s regular monthly meeting, which will allow Santa to freely travel throughout the county as he makes his annual deliveries. Judge-Executive Pat White, Jr., said that the fiscal court passes a similar resolution each year as a fun way to celebrate the holiday season “There’s a special guy that likes to visit good boys and girls in Whitley County and the court took action to welcome him and authorize him to use airspace over the county on Christmas Eve night,” said White. “We sure hope that Santa Claus visits all the kids in Whitley County. We have some good kids in our area.” White also wanted to make sure, on behalf of both himself and the fiscal court, to wish residents throughout the county a “Merry Christmas.” In other fiscal court business: – A resolution pertaining to the county’s emergency operations plan was approved. White said that an emergency plan is approved annually with various updates, as needed. The plan is not public record due to the sensitive information that is detailed within it. If the plan were public record, it could pose some serious risks to the local community, according to White.

There will be four new buses among the Whitley County School District’s fleet of vehicles next school year. During the Whitley County Board of Education’s special-called meeting last Tuesday, board members unanimously approved the purchase. Superintendent John Siler said that the district is “excited” to be able to update the fleet and provide a better, safer experience for students. “We always want to put the safety of our students first—not only in the school setting, but while we’re transporting our students to and from school and other events. We want to always try to keep them in newer buses with more modern safety devices,” said Siler. The buses approved to be purchased during last week’s meeting will come equipped with camera systems both inside and outside of the bus as well as other amenities. The total cost of the buses will be approximately $670,000, according to Siler. However, the school district is able to maintain its own fleet of vehicles, relying on district-hired mechanics instead of a fleet management service as some other districts do. In other board of education business: – An update was provided regarding an ongoing construction project on the baseball and softball fields at Whitley County High School. According to Siler, the project is slightly behind schedule due to the amount of rain over the past several weeks, though some strategies and ideas are being considered to try and mitigate some of the lost time and get the project back on schedule. Both the baseball and softball fields are currently in the process of having the existing natural sod converted to artificial turf. Completion of the project will be updated as work continues, though it was originally expected to be done before the respective seasons begin in the spring. – A second reading of an update to the district’s purchasing and bidding policies and procedures. According to Siler, the district is constantly looking at ways to ensure that best practices are being followed when the district decides to make a purchase. “We always want to look at ways that we can put more checks and balances into purchases and our bidding processes and things like that. So many of the items that we purchase—from the milk that the students consume in the cafeteria to the tires we put on our buses—require that we put out bids and advertise for those bids,” said Siler. “So, this just updates how we go about that.”

The home seating area for games at Williamsburg Independent’s newly renovated football stadium is expected to grow by more than 100 seats this offseason. The Williamsburg Independent Board of Education approved a change order during their regular monthly meeting last week that will allow for an additional 12 feet of bleachers to be added to the homestand area of the field. According to Marc Taylor, assistant superintendent for the school district, the extra bleacher space should add 122 seats to the stadium’s capacity. As part of the expansion, aisles leading up to the press box will be situated so that they match. The change order amount for the bleachers was just over $38,000; however, the district will only have to pay $411 due to an overpayment by the district for previous services during the initial phase of the stadium’s renovations. Superintendent Tabetha Housekeeper also noted that there were also discussions with the district’s fiscal agent regarding the additional seating and that accepting the change order made the most sense from both a financial and safety standpoint. In other board of education business: – The board approved an audit report for the 2023-2024 school year. The report was presented to the board by Shad Allen, certified public accountant. According to Allen, the school district received a clean audit. “The finance staff provided us with accurate information. They were very timely with that information,” said Allen. Allen also noted that the controls over financial reporting were designed appropriately and operating effectively.