 This trustee August is hotter than ever at Appalachian Wireless, as they are slashing all normal contract pricing on all smartphones by 50% when you sign up for service. Better service, bigger saving, serving you for the last 25 years at Appalachian Wireless. Like the rest of the state of West Virginia, Mingo County is experiencing a budget crisis. The Mingo County Commission held a special meeting Thursday in order to try to offset some financial burdens the county is facing. After losing $800,000 in coal severance money and property taxes, the county is expected to run out of money in September. That's after transferring the rainy day fund into general funds. The county commission has tried to have foresight. That's why we had the maximum amount maintained in our rainy day fund for the past two fiscal years. We have cut elected officials' budgets. We have cut the county commission's budget drastically. Unfortunately, through this downturn, as county commissioners, we have had to lay off well in excess of 20 people. During Thursday's meeting, 16 county parking spaces were canceled, court-martial duties were lessened, the fiduciary commissioner and assistant were done away with as well as the recreation director. Two employees, a maintenance worker and IT worker were switched from full-time to part-time with no benefits. And the sheriff's department will undergo a 30-day trial period of having assigned area parking spaces instead of driving their cruisers home. It's very difficult to set across from an employee who has been a good employee and has done nothing wrong to tell them that the funding is not there to continue their employment with the county. The layoffs will be in effect starting September 1. The next MINGO County Commission meeting will take place September 7. Reporting in Williamson for EKB News, I'm Shelby Steele.