 Tonight, on EKB Evening News at 6, an Eastern Kentucky school district is looking for a new leader. Good evening, I'm Cindy May Johnson. A divided Pike County school board last night accepted the resignation of Superintendent David Lester. EKB news reporter Courtney Lovern was there and tells us that Lester's decision was the result of a promise made two years ago. The Pike County Board of Education is beginning a search for a new superintendent. David Lester, who came into the job two years ago, is leaving. He submitted his letter of resignation during a school board meeting yesterday evening. According to Lester, when he was offered the position two years ago, it was originally a four-year contract. But a board member asked Lester to offer his resignation after two years, in case the board wasn't satisfied with his performance. The board would then have the option on whether to keep Lester or have him go ahead with the resignation, even though the board member who originally suggested the two-year idea told Lester to withdraw his resignation last night, Lester still went ahead with his offer to resign. By a three-two margin, the board voted to accept the resignation and Lester will remain superintendent until September 1st. The two years are up and I did a presentation. I felt like I've done a very good job with the district, but obviously there are three board members that feel like there's someone else that they would prefer to work with. Again, I said that two years ago and I certainly wouldn't want to say something that I wouldn't carry forward with, so I offered that resignation and it was accepted. During the board meeting, Lester presented an instructional dialogue that explained the progress he has had in the school system over the past two years. Some of the data was gathered by the TEL survey and Lester said he is happy with the progress schools have made over the past two years, regardless of the board's conflicts. I feel very good about what I've done for the two years I've been here. Obviously the presentation, I think the staff of the district feels real good about what has happened the past two years. Our test scores are particularly impressive and I feel very good about those, so I don't have any reservations at all. I know that our board itself is somewhat fragmented. We come to board meetings and people don't agree, but I think when you go to schools and you see what's happening out there with our kids and our principals and our teachers, the TEL survey reflects the positive outlook that the district has right now and fortunately that disharmony with our board has not filtered down to our schools. Interestingly enough, Lester was voted into the position on a 3-2 vote two years ago. He still stands by his decision to put his resignation on the table. The board will begin the search for a new superintendent as soon as possible. Reporting for EKB Evening News at 6, I'm Courtney Levin. Thank you Courtney. We're joined now by Pike County School Board Chairman Justin Maynard. Mr. Maynard, thanks for being here with us. Thank you for having me. This is an important thing for the people of Pike County because I don't think anybody would disagree. There's nothing more important than our kids. So the school board must have felt that this is the right decision for the kids. Can you explain that to us and help us understand? Sure. There was a couple of things that led to that decision for me personally. Mr. Lester and I have had conversations, particularly since I'm the chairman, we work on the agenda together. He has told me multiple times that he did not like this job, that he wish he had not come out of retirement to take this position. And through those things, I just felt that that would be the better decision to go ahead and accept his resignation since that's the way he's felt. Now that's just the conversations we've had. The professional reason why I took that resignation is throughout the year, we have had multiple conversations about the budget. And I was led to believe that we were going to be in a deficit budget. I've been told that multiple times. And then we have a budget meeting, which we hadn't had in seven months. And we find out we have $6 million, which is a million dollars more than what we had last year, but yet we laid off 30 teachers. And those teachers are very hardworking, dedicated individuals. There's nothing more important to our students than those teachers. And I thought that was a particularly wrong direction to go in, particularly when our economy is the way it is. May I ask, was the decision to lay off teachers a board decision, or the superintendent's decision? That was the superintendent's decision. OK. And the $6 million surplus that you weren't expecting, are you insinuating that the superintendent had anything to do with that? I'm saying that I believe there was a misrepresentation of the facts of where we were. And that was troubling to me because it's very difficult to make a decision dealing with a $100 million budget when you're told that we're going to be in the red and to find out we were not, uh, uh, concerning me. OK. Let me ask this question as well. Sure. What happens now? Superintendent Lester will stay in the position until September. Is that correct? He will. OK. And what will be happening for the schools, for the school system, and those kids that are still being served in some ways throughout the summer? What will this mean for the kids and for the trickle-down effect? Sure. Mr. Lester's still going to be the superintendent. He's still going to be making the decisions. He will be in full control up until September 1. Our hope is that we can have a superintendent in place by September 1 so we can have a smooth transition between Mr. Lester and the new incoming superintendent, whoever that may be. Do you anticipate that there will be some overlap there so that any incoming person would have an opportunity to work with the outgoing superintendent or not? I certainly hope so. I think that's very important for the individual that would be coming in to serve in that role. It would give Mr. Lester an opportunity to brief the new individual on where the district is, what he's been doing with his programs, where we are with those programs, and have a smooth transition. I certainly would hope that we could get that done in time for that to take place. And the search is already underway? Yes. In that motion, to accept his resignation, was also to hire the KSBA who assisted us last time in a superintendent search. We're going to be going forward with them. I know Ms. Reynolds, our board secretary, has already been in contact with Mr. Oder, who is the KSBA representative. And we are looking for time to set up a meeting with him to start the official posting of the position. Again, thank you for being with us. I hope that you will keep us posted so that we can let everyone know as candidates are selected for consideration. Absolutely. It's a pleasure being here. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Thanks. Colrun police are looking for a pair of women in connection with a jewelry store heist yesterday. As seen here, a woman wearing a pink motorcycle helmet entered Hefner's Jewelers around 11 in the morning, smashed a display case, and grabbed handfuls of jewelry. The woman then ran out of the store to a motorcycle waiting behind the building. Colrun police chief Jason Ray describes what happened next. The suspect had a motorcycle waiting outside and fled through a gate used by the stores to access the back alley. The store owner pursued the suspect on foot toward the back alley to try to get a license plate number where he encountered the suspect. The store owner fired one shot towards the suspect, which missed and lodged in the flood while in the alley. The suspect then fled on the motorcycle. Based on the trajectory of the gunshot, no one was in danger of being stripped except the suspect. The investigation is still ongoing, but it is believed at this time that the suspect was not struck by the bullet. DNA was recovered inside the store, and we sent for processing. We're currently pursuing several leads in the case, and more detail was made available when possible. Store owner David Hefner confirmed he did fire a shot at the thief. I myself pursued the suspect outside with a handgun that I keep back in my office and fired a shot at the suspect as they exited toward the river bank out back. Hefner said he believes the woman had been in the store previously. He recalled an incident the night before the theft when two women aroused his suspicions. We feel very, very confident that the suspect and another female, the two females entered the store Wednesday evening the 10th, approximately 20 to 30 minutes prior to closing, entered the store and came directly to the exact same showcase, questioning my employee, how much is this item, how much is that item, so on and so forth. Really just very suspicious actions. The call run police department continues to investigate the incident. Pike County's proposed occupational tax has not yet gotten the approval of the fiscal court, and already there are some attempts to amend it. However, as EKB news reporter Shelby Steele learned today, those amendments will not necessarily get a vote and will not alter the timeline for passage of the tax. She explains in this report. Two amendments to Pike County's proposed occupational tax have been drafted, dealing with how the money would be spent and clarifying the city residents who already pay a municipal occupational tax would not pay any additional money. However, assistant Pike County attorney John Doug Hayes says the original ordinance will be voted on as is. There is not any amendment. We have drafts of two amendments. Those were prepared after the last court meeting. They couldn't be part of the ordinance because the court hadn't acted on that. Now, I don't even know if those amendments will be called. That's up to the judge and the court, but they're out there and they're out there because the Southeast Chamber of Commerce had some concerns. Hayes says during a meeting between the Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, judge executive Bill Deskins, deputy judge Brian Morris and Hayes, it was explained that the amendments can only be added if the ordinance doesn't pass during the next fiscal court meeting. It was made clear to them that we would not amend the ordinance itself and reintroduce the ordinance. The court would be asked to vote the ordinance up or down. At that time, if the court was inclined to call those amendments, those amendments would receive their first reading. That would not amend the ordinance that has passed, however, until those amendments were advertised and had their second reading. We cannot amend the occupational tax ordinance itself and still comply with state law, which requires Pipe County and all other 119 counties in the Commonwealth to submit a balanced budget by July the 1st. Due to the fact that the fiscal court is waiting to hear back from Frankfurt about the proposed budget, the next fiscal court meeting has not been set. For EKB Evening News at 6, I'm Shelby Steele. The Williamson City Council has received numerous phone calls from Mingo County residents who want to conduct fundraising roadblocks at intersections. The city has a policy that allows teams and nonprofit organizations to hold roadblocks, but only when the entire team benefits from the proceeds. Williamson Mayor Steven Johnston Knopp says, if this policy changes, it could open doors to things the city wouldn't be comfortable with. If it's only to benefit one or two people or a private family or something of that sort, we do not issue permits for those reasons. And I mean, otherwise it opens the floodgates to every person that can find a cardboard box to make a sign from. During a meeting last night, the council reviewed the old policy and voted to keep it as is. We have a developing story out of Floyd County. Kentucky State Police have confirmed that this afternoon a pedestrian was hit by a train at Garrett. The victim was transported to St. Joseph Martin Hospital for treatment of injuries. No further details have been released. We will bring you more as soon as they become available. Coming up, a retiring optometrist looks back on his 41 year long career. And in this year's, this week's outdoor adventure, Ronnie and Charles take us floating down the Russell Fork. We'll be back in two minutes. At the end of the month, Pikeville optometrist Dr. Ron McCoy will step down for a career that has spanned 41 years. EKB news reporter Shannon Deskins recently sat down with Dr. McCoy to get her eyes checked. And she also learned what memories he will take with him and what he plans for the future. A Pikeville optometrist is retiring after 41 years of seeing patients. Dr. Ronald McCoy told us he has never regretted his decision to go to optometry school and he has loved every minute of helping people see more clearly. I bet people cry when I put glasses on them because they can see for the first time. I went on a mission trip several years ago to South America, Peru. And this one lady was with the whole trip. I seen 120 patients a day. And one older lady, and I took a pair of glasses out like I'd ever used them and never, she was actually blind. And when I put those on her, she actually wet the floor with tears. Dr. McCoy said the one thing that means the most to him out of the last 41 years is knowing how many people he has helped. And it just puts chills on you to be able to help people. And I like to help people that, in every part of the country, there's people that can't afford glasses. And I've been given frames away to those people and they just have to buy the lenses. And it's the greatest thing in my heart to see how thankful they are that they got a chance to be able to see. But even though he has decided to hand his practice over to Dr. Jason Howard, who is returning to Eastern Kentucky to practice, he isn't going far. I'm not fully retiring. I'm gonna, I may help Dr. Will a little bit, may sub for the lady at Walmart and I'm gonna do some charity work, maybe with the health department if they need me. I wanna do that and help without time to school. I'm gonna probably work a little bit in the clinic over there so I'm not completely disappearing. I'm gonna be here. For EKB Evening News at 6, I'm Shannon Deskins. Your name. With the heat of the last week, videographers Ronnie Hilton and Charles Memms decided to take a dip in the water. In this week's installment of Outdoor Adventure, they take us kayaking down a stretch of the Russell Fork that has been called the most scenic float in Kentucky. This week, we loaded up our kayaks and hit the Russell Fork River. We began our float at the Ratliff Hole River Access Area in the Breaks Interstate Park and floated to Carson Island in Elkhorn City. The Russell Fork River is a designated Kentucky Blue Water Trail and this particular float has been called the most scenic float in Kentucky. Beginning at Ratliff Hole, you will immediately be consumed by the landscape. Towering bluffs and large boulders dot the riverbanks as you begin down the river. Soon you will come around a bend and the Pool Point train bridge will come into view. The riverbanks turn into sheer cliffs and the bridge towers well over 100 feet above the paddler. After paddling through Pool Point, the river goes from quiet and tranquil to loud and angry. The first rapid of the trip lies below Pool Point and offers the paddler a little dose of adrenaline as they make their way down the Russell Fork. Floating on down the river, the roar of the meat grinder rapid can be heard well before it is seen. The river drops approximately 10 feet in a 50 yard stretch through the class three meat grinder rapid and should be portaged if your paddling skills are not top notch. Be warned, the portage is not easy as it requires packing your boat over a large boulder field. After the meat grinder, the river begins narrowing and the paddler becomes dwarfed by the large mountains overhead. This section, in my opinion, is the highlight of the float, well worth the meat grinder portage. The river only remains calm for a short stretch before the paddler reaches the pinball rapid. At over 100 yards long with multiple drops and boulders dotting its course, it is also wise to portage if you're not a skilled paddler. After the pinball rapid, the river calms down and you enjoy a beautiful float through a dense forest. This is a great section to view wildlife and paddle beside enormous sandstone boulders that protrude from the river's surface. The quiet pool ends in a small rapid in a series of riffles that will scoot you into the Carson Island section of Elkhorn City. This float offers stunning scenery and a lot of adventure for those up for running. For EKB Evening News at 6, I'm Ronnie Hilton. Looks refreshing, doesn't it? Coming up in sports, Joe Kinzer will be in to preview the Hatfield-McCoy Marathon before he actually goes to run in it. But first, we'll check with EKB chief meteorologist Lathan Hopkins to see whether Joe's gonna be running in the rain. We'll be back in just two minutes. Tonight's the night for Pike County Relay for Life. I know everybody involved is crossing their fingers about the weather. We have a busy night and a busy weekend ahead, so let's get a ride, too, with what we have going on right now with the Doppler radar for now downtown Pikeville, Prestonsburg, and Hazard. You are dry as can be. But if you notice there on the left side of your screen, watching a couple of showers and thunderstorms, the first moving through Morgan County about to move towards Saliersville and Painesville here within the next half hour or so. And notice this little cluster of showers and thunderstorms developing to the west of Hazard, to the west of Jackson. This one is trying to gather a little strength and may make a V-line toward Pikeville. We will have to watch that here throughout the evening. I still think once we get to sunset, any of the showers and thunderstorms out there will begin to die down, and that will put an end to the shower thread for tonight. And then we get to do this all over again during the day tomorrow. Let's take you outside in downtown Pikeville. Cindy Minchin, Relay for Life kicking off at the top of the hour. The current temperature, 88 degrees, feels like 91 degrees with the humidity, about 52%, the winds from the southwest got about five miles per hour. So at least you have a little breeze out there. And then we head to Jenkins and it's a bit cooler, 75. Why is that? Notice the road is a little wet. They had a shower move through there around 5, 515. And of course that did help cool things down a little bit. 75 in Dorton, 82 in Widesburg, but still as we mentioned into the upper 80s, low 90s across much of the Big Sandy. Tug Fort, 94 in Williamson, 90 Logan, 89 Inez, 90 in Prestonsburg in Paintsville. Temperatures tonight will be dropping back down into the upper 60s to low 70s, much like what we had out there this morning. Then as we make our way into the day tomorrow, we are at least back in the upper 80s. And again, some of us may make a run toward the low 90s before the day is out. And I think we will all be into the 90s. Yes, as we make our way into the day on Sunday. So get ready for it, a hazy, hot, and muggy weekend indeed on the way. Let's talk about the UV forecast. And this is for both Saturday and Sunday. Expected, even though it does say Thursday, I think more of that public's covering that up. But it is expected to be at a 10, which is very, very high. Reduce any time outdoors between the hours of 10 and four, stay in the shade, sunglasses hat. That will be a must if you will be out and about, which a lot of folks will be. And of course, where at the sunscreen, at least a 30 SPF. Now, let's talk about the pollen count, which is always sponsored by Faith Pharmacy, Adams Plaza and Pike Field. It is expected to stay on the lower side, which is because we really don't have any big changes in the forecast. The heat, the humidity is gonna stick around. So will the pollen count at 6.0 on Saturday, 6.5 on Sunday, and 6.8 on Monday. Notice the seven day forecast. There's no change. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, each day a 30 to 40% chance of showers and storms, mainly during the afternoon. And the hazy, hot and humid temperatures, they're going nowhere. 88, Saturday, 88, Sunday, 19 on Monday. Just a broken record each and every day. So for all the goings on in Pikeville tomorrow, Muscle on Maine and all the music and the Market Tuck demand, yeah. We'll have to wash the showers for the afternoon. Once we get past the afternoon into the evening, things will begin to calm down and we should not have any concerns. Well, good. Marshal Tucker-Band thanks you. Yeah, I'm sure they do. Thank you, Layton. Area golfers were out in force at Stonecrest in Prestonsburg today, enjoying a sunny day on the course for a good cause. The Appalachian Wireless Community Outreach Golf Benefit is an annual event that pumps thousands of dollars into charity. This year's beneficiary is Judy's Place for Kids. Ashley Literal with Appalachian Wireless and Danetta Barker with Judy's Place took some time away from the links to talk to us about what sort of activities today's proceeds will fund. The Appalachian Wireless Community Outreach Golf Benefit has been going on for nine years now. It's a two-purpose tournament. The first purpose is, is it's a way for us to give back to our business customers, to thank them for being a customer. And instead of charging them to play in the tournament, we actually asked them to give that money to a charity of our choosing. This year we're doing Judy's Place for Kids. Judy's Place for Kids is a child advocacy center. We work with children who have been sexually or severely physically abused. We serve about 300 children a year and we provide therapy, we provide a child advocate to help work with the families and provide a safe solution for the child. Now at the time we were at the course, more than $12,000 had already been raised but money was still coming in. We'll be back with sports in just two minutes. Now Joe, you look pretty calm for a man that's getting ready to run a marathon. And I love Latham Hopkins Weather Forecast, the muggy meter, just love the muggy meter. I'll bet you do. For tomorrow morning, thanks a lot, Cindy. And good evening and let's take a look at sports. For 16 years on the second Saturday of East June, the Halffield-McQueen Marathon takes place. The 26.2 mile course begins in Goody, Kentucky, runs through Hardy over Blackberry Mountain across the tug into West Virginia through Mate 1, crisscrossing back into Kentucky through River Road and Aflux while ending in Williamson, West Virginia. 2000 people are expected to attend the race and the race has been mentioned in Running Time Magazine, Marathon and beyond. It was ranked in the top 10 most fun races to do in the U.S. and Runners World Magazine in 2006. The Weather Channel ranked this race in the top 15 as one of the toughest in the world. The Halffield-McQueen begins with a shotgun start at 7 a.m. Get this, 10,500 bottles of water and sports drinks will be consumed. We have the chance to speak with race coordinator David Halffield about the events. We put on the Halffield-McQueen Marathon and it's grown from 31 runners back in 2000 to we'll have probably close to 1,200 runners this year. People come here from all around the world and we've had people from as far away as Japan, China, Russia, all the European countries, South America and what have you in the past. Over 45 states will be represented this year. We're shooting for 50, we'll see what happens. You gotta watch how they say shooting around Halffield-McQueen country. Runners will come here for a lot of different reasons but the main thing is that the race encompasses the Halffield-McQueen-Fewdside territory. Here it's a 26.2 mile loop and they'll see all of that. They're intrigued by it especially since the running series between it was on TV a few years back. We'll be able to give them something that they can't receive in a lot of other places which is one-on-one between the runner and the volunteer and that's what makes our race unique in another way. We try to make our runners, that's our customers, feel like they're the only reason that we're here, out here to serve them and get them across 26.2 miles of heat and humidity and hills, the three H's. I gotta love that race course coming up in the morning. The NBA Finals are now tied at two, oh, as the Golden State Warriors utilized a smaller but quicker lineup to down Cleveland by the final of 103 to 82. Steph Curry led Golden State with 22 points. The Cows were paced by Timo Faye Mozgov with 28 points, 13 rebounds. LeBron James ran into a courtside cameraman late in the fourth quarter. King James stayed in the game. He finished with 20 points. Afterwards, he had to receive stitches in his head. Game five shifts to Oakland Sunday night. The Cincinnati Reds running high in a four-game win streak limped into Wrigley Field last night to begin a four-game series with the Chicago Cubbies. Shortstop, Zag Cozart is out for the year. Billy Hamilton, Brandon Phillips, and Marlon Bird are still out with the injuries. Brian Price had four starters penciled in. They were playing triple-A ball just one week ago. Ricky Michael Lorenzen on the mound going for his first win since May 5th. And let's go to the highlights, excuse me. Bottom one, two runners aboard and Miguel Montero at the plate. That was troubled. What a catch there by the fan in the front row. Three nothing, Cubs. Bottom of the second, Michael Lorenzen sends this shot in a deep right center field. No surprise, he was a hitting phenom in college. This is going to play Suarez and Pena, and the Reds are down 3-2. But the Cubbies will strike right back in the next inning. Dexter Fowler hitting from the left side. He goes, oh, yeah. I love that fastball there by the rookie. Holmbrunn and the Cubbies up 4-2. Top of four, Chris Dominguez, just called up from class tripway. Louisville sends a charge into this one, his first Homer of the year, and the Reds down 4-3. But bottom nine, with a runner on. Skip Schumacher chops this one and the first baseman, Mike Rizzo, he steps on the back and Chicago drops Cincinnati by the final score of 6-3. Now both teams are in action right now in progress. Bottom of the seventh inning, Chicago and Cincinnati-Sandy, they are tied at four each. As Johnny Cueto pitched seven innings, gave up four runs, but Todd Frazier, the Toddfather, his 18th Homer of the year. I love that, the Toddfather. That's great. You gotta love the Toddfather. Now I gotta know, are you gonna car-blow tonight and have plenty of energy for tomorrow? I have been carb-loading like a machine the last couple of weeks. That sounds like a dream job. We'll be back in two minutes. So, same-o, same-o in the weather department. Same-o, same-o over the next seven days, as a matter of fact, the hazy, hot and humid weather. It will be sticking around, not only for the weekend, not only early next week, but all the way through the end of next week with a daily threat of those afternoon pop-up showers and storms. All right, thanks, Leithan. And we're all excited, cannot wait to hear how you do in the marathon. I'm gonna begin at seven o'clock in the morning, no time limit. I may end up about six o'clock tomorrow night. Well, I just hope you're back in time for sports Monday. I hope I may be able to make sports Monday. Me too. That's gonna do it for tonight's EKB Evening News. Remember, you can get more local news by listening to the radio stations of East Kentucky Broadcasting. You can follow EKB News and EKB TV on Facebook and Twitter. Good night, thanks for watching.