 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. The new University of Pineville Kentucky College of Optometry has reshaped the landscape along Hambly Boulevard and brought a new group of students to town. But officials at the school say its true impact is statewide. In 2011, Kentucky passed the Better Access to Quality Eye Care Act, allowing optometrists to perform some minor surgeries and treatments that were previously reserved for ophthalmologists. Part of the reason why Kentucky, the legislature, was so wise in passing that scope of practice we have is because we have unserved and underserved areas. The legislature looked at us and said, we need to serve the amount of blindness that's in this area. The new optometry school in Pikeville is the only one in the state and one of only two schools in the nation to integrate training for the expanded services that optometrists can now offer in Kentucky. They take 65 hours just in ophthalmic surgery procedures. So they have to take a lot more. They'll be seeing patients when they go out there. They're clinical hours. So just like every doctor in Kentucky had to go back and retake that training, our students will take that at even a more depth level. The hope is that the majority of new optometrists graduating from the Kentucky College of Optometry will stay and practice in Kentucky where they'll have more extensive training than many seasoned optometrists who are still working to learn the new procedures. The big thing here is how experienced they'll be when they're out. Many of the other states have students who are going to watch procedures that are being done. Our students will be doing them again under the very careful supervision of their faculty but they'll be doing the procedures. In four years, the inaugural class of the Kentucky College of Optometry will graduate, ironically in the year 2020. Reporting in Pikeville for EKB News, I'm Shannon Deskins.