 Ring in the New Year with amazing savings from Appalachian Wireless. Get the Galaxy S7 for just $49.99 when you sign a renew a two-year service agreement. Better service, bigger savings. That's today's Appalachian Wireless. Today might have been the last day for Pike County Economic Development Director Lisa Daniels Eastep, but you would never know it by looking at her desk. She says one of her biggest tasks in the past two years has been working with the Department of Local Government in Frankfurt to close out coal severance projects from as many as eight years ago. And she has been successful going from 93 open projects to under 20 today. Today being my last day, I'm hoping to at least close out five more here in the next few minutes. And that may not sound that important, but Eastep says because past administrations had not shown that recent projects funded by coal severance money had been completed, the county was in danger of being cut off. Our county had received so much in coal severance projects from the past that was non-compliance because there was reporting issues that they were a little bit hesitant passing the money through. Eastep says in the process of tracking money that was allocated for certain projects, she has made a few surprising discoveries. And one of those projects was the Dorton Fire Department to actually purchase equipment. I called Larry Vann over the chief and told him he had $100,000 in his account that we needed to spend it and it had been there several years. It could be up to four or five years. In addition to closing coal severance projects from the past, Eastep says it is equally important in her position to find ways to fund future projects like the two boat ramps and river access points that will be built on the Tugfork River this spring, which involves much more work than just submitting a proposal. You have to chase that project. You have to go to Frankfurt. You have to talk to people. You get your magistrates to work with you. You get your judge to work with you. Pike County Deputy Judge Executive Brian Morris says a search is already underway to fill the county's now vacant economic development position. Reporting in Pikeville for EKB News, I'm Shannon Deskins.