Saving the river

Local News

May 12, 2008

Students working to help preserve Kentucky River

Ronica Shannon The Richmond Register Mon May 12, 2008, 08:25 AM EDT

The final exam for several Eastern Kentucky University students is more about just getting a good grade.

For a group of eight students under the leadership of professor Alan Banks, director of the EKU Center for Appalachian Studies, their final exam could result in saving the Kentucky River.

Students Ivy Brashear, Christopher Mullikin, Kelley Davidson, Ashley Evans, Ashley Hallis, Warren Oliver, Jeremy Roberts and Gary Underwood have worked to compile survey questions that are being distributed to elected officials representing the 41 counties located along the Kentucky River watershed.

The students met Wednesday at The Waterfront restaurant to discuss their initiative with local elected officials.

The Center for Appalachian Studies partnered with the Kentucky Riverkeepers to do a survey to get an idea of what is important to local elected representatives.

The surveys are a part of the project’s first phase which eventually will include a filmed documentary about the importance of saving the Kentucky River. It will be a two-year process, said Kentucky Riverkeepers and Berea artist Pat Banks.

“It’s going to be a great process,” said Kentucky Riverkeepers Pat Banks. “We hope to use these surveys to write grants, to bring resources to our region to make things happen.”

The 45-question survey asks officials what they consider important and relevant to their respective communities. Categories include community assets, problem areas in their communities and what they think about several issues related to the use, marketing and preservation of the Kentucky River.

The experience of compiling questions for the survey was a learning experience in itself for Brashear.

“It was a team effort,” she said. “I learned a lot about activism and how you get things done in an organized fashion. We also learned how to get results and how to reach the goal that you’re working toward in a civil manner.”

Richmond Mayor Connie Lawson expressed her love and appreciation for the Kentucky River at Wednesday’s meeting, but also said she was aware of its deterioration.

“The river, as we have known it, is gone,” Lawson said. “It breaks my heart.”

Rules and regulations have been put in place that many ignore, according to Pat Banks.

“There are laws in place for clean water, but we can’t swim in our river or eat our fish,” she said.

The Kentucky River was a large part of Mullikin’s childhood, but he has seen the decline in the community’s interest in the river, he said.

“The (Kentucky) river needs more publicity,” he said. “When was the last time you saw a commercial for the Kentucky River? I think we need to change people’s opinion about the river.”

The main goal of the EKU/Kentucky Riverkeepers relationship is to identify ways to find resources that can help increase community awareness about the needs of the Kentucky River and create a vision for the river’s future, Banks said.

The Kentucky Riverkeepers is a non-profit organization and is sponsored by the EKU Center for Appalachian Studies.

Send an e-mail to kyriverkeeper@eku.edu or call 622-1622 for more information about the project or the Kentucky Riverkeepers organization.

Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.

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