On May 1, as we prepared Winds of Change, members of the Mountain Community Preservation Coalition met with the Boone Co. Commission and Office of Emergency Services (OES). The meeting was to remind the agencies of their commitment to implement an emergency warning system in the county.

We have been asking for an emergency monitor for each home in Boone County, to be controlled by the OES.

Greg Lay with the OES has done a terrific job finding the system best suited to our terrain. The Code Red plan is a battery and solar powered system that will be controlled by satellite so we don’t have to depend on phones and electricity. This could save many lives in the event of a sludge dam breach or failure.

We were due to meet with county commission and OES in June, but the date was moved up because of the recent floods, and a scare about a possible coal sludge dam break in Bob White, which DEP later said was a "controlled release" of underground mine water.

In May, several MCPC members will go to Meigs Co., Ohio, to speak with folks there about Jupiter Coal Company’s action in the Bob White area. They’ll warn people working with activist Elisa Young about what to expect if the coal company locates there, and they’ll strategize with local folks on ways to preserve their rights.

Next meeting will be, as always, the third Thursday of the month.

The May meeting, on the 17th, is at the Wharton Community Center, 178 Benton Road, Wharton. Please feel free to attend and bring others. We’ll have light refreshments, view maps and local aerial photography, and continue our strategizing.

New attendees will receive copies of documentaries about mountaintop removal. In order to have more time for planning, we will no longer show movies at the MCPC meetings.

Be a part of the Mountain Community Preservation Coalition! Attend the meeting and participate in OVEC’s work to preserve our mountain culture and heritage.

We need to mobilize people often so please stay informed about what you can do to help stop the destruction of our homes, lives and health in our almost-heaven ancestral homelands.

Sign up for OVEC Action Alerts if you have e-mail. Go to www.ohvec.org and click on Action Alerts.

Sign up for an OVEC membership [call (304) 245-8481] and get our newsletters to help you stay informed.