[E's Army]

The coal industry is on life support. It is hard to believe it will ever return to its hey day. Eastern Kentucky is bleeding jobs. The population is fleeing for places where there is some hope of a job. The tax bases in the coal communities is dwindling. It will be very difficult for some of the smaller schools to survive and the larger schools will have less and less enrollment. In recent years we have lost Evarts, Cumberland, Whitesburg and MC Napier to consolidation. It looks bleak in the coal communities.