A nervous and excited Lanthia Perkins stepped into the medical records department at Grundy Hospital on September 15, 1953 fro her first day as its newest switchboard operator.
   Many job promotions and dramatic changes to the local medical community later, she found herself at Buchanan General Hospital with more than 52 years in her chosen profession, saying good-bye to her hospital family with those same feelings of excited uncertainty, as she retired.
   "My dad was a shipping clerk for Buchanan Williamson Supply," she says of how she decided what she wanted to be "He would let me go with him in the evenings and I'd automatically go where the secretaries were and type with them. You see, I wanted to be a secretary."
    As an 18-year-old Grundy High School senior, Perkins had grown up the middle child of Gallie and Barbara Ellen Ratliff. With two brothers, Bob and Fred Ratliff, she'd gone through a brief tom-boy phase, expressing an interest in joining the U.S. Army when she was in the tenth grade. Instead, she decided to follow her heart and pursue secretarial work, which she now says has always been her passion.
   It ended up being one of the best decisions she's made.
   That year, her friend Lillian Stiltner was making plans to leave her job at the hospital.

   A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month not to hear an appeal filed by coal and steel companies challenging the constitutionality of West Virginia’s coal severance taxes was greeted as good news in the Virginia coalfields.
  The companies had argued the taxes interfered with interstate commerce by imposing what in effect they said was a sales tax which they alleged was a violation of federal protections for interstate commerce. The state Supreme Court in December ruled against the companies.
  Among the companies involved in the West Virginia case were CONSOL and Alpha Natural Resources, both of which do business in Buchanan County.
  The lawsuit filed by the companies alleged the severance tax violated the Import-Export Clause of the U.S. Constitution which generally prohibits states from taxing imports or exports.
  Last October, as one of the companies made a Virginia legislator aware that the West Virginia case could apply in Virginia as well, Buchanan County officials said it could wreak havoc on coalfield counties in Virginia as well.
  If a similar action was upheld in Virginia and the tax was ruled unconstitutional, Buchanan County could have stood to some $5 million annually in the coal severance taxes it collects annually, not to mention any reimbursement for past taxes paid by the companies which might have been required.
  "If this lawsuit is upheld and applied to the Virginia coal severance tax, then it would be a devastating budgetary issue for all of southwest Virginia," County Administrator W.J. Caudill said in October.
  Former Assistant County Attorney Frank Kilgore commented on this month’s decision, noting that hopefully it put an end to what he called "the coal and gas industries’ efforts to destroy the region’s coalfield communities through transferring the tax burden onto small landowners."
  "As more and more of our coal and natural gas resources come into the hands of national and international owners, we will be constantly fighting to keep coalfield counties, cities and towns progressing toward economies that are diversified," Kilgore said.-

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    An open house for the Grundy mural project was held Monday night at the Food City Community room at Vansant.
  Project Director Ellen Elmes explained the various elements of the mural which has been designed by her and students involved in a large scale painting class, as well as members of a Community "Memory Minders" group, who helped to narrow down the elements to be included in the mural.
  The actual painting is expected to get underway later this week and will take about five to six weeks to complete.
  The mural will be located on the side of the Vansant Food City building.
  Elmes credited the strong community spirit in Grundy and Buchanan County as being a primary reason for the mural, which is designed to preserve some of the historical elements of Grundy as much of the town is being razed and undergoes the dramatic changes associated with the Grundy Flood Control and Redevelopment Project.
  She presented proclamations of appreciation to several groups, including the Community Memory Minders, who she identified as Delilah Arnold, Nancy Baxter, Frannie Minton, Erma Bright, Sherry Bright, Ambria and Robin Collins, Renee Compton, Eddie and Kathy Hannah, Agnes Keen, Lynda and Roger Mayhorn, Rosemarie Miller, Lyle Mutter, Debbie Raines and students at Grundy High School, Ellen Shortridge, Jesse Stewart, Mary Talbott, Regina Varney and Margaret Wakeland.
  She also recognized students working on the project including Larissa Belcher, Matthew Bennett, Christina Boyd, Ginny Childress, Trampus Church, Ambria Collins, Renee Compton, Jennifer Estep, Rebecca Justus, Amanda Jo Hutchinson, Myrtle Lane, Jonathan Lester, Jimmy Moges, George Yirdan Tiffany Wong, Ken Parton, Holden Raines, Caitlin Ramey, Angela Singleton, Brett Vandyke and Sonja Young.
  Also recognized were Doug Branton and Steve Cole and those who committed their time and resources including members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors, County Administrator W.J. Caudill, Gaynell Fowler, Mickey McGlothlin, Lee Smith, Tom Hembry, Steve Smith, Phyllis Scott, Don Smith, Rhonda Whited, Wakeland, Raines, Russ Belcher and Phillip Imel.

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