EKY community members mourning loss of sentimental buildings

ARY, Ky. (WYMT) - In July, flood water tore through Homeplace Community Center, prompting the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund to demolish several buildings.

All of which were sentimental to the community for almost a century.

“It’s really one of those kind of things where you feel like you had a stab in the heart. I mean, it’s just sort of like somebody hit you in the gut or you have blunt trauma,” Ray Turner, who lives in Perry County, said.

Turner put together a petition with 476 names from the community that was sent to the board of the fund on Oct. 15.

Even with the petition, Turner said the Robinson Mountain Fund has not communicated with them.

“The board is not saying anything to us. It’s also a little bit indicative of the way the board responded right after the flood,” Ray Turner said.

Homeplace was a location FEMA set up at for flood survivors that needed help.

Communities from all over the country also came to help, but Turner said that was not the case with the Robinson Mountain Fund.

“So, those people came in droves. The E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund never did anything,” he said.

After surviving the flood, Turner and others in the community feel the destruction at Homeplace only brings down morale even more.

“How can I take all this in. If there’s one thing that’s going to be stable, and that we could sort of cling to, Homeplace has been it, and it just hurts to lose everything,” he said.

We reached out to the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund for a response, and they had no comment.

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