Town With $17 to Its Name Wonders Where Mayor Went

A new patrol car sits at the edge of town, parked at an angle and seemingly poised to chase speeders.

Not likely.

The town’s four officers, unpaid for weeks, have taken side jobs.

The former mayor fled without leaving a forwarding address, and the state is looking into allegations that he stole town funds, leaving just $17 in Iaeger’s coffers. That wasn’t enough to pay to pick up the garbage that had been ripening for a week in the summer heat.

Government in this Appalachian coal town of about 550 people all but shut down two weeks ago, when the state canceled its municipal insurance policy because of overdue premiums of about $5,000.

“We have nothing,” said new Councilwoman Brenda Robinette, who doesn’t receive the $20 council members once got for attending meetings. “We’ve done as much as we can do, and we’re saying, ‘Help!’ ”

Someone took out their frustration by spray-painting a greeting on Iaeger’s brand new state-built bridge: “Town for sale or trade for food stamps.”

“We have a $7-million bridge and a $2 town,” Robinette said.

She is part of a new town council sworn in Monday, at the same meeting that Raymond Kennedy was elected mayor. Kennedy says the town is at least $40,000 in debt.

Iaeger (pronounced YAY-guhr) has received some help. The Bank of Iaeger, whose slogan is “The Little Fellows’ Bank,” contributed $6,000. The state also promised some money.

Still, the town can’t afford to pay police. The volunteer Fire Department is answering calls, but it had to sell hot dogs to help pay for its insurance.

At least trash collection resumed Tuesday. Janice Roberts, who lives about 50 feet from Town Hall, is grateful for that. Residents began dumping their garbage alongside the town’s trash truck.

“It was pretty stinky out there,” she said. “You couldn’t even come out on the porch.”

The town’s books don’t smell too sweet, either.

The state’s preliminary investigation shows Iaeger had thousands of dollars in bounced checks and books that haven’t been balanced in two years.

State auditors plan a more thorough investigation but see indications that part of $78,000 in local taxes from the bridge construction were never deposited and that former Mayor Dale Adkins and former Recorder Betsy Kiser wrote municipal checks for cash.

Kiser conceded that Adkins often asked for blank checks for unexpected bills. But she blames the council for blowing the town’s money on items like the new police cruiser and computers.

“It’s their own fault,” she said. “They just want to tell you Dale and Betsy spent the money, and that’s not true.”

Iaeger, which straddles the Tug Fork River about 65 miles south of Charleston, started to shrink in the 1950s, when coal mines closed in the region. Abandoned homes are caked by coal dust and dingy storefronts lie vacant.

Robinette estimated that 85% of the town receives welfare.

“The rest of us are what the people on television call ‘the working poor,’ ” said Robinette, a United Light & Power Co. employee.

Town leaders are focusing on getting police back on the job and erasing the debt. Robinette doubts the troubles will get so bad that the town will file for bankruptcy.

“We’ve got pride, if nothing else,” she said.