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The Harlan County Fiscal Court recently commended a Harlan County High School student, recognizing Kenneth Dallas Sargent II for his work cleaning up the county’s rivers as part of this year’s Spring Cleanup project.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley called Sargent up in front of the magistrates at the top of the meeting.

“Today we have with us Dallas Sargent,” Mosley said. “Dallas is a student at Harlan County High School who grew up in the Rosspoint community.”

Mosley pointed out Sargent is a Rogers Scholar.

“As part of his Rogers Scholars commitment, he has to do community service activity,” Mosley said. “Spring Cleanup month is something that’s a priority for all of us on the Fiscal Court. Our Solid Waste Coordinator, Lakis Mavinidis is here; he’s spearheaded the cleanup program for many years in Harlan County. Dallas decided to do a river cleanup.”

Mosley said river cleanup is a considerable challenge to undertake.

“He successfully completed this task over Memorial Day weekend,” Mosley said. “He organized a team of volunteers; they went out in kayaks and were able to retrieve more than 30 bags of garbage.”

Mosley read a proclamation commending Sargent for his service to Harlan County.

“With the Rogers Scholars program, we had to complete a project in a certain amount of time,” Sargent said. “I chose to clean up the Poor Fork River…Our rivers around here are really important, a lot of people use them for drinking water, people fish in the rivers and a lot of people play in the rivers. It’s very important to keep those rivers clean to ensure children and adults are able to use the rivers as we have for years.”

Sargent noted he had a team of five people including himself, Jacob Shoemaker, Bryan Howard, and Landon McCreary.

“They all helped me clean up the river,” Sargent said. “I appreciate them, and I appreciate the proclamation, and I thank everybody for this opportunity.”

Mosley mentioned Sargent recently competed in a state track and field competition as well as recently winning the Run for the Hills 5K at this year’s Poke Sallet Festival.