[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 45 (Monday, March 19, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1784-S1786]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO THE MORTIMER FAMILY
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, today I wish to pay tribute to a
family who has built their lives around the legacy of their heritage
but has not turned a blind eye toward progress in their pursuit for a
better future: the Mortimer family of the town of Salyersville, in
Magoffin County, KY. Doug, his wife Sue, and their son Ritter have
spent the greater part of their
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lives investing in the future of their local community, to make it not
only a better place for themselves, but for all of the residents of
their beloved town.
The Mortimer family is active in several different areas of the
business world, but they got their start in the media industry. Doug
and Sue were photographers for WSAZ TV in Huntington, WV, for quite
some time. But what they found was that Huntington was too far away to
be covering Magoffin County news. One day when Ritter told his parents
that he wanted to do something ``creative'' instead of return to
school, it sparked a crazy idea in Sue. She thought of the potential
that a local TV news station could have, and she proposed her idea to
her husband and son. They were sold. And YNT, ``Your News Today,'' took
off.
Ritter is the sole proprietor of the 30-minute news show that started
in 1998. He operates virtually every part of the show that airs every
weekday. The family has found that the town cherishes their local news.
Ritter believes its success comes from the fact that the material his
news show covers can't be heard anywhere else in the world. The show
covers serious topics such as fatal accidents as well as happier topics
like Little League softball games, making it really local news for
local people.
As the news station continues to grow, so do the other projects of
the innovative Mortimer family. The family opened up two restaurant
franchise locations, a Dairy Queen and a Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken,
on the city's new parkway. The location on the parkway was necessary to
bring in business because of the heavy traffic flow in the area. But
Doug and Sue remember a time when downtown Salyersville was the place
to be. The downtown area has been slowly decaying in the town of
Salyersville as businesses move to the parkway, downtown buildings get
older, and times change.
Sue, however, believes that downtown still has a lot more potential
than one may think. She has headed up a movement called Renaissance on
Main that is devoted to renovating and restoring the historic buildings
of the once-popular downtown area. The movement has already made major
headway in the downtown area, thanks to the superb leadership of Mrs.
Mortimer.
Whether it is delivering the news, serving up the day's meal,
restoring a building to its former glory, or taking wonderful
photographs, the Mortimers have a driving force behind every move that
they make, and that force is family. The good of the family is at the
heart of every decision they have made, the greatest of these probably
being the decision to stay in the small town of Salyersville despite
their many chances to move away. Doug, Sue, and Ritter believe they
have an obligation to stay and serve the town in which they were born
and raised, and they are saddened when young and talented residents
move away. The Mortimers are constantly fighting to better their
community so that young ones are motivated to take a stake in their
heritage and invest in the future of their hometown.
The Mortimer family treasures the past and embraces the future. They
have come to understand the importance of their heritage and to respect
the legacy of those before them. They have also realized that change is
necessary, and if you embrace the future and prepare for it, you can be
more in control of the changes brought on by time. The Mortimer family
is passionate about bettering their local community, providing jobs,
delivering information, and beautifying their surroundings--all things
that contribute to helping their fellow residents of Salyersville. That
is why I would like to take the time today to give them the credit they
most assuredly deserve.
Mr. President, I would ask my Senate colleagues to join me in
recognizing the Mortimer family of Salyersville, KY, for honoring and
preserving the past, as well as preparing and embracing for the future.
In 2011, an article was included in a publication released by the
Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce that highlighted the many
accomplishments of this remarkable family over the years. Mr.
President, I ask unanimous consent that said article be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, 2011]
The Mortimers--A Good Place To Call Home
Spending time with Salyersville's Mortimer family--Doug,
Sue, and their son, Ritter--is almost like being in two time
periods simultaneously.
Doug and Sue live in the same home Doug's mother's parents
lived in, and Ritter lives in the previous home of Doug's
father's parents. Doug and Sue have decorated the first floor
of their home with the charming period furnishings; they even
have a family tree on display they've created from their
study of Doug's North Carolina genealogy. They are
enthusiastic supporters of the Magoffin County Historical
Society and have recently bought two buildings downtown which
they are planning to restore.
Then there's Ritter. Ritter owns his own television news
broadcast, YNT (Your News Today), and is getting ready to
stream his news show online. The innovative technology of
today is something that was not even dreamed about in the era
when the homes were built. The Mortimers have seamlessly
embraced respect for the past and enthusiasm for the future.
Perhaps the most impressive dynamic among the family is
their obviously deep love and admiration for one another, and
not just among the three of them, but towards all their
family. When asked why, with their talent and business
acumen, they chose to stay in Magoffin County, Doug says
without hesitation, ``It's family first--nothing would matter
if we couldn't be near family.''
Sue continues, ``My siblings had left here and when we
married, Doug said, `Look, there's not going to be anyone
here to take care of our parents when they get older. I've
tried working away and I don't like it. It'll be hard, but I
think we just need to stay here,' '' she laughs. ``Whatever
it takes, he's going to stay here.''
So how did they make it in a small town in eastern
Kentucky? ``Sue and I have been photographers for 40 years,''
Doug says, ``since just after we were married. My dad was a
photographer, too, so it was an outcrop of that.''
``Besides photography, we've been in the restaurant
business about 25 years with the DQ and Lee's Famous Chicken
on the Parkway,'' Sue continues. ``We've tried the oil
business, an outcrop of my dad's business, which was always
boom and bust. This whole area has been a big part of our
success, especially our photography--it's not just our town
and county.''
Years ago, both Doug and Sue were stringers for WSAZ TV in
Huntington, West Virginia. ``During that time,'' Sue
explains, ``if something newsworthy happened here, I'd grab a
camera, cover the story, and stick it on a Greyhound bus to
Huntington. Then when the bus service stopped it finished the
whole thing because it wasn't worth the effort to drive it to
Huntington--but we still had those connections. They'd call
and say, `We're going to be up there next week and do three
or four stories. Can you set something up for us?' Well, then
Ritter came around one day and said, `I'm not going back to
school. It might sound crazy, but I know I have to do
something creative, and I want to stay here.' I thought, `Oh,
gosh, if we try something and it fails, he could go into a
tailspin and never find his way--that can be typical of young
people. What could he do that was ``guaranteed'' to succeed?'
Then I thought of the news thing. They both thought I was
crazy.''
Doug agrees. ``We both thought it sounded crazy, but Sue
was right. She knew the potential.''
``Well,'' Sue explains, ``we had done videos of weddings,
so we had a lot of the basic equipment.''
When asked why he decided to pursue TV, Ritter laughs and
says, ``Because my mother pushed me! It really was her
idea.'' He continues, ``I had a camera and a VCR and a few
pieces of equipment and just started doing it.''
YNT News, referred to locally as RittTV, first aired on
November 2nd of 1998. It's carried on local cable network
Howard's Cable, which goes into Magoffin, Morgan, and Johnson
counties and averages 3,500 to 3,700 subscribers. The show is
30 minutes long and airs at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. every
weekday. It is now approaching 4,000 broadcasts.
Sue says, ``When it started out, the local cable advertised
it was coming maybe the week before it started, and people
were already like, `When's the new show going to start?' It
was the buzz around here.''
``I don't really know what got it off the ground,'' Ritter
says, ``but I think it's successful today because it's
material no one can see any other way. I'll cover a court
meeting or a child doing well in school. One family has told
us they have a 92-year-old grandmother who lives where she
can't get TV cable, so they record the show every night and
take it to her so she can watch the show.''
Ritter does it all--covers and prepares the stories for the
air, sells and produces the commercials, everything needed to
get the story on and make a living doing it.
``No two days are alike,'' Ritter says, ``and that makes it
interesting. One day I might do a reconstruction of a fatal
accident. I'm also on the rescue squad, so Thursday I was up
helping with emergency service. Then
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after that's over, I do pictures and get back to the news.
Another day, I'll cover a city council meeting, an ATV story,
the softball championship game, or someone knocking down
mailboxes!''
``He's very versatile. He's like his daddy--he can do just
about anything,'' Sue says proudly. ``All the new technology
has made Ritter's station possible. The change from tapes has
allowed him to work with less manpower.''
The Mortimers' devotion to where they live goes beyond lip-
service. They are very involved with the Renaissance on Main
program, as well as personally investing in restoring
downtown Salyersville.
``We bought a couple of buildings downtown that we're in
the process of restoring,'' Sue says. ``When Doug's parents
were young, they had the Tavern Restaurant, and people would
come and just sit and visit.
``Downtown was a hopping little place then. We'd like to
see that again. It does make you stop and think about the
need to revitalize downtown.
``The second floor of one of our buildings is going to be
the Mortimer Inn--a B&B without the breakfast. There's no
place here at all for families to stay who have sold the
homeplace and want to come back for a visit, or whatever
reason. Paintsville or Prestonsburg are the closest. So we'll
try it and see how it works.''
Doug explains, ``The first floor in one building is rented
to a gas company. The other--which we bought just about four
months ago--we haven't done much with yet. We couldn't do a
lot with the first as far as restoration, but the second one,
we may be able to take it back to the original '30s when it
was built; it's in good enough shape, we think, to do a true
restoration. It was originally a grocery store--the oldest
business in town--run by a woman named Grace Howard for as
long as she could breathe. She owned the building and lived
upstairs.''
Sue continues the story. ``Eight or 10 years ago, I put
together the local Renaissance on Main group and I guess I
took myself too seriously. When we saw the building, I
thought, `Oh, we can do something with that.' We put two
businesses on the Parkway, but they had to be there to get
the traffic. The strip is in the city limits, and the
business and restaurant taxes do help different things in the
city. Still, we've helped pull things out of the downtown
area, so maybe what we're doing now will help bring it
back.''
``One of the greatest things downtown, I think,'' says
Doug, ``is the Pioneer Village, a project of the Magoffin
County Historical Society led by Todd Preston. It's just
amazing what a handful of people have done. Those are
original homes and schools from out in the county that have
been dismantled and reassembled. It's very active--open to
tourists. At Christmas, we have a beautiful parade, and on
that night the cabins are opened up, with fires in the
grates, and people come in with banjos. It is really nice.''
Sue talks further about the Renaissance on Main program.
``Our headquarters are in an old stone building, probably the
second location of Salyersville National Bank, and they
donated it to Renaissance. They had already made some changes
on the first floor added--sheetrock and took out tin--but now
we've got it and we're looking at restoring it. We've gotten
the money to finish the second floor. Behind the building,
there's a garden area that we've had put in using stone from
a two-story, hand-carved stone drug store that was being torn
down. Renaissance saved all that stone and used it for the
garden area and will use the rest for the base of the stage
of a theatre.
``Behind the Judicial Center, there's a mural you can see
on your way out of town. We raised money through donations
and picked out some historic locations to have painted on the
wall. Renaissance also did a water feature when you first
come into town,'' Sue finished. ``We've really worked hard.''
When looking at the future, it's clear to see that to the
Mortimers, the history and heritage of the past is an
important part of the future.
When Ritter is asked what lies ahead for him, he smiles and
says, ``I spend so much time getting stories, I don't have
much time to look down the road.''
Sue adds, ``He was offered a top position at a Knoxville
station several years ago, but moving doesn't interest him. A
regional station called him also--he told them, `You don't
have enough money.' ''
Doug says, ``From all of us, we couldn't imagine living
anywhere else--we just wouldn't. Right now, there are lots of
changes happening. It may not happen overnight, but
Salyersville and Magoffin County are only going to keep
getting better. It's easy for a community to lose its way,
but I think people are realizing they need to be involved and
to claim it. When young, talented people think about leaving,
we need to tell them, `You're really going to be sorry if you
leave; the bright lights of the big city aren't all they're
cut out to be.' They need to understand they have a sort of
obligation to stay around and help this region get better.
After all, you can travel to wherever you want--you're not
that far from Lexington or wherever you want to go--but this
is a good place to call home.''
``We've taken advantage of opportunities here and we've
been successful and happy,'' Sue goes on. ``Take Ritter, not
many people his age can say `I love what I'm doing and I'm
making a living out of it--and I stayed home.' ''
Ritter's sisters, Kim and Cindy, live in Atlanta and
Birmingham. ``Their growing-up years were in the South, but
they and their children share the same enchantment for this
area that we do.''
In the midst of the Mortimers, it is easy to see they're a
family with both roots and wings--and very comfortable with
both.
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