ASHLAND — Local effects of the national economic crisis nabbed two of the top three sports in The Independent editorial staff’s year-end poll to select the top local news stories of 2008.

The shutdown of AK Steel’s Ashland Works was the overwhelming choice for the No. 1 story of the year. Other bad economic news, including the closings of two department stores and layoffs at other local plants, placed No. 3.

The ongoing soap opera surrounding Catlettsburg city government came in at No. 2. A prescription drug-trafficking pipeline that resulted in the convictions of a Florida physician and a number of local residents was No. 4.

The death of a Greenup County soldier in Afghanistan was No. 5 on the list, followed by local changes resulting from the November general election.

Rounding out the top 10 were smoking issues in areas around King’s Daughters Medical Center, the mysterious death of an Ironton man whose body was dragged by a police cruiser, renewed efforts to open a public library in Carter County and issues involving the Ashland riverfront project.

A closer look at each of The Independent’s top 10 local news stories of 2008:

1. AK Steel shutdown. Rumors had been circulating for weeks that AK Steel planned to temporarily idle its Ashland Works, or drastically scale back operations at the mill due to a lack of orders from its the automobile manufacturing plants it supplies.

When the official word finally came in November, the news was as bad, if not worse, than had been expected.

The company announced that it was hot-idling the Ashland mill and placing roughly 650 hourly and salaried workers on indefinite furlough.

Company officials said there was no way of knowing when operations at the plant would resume — the first quarter of 2009 was mentioned as a best-case scenario.

2. Catlettsburg turmoil. 2008 was a stormy year in the Gate City’s halls of government.

The tumult began in January, when Mayor Don Wellman resigned after coming under fire for handing out thousands in cost-of-living adjustment bonuses for himself, city council members and city employees.

A few months later, controversy swirled around the mysterious disappearance of a number of financial records from the city clerk’s office.

Clerk Pauline Hunt, who had earlier retired after more than three decades in the position, maintained that she had nothing to do with the documents going missing and that they were taken as part of an effort to discredit her and thwart her bid to replace Wellman as mayor. Some of the records were later re-created.

Hunt was elected mayor in November, defeating James Allen Lambert, a former council member who had been serving in the position on an interim basis. One of her first acts was to fire the woman who had replaced her as city clerk, Susan Harper Spencer.

The November election also resulted in Wellman being returned to city government, this time as a city councilman.

3. Sour economy takes toll locally. AK Steel wasn’t the only company with local operations that felt the pinch from the nation’s free-falling economy in 2008.

Steve & Barry’s in the Kyova Mall and Value City Department Store at Russell both shut down after their parent companies declared bankruptcy, putting hundreds out of work. Skyline Chili at Russell closed after its bank pulled its financing.

Just before Christmas, Progress Rail announced that it was laying off 71 employees of its Raceland Car Shops, a facility it purchased from CSX Transportation in 2006. Sun Chemical at Wurtland also laid off workers, as did several smaller companies associated with AK Steel.

4. Feds bust drug ring. A prescription drug pipeline that stretched from Florida to northeastern Kentucky was broken up by federal authorities in 2008.

Acting on information received from a local resident who turned informant after being arrested on drug charges, Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided the offices of Roger Browne, a Coral Springs, Fla., physician. They found patient files for more than 500 Kentuckians, most from Carter, Greenup and Rowan counties.

The case resulted in Browne and 13 others being indicted on federal charges for trafficking in OxyContin and other prescription narcotics.

Eleven of the 14 defendants, including Browne and Drew Evans Lane Jr. or Morehead, the alleged middle man in the drug ring, eventually wound up pleading guilty in U.S. District Court.

5. Greenup soldier killed. The Global War on Terror claimed a local resident in 2008.

U.S. Army Spec. Jeremy Gullett, 23, of Greenup County, a member of the 101st Airborne Division out of Ft. Campbell, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. One other soldier and a civilian also perished in the explosion, and two other soldiers were injured.

Gullett joined the Army after graduating from Greenup County High School in 2003. Family members said he had always dreamed of being a soldier. He left behind a wife and a 21-month-old daughter and a 6-year-old stepdaughter whom he was in the process of adopting.

Gullett was the first soldier from northeastern Kentucky to be killed in the Middle East since April 2007, when Cpl. Joey Cantrell, 23, of Westwood, was killed by a roadside bomb in Taji, Iraq.

6. Leadership changes. The November general election brought a number of leadership changes locally.

Retired Ashland Police Chief Tom Kelley won a three-way contest to succeed Steve Gilmore as the city’s mayor. Gilmore resigned earlier in the year to become Ashland school superintendent.

Kelley won over city commissioner Paula Hogsten and write-in candidate Chris Hammond. Well-known community activist and youth sports volunteer Mary Gute was elected to replace Hogsten on the commission, joining holdovers Kevin Gunderson, Cheryl Spriggs and Larry Brown.

In the race to succeed retiring 100th District State Rep. John Vincent, assistant Ashland City Attorney Kevin Sinnette defeated Republican Mike Stewart, a former city commissioner and former director of the Ashland Housing Authority.

7. Smoking issues. Ashland’s city-wide ban on smoking in most public places went into effect in 2006, but smoking-related controversies continued to make headlines two years later.

Most of those involved smoking in the areas around King’s Daughters Medical Center. The hospital banned all smoking on its campus in 2006, and the city adopted an ordinance that same year creating a 20-foot no-smoking buffer zone around all hospital buildings.

People living in neighborhoods near KDMC raised a ruckus about smokers loitering on their property and littering their lawns. Also, there were numerous complaints about smokers fouling the area of Central Park adjacent to the hospital by carelessly discarding their butts.

The city and KDMC took a major step toward resolving those issues in November when they reached an agreement for the hospital to place a smoking kiosk on top of its Lexington Avenue parking garage. The city also amended the buffer-zone ordinance to keep smokers away from residents’ yards.

8. Guy Thomas death. The strange and mysterious death of 45-year-old Guy Cameron Thomas in March inflamed racial tensions in Ironton, prompted a full-scale investigation and led to the resignation of a police officer.

Thomas’ body was run over and dragged approximately 10 blocks by a cruiser driven by Ironton Police Officer Richard Fouts.

State investigators ultimately determined that Thomas was probably lying in the roadway and may already have been dead when Fouts’ cruiser made contact with his body on Ninth Street, a short distance from both Fouts’ and Thomas’ homes.

A Lawrence County grand jury heard evidence in the case, but chose to not indict Fouts, who had earlier quit the police force.

The most puzzling question — how Fouts could have driven all the way to the police station without knowing Thomas’ body was under his car — was never fully answered.

Family members and friends of Thomas, a 1980 graduate of Ironton High School and a U.S. Navy veteran, were skeptical of the official version of the events surrounding Thomas’ death and staged two marches in his memory.

9. Carter library. After 30 years of failed attempts, major strides were made in 2008 toward establishing a public library in Carter County, one of only two counties in the state that either doesn’t have one or isn’t served by some sort of regional library cooperative.

Earlier this month, the Carter Fiscal Court took a huge step toward ensuring that a library will finally come to fruition, voting 4-1 to join the cities of Olive Hill and Grayson in supporting the establishment of one. The magistrates also voted to contribute $18,000 to the library for each of the next three years.

Establishment of a library in Carter had been a hot-button issue dating back to at least the 1970s, when supporters tried to form a taxing district to support one after bicentennial funding from the state ran out.

10. Riverfront groundbreaking, delay. It seemed that 2008 would finally bring physical progress on Ashland’s long-discussed riverfront development project.

With pomp and circumstance, the city held an elaborate groundbreaking ceremony attended by Sen. Mitch McConnell, whose powerful position in the Senate had enabled him to secure a $12.4 million earmark for the project.

As the year drew to a close, though, work had yet to begin on the first phase of Veterans Riverfront Park.

In September, the city rejected all four of the bids for the project, which ranged from $13.5 million to $17.6 million, well over estimates. Engineers are working to modify the bid package and shave the cost, and the work is expected to be re-bid soon.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.