For the first time since World War II, the sale of alcohol soon will be legal in Paintsville. By a narrow margin of just 56 votes, voters in last Tuesday’s special wet-dry election agreed that the Johnson County seat would be “wet” for the first time since 1944 — not just “moist” but “wet.”
While communities throughout the state — including Russell and the previously “dry” areas of Boyd County, Ashland and Catlettsburg — have convinced voters opposed to bars and packaged liquor stores to approve “moist” referenda which restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages by the drink to restaurants that seat at least 100 and derive at least 70 percent of their revenue from non-alcohol sales. The “moist” laws have significantly increased the sale of alcohol by the drink throughout the state and boosted the construction of large, national chain restaurants in previously dry communities.
But Paintsville voters have approved the full scale of alcohol sales including bars and liquor stores. It now will be up to the Paintsville City Council to approve an ordinance governing alcohol sales in the city. That should not be as difficult as it may seem. Cities new to the sale of alcohol typically copy ordinances on the books in other cities. If all goes smoothly, the first liquor stores and restaurants selling alcoholic could open in Paintsville this fall.
Supporters of the sale of alcohol in Paintsville contend that it will promote economic development and bring new jobs to the small town. And it will — eventually. However, the nationwide recession could slow the arrival of new restaurants in Paintsville. We’re convinced the slow economy is why the new “moist” laws in Russell and Boyd County have yet to generate the promised flurry of economic development.
No doubt that there are more than few residents of Paintsville who think the sale of alcohol will do more harm than good. However, all Tuesday’s vote really does is legalize the sale of alcohol in Paintsville. Just because Paintsville and other area communities were “dry” has never meant it was impossible to buy alcohol in those communities.
In fact, the late Harry Caudill, author of “Night Comes to the Cumberlands,” was convinced the “dry” laws in communities throughout eastern Kentucky did more to promote a disrespect for the law than it did to discourage the consumption of alcohol. Communities were officially dry but just about anyone over the age of 15 knew where to buy booze.
When young people see adults regularly ignore the law, it teaches a disrespect for that and other laws. In the long run, that disrespect for the law was the most devastating impact of the outlawing liquor sales in area where booze is illegal but plentiful, Caudill contended.
A week ago, the people of Paintsville voted to end the hypocrisy regarding alcohol sales. While it may not happen immediately, alcohol sales ultimately will provide a much-needed shot in the arm for Paintsville’s economy.
Editorials
Voting 'wet' — 06/16/09
Recession may slow economic benefits of Paintsville election
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Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.
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Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.
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'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.
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Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.
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Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Charles Chattin
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