In Your View — 09/17/09 » Editorials » Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

Editorials

Discussion

September 17, 2009

In Your View — 09/17/09

Anonymous The Daily Independent Thu Sep 17, 2009, 08:57 AM EDT

Fiscal court right about tax request

The Greenup County Fiscal Court is well advised to avoid turning over taxing authority to the Conservation District (The Independent, Sept. 16). The district then becomes just like the volunteer fire companies. We need volunteer firemen; what we do not need is the lack of supervision or setting of goals for the spending of our tax dollars.

Years ago, when the fire companies had to do their own fundraising via bake sales, barbecues, etc., their main priority was to keep expenses, primarily interest, low. That same mindset continues today and that’s not in the best interests of the people whom the fire companies serve. Their interest lies in smaller fire insurance premiums.

The only way you get this is to improve the availability and source of water to fight fires, i.e., fire hydrants. Adequate fire hydrants should be mandatory during the installation of any new water line. Unfortunately the fiscal court cannot mandate a fire company to install them. The fire company is interested in spending its tax dollars for new equipment, and paying down the loan early to avoid interest expense.

If hydrants are installed and change the fire code rating from a 10 to a 6, the fire insurance premiums for that area drop about 40 percent. If the average home owner’s premium is $1,000, then that results in a $400 per year savings. If there were 10,000 homes affected in Greenup County, then the citizens would have $4 million available to spend on something else.

As more houses are built, there’s less acreage for the Conservation District to govern, but more houses mean more taxes to spend on what? How you mow your front yard?

William B. Secrest, South Shore

Letter about Israel draws a response

Morton Nadler’s letter in the Sept. 13 Independent proves that some never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Using Mr. Nadler’s reasoning, we should never have supported Afghanistan in overthrowing the Taliban. Syria sends terrorists into Iraq to kill our soldiers, but he never once complained about the aid we give Syria.

Israel has several Arab settlements. Israel also uses the aid to develop them. That’s why they are called cities. There is a larger percentage of Arabs in Israel than there are African-Americans in the U.S. It’s strange how none of these Arabs are fighting for a Palestinian homeland.

The PLO was formed by Yasir Arafat in 1964 for the sole purpose of Jewish genocide. From 1948 to 1967, when Arabs occupied both the West Bank and Gaza, there was no call for Palestinian statehood. When Israeli Prime Minister Barak offered to meet 95 percent of their demands, Arafat responded by declaring war.

You can’t have peace unless both sides want it. Obviously, those who control Palestine do not. Yet the U.S. is only one nation among many that provides aid to the Palestinians. It continues to do so despite knowing it is used more to support terrorism than to help its citizens. Yet, Mr. Nadler believes we should cut off aid to Israel.

It never ceases to amaze me that even in the 21st century, bigotry is still unashamed to rear its ugly head.

Sylvia McClelland-Morrison, Ashland

Shouts were heard at Palin rally

Lois Jackson’s Sept. 9 letters stating that the “kill ‘em” yells at a Sarah Palin rally did not happen is wrong. Jonathon Adler was right.

I happened to have the TV turned to that channel and out of curiosity thought I would watch. I remember it well as I thought Palin was going to start a riot. She got some in the rally riled up when she said Obama was friends with William Ayers, a man once involved in terrorist activities. When she said that, someone yelled, “murderer,” followed by someone shouting “kill ‘em.”

The Secret Service missed it. The video is out there, and I know there are others who also saw it. I wonder where Ms. Jackson got her information? Fox News, no doubt.

Mickey Wells, Ashland

Text Only

Editorials

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.

February 10, 2012
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.

February 9, 2012
'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.

February 7, 2012
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.

February 7, 2012
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.

February 6, 2012
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.

February 6, 2012
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.

February 4, 2012
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.

February 3, 2012
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.

February 2, 2012
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.

February 1, 2012
More Editorials Headlines

Editorials

Search Results

Discussion

In Your View — 09/17/09

Site Map

Contact Us