The annual fall fire season has officially begun in Kentucky with the arrival of October. Fortunately, because of the plentiful rain we have had in recent days, the threat of forest and brush fires currently is extremely low. That doesn’t mean conditions won’t change with a few days of dry weather.
Regardless of the threat of fire, there are restrictions on outdoor burning that Kentuckians must observe during fire season, which continues through Dec. 15. During the season, it is illegal to burn anything within 150 feet of any woodland or brushland between the daylight hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Officials with the Kentucky Division of Forestry say the restrictions on outdoor burning is intended to prevent fires during a time of year when the potential for dry conditions and the accumulation of leaf litter increases risks for wildfires.
And despite the abundance of rainfall throughout the summer and the early weeks of autumn, Division of Forestry Director Leah MacSwords said there is an added concern this year because several severe storms, including a devastating ice storm, have left “a significant increase in dead and fallen trees.”
While rainy weather during the fall months is the best friend of those concerned about wildfires, the rains in recent days have not been good news for tobacco farmers in the state. The rains fell just as tobacco was being cut and stacked in barns for curing. It’s an autumn ritual when the long green leaves gradually change to reddish brown in a process that prepares the leaf for market. Heavy rains at the wrong time slows the curing process and reduces the quality and value of the tobacco.
While the amount of tobacco grown in Kentucky has declined dramatically in recent years, this state continues to lead the nation in the amount of tobacco grown. While tobacco no longer is the number one cash crop in Kentucky, it still plays a major role in the state’s farm economy.
That makes the recent rains bad news for tobacco farmers but good news for those concerned about forest fires. Call it a mixed blessing.
Editorials
Good and bad — 10/01/09
Abundant rainfall reduces fire risk but harms tobacco crop
- Editorials
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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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