Although located many miles downstream from Ashland, the failure of a gate at the Markland Locks and Dam on the Ohio River near Gallatin is certain to have a negative economic impact on this community and region.
The reason is simple: The Ohio River remains important to the economic life of this region and replacing the largest lock at Markland with a lock that is only half the size is certain to slow traffic on the river as barges make their way downstream from Ashland to Cincinnati, to Louisville and on to New Orleans. And as they say in industry, time is money.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Todd Hornback said a 250-ton segment of a gate to the locks fell into the water Sunday morning. The failure forced a shutdown the until a smaller auxiliary lock could be opened later that night.
The Corps recognized that there were problems at the locks. In its latest inspection, the locks had received a “poor” rating.” As a result the Markland Locks and Dam received federal funding for new gates this year, but the gates are not scheduled to be installed until 2011.
Surely, Sunday’s accident will move up the date for installation of the new gates, which the Corps said currently are being built. If the collapsed gate — which has been fished out of the river — cannot be repaired to make the 1,200-foot lock again functional and a higher priority is not placed on replacement of the old gates, then river traffic at the locks could be slowed for another two years. Communities and industries upstream of the Gallatin dam simply cannot afford to wait that long for traffic through the locks to be back to normal.
On Saturday there was no pressing need to replace the gates at the locks despite their poor condition. On Sunday, that suddenly changed. Replacing the gates now should be given the highest priority
Editorials
A gate collapses — 10/01/09
Lock’s closing to have impact on this community’s economy
- 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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