ASHLAND —
While residents of Ashland and Catlettsburg were re-electing most of their governing bodies Tuesday, voters in a sister community as far west in Kentucky as Ashland is east were voting on an issue that is quite familiar to longtime residents of Ashland and Boyd County. And just as residents of this corner of Kentucky have twice rejected proposals to merge city and county governments, residents of Paducah and McCracken County on Tuesday defeated a controversial proposal to merge governments.
Residents in Paducah and McCracken County reject the merged government proposal by a margin of more than two to one. More than 70 percent of those casting ballots Tuesday were opposed to merged government.
The measure had strong backing from business leaders, but a grassroots group called No to Metro that had support from community leaders such as Judge-Executive Van Newberry got a majority of the community’s support.
In the 1970s, voters in Ashland, Catlettsburg and the unincorporated parts of Boyd County rejected a unigov proposal by a margin of more than 5 to 1. A decade later a different proposal for one local government was rejected by a margin of two to one. While much closer than the first vote, it still was a long way from being approved.
Despite the resounding defeat for the merger proposal, Paducah McCracken United member John Williams Jr. remained confident the issue was not dead. He said the idea is around to stay and will get more support as people learn more about it.
“I think it’s an educational issue,” Williams said. “It will take a while to be able to communicate to all the voters what’s in it for them.”
Williams may be right, but we have our doubts. In the nearly 20 years since Boyd County residents last voted on a merged government proposal, there has been no visible sign of another effort being launched in this community. “Why kick a dead horse?” one supporter of a merged Boyd County asked.
The state’s two largest counties — Jefferson and Fayette — remain the only two with merged government, and the metro govenrment in Lexingon and Fayette County is much different than the urban government in Louisville and Jefferson County.
We remain convinced that having a single local government would help Boyd County grow and prosper; it is just that we don’t see it happening anytime soon, if ever.
Opinion
No to merger
Paducah vote has a familiar ring to it in Ashland
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In Your View
Letters to the editor
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On the increase
It’s certainly good news that a new report by Kentucky’s Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet has found the economic impact of tourism grew by 5.2 percent in eastern Kentucky in 2012, outpacing the overall statewide growth rate. However, we would be more excited bout the report if we had more confidence in how tourism spending is calculated by state government.
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After the crash
Like thousands of other Kentuckians, we remember well May 14, 1988, when a drunken driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton struck a church bus returning home to Radcliff after day at King’s Island, causing one of he most deadly vehicle accidents in this nation’s history. The horrific crash killed 27, many of them teenagers, and injured 34 others.
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High price tage
Much has been said and written about the rapid and dramatic decline of air passenger service at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport. Much less has been said and written about the tremendous economic impact the loss of air service has had on the entire region.
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Return of pencils
It is a question asked by all of us whose lives and jobs are dependent on computers with email and Internet access, fax machines, cellphones and other other electronic essentials of this modern age: What do you do when the electronic devices fail?
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Banned
If you live in Boyd and Lawrence counties and are thinking of burning trash, wood, leaves or other debris outdoors, here’s a word of advice: Don’t even think about lighting that match. If you do, it could cost you dearly.
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In Your View
Letters to the editor
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Few citations
When the 2011 Kentucky General Assembly approved a bill banning texting while driving and cellphone use for drivers younger than 18, there was widespread public support for both restrictions.
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Booming times
Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergran Grimes has launched a statewide tour to gauge public support for allowing more voters to cast their ballots before Election Day. While other states have enacted laws to allow early voting, the biggest obstacle to the proposal in Kentucky is the state’s history of widespread voter fraud.
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Step backward
We agree with Larry Brown, the lone member of the Ashland Board of City Commissioners to oppose a motion requesting City Attorney Richard “Sonny” Martin to draft an ordinance changing the time for all commission meetings to noon
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In Your View
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