ASHLAND —
Forum Ashland Mayor Rudy Dunnigan was right when he said in a recent “In Your View” letter that with the presidential race, a campaign for an open congressional seat in the Fourth District and other races on the ballot, it is easy for voters to overlook the race for four seats on the Ashland Board of City Commissioners. About the only attention the campaigns for city commissioner have received to date is in the form of yard signs and two ”In Your View” letters.
However, Ashland residents who want to get to know their city commission candidates better and make more informed decisions have their best opportunity to do just that tonight. All six candidates for city commissioner plus Chuck Charles, who is running unopposed for mayor, are expected to take part in a forum at 6:30 p.m. in the teleconference room at Ashland Community and Technical College. The forum is sponsored by the Ashland Human Rights Commission.
Tonight’s gathering is the only time all the candidates for city commissioner are scheduled to be in the same place at the same time and provides an excellent opportunity for undecided voters to hear what the candidates have to say. One would think that would be more than enough to assure a large turnout, but experience tells us that only a small crowd will be on hand for the forum, and most of them will be there to support specific candidates, not to listen to all six candidates to help them make up their minds which four to support.
“You always plan a party and hope everybody shows up,” said Carol Jackson, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission. “Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. The turnout has not been what we expected the past couple of times. We try to get the word out by putting notices in the newspaper and sending notices to local churches. I can say we’ve had success with the people in the community that do come out. They learn a lot about the candidates.”
Having attended previous forums, we can agree with Jackson’s evaluation of their value. We can honestly say that we personally have decided to vote for candidates based primarily on their responses at past forums.
One reason for the relative lack of interest in their year’s city commission races is the shortage of candidates. Only six candidates — incumbents Kevin Gunderson, Larry Brown, Marty Gute and Chuck Cantrell. plus former Commissioner Cheryl Spriggs and Tim Duley — are vying for city commissioner with the top four votegetters being elected to two-year terms on Nov. 6. That means that at least half of the current city commissioners are guaranteed re-election as is Charles, who will replace Mayor Tom Kelley on the five-member commission. The only difference between Charles and the commission candidates is that Charles will be elected to a four-year term.
Jackson is right when she says the forum is the perfect opportunity for Ashland voters to find out more about the candidates running for city offices. “All you have to do is ask,” she said. “We’ll have cards for the audience to write questions on. We may not have time to ask every question, but we’ll try our best.”
If you have an interest in Ashland city government — and all city residents should — then tonight’s forum is a great way to help you make more informed decisions on Nov. 6.
Opinion
Candidates are ,,,
Tonight's forum gives city voters a chance to get informed
- Opinion
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In Your View
Letters to the editor
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In Your View
Letters to the editor
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The next step
The people — or at least those who took the time to vote in Tuesday’s special election — have spoken. The issue of alcohol sales in Grayson has ben settled for at least the next three years.
In an outcome that surprised many, Grayson voters rather convincingly for the legal sale of alcohol in the city for the first time since 1937. With 511 voters answering in the affirmative to the question, “Are you in favor of alcoholic beverages in Grayson, Ky.?” as opposed to 393 voting “no,” the results were not even close. The measure passed in all seven of the city’s precincts. -
Words of thanks
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Top Father
In the Spade family, the vote was unanimous. Both 12-year-old Emma Spade, who will be a seventh-grader at Verity Middle School this fall, and Emma’s 11-year-old brother Will, who attends Hagar Elementary, both thought so highly of their dad — Ponderosa Elementary School principal Matt Spade — that they both wrote essays nominating him for the Ashland Breakfast Kiwanis Club’s annual Father of the Year award, presented annually on the Tuesday before Father’s Day.
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An unselfish act
Even before the start of the recent Boyd County Health Department’s Bicycle Rodeo, Gavin Eckard said that if he won one of the two bicycle given away at the event, he would give his new bike to someone who needed it more than he did.
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Crop still banned
When their colleagues in the U.S. Senate rejected their efforts to legalize industrial hemp production as part of the Senate farm bill, Kentucky’s two Republican senators — Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and freshman Rand Paul — reacted to the Senate refusal to include their hemp proposal in the bill by saying they would oppose the comprehensive farm bill.
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It's not the breed
Lorie Akers wants the Ashland City Commissioner to adopt an ordinance banning pit bulls in the city. Since she claimed her Chihuahua Paco was attacked and killed by a neighbor’s pit bull while the little dog was chained in the back yard, it is understandable that Akers is worried that her children and other pets could be endangered by pit bulls.
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A necessary evil
The shifting of the tax burden that began when the Ashland Board of City Commissioners first adopted the payroll tax in the 1990s continues as the mayor and four elected commissioners prepare to increase the payroll tax from 1.5 to 2 percent while at the same time decreasing property taxes.
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