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Editorials

  • WE CONGRATULATE: Mr. Reynolds’ plans for a new neighborhood

    Jim Reynolds, the man whose three buildings were destroyed in the fire in Shelbyville three weeks ago, has wasted no time in planning to replace those buildings, and we wish him Godspeed in that endeavor.

    Mr. Reynolds, who expressed tearful devastation in watching the buildings burn and then seeing them swept away into a line of Dumpsters, has been moving around Shelbyville in the past week, not only discussing his ideas but sharing with Historic District Coordinator Fred Rogers sketches of his actual plans, concepts of which Mr. Rogers spoke effusively and hopefully.

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  • WHAT WE THINK: Another unnecessary law from Frankfort

    The issue of guaranteeing religious freedom emerged this month in a bill that sailed through the General Assembly and was vetoed last week by Gov. Steve Beshear.

    We certainly are proponents of religious freedom and supporters of those rights as enumerated in the U.S. and state constitutions, but to us this seems sort of like the below-the-radar constitutional amendment on hunting that the voters swallowed last November:

    Why are our elected leaders spending time on something esoteric and unnecessary?

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  • WHAT WE THINK: Recycling must be available to all

    As the process moves forward toward creating countywide curbside garbage and recycling for residents, we want to be sure that all those responsible for making these decisions are reading from the same and appropriate page.

    Certainly, we are encouraged and buoyed to learn that the members of Shelby County Fiscal Court and the Shelbyville City Council are being proactive and working together on this issue. A joint effort on a contract only could help both bodies effectively represent their constituents by providing the best possible rate.

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  • WE CONGRATULATE: Shelby County's new parks chief

    As almost everyone around here will tell him – and by his own admission, he appears to understand – Shawn Pickens has a big job ahead of him.

    In taking over as the new director of Shelby County Parks & Recreation, Mr. Pickens not only inherits a complicated and growing task of managing resources and manpower to meet an ever-growing need and opportunity, but he also steps into the boots and sneakers of a man who spent has spent his life building that system, Clay Cottongim.

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  • WHAT WE THINK: Simpsonville's sugggestion has real power

    We have sympathy for the residents of the Hunter’s Pointe development just south of Simpsonville.

    First, two companies come along and say they’re going to build mega-sized outlet malls nearby – one of them in some of their backyards – and now the approval of those projects have been followed by the East Kentucky Power Coopeerative, which may build a substation and/or power towers for lines in or near those same homes.

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  • WHAT WE THINK: Shelbyville has a burning case of opportunity

    Even the most optimistic among us is fretting now about what will happen to the fire-gashed hole on the southwest side of Main Street in Shelbyville’s business district.

    Public officials were as distraught as residents of the four-block incineration were relieved Wednesday morning, following the horrible blaze that erupted. And both groups had real validation for those feelings.

    Four men escaped the blaze, thanks to good work by landlords and aggressive police officer Kelly Malone, who deserves our praise as well.

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  • WHAT WE THINK: Shelby County school funding is complex math

    The higher math being taught at our schools these days isn’t in the classrooms of honors and Advance Placement courses but, rather, in the public gatherings of the Shelby County Board of Education.

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  • WE CONGRATULATE: An acclaimed actor we can call ours*

    In the nearly 221 years that Shelby County has been recording official history, there are two words of excellence that we can’t find in the index: Academy Award.

    For all the wonderful artists, actors and thespians who have trod the boards in Shelby County and gone on to bigger and better things, none has appeared on of those brief but incredibly esteemed lists of actors who have gone home with the gold statuette they call Oscar.

    But now maybe we can add those words to our lore, even if we have to put an * beside it.

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  • WHAT WE THINK: We smell a deal for a garbage plan

    We are seeing encouraging signals that Shelby County Fiscal Court and the Shelbyville City Council are on the verge of accomplishing something magnificent and wonderful, even if it is at least a decade overdue:

    Officials of the county and city appear moving toward establishing curbside pickup of garbage and recycling for all residents.

    We don’t mean to be presumptuous, because no ordinance has been drafted or presented. A misstep or politics or fear could emerge, and the public again could be left holding its own trash bags.

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  • WHAT WE THINK: We are waiting for smoke to clear

    We aren’t certain just yet if we want to embrace the downhill snowball that the legalization of industrial hemp has become, but all this discussion and rapid movement by our elected leaders certainly have our undivided attention.

    That state Sen. Paul Hornback (R-Shelbyville) was able to push his bill to accommodate hemp through the state Senate in just a couple of weeks of the session is remarkable. That he had an all-star lineup of Republican endorsements is impressive.

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