Opinion

It became apparent to me after reading Lisa King’s article published in The Sentinel-News  (“County trashing pickup plan?” April 19) that she and I were not at the same meeting.  I attended and spoke at the meeting and feel I need to clarify several discrepancies Ms. King reported in her article about the unpopular, proposed, mandatory or government franchised countywide garbage/recycling pickup the county wants to force upon its citizens.

An article published in The Sentinel News (“Public education at a crossroad? Charter schools aren't answer,” My Word, April 10), written by J. Howard Griffith, raised some interesting questions about charter schools and what they could mean for the state of Kentucky, which, as the author notes, is one of only seven states that do not allow the formation of such educational options.

With two important meetings this week among officials trying to develop curbside garbage pickup in Shelby County, the mission statement for this project has emerged from the man whose public meetings gave this concept momentum.

That would be Rusty Newton, chair of the 109 Board, the entity that is in charge of solid-waste pickup in the county. This is what Mr. Newton told officials last week when they gathered to discuss a joint contract between the Shelbyville City Council and Shelby County Fiscal Court:

If you’ve ever run a marathon, thought about running a marathon or watched someone you love run one, you understand the pain. You see those faces and those strides mere yards from the finish line. You see happiness and even tears struggling past unrelenting physical torment. You sense the adrenalin that is coursing, grasp that the last possible bits of energy are being summoned. Joy is rising and overtaking pain. The finish line is the joy line. The finish is the ecstasy after the agony.

A key person in the development of the arts in Shelby County has put away her paints and brushes – at least commercially – and we’re sad to see her go.

Linda Powell made some of the first strokes on the blank easel that became Shelby Artists on Main and then the Gallery at the same consortium, which operates out of 617 Main Street in Shelbyville.

My grandfather was a farmer and teamster in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia. Back in 1915 he was asked to move a rural school building from one location to another, about 100 yards.

He raised up that little one room schoolhouse by about 2 feet and placed several round logs under the building as rollers. He then hooked his fine team of horses to a harness attached to the building and slowly but surely moved the building to its new location.

We were troubled last week to learn that a broad-based sweep to ensure that registered sex offenders were complying with lifetime restrictions had turned up a sex offender on the loose in Shelby County.

But that disgusting news – to us, any sex offender loose in our neighborhoods is a potential threat to our children – was surpassed when we learned of a Shelbyville man arrested virtually the same day on child sex charges was not even a part of the registry or a target in the sweep.

I guess it’s the writer in me that notices when words are misspelled, when the incorrect form of a word is used or when the correct pronunciation or spelling is elusive or murky. A case in point is how to spell the word “cancelled.” Or is it “canceled?” I’ve noticed it used both ways, especially on TV news when reporting changes in airline flight schedules.

For over a dozen hours last week, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul literally took a stand for the Constitution. As a Kentuckian, I am proud to claim the honor of having this statesman serve our commonwealth.