Letters to the Editor

‘Can’t-do’ council votes to close 2nd St. 

To the editor:

Despite being told by residents of La Grange that they want their council to do everything possible to keep Second Street open, the La Grange city council played politics Monday night and voted to close it.

This council assured residents at the July meeting that they’d do everything in their power to keep Second Street open, yet Monday they showed they aren’t willing to do anything to accomplish that. 

The special meeting was called for the council to vote on a resolution of intent required by CSX to accompany the city’s application for preliminary engineering for the Second Street crossing gates. 

The key passage states:

“The city shall make further safety improvement without delay including but not limited to installing safety gates at the Second Street crossing, entering into written agreements with CSX Transportation and disbursing funds as required to accomplish same.”

I thought this meeting would take five minutes since the council said they wanted to keep Second Street open, but what happened was a council member and her husband turned the resolution into a false choice between keeping our quiet zone or keeping Second Street open. 

That simply isn’t the choice before the city as this time. Second Street would not be required to close until June to keep the quiet zone. 

During the public comment portion, Magistrate Rick Rash and others spoke. Rash has put in the leg work with CSX to get them to make gate installation at Second Street a priority.

Rick said it’s a no-brainer – a procedural resolution telling CSX the city wants crossing gates so Second Street can remain open to traffic. Without that resolution, he said, the city can’t even apply for the gates.

Only one person, Kevin Woosley, husband of council member Melanie Woosley, spoke about the vote being either for a quiet zone or keeping Second Street open. Many pleaded with the council to do everything in their power to work to keep the street open. 

People need to realize the reason little has been accomplished during the past six years to solve problems of our quiet zone is due to decisions like this. The vote wasn’t supposed to be a referendum, but an affirmation that residents want me to continue to spend my time and effort on keeping both the quiet zone and Second Street open. 

I’m a fighter and not done yet. My issues are the residents’ issues and I’ve got to know if people really want both. I’m hosting a public meeting on the front porch of my house on Main Street in La Grange at 6 p.m. Friday for people to come and voice their opinion to me. They can get a petition if they want to because it seems that will be the only way the “can’t-do” council members will be influenced. 

Council members Woosley, Jason Taylor, Deborah Pollard, Linda Hall, Jean Knight and Tom Goldsmith voted to close Second Street. Joe Davenport and Wally Nay voted to keep it open. 

Mayor Elsie B. Carter, La Grange

Thankful for support

To the editor:

I would like to thank all of my friends and neighbors for their love, prayers, support and visits during my long hospital stay.

Westport people, you will always have a special place in my heart because of the 20 years I spent as your postmaster and the friendships we shared. Springhouse Patio Home Phase III neighbors, you all are great friends.

God bless all of you.

Nancy Crombie, La Grange

Large class sizes are recipe for failure; keep teachers, layoff administrators

To the editor: 

The Oldham County School Board is failing in its responsibility for the success of local students. 

Failing to invest in reasonable class sizes is irresponsible. Maintaining class sizes of 20-25 in English, math, science, history, political science, foreign language and psychology is essential… Failing on this front endangers our collective economic stability and sustainability as well as our strategic national interest.

 Failing to invest in a reasonable class size in career trades programming and associated course work adds to our national inability to prepare for the future…

 Failing to invest in reasonable class size in the arts ignores the need to maintain a sustainable culture, links to our religious and political past, and links to our rich history as a people. The arts assist our people in shaping an understanding of one’s self and how we fit into our collective national and international community. The arts open people to expressions of self-worth and positive inflection.

 A comprehensive educational system requires an investment with a high political and economic cost. School board members must be willing to sacrifice elected position for the common good. Increasing property taxes required to maintain a sustainable knowledge base appears to be something that needs to done. 

 Educational administrators selected a path to lay off personnel. They say it’s a hard path to follow because it affects the lives of good personnel and removes those people from our future base of quality educators. That is not the hard path; it’s the path of least resistance. It is the easy way that treats everyone equally poor. It represents decisions that place the sustainable knowledge base of the nation at significant risk. It is a path of failure, personally and professionally. Every Oldham County Schools administrator has failed our collective future in going along with this reduction in force and creating an English class with 39 students.

 Oldham residents are most responsible for an English class of 39 students. I encourage you to inform our board of education we want to assure our future national security and national economic viability with a quality educational system. Inform these people that they’re not elected to keep taxes from raising but to assure the best education possible for our children while restraining expenditures they believe to be unreasonable.

 I’d rather cut administrators than cut qualified, productive teachers. Allow teachers to take charge of instructional environments. I believe we need to worry less about standardization and more about comprehensive educational opportunities. I believe every school needs a school nurse to actively participate in instruction and health care. I believe each school needs a highly credentialed and qualified counselor with rapid access to a licensed clinical social worker and clinical psychologist.

It is past time to restore the American public school system. Let us begin that restoration here.

Robert Crouse, La Grange

Not much thought put into placement of Port-A-Pots

To the editor:

The portable toilets for Ironman were a disgrace. Crappers in front of and blocking the Fallen Officers’ Memorial?!! 

As a retired veteran and former military police officer, I am shocked and ashamed. All the memorials on the courthouse lawn should be inviolate. Disrespect of them should not be tolerated. 

I wonder what the many visitors for the Iroman event thought? This is not the way to promote our city and county. A little thought and common sense could have prevented this. 

I think our city and county officials owe an apology to all police officers, both past and present, and the families of those who have fallen. 

For future events, please keep the toilets as far from the memorials as possible, preferably off the courthouse lawn entirely.

Ron Jones, La Grange

School officials have moral, ethical obligation to reveal H1N1 affected schools

To the editor:

In response to John Foster’s article regarding the H1N1 virus in Oldham County schools, it is unthinkable to me that school officials are refusing to share the names of the affected schools with the public at large, or at least with parents whose children attend those schools. 

Parents are concerned and have a right to make a thoughtful and deliberate decision whether to keep their kids in school based on the facts – so why are these facts not being communicated? 

Oldham County Schools’ attorney Anne Coorssen provided statistics that indicate student attendance is the same as this time last year, but that isn’t the point. 

According to the article, Coorssen believes it is best to stay quiet to prevent panic at those schools and prevent a lackadaisical attitude at unaffected schools. 

Coorssen and other school officials can’t predict how affected parties will react, and they aren’t giving parents enough credit by making the assumption that there will be panic or an apathetic response to the information being requested. 

It would seem that not sharing the reality of the situation is what’s creating more panic and more questions and more unease within the community.

And yes, there are several ways we can reduce the risk of spreading the virus, but again, this is also beside the point. 

Why – seemingly – are parents’ rights being discounted in this equation?

School officials may have the legal right to withhold the names of the schools, but they have a moral and ethical obligation to share this information so parents and other affected parties can make an informed decision based on the facts.

Mayor Bob Rogers, Pewee Valley

Kickoff Classic is a community success 

To the editor:

What a great show of support for our county high schools on Aug. 21-22 at South Oldham High School. More than 3,000 people attended this year’s Kickoff Classic featuring all three of our high school football programs.  

The weather was wonderful but the volunteers were even better. On behalf of the three athletic programs, I’d like to extend a special thanks to Crestwood Baptist Church for 90 volunteers that showed up to work.  The evening was much more enjoyable for all with the many volunteers who aided in everything from ticket sales to concession stand help. 

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank each school’s booster club and the Oldham County Board of Education for helping with the financial obligations to put on such an event. 

A special thanks goes to corporate sponsors who donated money to this event. Baptist Hospital Northeast and Farm Credit Services (Craig Woosley) we appreciate your investment for our student athletes.  

Thanks to Domino’s Pizza (Tom Reynolds) who provided pizza for each team after the games. Lastly to all of the parents and school volunteers who put time and energy into the event your efforts are truly appreciated.

Matt Watkins, OCHS athletic director