The News StandardS t r a i g h t f o r w a r d • S t e a d f a s t • S o l i d

Friday, November 24, 2006

Volume 1No. 7

Meade County,Kentucky

Viewpoints ......2

Youth ...............5

Business..........6

Fun & Games...7

Sports ..............8

Classifieds.....11

Obituaries........4Chester Benham, 73James Crutcher, 75Edgar Jamison, 74Patricia Logsdon, 74Desiree Rogers, 3Mary Seymour, 95Suzanne Smith, 60

INSIDE

ZONE OUT THE SOBSZoning laws are effective tools for wardingoff sexually-oriented businesses . . . . . . 2

U.S. Postal CustomerStandard MailPermit No. 5

Postage Paid at Battletown, KY

Greenwave season comes crashing down, Page 8

Shop clothes county’s needyBY PHILLIP STITH

BRANDENBURG — A crackedasphalt parking lot, a faded awningand an ordinary white sign welcomevisitors to the Meade County ClothesCloset and Food Pantry. From the out-side, the former Dairy Mart gives littleindication of the remarkable storyunfolding inside its walls.

A staff of just two paid employeesand a small group of core volunteersare at the heart of a clothes exchangeand food distributor for the needy thatexemplifies the Thanksgiving spirit.

Hazel Cundiff, 72, of Brandenburg,has been a volunteer for five years, andshe still is enthusiastic about her work.

“I think we do good stuff,” Cundiffsaid while busily sorting a box of newdonations. “There are a multitude ofpeople in Meade County who needhelp, and we do our part.”

They do their part in a big way. Lastyear, the Clothes Closet distributed25,000 pieces of clothing, “and that’s

not counting the items that were givenaway,” Director Linda Whelan said.

The organization has a partnershipwith Meade County CommunityAction to help outfit families or indi-viduals who are struggling to do sothemselves, using a voucher system.

“Individuals who need help canbring proof of income to CommunityAction,” Whelan said. “If they qualify,they will get a slip they can bring tous.”

A recipient of a voucher is entitledto six complete, free outfits from theClothes Closet during each season ofthe year.

Besides the voucher program, theClothes Closet uses a popular sale todistribute clothing at very little cost. Itholds a Brown Bag Sale open to thepublic the last Saturday of each monthin which customers can fill a largepaper sack with anything in the storefor $1.

“Anybody can shop here,” Whelansaid. “You don’t have to be low

income.”Following the Brown Bag Sale, the

entire inventory is removed from thestore and replaced with newly donateditems. This practice keeps the inventoryfresh and seasonal. However, nothinggoes to waste at the Clothes Closet.

Unsold items in good condition andrecently donated items that are out ofseason are sent to Mountain Mission inWest Virginia.

Even clothing that is unfit to beworn is not thrown away. Fort KnoxRecycle buys this type of clothing bythe pound for other uses.

Clothing, and just about any otheritem, can be donated to the ClothesCloset 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday throughThursday or 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.

Whelan points out that donationsare tax deductible and are accepted anytime.

“We take summer clothing in the

Fanning flame of volunteer firefighting

BY CHARLES L. WESTMORELAND

DOE VALLEY — When MeadeCounty volunteer firefighters Georgeand Jane Eid met a year ago, flamessparked immediately.

The couple hit it off from the startand married last July at the District 1firehouse — the place where the twomet.

Fire fighting brought the happy cou-ple together but also ensures they’ll

never have to leave each other’s sidewhen duty calls.

“When a fireman is woken up by aphone call at midnight and has to leaveto go to a fire, the wife stays at homeand worries,” Jane Eid said. “I don’thave to worry like that because I’mheading out the door with him.”

The couple once again worked side-by-side last Saturday while training on acontrolled structure fire at the Doe ValleyCraft Cottage on Lakeshore Parkway

The Meade County and Flaherty firedepartments partnered for the exerciseso its volunteer firefighters are betterprepared for when a real emergencystrikes. More than 30 volunteer firefight-ers, along with two Emergency Medical

Technicians, attended the training.Meade County Fire Chief Larry

Naser said training on real fires is nec-essary so new volunteers gain on-the-job experience, while also keeping vet-eran firefighters proficient.

“We have some people that havebeen with us as little as six months.With a volunteer fire department wemay have five or six fire runs a year atactual structure fires, but because ofschool and work, some may nevermake a fire,” he said. “It’s a good confi-dence builder, not only for the firefight-ers but also for the engineers. It gives

The News Standard/CHARLES L. WESTMORELAND

Junior firefighter Danielle Hicks uses a hose with MeadeCounty fireman Logan Noyes during Saturday’s training.

County tobid trashcollection

BY CHARLES L.WESTMORELAND

Meade County will trash itscurrent garbage collectionstrategy and look to bid thejob to a private contractor.

In retrospect, members ofFiscal Court agreed the countyshould never have entered thegarbage-collection business,but the mistake ultimately willbecome customers’ burden.Customers likely will have topay an additional fee to repaydebts from the failed system.

Fiscal Court approved a$250,000 loan Tuesday so thesolid-waste department cancontinue garbage collection atthe current $12.50 rate throughMarch, at which time a privatecontractor should be selected.

“We’ve got to stop thebleeding now before it getsany worse,” Magistrate HaroldDavidson said. “The taxpayersare the ones who are going tobear the brunt of this thing.One of the biggest mistakesthis county ever made wasgoing into the garbage-pickupbusiness.”

Garbage collection was run-ning smoothly until the 109Board’s proposal in 2000 to gointo the garbage-pickup busi-ness, Davidson said, stressingthat the dilemma is not thefault of current 109 Boardmembers who inherited theproblem.

Regardless, magistratesvoted unanimously to dissolvethe 109 Board, bringinggarbage collection back undercontrol of Fiscal Court.

Magistrate Don Callecodestimated a $2 franchise feemust be applied to future trash

collection rates to pay off morethan $700,000 of debt over thenext five years.

Solid-waste departmentCoordinator Mark Gossettdrafted the proposal to out-source trash collection. He saidthe $250,000 loan will pay offsolid waste’s debt through theend of the year and will payoff a $48,000 loan to theKentucky Association ofCounties due in January.Gossett said the KACo loan isthe only large payment due inthe first quarter of 2007.

Under Gossett’s proposal,requests for bids will be sentout Dec. 1 and private contrac-tors will have 45 days torespond. The solid-wastedepartment will have untilApril to make a decisionbefore re-entering the red.

“Given this amount of time,we can leave the rate as it isfor the first quarter. I thinkthat’s something we owe thepeople,” Gossett said atMonday’s 109 Board meeting.“It’s come to the point nowwhere we don’t want to get inthis financial problem again.”

Gossett said accepting bids

Town home to post office, churchBY MATTHEW LEE MILLER

RHODELIA – The sleepytown of Rhodelia now sits qui-etly, but two remnants of itspast still stand: the post officeand St. Theresa Church.

Modern communication inthe form of fax machines, e-mail and cell phones oftenmake us forget what an impor-tant role the U.S. Postal Serviceplayed in the development ofthe American landscape.

Since mail was often theonly contact farming commu-

nities had with the outsideworld, rural residents of oldgreatly valued their mail serv-ice. The Postal Service experi-mented with innovations suchas steam engines, stage coach-es and automobiles beforethose became popular modesof transportation.

Dagmar Taylor, 51, pro-vides “postmaster relief” inMeade County and recentlyfilled in at the post office inRhodelia. Originally fromFrankfurt, Germany, Taylortook a job with the postal

service after 20 years in child-care and enjoys spending timein rural communities.

“I like the little post offices,because it’s more like a fami-ly,” she said. “There are nicepeople in this area.”

The history of Rhodeliawould be incomplete withoutmentioning St. TheresaCatholic Church, the oldestchurch in Meade County. St.Theresa’s parish was organ-ized in 1818 and the currentchurch was built in 1856.

As was the case with many

migrants in the 1800s,Catholics moved to ruralfarming areas in the Midwestin part to escape religious con-flicts in the east. Churchesserviced by missionariessprang up in farming commu-nities, particularly those withproximity to established traderoutes such as the Ohio River.

Deacon Ernie Singer, 66,lives in Doe Valley but minis-ters at St. Theresa and its sister

Fire departmentsreach out to families,youth for members

PLEASE SEE FLAME,PAGE 12

“The taxpayersare the oneswho aregoing tobear thebrunt of thisthing.”Harold Davidson,

magistrate

The News Standard/PHILLIP STITH

Hazel Cundiff, 72, of Brandenburg, folds donatedclothes recently at the Meade County Clothes Closet

and Food Pantry with Mary Collins of Brandenburg.The Clothes Closet benefits the needy.

Magistrates voteto take authorityover garbage

PLEASE SEE NEEDY,PAGE 3 PLEASE SEE TRASH,

PAGE 3

PLEASE SEE TOWN,PAGE 3

ViewpointsSex shops:Best offensezone defense

Page 2 Friday, November 24, 2006

TO REACH US

NewsContact Charles L. Westmoreland, staff writerSportsContact Shaun T. Cox, sports editorAdvertisingContact Shannan Millay or Lora Beth Mattingly, sales representativesObituaries/ClassifiedsContact Shay Perna, clerk/receptionistBillingContact Charlotte Fackler, office managerAdvertising DesignContact Leah Perna, graphic designer

TO SUBSCRIBEMeade County: FreeAdjoining counties: $30.75 per yearElsewhere in Kentucky: $41.35 per yearOutside Kentucky: $53 per yearPostmaster: Send address corrections to 2025 By-Pass Road, Suite 102, Brandenburg, Kentucky 40108.

Honest first impressions

EDITORIAL

Planning and zoning laws often are a mixed blessing. Manypeople are initially unhappy because planning and zoninglaws limit what landowners can do with their property

without first seeking approval. That means they can’t just start ahome-based business on a whim or sell property to anyone theywant.

But that feeling changes as soon as a nearby landowner wantsto put in a junkyard, bar or sex shop. Then they see how fencesaren’t the only things that make good neighbors.

Brandenburg learned the lesson from its neighbor to the east,Muldraugh, of what can happen without a restriction on undesir-able businesses. Muldraugh was caught with its pants down, soto speak, when a sexually-oriented business wanted to move intotown, and the city had no limits on where such an unsavoryinstitution could go.

You see, a business that panders to the lowest forms of humannature and depravity is no different from an ice cream parlor orbeauty shop unless planning and zoning laws say it is different.So a city must specify where a sexually-oriented business can goor it risks letting those dregs of humanity go wherever otherbusinesses are allowed.

So Brandenburg limited sexually-oriented business to itsIndustrial-2 zone, which sits east of Ky. 446 and south of Ky.933 near the county’s recycling center — ironically nearChristian Church Road.

The city’s law restricts sexually-oriented businesses fromwithin 500 feet of other such businesses, schools, hospitals, gov-ernment buildings, and liquor stores and bars.

Every community, including the county, should make sure ithas the toughest planning and zoning laws possible to restrictthese vile establishments. It would be nice if they could bebanned altogether.

But they can’t, as the people who own these disgusting holeshave enough filthy money to sue their way into any unprotectedcommunity. Any government that has several hundred thousanddollars to fight such a lawsuit should instead give its residentstax cuts.

Instead, communities should make their planning and zoninglaws so prohibitive, and allowable locations so undesirable, thatsexually-oriented businesses decide to go elsewhere to peddletheir filth.

Honesty is always the best policy,right?

Well, maybe not. There’s a sayingthat you only have one chance tomake a first impression, and maybebeing totally honest isn’t the bestway to make it. Especially in a jobinterview.

There are folks who make it theirjob to teach other people how to get ajob, and they make a nice living at it.But some of the tales they tell arepretty eye opening, most of theminvolving job applicants that are hon-est. Too honest.

OfficeTeam, one of those big com-panies that teach people how to getjobs, recently surveyed a bunch ofhuman resource specialists. And theygot an earful.

One applicant gave the prospec-tive employer a lengthy, detailed listof her faults and failures, followed bya list of days she would need to beabsent from her job. Another appli-cant, when asked what he had doneduring his recent period of unem-ployment was honest: “Stayed homeand watched TV.”

Real inspiring stuff, that.Torn clothing, worn-out blue

jeans, flip-flops and even see-through

clothing have been reported byprospective employers.

One applicant wanted the job sobadly that, even after being turneddown, he showed up for work any-way. One lady told the interviewershe wanted the job so much that shewould pay him to give it to her.

People who interview other peo-ple for jobs all the time must waverbetween total discouragement andfits of laughter, like those surveyedby Accountemps, another big staffingcompany.

Days that would be discouragingwould be those when applicantscursed, argued that the requirementsfor getting hired were wrong, saidthey would have preferred a job offerfrom a competitor, or just wanted thejob because it allowed for “a lot oftime off.”

Days that would be a little morehumorous would be when the appli-cant actually fell asleep, or invited theinterviewer out for a drink afterward,or the fellow who was applying for acustomer-service job but said he did-

n’t like dealing with people.Now, it’s the truth that you can’t

always tell what a person is reallylike from just one conversation.There are some no-no’s in job inter-viewing that can be overlooked.

Shy people, once they becomecomfortable, can reveal a really hard-working, pleasant person. A personwho doesn’t sell himself well may berevealing a truly refreshing and all-too-rare personality trait — humility.

A person who has all kinds ofideas he wants to sell you on may bea little annoying — but one boss Ihad told me he would rather have tochastise an employee for overstep-ping his or her bounds than to findthey never did anything because theywere afraid to make a move.

Still, I don’t think the folks men-tioned by these prospective employ-ers fell into the gray areas. There aretimes when being absolutely honestwhen making a first impression isabsolutely the wrong thing to do.

Write to Francis Shrum in care ofKing Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, orsend an e-mail to letters.kfws@hearstsc.com.© 2006 King Features Synd., Inc.

This is last chance for Latin America’s radical leftIs Latin America at a turning

point? Before the end of the year, vot-ers in several countries will eithershow trust that market-orienteddemocracy is the only political systemconceived by humans that has pro-duced freedom and prosperity, orhand over power to demagogues whowill produce tyranny and poverty.

The issue seemed to have beensettled in the 1990s. After twodecades of Marxist guerrillas andright-wing military dictatorships,every nation in the region exceptCuba was an elected democracy.

But discontent with the failure ofcorrupt governments to provide eco-nomic opportunity for the millions ofpoor people made some voters ques-tion whether Western democracy wasreally the answer for Latin America.

One result was Hugo Chavez, firstelected president of Venezuela in1998, six years after staging a failedcoup d’etat allegedly aimed at end-ing corruption.

He was re-elected in 2000, and in2004 won a recall election that hasbeen challenged as fraudulent. Withhis petrodollars and support forCastro’s Cuba, Chavez has pushedan anti-American, anti-democracyagenda throughout the region and

the world. Things seemed to be breaking his

way after the 2005 election of EvoMorales, a lost soul who dreams ofbringing back a sort of Inca social-ism, as president of Bolivia.

It seemed Castro, with his charismaand revolutionary experience, Moraleswith his connection to poverty-strick-en indigenous people, and Chavezwith his oil riches, were set to steerLatin America in their direction.Butthen candidates of the radical leftstarted losing presidential elections.

In Peru, Alan Garcia defeated theChavez-backed Ollanta Humala, inno small part because the latter wasseen as too cozy with the Venezuelanstrongman.

More recently in Ecuador, busi-nessman Alvaro Noboa beat anotherChavez ally, Rafael Correa, and willgo to a runoff. As in Peru, a leadingtheme in the campaign was Chavez’sinfluence.

Then there was the election inMexico, in which the right-of-centerFelipe Calderon linked his opponent,Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with

Chavez and won. Further discrediting the radicals is

Chavez’s clownish speech at theU.N. calling President Bush the deviland saying the podium still smelledof sulfur.

Nobody liked that — not CharlesRangel, the New York Democrat whois as far on the left as anybody inCongress, and not diplomats who,even if they disagree with U.S. poli-cy, like their United Nations a bitmore decorous.

The ridiculous show Chavez puton is partly to blame for Venezuela’sfailure to win a seat on the SecurityCouncil. Chavez had predicted hewould win the seat and deal a blowto “the empire” (yawn).

He has lost 35 rounds toGuatemala, and even though the lat-ter has not reached the two-thirdsmajority needed to win the seat, aVenezuelan victory is out of therealm of possibility.

Venezuelans have a chance to endthe threat radicalism poses to theregion by voting Chavez out of officeon Dec. 3.

Roger Hernandez is a syndicatedcolumnist and writer-in-residence atNew Jersey Institute of Technology.© 2006 King Features Synd., Inc.

The News Standard2025 By-Pass Road, Suite 102Brandenburg, Kentucky 40108

Phone 270-422-4542 • Fax 270-422-4575Sue Cummings

PublisherMatthew Tungate

Managing Editor

The ultimate goal of The News Standard’sViewpoints page is to encourage frank and livelydiscussion on topics of interest to Meade County.Editorials are the opinion of newspaper management.Columns represent the view of the writer and do notnecessarily represent the view of the management.

The News Standard welcomes and encouragesletters to the editor. All letters must be no more than 500

words and must include a signature, town of residenceand phone number for confirmation. Letters may beedited for grammar, space and clarity. Letters may behandwritten, typed or e-mailed. Letters on redundanttopics will not be published. Letters will appear asspace permits. Letters are due by 5 p.m. Tuesday beforepublication. Letters may be faxed, mailed or sent by e-mail to editor@thenewsstandard.com.

Roger E.Hernandez

Francis Shrum

us an opportunity to evaluateour company officers.”

Firefighters ignited small firesin the cottage and several four-man teams entered the buildingto extinguish the flamesthroughout the day. Each teamconsisted of one supervisor.

Naser said each groupresponded as if it were thefirst truck on the scene of afire. They were required toevaluate the conditions, main-tain accountability and com-munication with fellow fire-fighters while in the building,maneuver hose lines, ventilatethe building, and determinehow to best attack the fire.

“The first-in fire truck onthe scene will make or break 90percent of the operations thatwe do as far as structural fire-fighting,” he said. “If we don’tget that part down … nothingelse will flow as it should.”

Veteran firefighter ChrisWardrip and Capt. Mike Curl,Meade County assistant firechief, ignited the training fires.

Wardrip, who also works asa Radcliff firefighter full-time,compared the inside of thebuilding to a sweltering inferno.

“It’s like hell, honestly,” hesaid. “Today I’ll lose anywherebetween 10 and 15 poundsfrom sweating. Tonight I’lldrink two or three gallons ofwater, and tomorrow morningI’ll still be tired.”

Temperature inside thebuilding ranged between 200degrees at floor level and sur-passed 1,000 degrees near theceiling.

As if conditions weren’talready harsh enough, the fire-fighters each carried up to 100pounds of equipment.

Curl, an 18-year veteran, is

in charge of training volunteerfirefighters. The weeks leadingto the structure fire were spenttraining volunteers in a class-room environment.

“You can study in a class-room and watch videos andall that, but until you actuallydo it, you can’t learn every-thing,” he said. “What thisteaches younger firefighters isit gives them a physical tool toapply what they’ve learned inthe classroom. They’ll be pre-pared because they’ve had alive fire to prepare with.”

Quality training is impor-tant to Curl, whose two sonsare volunteer firefighters andrely on the same training.

Each of Curl’s sons joinedthe Meade County FireDepartment as junior firefight-ers when they turned 14 to fol-low in their father’s footsteps.Following family tradition is acommon theme among manyof Meade County’s firefight-ers. Naser’s son also is a jun-ior firefighter.

“There will be a day andtime when Dad’s too old to dothis and they’ll continue thelegacy,” Curl said.

Curl said he’s proud of thechanges he’s noticed in hissons since joining the firedepartment.

“It has taught them respectand helped build their self-esteem,” he said. “They’re moresure of themselves, and it’sdirected them in … a positivemanner of giving back to theircommunity and fellow man.”

Junior firefighters can join theMeade County Fire Departmentat 14 if they have a parent orguardian who also volunteers,or else they must be 15 to join.

“The junior firefighter pro-gram in general feeds people tothe fire department,” Nasersaid. “If we don’t have juniorfirefighters, then five yearsfrom now we don’t have fire-

fighters. We found that if wecan put a hook in them by thetime they get their driver’slicense, we’ll keep them for 10or 15 years.”

Naser said junior firefight-ers are not allowed to be firstresponders to a fire but canassist firefighters on the sec-ond or third trucks to arrive.

For sophomore Justin Davis,Saturday’s training exercise wasthe first step in what he hopeswill be a long career path.

“I like to give back to mycommunity so I decided to be afirefighter,” he said. “The expe-rience has been good. I’ve got-ten to work with a lot of goodpeople and learn a bunch ofnew stuff I’d never havelearned otherwise. The best partis being able to work with yourteam and solve problems.”

Davis’ eagerness to servehis community is sharedamong his new colleagues.

“I do it to help people,”Wardrip said. “When we haveto work, it means someoneelse is having a bad day. Wedo what we can to make theirday a little better.”

The News StandardPage 12 Friday, November 24, 2006

Meade County and Flaherty firefighters watch as the Craft Cottage on LakeshoreParkway is reduced to ashes during Saturday’s training exercise. “You can study

in a classroom and watch videos and all that, but until you actually do it, youcan’t learn everything,” Meade County Assistant Fire Chief Mike Curl said.

Above, Meade County firemen Michael Thompson, left, steadies the hose linewhile Robert Trent takes aim. Right, Maj. Donny Clark, a Flaherty fireman, isengulfed by smoke while supervising training.

Curl catches his breathafter exiting the burningbuilding. He was incharge of starting thetraining fires.

FLAMECONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

photos byCharles L.

Westmoreland/The NewsStandard

Meade County FireChief Larry Naser,left, briefs his crewon the upcoming drillas junior firefighterJustin Davis awaitshis turn.