Letters to the Editor: In praise of Jake Gibbs. Beshear’s mistake. Coronavirus price gouging.

Gibbs kind

Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman Jake Gibbs was the kindest person I’ve ever met.

Steve Stahlman, Lexington

Beshear’s misstep

While it’s admirable that Gov. Andy Beshear wants to be the governor of all the people, he is new at his job and I think not experienced in recognizing controversial situations. In some circumstances, he stands to lose more than he gains.

I’m speaking of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence audience with the governor. While this group is a nonprofit and charity is part of its purpose, it also lists protest and entertainment as equal parts of its existence. As this group has multiple missions, you can only wonder if the governor wasn’t suckered.

If the governor wants to bring people together, he and his managers could find far less controversial groups to promote. Drag queen groups want to be seen as outlandish and in bad taste, as this is the way they try to make their case. The names they choose tell a lot — Avery Goodlay, Pandora’s Boxx and Anna Bortion. I was also amused by the name of a Herald-Leader opinion writer on this topic, Sister Freida Fondleus.

Those calling for state Sen. Phillip Wheeler’s resignation are overreacting. Wheeler said he has no qualms with the LGBTQ movement; he just thinks Beshear misused the Capitol as the venue to express support for this group.

Charles Adams, Georgetown

No to ‘tax options’

I’m writing regarding a recent Herald-Leader article on a state measure that would give cities and counties “more tax options”. Looking for conservatives who oppose new taxes? Don’t expect to find them among Republicans in the General Assembly. Apparently “payroll taxes, taxes on corporate profits, property taxes, and taxes on utilities and insurance premiums” are not enough. No, Republicans think we need to amend the state constitution to allow, in the bill’s words, “the payment of license fees on franchises, stock used for breeding purposes, the various trades, occupations and professions, or a special or excise tax”. And yet Gary Moore of the Kentucky Association of Counties claims, “This isn’t about adding more taxes. This is about different taxing options.” What slippery wording. I don’t see any language in the bill eliminating any of the aforementioned extant taxes, so how can anyone say with a straight face that this amendment wouldn’t add more taxes?

I wonder at what point our “conservative” representatives will either stop embracing these ever-expanding forms of taxation, or drop the moniker “conservative” and be honest that they’re just as much in favor of big government spending (and hence big collection of taxpayer dollars) as the party they purport to oppose.

Stephanie Mason, Danville

Reclamation article flawed

The Washington Post and writer Gabriel Popkin got it wrong in The Washington Post Magazine’s recent feature article, “The Green Miles.” The article gives the impression that planting trees to reclaim strip-mined land was a new idea when University of Kentucky forestry professor Donald Graves experimented with it in 1996, and a few years later when U.S. Department of Interior reclamation specialist Patrick Angel tried it on a broader scale.

In fact, U.S. Forest Service scientists had been doing it since at least as far back as the 1970s when the service had a facility at Berea, Kentucky, that researched planting vegetation on reclaimed strip-mine sites. That research was instrumental in revegetating thousands of acres of strip-mined lands in Ohio’s Wayne National forest between 1974 and 1979 when I worked there as a soil scientist.

The Post’s article also refers to lespedeza as a woody legume “with thickets of prickly, inedible stalks” competitive to trees. That’s only half right. It’s true of perennial lespedeza, but there are also annual varieties that die back and don’t get woody.

By failing to properly research the article, Popkin and the newspaper undercut years of innovative work by U.S. Forest Service employees in Kentucky and the surrounding area.

Dave Wester, Baraboo, Wisconsin

Ark Encounter a boon

After reading David MacMillan’s commentary on how Ken Ham supposedly “acted to enrich” his Ark Encounter at the expense of the town that gave him his park, I felt compelled to respond.

To my knowledge, Mr. Ham never promised “the pie in the sky” for businesses to locate in Williamstown. That is not something he could control, even if he wanted to. To blame the Ark Encounter for slow growth in Williamstown is simply not true. Elsewhere in our county, let me point out the following.

The Ark Encounter opened to the public in 2016. The average amount of annual tourism tax collected from 2010 until 2016 was $96,191.29. The average annual tourism tax collected from 2017 thru 2019 was $232,684.50. The amount collected so far in the 2019-2020 fiscal year is $252,917.15.

As a direct result of the Ark Encounter, most of the hotels in our county have been at capacity, resulting in tourism dollars and small business income. Those dollars stay in Grant County. In addition, for the year 2019, the Ark Encounter paid $388,677.80 in school taxes and $70,453.00 in library taxes.

The Ark Encounter has continued to build new facilities, as was promised. Mr. MacMillan is certainly entitled to his narrow views of what the Ark Encounter has done for Grant County, but my view is supported by facts and numbers.

Pat Conrad, Williamstown, Grant County fiscal court clerk

Sanitizer pricing

Hopefully the government is looking into the price gouging being done by all of the stores, online and brick and mortar, in relation to the cost of hand sanitizers. It is shameful. Maybe if our fearless leader would forego his vanity, there would be more alcohol in the marketplace. He must use a ton of it to keep his pompadour from being blown away.

Sara Wellnitz, Lexington

Protect people

Health insurance companies in America make a staggering billions of dollars yearly in profits. The Kentucky Department of Insurance should, in theory, provide a check and balance by keeping the insurance companies halfway honest. When a citizen files a complaint with the department, the department does an impressive job of shuffling papers but little else. It is quickly discerned that the agency in charge of protecting citizen’s interests is on a first-name, footsie-playing basis with the companies they pretend to oversee.

As a fountain doesn’t give off two waters, both sweet and bitter, neither can the Department of Insurance serve two masters. It exhibits little to no interest or finesse as it quickly dismisses complaints by first sanitizing them. As such, this behavior simply serves as a protective service in shielding the insurance companies from wrongdoing.

Reasonable minds can only wonder why this corruption can’t or won’t be cleaned up. For the answer, one can only surmise that the insurance companies’ donations to political war chests have become an unbelievably addictive drug.

Wayne Gilreath, East Bernstadt

Kudos to nursing home

We hear almost daily lawyers advertising about abuses in nursing homes. I am sure that it happens, because we see and hear about abuse everywhere. I would like to share with you some good things that happen in nursing homes. My wife and I are guardians of a young man who is mentally challenged. He is unable to communicate what his wants and desires are. After three surgeries last October, he went to Nicholasville Nursing and Rehabilitation. He has spent the last four months there. The staff has been very caring and helpful to him. My wife fell and broke her ankle after Thanksgiving, and after surgery was sent to the same place. She was there for more than two months. She, too, received very good treatment. The staff, from the director to the custodians, really work very hard to make Nicholasville Nursing and Rehabilitation a good place for everyone while they are there. We are too prone to only point out the negatives. There is some good going on in nursing homes.

Joe Richey, Lexington

Lawmakers’ 4 Gs

I wake up every morning and thank God that I can read the bills/laws that a certain segment of our Kentucky legislators have created. I think it is great that they will 100% stick to their four Gs agenda — God, guns, gays, and gynecology — and those guys don’t disappoint. It is good that over the years, they have helped Kentucky be nominated as one of the dumbest states in the nation. So to some of those legislators whom time and culture has passed by, be happy. Don’t worry about education, healthcare, hunger, homelessness, senior citizens, or tax reform, and they’ll reach that prize they are striving for: No. 1 as the dumbest state.

Jim Dunn, Burgin