If Lexington’s streets are anything to go by, Mayor Gorton should not run for reelection | Opinion

No progress on Lexington streets

I earlier complained about the condition of the roads and offered to drive Mayor Gorton around to see for herself the horrible condition of our roads. My offer was not accepted! Since then, nothing has happened. None of the roads where sewer lines were replaced, leaving uneven and bumpy roads, have been repaved. None of the roads downtown and in outlying areas have been repaved to any significant degree.

One example of city inefficiency is the intersection of Third Street and Elmtree Lane. That intersection was blocked for five or six months after the sewer lines were put in, with only one piece of idle equipment, a dump truck and a large pile of gravel in the middle of the road. That intersection has now, after that many months, been opened – it could have been opened months ago. I keep hoping things will improve, but I see nothing positive happening.

I have heard a rumor that Mayor Gorton plans to run for a third term. I hope she gives serious consideration to not running again. We need to let someone else have a shot at running this city.

Richard Getty, Lexington

Republican expectations

It seems to me that in order to secure their vote many Americans expect the Democrats to deliver on every hope and aspiration they might ever have had. If they think the Democrats will deliver jobs, housing, health care, student loan forgiveness, environmental justice, etc. they just might consider voting Democratic. But in the absence of extraordinary circumstances their default vote is Republican. Their expectations of Republicans are very low and deal primarily with who their perceived enemies are.

I have seen this scenario play out time after time, year after year, and the script seldom changes. In my early years growing up in North Alabama in the time of George Wallace, it was the blacks and the integrationists and the “pointy head intellectuals” who were the enemy. These days it is the gays, the “woke” people, the DEI people, the scientists, the professors, the women’s rights supporters, and a lot of the old 60’s enemies thrown in as well. Then, as now, ignorance and callousness towards others reigns supreme!

Jim Porter, Danville

Kay leadership

Recently, I read the opinion piece written by former Vice Mayor Steve Kay .

In it, he criticized recent tactics by opposing parties leading up to the City Council vote regarding proposed expansion of the Urban Service Boundary. In particular, he wrote in defense of one Council member who was singled out for criticism using what he considered unfair tactics and misinformation.

This is typical of Steve Kay. Before he ran for a Council seat, he was known as a principled person who could see the heart of a matter and who stood for hearing both sides of an argument with an open mind. He conducted meetings and conversations in such a way that, despite their differences of opinion, most participants came away feeling their point of view was aired and that they contributed to a civil conversation.

Although we see far too little of this kind of skill or commitment in today’s public dialogue, it’s not difficult to see why Kay’s approach led to the best possible outcomes for the community at large.

I understand council term limits, but I miss the skill, humor, kindness, and wisdom of Steve Kay operating in the top tiers of our public leadership.

Meriah Kruse, Lexington

Carbon monoxide

In December, a volunteer at a local museum, a retired engineer from an oil and gas company, monitors the CO concentration at the outside exhaust vent (of the new furnace) and predicts that the furnace is malfunctioning. Within a week of that prognosis, that engineer — sameself as the author of this letter — starts to detect 50 to 60 ppm CO inside the museum. Two UL approved CO detectors do not alarm - those are only required to sound above a threshold of 70 parts per million (ppm). As a reference, firemen evacuate a building at about 35 ppm.

From this experience, I recommend having an inexpensive handheld CO meter that displays ppm, and using it to test the outside exhaust - but only after the furnace has run several minutes to allow the flame to stabilize, and only if vented near ground level with safe access. The exhaust should be less than 50 ppm for a properly functioning furnace and ideally around 20 ppm. Some gas companies will yellow tag it if the exhaust is between 105 and 245 ppm and red tag it if it goes over 245. Long-term-term, low-level CO exposure can result in fetal brain damage, pneumonia, and flu-like symptoms.

Martin Traugott EE, ME, PhD

Versailles, Kentucky

Edited by Liz Carey

This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 10:36 AM.