Friday July 13, 2007Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down for July 13

















Thanks to Boyle County Magistrate Phil Sammons, something will finally be done to make the intersection at Old Stanford Road and U.S. 150 more safe. Sammons called in the state Transportation Cabinet on Wednesday to have a look after a Tennessee couple was killed in an accident last month.



This wasn't the first fatal accident at that intersection, as Sammons and others have noted. Sammons was a little hard on himself about the problem that has existed in his district for many years. "I've been asleep for too long on this," he said.



But while the intersection lies in Sammons' district, the responsibility for it lies with the state, so there is plenty of blame to go around. What's important is that now drivers will be warned that they are approaching a dangerous area, and maybe we've seen the last fatality at this intersection.



Sammons deserves praise for convincing the state to get moving.

















Local school districts have been occupying buildings at Kentucky School for the Deaf for the past couple of years, but now are moving their programs in the face of rent they can't afford to pay.



That's unfortunate, since all of the property belongs to the state, and all of the occupants ultimately are governed by the state Department of Education.



In the private sector it's not unusual for divisions within a single company to do business with each other in much the same way they do business with any other customer. One division or department will "charge" the other for services rendered. And when subsidiaries conduct business, money may actually change hands.



Still, it seems unfortunate that public property that would normally stand vacant cannot be shared between public agencies, particularly those with similar missions, without pushing tax dollars from pocket to pocket.



But the decision by the state to be "fiscally responsible" with this property is evidence of some real progress. The emptiness that exists over much of the KSD campus has been ignored for too long. A comprehensive plan to reduce the portion of the campus occupied by KSD, and to improve the facilities for those students, needs to move forward.



The state must consider how to dispense with that excess property, or how to raise the money to maintain it, in ways that benefit taxpayers across Kentucky, not just those in Boyle County or Danville.Copyright:The Advocate-Messenger 2007