September 15, 2016
Lots of things have happened this week that have made me think out loud, almost…
While I was looking at the video Glenda took of the parade Saturday and posting it on a Lazer story, I noticed a car with a sign on it that said Tony Skeens, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney and there was Tony riding along in the parade. Of course Lawrence County’s assistant CA, Kim Compton was with him but where was Commonwealth Annie? I never have seen an assistant riding in a parade when the office holder wasn’t also in it. Must be a new fad.
Current Commonwealth’s Attorney Anna Melvin, 66, who has held the position since I was a little boy it seems, is in the middle of a six year term and I’ve heard rumblings that she plans on retiring soon. Skeens has been her lead assistant for at least twelve years now and does most of the work in the courtrooms and the plan, I’ve heard, is for him to take over when Melvin retires and if she waits till the year is over, the governor can appoint him and he can serve the remaining three years of the six year term and won’t have to run until then. Compton says she is not interested in the head job.
The three year head start would give Skeens more time to get his politicks in order for a run for a full six year term. Lawrence County Attorney Mike Hogan came within a cat’s whisker of unseating Melvin last time and would have had there not been a three way circuit clerk’s race going on in her native Johnson County which brought out a better than average vote allowing her to win the three county race with mostly Johnson County votes. Hogan carried both Lawrence and Martin.
Hogan says he won’t make another run for CA but the Skeens move would keep him from getting the chance anyway, if he changes his mind. But, Hogan is very close to Gov. Matt Bevin and was offered administration jobs in Frankfort, I’m told, but did not want to leave Louisa. What if Bevin foils Skeens’ plan and appoints Hogan if Anna resigns?
Oh, well, I love a parade.
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…Requested some information this week about what has stalled the three state road projects in Lawrence county including the extension of Rt. 32 to the golf course, the new connector exit from WalMart to 2565, and the Dead Man’s Curve project. Two of them have been “in the works” since I moved back to Louisa in 2001 and I’ve heard Rocky Adkins swear at least 20 times that they would be finished this summer…but summer never comes.
This time the word is Governor Bevin stopped the projects because the road fund is low because of the drop in the price of gasoline. I just wonder if all the projects in the state are stalled, too. And if they’re not, where is our state representative and state senator? I did send a copy of the letter to Jill York and her democrat opponent in November, Josh McGuire, to see what they say but I haven’t heard back yet from either one. I think I’ll try the governor himself next…
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Last week I was sitting here in my office chair when a guy called and said he needed to make a media connection in Lawrence County because he had a big announcement coming later this month.
He gave me his name and said he is on a board of directors for an oil and gas energy conglamorate that has purchased $50 million worth of oil and gas in Lawrence County and twelve surrounding counties.
The mystery man didn’t offer many details but he said to just wait and the news will be coming out. There won’t be many jobs like the coal industry used to provide, he said, but there will be a lot of severance tax money for the counties involved. He had been reading The Lazer and noticed how interested I seemed to be in an alternative to the lost coal jobs and also the potential adverse effects on county government services. He didn’t say how much of the mineral being bought is in Lawrence County but he did say “a lot” and more than the other counties some of which are in W.Va. and Ohio.
I hope he was for real and we get a repreive for at least long enough to get our infrastructure into the 21st century and our roads paved but you never know…
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Wonder what is going on with the county’s solid waste committee of which I am a member, or I was anyway, since director Darrell Ratliff got sick and was replaced by committee member Randy Woods? I haven’t heard anything about a meeting in two years and commission chairman Colleen Stone said she hasn’t, either. The job pays $1,400 a month and insurance, I think, so it’s not bad if you’re retired like Woods is. But as I was going into town the back way Monday I noticed the fence we required the junk yard owner at the end of Preece Avenue is gone. It wasn’t great when he put it up but now we’re back to the rusty and wrecked vehicles within two feet of the street. Yuck!
I don’t know if they’ve kicked me off the commission or not, but I wonder as a taxpayer what is going on with it. This county needs to be cleaned up constantly because a lot of people don’t care. What do you think?
