CHS Vote Looms
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Rockets (5-1) start district 12 PAGES / VOLUME 137 / NUMBER 14 play with 49-6 victory / Page 8 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2018 24/7 BREAKING AND LOCAL NEWS / THE-PRESS.COM AN INDEPENDENTLY-OWNED, LOCAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1879 ONE DOLLAR Ferry back on 16-hour schedule Ferry schedule 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Approximate Ky. departures First: 6:10 a.m. Last: 9:50 p.m. Fiscal court decision on Board of ed hospital sale could come today vacancy will not be filled by election Parshall CHS vote looms Facebook.com/TheCrittendenPress Twitter.com/CrittendenPress USPS 138-260 / Marion, Ky. ALLISON EVANS/THE PRESS First United Bank opens for business ©2018, The Crittenden Press Inc. Local and out-of-town residents dropped by First United Bank’s pre-opening reception Friday to tour Marion’s newest banking establish- The contents of this newspaper, ment and meet employees on North Main Street. Here Jason Hawkins, president and CEO, visits with Joanie Rowland, office manager at including stories and advertising, are Princeton Lumber Co., which served as the general contractor for the project. The bank opened for business Wednesday. protected by U.S. copyright laws. 2 THE CRITTENDEN PRESS, Marion, Kentucky 42064, Thursday, October 4, 2018 Letters to the Editor P.O. Box 191, Marion, KY 42064 News&Views The Crittenden Press Must be submitted by 5 p.m. Friday Welcome to rural America Welcome to rural outsider or likely shutter. ging to the city. Youth and talent America. Magistrates are faced gravitate toward populations cen- Clean air. Green grass. with that difficult deci- ters for their amenities and jobs, so Fresh water. Open spaces. sion just months after the next generation of would-be dy- Friendly faces at the gro- wringing another namic leaders haved moved to cery store. Neighbors you $100,000 from taxpayers more crowded ZIP codes. can trust with your house to keep an ambulance The rural populace is shrinking, key. A low cost of living. service alive. and what’s left of once quaint little Old-fashioned values. Lit- Meantime, the lone towns grows more blighted by the tle crime. city in our county strug- day. The demographic of the coun- Over the years, life in gles to offer basic serv- tryside is becoming poorer and Anytown, U.S.A., has ices. And an under- longer in the tooth. It’s not a for- been portrayed as idyllic Daryl K. appreciated public serv- mula that adds up to success. And and maybe even a slice of TABOR ice aimed at our aging it’s only going to get more difficult heaven in popular cul- Press editor population, the senior to make ends meet ... let alone ture. Heck, who wouldn’t center, is facing an uphill flourish as rural America did in the want to live in Andy Grif- My 2¢ battle to simply stay open post-war years of the 1950s. fith’s Mayberry or Hooter- Worth a few more years. A year ago, The Atlantic looked ville of “Green Acres” There are only a hand- at “What America Is Losing as Its fame? ful of jobs to sustain a Small Towns Struggle.” The maga- In reality, though, rural living in comfortable living and even fewer zine referenced a work published the early 21st century is growing people to fill them. There are as on its pages 75 years prior. In that akin to residing among the urban many empty storefronts in the essay, “The Community: The Seed ALLISON EVANS/THE PRESS decay of the 1970s and 1980s. Un- heart of downtown as doors open Bed of Society,” Arthur E. Morgan less you live in an affluent country for business. Infrastructure is a described Middle America as “an Democratic party setting driven by recreational op- mixed bag of plugs and patches. orphan in an unfriendly world … Abigail Barnes and Dr. Paul Walker were among the portunities, rural existence is no Even the most basic services and despised, neglected, exploited and Democratic candidates for office in the Nov. 6 general longer the Utopia of a mid-1960s products for consumers can be dif- robbed.” He argued it was being sitcom on CBS. ficult to find. And to sustain what “dissolved, diluted and submerged election who gathered last Thursday in Marion for a You do not have to look far – not we do have, the squeeze is put ever by modern technology, commer- supper and meet-and-greet. Crittenden County PVA even beyond our own boundaries – tighter on a shrinking number of cialism, mass production, propa- Ronnie Heady, who is running unopposed next to witness the struggles of Middle people paying their own way. ganda and centralized month, said about 80 prospective voters turned out America. The problem is not confined to government.” for the affair. Barnes, of Salem, is challenging incum- The writing is on the wall for our our own pastoral landscape. Across Looks like things have come full bent Lynn Bechler (R-Marion) for the state House Dis- homegrown hospital – sell to an the nation, the country’s gone beg- circle. Welcome to rural America! trict 1 seat in Frankfort, which Walker is hoping to unseat Republican Congressman James Comer in the 1st Congressional District race. hospital be operated on the million in order to main- would be.” HOSPITAL property. tain local control of the “That’s reassuring,” Continued from Page 1 RHG, as part of an hospital would cost county Newcom said. agreement in negotiation property owners 43 cents RHG owns one other Stout testifies before tatives of RHG will be at with the CHS board, has per $100 of valuation on hospital at present, Cooper the meeting to answer pledged to maintain a hos- their real estate. That’s al- County Community Hospi- questions. Newcom said pital at its current level for most four times the tal in Boonville, Mo. They House subcommittee company executives will a minimum of three years. amount they already pay are also in the process of STAFF REPORT 2011, Stout was a bank- also be made available Charlie Hunt has said the in county taxes and almost closing on another in Crittenden County na- ruptcy practitioner for 30 through a conference call seven-person CHS board equal to the school tax Wellington, Kan. tive Alan C. Stout, a fed- years, primarily represent- during the special session he chairs can offer maybe levy. The future of a commu- eral bankruptcy judge, ing consumer debtors. He of county government. 18 months more of service The 43-cent levy would nity’s hospital is an emo- testified last testified last week “This will give members before closing the doors to cost the average home- tional one, Newcom Wednesday before a on Capitol Hill in of the court a chance to the financially troubled owner an additional $322 explained, especially in an U.S. House Judici- support of an effort talk with Rural Hospital hospital. in property taxes, based on aging community with ary Committee panel to double the com- Group and resolve a few According to financial the average home value of growing health care needs on regulatory re- pensation of Chap- questions some have,” information made avail- about $75,000. That’s just and when it is one of your form, commercial ter 7 bankruptcy Newcom added. able at a recent hospital no feasible, said Newcom. largest employers and sin- and antitrust law. trustees to $120 per RHG is interested only board meeting, CHS has “I really don't want to gle biggest payer of wages The hearing covered case administered. in a package deal that in- lost an average of $81,486 put a taxing district in in the county. Chapter 7 bank- Stout The compensation cludes the hospital prop- per month since Septem- place,” he added. “People While opinions have ruptcy trustee com- has not changed erty and operations. They ber 2017, the month be- have enough burden as it been mixed, Newcom said, pensation and the since 1995, according to do not want to lease the fore RHG took over is.” most people who have ap- Bankruptcy Administra- Stout. real estate. Terry Nichols, management. That is an Newcom said he has proached him see selling tion Improvement Act of The judge supports an onsite RHG executive improvement of about asked the Kentucky Hospi- the hospital to a private 2018. passage of the Bank- and former interim CEO of $20,000 monthly over the tal Association for help in group in order to ensure Stout, who still main- ruptcy Administrator Im- CHS, said to qualify for the previous 12 months under vetting RHG. They told the three more years of opera- tains a residence in Crit- provement Act, which low-interest loan through sole management of the judge-executive that a look tion as a positive. But the tenden County, is the U.S. would fund the trustee the USDA to complete the CHS board. at the group’s manage- difficulty is that only time Bankruptcy Judge for the compensation by raising deal, the land and build- The board has $3.9 mil- ment of rural health care can tell what the best deci- Western District of Ken- the bankruptcy filing fee ings must be included. lion in debt tied to con- facilities Texas, Arkansas, sion might be. tucky. He is the former by $60. Newcom said this is def- struction of a surgical suite Kansas and Missouri re- “It’s a no-win in that county attorney for Crit- The legislation must initely the toughest deci- that opened five years ago. vealed RHG to be “every- you don’t know the out- tenden County.