Louisa council opposes effort to make city elections partisan
By TONY FYFFE
BSN Editor
LOUISA — The Louisa City Council went on record last week opposing an effort in the General Assembly to make elections for city offices and local school boards partisan affairs.
The council, during a special meeting Thursday, approved a resolution opposing House Bill 50 and Senate Bill 50, which would require mayors, city councils and commissions, and school boards to have a partisan primary or partisan election.
The Senate version of the legislation is co-sponsored by state Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, whose district includes Lawrence County.
Mayor Harold Slone, a member of the Kentucky League of Cities Board of Directors, said that 409 of the state’s 415 cities hold non-partisan elections. The KLC Board of Directors voted unanimously to oppose House Bill 50 and Senate Bill 50 and urged all cities to pass resolutions opposing the measure as well, Slone said.
“I’ve never, in eight years of being mayor, asked the council for anything like this, but the Kentucky League of Cities and the four-hundred and nine of us cities that are non-partisan in this state and would like to stay non-partisan, have agreed that all 409 cities are going to pass a resolution by their city council, hopefully, and send to the legislature that says, ‘Leave us as we are. We want to be non-partisan.’”
City Attorney Bud Adams supported the resolution.
“I think it’s a good idea, because I’ve been city attorney for forty-two years and, you know, streets, sidewalks, and water and sewer are pretty non-partisan,” Adams said.
Council members unanimously approved the resolution.
In other business from Thursday’s meeting, council members voted to commit the city to a 5 percent match if it receives funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for a new sewer plant.
“For anybody that’s not been following our sewer plant, it’s equivalent to a 1962 Volkswagen — you can’t get parts, you can’t fix it,” Slone said.
Although Louisa’s FEMA funding is not guaranteed, the city ranks “really high in getting it,” Slone said.
“If we were to get that, the match for us would be five percent,” he said.
Slone said the estimated price tag for the new sewer plant is $12 million, and grants from FEMA and the Appalachian Regional Commission would help reduce the city’s financial obligation.
“So, we could be potentially in the eight-, nine-million-dollar range of grant funding, which would put us to only borrow two to three million, at worst,” Slone said.
In other action, council members approved Slone’s recommendation to name two streets in Louisa in honor of country singers and Lawrence County natives Tyler Childers and Noah Thompson.
Slone noted that Main Cross Street is named Ricky Skaggs Boulevard and part of Main Street is known as Larry Cordle Drive in honor of two other well-known Lawrence County natives.
Naming Perry and Pike streets in honor of Childers and Thompson, respectively, would add to the “tourist opportunity,” Slone said.
“So, as you come up Main Cross Street, you’re going to be able to stop and take a picture of almost every one of our street signs with a popular country music person,” he said.
In a related matter, Slone also recommended that the street along the city pool and down to the locks be named Lockview Drive since it was recently discovered that the road currently has no name.
All of Slone’s street recommendations were approved by council.
Council also voted to declare a 1999 Chevrolet pickup, a 2004 Chevrolet pickup and a 1984 John Deere tractor as surplus property.
At the end of the meeting, council member Tom Parsons announced that he is moving to Fort Gay, W.Va., and would no longer be eligible to serve on the Louisa council. He had submitted his written resignation to Slone prior to the meeting, effective Friday, Feb. 17.