News from July 24, 2008 issue

Local News
The Crittenden Press (PDF)
(Selected pages from Sections A & B)
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Police investigating auto thefts
Authorities in Princeton and Marion are sifting through evidence trying to solve three stolen vehicle cases over the past few days.
It started Sunday evening when police in Marion discovered of a stolen car at the Pamida parking lot then received a report of another vehicle missing from a residence on West Carlisle Street in Marion.
About 24 hours later, another vehicle was stolen from the parking lot at Conrad's Food Store.
Police Chief Ray O'Neal said it now appears that all of the thefts may be connected.
"It's just a gut feeling," he said. "We have a couple of suspects and believe we're going to be able to solve these cases."
Kara Hatfield of Marion reported Sunday afternoon that her blue Ford Expedition was missing from in front of her home on East Carlisle. About the same time, a red Geo was found at Pamida. It had been stolen from Wal-Mart parking lot in Princeton.
Hatfield's vehicle was located at midday Monday in Princeton on a side street between the Caldwell County High School and Wal-Mart. The low fuel light was on when Princeton police found it. They believe the suspects ditched the SUV just before it ran out of gas.
The Expedition was towed back to Marion and O'Neal said authorities were able to gather some good evidence from the vehicle, including fingerprints.
On Monday night just before 7 p.m., a black Ford Ranger pickup was stolen from the Conrad's parking lot.
O'Neal said witnesses saw two males, believed to be ages 16 and 18, lurking around the lot looking into parked cars. The police chief believes the two teens found one with the keys in the ignition and took off. Officers looked throughout the county all night Monday, but found nothing. They are searching for a person of interest, Jackie Lee Beasley of Marion, who they want to question in regard to at least one of the cases.
Police do not think these cases are related to the escaped inmate from the Fredonia Farm Center. James A. Allgood walked away from a work release program at Lyon County High School Friday and is already to have stolen two other vehicles in the area. Allgood was spotted Sunday in Breckinridge County.
Anyone with information regarding these cases should call the Marion Police Department at 965-3500.

City postpones vote on golf cart use
Marion City Council took a mulligan this week on a measure aimed at legalizing an alternative mode of travel on city streets.
With still more questions than answers, council members agreed Monday to neither approve nor reject an ordinance that would allow golf carts on streets across the city as a means to get around town. Instead, by a 4-1 vote, the members, in effect, asked for a do-over, tabling the measure until more fact-finding and examination could be done.
"I don't feel like we have to jump into this either for or against," Councilman Dwight Sherer said. "We should take some time to consider."
Jason Hatfield, who introduced the measure in June, was the only councilman present to oppose the delay.
“I think we ought to let people have the option,” he said.
Council member Janet Pierce was not present at the meeting.
Marion has drawn attention from media outlets around the state for being the first municipality to consider a new law that would permit limited use of golf carts on public roadways. The intent of the law, according to Sen. R.J. Palmer (D-Winchester) who co-sponsored the legislation, was to allow citizens a cheap travel alternative amid rising fuel costs. Most golf carts run on electric motors.
"There are too many people making the choice between gas and food," said Judy Stone.
Speaking Monday on behalf of the ordinance's approval, Stone was undaunted by the decision to postpone action.
"They put it on the table; that's a good sign," said Stone, a Marion resident. "I'm still going to push for this."
Confined to a wheelchair, Stone said a golf cart would make in-town travel more convenient for her. Sporting on the back of her motorized wheelchair the same orange safety triangle found on Amish buggies and farm implements, she said she must often ride in the street when inadequate city sidewalks force her from the safety of the right-of-way. A more visible, nimble golf cart with the same required safety insignia would allow her to feel safer when running errands, as well as reduce her dependency on her automobile.
But safety is the primary reason Donnie Arflack has not been able to justify allowing golf carts on streets.
"There’s so much traffic in town that sometimes it’s almost impossible to cross one of the main streets in a car, much less a slower-moving cart," the councilman and rescue squad member said.
Last week, a Benton boy died from injuries sustained in a golf cart accident on a private access road in Livingston County. Andrew Clay Johnson, 11, died July 15 at Kosair’s Children’s Hospital in Louisville five days after he wrecked a golf cart outside Birdsville, possibly overturning the vehicle on himself. Though Johnson was not on a public roadway, the example illustrates how dangerous operation of a golf cart can be, particularly since golf carts are not normally equipped with safety belts.
“If this were a golfing (or) retirement community with no major highways going through the middle of it, the golf carts would be a different issue,” Arflack said.
The state law restricts golf cart usage by licensed drivers to low-speed streets and limits operation to between dawn and dusk, but safety seems to remain the primary concern of the council.
Jim Brown, a former Marion Police officer, and Darrin Tabor both declared their intent to vote against the ordinance. Arflack and Sherer, too, appear to not favor passage, at least not at this time.
City Administrator Mark Bryant said he does not expect the issue to appear on next month's council agenda. In fact, he said the council can take as much time as it wishes to again take up the measure.
Meantime, Police Chief Ray O'Neal said he is uncertain of how the department will now approach those who sometimes use carts around town.
“It’s hard to say at this time,” he said. “It hasn’t been a problem in the past, and I don’t foresee it in the future.”

Mongiardo brings good news
The news really could not have been better for Crittenden County.
When politicians and government officials roll into town, they generally come bearing a large cardboard check representing a grant or funds from taxpayer money that's being promised back to Crittenden County for a particular project.
When Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo came to Marion Thursday to deliver the keynote speech at the annual meeting and luncheon of the Crittenden County Economic Development Corporation, he was penniless – so to speak.
Mongiardo returned no immediate tax money to the county. Instead, he came armed with an idea, a plan to boost outdoor tourism in Kentucky.
For Crittenden County, which has two stoplights, no four-lane highways, a closed coal mine and only a small amount of light industry, Mongiardo brought an interesting concept. It's something hunters and fishermen have been preaching for years.
Kentucky has no coastline and very few industrial skylines, but it does have plenty fresh water rivers, lakes and streams. The commonwealth is among the top states for deer hunting and fishing, and has the largest elk herd east of the Mississippi River.
Mongiardo says that's something Kentucky can hang its hat on.
Adventure tourism, Mongiardo explained, is a priority for Gov. Steve Beshear and his administration. Already, tourism officials across the state are joining forces and making maps to create an off-road trail that runs from Wickliffe to the Cumberland Gap. Forty percent of the trail has already been mapped out, the lieutenant governor said.
When the General Assembly passed the Adventure Tourism act early this year, it began an effort to open more areas of the state as tourist destinations for bikers, hikers, campers, fishermen, hunters, off-roaders and horseback riders.
Tourism is Kentucky’s third-largest industry, with a $10.1 billion annual economic impact. It currently generates 175,000 jobs in the state and $987 million in tax revenue. For Michele Edwards, the Marion tourism director, Mongiardo's words were encouraging.
"Adventure Tourism is an opportunity for Crittenden County to expand its existing tourism base," she said. "We are an outdoor-oriented community with endless potential to participate in the development of Kentucky's new Adventure Tourism initiative."
Edwards and Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown agree that the state's push to increase outdoors tourism might pay big dividends for Crittenden County. Grant money and other state aid may be just around the corner.
"We will never know if there is money out there until we ask," said Brown. "We need to get Paddy's Bluff replaced because that really drew a whole lot of people to our county."
Brown's point has been acknowledged by others, but so far no one has any concrete plans to develop another ATV park like Paddy's Blugf, a 600-acre tract near Dycusburg that was sold recently for its unmined limestone and minerals.
Judge Brown said the lieutenant governor returned to Marion several hours following his speech at the CCEDC meeting and toured the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum and had dinner at Conger's Country Kitchen at Marion Country Club.
"With this initiative, I think there might be some money out there. We have a place for adventure tourism to work," the judge added.
Mongiardo pointed out that an ATV park in Everts, in eastern Kentucky, draws 70,000 visitors a year. He thinks the state can create a multi-use trail system that goes from east to west and touches every county.
Edwards said that tourism officials are using satellite imagery to identify old railways and other trails across the commonwealth. They hope to patch them all together and form one giant trail.
"We want to make Kentucky the No. 1 destination in the country for adventure tourism," Mongiardo said at last week's economic development meeting.
Additionally, the lieutenant governor said that the governor wants to create a pilot healthcare program in Kentucky and make the state a leader in alternative energy production.
"The gas and food prices are stopping our other spending and we're a country where two-thirds of our economy is based on consumer spending," Mongiardo.
He said Kentucky's rich coal reserves are the answer to make the state less dependent on oil. He suggested turning coal into a liquid and burning it in automobiles.
"We can show the rest of the country how to get it done right," Mondiardo said.
As for healthcare, he said better use of information technologies can cut costs and improve patient care. A physician before he became a politician, Mongiardo said the healthcare industry is lagging behind when it comes to using communications technology. A database for sharing patient files and tests could save the industry time and money, he said.
"We want to make Kentucky a laboratory," Mongiardo said, for showing the rest of the nation how to save costs by sharing patient information through the use of available technology. One study group, using the formula he is suggesting, saved 60 percent in one year, he said.
"The banking industry allocates 15 percent of its spending every year to improve information technology," he said. "The healthcare industry spends two percent."
Mongiardo, a Democrat, said that non-partisan politics is the only way to improve life in Kentucky. He said the current administration is committed to reach across the isle in order to move the statae forward.
"I believe him," said Brown, the Crittenden judge-executive who is a Republican. "He's sincere and down to earth. I like that."

Burglars attack unlocked cars
Marion police are working on several theft cases involving items stolen from parked cars at city residences.
Marion Police Chief Ray O'Neal is urging citizens to keep their vehicles locked at night and make sure that purses, checkbooks and other valuables are removed from their cars.
Over the weekend, police investigated three incidents where someone had ransacked unlocked vehicles and in some cases stolen the items inside. The reports came from East Depot and North College streets.
In one case, a woman's purse was stolen. A Marion resident found the purse near the old junior high school building on North College, but the victim's driver's license and checkbook was missing. In one of the other cases, police found personal items belonging to the victim strewn near a city street about a block away.
"The got a brief case and didn't find anything valuable in it so they dumped the stuff out," O'Neal said.
The chief said police are looking for two males in the late teens or early 20s.

Vandalism draws reward offer
Crittenden County Tipline is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of an individual or individuals who spray painted vulgar graffiti on the new bridge across Crooked Creek on Beachy Road in rural Crittenden County.
Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown said the cost to the county to repair the vandalism will be several hundred dollars. The paint alone is $200.
"It takes a special kind of paint to cover it up," Brown said.
The concrete rail on the bridge was painted with what Brown described as vulgar language.
Anyone with information regarding the vandalism can call 965-3000 and remain anonymous, but receive the cash reward.
Brown said the county installing surveillance cameras at the bridge and other areas where vandalism has been a regular occurrence.