County red with GOP support
By the results, Crittenden County voters didn't seem to think wholesale changes in government were necessary Tuesday. In fact, electors backed Republican incumbents for both the U.S. House and Senate, chose a city council of five incumbents and one former councilman, and backed the GOP ticket for president.
Just one incumbent was ousted by voters in the county, and that was in the only contested, non-partisan school board race.
Polls were busy Tuesday on an Election Day with sunny skies and warm weather, helping the voter turnout in the county reach 64 percent. No major problems were reported at any of the county's 12 precincts.
“It went like clockwork,” Crittenden County Clerk Carolyn Byford said of the election.
Though national results had Republicans singing the blues with Democrats gaining or maintaining control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, Tuesday's results inside the county were decidedly Republican. Only one precinct, No. 5 with voting at the gun club on Ky. 91 North, favored a Democrat in any race. At that poll, voters handed Democratic senatorial candidate Bruce Lunsford 53 votes as compared to 51 for incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell.
All other precincts favored Sen. McConnell and all 12 backed the presidential ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin over Democrat Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and also Republican Congressman Ed Whitfield over Heather Ryan.

Marion City Council
Incumbent City Councilman Jim Brown led vote-getters in the non-partisan race to serve in city government. Brown captured 818 votes, well over the 653 he garnered two years ago when he also led balloting for council.
Brown, 78, attributes his success to a campaign strategy that included going door to door.
"I handed out almost 1,000 campaign cards and got 818 votes," he said.
A mosquito issue in town was also a factor, Brown said. Buying the swampy property off Gum Street and draining it, Brown explained, helped rid the city of biting pests. That, he pointed out, was an initiative he had worked on.
Brown, a retired city policeman, said citizens appear to be pleased with the direction of local government. Voters re-elected all five incumbents, turned back two challengers and put another former councilman back on the board. Mike Byford has served on the council a total 15 years, but left it two years ago after an unsuccessful mayoral bid. Byford was narrowly edged out, by just 62 votes, for mayor by long-time incumbent Mickey Alexander.
Janet Crider Pierce was the second-highest vote-getter in the council race for the second straight election. She works as a teller at one of the local banks and will begin her fourth term in city government.
Others re-elected were Donnie Arflack, the local rescue squad chief and Crittenden Health Systems employee; Darrin Tabor, a Marion real estate broker; and Dwight Sherer, who works at Safetran and is a long-time council member.
Brown said during his campaign he talked with many citizens and the most important issues were the aging water and sewer lines. He said money is an issue, but getting started on replacing those lines will be a major topic of discussion in the coming term.
"Nearly everybody I talked to said they bought bottled water for drinking," Brown said.

School board
In the only other local race, incumbent school board member Ronald "Red" Howton was overwhelmingly defeated by political newcomer Pam Collins. Collins, who has a technical engineering degree from the University of Texas at Arlington, defeated Howton, who is also the city fire chief, by collecting 68 percent of the vote.
Two other school board incumbents were unopposed. They were Chris Cook and Bill Asbridge.
Collins, who is serving her sixth year on local school site-based councils, said her experiences on those boards helped her to discuss intelligibly the issues facing schools. Inadequate funding for schools is a major issue and she supports creative and proactive thinking in regard to seeking budgetary solutions.
"It's an exciting time and a good time to come on board," Collins said, pointing to the popularity of the new superintendent of schools, Dr. Rachel Yarbrough. "I have visited with her several times and really like her. And I know the teachers like her, too."
Collins is a Texas transplant. She moved to Crittenden County in 1998 after meeting and marrying Marion native Stuart Collins. The two met at a church function while he was in theology seminary in Texas.
"I want to thank all of my supporters and encouragers, and I look forward to serving all of Crittenden County on the school board," she said.

U.S. Senate
Sen. McConnell beat out his toughest challenge since first becoming a senator in 1984. Challenger Bruce Lunsford, neck and neck with the Senate Minority Leader in polls leading up to the election, lost by six points to the Louisville Republican.
The win was critical for Republicans, who lost at least seven Senate seats in the upcoming session. By giving McConnell the nod for his sixth term, Kentuckians keep a powerful voice for the state in office. On Jan. 20, when Obama becomes president, McConnell will be the most powerful Republican in Washington.
Three of the 35 senate chairs up for grabs Tuesday remain undecided, but Democrats fell short of the 60 seats needed to maintain a super majority in the Senate. Democrats, at press time, held onto 56 seats as compared to 41 by the GOP. Two Independents in the Senate, however, tend to vote Democratic.

Congress
All five of Kentucky's incumbents in the U.S. House of Representatives won re-election Tuesday, including First District Congressman Whitfield (R-Hopkinsville). Whitfield beat out Ryan, a Paducah Democrat, with 64 percent of the western Kentucky district's votes.
The GOP also held onto its Second District seat threatened by the retirement of Republican Ron Lewis. Democrats John Yarmuth and Ben Chandler join Republicans Whitfield, Geoff Davis, Hal Rogers and newcomer S. Brett Guthrie as Kentucky's congressional team.
Democrats appear to have gained 22 seats in Congress Tuesday, holding a commanding 258-177 majority.

Kentucky Senate
Crittenden County native Ken Winters (R-Murray) beat out former Congressman Carroll Hubbard to retain his First District seat in the Kentucky Senate. Hubbard, a Democrat who also has family connections to Crittenden County, gained only 46 percent of the vote in the western Kentucky district.
Winters' victory helped senate Republicans maintain control of the upper chamber in General Assembly 22-15 with Bob Leeper of Paducah the only Independent. Though Republicans didn't lose any numbers Tuesday, Democrats did pick up a vacant seat.
Only half of the state's 38 senate districts were on the ballot Tuesday. Dorsey Ridley (D-Henderson), who represents Crittenden County, will not be up for election until 2010, when senators in all even-numbered districts will be chosen.

Kentucky House
Unchallenged, Mike Cherry (D-Princeton) won his sixth term in the Kentucky House of Representatives.
Cherry, who represents Crittenden, Livingston, Caldwell and part of McCracken counties, joined 63 other Democrats who were successful in keeping a stranglehold on the balance of power in the 100-seat House. Democrats representing surrounding counties were also re-elected without opposition Tuesday, including Jim Gooch from Providence, Dr. John Arnold from Sturgis and Will Coursey in Lyon County.
Republicans kept the 36 seats they maintained in the House, but Democrats picked up two vacant seats.

Other races
Sitting Caldwell County Judge-Executive Sherman Chaudoin, a Republican, was beaten Tuesday in his attempt to keep the seat he was appointed to upon Van Knight's death in April. Chaudoin was bested by Democrat Brock Thomas, a Caldwell County sheriff's deputy.
Meantime, Fredonia elected a new city council. Glenna Rowland, Hannah Brasher, Hearl "Denny" Jones, Kenneth Rennison, Steve Stewart and Angela C. Blair will serve on the council beginning in January. Blair nudged out Melissa Faughn by only two votes to become the sixth member of the council.
In Livingston County, Salem, Carrsville, Smithland and Grand Rivers elected new city government and Jack Cothran lost his District 2 school board seat to challenger Samantha Richie Williams. (See results at right.)

Magistrate hopes state has stake in Kimball land
When nearly 12,000 acres of local forest and farmland sells this weekend, the Commonwealth of Kentucky wants to end up with at least some stake in the property.
Crittenden County Magistrate Helen McConnell, who has a special interest in the land, says she certainly hopes the state is involved in the purchase.
“I was born over there, right above Weston,” said McConnell, pointing out that her homeplace is on the land that will be auctioned Saturday. “I wish it would go to state. It would make our area all the better. It would help the whole county because of the people it would draw for recreation.”
It will be one of most unique land sales in local history. The sale will take place at Union County High School in Morganfield, just a few miles from the property. Schrader Real Estate and Auction Co., of Columbia City, Ind., is handling the auction where a contiguous block of pristine western Kentucky land will be sold to the highest bidder. The property is currently owned by furniture company Kimball International, but locals know it perhaps better as the former Alcoa property in northern Crittenden County.
Most of the land that will be sold is in Crittenden County, 7,270 acres. There are 4,489 acres in Union County. The combined tracts straddle the Tradewater River and are bounded on the north by the Ohio River. One local real estate broker called it the most unique piece of property in this part of the country.
State legislators John Arnold of Sturgis and Mike Cherry of Princeton, whom each represent the area where the property is located, say there may be a unique partnership brewing between the state and a private timber consortium.
Arnold, the Seventh District representative, told Paducah’s WPSD NewsChannel 6 and The Henderson Gleaner newspaper recently that the state is working with other entities to try to make sure the property is not broken up into smaller tracts. He suggested that the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources has some money that might be used toward securing long-term interest in the property.
The big question, Fourth District Rep. Cherry said, is whether the state's partner in the plan ends up buying the land, which has drawn a great deal of domestic and foreign interest, according to some reports. Cherry said discussions have indeed been ongoing between the state and a Timber Investment Management Organization (TIMO).
Cherry said that it's his understanding that the state has formed some type of partnership or at least has a verbal agreement with a private timber consortium. The deal, he said, is that the state, through the fish and wildlife department, would lease the property for public use, if the TIMO it's working with is the winning bidder at Saturday's auction.
"It would be used for hunting, fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities," Cherry said Tuesday.
Local officials say they hope the state ends up with some type of control of the property, but with the selling price expected to be somewhere between $25 million and $35 million, it remains to be seen whether the state and its partners have enough dough to get the job done.
McConnell, the Crittenden County magistrate whose district includes much of the property being sold, says it would be greatly beneficial to western Kentucky if the tract is held together and the state has some interest in it. But, she's not holding her breath.
"I've heard there is some foreign interest, and we know they have all kinds of money," she said. "I hope we can somehow find the money to get it."

Christmas needs up for 2008
Perhaps it is a sign of the times.
Community Christmas sign-ups for 2008 have swollen by more than 65 percent over last year’s family total, mirroring the increase in the cost of gas, bread and milk with which every family is coping.
Mona Manley, the co-chair of the holiday event, which assists those who may not otherwise be able to celebrate the season with cheer, is fearful that community giving will be down this year.
“It’s an expected increase in the number of people who have signed up,” said Manley. “There are several new people who signed up for the first time this year.”
Overall, the number of families requesting assistance in the form of gifts and food is 134, up 46 from last year’s total of 88. This year’s roll includes 305 children. Additionally, 48 adults – which range from 18-year-olds to senior citizens – have qualified for assistance.
“The need is greater this year, and we're afraid we may have to face the fact that every child may not get sponsored,” said Manley, who is co-chair of the event with Alicia McDowell.
“I hope people recognize the need and maybe people will spend less on their family and take some of the money they save to help somebody else,” Manley said.
Wish lists and clothes sizes for participating children have been placed on an angel tree at Pamida.
People who do not wish to purchase gifts can make monetary donations to an account established at The Peoples Bank in Marion. Money deposited to the account will be used to buy gifts for children not sponsored and food or food vouchers which will be divided among participants.
“We hope churches who haven't done this in the past will consider Community Christmas as a local outreach project,” Manley said.

Church, trail commemorate vets’ sacrifice
On an unseasonably warm October day, Brent Witherspoon continues to throw back the coffee even late into the afternoon. About to wrap up another day of work at the Blackford Walking Trail, he pours his last cup, stirring in several spoons of sugar.
Since February, Witherspoon has spent most every weekday in Blackford, overseeing the latest project attached to a veterans’ memorial he conceived a decade ago. With the help of inmate labor from Crittenden County Detention Center, work is nearly complete on restoring a century-old church tucked away in a remote corner of the county.
“I’ve had some people that went to church here tell me it looks better now than it did when they attended services here,” Witherspoon said, standing near a handicap ramp just installed at one of the front doors.
The restoration is aimed at turning the former sanctuary into a trailhead facility for the nearly two-mile path that connects Crittenden and Webster counties over the Tradewater River. When completed, hopefully by spring, the building will act as a shelter and information center for people using the trail for recreation or visiting the Walk of Honor that commemorates the sacrifices of veterans since the formation of the nation.
The bridge that carries the trail across the span is what got the project started in the late 1990s. As Western Kentucky Railroad began to sell off the land used to carry its railbed across the region, the towering trestle was in danger of being destroyed, taking with it the only connector the Webster County community of Blackford had to Crittenden County. “Spoon,” as his friends call him, worked feverishly to keep intact the bridge he walked as a youth, and eventually parlayed that into a sort of oasis in the middle of a forgotten area. The Vietnam veteran decided early on that the project should be used to honor fellow servicemen, opening the door for universal support.
More than 10 years later, there stands in a meadow just yards away from the Tradewater a picnic pavilion, Veterans Walk of Honor, the paved hiking/riding trail and the eventual trailhead facility with running water and electricity – something the one-room church has never had.
The project, headed by Witherspoon as an ongoing labor of love for his native community, began last year with a $40,000 grant that is being matched with labor and other donations.
“We hope to turn it into a museum of sorts,” said Witherspoon, detailing plans for a history of the walking trail, church and congregation and even an ode to veterans.
New windows, vinyl siding, roof and doors already adorn the outside. But when work is finished on the inside, Witherspoon hopes for the building to be a comfortable, useful rest stop for users of the trail and visitors to the Walk of Honor. Bottled water, restrooms, brochures and a curator are all part of the aim to tend to visitors once opened, hopefully by Memorial Day.
Witherspoon and Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown have also discussed clearing land for a 100-space gravel parking lot as early as next year. The parking is need for the annual veterans services held at the Walk of Honor, typically on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. However, this is the first year no Veterans Day ceremony will take place since the walk and pavilion were constructed.
Plans are also in the works to expand the Veterans Walk of Honor, which is now almost full with nearly 500 bricks. Witherspoon said the number of bricks engraved with the names of veterans has grown so large, more space is needed to accommodate future requests.
If the coffee lasts, Witherspoon should be there to see all the projects through to fruition just as he plans more improvements.