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Alternative Sentencing
On April 9, I received a notice from the Department of
Corrections that a grant which funds alternative sentencing
programs in our circuit would not be refunded in July, most
likely meaning the program will have to end. I also read the
same day in an editorial in The New York Times about how our
nation's prision population has now passed the ywo million
mark and is still counting. What an irony!
The modest funding we have recieved from Kentucky's
Department of Corrections is about $35,000 per year. With
that funding we have operated a program since 1996 in which
non-violent felony offenders have performed community
service projects throughout Bath, Menifee, Montgomery, and
Rowan Counties. The funding has paid the salary and expenses
of a full-time coordinator to oversee community service work.
We also have used the program to help fund the "Shocked
Straight" program. With this we have arranged with the state
prision in West Liberty to introduce selected individuals to the
reality of incarceration by having them stay at the prision for
the weekend. The purpose is to let them know what is in store
for them if they get into further trouble.
Our program was not the onlyone to lose it's funding. All of
the other programs around the state, which also deal with
alternatives to incarceration, are also loseing their funding. We
are told we can reapply next year, but at what level funding will
be available is uncertain. In the meantime, most if not all
alternative sentencing programs will have to shut down.
• This is a true shame because I know some of the programs.
including ours, work. We found that giving convicted felons
probation coupled with community service and other
requirements, the rate of recidivism was lowered. Additionally,
felons were giving somthing back to the communities in which
they committed their crimes. Some became eligible for diversion
of their sentences so they would not be saddled with a felony
record.
Through the community service program, countless projects
were completed which helped people throughout the area.
Probationers picked up trash, cleaned up illegal dumps, painted
public buildings, tidied cemeteries up, and a host of other
activities too numerous to mention. Much of that work will not
get done now, and probation may not be looked upon as
favorably in some cases.
The result will be more persons going to jail, where we now
spend an average of$18,000 per year per person to incarcerate
prisoners. On the other hand, it cost only $1,300 per year to
supervise the same people on probation or parole.
However, the Department of Corrections has now come up
with a new system that results in more felons being paroled.
This means the number ofinmatesbeingheld may not increase.
Unfortunately, many of those paroled are much more dangerous
than the ones we are currently probating with community
service, and generally are serving muvch more longer sentences.
Since the case loads of probation and praoled officers is also
greatly on the increase, these parolee's will be getting much
less supervision.
This is noy good. I would feel much better about some of
those I now see being paroled. We should not allow our
prisions to become turnstiles with little regard being given to
prisoners' propensity to commit new crimes It would seem to
make much more sense to fund alternative sentencing programs
which have proven sucessful and cost efficient, and to take a
chance on non-violent offenders who are less likely to offend
again.
day ,ay Festival fac steady decline in"
00uact s; dly, may be on its way toward
It's just a couple of weeks until
May Day and the celebration this
year will mark the 50th crowning
of another "Miss Bath County."
Many have wanted to call it the
50th anniversary of the festival,
but technically, since it is not like
the birthday of a person who cele-
brates their first birthday after a
year of life, this coming year is
technically the 49th anniversary,
but still a celebration of the 50th
crowning event.
Each year, community leaders
put their heads together to come up
with yet another theme that will
inspire people to take part and con-
tribute. Some were decided based
on events that were relevant to the
time, while others were simply
conjured up from novel ideas by
the event coordinators. ...... Owingsville.
And each year, it is difficult to
get the ball rolling. The movers
and shakers in the community are
usually pretty exhausted because
they are often the same ones in-
volved with other clubs and orga-
nizations. These people though, do
welcome new talentand ideas from
any willing residents who would
like to lend a hand. All projects can
be accomplished with enough help
which makes even the most com-
plex of events, doable.
Our May Day Festival centers
around a May Day Queen, who is
crowned from contestants in the
senior class who compete in the
pageant that climaxes the festival.
The prelude to the pageant is the
parade also held on the same day,
traditionally the second Saturday
of May, where the contestants ride
in the parade to meet the communi-
• ty on their route through the city of
The event doesn't just happen
automatically. And yes, each year,
it becomes more and more difficult
to get the event offthe ground. But
somehow, it all comes together.
The people involved don't get
paid and yes, sometimes they get
gaff about things that don't go as
well as they should despite their
best intents.
If there is anything really lack-
ing in the May Day Festival, it is
community support through par-
ticipation and assistance. May Day
has been a proud tradition now
looking toward its 50th year, but it
could always be bigger and better
with additional participation from
our residents. Just as the Salt Lick
Homecoming had been an expect-
ed tradition for many years, one
that brought many back to their
hometown to visit and enjoy the
festivities, eventually, the organiz-
ers got burned out with the civic
commiunent and it has been de-
funct for several years now, be-
cause new leaders were not willing
to come forth, put in the time, and
see that the tradition continued.
The May Day Festival and Ow-
ingsville Lions Club Horse Show
are the two events that Bath County
is most noted for. It is crucial that
we keep these events sacred and
alive for years to come and in order
to do that, we need new leaders to
come forth and securethe fumr,
May Day traditionally has be-
come ahomecoming forBathCoun-
ty natives who have made it an
annual event to return to their home-
town to visit friends and family and
witness the tradition that has been a
part of the community for a half
century.
Residents along Main Street
spruce up their homes with new
paint, prune their lawns to perfec-
tion, fix finger foods and open their
homes to guests and family for the
day. Then they find a lawn chair,
and await the parade.
Each and every year, people have
floats, interesting cars,!
es, buggies, and
take part in this s
tion.
If you could turn back
of time, and see all
floats throughout the
did recenfl
of yesteryear), it is
hundreds of creative
stage sets at the
rical
pageants.
Each year, the
dwindled in regard
Organizers are
may
a 50-year tradition.
, :With this said
the communit
ers willing to
preserve a Bath CountY!
The futun remains |
but thus far,
in
question,
coming to a close.
If
the festival in Bath
would like
you willing to step up
take an active part
traditions? Only time
From the files of "RUSS METZ", 1
Frozen People Plan But Who Is Going To Turn The
In the event you don't consider Roy Rogers and Dale
Evans as your idea of Biblical prophets, and think we all
mightbe destined to keep stumbling along with the tumbling
tumbleweed for another few generations, there is hope for
those who have $20,000 in cold cash.
'. The newly-formed Cryonics Society will freeze your
7oody and you can live in a state of suspended animation, for
:as long as it takes for science to figure out how to thaw you
;out, so you'll be as good as new again. It's not exactly a
imoney-back-guarantee proposition, but it is supposed to be
.the next best thing to Geritol we have, at the moment.
Cryonic suspension consists of freezing the human body
shortly after death, storing it in a safe place and waiting for
a future generation ofscientists to revive it. No assurance
someone won't accidentally pull the plug and let you thaw
prematurely, or future scientists may decide the world can do
without your type and leave you in the cooler.
Seventeen persons have already been put on ice and the
Cryonic Society has big plans to go nationwide. Maybe
they'll develop counter freezers and pre-chill customers
right on the spot. This could be most confusing and embar-
rassing, to go into a place for an ice cream cone and come out
a human popsicle.
Anyway, members have bought some high-powered
equipment and now plan to use three huge underground
former Titan missile silos outside Maysville, California, as
storage vaults. Good show, unless the Nips hit Pearl Harbor
again, and you could find yourself sailing toward Waikiki
Beach after the Army rushes back and reclaims their gun
barrels.
It may be my wife's frozen TV dinners or her cold feet on
my back at night, but I have an aversion to frozen things. And
then I read where this nut committed murder by beating his
to death with a frozen leg of lamb. Later he fed the
,cops on part of this sheep, which is a pretty kinky way to
bribe the fuzz.
If people don't have any better luck than the mastodon at
surviving the deep freeze, you'd be as well off blowing the
20 grand on a swimming pool full of bourbon and trying the
deep pickle route. As it now stands, five billion-to-one is not
the kind of odds experienced bettors are going to lay much
money on.
I'm not going to get involved in the "frigid folks scheme".
The last time I volunteered to help out around a freezer, it
was making homemade ice cream and I got stuck with
turning the crank.
RM
In one part of ancient Greece, it long was the custom,
when a man proposed a law in the popular assembly, he did
so on a platforr q with a rme around his neck..
RUSS METZ l
If the law passed, they removed the rope. If it failed, they
removed the platform.
RM
The davenport held the twain.
Fair damsel and her handsome swain.
He and She
But hark, a foot upon the stairs! And mother found
them sitting there;
He ..... and ..... She.
--RM--
The cost of saying "Dear Sir" now costs $3.05.
That's 31 cents over last year's cost, to dictate a business
letter and get it mailed, so says the Dartnell Corporation of
Chicago. Broken down, it goes like this:
Stenographic expense $ .96
Overhead .76
Lost motion .25
Mailing .16
Filing .12
Materials .08
Dictating time .72
TOTAL $3.05
Dictating time, Dartnell says, accounts for almost 1
rise.
"We used to figure that the average letter was
a $10,400-a-year junior executive, to a t
tary," the firm says. "Today, the manager who
averages $13,000 a year. Junior executives on the
level, usually don't have use of a
I imagine the wives ofj'
learn this.
The high cost of dictating letters probably
why more phone calls are made• and why we keep
those form letters through the mail. There is nothing!
with form letters, except they show little
would seem with all the literary geniuses we have
around, they could take time off from writin
stories to come up with an encyclopedia of letters to
occasion.
Mark Twain often found himselfbo
correspondence and that was when the
came pretty cheap. He has always getting
men whose friends made them believe that they
him. Finally, Twain had a few hundred copies oftl
ing letter printed:
"My Dear Sir: I think you very much for your
photograph. In my opinion, you are more like me
other of my numerous doubles. I may even say
resemble me more closely than I do myself. In
to use your picture to shave by."
From now on, the only business letters I will
be those with a $3 bill attached.
Onward and Upward.