Opinion

 FRANKFORT - With the start of youth spring turkey hunting season less than a week away, the Kentucky Division of Forestry (KDF) is urging hunters carrying on the state's rich hunting traditions to be especially careful during Spring Forest Fire Season.

KDF offers the following tips for a wildfire-safe hunting experience.

· BE CAREFUL WITH ALL FIRES: Whether a campfire, gas lantern, cook stove, barbecue, etc., all can quickly start fires in dry forests.

 FRANKFORT – We are in the final stretch of the Regular Session and the House has been hard at work to better Kentucky. 

We passed a variety of measures as of late that will expand educational choice in Kentucky, reform our legal system, and positively benefit our area. 

 Over the past decade, transparency in government has been the big buzzword.

As we celebrate Sunshine Week across the nation, it is important that the public takes an active role in its government.

In a recent survey by Pulse Research Inc. in Kentucky, the overwhelming finding is that people still read newspapers.

And, one of the key items they look for in their local newspaper is legal notices.

This survey which was one in which individuals were invited to go online, over 340 people participated.

 Multi-Purpose Community Action Agency provides services for people in Bullitt, Shelby and Spencer counties and approximately eight years ago I accepted the position of Executive Director and made Kentucky my new home.  

While I was not raised in Bullitt County, it certainly reminds me of my home county of Perry County, Ind.—predominantly a farming community with down to earth people who care about their neighbors and are willing to give a helping hand.

Now I need to ask our neighbors for support.   

 The governing body in Mount Washington has taken a different approach to bringing in needed businesses to its community.

Recently, the city purchased a building which got its start as a Pizza Hut many, many years ago.

The price, including the existing restaurant equipment, was a cool $550,000.

Most governmental agencies do not have that kind of money to spend.

 FRANKFORT- The pace in Frankfort has picked up substantially, as another week of committee meetings, ceremonies, and floor votes have gone by. We have passed a variety of bipartisan legislation that will go far in increasing government transparency and caring for the most vulnerable among us. 

At the end of last week, we passed an amended version of Senate Bill 2, which will go back to the Senate for concurrence and then on to the Governor for his signature. 

 Most readers will know that to say “potential energy” is another way of saying “stored” energy, like when you turn the propeller on the balsa wood rubber band powered plane until it is so twisted it is getting ready to break. 

To turn it into kinetic energy, one just has to let go and away the plane soars.

During the last couple of weeks, I had my yearly opportunity to speak to our 8th grade class at all six middle schools. 

That adds up to just over a thousand 13- or 14-year-old young men and women. 

 FRANKFORT — The General Assembly returned to Frankfort this week after a brief organizational break, and the week has been filled with legislative meetings as well as the daily session. 

Most importantly, when we returned we heard from Gov. Matt Bevin as he delivered the State of the Commonwealth to a joint session of the House and Senate. 

Some major items that Governor Bevin touched on in his address were the need for tax and pension reform. 

 Here’s a new edition that will run occasionally in The Pioneer News.

The Suggestion Box will be open to the public to give ideas. But we don’t want suggestions that my neighbor has a junk car next door. The suggestions are to be what are some ideas to help the entire community.

We will pass those suggestions on to the proper agencies and try to do a little tracking on whether anything is done. Once again, these are to help benefit the community, in general.

Send your suggestions to: editor@pioneernews.net