Colorful Thanks
Thanks so much to LEO and especially Jo Anne Triplett for doing such a great job for the visual arts. As you know, the C-J is almost dead in that area, which is a shame because there are so many talented artists and galleries in Louisville. The restaurants are making the money after the people attend a free art exhibit with food and drink. Just know we appreciate it. Good thoughts.
Jacque Parsley, Louisville
Direction Needed
I would like to comment on Jonathan Meador’s recent article “Back to the drawing board” (LEO Weekly, July 6). As long as the conversation is focused on anything other than helping the animals of this community, they will continue to be the ones who pay the price, and that’s unacceptable no matter what philosophy you adhere to.
Louisville is worn out over this. Everyone is disgusted and tired. We all long for true change, and the day that the entire community — not just residents, pet owners and caring voters, but also the rescue, shelter and volunteer organizations — can come together and find a way to transform this situation into something every single one of us can be proud of. For the last six years, we’ve been missing the key ingredient: an effective shelter director.
We’re an exhausted army in search of a commander. And that commander must be the director of Metro Animal Services, because without his or her leadership and participation, nothing will ever change. MAS is simply too large an engine to ignore or work around.
It’s recently been announced that Greg Fischer will soon decide on a new director. Hopefully, the candidates being considered have a track record of running a successful and forward-thinking animal control facility, because we need someone with tested experience and skills to lead us out of this quagmire.
Let’s all pray the mayor chooses wisely and that a year from now we’ll find ourselves celebrating the incredible good that came our way as a result of his choice.
Barbara Haines, Middletown
We Demand More
The article by Anne Marshall, subtitled “Louisville and Lexington propose marriage as path to prosperity” (LEO Weekly, July 6), gives us lots of new ideas. But for some strange reason, Marshall ignores the brutal fact that the good old boys in Frankfort rob Louisville blind. According to the data from 2003, for every dollar paid in state or federal taxes, our city got a return of less than 60 cents! Contrast this with Frankfort, which for every dollar got $2 from the feds and $4.92 from the state! We have no reason to doubt such larceny continues to this day. And where does Louisville’s money go? To Frankfort’s yearly plunder and to Kentucky’s absurd conglomeration of 120 (yes — 120!) counties. California, with nine times the population, has only
58 counties.
Such crushing inefficiency threatens to bankrupt the state, but hey, no problem! Why merge those counties into a manageable number when legislators can pick Louisville’s pocket year after year? And God forbid thousands of county superfluities should have to get real jobs.
Let’s stop wasting our money on studies by the Brookings Institute. Instead, we should join political forces with other towns (Lexington, Owensboro, Elizabethtown, etc.) that suffer a similar tax boondoggle. With enough clout, we might put the robber barons out of business.
John Gamel, Crescent Hill
Our Bad
LEO needs to hire an editor. In your July 6 issue, Jonathan Meador wrote that Metro Animal Services’ Manslick Road shelter was “briefly shuddering it doors,” when I’m pretty sure he really meant they were “shuttering” their doors, as in close, not quake. And in another article, he was confused that Mammoth Cave is operated by Kentucky State Parks, when in fact it is a national park owned and operated by the United States. Writers should be forgiven, publications should not.
Ken Hoskins, Highlands
