School location complicates busing
Dear Editor,
Recently, articles were published about many hundreds of bus incidents, accidents that occur in-state, annually. Planning for schools may be as bad statewide as it is in this county. The site chosen for the new high school under construction is bad. All students, except some living in the southwest part of the county, will be forced through city traffic to reach the school.
Travel time, bus time, will be increased for those who live in the extremities of the county. Students who live on Ky. 15 and Ky. 89 and feeder roads to these main arteries will have lengthened school days; a goal should have been to reduce travel time for them.
There is plenty of traffic where the western bypass intersects the road on which the new high school is being built, Boonesboro Road. Adding bus traffic and other traffic that the school will generate may cause bottlenecks, which in turn could result in traffic accidents.
A better place for the new high school would be on the eastern bypass. The eastern bypass has not been developed and traffic is much less than on the western bypass.
Students from many parts of the county could arrive at a place on the eastern bypass without negotiating city traffic. Thus, they should have shorter and safer trips to and from school. Those students are the ones who are bused on Paris Pike, U.S. 60 E, Ecton Road, Ky. 15, Ky. 89 and their many feeder roads.
The decision to shut down the three best elementary schools in the county, build a new school in the city and bus those good students to the city, cannot be a good decision. All three schools to be closed are rated as distinguished schools. One was recognized nationally as a Blue Ribbon school, and another was rated among the top 10 in the state.
The reason given for the closures is small class size and resulting cost to educate the students. Why wasn’t the decision to close a low-rated school in the city and use its students as filler for the good schools, and not build another building at taxpayer expense?
There is no reason for city children to not share in the busing. Likely, there are children attending county elementary schools who walk farther from farmhouses to board buses than some city children travel to school. Then, to bus them past good closed schools to the city is really sticking it to them; it is like unfairly imposing detention on them.
Al Brown
Winchester
Food stamps should be monitored
Dear Editor,
Some time ago, I read a letter to the editor suggesting changes in the food allowance, previously referred to as food stamps. Suggested was to divide the monthly allotment.
There is one monthly allowance that can be several hundred dollars, and some people either sell or improperly use all within the first week, and the family has to do without the rest of month. With such improper use, I agree that an allowance divided and active weekly would mean buying power available, which could mean a family has food. Although social programs may cause laziness, they are very important. To assure future relief for those in need, especially children, they should be monitored closely.
There should always be shrinking room for waste. With computers, technology of today, surely much abuse can be detected and corrected.
Odra Ledford
Stanton
