"More than 100 business leaders, mayors, county judge executives and state legislators who gathered at Keeneland for the latest Regional Summit heard of common challenges that, unless addressed collaboratively, threaten to erode quality of life and stall economic progress in the 18-county Bluegrass region.
The runaway costs of employee pension and health care coverage for an aging workforce, one of the nation's worst statewide substance abuse epidemics, a water supply crisis — take your pick. As detailed during the conference, each issue is in its own way bearing down hard on area municipal and county governments. As a result, local governments are increasingly hard-pressed to provide the services and amenities they must to support competitive economies.
These tough regional issues were outlined for elected officials of the Central Kentucky region at "Bluegrass Regional Summit II," organized by Bluegrass Tomorrow. Earlier in the summer, the group of city and county officials had sought the help of five organizations with expertise in the fields of government, business and regional planning. This Group of Five ("G5") includes The Kentucky League of Cities, Commerce Lexington, the Bluegrass Area Development District and Bluegrass Tomorrow.
G5 began its work by asking each official to suggest two burning local issues. The group met five times between June and August, discussing and debating their way to a consensus on a "short list" of priorities. The results (not necessarily in this order) included a substance abuse epidemic; water supply; a lack of local revenue options; mushrooming pension and health care obligations; and last but hardly least, the soaring costs of operating county jails.
Citing a $221 million deficit in Lexington's police and firefighter pension fund, Mayor Jim Newberry warned the group, "It is absolutely right now impacting our ability to provide adequate park services, adequate support for the arts and adequate economic development efforts. That is now. It's not in the future. It's right now." Newberry expressed concern that the general public may not fully understand the gravity of the situation. "I don't think in Lexington, and I suspect in the surrounding cities, the public has any real appreciation for the kind of impact it is having now. Collectively, we've got to help people understand that."
Bob Arnold, executive director of the Kentucky Association of Counties, called for a state takeover of county jails. Arnold and other officials cited soaring costs to local communities of housing and feeding inmates, most of whom are being held on state charges.
It was also noted that at least 75 percent of Kentucky inmates were convicted of crimes related to substance abuse. Crystal Pryor of the Bluegrass Area Development District said Kentucky has the nation's highest rate of non-medical use of psychotherapeutic drugs. Yet, she noted, 15 of the Bluegrass Region's 18 counties have no active drug task forces.
The hot-button issue of water supply prompted Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner to rise to his feet to cite the planned autumn opening on a Sekisui S-LEC America plant on 23 acres in the Winchester Industrial Park. A promising boost to the local economy, the $43 million facility will employ 80 in the manufacture of interlayer film and sound acoustic film for use in automotive glass. Sekisui chose Winchester for its proximity to the company's customers along the Interstate 75 corridor. The company projects, however, that by 2010, when its operations enter phase 2, it will need 1.6 million gallons per day (mgd) of water, and Winchester officials concede that they can't provide it. "We can meet phase 1, but we can't meet phase 2," said Burtner, who inherited the problem with his recent election. "The other communities can look at Winchester and say, 'You've got a problem.' And Winchester does have a problem. But we're going to solve that problem in a micro sense. We're either going to figure out a way to build a line that connects us to Kentucky American and on bended knee, ask for that water, or we're going to build a water plant. But having said that, inter-connectedness is the long-term solution to our water needs."
Burtner predicted that inter-connected water systems — grids like those operated by the electric and natural gas industries — will become the reality within the next 20-40 years. "What you typically have (in Kentucky) is a municipal supplier with a plant that serves a water district that extends out to the county line. And just on the other side of that county line is a rural water district that is served by a municipal water supplier from the other direction, and never the twain meet. So you can have public water right at the county line, but the systems are not tied together. Consequently, if Winchester has a problem with its water supply or treatment process or a huge main break, and we need to get water from our friends in Mt. Sterling, we can't do that, because we're not connected."
Burtner urged regional cooperation on the issue of water, but his words could easily be applied to other major issues as well. "The only option that I am absolutely opposed to," he said, "is doing nothing. Doing nothing is a recipe for disaster, for all of us in Central Kentucky."
Discussions on a strategy to present to the 2008 General Assembly on these and other major issues of the Bluegrass Region will continue when Regional Summit III convenes in December.