The Bluegrass and Beyond

BEREA - Do you ever feel like the water company has you over a barrel?

And the power company. And the gas company. Not to mention all the oil companies.

It’s hurting your wallet, and perhaps your conscience, as we approach the 38th Earth Day on April 22. Does our modern lifestyle make you wonder what kind of world we’re leaving for our grandchildren, and their grandchildren?

There’s something simple you can do to save money and help the environment: Get a rain barrel.

If you want a special rain barrel, there will be 68 of them, painted by professional and amateur artists from throughout Central Kentucky, up for auction April 26 at the Berea Rain Barrel Festival. You also can buy an unpainted plastic rain barrel for $55.

“The most amazing thing is the diversity of people who have been captured by this festival,” said Cheyenne Olson, one of the organizers.

Twice as many artists and community groups as she expected asked to paint barrels. The festival will include music, environmental education programs, and free hamburgers, veggie burgers and cake.

A rain barrel is fitted with a screened hole on top where the gutter pipe drains in, an overflow hose, and a spigot at the bottom. It catches water coming off your roof, providing a free source for outdoor watering and other uses.

A rain barrel can save you money and allow you to ignore watering restrictions during a drought. It also reduces storm runoff and lessens the need for costly water supply and treatment facilities as the region’s population grows.

Let’s have a festival

The citizens group Sustainable Berea has for some time been converting recycled food-grade plastic barrels and wooden bourbon barrels into rain barrels and selling them. The barrels were becoming so popular that Sustainable Berea decided to throw a festival to help community groups raise money. It also hopes to bank perhaps $5,000 for small environmental sustainability project grants around Berea.

“It really fits the culture of Berea,” said Dave Pritchard, an executive with Novelis, which operates a large aluminum recycling plant in Berea and is the festival’s biggest corporate sponsor.

Social responsibility has always been a big part of life in the southern Madison County town, home to Berea College and famous for its artists and craftsmen.

Mayor Steve Connelly supports the festival for some very practical reasons. Berea has had droughts in 18 of the past 77 years, and its population has grown more than 30 percent since 2000. He figures that an inch of rain produces 275 million gallons of water in Berea. The more of it that can be captured and reused, the less demand there will be for costly expansion of the city reservoirs.

“Rain barrels are inexpensive and easy to install,” Connelly said at a festival kickoff event Monday. “My family has two at our house.”

Beyond rain barrels

For some members of Sustainable Berea, rain barrels are just the beginning.

Home energy consumption is a big concern. Buildings use 40 percent of the nation’s energy - even more than transportation does, said Richard Olson, director of Berea College’s Sustainability and Environmental Studies program.

“If we designed our buildings more efficiently, we could really cut back on that, and save money, too,” he said.

In addition to rain barrels, the Olsons practice what they preach by using roof-mounted solar panels to heat their water and provide much of their home’s electricity. On sunny days, they sell electricity back to the local power company, which is required by state law to buy it. Olson said his total monthly utility bill, water included, rarely exceeds $20.

He figures his $4,000 solar water-heating system will pay for itself in about eight years. But it will take much longer for his $15,000 solar power-generating system to break even.

Still, it helps him sleep better. He punches a button on a meter and sees that his system has produced 4,067 kilowatt-hours of electricity in the past two years.

“That means about two tons of coal hasn’t been burned because we had this system,” Olson said. “Coal companies aren’t blowing up those mountains for fun. They’re doing it because we’re paying them to.”

Mark Jeantheau, who moved to Berea from suburban Washington, D.C., two years ago, recently finished building an energy-efficient home. He collects rainwater for his garden in four 2,000-gallon underground cisterns, and his home incorporates passive energy technologies such as south-facing windows and thermal tile.

He also has a power-generating system fed by two large solar collectors in his yard. Over the course of a year, the system will provide all the power his home will use.

Most people won’t want to go that far. But anyone can get a rain barrel.

Richard Olson shows the solar panels on his house that generate electricity, left, and heat water, right.

Photos above: Two of the rain barrels that will be auctioned at the festival. Berea Mayor Steve Connelly announced plans for the festival Monday while leaning on painted rain barrels. Photos/Tom Eblen

If You Go

Berea Rain Barrel Festival

When: April 26, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Memorial Park, corner of Jefferson and Broadway, Berea

Details: Silent and live auction of 68 rain barrels decorated by Central Kentucky artists and community groups. Free hamburgers (grass-fed beef), veggie burgers and cake.

Why: To raise money for community groups and small-scale water sustainability projects around Berea.

Sponsors: Sustainable Berea, Novelis, People’s Bank, Delta Gas, City of Berea, Berea College, Community Trust Bank, G and J Pepsi Lexington, Berea Tourism, Woodford Reserve, Wal-Mart, Tokico.

More information: www.sustainableberea.org

UPDATE, Monday, April 28: Cheyenne Olson of Sustainable Berea reports that the Rain Barrel Festival was a smashing success. About 2,500 people attended and all 64 of the painted barrels put up for auction sold, with a top price of $300. Sustainable Berea also sold 72 unpainted plastic rain barrels and took the names of 117 more people who want to buy them when they’re available. While the auction was primarily a fundraiser for the organizations that painted the barrels, Olson expects Sustainable Berea to clear the $5,000 it was hoping to make. That money will be used to support environmental sustainability projects in and around the southern Madison County town. Perhaps the highlight of the day, she said, were the 1,000 cupcakes made by Berea College employee Linda Cope and served out of a rain barrel. For more information about rain barrels or Sustainable Berea, email Olson at: info@sustainableberea.org.

Mayor Jim Newberry today unveiled a “very tight” budget for Lexington Fayette Urban County Government that includes no new taxes and only a few new initiatives. Among other things, the budget calls for cutting 180 city jobs through attrition and retirements by the end of the year.

Read Michelle Ku’s report here, where you also can download a copy of the mayor’s budget address and the budget document itself.

What do you think of the proposed budget? What do you like or not like about it? What other suggestions would you offer Mayor Newberry and the Urban County Council? Comment below.

Tom,

I have followed the comments on your blog very closely. Because we have called for a few days of calm in order to explore room for compromise, I have avoided jumping into the fray. But I did read a recent comment that I believe requires a response.

On April 8, “bfrn” wrote that she was “very confused by Hayward Wilkirson’s latest comments”. The writer was concerned that Preserve Lexington was applauding the developer and was backing down from its opposition to the current development. The writer was also concerned that our words seemed to suggest an abdication of our leadership role in searching for a positive outcome to the debate surrounding CentrePointe.

I appreciate the writer’s comments and concerns, so I wanted to take just a moment to respond.

We continue to have very serious concerns about the CentrePointe project as currently presented. We will continue to work as hard as we can for an outcome that will combine a major and architecturally significant in-fill development with the preservation of the historic and cultural fabric of this block.

We think it is possible, and productive, to recognize some of the past accomplishments of the developer and still insist that in this case there is great room for improvement in the project he has proposed. We believe that nothing is to be accomplished by engaging in personal attacks, and we are confident that the developer and his supporters will agree.

When I study the comments posted over the past few days I find that the more heated and vitriolic the comment, the less sense is actually made. We should feel passionate about the future of this block and the future of our city. But we must temper this passion with sober and calm discussion. The alternative, which is beginning to appear in some of the commentary, is heated debate over points that are essentially now moot.

Preserve Lexington has stated publically on a great many occasions that we support a significant development of this block, so long as that development is married with the preservation of the historic and cultural fabric that makes this block unique and important. This, I believe, is the single most important point.

Once on this common ground, debate about LEED certification, job creation, TIF financing and economic development becomes pointless and even counter-productive.

A major development that combines great architecture with preservation can create jobs, as many jobs as the current proposal.

A major development that includes preservation as one of its components will also be eligible for LEED certification, and will have the added environmental benefit of ‘recycling’ entire intact buildings and all of the materials and embodied energy that they contain (not just the debris of demolition, much of which may still end up trucked to a distant landfill).

A major development that integrates preservation into its plan can still take advantage of TIF financing.

A major development with a preservation component will contribute to the future economic development of our city without discarding the already established development potential exhibited by a growing entertainment district, by historic and architecturally significant buildings, and by the Farmer’s Market.

To continue to debate these issues is to behave as if opponents of the current project were opposed to any development whatsoever. And this is absolutely not the case.

I am reminded of the words of Isaiah: “hear and hear, but do not understand”.

If we listen and understand, we will realize that we have arrived at common ground. We all support significant development of this block. Once this is stipulated, there is no productive point in debating issues that make sense only if development were opposed.

From this common ground, let us not look back. Let us look forward. Let us work together for a significant development that marries a love of our past with a vision of our future.

Sincerely,

Hayward Wilkirson
President of the Board of Directors
Preserve Lexington

I couldn’t have picked a better week to start a blog where people could come to discuss and debate local and state issues.

Thanks to controversy over the proposed CentrePointe development in downtown Lexington, The Bluegrass & Beyond has been read more than 8,600 times since last Sunday, and 160 comments have been left. We’re off to a great start, thanks to you.

I’m impressed that most of the comments have been thoughtful, sometimes passionate and often quite long. There has been good debate, most of it respectful. But there have been a few personal attacks, sometimes made with unsubstantiated information. I want this to be a place where we can disagree - and even strenuously debate — but not become disagreeable. Think of this as the kind of discussion you wouldn’t mind having in your living room.

Also, a few of you seem to be trying to build your own groundswell by posting comments under two or three different IDs. I may not know who you are, but I can see where you’re coming from. So cut that out.

Another thing: America has a long tradition of pseudonymous writing, dating back to Ben Franklin and other founding fathers. The Internet is a frontier of anonymity, which is one reason it often gets mean and nasty. I’ve always thought that if you have something to say, you should have the guts to say it under your own name. I commend several of you for doing that. There’s no way I can require it, the Internet being what it is, but I want to encourage it. So, each week when there’s vigorous discussion here, I’ll choose a Most Valuable Player. This is the person who has the most engaging and thoughtful comments, and the courage to make them under his or her own name.

The first MVP: Developer Dudley Webb. He has twice, so far, sent me emails for posting with detailed arguments in favor of his project. He has even been willing to debate people who have attacked him in anonymous comments. It’s never easy being criticized, but I applaud him for being willing to take on the debate in a straightforward manner. His comments have made for a better-informed conversation, which is what I want here.

Is there a better place to be on an early spring day than Kentucky?

The rain and clouds were finally gone, and I considered heading out to Keeneland. Instead, I did what I often do on pretty weekends - I toured Bluegrass backroads on my bicycle. My friend, Bill, and I rode a 36-mile loop around Woodford County.

The sun had warmed the air just enough. The grass was so green it glowed. There were clumps of daffodils everywhere and forsythia exploded from fence rows. The front yard of one farm manor had so many spring beauties in bloom it looked like snowfall.

It seemed more quiet than usual Sunday, probably because everyone else was at Keeneland. But it’s always quiet when you travel by bicycle; quiet enough to hear birds in trees and water rushing in swollen creeks.

Evidence of last week’s rain was everywhere - gushing over the dam at the Weisenberger Mill and covering a stretch of Paynes Mill Road. The impromptu lake was at least 5 feet deep, judging by a submerged fence. Cars had to turn back, but by climbing and hoisting our bikes over four fences, we made a muddy detour.

The only sad note was in Millville, on the Franklin County line, where residents were still cleaning water from Glenns Creek out of their homes. A Red Cross disaster relief truck was parked nearby, offering refreshment.

On a bicycle, I notice things I would normally speed past in my car. Today it was the craftsmanship of stone fences along Spring Station Road, blue herons in giant nests high in a bottomland grove and a group of cute kids playing in a yard at Zion Hill, still dressed in their Sunday best. I stopped to greet some horses near Midway who had come up to the fence, no doubt wondering: Who are these strangely dressed people riding odd machines?

Is there a better place to be on an early spring day than Kentucky? None that I know of.

The Midway welcoming committee. Photo/Tom Eblen

Lexington has always fancied itself as the belle of the ball.

We were the “Athens of the West.” We are the “Horse Capital of the World.” Queens, sheiks and captains of industry come to visit, and sometimes even buy a place to stay.

So why do so many of us act like desperate wallflowers whenever a real estate developer rushes in and asks us to dance? Any dance. Oh, and if you want to make out in the parking lot, that’s OK, too. We know you’re in a hurry.

Developer Dudley Webb spent two years putting together plans for CentrePointe, a $250 million hotel, condo and retail tower that would cover an entire block in the center of Lexington. It would replace 14 structures that date to 1826 and house the hub of young nightlife. But the public didn’t officially hear of Webb’s plans until March 4, when he unveiled renderings and asked for quick approval and a $70 million tax break.

Webb hadn’t done the development dance in Lexington for several years, and he was surprised to hear that the music has changed.

While many business people instinctively embraced CentrePointe, a large and diverse group of citizens pushed back hard for a variety of reasons. Faced with possible rejection by one government panel, Webb last Wednesday asked for a 60-day delay so he could try to sell his plan to the public and compromise with his critics.

A time for questions

What happens during the next two months and the government approval periods that follow will determine the fate of this project, and it could well set the tone for development in Lexington for years to come. It’s a time to ask a lot of questions, such as:

Does this project make economic sense? The nation appears headed for recession, if it isn’t there already, and the construction and lending markets are in a slump. The proposed luxury hotel at the Kentucky Horse Park could be scratched if the government bonds to build it aren’t sold by April 15.

Where is CentrePointe’s financing coming from? How solid is it? With tax increment financing involved, it’s not just the developers’ necks on the line.

What’s the market demand for this building? Downtown hotel occupancy is a middling 65 percent. Webb’s CentrePointe Marriott would add 243 rooms.

Does downtown Lexington need more condos and stores anytime soon? Downtown has experienced a housing boom, with more than 900 units built in the past five years. But drive around and you’ll see a lot of “For Sale” signs in condo windows, and a lot of empty retail space.

Is this the same old preservation vs. development debate? I don’t think so.

Webb argues that none of the block’s 14 buildings is historic in the traditional sense. But some of them, such as the 180-year-old Morton’s Row that include Joe Rosenberg’s pawn shop, are among Lexington’s oldest remaining commercial buildings.

None of the preservationists I’ve talked to want the buildings restored as artifacts. They want them, or pieces of them, or even just the facades of some of them, incorporated into an exceptional contemporary building that will reflect Lexington’s past while providing economic vitality for its future.

A half-century ago, Lexington had one of the nation’s most impressive collections of antebellum structures. Many of those buildings were lost to so-called urban renewal and foolish redevelopment. Think what could be done if we still had them? We could have more of the attractive redevelopment now happening along Third Street east of Limestone and on Limestone between High and Maxwell. There could be more urban gems like Victorian Square, which was developed by none other than Dudley Webb.

What are downtowns for?

In an era of drive-up convenience and suburban sameness, the only reason people go downtown anymore is because it’s interesting. Great architecture with a sense of place and history is more interesting than a tower that could just as easily be in Atlanta or Indianapolis.

Perhaps Webb is right and it isn’t possible or feasible to reuse any of the block’s old buildings. But it’s at least worth a good look before the bulldozers move in.

What about the young people? Lexington’s economic development leaders are always fretting about the need to attract and keep creative young people and bring nightlife downtown. Yet, nowhere is it happening more than on this block that includes several clubs and The Dame music hall, which was recently given 90 days to pack up and leave.

Can nightlife that has sprung up organically on this block be uprooted and transplanted elsewhere? Or will it just die because young people are moving to cities that are more creative and welcoming? Those are big questions, and economic development leaders should have been asking them long before now.

And then there’s the Farmer’s Market, which brings Lexingtonians of all ages to the block on Saturday mornings. Can it be successfully moved or, as Webb has suggested, be welcomed back after construction and survive in the shadow of a 35-story tower?

Look forward, not back

If CentrePointe is built as planned, do we risk having a monument to our old economic development model rather than a laboratory for a new one? Is the future of downtown about bringing tourists and conventioneers to visit occasionally, or is it about creating a place where locals will want to live, work and visit frequently?

Dudley Webb has a controversial past, but he has done some fine projects that have been good for Lexington. I think he’s honest when he says he wants the best for downtown. But his vision, like anyone else’s, is limited by his experience.

The block may belong to Webb, Rosenberg and their partners, but it’s in the middle of our city and they need our tax money to build on it. Whatever is built at CentrePointe will send ripples throughout downtown for a generation. It’s worth a broader conversation and more diverse, creative thinking.

Webb, in a letter last Monday to my blog, said he is willing to listen to others’ ideas. “It is just that we have now been working on this project for over two years now and that we cannot drag this out forever,” he wrote.

So whose fault is that? Partly his for not seeking public engagement sooner, and partly ours for not demanding that of developers.

While we’re trying to have two years worth of discussions in the next two months, plus trying to organize the international design competition Vice Mayor Jim Gray has suggested, we also need to think beyond CentrePointe.

We must build consensus around a creative downtown master plan — and then stick to it. We should consider creating an architectural review board to judge the suitability of future downtown projects, as Cincinnati and many other cities have done.

Otherwise, we’ll be in the same place we are now the next time a developer waltzes in at midnight with another take-it-or-leave-it proposition.

We’ll never be the belle of the ball if everyone knows we’re easy.

Good afternoon Tom:

I read Hayward’s e-mail of yesterday, found it very conciliatory and thank him for it.

We felt that it embodied the spirit and good faith of the agreement to which we had all committed earlier in the week and that all involved are truly intent on trying to make this project the best that it can be. We are looking forward to sitting down with all interested parties during the coming weeks to try to reach intelligent compromises on these issues and concerns so that this project can move forward.

I don’t want to digress, but I also read several of the trailing comments from certain of your other readers that were about us and, in fairness, I feel that we need to correct some of the things that they said that simply aren’t accurate:

(1) First, as to Nonnie Muss, all I can is that we have not closed the door on new ideas for the development and are still inviting them so please send us yours. Nonnie, I think you also need to appreciate that two years ago, the City Tourism and Convention Bureau asked us to consider building a new Convention Hotel with more upscale hotel rooms so that Lexington can attract bigger and better conventions to our city. Why? In hopes that such visitors will use our new Civic Center that the City is obligated for, visit our tourism attractions, eat at our restaurants, enjoy our entertainment venues and to generally,spend their money while here. Why is this important? Because first and foremost, this project will create jobs, some 900 during construction and over 1,000 upon its completion.

Likewise, I would remind Nonnie that the latest Comprehensive Plan adopted by our City reflected a preference for going up so that we can achieve more concentrated residential and retail development in our downtown rather than growing out into our horse farms and further invading our green space. I think that few would argue that this was not the right decision. This is why this project and its timing is so appropriate, whether we do it or someone else does it for that matter.

(2) Secondly, as to “S’s”assertion that we somehow brought down Kentucky Central, this is simply not true either and the Court that tried these cases emphatically confirmed that. In fact, that Judge even went so far as to also rule that Kentucky Central and its attorneys owed us money rather than the reverse. Not that it matters anymore as these matters have long since been settled, but the fact is that nobody lost more money as a result of its unfortunate and unnecessary demise than did the Webb’s, The real tragedy here is that Kentucky Central was a great corporate citizen of Lexington that employed over 700 of its people and did more for downtown Lexington than will ever be known or imagined. Tragically, it is now gone forever and any reopening of old wounds and controversies are a waste of time and will not bring it back. All we can now do as a community is to move on and to hope that others will step up and try to continue and resume its good work.

(3) Thirdly, contrary to what “Scott” stated in his e-mail to you, neither I, nor any member of my family, nor The Webb Companies, has ever filed for bankruptcy and “Scott” needs to get his facts straight before publishing such libelous and slanderous remarks. I will assume that his was simply an unintentional “misstatement” and let it go at that.

(4) Next, as to “Miller’s” question about “why these frauds and charlatans were allowed back into town?”, I can tell you that it was because we never left. I have lived here since 1965 and I am not going anywhere and I am raising my family here in hopes that they will stay on as Lexingtonians as well. I will also assume that you too mis-spoke with your characterizations and I will let that go at that as well.

I would however also remind “Miller” that we have invested well over $300,000,000.00 into this community and are still one of its larger employers, property owners and taxpayers. As I said before, I don’t appreciate your insults and would remind you that we do not owe you, or anyone else, an apology for our projects or for what we have done with and for this community.

As to “Miller’s” other assertion that we have bankrupted contractors, etc, in this process, this isn’t true either. In fact, we would challenge “Miller” or anyone else to identify even one instance where this has happened. To the contrary, we still use hundreds of local contractors, sub-contractors and consultants who still depend on us to generate the business that helps them to meet their payrolls and feed their families. “Miller”, your comments are not only unfounded and untrue, but are those that have hindered the constructive dialogue that is now well underway. Enough said on that as well. If you want to discuss it further, I invite you to call me.

As to “Miller’s” comments about another “Webb Fiasco” called “The Festival Marketplace”, I would only remind him/her that this was yet another experimental development concept of the ’80’s that the Federal Government fostered and which most urban planners across America thought would save their downtown’s by drawing shoppers from the suburbs and outlying communities. Lexington was not the only City that joined in this experiment. Cities like New York with its South Street Seaport, Boston with its Faneuil Hall, Baltimore with its Inner Harbor, Norfolk with its Harborside, Toledo with its Portside, Cleveland with the Flats, Louisville with its Galleria, and hordes of other cities all thought that specialty retail would save their downtowns. Obviously, it didn’t quite work out as anticipated, but, in fairness, why doesn’t “Miller” dig deeper into this to find out why it didn’t work in Lexington?

I think that most of those who were tenants in our “Festival” will now tell you that such a project was then premature and that we first needed to have more accessible and affordable downtown parking, more housing and more full-time residents. The second problem with it was that it was only stand alone specialty retail without adjoining anchors. The third reason was that the then City Leadership suddenly and abruptly decided to give up the parking spaces in the Victorian Square Garage that served the merchants and customers of Victorian Square and the Festival, electing to instead give them to the jurors that were adjudging trials in the old Courthouse situated nearby. Then lastly, the “Festival’s” final death knoll came when even though it was still then 90% leased, the then Liquidator of KCL publicly called it and our downtown a “black hole”, threw out our tenants, turned off its lights and shut it down completely. Shortly thereafter, the project was sold at a more than bizarre Liquidator and Court Ordered Auction that netted us less than 5% of what it cost us to build it. This was the another story never really told, but so be that also.

Admittedly, we and Kentucky Central had by then spent a small fortune to try to make the “Festival Market” work, but for numerous reasons, it didn’t and we were sorry for that. At least we tried and fortunately, neither the City of Lexington or any of its other creditors lost any money on this prematurely aborted experiment. To the contrary, the City of Lexington made millions from it from it while The Webb Companies and Kentucky Central lost their respective investments in it. “Miller”, in regards to downtown retail, I would be curious as to how many times you have shopped downtown in the last year or how much you have spent with the merchants that are already down here during this time frame? Not a meaningful sum I am sure, but yet your criticize them and us for trying.

“Miller”, while we are on this subject, we also find that many others want to promote an “Entertainment District” for the downtown. We dare say that nobody believes that downtown should include an “Entertainment District” more than we do. In modern times, we were the first as well as the only ones that tried to establish a downtown restaurant-entertainment district in the decades of 1970’s,1980’s and 1990’s. Remember “The Upstart Crow”? “Postlewaite’s Tavern”? How about “Greenstreet’s”? “Oliver’s”? “Old Water Street”? “Morgan’s Cafe”? “The Rosebud”? Do you know who did them all? I can tell you - it was the Webb’s.

Also, who do you think brought “Deshea’s” downtown? Or “Bravo Pitino’s”? “Jay’s Seafood”, “Silks”, and others. Who orchestrated bringing “Breeding’s” to downtown. I can again proudly say, it was the Webb’s and we are as proud of these developments as we are those tenants who stepped up, paid the price and tried to help us make this happen. The shame is that these were wonderful establishments for which the timing was too early and all too many of them did not get the public’s support to help keep them afloat while our downtown was making its comeback. To those who again want to try to create and foster an “Entertainment District” in our downtown, all I can tell you is that even though you are a little late in getting here, we are with you and we welcome you on board since this is an idea whose time has finally come.

(5) “Riverrat”, you are right. Although I had a lot to say in my e-mail of last week, it could have been more concise and to the point. Such happens when you are being criticized for doing what you think is right and so be it. As to the distinguished Dean’s comments, I suspect he too got a little carried away and so be that also. You are also correct in that there is a fine line between priceless and worthless and we are trying to find it. I hope you will help in this process and I invite you to do so.

(6) To “A”, all I can say is that the City of Lexington, The Bluegrass Trust, Preserve Lexington and most other affected special interest groups have been aware of this proposed project for more than 18 months now. Interestingly enough, during this period, we have had numerous meetings with them to review our proposed plans for this block. Not once did any of these people voice their opposition to the project or express concerns about it until about a month ago when the imminent closing of The Dame was publicly announced. The good news is that during times since, arrangements have been made for these venues to locate elsewhere in the downtown and we were pleased to help in that effort. What more would you have us do?

(7) “Josie”, as we have said all along, this project is not being driven by the 2010 Games as absolutely nobody would invest $250,000,000.00 in downtown Lexington for a three week event. It would be nice to have it ready by then and this could still happen if we can get going, but if not, so be it. As to your statement that “the taxpayers/the City will be paying for the building of Centrepointe”, that isn’t true either as the project will be paid for by its owners. Under the TIF as proposed, the “lift” that will be created by this project and the new taxes that it will generate will amortize the cost of the bonds that will pay for the “public infrastructure” which the City would normally have paid for, but now have no responsibility for. Again, all we ask is that you please further investigate and evaluate our plan, but until you do so, please do not intentionally misstate what we have proposed.

Finally, as to “S”, who has referred to the current PVA assessments for the buildings in the block, I would suggest that you need to extrapolate from these assessments, the taxes that will be flowing from the block and compare them to the rentals that are now being generated to the owners from the tenants in the block. I think you will find that these properties hardly generate enough in rents to even pay these property taxes, let alone amounts that would be required to amortize the costs of bringing them up to current building codes, or further improving them, or even covering their maintenance cost and/or any generating any reasonable return on the investments in them by their owners. This is why we and our consultants have concluded that they are not economically viable for either restoration purposes or for incorporation into our proposed new buildings and we will be demonstrating this predicament to the appropriate parties with whom we will be meeting during the coming weeks.

Tom, once again, I have probably rambled on far too long with this, but I again felt that in fairness, both sides of this story need to be told and it takes a while when you have so many that are trying to tell it.

Thanks for listening,

Dudley Webb

Centrepointe, LLC

Tom,
I enjoy your blog very much. I feel like I am strolling through a virtual Forum listening to engaged citizens debate the future of their city.

After reading through the many interesting comments on your site, I had a few thoughts that I wanted to share.

We can spend a great deal of time debating what happened in the past, or what didn’t happen in the past, or what should have happened in the past. And perhaps that is a debate that should happen, and could be useful, down the road. But now, all that is likely to result is the sort of finger-pointing unlikely to move us forward.

I expect that within a week a number of parties to this debate will have a chance to sit down and discuss the possibilities for compromise. Preserve Lexington has committed to a good faith conversation with Mr. Webb. And I believe that Mr. Webb will approach these discussions with the same good faith.

So, for the next week, it might be best to focus on what we have in common, rather than what separates us. We all respect and applaud the considerable accomplishments of Mr. Webb and of the Webb Companies, we all want what is best for our city, we all welcome a significant development on this block. I think that we can even agree in principle that significant new development can co-exist with, and more important, can complement existing historic architecture. To illustrate this, Preserve Lexington has compiled a considerable portfolio of major developments across the U.S. that successfully marry the historic with the new.

Let us all take a deep breath.

Let us reflect upon these commonalities.

Let us see if conversation can lead to compromise.

Sincerely,

Hayward Wilkirson
President of the Board of Directors
Preserve Lexington

The assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 40 years ago today is one of the nation’s enduring tragedies — and mysteries.

As a reporter for The Associated Press and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the 1980s, I followed the aftermath of that mystery, which was then still unfolding.

The alleged assassin, James Earl Ray, lived in two different Tennessee prisons while I was there, and he was always making news.

I covered his 1981 stabbing at Brushy Mountain Penitentiary and the resulting trial, when authorities hauled him into a Knoxville courtroom under tight security to try to force him to testify. (Ray swore he didn’t see the inmates who stabbed him, but his brother told me otherwise.)

I wrote to Ray in January 1986 requesting an interview for a Journal-Constitution special section marking the first King national holiday. I got a terse response, typed on a small sheet of blue paper and signed. Ray said he had read the many stories I had written about him — and didn’t care much for them.

“I can’t conceive of anything more ludicrous than me denying a long list of accusations, including the MLK homicide, while the prosecutions touts the other side, and all of the records in the case have either been deep-sixed or classified,” he wrote me.

Ray escaped to England after the assassination, was captured two months later and confessed to the crime in 1969. But three days after his confession, he took it back. Ray claimed he was forced to plead guilty by government officials and his lawyer. From then on, he insisted he was a pawn in a complex conspiracy and was framed by a mysterious man he knew only as “Raoul.”

Ray spent years seeking a trial, but despite pleas from Jesse Jackson and other black leaders, he never got one. Many believe Ray, a petty criminal with a 10th-grade education, had neither the motive to kill King nor the intelligence to pull it off alone.

Ray died in prison April 23, 1998, so we may never know.

The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation submitted this letter today:

With reference to Mr. Webb’s open letter of March 31, 2008, the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation submits these few comments:

The Blue Grass Trust is an organization with a broad base of members which strives to be true to its mission of protecting and promoting the special historic places in our community. We believe we have fulfilled our mission on numerous occasions over our fifty year history and places and structures like Henry Clay’s Law Office, the Dudley House, Shakertown, the Mary Todd Lincoln House and the Adam Rankin House are but a few examples of our work. And, as the owners of the Hunt-Morgan House, the Pope Villa and its ongoing renovation, and the adjacent Endicott House, we too, as Mr. Webb would say, “have skin in the game.”

At one time, each of these structures that the Blue Grass Trust has helped to preserve was, in Mr. Webb’s vernacular “old” and “bad” and deemed not worthy of saving by many in this community. Were they correct?

The Blue Grass Trust does not promote the protection and preservation of a building just because of its age. We support protecting most of the Dame block structures because they are historic and worthy of preservation. The Design Review Officer of the Courthouse Area Design Review Board has already found as a matter of fact that the structures on that portion of the Dame block that is located within the Courthouse Overlay Area contribute to the character of the area and that their demolition will adversely affect the character of the area.

Mr. Webb twice instructs the Blue Grass Trust to “pick their battles and focus on the ones that make sense” and not be “constantly distracted by skirmishes that can’t or shouldn’t be won.”

The Blue Grass Trust does not view itself as a warrior engaged in battles or skirmishes. Our position is a very simple one – follow the rules. We are asking the duly appointed members of the Courthouse Area Design Review Board and the Planning Commission to apply the existing law and guidelines that the LFUCG has enacted and determine whether the historic buildings on the Dame block should be preserved or whether everything on that block should be destroyed.

The Blue Grass Trust is always willing to meet with Mr. Webb and all interested parties to discuss this matter. Thank you for giving the Blue Grass Trust an opportunity to respond.

With best regards,

Julie Good

Executive Director

Not to be outdone by Keeneland President Nick Nicholson, Gov. Steve Beshear had his own pithy introduction as the featured speaker at Lexington Forum’s meeting Thursday morning at Keeneland.

Beshear remarked on looking out over the beautiful Keeneland track, with horses going through their morning exercise. “It tells you two great, positive things,” he said. “One, is that spring is almost here. Two, the legislature’s almost ready to go home.”

Only about eight hours earlier, the General Assembly had approved a $19 billion state budget that makes almost nobody happy. In his remarks and in comments to reporters afterward, Beshear talked bout the budget, the legislature and the partisan bickering in Frankfort. Read Ryan Alessi’s report here on PolWatchers.

Then Beshear reflected on his view of Kentucky’s challenges and problems, partisan politics and his own political motivations and ambitions. Listen to a brief excerpt of his remarks by clicking the arrow below.

[audio http://tomeblen.com/downloads/Sound/Beshear-Forum.mp3]

It was pouring early Thursday morning, and the forecast called for more rain Friday, when Keeneland will open its spring racing meet. But there never seems to be a cloud big enough to dim Nick Nicholson’s sense of humor.

The Keeneland president welcomed more than 100 members of Lexington Forum, the civic discussion group, to their April meeting in a dining room overlooking the track. Nicholson began by pointing out the wall of windows to the track and the beautiful countryside beyond. “We think what we need is a new 40-story tower out there,” he deadpanned.

Of course, there will be no CentrePointe at Keeneland. But it was good for a laugh.

Here’s the question: Will the 60-day delay in the CentrePointe project be about compromise or salesmanship?

Less than two hours before the Courthouse Area Design Review Board was to meet Wednesday to consider a request to tear down several Main Street buildings to make way for the $250 million CentrePointe complex, developer Dudley Webb, his nephew Woodford Webb and landowner Joe Rosenberg met with Vice Mayor Jim Gray. They proposed a 60-day hold on demolition and other work so interested parties could try to work out their differences. Gray contacted leaders of the citizens group Preserve Lexington, who agreed.

Webb could have faced resistance from the board had he tried to proceed; its staff had recommended delaying demolition until more work was done on the redevelopment plan.

“I went to last Saturday’s meeting at the Kentucky (Theater) and there was a lot of constructive input, so we want to hear some more,” Webb said afterward the board agreed to the delay. “And out of that, hopefully, will come something constructive. We care about what people think. They’re our neighbors, our friends, they’re our families and we want to make sure it’s done right.”

Webb said compromises were possible on such things as the building’s facade, streetscape and parking facilities. And, like his critics did Saturday, Webb said he wants to organize a public meeting at the Kentucky Theater to explain his plans. But he indicated that the project’s fundamental size and footprint are unlikely to change.

However, Gray wants to use the 60 days to discuss the building’s scale, the displacement of the farmers’ market and entertainment venues and whether it’s possible to incorporate any of the 14 existing structures into the new building’s design. “I hope Dudley and Woodford will reflect on this being a conversation with the community and not just a sales pitch,” Gray said.

Hayward Wilkirson, who heads Preserve Lexington, said he is cautiously optimistic about the delay. But he added: “I don’t think it will be productive if either side sees this as a two-month period to continue a propaganda campaign. We don’t want to be back here in 60 days and at square one.”

How do you think the Webbs and their critics should use this time? What would you like to see come out of their discussions?

Below are photo composites provided by the Webb Companies that show how the proposed CentrePointe building would look in the existing streetscapes. What do you think of them? (Comment below.)

Upper and Main streets

Upper and Vine streets

Along Main Street

Timing is everything.

So it seemed right that in my first week as a columnist I should pay tribute to retired Herald-Leader columnist Don Edwards, 67, who was inducted Tuesday into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

When I nominated Don for the honor more than a year ago, I was his former boss. I didn’t know I would be sitting in the chair he occupied from 1979 until health problems forced him to retire in 2001.

I’ve always admired the work done by Don and other Herald-Leader columnists. They’ve been good reporters, graceful writers, natural storytellers. Most of all, they’ve cared passionately about this place and understood what makes it tick.

Merlene Davis has called things as she saw them for 20 years and written about what African Americans are thinking - even if white people didn’t want to know. Cheryl Truman crusaded on behalf of north Lexington, good government and better schools. Dick Burdette captured the charm of small-town Kentucky. Bill Bishop promoted new ways of thinking.

Don usually had a light touch, but he also knew when to bring out the stick.

Born in Corbin and raised in Richmond, Don’s first journalistic effort prompted an editor at the Richmond Register to suggest he consider another line of work.

Despite that, he left Eastern Kentucky University to work at newspapers in Winchester, Clay City and Bloomington, Ind., before becoming a reporter and city editor at both the old Herald and Leader. But columnist was his favorite job.

“You never had to do the same thing twice,” he said in an interview last week. “You met everyone from the mayor to the town drunk.”

Don liked writing about people. He especially enjoyed poking fun at Lexington’s pretentiousness through his fictitious characters Buffy Bleugrazz, “an over-the-hill horse farm debutante” and her country cousin, Barbara Jean.

“One represented Lexington and one represented Eastern Kentucky. That’s what Lexington is, a combination of those two,” he said. “I think it was (the late Appalachian writer) Harry Caudill who said that Eastern Kentucky captured Lexington without firing a shot.”

Those columns weren’t always popular with Herald-Leader editors, but readers loved them.

“Several women went around town convinced and telling everyone that they were the Buffy that I was writing about,” he said. Actually, the character was a composite of two or three women - and one man.

Readers were less happy when he wrote about religion, politics and gay people as regular people. But many agreed with his dim view of Lexington’s exploding surburban development.

“Some of the development was good,” he said. “But I thought some of the other development looked like the suburban slums of the future.”

Last year, organizers of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast honored Don for a column he wrote after attending the second such event in 1996. He noticed that only about 40 of the 325 people attending were white.

“Where are the rest of the white people?” Edwards wrote, after recounting the inspiring things the speakers had to say. “You will know when unity has arrived in Lexington. You’ll see it at the Unity Breakfast table.”

He said several prominent Lexingtonians called him the next week, making lame excuses for why they didn’t attend. The next year, they did, and the event now draws nearly 2,000 people, including most of the city’s white leadership.

The work Don is perhaps most proud of has nothing to do with writing. It’s the 15 years he spent teaching chess to about 1,000 kids in the Fayette County Public Schools.

“I run across people all the time, young folks in their 20s, who come up to me and say, ‘You taught me chess in school and I still play it and enjoy it,’” he said. One young man even thanked him on national television, when he was a contestant on Jeopardy.

The chess lessons started when Don was on the board of the Bluegrass Boys Ranch, but soon became a passion. The acid test was when he took the program to the alternative school, where Lexington’s toughest kids were sent.

“We ended up having a chess tournament at the end of the school year, and one of my tournament leaders was limping as he came up to get his trophy because he had a bullet in his leg from a drive-by shooting,” Don recalled. “And the guy who won the tournament, the cops showed up and arrested him. They had an outstanding warrant for him. That put a little crimp in the tournament, but other than that, it was a lot of fun.”

Click here to listen to Don Edwards tell how his newspaper career almost ended before it began.

Download a sampler of Don Edwards’ columns:

It’s simply a matter of black and white. Jan. 16, 1996

Zsa Zsa Gabor gets her mint julep — and more. May 8, 1988

Social comment from Buffy and Barbara Jean. March 15, 1992

The spicy secret life of Colonel Sanders. Sept. 24, 1996

The Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, sponsored by the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications Alumni Association, honors journalists with Kentucky ties who have made significant lifetime contributions to the profession. In addition to Don Edwards, the people inducted Tuesday at a luncheon at the Radisson Plaza Hotel were:

• Jack Crowner, senior farm director, Kentucky AGNET and WHAS radio in Louisville.
• Virginia Edwards, editor and publisher of Education Week magazine and president of Editorial Projects in Education.
• T. George Harris, founding editor of Psychology Today and a reporter for Time, Look and other publications.
• Kent Hollingsworth, the late editor of The Blood-Horse magazine, 1963-1987.
• William Ray Mofield, the late broadcast journalist and former head of the journalism department at Murray State University.
• Al Tompkins, broadcast/online group Leader at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., which provides continuing education for journalists.

Vice Mayor Jim Gray says he’s forging ahead with plans to organize an international design competition to come up with better ideas for the proposed CentrePointe project, whether the developers want to listen to them or not.

Gray floated the competition idea over the weekend and formally announced it Monday. But developer Dudley Webb dismissed the idea.

“Just because the developer says it’s over doesn’t mean the community has said it’s over,” Gray said Tuesday. “I’m going to forge ahead. It’s too exciting an opportunity not to.

“We can address the issues that should have been addressed during the past year,” Gray said. In addition to design, those issues include displacement of the downtown block’s entertainment venues and the farmers’ market.

Gray said he is putting together a fund-raising plan and will work with Michael Speaks, dean of UK’s College of Design, to organize the competition. Gray has said the competition could take three months to complete and cost more than $100,000.