Speed Limit

Dear Editor: The hot button issue this week in Frankfort is raising the speed limit on rural interstate highways from 65 to 70 miles an hour, so we had to do the math. A 200-mile trip through Kentucky will save a whopping 13 minutes! This can't be the motivation for this bill. With all of the real problems we have in our state, if this is what we are paying our representatives to do, then we are the idiots. Of the 39 states that have raised the speed limit, fatalities are up 15 percent.

Dear Editor: I understand that there are people who will say after the last few wrecks that we need to lower the speed limit in Junction City. That's not the case. The speed isn't the problem. The problem is the people who are careless when pulling from side roads, not looking three or four times or simply taking a quick chance. The problem is the stoplight. The light does its job but when you go through the light and it is red on your side, there are going to be problems.

A lot of people in this area — it’s a number roughly equivalent to about 90 percent of the population with driver’s licenses — cannot wait until the new, four-lane U.S. 27 is completed. They long for the time when they don’t have to drive on the existing two-lane and behind haywagons, crop watchers, Sunday drivers and others who treat the road as a country lane rather than a highway. These slow drivers have every right to go the speed they want to, no matter what those of us who would like to go faster, like over 20 miles per hour, would say. After all, the speed limit sign says 55 miles per hour.

Dear Editor: Sometime we feel unable to affect anything that's as global as the recent rise in gas prices. We all have our suspicions why the price of a gallon of gas has skyrocketed. Often I've heard that we should feel good that we're not like other countries where the price is double what we pay. Well, I hear, but that doesn't make me feel any better when I fill up at the pump. For people who makes, say $17-20 and hour, it means they must work three hours to pay for a tank of gas. Longer if you make less than that.

Drivers on Jessamine Station Road should be aware that the speed limit on part of that road has changed. Last week, the 55 mph speed limit was lowered to 35 mph. Two speed limit signs have been put in the affected area. David Thacker, a Public Information Officer with the Department of Transportation said the new speed limit location is between Wilmore Road and the railroad overpass. He said the new signs went up last Monday, and added that the lowered speed limit was implemented due to two main factors.

Ignore the 25 mph speed limit posted on an Old Bridge Road mailbox because county magistrates voted Tuesday to set the speed limit at 35. Drivers can go down Old Bridge Road, where many small children live and play, at the same speed they travel Hustonville Road. But, it looks like it's all been a big misunderstanding. Boyle County Fiscal Court passed an ordinance Tuesday to set speed limits on all county roads. In the past, the county did not have an ordinance. Because state law sets the speed limit at 35 mph, if a lower speed was posted, technically, it was only a suggestion.

The Nicholasville City Commission voted last Wednesday to increase the speed limit on Johns Watts Drive from 25 to 35 mph. The commission approved the speed limit increase at the request of Wayne Foster, director of the Jessamine County Economic Development Authority. Foster reported that employees of factories in that area were complaining that the speed limit was too low for that area, and the commissioners agreed. Jessamine County Attorney Brian Goettl, who is also president of Nicholasville Now, asked the city to reconsider his prior request to fund $35,000 to Nicholasville Now for the coming fiscal year.

Dear Editor: What can we do to get the speed limit lowered through Junction City on U.S. 127? There have been too many accidents on this section of highway. The speed limit is 55 miles an hour. It needs to be 35 miles an hour through our city for the safety of everyone. I think we should have the same rights as other cities like Danville. When you pass the "Welcome to Danville" sign, the speed limit drops to 45 miles an hour, then 35. Junction City should have the same right.

You may soon get where you're going a little faster - if you take the Mountain Parkway or Interstate 64 in Clark County. A change from 65 to 70 miles per hour on some highways became official Tuesday as signs were altered all over Kentucky. Traffic crews from the Kentucky Department of Highways worked in Winchester to convert signs from 65 to 70 mph by placing decals over the existing number. The 70 mph speed limit is in effect on the four-lane section of the Mountain Parkway between I-64 and Exit 43 in Clark, Powell and Wolfe counties, beginning in Campton.

Billy Edwards, left, discusses his new energy initiative, Drive Green Spot, with City Commissioner Kenny Book, right, during the program's kickoff Friday. Drive Green Spot challenges motorists to drive the speed limit or less to save gas and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Edwards, right, created Drive Green Spot with his son, Matt Edwards, left. To show participation in the initiative, the father-and-son team designed a green spot that drivers can place on the rear of their vehicles.

STANFORD - No one was seriously injured in a nine-vehicle wreck Monday afternoon on U.S. 27 just north of Lincoln County High School. The wreck happened on northbound U.S. 27 just after 4 p.m. near Rowland Cutoff Road, according to Stanford police. Officer Tim Morris, who worked the scene, said the wreck stretched out over a length of about two-tenths of a mile. Eight of the nine drivers were high school students, and the lead car had two passengers who were also high school students, Morris said.

April is one of my favorite months because every year, there are Earth Day celebrations of all shapes and sizes. While today is the official Earth Day for 2013, Boyle County will be celebrating Earth Day on Saturday with a community-wide event from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Boyle County fairgrounds. Boyle's Earth Day celebration will feature food, music and dozens of booths and vendors focused on all kinds of cool, Earth-friendly stuff. Planned booth hosts include the Danville Garden Club; Boyle County Farmers Market, which will be open and selling locally grown produce; Herrington Lake Conservation League; Central Kentucky Wildlife Refuge, which is one of my favorite local bird-watching spots; and Bluegrass PRIDE, which is running seven booths.

LANCASTER - Neither Garrard County nor Danville had any regard for the posted speed limit. One team wanted to floor it; the other wanted to drive below the minimum in the left lane. And slow was the way to go for the Garrard girls, who stalled Danville's offense while they chugged along to a 48-41 victory Friday at Garrard Middle School. The Golden Lions jumped in front early and never allowed the Admirals to pass, winning a game in which they attempted only 29 shots from the field.

• John T. Brown, 23, 249 Homestead Lane, Monticello, was arrested June 23 on Harrodsburg Road and charged with speeding 26 mph or more over the speed limit and drunken driving. • Shawn Phiel, 24, 300 N. Central Ave., was arrested July 2 on Danville Road and charged with speeding 26 mph or more over the speed limit, driving under the influence and first-degree wanton endangerment. • Kyle Corman, 19, 6080 Danville Loop 1, was arrested July 5 at 4180 Sugar Creek Pike and charged with driving under the influence and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Charged — Penny A. Rhea, 50, of 306 Belmont Ave., was charged Monday with driving under the influence of intoxicants. — Carl Combs, 23, of 40 Franklin Ave., was charged Monday with driving under the influence of intoxicants (third offense), driving on a suspended operator's license and no insurance. Report — At 7 p.m. June 22, Cindy A. Christopher of 405 Mimosa Drive reported that someone took a Sony PlayStation 2 from her home. Accident — At 2:56 p.m. Friday, deputies responded to an injury accident on Interstate 64 near the 94 mile marker in which Rose M. Taulbee of 2731 Ruckerville Road looked away from the road for a tissue, without realizing that the speed limit had dropped and she was approaching another vehicle until they collided.

The flashing numbers interrupted my reverie. The number “19” screamed on the sign, its yellow blinking prompting my foot to make an instant transition from gas to brake. I suppose that’s what it is designed to do. I enjoy meandering down Banta Lane in Wilmore. My commute from home to office is only an embarrassing one-third of a mile long. If I had any green sensibility about me, I’d walk. But if I drive slowly down Banta Lane, it seems like taking the car is worth the trip.

BURGIN — Police arrested a Mercer County man Saturday morning after he allegedly took them on a high-speed chase along Ky. 33. Clay Sadler, 24, was charged with speeding, operating under the influence, first-degree wanton endangerment and first--degree fleeing and evading police after multiple law enforcement agencies chased him from Burgin to Buster Pike and back. Burgin Police Chief Jim Caldwell initiated the chase in Burgin when Sadler blew by his cruiser at about 30 miles over the speed limit “I observed an individual traveling at approximately 65 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone,” Caldwell said.

• Travis H. Mobley, 27, 320 Frederick Road, was arrested Sept. 22 on South Main Street and charged with operating on a suspended or revoked operator’s license and failure of non-owner operator to maintain required insurance. • Ulysses D. Miller, 48, 120 A Wichita Drive, was arrested Sept. 22 at 510 Main Street and charged with first-degree rape. • Christopher D. Vernon, 21, 3556 Salisbury Drive, was arrested Sept. 21 on Lexington Road and charged with speeding 26 mph over the speed limit and reckless driving.