Tobacco Buyout

Dear Editor: Alice Forgy Kerr started her political career in 1984 as a volunteer in the Ronald Reagan re-election campaign. For the past five years, Alice has been a state senator from the Lexington area and has supported conservative candidates in national, state and local elections. Alice is a wonderful Christian lady and a former school teacher. Alice believes strongly in preserving the traditional family, improving our national security, supporting our economic recovery, promoting a business environment that leads to the creation of quality jobs, promoting the tobacco buyout, improving education, and making prescription drugs affordable for everyone without expanding a government bureauacy.

LEXINGTON - USDA's Farm Service Agency will hold an information meeting for tobacco quota producers and quota holders 7 p.m. on March 8 in Lexington to discuss the new Tobacco Transition Payment Program. The public meeting will be in the Bluegrass Ballroom at the Lexington Center, 430 West Vine Street in Lexington. Parking will be available in lots across from Rupp Arena and the Hyatt Regency on East High Street. This meeting is for tobacco quota producers who are owners, operators, landlords, tenants, or sharecroppers who shared in the risk of producing tobacco anytime between 2002 and 2004.

Tobacco quota holders and producers are reminded that the deadline to sign-up for the USDA's Tobacco Transition Payment Program (also called "Tobacco Buyout") is June 17. "Sign-up is important for quota holders and producers so they can enroll in the tobacco program before June 17 and be eligible to receive the first of 10 payments," said Jeffery S. Hall, state executive director. Eligible quota holders will receive $7 per pound upon their basic quota at the 2002 marketing year level.

The following classes and programs are being offered by Garrard County Community Education. For more information, or to request a class, call Brenda Powers at (859) 792-1690. Ring the bell for Salvation Army: Anyone wishing to ring the bell for Salvation Army may call Powers to schedule a date at the Dollar General Store or Wal-Mart in Stanford, Kroger in Danville and many more locations. Call if you would like to volunteer for an hour or two. Farmers computer class: A computer class is planned for farmers who took the tobacco buyout.

Gwenda Adkins had no idea what she started when she suggested a "quilted barn" project in Elliott County in eastern Kentucky. Her Clothesline Quilt and Beyond project has grown into the Kentucky Quilt Trails Project and is spreading throughout the state. Preservationists in Boyle County are organizing in an attempt to get quilt patterns displayed on old barns that were abandoned when the tobacco buyout program left little use for them. "When the tobacco buyout began, I had a fear of losing our tobacco barns," said Adkins.

Woodworking Class - 6-9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays for eight weeks beginning Sept. 26 at KY-Tech Garrard County Education Center. Mike Oakley is instructor. Cost of the class is $75. To enroll, call (859) 792-1690. Beginning Computer Class for Farmers - 6-9 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Garrard Middle School Computer room on the first level. Introduction to computer class for farmers who have taken the tobacco buyout. Four-week class. Cost is $25. The instructor is Tonya Warren. A session will follow on how to teach use a computer for farm records.

Many farmers are weighing their options when it comes to receiving payments from the federal tobacco buyout in a lump sum or receiving them over a 10-year span. Before making the decision, it is important for producers to obtain sound financial advice. The tobacco buyout legislation provides for both producers, who receive the $3 per pound payment, and quota owners, who receive the $7 per pound payment, to receive a lump-sum payment beginning with the fiscal year 2006 payment. The decision to take a lump-sum payment involves several economic and personal considerations.

Centre collecting for Salvation Army Centre College students will be going door-to-door in Danville neighborhoods from 3-5 p.m. Saturday to collect canned goods and other non-perishable items to donate to the Salvation Army in support of community members in need. For more information, contact Patrick Noltemeyer at patrick.noltemeyer@centre.edu or (859) 238-8752. Guitar class canceled in Garrard LANCASTER - The Garrard County guitar class scheduled for Monday is canceled because the instructor had a family crisis.