Tobacco Buyout

LIBERTY - U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell made a stop Thursday afternoon in Casey County to present a check for $1 million for construction of two new buildings at the Central Kentucky Ag/Expo Center south of town. Construction has already begun on one 110- by 300-foot building and will soon begin on a 200- by 350-foot structure. The open-sided shelter-type structures can be used for stalls, cattle sales, flea markets and other events, said Judge-Executive Ronald Wright. Welcomed by a large crowd, the senator made the presentation of the large cardboard check to Wright.

LEXINGTON ? USDA Farm Service Agency reminds tobacco quota holders and producers not enrolled in the Tobacco Transition Payment Program that they have until Nov. 2 to sign-up to receive a 2010 TTPP payment. The TTPP, also known as the tobacco buy-out, provides approximately $10 billion in 10 annual installments to eligible tobacco quota holders and producers from 2005 through 2014. Payments for 2010 through 2014 will be issued annually in January. USDA also reminds tobacco quota holders and producers that they have until Nov. 2 to sell their remaining five annual payments to a successor to receive a lump-sum payment.

For Isaac Haggard, who has been raising tobacco since the days they hauled the leaf to market on horse-drawn wagons, the crop now growing on his small Casey County farm could very well be his last. It's not that Haggard, 69, has grown too old and joint-weary to fool with the physical labor needed to raise burley. To the contrary, he loves the crop and all the care and work that goes into it, and would like to keep tending it as long as he is able. It's just that with the latest tobacco buyout proposal making it closer to reality than any of the previous efforts, he knows this could be the last time tobacco is planted on his 27-acre farm along the Green River in Middleburg.

FRANKFORT - Garrard County farmer Fred Simpson long ago made the transition from a tobacco farmer to a vegetable grower and beef cattle producer. For him, the shift was fairly easy, considering the fact burley was not his biggest agricultural income producer in the first place. But Simpson realizes that it will be more difficult for other tobacco growers, especially those whose primary farm income came from burley. While he said that the tobacco buyout checks will both cushion the financial blow for farmers who have decided to quit burley and also buy them some time while they look for alternative agricultural enterprises, he believes farmers need to do something that will be hard for many of them.

The Kentucky Migrant Education Program is a federally funded program designed to provide educational and human resource service opportunities to children and migrant families. The program, working through local school districts, focuses primarily on the educational needs of the migrant children and the barriers they face in successful achievement in education. Two recruiters, Kelly Kirkpatrick and Jarod Brown, and advocate Edee Thompson work with the Jessamine County school district to identify school-age migrant children as well as out-of-school youth ages 16 to 22 to get them into school or enrolled in adult education classes.

The owners of one of the few remaining independent tobacco warehouses operating in the state have moved on from one historical site to another building used by another former tobacco auction mainstay during the fall selling season. Months after Farmers Tobacco Warehouse No. 1 was demolished, owner Jerry Rankin has set up shop and held auctions in what had been Peoples Tobacco Warehouse on Harding Street behind Toliver Elementary School. Since November, there have been eight auctions at the renovated warehouse, which Rankin is leasing from Robert Hamlin, with another held at Farmers Warehouse No. 2. It is the first time the Peoples building has been used in almost a decade.

Parent/teacher meeting in Lincoln STANFORD - Lincoln County High School will hold its second parent/teacher conference 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. Mid-term grades were scheduled to be given to students Feb. 26. The conference will provide an opportunity for parents to discuss grades with teachers. Counselors also will answer additional questions. Lincoln Middle plans softball fundraiser STANFORD - Lincoln County Middle School Softball Team will hold a fundraiser, Rock for Softball, a Rock Band video game tournament, 6-9 p.m. Friday in the high school auditorium.

Preservation of farmland and barns has become a concern of people who want to keep farms intact for future generations. Several experts recently presented information on preservation work under way in Kentucky, Maryland and Pennsylvania during an all-day session sponsored by Kentucky Crossroads Rural Heritage Development Initiative. Jeff Marshall, vice president of the Pennsylvania Heritage Conservancy, couldn't sit and watch the landscapes in his state disappear without making an effort to preserve them.

David Sparrow wants a rematch. Though incumbent state Rep. Mike Harmon defeated Sparrow rather handily in the 2004 race for the 54th District seat, the Democratic challenger said today he believes enough has changed on the political landscape since the last campaign to boost his confidence this time. "That was my first time running for public office. I learned a lot," said Sparrow, 61, who is retired from the University of Kentucky, where he worked as an agricultural extention agent in Boyle County for several years.

Advocate-Messenger staffers took home several honors at Friday's annual Kentucky Press Association awards ceremony in Louisville, including a coveted prize for managing editor John Nelson. Nelson was awarded the Barry Bingham Freedom of Information Award, presented periodically to an individual for outstanding service to Kentucky journalism. Only nine winners - including U.S. senators Mitch McConnell and Wendell Ford - have been selected since the award was established in 1986.