Tobacco

Dear Editor, Let's see. Do I have this straight? You can drink in Danville, but you can't buy a beer. You can't smoke in Danville but you can buy tobacco all day long. Hello. Is anyone home? L.C. JonesCrab Orchard

A regular tobacco redesignation is a change in warehouses, receiving station or dealer designated or a change in pounds designated to a warehouse, receiving station or dealer. The current designation period began Monday and runs through Friday. You must come in to the Farm Service Agency to sign the forms.

Manuel Raya was one of many workers cutting some of the 60 acres of burley being raised by Forrest and Greg McCord. The workers planned to cut tobacco throughout the day Monday and try to get it all housed today before the expected rain on Wednesday. The farm is on Van Meter Road.

Oct. 16Mac Burnette, the world champion tobacco auctioneer, will once again be selling tobacco on the Winchester market this fall. Burnette, who won the championship at Danville, Va., Sept. 12, has been touring the tobacco belt on behalf of tobacco auctioneers under the sponsorship of R.J. Reynolds. Arthur L. Clay was honored last month by the Kentucky NAACP Conference in Louisville with an award of merit for his "exceptional efforts in promoting the work of the NAACP throughout Kentucky.

A Clark County firefighter is on paid leave from the department after being arrested Monday for stealing tobacco bales from a barn to resell. James T. Wells, 21, of 8303 Ecton Road, was charged with two counts of third-degree burglary after allegedly entering a barn on McClure Road and taking bales of tobacco. According to court documents, Wells admitted to taking the tobacco on two occasions, five bales on Dec. 7 and six bales on Dec. 11. He then sold the tobacco for $375 and $500, respectively, according to the citation filed by Detective Brian Caudill of the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

LIBERTY - Two Casey County teachers received cash prizes for good attendance records Monday at the Board of Education meeting. Patsy Tarter, a teacher at Jones Park Elementary School, was picked as winner among classified employees, and Allen Patterson, an employee at the middle school, was the winner among certified employees. Each received $1,000. Seventy-one teachers and 71 classified personnel had a chance to win the prize. Liberty Elementary School students won the attendance trophy and $200 for the fourth month in school.

Lincoln County High School baseball player Brandon Weir could use your vote. Weir, an LCHS sophomore pitcher/infielder, is included among the week-one nominees for the Get Healthy Kentucky (GHK) "No Spit" All-Stars. The 2008 "No Spit" All-Star campaign is a collaborative effort by "The Sports Flash" (TSF) Radio Network and GHK to help reduce tobacco use in the Commonwealth. The "No Spit" campaign honors the best high school baseball players in Kentucky who have pledged not to use spit tobacco or any tobacco products ?

If you stop long enough and enjoy all the natural wonders of our environment, you will notice fall is in the air again. Although we have not had a very hot summer this year, I am still anxious for autumn to arrive.  Everywhere you look there are impending signs of autumn, but none are more prominent than the changes in tobacco fields.  Lush green leaves of tobacco have now turned a pleasing yellow, signaling the time to reap the harvest....

King Burley may not be ready to abdicate his central Kentucky throne just yet. County Extension Agents for Agriculture and Natural Resources say despite the federal tobacco buyout program and with it, the end of price supports, many area farmers plan to keep raising the cash crop, taking their chances with a market-driven system. "For many people, despite the changes in the system, one of the best choices in terms of replacing quota-grown tobacco is free market tobacco," said Garrard County agent Mike Carter.