Taking measure

By Burton Cole

And Jim Thaxton

FALMOUTH — Farming and fire departments were key topics April 8 in the second debate between candidates for Pendleton County judge executive.

Former Falmouth mayor Sebastian Ernst said he grew up on a family farm and that he proposed a single fire district years ago.

“My opponents have been in charge for 20 years. (What they say needs done) should have been done already,” Ernst said. “They are Democrats. I am a Republican. I’m a conservative. I have real plans, real values, real principles.”

Former Falmouth councilman and retired schools superintendent Anthony Strong called agriculture the backbone of the county, and said he’d like to help the city and county fire departments work together for more efficiency.

“Leadership is about making tough decisions. It’s called doing the job,” he said. “In my career, I’ve done that on city council and schools.

“I can make that change.”

Fourth District Magistrate Rick Mineer said that family farms must be protected, and noted that he was part of the Fiscal Court that reactivated the county fire department without any adding any taxes.

“Who’s actually done the work?” Mineer said. He said he is proud to have been involved in strengthening emergency services, bring new businesses into the county and for other work such as streetscapes.

“I’m the only candidate with both city and county government experience,” he said.

The fourth candidate, retired police officer Jimmy Poynter, was on a previously scheduled family vacation and missed the Pendleton County Farm Bureau’s Measure the Candidates forum.

Three-term Judge Executive David Fields is retiring when his term ends at the end of the year.

Farm Bureau President Rob McClanahan told the more than 100 people packed into the Pendleton County Cooperative Extension Office that it was the fourth Measure the Candidates event the organization has sponsored in the last 12 years.

“We typically reserve these for the general election, but this year is different,” McClanahan said.

The stakes seem higher than usual for an off year, and with an increase of social media, a whole lot more information is being put out, and not all of it is accurate, he said.

It’s also the first time that it’s a Republican-only primary election. No one filed as a Democrat for any office in the county, which means, barring a successful write-in campaign, all offices will be decided on May 19, he said.

Candidates for all other county offices in the upcoming election were given two minutes each to introduce themselves to the audience and those watching the forum, which was livestreamed.

But the main event was the debate between judge executive candidates.

On the question of farming, Mineer said that the county needs to market its rural charms with everything from farmers’ markets to hiking trails.

“Agritourism is going to be a big thing,” he said.

Every dollar spent on agritourism goes around the county seven times, he said.

“We need to bring outside dollars in.”

“We have to protect our family farms. That is our culture,” he said. “We don’t need to tax ourselves out of it.”

Pendleton County has always been and always will be a farming community,” Strong said. “Yeah, we need other things, but we can’t ever forget what farming has done for this county.”

New industry should not take farmland out of production, he said.

Ernst said that as a farm kid, he knows “the worst thing to hear was, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Government needs to get out of the way and let farmers do what they know how to do, he said.

In fact, “one of the biggest problems with this county is getting out of the way,” Ernst said. Bureaucracy needs to take a back seat and let businesses do business.

The biggest hurdle to creating new jobs is too small of a workforce because of a lack of places to live, Mineer said.

The vast majority of the workforce has to drive out of the county for work, he said. When Hammer Strength wanted to consolidate factories, it couldn’t move all operations to the Falmouth plant because of lack of housing for its workforce, he said.

“We need housing,” Mineer said.

Strong said, “We know we need to grow industry. What have we done to make that happen?”

He applauded the hiring last year of Tami Vater as county economic and tourism development director, and like Mineer, said that Vater has done outstanding work. But more needs to be done to market Pendleton County, he said.

“We need to be looking for the types of industry that fits what we have,” he said, which is a farming community.

Also, the Falmouth electric system needs to be upgraded, he said.

Ernst said, “Industry won’t come without proper fire and police protection.”

Ernst said that a goal is to have a unified county fire department with satellite stations around the county so that no matter where a person lives, there’s always fire protection within eight miles of home.

“My priority is to get the cities out of the police and fire business,” Ernst said.

Also, electric rates in Falmouth are about 30 percent higher than rates charged by private power companies. “Cities don’t need to be involved in utilities.”

Cities need to be able to concentrate on maintaining roads and doing city business, not running safety services or utilities, he said.

He also called for a unified water district to save money and improve water quality.

“We’re putting Band-Aids over Band-Aids,” he said.

Summing up, Mineer emphasized his years of experience on the Court, his demonstrated fiscal conservancy, noting that the County Fire Department building and the new Animal Shelter were built without taxpayer dollars.

He shared his vision for a new county multipurpose building, with plans already in the works, that would provide exercise equipment, activities for seniors, and other services to the county.

Mineer said he does not favor any new taxes. He referenced the recent $1.6 million grant for site-ready improvements at the Industrial Park, noting that one of his goals as judge would be to continue infrastructure improvements throughout the county.

Strong shared his intentions to work closely with staff, county employees, district boards, and the mayors of both cities.

He said he was serving on Falmouth City Council as mayor pro tem during the Flood of ‘97.

Because of his experience as superintendent, he has contacts throughout the state and especially in Frankfort, he said.

Strong described himself as a fiscal conservative.

He was a former agriculture teacher and conducted a straw poll of area farmers, hearing from them how things are changing in agriculture and what our local farmers are doing to innovate and keep up.

Strong emphasized the need to focus on the county’s youth. He said he sees opportunities for industrial growth, especially along the Ohio River, the AA Highway, and partnering with Northern Kentucky.

Ernst noted that he is a local businessman, a champion of Falmouth’s revitalization projects, served on the Falmouth City Council and as mayor, and is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

Before answering the first question during the forum, Ernst handed his opponents red MAGA caps and welcomed them to the Republican Party. He emphasized his Republican Party roots and implied his opponents were Democrats posing as Republicans.

He said that for far too long, the cities have subsidized the county’s emergency services.

He said that without better fire service, 24/7 police protection and improvements in water quality, there is little hope of attracting new industry.

The entire Measure the Candidates event can be viewed in its entirety on the Pendleton County Farm Bureau’s Facebook page.