Issue Briefs and Dialog Guides
Editor's Notes:
The task of political strategists is to influence elections, not to educate voters…we must develop more effective ways to inform and educate the public.
School Choice and Special Needs
Does a school choice bill to be considered in the upcoming state legislature reflect a commendable effort to address deficiencies in public school special education, or are proponents overselling the benefits in order to open the door for private school vouchers?
Pastors warned of political restrictions
Do local churches try to make a difference at the voting booth during election time, and if so, how far do they go?
Framing the Issue: Is our community positioned to meet the need? Ninety percent of pregnant women in Owensboro-Daviess County receive prenatal care in the first trimester, which is six percent more than the national average. With the recent reduction in prenatal services at the health department, should we be concerned about our capacity to sustain this vital service? |
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Summaries of citizen views from four community forums: Waging a Living, Coal-Fired Power Plants, Immigration, and Riverfront (youth forum).
Religion, ethics and politics: What do Americans really believe?
Editor's Notes:
The public should shape private investment along the riverfront
The following column was distributed as a “Special Bulletin” to our mailing list in advance of this publication. Responses received by August 25 follow the column.
Framing the Issue: Should OMHS build a new hospital? In an Aug. 16 presentation to the Owensboro Rotary Club, Jeff Barber, president and chief executive officer of Owensboro Medical Health System (OMHS), acknowledged that the hospital faces a critical strategic decision: Do we build a new facility or expand and renovate the existing one? |
Undoing 50 years of being “off the map”
Increasing the awareness of Owensboro
One has to be going to Owensboro. It is not on the way to a major destination. Many lifelong Kentuckians cannot even find Owensboro on a map. Owensboro’s relative isolation and lack of visibility is a notorious shortcoming. If, however, our community can unite behind the following goals we can undo 50 years of missed opportunities and thereby greatly enhance Owensboro’s public image and self-esteem.
Communities, regions and states take initiative to boost college enrollment
Preparing students for the “global workplace” is topping agendas of business leaders everywhere, and concerned citizens in Owensboro and Daviess County are considering bold new strategies -- including paying at least part of students’ college costs.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Forum participants support a different direction on energy
Editor's Notes:
On the proposed riverwalk connecting downtown and English Park
Following a June 22 public presentation on the next phase of the Riverfront Master Plan, this column (“Special Bulletin”) was circulated electronically to various foundation lists of citizens who may have a keen interest in this issue. Readers were invited to respond. Those received by June 30 follow the column.
Framing the Issue: An economic opportunity or a threat to the health and livability of our region? Through the years, abundant coal reserves and good river access resulted in a concentration of coal-fired power plants being constructed in this region. Concerns over U.S. dependence on foreign oil and rising gasoline prices have led to proposals to expand coal production and build more power plants. Taking these steps could improve our economic position and create jobs but threaten environmental quality. |
Owensboro's Wal-Mart Presence:
Economic boon or bad for business?
Wal-Mart is big, and almost everything said for or against the giant in our midst comes down to just that. Wal-Mart is the largest retail business in Owensboro, with two Supercenters and a Sam’s Club, where customers who pay a membership fee can buy groceries and other items in bulk. The three stores employ 617 full-time and 323 part-time workers altogether.
An Ongoing Conversation
When considering merging Owensboro and Daviess County governments, attitudes range from apathy to outrage. Some residents remember the rancor that characterized the previous merger attempt in 1990, while many others – perhaps most, judging by a recent Messenger-Inquirer article – wonder what the big deal is all about. They’re just not interested.
letters:
Geary Court residents grateful for Boulware article
Thank you for Carrie Blackham’s well written article pertaining to the Boulware Mission expansion and my neighborhood.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Mercury forum raises concerns
Boulware sets sights on larger facility, expanded services
Homeless mission renovating former convent
From the front steps of the former Passionist convent on Benita Avenue, it is easy to see the signs lining the lawns along adjacent Geary Court stating, “No to Boulware.”
From my perspective:
Health care: The single payer vision
America has wonderful hospitals, clinics, and doctors. We conduct brilliant research. But there is a missing link: access to health services.
letters:
More to the story on youth dental problem
When the Public Life Foundation addressed the plight of children in need of dental care in the January 2006 issue of Public Life Advocate in the article, “Dental Care for poor youth ‘a huge, huge need’ ” by Benjamin Hoak, we found much to support about the issues presented. However, there were some errors in the information presented that we feel misrepresent the Owensboro Public Schools.
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Framing the Issue: Dental care for disadvantaged youth Local options for expanded services As dental care and dental insurance costs rise, employers and individual policy owners cancel policies, take their chances, and more low-income people postpone treatment until conditions are serious. Children are particularly vulnerable. How should a compassionate community respond? |
Citizens react to possible demolition of hilltop landmark
For many Owensboro residents of a certain age, these opening lines of Longfellow School’s fight song stir memories of childhood when they were full of promise, running up the hill to a building that must have seemed enormous.
Editor's Notes:
Our Higher Education Challenge
With 42 out of 100 adults age 25-34 with bachelor’s degrees or higher, Lexington-Fayette County is Kentucky’s best educated community. By comparison, only 19 out of 100 Owensboro-Daviess County adults of that age have college degrees. To match Lexington-Fayette County, we would need more than twice as many college graduates of that age – 4,828, compared to the 2,138 we have now.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Chamber/community push tech center funding; Gov. Fletcher vetoes
Prepared for college, prepared for life?
Remedial programs, higher expectations and creative partnerships key to education gains in Owensboro-Daviess County
As business leaders express dismay that the U.S. workforce is losing its competitive edge in technology and the sciences, increasing numbers of educators and concerned citizens point an accusing finger at American high schools. Scores on the federal government’s report card for public schools, the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP, show that American students make rapid gains in elementary school, slow a bit in middle school and stall in senior high.
From my perspective:
A lot of people want me to stop smoking cigarettes. My mother would like for me to stop (although she says little about it) because, I suspect, she would like to think I will live at least as long as she has. She just turned 80, and never smoked cigarettes herself. She has been exposed over the long-term to secondhand smoke generated by my father, my grandfather, my step-father, and until recently, me. I don’t smoke in the house anymore.
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Framing the Issue: Local tax structure has many inequities There are differences in government services from one area to another, but most people do not notice the difference. Is such a disparity justified? Is this right? Is this fair? |
Helping the poor and ramifications of minimum wage mandates
The Kentucky General Assembly recently considered raising the state’s minimum wage from the current $5.15 to $6 this year and $6.50 next year, but some economists say that’s not the best way to help low-income families and individuals. Poverty should be attacked from various angles, they say, including higher wages, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit and support services.
Editor's Notes:
Public is largely uninformed about local governments and school systems
As the city-county government unification task force prepares its March 20 final report, some members are perplexed that the public has shown little interest in its work. Only a handful of non-members attended any of the bi-weekly open meetings since the group was named more than a year ago.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Forum participants share views about the state budget
Dental care for poor youth "a huge, huge need"
Low Medicaid reimbursements and lack of insurance complicate access
According to a Kentucky Youth Advocates study based on data from 2004, 10,780 children in Daviess County under the age of 21 were eligible for Medicaid or KCHIP (the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program). Of that number, only 3,440, or 32 percent, received any dental care. More than two-thirds of eligible patients went untreated. The study reveals similar numbers across the state – only 33 percent of Medicaid- or KCHIP-eligible recipients under 21 receiving dental care.
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Framing the Issue: The state legislature has convened, and once again the battle lines are drawn between those who have pledged not to raise taxes and who want to shrink government, and those who claim that we are under-funded and unprepared to meet increasing needs in education, health care and other vital services. |
Gay or lesbian people living here have to come to a great compromise with their own personalities. They must project a false persona with all people at all times. It’s a mixture of denial, of self-protection, and it is absolutely necessary for them to do this. It takes a tremendous toll on their spirits,” says Rev. Michael Erwin of New Hope United Church of Christ.
Editor's Notes:
Public dialogue and the smoking ordinance
Daviess County government’s recent action on a smoking ordinance serves as a valuable case study in grassroots democracy. The initiative was rooted in growing concerns over the dangers of secondhand smoke and sparked by sporadic regulatory successes across the nation and state, most recently in Lexington, Louisville and Georgetown.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Leib report documents citizen support of baseball stadium
Community needs, deserves more higher education
The Sept. 21 release of sobering statistics about Owensboro-Daviess County's low educational attainment struck a nerve throughout the community. Despite research that documents how economic development is tied to the education level of the workforce, some local educators and community leaders responded defensively or indifferently to the report. We shared these reactions with the researcher and author of the study, William Chance, Ph.D., and allowed him an opportunity to clarify points, findings, recommendations, and to respond to those who say "it can't be done."
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Framing the Issue: How should we pay for the hurricanes? After the Gulf Coast received direct hits from three major hurricanes within two months, the government was hit with the daunting task of rebuilding cities and restoring livelihoods. But where does the money come from? |
The following speech was delivered on Sept. 10, 2005, at the annual meeting of the Owensboro-Daviess County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Editor's Notes:
Academics can give OHS distinction
As an alum and parent of two sons who benefited from Owensboro High School cross country, track, music and theater programs, my innate impulse is to heartily endorse the ambitious athletic and fine arts building plan for the OHS campus and its Shifley Park satellite recently authorized by the Owensboro Board of Education.
On closer scrutiny, however, the proposal raises questions that warrant public dialogue.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Majority favor smoking restrictions
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Framing the Issue: What will work along the riverfront? As alluring as a $40 million gift for our riverfront may be, if a substantial amount of private sector investment does not occur as a complement to the ambitious Riverfront Master Plan, or if incompatible private investments occur that impede the ability to appropriately develop the riverfront, the project will fall tragically short of its potential. What kind of private investment will best complement this astonishing public (taxpayer) investment? What has the best chance of success? What vision and strategy should our community embrace? We examine several options. |
A lifeline to stability and success
Frank Posey of Owensboro has had many role models. When he was a boy, Joe Lewis, Jackie Robinson and Nat King Cole caught his attention. As he got older, it was his mother and grandmother who taught him about life and what to expect growing up as an African-American in a small rural Kentucky town. As a young man, he would sit for hours and listen while a black doctor gave advice on hard lessons learned.
Ten keys to an energized downtown
As a downtown resident and lifelong downtown advocate, it is gratifying to observe the progress occurring in downtown Owensboro and the prospects of even more exciting possibilities. With unprecedented ($40 million) federal government support for the riverfront and major new anchors targeted for downtown, these are exciting times for our community.
Editor's Notes:
Viewed from an airplane, it is even more deplorable. The plush green of the Appalachian Mountains ends abruptly, exposing a gray, moon-like surface. Now there are only twisting haul roads and rubble, a vast lifeless plateau. It goes on for miles. There are no longer valleys between the mountains. Everything that isn’t coal from what was atop the oldest and most diverse broadleaf forest in North America has been blasted apart and shoved over the side, clogging and polluting streams, dispersing wildlife, dismissing an ecosystem.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Citizens encourage additional forums on unification
Owensboro-Daviess County leaders regroup, redefine, and recharge toward a more effective economic development mechanism
Owensboro lags behind other similar-sized Kentucky cities on some economic development measures, an Advocate examination has revealed. Owensboro is at a chronic disadvantage in attracting large manufacturers because it is not located near a major interstate and is too far from such major cities as Nashville, Cincinnati, and Lexington to get much “spin-off” business from their big companies. Thus it can’t rely on the traditional economic development strategies that are still working reasonably well for communities such as Bowling Green and Hopkinsville.
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Framing the Issue: Examining local options to meet the growing need While public officials, insurance and drug companies, doctors and hospitals wrestle with state and national strategies to provide health care for the growing number of uninsured Americans, we examine steps that can be taken at the local level to get more people the care they need. |
The Changing Face of Owensboro:
Immigration trends challenge us
Language instruction, socialization, humanitarian assistance, and cultural exchanges are among the steps needed to embrace diversity in our community
Only about 1,000 people in Daviess County are foreign born, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, which provides the latest figures available. That’s about one percent of the total population and the majority of those immigrants moved here from Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Still, that number – 915 to be exact -- has almost tripled since 1990, when the census identified only 352 foreign-born people who settled here.
Editor's Notes:
Viewed from an airplane, it is even more deplorable. The plush green of the Appalachian Mountains ends abruptly, exposing a gray, moon-like surface. Now there are only twisting haul roads and rubble, a vast lifeless plateau. It goes on for miles. There are no longer valleys between the mountains. Everything that isn’t coal from what was atop the oldest and most diverse broadleaf forest in North America has been blasted apart and shoved over the side, clogging and polluting streams, dispersing wildlife, dismissing an ecosystem.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Citizens share views on Social Security reform; Baseball stadium ranks highest on projects survey
Framing the Issue: A citizen guide to prioritizing proposed community projects The look and feel of Owensboro and Daviess County could well be enriched in the years ahead. Public officials, community leaders, financial experts, organizational boards, a variety of committees, and private fundraisers all are wrestling with ways to build ambitious community projects now under consideration. The Public Life Advocate offers a guide to help citizens assess, prioritize, and have an informed voice in decisions concerning the largest of these substantial public investments. |
School nurse program grows but has serious needs
In March 1992, the Green River District Health Department saw a need to become more involved in school health. It began the school nurse program in Owensboro Public Schools at Estes and Foust elementary schools because of their high population of students from low-income families.
Under-employed in Owensboro
Recently the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce identified low-wage jobs as a growing concern in the state and the nation. Nearly one in five people in our region hold jobs, which generally pay between minimum wage of $5.15 per hour and $8 an hour.
Plodding through their plight:
Single mothers juggle work,
school & Family
The challenges for single mothers in Owensboro and Daviess County can be overwhelming - especially for hte 60 percent of them who have young children and are living in poverty.
Editor's Notes:
Major initiatives warrant a public process
Public officials, members of governing boards, committees, and task forces: Opportunities are at hand – opportunities to make wise decisions, build good will, and enrich our sense of community.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Residents shape Old Germantown redevelopment; Residents share faith traditions; Report on City-County Unification Test Forum
The Medical Malpractice Debate
VA hospital model demonstrates that Honesty is the best policy
While physicians, insurance companies, consumer advocates, and trial attorneys place the blame on one another for high malpractice insurance costs, a Lexington hospital’s full disclosure policy significantly lowered its liability costs and may be a model to replicate.
Framing the Issue: Ideology or Economics? Modest Adjustments or Massive Overhaul? Will the debate dwell on higher returns and private control of retirement funds or effective and fiscally responsible steps to balance the books? |
Advocacy group targets five issues in '05
CHCA was created following a health needs assessment in 2000 initiated by the Public Life Foundation and completed by Ireson and others at UK. It revealed that health care access, costs and associated problems were a major concern of citizens in the region.
Editor's Notes:
Rwanda horror should change us
A few weeks ago, my wife and I joined our Sunday School class to view the film, Hotel Rwanda. A gripping, horrific story of international indifference and personal heroism amid the 1994 genocide in that African country, the film left us stunned and perplexed as to why our government – why all of us – did not do more to stop the killing. It’s hard to fathom such a slaughter.
Citizens Speak: Leaders Respond
Residents shape Old Germantown redevelopment; Residents share faith traditions; Report on City-County Unification Test Forum
Better Access to Quality Care: A Citizens Participation Handbook The People's Health Project (2001) |