TIME TO TURN THE CORNER WITH EDEN PARK

Now that Judge Duane Murner has announced that the latest deal with the Hocker Group has fallen through, perhaps the Oldham County fiscal Court should consider another name change for Eden Park/Oldham Reserve. One name to consider would be "Safari Land" since that is where the white elephant and the deer are located. Eden Park has certainly turned into a white elephant. Neither the county nor the City of LaGrange can afford it. I have been saying this for a long time but few people would listen.

The governing bodies of this county need to realize that Oldham County is a bedroom community where people want to live in a serene setting and educate their children. They did not move to Oldham County looking for jobs and for the most part they are not interested in turning Oldham County into the industrial center of Kentucky.

The current county administration inherited Eden Park from the prior administration which was made up of several members (5) of the present fiscal court. Thus, the current administration cannot place all the blame for this fiasco on the prior administration. However, the fact is that they do have a white elephant on their hands. The other fact is that they must do something to alleviate the problem that Eden Park presents. Simply pushing the problem to the next administration is not the best solution. Sooner or later the county has to pay the bill. Putting the issue off to the next administration has already cost the taxpayers a lot of additional money in interest.

The county and the City of LaGrange should consider cutting their losses and moving on. This should have been done before the current economic downturn but pride was allowed to get in the way of good judgement. To continue down the current path is akin to pushing rope and that is tough to do. Perhaps the land can be sold some day for more than the purchase price. However, how much suffering must be borne by the taxpayers to get to that point? Will the end justify the suffering?

It is time to do something with the land besides using it for deer hunting. I hope that the county does not get the idea that they could charge significant fees for deer hunting and then claim that an airport is needed to provide a means for the people to come to the county to hunt. Surely, they wouldn't do that.