march 16 deadline for nominations

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Special City Council Meeting TonightThe Dawson Springs City Council will hold a special called meeting at 7

p.m. tonight (Thursday) at the municipal building.The purpose of the meeting is to enter into a closed session to discuss

personnel matters. No official action will be taken during the meeting or after re-entering open session.

would authorize statewide vote to amend constitution

Expanded Gaming Bill Introduced In State Senate

part of mapping and planning project for kentucky

Public Is Asked To Respond To State Broadband Survey

The Dawson Springs ProgressVOL. 93, NO. 2 Dawson Springs, Hopkins County, Kentucky 42408, Thursday, February 16, 2012 FIFTY CENTS

fireworks at riverside park will be july 3

Derby At The Darby PlannedBy Dawson Springs Chamber

A large group of students enjoyed the sock hop for students K-4, a service project of the Jr. Beta Club held at the local school Friday, Feb. 10, to raise money for the “Back To School Bash.” photo by Beth Dillingham

ByCarolyn Walker

The Kentucky Department of Edu-cation announced last week that the federal government has granted the state an exemption from the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“Kentucky is once again lead-ing the nation in the area of public school accountability,” Gov. Steve Beshear said in a press release on the KDE Web site. “This federal flexibil-ity opens a new chapter in the com-monwealth’s work to ensure a well-educated citizenry. I congratulate our teachers, administrators, state agency staff, Kentucky Board of Education members, legislators and education partners on this great accomplish-

ment.”To apply for a waiver, states had

to have their own very high account-ability systems in place. The federal government set forth requirements for addressing four principles, all of which are included in the Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress test.

“It’s not a case of not being able to deal with NCLB,” said Dawson Springs Assistant Superintendent Charles Proffitt. “Our accountability system is going to be stronger than the regular NCLB was. We were able to demonstrate that our system would be more rigorous.”

Kentucky schools are still account-

ByCarolyn Walker

The Dawson Springs Chamber of Commerce held its regular monthly meeting at noon Tuesday. Several upcoming events were discussed.

Derby at the Darby, a fund-raiser for the Darby House, will be held April 28. Derby-related games and other activities will be held at the Darby House and in the downtown area. A dinner at the community center is being planned to coordinate with the event which will feature foods associated with Kentucky and entertainment related to horse rac-ing.

“I’m excited about it,” said Wanda Hughes, organizer of Derby at the Darby. “I think it will be a good day, a fun day.”

On May 25 and 26, the Whizzer Festival organized by Kenny and Syl-via Thomas will return to Dawson Springs. Among the activities planned for the event are a two-day swap meet, a ride through the country and an antique motorbike show on Railroad Avenue.

Chamber members approved plans for a Fourth of July celebration. The Tradewater Pirates will play the Hopkinsville Hoppers July 3 at Riv-erside Park followed by the annual fireworks display.

An October Fest is also in the plan-ning stages and may include a carni-val with rides.

Sewell announced the reorga-nization of two committees: the design committee headed by Peggy Furgerson, and the economic restructuring committee headed by

Zack Willett.A small Main Street grant will be

used for strategic planning. Sewell asked for approval to use the funds to have two former Main Street manag-ers, now working for the Kentucky League of Cities, help with that plan-ning.

Sewell was scheduled to be in Frankfort Wednesday to accept a $12,000 grant to refinish the tennis courts in the municipal park.

On the same day, Melissa Heflin was registered for a training session on the latest trends and most effective uses of social media.

Trace Menser, a local high school student, planned to accompany Sewell and Heflin to Frankfort for TakeitArt-side, an apps project which links to events as well as to public art and to archaeological sites.

The Dawson Springs Elementary and Junior-Senior High schools are seeking nominations for parent repre-sentatives to the School-Based Deci-sion Making Councils.

One representative will be elected by parents of kindergarten through sixth grade students, and two will be elected for grades 7–12. The terms will run from July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013.

The Kentucky Association of School Councils guidelines stipulate that “qualified candidates must be a

parent, step parent, foster parent or another person who has legal custody of a student pursuant to a court order and with whom the student resides. The student must be preregistered to attend the school during the term for which the candidate will serve.” Par-ents must also meet these qualifica-tions to nominate candidates.

Parents not allowed to serve on school councils include those who work at the school or the district adminis-

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Calling it “the best way to keep hundreds of millions of dollars here at home,” Gov. Steve Beshear and Sen. Damon Thayer announced their plan to introduce an expanded gaming bill in the Senate Tuesday. The bill would authorize a state-wide vote to amend the state’s constitution to allow expanded gaming in up to seven loca-tions in Kentucky.

“We’ve been debating this issue in Frankfort for more than 15 years. The citizens of our state are clamoring to have their voices heard,” Beshear said. “Two recent polls show more than 80 percent of Ken-tuckians want to cast a ballot on gaming. Are we going to listen to them or not?”

Senate bill 151 would allow

Kentucky voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would authorize up to five

casinos at racetracks and two at stand-alone locations at least 60 miles from the nearest race-

track. Revenue from the gam-ing facilities would be spent for job creation, education, human services, health care, veterans programs, local governments, public safety and support of the horse industry.

“The time has come to let the people decide on the issue of expanding gambling,” said Thayer. “This issue has been lingering in Kentucky for near-ly two decades, a majority of Kentuckians wish to vote on it, and the time has come to give them that opportunity.”

Beshear and Thayer worked together for weeks to develop the bill and to build consensus support for it within the Gen-eral Assembly. Sponsors of the bill include three Republicans, Thayer, Sen. Carroll Gibson

and Sen. Tom Buford; and five Democrats, Sen. R.J. Palmer, Sen. Perry Clark, Sen. Denise Harper Angel, Sen. Gerald Neal and Sen. Joey Pendleton.

“A recent economic study showed that in 2010, Kentuck-ians spent $451 million on casino gaming in our neigh-boring states. That’s hundreds of millions of dollars that could be supporting our schools and building our roads — but instead it’s padding the bud-gets of Indiana and West Vir-ginia,” Beshear said. “It’s time to keep Kentucky’s money here at home, and it’s time to let the voters have their say.”

The expansion of gaming would bring millions of dol-lars in recurring revenue into the state budget without raising

taxes, Beshear said. One recent economic study estimates that, under one scenario, expand-ing gaming at racetracks would bring in one-time license fees of $266 million and $377 mil-lion in taxes annually into the General Fund.

Details such as where to put the casinos and license fees and tax rates will be determined by enabling legislation that would be drafted after the legislature approves this bill, and if Ken-tuckians vote to approve the gaming amendment. Because the bill is a constitutional amendment, it must garner at least 60 percent of the votes in each legislative chamber in order to pass.

SEN. Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) introduces SB 151 with Gov. Steve Beshear (left) standing at his side during a press conference Tuesday. photo by Kentucky Press Service

The Kentucky Office of Broadband Outreach and Development and the Kentucky Council of Area Development Districts has launched a new survey as part of the Broad-band KY initiative to obtain direct input from the public about broadband access and use across the commonwealth.

The survey is part of a rig-orous broadband mapping and planning project for Kentucky that will provide comprehen-sive, current and accurate infor-mation on how Kentuckians use broadband. Surveys will be accepted during a four-week window from Feb. 8 through March 7.

“This is a unique opportuni-ty for the citizens of Kentucky to tell us about the obstacles they face in using broadband. We want Kentuckians online and globally engaged, and this program has been built to do that,” said Brian Kiser, execu-tive director of the Common-wealth Office of Broadband

Outreach and Development.Surveys will be solicited

via e-mail but can be taken by any Kentucky citizen using the Web site or paper surveys. More than 100,000 businesses, nonprofits, health organiza-tions, local governments and households in Kentucky will receive e-mail messages this

week asking them to partici-pate in the survey.

In addition to e-mail invita-tions to take the survey, busi-nesses, organizations and indi-viduals can participate by visit-ing www.broadband.ky.gov.

This project has three main goals: to gain an under-standing of the availability

of broadband and the usage of broadband across Ken-tucky; to identify opportuni-ties for growth in broadband availability and use; and to develop strategies for target-ing growth in unserved and underserved areas and in areas

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