I got to spend a few hours Friday morning with a group of kids from Sandersville elementary and medical missionaries from Lancaster Baptist. The kids from Sandersville were third-graders who had helped raised money to ship buckets of supplies down to Haiti to be distributed to Haitian children.

The supplies were gathered by Garrard County elementary schoolers and will go down to Haiti with the Lancaster Baptist medical team in March. You can read my story from Sunday’s paper here.

(Click view with PicLens to pop up a nice slideshow viewer instead of having to click on each image.)

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Karla Sefcak has taken quite a few photos of the progress being made on the new judicial center building, and has uploaded them to several online albums. Here are the links:

Album 1 / Album 2 / Album 3 / Album 4 / Album 5 / Album 6 / Album 7 / Album 8

A group of about 10 people from Lancaster Baptist are headed to Haiti in March, and tomorrow they’re meeting with a class from a Lexington school who helped raise money to pay for supplies they’re taking down with them.

I’ll be there to cover the meeting and packing-up of the materials. Kelly Werkmeister, the wife of Dr. James Werkmeister, told me most of the people headed to Haiti have medical background. They will be returning to Haiti after having been there last year before the earthquake hit.

Watch for the story and photos in Sunday’s paper.

There was apparently an accident along South Campbell Street last night, at about 11 p.m. The Lancaster Police Department doesn’t have any details available yet, but Fire Chief Richard Sebastian said a woman driving an SUV lost control and wound up hitting a tree.

The collision pushed in her dashboard, pinning her under it, and crushed her driver’s side door, making it impossible to open it, Chief Sebastian told me. They had to use the jaws of life to cut her out of the SUV, and then she was airlifted to a hospital.

If anyone out there knows more details, please comment or drop me an e-mail (bkleppinger@amnews.com).

UPDATE: Wanda Shelton has told me there were apparently four people in the vehicle. She’s going to try to get the officer who’s handling the accident to give me a call this afternoon when he’s up (he works third shift).

My story about the audit the city council received last night for fiscal year 2009 will be in today’s paper, but here are some highlights:

• Lancaster had $301,668 left over in unrestricted general funds as of June 31, 2008 and $271,915 left over on June 31, 2009. That means the city spent about $30,000 more than it brought in for the year.
• The auditors said the current $271,000 cushion is about how much the city spends in about two months. Ideally the city would have 10-12 months of cushion saved up.
• Lancaster had about $3.24 million in debt on the books as of June 31, 2009. $127,611 of that total principal amount is due to be paid this fiscal year.
• Auditors said the city needs to improve walls between money-collecting and bookkeeping, do a better job of using purchase orders and make sure it budgets for debt service costs.
• Auditors recommended completing a pay-scale policy for city employees, which is required by the city’s personnel manual.
• Auditors pointed out that the city has sometimes been paying sales tax even though it is tax-exempt. One time the city paid more than $600 in sales tax.

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The council also wanted to get the word out again about its diversity survey, which is available to be taken here. The results of the survey will be used to guide discussion at the Feb. 8 diversity forum, which is being held in the high school cafeteria at 7 p.m.

The Bluegrass 911 board has used the $93,000 loan it took out last month to pay off all the remaining old debt it owed, including federal and state taxes and old retirement contributions. The issue of $22,000 in penalties from the IRS remains, and the board has 20 years of $543 monthly payments left as well. No new news on any legal resolution as far as criminal charges or a report from the accountant analyzing Bluegrass 911’s finances. Story will be in tomorrow’s paper.

The Bluegrass 911 Center Board meets today at 8:30. I’ll be there, and then post an update here later this morning.

The Lancaster City Council meets today as well, at 7 p.m. The 2010-2011 budget may be a main topic of discussion.

(Corrected below)

No one rushed in the door at 3:58 this afternoon — everyone was done filing by about 3:45. Some of the most interesting races are the ones that aren’t races at all. Judge-Executive John Wilson has no opponent in the primaries. John told me that a judge-executive hasn’t run completely unopposed in Garrard County since 1963. The County Clerk, Circuit Court Clerk, Jailer, PVA and district-one magistrate Joe Leavell are all running unopposed as well.

Here are the final slates:

• County Judge-Executive: John Wilson (R)
• Sheriff: Ronnie Wardrip (R), Allen Weston (R)
• Lancaster Mayor: Don Rinthen, Brenda Powers
• City Council: Brandon McGlone, Chris Davis, Maggie Morris, Jesse Wagoner, Mike Sutton, Bret Baierlein
• District One Magistrate: Joe Leavell (R)
• District Two Magistrate: Doan Adkinson (R), Mike Carter (D)
• District Three Magistrate: Ronnie Lane (R), Freddy Day (R)
• District Four Magistrate: Fred Simpson (R), Michael Condon Sr. (R)
• District Five Magistrate: Marvin Conn (R), Chester Satterfield (D), Brenton Causey (D), Betty Von Gruenigen (R), Teresa Dollins Locker (R), Larry Nicely (R)
• Circuit Court Clerk: Dana Lane Hensley (R)
• PVA: Kay Sparks Hall (R)
• Jailer: Kevin Middleton (R)
• Coroner: Daryl Hodge (R), Kenny Johnson (R)
• County Clerk: Stacy May (R)
• County Attorney: Jeff Moss (R), Mark Metcalf (R)
• District One Constable: Earl David Thornton (D) (Corrected — Thornton is running in District Two)
• District Two Constable: Daniel Napier (R), Earl David Thornton (D)
• District Three Constable: John Dixon (R)
• District Four Constable: Wayne Burkhart (D), Billy Sebastian (R), Carliss Conley (R), John Nichols II (R), Harold Lester Jr. (R), Scott Miller (R)
• District Five Constable: Bryan Wilmot (R), Bruce Potter (R), Shannon Sizemore (D)

As you can see, there are six people running for the seat currently held by Magistrate Marvin Conn, as well as six people running for the position of District Four Constable. There are also six people running for the six seats on the city council. Another statistic of note: Excluding the mayoral and city council candidates who do not run with a party, there are 30 Republicans and 6 Democrats running.

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Correction: The way I originally wrote this post, it sounded like John Wilson told me no judge-executive had run unopposed in the primaries in Garrard County since 1963, which isn’t what he said. No judge-executive has run completely unopposed through a whole election since 1963. There have been occurrences of judge-executives running unopposed in their party’s primary and then facing a challenger in the main event.

With the deadline for filing to run in the May primary election a little more than 24 hours away (Tuesday at 4 p.m.), I thought I would post an update showing where all the local Garrard County races stand:

• Magistrate Race: There’s a five-way race for the fifth-district magistrate seat on Garrard’s fiscal court. Incumbent Marvin Conn is running against challengers Brent Causey, Larry Nicely, Chester Satterfield and Betty Von Gruenigen.
• City Council: Two people have filed to run for Lancaster city council seats. One is Chris Davis, who currently serves on the council. Brandon McGlone is the other. Brandon was one of the council’s top three choices to replace former Councilwoman Emily Whitworth when she moved into the county, but the council wound up selecting Maggie Morris instead.
• Sheriff Race: Sheriff Ronnie Wardrip and Lancaster police officer Allen Weston are both running for Garrard Sheriff.
• Mayor Race: Mayor Don Rinthen and City Councilwoman Brenda Powers are running to be mayor of Lancaster.
• Another Magistrate Race: Incumbent Doan Adkinson and challenger Mike Carter are competing for the second-district magistrate seat.
• Constable Race: Wayne Burkhart, Carliss Conley, John Nichols and Billy Sebastian are all running to be the fourth-district constable.
• Another Constable Race: Earl Thornton and Daniel Napier are running for constable in the second district.

Currently uncontested races:

• Judge-Executive (John Wilson)
• Magistrate District One (Joe Leavell)
• Magistrate District Three (Ronnie Lane)
• Magistrate District Four (Fred Simpson)
• Circuit Court Clerk (Dana Hensley)
• PVA (Kay Hall)
• Jailer (Kevin Middleton)
• Coroner (Daryl Hodge)
• County Clerk (Stacy May)
• County Attorney (Jeff Moss)
• Constable District Three (John Dixon)
• Constable District Five (Bryan Wilmot)

Jerome Isaacs has filed to run for the 36th district state representative seat, which is currently held by Lonnie Napier. Roger Ayers also filed to run for the seat last month.

Isaacs is running on the Democratic ticket, while Republican candidates Napier and Ayers will be squaring off against each other in a primary.

While Isaacs is a Democrat, when I talked with him yesterday I learned his stances on many social issues are not any different from Napier or Ayers. All three are self-described pro-life and pro-gun, and all three have anti-gay-marriage views.

Isaacs told me his strong point is his leadership skills, which he has gained through his experience with the Kentucky Division of Forestry, on the local Ag Development Council and as a past president of the Garrard County Soil Conservation District.

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I’d like to hear people’s thoughts on this race. Who has a chance and who doesn’t? With three candidates all touting many of the same views, does it matter who wins? What are the strengths and weaknesses that differentiate the candidates from each other?

It would be nice if we could have a good, honest, thoughtful discussion without it degrading into political theater. That kind of discussion ought to be able to occur somewhere, shouldn’t it?