Thoughts from the President

I'm writing a check this week for the renewal of my membership in the League of Kentucky Property Owners.

Like most of us on a budget, I carefully weigh what I am getting for my membership fee (or "investment", as the liberals tend to call it) for belonging to various organizations.

I weigh organization memberships such as the League carefully, and ask myself some pretty basic questions. Will membership enhance my life's journey? Will membership help my fellow man in any way? Will my personal involvement in interaction with members or belonging to committees make the organization any better? Sadly, not enough organizations meet these profiles.

The League does.

Life's journey is enhanced because the League was founded to protect our Constitutional rights, as delineated in the 5TH AMENDMENT of the United States Constitution.

Our fellow man is helped due to our involvement in promoting legislation that will protect Property Rights.

Your personal findings, as many of you experienced at the Annual Meeting, proves how you make your communities better for future citizens by belonging to this inspiring organization.

I am hopeful you will join me in renewing your membership this week.

Respectfully,
william h adkisson
president

Welcome to the Board

We would like to welcome John Helmer to the League Board of Directors. He is a welcome addition and we look forward to his input.

Takings Bill

The League is building a strong coalition to get our bill passed this Session (that starts in Frankfort in February.) This bill will go a long way towards protecting our property rights, forcing state agencies to pay fair market price when they take our land or pass regulations to restrict its use. To view the bill, check out our website at www.lokpo.org and click on Legislation Actions.

Enclosed with this newsletter is a list of legislators that we all need to contact about issues of importance. As soon as we have our Takings Bill number to refer to for our property rights protection legislation, we will send it to all League members so that each member can write a letter in support of our bill.

EPA Seeks Faith-Based Grants For Green Causes

By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
December 20, 2002

Washington (CNSNews.com) - The director of an Environmental Protection Agency energy program told a meeting of environmentalists recently that the White House's faith-based initiative should include federal grants for religious groups that advocate green causes.

A critic of the green movement called the idea "obscene" and warned that the federal program would be inundated by environmental activists who will start "finding religion" in order to qualify for the faith-based grants.

Jerry Lawson, director of the EPA's Energy Star program, told a meeting of environmentalists and religious groups in Washington that the EPA is informally seeking "ideas" regarding how religious groups who promote green causes like climate change and pollution controls, can qualify for the White House's faith-based funds.

President Bush has heavily promoted his administration's faith-based plan, which he believes is necessary to eliminate the barriers now hindering religious-affiliated groups from participating in government-funded community and welfare services.
Even though Lawson conceded that the faith-based initiative was originally designed to address unmet social needs, he said the federal grant program can be expanded to include green causes.
"The original vision and the current vision [of faith-based initiatives] is still social services ... What I am doing and other people at EPA are doing is looking at the programs we have available today that can benefit faith-based groups," he said in an interview with CNSNews.com. "Those of us at EPA and the environmental movement are recognizing that the faith community is also interested in the environment," Lawson said. When asked how green causes could qualify for faith-based grants, he was open to suggestion.

But Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the free-market environmental think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, said using faith-based grants for environmental issues is contrary to President Bush's original intent.
"President Bush had the opposite in mind. He had a pro-people, pro-human agenda."

He predicted that if the EPA is successful, there would be a rise in green advocacy groups suddenly "finding religion" in order to qualify for the grant money.

Submitted by a League Admirer...

What many do not yet believe, much less understand, is that the demise of the American farm and the Canadian farm and the South African farm and the South American farm is a planned demise. It is planned by many non-elected bureaucrats and a few elected ones. The Wildlands Project is being implemented very rapidly now (Wetlands restorations, rewilding the farm states by turning loose not dozens, but hundreds, of predatory animals.)

Example: We are now getting the explanation that the cougars were turned loose on us "to control the deer population." It would have been too simple to simply issue more hunting licenses! Using of the Endangered Species Act can shut down farming -- and logging, mining, ranching, commercial fishing -- any place, anytime. Look at the "new" Florida Everglades!

"Heritage Rivers" and other "sacred" places are going to get more and more restrictions on them. I can predict safely, that the more-than-30 miles of creek banks on our place will be required to be fenced -- cattle out, deer allowed -- within five years. Some lesser bureaucrat friends have told me this, to my face, in the past two years, when we were attending water meetings. At one water quality meeting, I mentioned the fact that deer cause more bank erosion than cattle because of the sharper hoof. You could have heard a pin drop. (Farmers were in the minority in this meeting).

I have seen the maps and have watched the government grab land in the western states occurring at a phenomenal rate. Look at what has happened in California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Add that to what has happened to Wyoming, Montana, and now the Dakotas. Look at the "Heritage Rivers" springing up on the map and listen to the water planners. We are well on our way to being returned to the "pristine" days of old, days without motorized transportation or other things requiring a motor. The goal is "pre-European settlement condition," and that means that almost all people -- except those in management and authority positions chosen to "protect and restore" the landscape -- will be removed. A simple search at Google.com using "pre European settlement" will awaken the complacent ones in a hurry! What bureaucrats fail to realize is that shipped-in food from the third world will never be a reliable resource. I think we will all have to endure some hunger, some privation, before that revelation occurs within the Washington power structure. One would think that "central planning" would have been discredited with the fall of the Soviet empire. Not so! We have an elite cult in this country that thinks collectively "we can plan better." Lotsa luck!

Update from the Al Yelton Chapter in Grant County League of Kentucky Property Owners

The Al Yelton Chapter in Grant County is working on a presentation to give to all the governmental bodies and to the social organization such as the Cattleman's Association, the Kiwanis Clubs, the Farm Bureau Board, etc.

We have 3 objectives as follows:

(1) One agriculture zone with 5-acre density - What we mean by 5 acre density is a track of land with 25.0 to 29.99 acres of land could be divided 5 times but if this track of land had a ridge with adequate road frontage then 2.2 acre tracks could be sold with the other 3 tracks containing the remaining average in the original track of land. Harrison County has a zoning ordinance similar to this. We think this type of land use would help our property owners as well as the consumer. This type of ordinance would really reflect what going on in the real world. Our property along existing roads is being used more and more for single-family dwellings and smaller specialty agriculture use. This would leave the farmer who wants or needs larger tracks of land for his agriculture uses - the less expensive land (behind these smaller tracks of land) for their single-family dwelling and their specialty agriculture uses.

(2) No out sale limitations - We are confident now that this objective will be obtained. In a meeting between the fiscal court members and P&Z people, Mr. Ken Messer made it plain that out sale limitations would not be acceptable.

(3) Term limits for commission members of the Planning and Zoning Commission - We think we would have a better P&Z commission if more people had the opportunity to serve. More and better ideas would be expressed. This would eliminate what I call the groove mentality. The same people with the same old tired, not real workable ideas.

Submitted by:
Charlie Phillips, President
Al Yelton Chapter in Grant County
859-824-6501

Annual Meeting Review

We had a good turn out for the annual meeting of the League of Kentucky Property Owners on October 23, 2002 at the Boone County Extension Center. We all enjoyed interesting and informative talks from Jeff Edgens, Ph.D., Director of Morehead State University and Gary W. Moore, Boone County Judge-Executive.

A special thanks goes to our two meeting sponsors, Ralph Drees and Henry Fischer. Because of their generosity, we were able to provide food and refreshments for all those in attendance. We appreciate their continual support of the League.