Tom Eblen: London doesn’t have to sacrifice history for parking lot
LONDON This is one of those stories that drives preservationists crazy: an historic home is about to be demolished for a parking lot. But it also is a story that should drive every taxpayer crazy, especially those angry about wasteful government spending. It is a story about a project that would spend nearly $1 million in state money and perhaps millions more in federal money to provide more parking space in a downtown that already seems to have plenty of it. The story has its roots in the massive courthouse construction program that since 2000 has built 65 new judicial centers around Kentucky at a cost of more than $880 million. The Herald-Leader published a series of stories in 2008 questioning the high cost and management of that program. Kentucky lawmakers and John D. Minton Jr., who inherited the program when he became the state’s chief justice last year, have vowed to look for savings and improve oversight. Laurel County’s new $23 million Judicial Center opened this summer. In a special meeting Sept. 21, the Laurel County Fiscal Court approved the Judicial Center Project Development Board’s request to spend $930,000 in “leftover” money from the courthouse bond issue to buy a residential block across Broad Street for parking.
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