Lexington Herald-Leader from Lexington, Kentucky • 3

Ruling says commissioner Now you see it The Lexington Leader Monday August 1 1171 A-3 can be clerk BOB I 9 Ruling on request from a Lex tngton resident Assistant Deputy At torney General Charles Runyan has determined that a county commissioner also can work as a deputy county court clerk First District Fayette County Commissioner Patricia Ellia had aought the opinion earlier this sum mer She had considered working as a deputy clerk during local property assessment appeals hoard hearings She thought there might be a conflict of interest in holding her elected office and serving simultaneously as a deputy clerk The deputy attorney general ruled July 25 that the state Constitution and Kentucky Revised Statute 61080 do not prohibit the holding of two county offices at the same time ss Barr Street's historic Augustus Hall House as it was Runyan said common law principles declare offices incompatible only if the excess of business prevents one person from adequately performing duties of both offices or if the relationship between the responsibilities of the offices causes a conflict of inter Auto club takes four hours est In this situation wrote Runyan there appears to be no Leslmtoa UadcrGAIV LANDERS The house as it is today future of the site is uncertain to destroy 135-year-old house definite policy has been formulated a public announcement will be made" By PETER PANYCH Leader staff writer Mrs Ellis however changed her mind about the job and never actually worked as a deputy clerk according to County Clerk Charles Baesler th auto club Friday to start demolition Saturday Hodge said he was not certain who called his office because his secretary had taken the message Hodge said that the demolition took about four hours to complete DeCamp said the building on the corner would have made a successful melding of the old and new architecture in downtown In Fayette County county com-misskners meet about once each year to deal with county road construction and maintenance And as late as last week auto club chairman James Bassett III was quoted as saying the status of the building was in An architect retained by the preservationists had designed several plans that would have saved the front portion of the house and still provided five parking spaces for the dub Richard Warren vice president of Blue Grass Trust said The unsolicited plans never reached the full membership of the board of directors automobile dub said they would have their architect look at it and sit down to talk about it" Warren said Bassett said he would have his architect do this" Cleaners fuel Miller's secretary said that he would be too busy this morning to comment further on the decisions that led to the razing According to Richard DeCamp executive director of the Lexington-Fayette County Historic Commission a building that is listed with the National Register is not guaranteed to stay UP- The listing merely guarantees that if a project using federal money threatens a registered building an architectural review must be performed by the advisory council on historic conservation The committee is within the Department of the Interior's jurisdiction Where no federal funds are used and the building is owned by a private agency as in this case the building's future is up to the owner taken by burglars The National Register of Historic Places has listed the Augustus Hall house built in 1844 at Barr and Walnut streets since July 19781 It was Barr last example of a townhouse in the Greek revival style of architecture and one of few left in Lexington And this past weekend it was torn down The National Register listing didn't save the Hall house The Bluegrass Automobile Club a subsidiary of the Automobile Association of America bought the old house at public auction last November for $900001 On Saturday the auto club tore it down apparently to make way for a parking lot although a tersely worded statement issued by Bluegrass Automobile Club President Jerry Miller says the status of the empty lot is unclear board of directors of the Bluegrass Automobile Club is in the process of evaluating the potential use of the property acquired at public auction the statement reads a Reached for comment this morning referred all comment to Miller Household cleansers and diesel fuel were nmong the tnrgets of thieves operating in the area over the weekend according to Metro Police people in the city see such handsome and important buildings as possibilities and not hindrances see the old building stock with some imagination" DeCamp said that time comes the future of downtown as a vibrant place will not be assured" DeCamp said the townhouse was a reminder of what Barr Street once was primarily a residential street He estimated that there are one or two otter Greek revival buildings standing in Lex ington among the 75 other individual buildings and three districts also listed in the National Register Warren said he was much" disappointed by the demolition thinkthe value of the building warrants more consideration than the way the issue was settled" he said are better ways of dealing with it than finishing off a project the way they did" Contractor Joseph Norwood Hodge of Norwood Construction Co said he was called by About 80 cases of household cleansers laundry detergents and moisturizing creams valued at 52400 were reported missing from a trailer in the lot of the United Trucking Co 1193 Winchester Road police said The Saturday demolition jarred area preservationists who had hoped to at least salvage part of the facade the oldest part of the Across town a thief took 23 of diesel feel valued at 575 from Bresch Sunoco Station Rt 8 Lees-town Road sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning The property assessment trict citizens meeting 1106 Commercial Drive Wednesday 9 am police and fire retirement fund 1409 Forbes Road 10 am Sewer Appeals Board mayor's conference room Municipal Building The thief apparently forced a door at the station open and switched on a fuel pump to remove the fuel according to police jumped and then so did he Thursday 1:30 pm Planning Commission work session 227 Upper St Tuesday 9 am Recreation Tour 1st and Convention Commission 421 Broadway 9 am plan review committee building inspection office Nunn Building 121 Walnut St 11:30 am Board of Architectural Review Planning Commission 227 Upper St 6:30 pm Housing Aid council chambers Municipal Building 136 Walnut St About 5400 in cash was reported taken from the Broadway Car Wash 550 Broadway Saturday night or Sunday morning Police said someone apparently entered through a rear door and used a torch to open a safe Property assessment appeals results are on page B-7 Friday 10 am bids on storm water drainage improvements and incidental construction services Purchasing Office 210 Corral SL By MARIA BRADEN AModaled Pm FRANKFORT No one ever said that property tax assessment Is an exact science Most people see it as a necessary evil since property taxes are the main source of revenue for local better houses on the same block were assessed for as much as 530000 less Uneven tax assessments like those are what make property tax payers howl Spend less 6th District residents the Property Valuation Administrator or PVA has enormous responsibility In Carpenter's words he must be a and administrator" There are explanations for the inequities cited above The Judge who had asked the grand jury to look into questionable practices hr the office believes the motive is revenge The PVA says the assessment had simply been too low in the past In the first Lexington case the PVA said he had not had time to reappraise property in the neighbor hood So he applied a flat percentage increase which did not take into account improvements or condition of the houses However at their worst property taxes can be unfair inequitable and regressive Consider this: tell Congress in Hopkins survey valuation is not an exact science" said State Revenue Commissioner Maurice Carpenter always a judgment factor involved always had that A Franklin County circuit judge whose home was assessed for $100000 last year received a 5222500 assessment for 1979 By JACK BRAMMER Leader Walt writer A survey conducted by US Rep Larry Hopkins R-Lexington shows that residents of the 6th Congressional District favor cuts in government spending even if it means cuts in services Carpenter said in a recent interview that of all the taxes Kentucky collects the property tax is far the most difficult and dollar for dollar the most costly to collect" An elegant brick house in Lexington with a new glassed-in twoatory porch was assessed this year at $46-500 Across the street a deteriorating brick house of comparable size was assessed at 570000 A Lexington couple who purchased a house last year was assessed the 591000 purchase price of the home with 51500 added for inflation Larger Only 25 percent thought mandatory across-the-board wage and price controls was the most effective way to reduce inflation Fifty-seven percent said the United States should spend more money on national defense Sixty-three percent said the federal government should not raise price supports for form products to guarantee 100 percent parity Eighty-one percent said federal funds should not be used for abortions on demand The other Lexington homeowners were assessed on the purchase price of their house clearly the hill market value But the assessments of nearby homes were increased only by a percentage of the previous assessment to full market value The reason? Unless a house has sold recently its fair market value must be negotiated Carpenter said So the tax assessor now called The survey also showed that most residents 82 percent in the 17-county district oppose a tax-supported national health insurance program Hopkins released the results of the survey last week in the House of Representatives Cornered Sixty-eight percent said Congress should refuse to implement funds for the Panama Canal The uneveness of property tax assessments contrasts sharply with other state levies such as the sales tax and income tax They are percentages levied against a fixed value such as purchase price or annual income not against a value by an elected official In the end property is worth what the tax assessor says it Is By Dob Faln- Here we 50 again The nation had just about rid Itself of that campaign picture of politicians with their coat shmg over their shoulder Now about to go through that again Federal prison escapee fr Sixty-nine percent said private enterprise should be allowed to compete with the UjS Postal Service: Seventy-one percent favored easing environmental restrictions so that coal can play a more important role in solving US energy problems Hopkins used part of his 561317 congressional allowance to conduct the survey The allowance Is set aside for trips back to the 6th District rent for a Lexington office telephone Mils stationery and printing costs caught by police here over-shoulder They are they would have you believe obeying the decree that air conditioners are to be turned down to 78 degrees You can look in their office windows and see them sitting at their desks with their coat draped rakishly over a bony shoulder Sitting in fancy dining rooms coffee cup held with one hand and coat-overshoulder with the other Mowing their lawns with the coat over the shoulder Sitting in the barber's chair At the dentist Everywhere with the coat etc Hopkins examines responses You remember Every election politicians would run big pictures of themselves with a determined look on their face and their coat over their shoulder He conducted it in March mailing 185000 to 190000 questionnaires to residents in the district The survey dealt with about 50 issues ranging from the scope of government to postal service The freshman congressman received about 10300 responses in excess of the number of persons polled by the commercial polling results of the survey" said Hopkins "confirm the idea that there is a mood in the nation to hold down spending and cut back on government activity in some About 76 percent of the respondents said they would most like to see Congress "reduce federal spending and the size of the federal Seventy-seven percent said that Congress should work harder at balancing the budget even if it means cutting some federal programs Eighty-four percent favored a constitutional amendment requiring a bal- This was supposed to show that they had worked up a sweat on behalf of John Taxpayer The truth was most of them sweated only on the golf course and even then they had their sweat catered by an exclusive FKnch specialty firm anced budget except during a national emergency prevalent attitude against the mushrooming growth of government can undoubtedly be traced to a belief that one of the evil consequences of big government and unbalanced budgets is the seemingly unstoppable inflation which now attacks our said Hopkins He said people are about inflation but that the centralization of power in Washington which has created the inflation cannot be counted on to cure Other results of the survey: A Pittsburgh Pa federal prison escapee was arrested by Metro police in Lexington Sunday evening Vernon Peters 40 of Eden NC and a Lexington resident for the past three months was stopped by Officer Paul Holland at 7:15 pm Sunday on Tates Creek Road Police said Peters was driving a car stolen from Tampa Fla Peters was unarmed and surrendered without resistance Holland later found that the FBI wanted Peters in Pittsburgh Peters has been charged with receiving stolen property in connection with the auto theft He will be returned to federal prison Ve can hardly wait till winter when thermostats probably will be ordered dropped to 57 degrees Then they look silly with their kmghandles over their shoulders Hopkins as a congressman mailed the questionnaires without cost respondents had to pay 15 cents for postage Steve Dreisler administrative assistant said Hopkins will consider the replies as he votes in Congress Hopkins is in Lexington during the congressional recess which ends Sept 5 metre murder Veil that had begun to wane thank goodness It was getting rare to see a politician pictured with his coat over his shoulder That coat over the shoulder Is just a lot of show And never see a candidate Carrying a gooseneck hoe But we now have a new outbreak an explosion of politicians with coat-.