‘City option should be voted by whole county’

Editor:

After I read in the Mountain Citizen Paper article of the intention to put on the 2022 election ballot for the city of Inez, Ky., to legalize the sale of drinking alcohol within city limits, I feel the need to express my concerns about this action. As a voter for 60 plus years, I am against legalizing alcohol sales. While expressing my opinion on the law in question, we are supposed to be a free democracy; therefore, all Martin County citizens should have the right to vote on laws that concern all Martin County citizens.

I do not believe voting for sales of alcohol or drugs of any kind should be limited to a very few voters with the limit of a town of 400 to 500 citizens (not voters) should be allowed. If alcohol is to be sold anywhere in Martin County, it should be on the whole county’s voting precincts for the whole county’s voters to vote on, not just a couple of hundred voters when it will affect all county citizens, children, school buses, ATVs, all who will be using our public county roads and public highways.

I ask, can you, our county government, or you, the hopeful alcohol retailers, guarantee the alcohol buying and drinking public will only drive on the streets and roads just in Inez? No. You cannot, and that’s why it should be voted on in all county voting precincts. The DUIs will be driving the same road you and I will be driving on.

I think it’s an insult to the voters of Martin County for our county government to limit the power of the voters to a small area of one town to determine a law that will affect all Martin County citizens, not only with accidents, deaths, but with the cost that increases with the fallout that goes with DUI accidents like taxes and insurance. Remember, the DUIs will be using all public roads and will be a danger to you, me, and all Martin County Citizens and visitors who will be sharing the county’s roadways with those buying and consuming alcoholic drinks.

Kentucky.com: “Kentucky saw a big jump in alcohol-driving deaths in 2020.” “March 7, 2022, Kentucky had one of the largest increases in the nation in alcohol-impaired driving deaths in 2020…” 2021 statistics have not been recorded yet. However, (FARS) preliminary estimation was an 18.4% increase in six months, June 2021. DUI is the No. 1 killer on our nation’s roads. (Copied)

As a Martin County citizen and voter, I believe and demand that “A law being voted on should be voted on by all voters to whom the law, if passed, will affect, not just a handful of voters.”

Please remember the citizens of Martin County will be in danger of DUIs on roadways and DUIs who are in the presence of dangerous weapons.

Let your local, county, and state representatives hear from you as a county voter that you “we” are being excluded from voting on a law that affects the citizens of the whole county and that we want to be represented in this important law concerning our daily lives and the lives of our children.

You and I pay taxes, and a tax without good representation needs to be changed or replaced.

We have a voice. Let’s use it. We desire a vote on all things. Let’s demand it.

A concerned citizen,

M.E. Cassady

Inez