Colonel Fest, Lincoln Day Banquet both had large turnouts

Things are starting to get a little bit lonely for me here in the News Journal newsroom.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

First, Jennifer Perkins left us a couple of weeks ago to pursue a job in television. Now News Journal Sports Editor Dean Manning left us at the end of the week to become a police dispatcher.

(Maybe no one wants to work with me…LOL.)

Dean and I have shared an office together for over a decade, and get each other’s obscure movie references, which range from “Bull Durham” and “Kelly’s Heroes,” in a way that I doubt anyone else ever will.

I am going to miss my buddy but I get that he is wanting a life that has a bit more normal schedule. A career in journalism isn’t for everyone and involves working a lot of nights, weekends and some holidays if you want to do it the right way.

I hope to have something next week to announce about their replacements.

Now to switch gears and discuss a few other subjects before I conclude this column.

• If you didn’t make it out to the Second Annual Colonel Fest last Saturday in Corbin then you missed a great one-day festival, which stayed pretty packed from its start at 10 a.m. until it’s conclusion about 6 p.m. Saturday. My wonderful wife Cecelia’s Cumberland River Behavioral Health tent stayed so busy that she had to go out about 2 p.m. to get more stuff to giveaway.

My congratulations goes out to Corbin Tourism Director Maggy Monhollen and everyone else, who helped organize this festival. I can’t wait to see what they add next year.

• Another event which had a huge turnout last Saturday evening was the 82^nd Annual Lincoln Day Banquet, which was held at The Corbin Center. This was the first time that the banquet has been held since the start of the pandemic. Over 400 tickets were sold to the Republican political event, which featured keynote speeches from U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers.

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, served as the Master of Ceremonies.

I have been to most of the Lincoln Day banquets over the last 25 years and this was one of the largest crowds that I have ever seen. If I am being honest though, these banquets were a lot more enjoyable back when Bill Clinton was the president. (There were some great jokes back in those days told during the banquets…LOL.)

• Also on this editorial page, you will find an opinion piece written by Tommy Druen, who is a syndicated author and Senior Policy Advisor for the Legislative Research Commission that was written to draw attention to the Kentucky Magistrates & Commissioners Association’s historic anniversary and also to describe the role of county magistrate/county commissioner.

One of our magistrates sent me a copy of it a while back and asked if we could run it at some point to better inform people about what it is that magistrates do since many people probably don’t know.

For the record, this piece isn’t intended as an endorsement of any candidate, but rather is being run to help better inform you – our readers and voters – about the role of magistrate and perhaps give you a better idea about what our magistrate candidates hope to be doing for the next four years to serve you if they get elected.

As we are running our candidate questionnaire/election survey information from our magistrate candidates this week, this seems to be an opportune time to run this opinion piece. Just a reminder that it costs the candidates nothing to respond to this election survey, and the responses appear unedited as a way for the candidates to communicate directly to you.

For those that don’t know, the job of magistrate pays an $1,100 salary per month in Whitley County.