David Shields, a candidate for magistrate in District 4, ran this advertisement in the Friday, May 12th edition of The Kentucky Standard. The ad accuses incumbent magistrate Tim Hutchins of "selling out" the district on the issue of annexation. Click image to enlarge.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

Friday, May 12, 2006, 5 p.m. -- David Shields, a candidate for fourth-district magistrate, has pulled out the stops in his campaign to unseat incumbent Tim Hutchins, focusing on annexation of his family's property on KY 245.

Shields told viewers of Thursday night's debate on PLG-TV that Hutchins "has sold out the district" over annexation by saying he was against the corridor annexation of KY 245, while at the same time agreeing with it in regards to his family's property that is being developed into a subdivision.

In an earlier interview, Shields said he understood the advantages that sewers offered a developer -- mainly the ability to increase the number of homes that can be built in a development. But he said he was taking Hutchins to task over saying one thing and doing another.

Waving the copy of the annexation agreement before the camera during the televised debate, Shields said Hutchins' actions were self-serving.

Given his turn to rebut the allegations, Hutchins said he was only acting on the development at the request of his mother, who sought to develop the family property. He admitted that as a member of the Hutchins family, he owned a share of the development, but he strongly denied that he was switch-hitting on the issue of annexation.

The city requires that developers sign a consent to annexation agreement in order to have access to the city's utilities, Hutchins said. Every developer who wants those services must sign a similar agreement. Hutchins said when he signed it -- in November 2003 -- he had no idea that the city would be seeking to annex the KY 245 corridor.

The Hutchins family property and the site of the new Flaget Memorial Hospital were all annexed by the City of Bardstown in what is referred to as the KY 245 corridor annexation that was completed last summer. Could Hutchins have foreseen that his family's development would be annexed nearly two years earlier?

Hutchins explained during the debate (and also on Ed Carty's radio program Friday morning) that he opposed the city's annexation on the grounds it was not contiguous. "If my property was touching property in the city, then you can't oppose it, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on," he said. "I just think the way they did it was wrong."

In a full page ad in Friday's edition of The Kentucky Standard (see above), Shields cites the annexation agreement as proof, including it in the advertisement under the banner "Magistrate Tim Hutchins claims he is fighting against City Annexation when in fact HE HAS SOLD US OUT! HERE'S THE PROOF!"

During the debate, Hutchins cited a partial list of the committees he's been a part of and some of the many things he said he's help get accomplished in his 12 years on Fiscal Court.

"I've got an agenda of things I would like to do in my next term," Hutchins said on Ed Carty's program Friday. "My opponent does not."

During Thursday's debate on Friday's radio program, Hutchins brought up an issue that Shields used against him in his campaign four years ago -- the sewer tax.

"What about the sewer tax? My opponent was saying that I helped pass a sewer tax," Hutchins said. "Nobody's paying any sewer tax."

Shields said during the debate if elected, he would work to get city sewers extended out further in the county. Several subdivisions just a few miles out of town are faced with failing septic systems and no way to fix them.

Hutchins agreed that sewers should be extended to more areas, but argued that the annexation lawsuit should be settled first. There has to be a way to extend services without forcing residents to agree to be annexed, he said. The county has its own 201 Facilities Plan which is a road map for development of a sewer system.

It's unlikely the county will ever try to build its own wastewater treatment plant, Hutchins said. "The state is encouraging counties to use a regional approach to sewers," he said. Bardstown has plenty of capacity, and it would make sense to make it the city sewer plants the base for extended county sewers.