I don’t have anything against big cities but small town values make the quality of life better in Madison County.

A classic example of Madison County leadership is when the city of Berea announced the purchase of Berea Utilities from Berea College.

For what seems like the past zillion years, the city of Lexington has been fighting about their water company. The city wants to own it and the company who owns it does not want to sell. The two sides are polarized and there is no potential for compromise. 

Compare that to the city of Berea , which made a low key announcement that they soon will own their own water company. 

Not only that, they will own their own electric company too. 

Those of us who live in Berea were told that the only noticeable change is that the bills will come from the city instead of Berea College . The utilities will have the same employees and same services. 

It would have been financially advantageous for Berea College to sell the water company to the German mega-corporations that own Kentucky American Water and Kentucky Utilities. With education costs increasing each year, it would have been easy for Berea College to justify boosting its endowment by selling the utilities to the highest bidder. 

Berea College understood it is a stakeholder in the city of Berea and gave up short term profits for a larger good.

The city leaders in Berea have to be commended for working with the college to put together an arrangement that benefited everyone. I did not see a lot of grandstanding by the city leaders, just the simple announcement that the deal was done. 

The city has now secured its precious resources and won't be subject to the whims and rate increases of outside corporations. The benefits will be reaped for generations to come. 

The utilities story is just one more example of how Madison County has been blessed with political leadership that can work with business and education communities but tell them no when they have to. 

It is not an easy line to walk. If political leaders are too cozy with the business community, long term vision gets lost. Businesses will go over the line and do stupid things. 

Leaders have to tell businesses no sometimes. It is not easy. Business leaders are major contributors to campaigns and have influence over a number of other voters. Leaders put their careers in peril by saying no too many times. 

If leaders say no too often, businesses will move to where the leadership will pay attention to them. In fact, I did that when I left Lexington . 

I owned a business in Lexington for nearly 15 years. Even though I knew almost every civic leader at that time, my business was not given much attention by the Lexington political leadership. It was just too small. 

State Senator (now Judge) Bill Clouse and State Representative Harry Moberly spent years convincing me that Richmond was a better place for my business. They were right. 

Moberly and Judge Kent Clark listened to what I needed and tried to accommodate me. They also told me no when they felt like I was wrong. At my first Madison County home, I wanted a stop light at the top of my road. I drove both of them to the spot where I wanted the light. In fact, I drove Moberly there three times. 

A light would have been good for me but inconvenient for other drivers. Harry and I have been friends for 25 years and I supported Kent each time he ran for office. It would have been simple to repay that support and friendship by giving me the light. 

Not a chance. They told me that no matter how hard I pushed, I was not going to get my stop light. 

I had to admire them for doing what they thought was right. 

I moved to Berea on another street that could use a stop light. I won't get one there either. 

However, I know where my water and electric are coming from and where to complain if something goes wrong. People in Lexington can't say that. 

I have nothing against the big town but I am staying here. 

Don McNay is President of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond and lives in Berea where he uses both electricity and water. You can write to him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text77630 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com