Friday, December 31, 1999
Pencils, paper safe from Y2K
Tiny Ky. town not worried about glitches
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MACKVILLE, Ky. — In this speck-on-the-map city of 200 residents, there are no city computers, no stop lights - just a caution light.
The city's only records are handwritten, kept in a gray, three-ring binder at the mayor's house.
“It has all the information there,” Mayor Carl Gabhart said, pointing to the binder. “If there is a fire or whatever and the filing cabinet gets destroyed, then it's gone.
“So, I guess really I'm more concerned about a fire than I would be Y2K as far as destroying the city's records.”
That's why Mackville officials have spent $0.00 on the Y2K problem — a vivid contrast to the millions that cities around the world have dedicated to fixing the computer glitch.
Mackville, some 130 miles southwest of Cincinnati, is one of the smallest incorporated municipalities in Kentucky. Here, most residents consider Y2K fears a big-city problem. With no elevators in town to trap people, folks are more concerned with unknown vehicles in town. “Nobody seems to be all excited about Y2K,” the mayor said during a tour of the city.
“I've got my pencil sharp, I've got my paper ready, and I do have my calculator ready,” said Mr. Gabhart, who teaches special education at North Washington Elementary in neighboring Willisburg.
“The accounting system for the city of Mackville is pencil and paper, and after I do it on pencil and double-check all the figures, then I ink it in just like fifteenth-century monks did.”
Mackville has no paid staff and no city hall. Meetings are held in the volunteer fire department.
The mayor, whose main job is to call special meetings and preside over commission meetings, said most city business is conducted in his house, where he answers the phone, “Mayor's office.”
Located in rural Washington County, Mackville is mostly a farming community, where the most popular event is the tractor pull.
The city's annual budget is usually between $8,000 and $10,000. Mackville's business district is primarily the post office, a bank, two small grocery stores/grills and a truck company.
“The banker did tell me not too long ago that there had been some people who came in and drew their money out,” said the mayor, a former Cincinnati resident who has held the job for 21 years because he says no one else wants to run the city.
“But the majority of the people that I talk to think (Y2K hype) is a gimmick. Most people feel if we were aware of it enough in 1998, then big businesses had two years to make these changes.”
Emma Jean Fowler, 42, who owns M&R Grill and Gameroom on the city's Main Street, said she isn't taking any extra cash out of the bank for the weekend.
“We're out here in the country. We've got cisterns,” said Ms. Fowler. “Come Saturday morning, I expect to open up and run my business.”
In case her cash register isn't working, Ms. Fowler has a back-up plan: pencil and paper. She has a computer in her store, too, though she's not sure if it's Y2K compliant.
However, officials in Washington County have been planning for a while, holding emergency planning meetings, making sure county vendors — gas, electric, water and cable companies — are Y2K compliant. Officials will also open two shelters in case problems arise. All four sheriff's deputies will be on duty, and the number of ambulance crews have been doubled — to two.
“In relative terms, we are spending some money, but I guess it's not a considerable amount,” Judge-executive John A. Settles said.
“We are trying to do some things to ensure citizens' safety,” he said.
Lifelong resident Kay Burkhead isn't worried about airplanes falling or power outages.
“I think it'll go over great. I've got my trust in the higher power,” said Mrs. Burkhead, 66.
The mayor conceded that concerns over Y2K may be legitimate.
“But I don't think it's all that terrible,” he said, “because I don't think our federal government is going to let us get in the shape where another country can take us over because we didn't have enough sense to program our computers.”
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