People

“Good food and good friends. What more could you ask for?” asked Gary Kehne when he humbly stood before the Spencer County-Taylorsville Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday afternoon and accepted the award for Citizen of the Year.

“There’s nobody more deserving of this award,” said Chamber President Cara Lewis, who presented Kehne with a plaque after touching on some of the many volunteer organizations of which he has long been an outstanding member.

As the 2011 legislative session gets under way in Frankfort, many predicted a slow session without many results because of the upcoming governor’s race, which has Senate President David Williams seeking the Republican nomination.

But the session started off fast, with several bills being pushed to the Senate floor in the first week and the discussion of a statewide smoking ban.

“I know we’ve discussed it before, but I don’t ever recall voting on it [a statewide ban] before,” Rep. Brad Montell (R-Shelbyville) said.

Ringing in the new year was hardly done in a traditional way for Spencer County Sheriff Buddy Stump.

Stump, who last November won a narrow election over sitting sheriff Steve Coulter, scrambled to assemble a staff on New Year’s Eve when Coulter confirmed his rumored early resignation — two days before the state-mandated end to his term.