By Ron Moore
Stafford County trucker, columnist
Special to the Tribune

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday. With the fast-paced activities of last week and the week ahead, we may not realize everything happening around us.

I read that Kansas legislators have 110 new laws set to take effect in 2025. Additionally, over 200 provisions will also be enacted. I’m not entirely sure what a “provision” entails, but it sounds like we might be under more scrutiny.

Why do people who are elected or placed in power feel the need to change things constantly? Maybe it’s a power trip for them. Or perhaps they believe if they aren’t involved in creating new laws, people will think they aren’t doing anything.

St. John used to have two traffic lights in front of the school. When school was in session, the lights operated as expected. When school wasn’t in session, they simply hung idle in the middle of the intersection, waiting for the next school day.

This system worked perfectly for many years. But one day, someone from the Department of Transportation visited the town and decided the lights had to be removed. The town was told to install four-way stop signs instead.

They complied, and now those stop signs are in use 24/7, 365 days a year. Even at midnight, you’re stopping to “protect the children.” The funny thing is, if you go one block in either direction of Broadway, you can avoid those stop signs altogether. I did it all the time.

For 40 years, I’ve hauled out of Medicine Lodge. During that time, I’ve traveled north on US 281 countless times. For years, the speed limit changed from 35 MPH to 45 MPH where the four-lane highway ended at the Sun City road.

However, I noticed this summer that they moved the 35 MPH zone farther north. Now, the 45 MPH sign doesn’t appear until you’ve passed Dollar Tree. (And I don’t think the milk had time to spoil before that store closed!) After traveling that section of road for four decades, it’s hard to adjust. There’s a good chance I’ll get a speeding ticket because driving 35 MPH just doesn’t feel natural.

I’m sure the new laws and provisions won’t have much to do with traffic regulations—we already have plenty of those. But it seems like whenever the legislature does something good, like reducing the sales tax on food, they find another way to offset it.