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The Winchester- Clark County Rotary Club has a new weekly meeting location at the Winchester Country Club and a new display – “Spark! Places of Innovation” – continues to be open to the public through August at Bluegrass Heritage Museum.

Yet the new venue and exhibit weren’t the only reasons plenty were interested in stopping by on Friday afternoon.

Congressman Andy Barr, a U.S. House of Representatives member from Kentucky’s 6th District, visited Winchester on Friday to speak with local citizens at the Winchester-Clark County Rotary Club and tour the exhibit made possible by the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street Program and the Kentucky Humanities Council.

“It’s good to be back in Clark County today, listening and hearing from you,” said Barr, a Republican, during his remarks at Rotary. “Thank you for the opportunity to serve.”

Speaking to the Rotary Club at approximately noon, Barr was greeted by a wide variety of locals – including former Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner and recently elected State senator Greg Elkins.

Elkins, a previous magistrate of the Clark County Fiscal Court, introduced Barr.

“One of the things that makes my job easy is having the best Congressman that we could ever ask for,” Elkins said. “He is the busiest man you will ever run across. He’s got a great staff. He is very approachable. He’s always open to listen and to help with any issues we may have.”

Once introduced, Barr thanked the Rotary Club and took a moment to acknowledge the $1.5 million federal grant provided to Bluegrass Community and Technical College in February to expand their nursing and biotech programs.

Afterward, he began speaking to the audience about several topics, starting with efforts to combat cardiovascular disease.

The issue is important for Barr, whose late wife Eleanor passed away unexpectedly in 2020 at age 39 due to a heart condition known as mitral valve prolapse.

He also touched on financial topics, including the U.S. credit rating, inflation and banking.

While noting that some community banks in Kentucky are fortunately not as negatively impacted, Barr pointed out that there is work to be done.

“The economy is sick right now,” Barr said. “Unemployment might be low. There might be some positive statistics in the economy, but the economy is fundamentally sick because of high-interest rates and high inflation.”

Barr shared his thoughts on foreign policy, including relationships with China, during his speech.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s objective is to replace the United States as the world’s dominant superpower by 2049,” Barr said. “They call it the 100-year marathon….They do not want the Western international force. They want to replace it with their own communist authoritarian dictatorship, and this is a very serious problem.”

In Barr’s statement, he acknowledged that errors by both political parties led to conflict.

“The foreign policy establishment believed that if we opened up trade and we opened up our capital markets to the Chinese they would democratize and wouldn’t become a market-based economy,” Barr said. “We were wrong.”

Taking questions from those in the audience, including Magistrate Mark Miller, Barr stated that he was not an advocate of a central bank digital currency (CDBC) and that supporting Ukraine in their war against Russia serves to deter the possibility of Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, invading Taiwan.

“If Putin is successful in Ukraine, that is a green light for Xi to [invade] Taiwan,” Barr said. “We need to make sure that every day that Xi Jinping wakes up, he says, ‘Today is not the day to invade.’”

Later, at approximately 3:30, Congressman Barr and his staff visited the Bluegrass Heritage Museum on S. Main Street.

The purpose was to visit the Smithsonian Exhibit, “Spark! Places of Innovation”, which shows how rural communities have adapted to meet challenges by creating an alternative approach or improvising existing ones.

Such small towns featured include Marshall, Illinois, a city of just under 4,000 individuals located – interestingly enough – in Clark County.

Individuals such as Bluegrass Heritage Museum Director Sandi Stults and Jack Jones, vice president of the board of directors for the museum, led around Barr and his staff.

Others from the community – including Clark County Judge-Executive Les Yates – were also present.

“There’s probably, very near thirty-small town stories where the people in those small towns have done things [to] perhaps save their community or certainly improve their community,” said Jones. “We’re trying to encourage people to think beyond [themselves], to get out, [and] to innovate. If you’re involved, you can do a lot.”

The changes made to communities can occur through social action, technology, art, agriculture and more.

In some cases, industry – such as coal fields – has helped save small towns.

Barr expressed gratitude for what he saw.

“I was very impressed,” Barr said. “I’m a strong supporter of museums like the Smithsonian, and to have the Smithsonian partner with small town America, including Winchester…to bring this exhibit of innovation is great.”

While, as noted, Barr had some concerns for the nation, he also expressed hope regarding its future.

“I do have confidence in the future because of all these young people that I get to nominate to the service academies,” Barr said. “They’re young men and women who are patriotic, and if you want a bit of hope, it’s these unbelievably talented straight-A students who are willing to serve a cause greater than their own.”