Let the citizens decide

By PJ Martin

Editor

The Herald-News

 

The Metcalfe County Fiscal Court met in regular session on Thursday, July 11^th with Magistrate Ronnie Miller absent. That left three Magistrate for a quorum.

The magistrates adopted the agenda followed by the approval of the June 27^th meeting minutes with no changes noted.

The Medical Cannabis options for the county were explained briefly by County Attorney Sharon Howard and information from the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACO) was included for the magistrates to read. “…you have a choice, first of all, you can choose not to let them in or you can have a vote on whether to let the businesses operate in the county. Or you can have a general election, and make it part of the general election vote this fall. Or you can choose to take no action and regulate any businesses now that come in.”

“My opinion is let the people vote,” remarked Judge/Executive Larry Wilson.

“If it goes to vote and passes, we can set the regulations then,” asked Magistrate Kevin Crain to which Attorney Howard answered, “I think you have until December 31^st.”

Treasurer Page Edwards told the court that the clerk needs to know by August 12^th if it will be on the ballot.

Magistrate Daniel Bragg made the motion to make it a ballot issue and let the county vote and Magistrate Harvey Hawkins seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous to let the citizens of the county vote on the issue in November.

 

Updates

Judge Wilson presented an update on the work requested by Golden Years Adult Day Care owner Jerry Ferguson. Wilson stated that he had met with them the previous day, “Right now we just can’t do it all (remodel) at once, but we would work with them and their priority now is to get the interior painted.” He added that he looked at the interior and, “It needs it bad.”

He stated that they would meet again and he would present an update to the fiscal court about any work that is agreed upon. Concerning the new rent amount, Wilson noted, “The last figure I gave them was $1,900 a month.”

 

Second Reading

The second reading of Ordinance #24-0627 Adopting Electrical Inspection Fees of $75 for residential and $100 for commercial/industrial was approved unanimously after confirming that the county would receive $25 for each residential inspection. Magistrate Bragg asked what amount the county would receive from a commercial inspection and Treasurer Edwards stated that the ordinance could be amended after that amount was known.

 

Resolution

Resolution 24-0711 authorizing the Completion and Filing of a Government Resources Accelerating Needed Transformation (GRANT) Program application for up to $184,200 in funds from the Cabinet for Economic Development (CED) on behalf of the Bowling Park food pantry/parking lot and truck access project was presented.

Bowling Park Manager Lisa Boswell addressed the court, “Hi, I was here last month and we got a letter of support for this. Undenounced to me at that time, we actually need a resolution to go through with this, because like the CDBG it will have to go through the county…This grant money was made available because Bowling Park is not the only one that got caught. We got the grant, we put the bid out, and the bids were way over, what, because prices had increased so dramatically. So, they created this fund for people who had received the CDBG and other grants to tap into to complete the projects that were awarded the original grant.”

The resolution was approved by all three magistrates.

 

Other items

The Lewis Free Creek crossing was added to the agenda at the request of Magistrate Miller who was absent. It was tabled until the next meeting so he could be in attendance.

The judge and magistrates have been asked by citizens of the county if they were going to remove the large tree trunk and stump from the corner of the courthouse yard. Previously, Magistrate Miller had asked to keep it, because a carver was to carve it into a hornet. The carving has not happened so the court voted to have the tree removed.

Magistrate Bragg that people were asking about taking the Gillum Bridge out on Highway 90 because it backs up and floods every time it rains. The option is to take out the bridge, add a 6 ft. tile, and cement over it. It was deeded to the county in 2013. He has no estimate of the cost yet.

The item was tabled until the next meeting to give time to get estimates of what it would cost.

The claims were all approved and reports were received from the Recycling Center and Road Department for review.

The next regular meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 25, 2024.