Interlocal Agreement and Cameras
By PJ Martin
Editor
The Herald-News
The Metcalfe County Fiscal Court met on Thursday, February 13th with everyone in attendance.
The agenda was adopted and the minutes from the January 23rd meeting were approved after motions were made by Magistrate Daniel Bragg and seconded by Magistrate Ronnie Miller.
The first item was the approval of the January 2025 financial statement. The motion to approve was made by Miller, seconded by Bragg, and approved.
Next, Judge/Executive Larry Wilson gave an update on the work at the Metcalfe County Child Development Center.
“They are working on it. They were going to start fixing the walls and take up the old tile. It all has to be replaced. Also, it will have to be repainted. The insurance is taking care of this. I did get a text from them this morning. If the insurance has paid…they’d like to have some of their money now, so we’ll check on that.”
“Also, on that Development Center, the appraiser was here about a week ago. We’re waiting for his reply, and we do have some interest in that property, so we’ll look at that when we get it all in.”
The next item on the agenda was the Edmonton-Metcalfe County 911 Dispatch Interlocal Agreement. Judge Wilson expressed his opinion, “It’s a good agreement. I think the only thing I see, and others have expressed concern, we would like to have more input into the salaries and any new hires.”
County Attorney Sharon Howard added that she would like more time to review the agreement.
Judge Wilson stated, “I think the simplest thing to do is to have some sort of a line or section, whatever the terminology is, agreement that says that annually we get to review the personnel and salary schedules… Maybe we don’t have any control over who they hire, but the amount of positions they have and what those people get paid…”
It was suggested that County Attorney Sharon Howard and City Attorney Brian Pack work together and add a paragraph for the review of personnel and salary schedules, and then it could come back to the next fiscal court meeting for a vote.
The motion to table the interlocal agreement until the next meeting was made by Magistrate Kevin Crain, seconded by Magistrate Harvey Hawkins, then approved.
The court entered into a closed session to discuss property acquisition and returned approximately 15 minutes later. Judge Wilson stated that no action was taken while in closed session.
While reviewing the claims Magistrate Miller asked what the claim from WEX Bank was for and Judge Wilson replied it was the credit card that DES and the jailers used to fuel the vehicles.
Judge Wilson was holding several photographs in his hands as he said, “The only other business we have, we installed a lot of cameras in the parks as we’re still having a lot of vandalism. At Sulphur Well we went and got porta potties. We’re using them. They tore the restrooms all to pieces. And we’ve installed more cameras. And just for the knowledge of the public, we’ve got a lot of pictures. And some of them are nude pictures, and people running around in the park, and I don’t know, but they are pretty much recognizable. And if we need to, we will probably see if we can prosecute.”
“Well, I will say this. Page told me not to say it. It ain’t a pretty sight. They need to keep their clothes on.”
Next, Bragg stated, “I’ve had people approach me about solar companies coming in the county. They would like to see the county have an ordinance that they have to stay well, they recommended 2,000 feet from right away or property lines…I told them I would bring it up. They said Monroe County had done that (ordinance). But I feel like it’s their land…”
It was briefly discussed that landowners have the right to their own judgment and no action was taken.
Reports from the Road Department, Recycling Center, and DES were included in the paperwork for reference/questions.
The next regular meeting will be Thursday, February 27,, 2025, at 9 a.m. in the fiscal courtroom.
