Bids, Budget, and Policy
By PJ Martin
Editor
The Herald-News
The Metcalfe County fiscal court held its regular meeting on Thursday, June 12th, with all magistrates in attendance. Prior to the meeting, a Public Hearing for public comments on the use of County Road Aid and Local Government Economic Assistance (LGEA) Funds was called to order. No comments were received, and the hearing was then closed.
A long agenda was approved along with the minutes from the May 22nd meeting.
The bids were awarded for the following:
Maintenance (Admin Office of the Courts – AOC): Chris Reece HVAC
Janitorial (AOC and Gov. Center) – Wisdom’s Cleaning at $4,000/month
Road Department Supplies – crushed stone and gravel – both Burton Stone and Gaddy Shamrock
Asphalt and Base – Scotty’s Construction and Stone
Patching – Cleary Construction
Petroleum Products – Tri-County Auto & Oil
Chip Seal – Gaddy Shamrock
Treasurer Page Edwards presented a monthly standing order of reoccurring expenses for approval. The motion to approve was made by Magistrate Ronnie Miller, seconded by Magistrate Kevin Crain, and approved. This was followed by the second reading of and adoption of the FY 2025/2025 Budget after motions to accept were made by Magistrate Daniel Bragg and seconded by Miller.
Handbook and Policy Updates
The next item was the annual discussion of the Administrative Code and Employee Policy and Procedure Handbook. This is the only time these can be updated or changed.
Edwards stated that the recent auditor suggested that the threshold for purchases which is currently $30,000 before bids are needed according to the policy book, needed to be updated to $40,000. That was approved to match the new policy and procedures in use.
Next, Bragg explained that employees, “right now they get six sick days a year, and they can’t roll them over.” There have been a couple of employees who have had surgery and couldn’t use the sick days from the previous year. “So, I thought maybe we could raise that to where you could roll over, like a month’s worth of sick days…we leave our comp time the same, our vacation same. But if you have sick days of 6 a year, you can maybe save up a month’s worth 28 days.”
Currently, up to 64 hours of vacation and 80 comp hours can be rolled over to the next year. Within the road department, if one of them has surgery or has a lengthy sickness and has no days, the others have in the past signed over their days to help them get paid. A very kind and considerate gesture.
It was agreed upon to allow the rollover of up to 30 sick days with the motion being made and approved.
It was questioned whether the county departments should recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday and be closed, but no one made the motion and the item died for lack of response.
Animal Shelter
Judge/Executive Larry Wilson stated that he hated to do this, but the maximum time the shelter can keep a dog needs to be set. “I’m getting a lot of complaints,” he stated about the animal control officer not being able to come and pick up dogs, because the shelter is full. He is even keeping a few dogs at his home until shelter space opens for them.
It was noted that the dog catcher should be allowed to bring in dogs before random individuals could. Unfortunately, some dogs are being dumped at the shelter at night.
Several opinions of hold time for euthanasia were thrown into the conversation, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days.
Wilson asked for opinions on imposing a mandatory dog license fee and the response was positive. He then stated that he would speak with Donna Lafever and get a reasonable amount of time agreed upon and revisit the subject at the next meeting.
Other Items
“Next would be a discussion on Firehouse Lane. I think that road, they got it fixed Wednesday,” said Wilson to which Bragg replied, “Only thing I’m going to say we thought we had everything fixed on that last year with this guy and it didn’t do a bit of good, and it’s been bad over there with him blocking the road. People are really complaining.”
“We could press charges and make him pay for this restitution… we will, if he does it again…” said Wilson.
Bragg then added, “Hey, while we’re on Firehouse Lane. I got another problem on Firehouse, the storm shelter at the firehouse. The door don’t shut. We need to get that fixed.”
Wilson stated that Gary (Fancher) was supposed to be getting information on it because they are specialized and Bragg pointed out that Gary had been asked for the last several years and asked if they could just fix it so the door would stay closed.
Wilson explained that technically, the shelters are still owned by FEMA for about 50 years.
Bragg suggested, “…even if you can’t lock the door if you can fix the door to where it will latch when you shut it, you’d at least be safer than in a tornado with the door flopping open. I think we’ve reached the point of this official FEMA fix is not going to happen. And so, let’s come up with a solution where this door will latch right now.” He added that there are about 6 people that always use it and it’s important to them.
The next item was the reappointment of Dalton Bragg to the Metcalfe County Board of Assessment Appeals for another 3-year term.
Road Supervisor Chris Compton advised the court that he is waiting on an estimate from John Deere for the purchase of two bush hogs and will bring those estimates to the next meeting.
The approval was given to close the account for Homeland Security and transfer the small dollar amount over to the General Fund as suggested by the recent audit.
The auditors suggested opening a separate bank account for the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) funds. That was approved and it was also approved to leave $10,000 in the revolving payroll fund.
The regular financial statement, budget transfers, and claims were all approved before the meeting was adjourned.
The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 10th at 9 a.m.
