Grocery Store Incentive
BRADD representative Matt Pedigo explained the process for the grocery store grant to the magistrates. Photo | PJ Martin
By PJ Martin
Editor, The Herald-News
The Metcalfe County fiscal court held its regular meeting on Thursday, June 25, with the following in attendance: Judge/Executive Larry Wilson, Magistrates Ronnie Miller, Daniel Bragg, Harvey Hawkins, and Kevin Crain, County Attorney Sharon Howard, and Treasurer/Court Clerk Page Edwards.
Judge Wilson declared a quorum present, and the agenda was adopted.
The minutes from the June 11th regular meeting were approved after motions by Bragg and Crain.
The first item of business was changes to the Administrative Code and Employee Policy and Procedure Handbook. Edwards asked if the Juneteenth holiday could be added to their list of days off. “I am going to ask again for you to consider changing. It is a state and federal holiday now.”
The magistrates were going back and forth on whether it should be added to the paid holiday schedule or not. Judge Wilson asked if they could come back to it at the end of the meeting.
At the end of the meeting, the subject was revisited, and Hawkins made a motion to leave the holiday list as is, which was seconded by Bragg and approved.
FY 26-27 Salary Schedule
Also approved on a yearly basis is the salary schedule for the fiscal year 2026-2027. The elected officials are effective on January 1, 2027, and the rest are effective on July 1, 2027, by statute. A motion to approve was made by Bragg, seconded by Hawkins, and approved.
Grocery Store Incentive
Tabled from the last meeting was the approval of a withdrawal request for the Metcalfe Health Services funds from the sale of the nursing home. A special account was set up, but the board needs the magistrate’s approval to transfer the funds.
To better explain the proposed use of a portion of the money for a grocery store incentive, Judge Wilson invited Matt Pedigo from BRADD to provide the details and answer questions.
Pedigo began, “As you probably already know, the City of Edmonton wants to appropriate $750,000 toward an incentive package, and they’re inviting the Metcalfe County fiscal court to join them with an amount of your choosing. They have asked BRADD to assist in drafting the grant applications and guidelines. The process can involve your local attorneys, or we have an attorney on retainer… We need to know if the Metcalfe County fiscal court would want to join the city in this effort by adding some form of county funding.”
“If you do decide to participate, the next step will be deciding on the county dollar amount. Once BRADD has that, we can begin drafting the grant guidelines in order to have them ready for approval and subsequent advertising for proposals. Of course, the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) will need to be drafted for approval by both governing bodies. That will be the next step in drafting the grant guidelines.”
Pedigo stated that BRADD had two suggestions, open to debate.
“Number one, making the grant payable on a reimbursement basis, thus requiring the winning grocer to ‘bring home the bacon’ before being paid.”
Number two, if the county does participate, the incentive package goes from $750,000 to $1.25 or $1.5 million. We also suggest leaving $250,000 or more in reserve as a retainer payable upon the grocery store’s completion of its obligations, including store establishment and other specifics such as services offered, operating hours, local job creation, and things like that.”
Pedigo also explained, “I have spoken with the Department of Local Government’s Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) coordinators regarding possible grant funding… BRADD can apply for up to a million dollars to help establish a grocer. However, you’re looking at a two-year wait for the process…”
Crain asked, “So if this goes through, y’all would just make a recommendation? You’d advertise for proposals and then….”
Pedigo replied, “We would assist in helping you advertise for the proposals. Yes, but- and then because it is public funding, it’s over $40,000, you would have to seek proposals. What the city’s suggesting is that we form a committee comprised of grant officials. Some local folks here that are not elected to help look over the proposals and make a recommendation of which one would be best for the community. So, Kevin, they wouldn’t actually decide; they’d just make the recommendation? Yeah, it would go back before you guys and the city for ratification.”
Bragg asked, “Is there- so I don’t know if you’ve started to flesh out the plan at all for how the funds will be distributed, the venture to use, would there be a period of time that the store has to be in operation? Would there be requirements for employee retention? So are things of that nature?”
Pedigo answered, “Those are things we would certainly recommend adding into the proposal packet. So that they would be committed to X number of jobs, X number of operating hours. At least basic services, it might not be the fanciest grocery store, but it would be a full-service grocer. So, we’re open to adding anything you guys would want to stipulate into that. We’re just in our infancy right now in putting this together.”
After much more discussion, a motion was made.
“I’ll make a motion for $500,000,” said Crain. Then Bragg amended, saying, “I would like the motion to be that we are appropriating $500,000 subject to the plan.”
The motion to appropriate $500,000 was seconded and approved. This will be added with the city’s $750,000 to the Memorandum of Agreement, offering a total of $1,250,000.
The Memorandum of Agreement with the city to get the project started was approved after motions by Crain and Bragg.
Other items
The financials were then approved along with the claims. It was announced that the Barren County Jail is increasing the charge per prisoner per day by $5. That is $50 per inmate per day beginning July 1.
Joe Walsh and his family moved to Summer Shade in 2017. Photo | PJ Martin
When asked if anyone had any other business, a gentleman named Joe Walsh came forward.
Walsh stated that he and his family relocated to Summer Shade around 2017, and since that time, he has seen a terrible trend occurring. A lot of large farms are being cut up and sold. He also noted that many of the lots of three-fourths of an acre aren’t large enough to build a home and lay a septic system.
Walsh proposed that a planning committee/board be formed. “So, the planning commission would be an advisory board for you. It wouldn’t have any power on its own. It’s under Kentucky Revised Statute 100, and it would report to the fiscal court.”
After a bit of discussion on the subject, “This is something else we could maybe just touch on at our next meeting,” said Judge Wilson.
There was no other business, and the meeting was adjourned.
The next meeting is scheduled for July 9, 2026, at 9 a.m.
