It’s not Cheap!

By PJ Martin

Editor

The Herald-News

 

The Metcalfe County Fiscal Court held its regular meeting on Thursday, September 25^th, with all Magistrates present.

The Chairman of the Summer Shade Fire Department board, Mark Parks, addressed the court with a problem. “I’ve been dealing with this issue personally for about five, six years, and talked to Larry about it several times.”

“Storm shelters and this is probably most of them, but the two in Summer Shade, the doors do not latch, they close, they just flop, and we’ve lubricated them, we sprayed them, we worked on them every time before a storm. This year, every time we’ve had a storm, we’ve had 10 to 12 people in it, every time they’re holding the door shut.”

“I contacted the company that made the storm shelters,” stated Parke, who learned that the doors must be worked on by a certified repair person who is authorized to order the parts and install them, and the doors must be taken down to be fixed.

Parke stated, “He has got me a quote on fixing the four doors…and their parts. It’s not cheap!”

Parke continued, “So, I had him just quote the latches, changing the latches out, changing all the hardware out, getting them to where they did both, because the latch, they’ve got a panic guard on, like these doors have, but that won’t hold within storms, according to FEMA, they are supposed to have a lock on them, dead bolt. That dead bolt goes through the side, through the top, to latch for it to be safe for a storm right now, none of those dead bolts, and none of the two at Summer Shade works.”

“So, Mike Shepherd, from Blue Grass Commercial Doors and More, out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, can fix these doors. He called to find out if he can get the parts. He can’t get the parts. They have to be over these doors. The doors have to come down, take it apart. More than likely, they’ll have to drill out all the screws. They probably have to do some welding on the door to put them back up. And for all the hardware, like I said, this don’t count the electric part. Like I said, the electric part, I know the one at Summer Shade haven’t worked in over five years since I’ve been on board…The parts for all four doors is $22,781.”

“For them to remove existing doors, install is $8,000, and then for the drift guards is $78 for all four and install all of them while they’re there, is $40 comes up with a total of $30,899. These estimates are good for 30 days.”

“I’m here asking the board to try to get these two fixed… I know it’s a lot of money, but we’ve got people in them, and FEMA told me that there’s a contract with the county when they were built, which the county has taken care of for 50 years. FEMA is aware of this issue.”

Judge/Executive Larry Wilson replied, “I’m not against fixing the doors. It’s how much it’s going to cost. If we have to go through the county and do them all, it would almost wipe out our general fund. There’s just no way.”

“I think going forward, we fix the doors. We need our Emergency Management Director to go check everything every quarter, you know, at least once a quarter, go out and check.”

Bennett spoke up, “I will say it’s in the contract to check monthly, not quarterly, so it’s already in the contract. Road department checks on it. I talked to Chris just a second ago. They check on when they mow and things like that. There are 14 shelters total, with two doors apiece. One door on each shelter is electronic, unlocked, so we have half of them are smart. Half of them are not. But there’s 28 doors to replace. You’re looking at a quarter million dollars, roughly. I’ve been trying to get grants…You can’t find a grant for that, or I can’t.”

Bennett also expressed concern. “We had people go by and put a rock in there and lived in there. And we had to have the officers come by, and the deputies would set stuff outside. They had a tent set up inside. That happened. It went on for two or three years. Every time it rains, real big, they go by and they move somebody out of the shelter.”

Wilson asked Bennett, “Can we take a census of all of our doors and see which ones flat don’t work right now, which ones are working good enough, and that way we know how many we actually have to replace immediately to make us back up safe…Okay, so let me check with the insurance.”

The next item was creating an ordinance for Solar Panel projects. Each magistrate was given a copy of Barren County’s ordinance to review, and after a brief discussion, it was decided to table it until the next meeting so that more details about the licensing, penalties, and fees.

Next, the remaining meeting dates were set for the rest of the year. After a short discussion, it was decided to change the dates to the following: October 14^th and 23^rd at 9 a.m., November 6^th at 9 a.m., November 20^th at 10 a.m., December 11^th at 9 a.m., and December 23^rd at 9 a.m.

The next regular meeting is rescheduled for Tuesday, October 14^th, at 9 a.m.