Funding Woes
Tessla Stovall came to ask the fiscal when work would be done on her road. Photo | PJ Martin
By PJ Martin
Editor
The Herald-News
The Metcalfe County Fiscal Court held a special-called meeting on Thursday, November 20th, with the following in attendance: Judge/Executive Larry Wilson, Magistrates Daniel Bragg, Harvey Hawkins, and Kevin Crain, and Treasurer/Fiscal Court Clerk Page Edwards. Magistrate Ronnie Miller and County Attorney Sharon Howard arrived late.
Judge Wilson declared a quorum present, and the agenda was adopted after motions by Crain and Bragg.
The minutes from the special-called meeting on November 6th were approved after motions were made by Bragg and Hawkins.
The court then entered into executive session per KRS 61.810(1)(f) concerning personnel after the motions were made by Crain and Bragg. It was a short session after which Judge Wilson stated, “No action was taken.”
The next item was the second reading and adoption of the Solar Panel Ordinance. “There is one little change that needs to be made. I think Daniel has it written out,” said Judge Wilson.
Bragg advised that the change was on page 4, #2 (e) (1). “So, under E, it says large-scale or physical construction began prior to the effective date of this ordinance. Want to amend that to say projects that have filed application for certification, certificate of construction, and they’ve received approval for a certificate of construction from the Kentucky siting board on electric generation and transmission by the effective date of this ordinance, it’s not changing anything As far as applicability, because there’s only one project, but it just makes it more clear, since they haven’t physically started construction, but they have been approved to start construction, so that way we don’t have to explicitly,” explained Bragg.
The motion to approve and adopt the ordinance with the update was made by Bragg and Craine.
The next item on the agenda was a discussion about the Copas Ridge Road, and resident Tessla Stovall was present to ask about the status of the road repairs. She stated, “So, I’ve done a lot of legwork on this to all of the deeds and got them to Sharon (Howard) with addresses and everything. And then I’ve also collected the money… but now they’re stopping at my door quite often, asking what’s going on, where we’re at. So, I just kind of wanted to see you.”
Judge Wilson replied, “I don’t really have an update for you…I will get you an update, okay, and I’ll get that for you this week…Thank you for doing all the work.”
The next item was the appointment of 2 people to the Metcalfe County Extension District Board. The two selected by the court were Rick Hope and Patty Bunch.
The appointment of one person to the Metcalfe County Public Library Board was also needed. The person appointed was Kathy Bell.
The next item was a discussion about the Ambulance CD renewal. Edwards explained, “We have one of our CDs that renews Saturday 22nd and it is the one that has as of August… $412,471.35.”
Edwards added that the bank is not doing 3-month renewals right now, but a 6-month has 3.75% interest, and a 9-month is 3.50%. “I will tell you that we have around 84,000 in the ambulance fund. In the claims today is one of the payments. It’s around 38,000, so we are going to need some of that money to go into the ambulance fund,” advised Edwards.
Bragg exclaimed, “We’ve only got two years’ worth of money left to fund the months. And I don’t understand how the ambulance board has reserves of 7 or $8 million and they’re still collecting taxes… Why are we still sending them $400,000 a year? If they’ve got 10 times the reserves that the county has, there has to be we’re going to have to figure out some way that we – we’ve got two years, and then we’re not going to be able to make the payment on everything. So, in two years, this money is gone…”
It was decided to renew the CD for 6 months for the remaining money after taking out enough to pay the bills.
Next was another closed session pursuant to KRS 61.810(1)(b) for property acquisition or sale. Upon their return approximately 20 minutes later, Judge Wilson stated,” The magistrates agreed to purchase the Cowan land going into the county lake.”
The land is not available yet, so Bragg made the motion to sign a ‘letter of intent’ to purchase the property. The motion was seconded by Miller and approved.
The October financial statement was approved with motions by Bragg and Crain. The budget transfer was also approved after motions by Crain and Hawkins.
Edwards then informed the court, “I did get an email yesterday from the state that we should receive our reimbursement for the $60,000 on the chandelier project from the AOC sometime in the next few days.”
Since County Attorney Howard arrived after the Solar Panel Ordinance was approved, she asked about the needed changes to the ordinance so that she could update it, and was given the needed changes.
With no other items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.
The next regular meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 11th, at 9 a.m.
