Fiscal Court - Regular Meeting

All right, it is 9:00 and we are ready to begin this fiscal court meeting of April the 14th at 9:00 a.m. Madam clerk, has this meeting been properly advertised? And do we have a quorum? It has.

All right. Very good. Thank you so much. Um, all right. So, it looks like I'm up for the invocation. So, if everyone will please bow, we'll um start with our invocation. Dear Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this opportunity to come together as a legislative body and to uh support uh the needs and the concerns in our community. Again, we just pray that you will help us to make good decisions today and that we will do the county's business um that helps those uh the majority of those people that need um our guidance and our help in their neighborhoods and in their cities and uh in their funding. So, we just pray that you will be with us, help us to make those those good decisions and uh to represent uh our individual districts and our county as a whole. Um that that we may make the right decisions on that. We just thank you for those that are present. We pray for those that are not. Um we pray that you'll be with Elena today and help her to feel better and um that she will be back with us tomorrow. Just thank you for all the blessings that you give to us and pray that you'll bless each and everyone in this room in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right. We have a special guest, Brennan Ball from Junction City Elementary. And Brennan, if you will come up and stand, we will follow your lead on the flick. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Great job. And I have a certificate for you. Come out here with you. We'll take a picture. Okay. Judge, I think they want Yes. We We have representation here from Junction. Yes, we do. We do. All right, Brandon. Yeah, you get one with her and then I'll get to it. And yeah, we'll do both.

There we go. Okay, now we're going and I'll get a fellow junction s. All right. And now I'm going to step out and let you get one with you, baby. Step. Can you look at me one more time? One more time. There you go. All right. Now, I got one last question. Who'd you bring with you today? My dad. Your dad. And what's his name? All right. Well, thanks, Dad, for bringing this young man in today. We're always proud to have young people in our courtroom. You have a great day.

All right. Prior meeting minutes of March the 24th. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Master Gates. Is there a second? Second. Meer. Okay. Any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. All right. Budget transfers. Miss Shannon. I have budget transfers in the amount of $377,64726.

Okay. Motion to approve. Make a motion. Mas voner. Second. Major sleeper. Any discussion on budget transfer. Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Cash transfers.

Quite a few today. All right. We have from the interest bearing account to the general fund have a million dollar transfer from occupational tax to general fund 248,98 or 89615. And that was a change I mailed or emailed to everyone yesterday afternoon. Then I have from the opioid account to EMS 16,52654 and that's Terry's salary for the quarter general fund to the road department $80,000 from general to the jail $200,000 from general fund to EMS 200,000 and from general fund complete 10,000.

Okay, that's all of them. Very good. Is there a motion to approve the cash transfer? Motion. Master Harmon, is there a second? Second. Master Gay. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Thank you, ma'am. I've got bills today. And you've got the bills. Okay. Elena is sick today. She has strep and we do not want her here. We love her, but we don't want her here today. Okay. So, approve the bills. Approve the bills. I have bills with amount of 989,5292. Okay. Is there a motion to approve?

Make a motion. Mr. Bogner. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Gay. Any discussion on the bills? Everything good? All right. All those in favor of the motion to approve signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.

All right. Next, we have uh Earth Day is coming up and we have Earth Day proclamation and we will um present this to Miss Angie uh in in recognition of Earth Day. Whereas the annual celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd, 2026 will be observed around the world focusing on planet versus plastics as this year's theme. And whereas Bull County continues to confront environmental challenges that require us to recognize our role in the protection and restoration of the earth. And whereas Earth Day is an annual reminder of the constant need for outdoor and environmental learning, stewardship, local engagement, and achievement through sustainable community action. And whereas residents are encouraged to use Earth Day to celebrate our place on planet Earth through participating in the annual Earth Day Festival on Saturday, April the 18th, 2026. Exploring and observing the beauty of O County and its natural features. Acknowledging that we need to find solutions for plastic waste and that ending plastic pollution is crucial to the survival of this planet and its inhabitants. Now therefore, I truly elbottom and the boil county fiscal court do encourage all members of the community to learn about, share, and celebrate the protection and restoration of the earth and our local environ environment and do declare April 22nd, 2026 as Earth Day 2026. Done this day uh April 14th of 2026. We have a motion to approve.

Measure Ellis, second by measure sleeper. Uh any discussion on the proclamation? I just think um I went around with my mom, my sister, and my husband and we rode all over Tom's district and my district and went to Chambers Cemetery, which is up on Mitchburg Knob. And my my grandmother had two little sisters that are there. So, and there's just a little stone.

So, we've got a beautiful county and we've got a beautiful state and this is great. Just recently on the news, they showed plastic floating in the Pacific. It was I wish I remembered the number correctly, but it was over a mile of an island of floating plastic. Speaking of plastic, put that in there. Dispose of properly. That's right. And in addition to that, we're just discovering the detrimental effects of microlastics that have infiltrated our environment to our health. Yes. So, yeah. All right.

All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Miss Angie, you want to come up and receive your proclamation? Yes. I should too. Should have. Thank you, ma'am. Yep. You get that. Susanna may have to get a copy of that. Yes. Yep. She's got I think she's sign. Is that okay? Yes. Then I'll say one more time. We appreciate you being here. Yes. Sorry I'm not container at all. Well,

all right. You're doing good. Doing good. Uh Sheriff Bottom out in the hall.

Hello. Good morning. Welcome. Morning you all. in the back line. Got a fourth quarter report and excess fees. Yes, we have the fourth quarter report here for you guys to acknowledge or if you want to sign off on the moment we've all been waiting for. Drum roll. Drum roll. Right. The 2025 excss fee check written to you guys for the amount of $50,842.38. All right. Love it. Very good. Very good. That number's consistently went up. Yes, ma'am. So, that is fantastic. Could you read that number again, please? $50,842.38.

Okay. Awesome. Okay. Get a picture of you presenting the check. Yes, that's absolutely good. Anybody? Anybody? Well, you know, I'm always in for a good a smile. Okay. All right. Hold on here. I am uh a little technical difficulty. Here we go. Ready? All right. Good deal. Thank you. All right. Do you have a copy of this, ma'am? I Dave, you can sign your copy or not.

Thank you very much. Thank you all so did a great job. Thanks, sir. Appreciate it. See you guys. See you. All right. Very good. Uh, recycling director Angie Muny, DLR agreement. Dead livestock removal. Thank you interpretation. Dead cow rem. I thought them acronyms might get you.

Yeah. So, you should have a copy. Um, Mr. Alan Goen has already signed when I went to the conservation district. The only thing changed was the 2% that uh goes up every July 1. So, that new amount there is reflected it. Last year was 80,631. Uh, the 2% is 161262 which makes us the 8224362. Okay. Um I have they have not um like I said we have not seen anything um about their surplus. I couldn't I can't answer that question. So okay motion to approve the agreement. I make a motion.

Master Bogen second me sleeper. Okay. Any discussion on the agreement? So can we get that number? Can we call them up and just ask them what do you have a surplus for the truck if the truck goes down? We can. Okay. Yeah. Let's get that. See if they have anything because we need to know. We can do that. Yep. Thank you. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Name. Motion carries. Can you give us a little brief update on the truck? It's what the status of it is at this point.

Right now, the status of the truck, it it it's running well. We had a little bit of issue um about a week and a half ago and uh you have the copy but not with your signature so you might that's fine or I can scan it to you and I'll put it in your box.

Okay, that's fine. Um but it was it was a minor problem. It was something that came unplugged. It's running it's running okay. We have a new motor in it but that's all I can say. The men love the truck. It's old enough that, you know, they they they're comfortable with it, but we just know at some point it's just we thought it was the transmission, but it was not the transmission. We got away with $500. So, yeah. As opposed to 10,000 that we thought it was. And you know, the thing is anytime it breaks down now, it's going to be down for a while because the conservation district has required us to take it to Bluegrass International. They do not want Tommy working on it,

which is not in Somerset anymore. They have moved to London. They're in London off the interstate. So, so it was down for one week all because of something being, you know, just got loose and unplugged essentially. I mean, that's good, but yeah, it wasn't good being down a whole week, but that's their request and their requirements. So, all right. And master voter will request those numbers. I requested them that night, but they did not have them. Right. So, well, if we keep requesting, they'll eventually get them. All right. Thank you, ma'am. You're welcome.

Appreciate it. Um, we're going to skip to 12 and we'll come back and pick up 11 here in just a minute, but I want to go ahead and get our B County Extension District Director, Jay Hitsman'sburg. Very good. His won't take VERY LONG. I KNOW. I KNOW. IT'S just starting to roll off, Jay.

All right. Again, I'm Jay Evansburgger, county director at the extension office, and I would like to present our budget for 27. And starting out, our real property tax rate that we set was at 8%. Which was lower than a year ago. Uh we were at 8.6. And our compensating our compensating rate that we could have set it at was a little over nine. Mhm. So, we took a little more than 1% uh off of that. And in personal property, uh tax rate of 9.86, it's almost half of what it was a year ago. Yeah.

And it that figure is actually half of what the compensating rate was. Uh motor vehicle watercraft's the same at 1.3 and uh so gave us a total of 2.2 2 million and uh versus 2.5 million a year ago. Uh the board actually uh versus what we set versus what the compensating rate was was $750,000 is what we uh took out of the what we could have done.

I just want to thank the board for um reviewing that and making the decision to lower those rates. I sit on that board. However, I did not participate in the vote for the tax rates. Um, I recuse myself at that time. So, but I I commend the board for doing that and for realizing that um we still operate at lower tax rate. Thank you. I mean that that was their that was the direction that they wanted to go and uh due to increase in assessments uh the uh the actual uh decrease that they were shooting for was a little bit less but but uh rolling on through

it's a lower tax rate nonetheless lower the tax rate. Yes, exactly. And the board worked really hard on that. Mhm. Uh personnel uh on page three the bottom line 828,000 that is the figure that is sent to UK then uh sent back to us as salaries and benefits. U and on page four travel and we actually lowered that agents a year ago was at 10,000 per person. We lowered that to 7,000

to try and get more in line with actual expenses. And then professional improvement that is uh regulated by the university at $5,000 per agent. And then uh on page six uh gives the total expenditures all down through there. And As you can see, office operation expenses at 1.7 and total appropriation expenses at 2.5 million. So, I think we put a pretty good budget together and the board like like Judge said, the board worked really hard at lowering those tax rates and uh I think there's still a little bit more work to do there

and I think the board sees that and we're trying to make those adjustments. Okay, hearing good. Um, would you like for us to approve this or just acknowledge? Acknowledge it. Okay. Whatever whatever the board needs to do, whatever the court needs to do. Let's just approve that way. We've got it on. Okay. Mer Ellis, is there a second? Second. Meron, any discussion on the budget?

Just really pleased with the leadership of Ryan Corals and everything that's going on. We need to get him back here soon and and congratulate him on many things that he's done uh since taking over the helm statewide. So, It's KCTC. KCTC. Yeah. Do you have a comment? No. Oh, okay. All right. No, you do. Okay. All those in favor signify saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. I get I get off there a little bit J day every rain me back in.

I appreciate the court support and everything. You got anything that we can help you with at extend office? Let us know. We appreciate it. Thanks so much. Have a good day. All right. You too. This time I'm sure the chair will be right over here. All right. And coming in right on queue, right on time, uh we have our architect firm, uh Kay Hill Jacobs and Sabrina Oaks is here with us today and going to give a Koopa report. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Y'all ready? Oh well. Well, you talk about on time. Yeah. Yeah. So, I did not bring enough copies. It looks like I did bring a flash drive

if you guys Is that work or we can share copies? Yeah, we can make it up. So, usually when we when architect shows up with a bunch of drawings, it's like four hours later. You're still talking about look at the way this wall chair. So, I've got eight of these right here. This is our set. Okay. Is everybody got And then I've got them on our flash drive, too. Y'all want that?

Do you refer to um I am good. So, I've got a class job with photographs and a PowerPoint. If y'all, while you're going through these, I'll see if Bill can come in. I'm texting him right now.

Um, so this is just a set of drawings that we have put together so far and kind of um our main goal is safety and stabilization of the Koopa and then our secondary goal would be um stabilization of the building itself. So the structural engineer is all dog about the coupoopa and where the beams go and the architect wants to make sure that you don't have water pouring in the roof. And so on this flash drive and I'll give it to he's coming down to fix it. Yeah.

Okay. To you. So there's some photographs. There's some certain conditions that we're worried about for the We'll start with the pukula for the structure. Um, specifically, there isn't enough maybe pore support under the top part of your Koopa. Um, original construction,

probably years of water. Um, there is a lot of, and if anybody ever wants to go up there, we'd be glad to go up with you to point it out. Um, a lot of water through the last 200 years have come come into the building. Um, and so the particular part that we were kind of worried about is if you look on the second page, the little green dome and the the the very top Kougal part has begun to twist.

That that might be original structural issue. It looks like they built up so far and then the top part they put on and it was there was a little bit of a weakness there and it's beginning to rotate a little bit. the the um beans have gotten a little soft and the wind's been blowing around up there and it's beginning to to twist just a little bit. So, there's some structural failure and some of the beans are cracked. So, what um our first course of action would be to stabilize that and we work with contractor. So, there's two options there. You can you can put some scaffolding to stabilize it or um the last gentleman we talked to it his idea was to take a crane and to lift the very top sorry portion off.

Okay. So in your drawing that would be kind of this very top green part. Lift that off and sit it on a platform on the ground and then he can paint and work and put floor in on the the rest of the building. ity was sort of the Did I hear you say the first option was to leave it up there and work on it up there? Yes. How do they get inside? Because I've been up there and is there space to get up into that section? I didn't think so. That's not the idea, the ideal way to do it. We'd rather Yeah. take it off. Yes.

From an aesthetic standpoint, you you obviously can read my mind that if we could do first option, it would be wonderful. So, we're we're going to have another contractor come this week if you guys are meaningable to that and to to make sure that we are making the best decisions because, you know, I can draw a pretty picture, but I can't build the thing. So, we want the contractor to weigh in in terms of crane. So, we would just remove this upper portion. He would build a platform. And so, on this plan, he's got your He's got your work.

Oh, okay. on this plan. There is like kind of we've started working out like what kind of shoring and what kind of lay down area does the contractor need? Where does he put a crane if we want to pick this top of the um back and forth with now I got to figure out how to use the clicker click it this way or does it matter? Yeah towards the computer I I'm sorry to be in early but um we don't own the park out front. It's the city. No, we do the front. We're on the brick sidewalk. Okay. But when you get up in there, um,

by coincidence, all down Pville Road for the past four or five months. They have brought in what would be be pallets, only they're half the size of this room. Mhm. M um that concrete is not very thick and I I certainly know that we're going to need a crane, but in all your planning, don't dismiss the fact that the distribution of that weight on that concrete is going to prevent completely repairing the concrete after our job is done.

So, that's the first thing that I wanted to express concern with because I've never seen heavier equipment out road. Uh, but they did not damage anything by using these gigantic pallets. Let me reassure you just a little bit. When they were here before and we all did the walk around, all this was discussed. The city was here. We all went outside. We looked at everything outside and discussed what needed to be underneath the crane and where it needed to be placed. And so, we've kind of covered all that, but it's good point, Master Ellis. Um, but just want to relieve your mind a little bit on that. Yeah, we've talked about that

and we do have a slide. So, this is the the sheet that I'm talking about and you can kind of see the green colored green. But, so the first portion that we would do, we set up some construction fencing and right now we were thinking like maybe some 3/4 in plywood on the ground on the pavers to protect the pavers. But, um the contract that's a means and method. So we will definitely make sure that they have that covered as well as repair for anything that they've done. So, we met with the last meeting that we met with um Foil County here. What we met with Dwayne Campbell and we met with

George Josh Morgan and he kind of gave us the lowdown of some of the things to look out for in this plaza include how far we could go, the extents. So, we talked about what we would need to do to make the plaza safe, including and I've got a photograph of this site. So, we did kind of like a a discussion of what we would need to put in place to make this work because most of your project is logistics.

Um, how do you how do you remove the things that you need to remove so that you can access them and work on them. So, we talked about what um portion of the site was available and what the city needed clear and what portion would need to be um kept clear for um local businesses as well as the veterans memorial um that you have and the tree wells. You know, Josh was telling us about, you know, beware of the tree wells because they're hollow underneath. And so,

that is um a large topic of discussion. While we have this plan, it's kind of good to look at, too. So, the building is in, we're kind of looking at it as three um you know, it was built in three phases. So, your original 1860s portion where the Koopa is, and then um the little square portion, that's what we call the square portion, technical term, built in probably 1890s and then the 1970s portion. And if you look at some of these drawings, they're kind of delineated like that. So, we are not doing any work in the 1970s portion. We're limiting what we're looking at right now to your older building. Specifically, how do we stabilize and how do we save this very wonderful courthouse that you have? Such a lovely structure. So with this contractor, you know, the idea was to get a crane to pick off the top of the the Koopa and the weather vein and stuff and put it on the um on a platform that he would make in that first phase when we're doing when we're laying down PLA um plywood in the plaza, we're putting up construction fencing. So he would pick that, he would make a a platform for it and set that down there so that that could be people could access that and work on it and then go in and put it a temporary EPDM, so rubber roof over the the big hole that it left behind. And while we did, so that was the first phase, just move the Koopa to the ground and get everything ready. and we figure we've got a timeline on here. Um, and we figure that'll take the month of May. So, um, tenative dates May the 4th through the end of May would be just this very early phase of getting ready for construction. Um, because we know

that you guys have some celebrations coming up and so we didn't want tear the place open and then have guests come to town. Um and one of the upsides would be that you would have might be kind of interesting for people to see this process. Um so the Koopa would be sitting you know here is your like wonderful building and right in front of the Christmas tree would be um a platform with the Koopa on it and you know there would be barriers in front of people be like hm what's going on here and then work would halt from the end of May till after your um fourth of July celebrations and then starting July 6th we would start the construction phase for the building and that um like I said we had divided divided it into like periods of time. So while the c while the guys are working on site to um strip some of the paint and remove the rot on the ballisters and the columns and stuff on the koopa um we would propose like a threepart epoxy that remove the rot. you formulate your epoxy and you kind of pack it in um like bondo or what have you, shave it down and and shape it to fit and then repaint while that work was going on. So you have another issue that the oldest part of the building, the 1860s part has a dip in the roof and some of the trusses are failing. Part of it is the weight of the Koopa. Part of it is just water. Um and I'm not sure if I got I've got some photos in here and you can see the water stain. focus. Um, but some of the photos that I included show I mean you can tell that there's water coming in your building um if you go upstairs. So um so during the true construction

phase, we would remove the roof of the 1860s portion. Remove the roof the roof system. Remove the roof deck. leave the tresses and add new treses to support the roof. So there's a U and if you stand off to the side, um Julia does bottom one kind of pointed out there's a dip in the roof. So we would add new trusses that would fix that and then we would add new sheathing and a new roof system. Would those trusses be crippled in or would they be separate and coming in uh two or three feet sections away from their

foot off? They would be within 2 ft of the originals. We would just leave the originals in place and then you hydraulically lift it while you're to to level or not to level but to you know secure those. Well, so we would be um and I don't have a structural engineer supporting if he's got columns or if he's doing um posts to bearing below, but the whole roof is off at this time or at least in sections. Yeah, he said two sections

like per like column line column line. We'd remove all the roof and so if you're in the second floor, you could theoretically see the sky, but you wouldn't really be able to. But um so we'd remove that portion. They'd slip in um trusses within two foot of your existing truss and then the roofers would come back put new 3/4 plywood sheathing and ice. I you know I would encourage you to do ice and water shield over the whole thing and just new shingles, new flashings. Um it's in fairly decent shape the roof is, but we have some pictures in here. I'll I'll flip through and there is um a couple sections. one kind of bad section where the oldest part of the building abuts the n the 1890s portion the square portion the flashing has failed in one area and there's about an inch gap so right over the judge's assistant area you're getting a lot of water coming in there and then there is some there's one se section um in the valley where some shingles are missing as well as each end of the ridge cap is gone is over. Um so we would that's that phase of construction. Remove the roof, install um install trusses and then put the roof and the sheathing sheathing back as we move back. And then in the 1890s portion um that is a fairly decent shape. So we would just leave the roof sheathing but remove shingles and whatever else is up there and put stub columns and just support that. um leave all that structure in place, support that, leave this the roof sheathing in place, and then just put a new roof system on top of that. And then the 1970s portion we're not doing anything to.

So the one other thing we have noticed is you do have some water infiltration coming in. Um, so and I think the new the new contractor that we have coming is to look at the building isn't he his specialty is masonry. And I haven't done enough research. I need to get with Mark and ask him how old this brick is and how old the mortar is. It feels like the mortar might be I don't know if you guys have had this repointed maybe in the 70s when some of this work was but the mortar is not historic mortar so it's very hard and you're getting water in through the brick and it's spalling the brick and when you leave the building today if you want to go out and look up um this one corner the long picture I have a working pointer

some might not know that term spalling uh the front of the bricks popping off. So, you're getting water in the wall and freeze thaw and the mortar is really really hard. You know, it's modern material and so there isn't any room for the brick to move and so it it spalls the front off. Um it's sort of interesting but sort of horrific too since it's happening to your building. But I believe that's what's happening to the second floor at where the um district courtroom is in that stairwell and the circuit courtroom.

Circuit courtroom. Sorry. And then you're getting moisture in the wall and that's what's happened this stone lentil. It's pile looks like maybe there's some elasttoame paint. a pretty thick coat of paint that's on some of these um stone headers over the windows and that's what's probably popped the face of this um header off. And then there's some other things that can you can fill with caulk. Um so there's some like joinery at the bottom, you know, where grade is that you're probably taking on a little bit of moisture. And then it's kind of cool behind your your um flower pot. There's about a 1 in gap and it's full of um full of cigarettes.

Cigarette but also indicates that there's like some space back there. So, so again, this is the architectural concern. So, we've got the structural concern, which is just shoring up your existing structure, and then the architecture, which is trying to keep the water out. So, you've got couple missing shingles, you've got some flashing on the roof, and then you have a few various um locations down here. Then, you also have um you can see this is the square portion. I thought this was a great photo when I picked it out, but it might not be so good. You can see daylight at the bottom of the square portion at the base where all the poula is.

Um, and there has been some of that has been cut back and there's some flashing. So, I would say that you probably need to continue that on around the that square portion. Cut a little bit of the bottom of it off the rod. Put some flashing so that the water any water that runs down the face just runs away. Um, and then you know epoxy and paint. Does your end result design have the bell going back up there or not?

So, we you've got two options. Bill can stay or Bill can go. We One of the things I promised these guys and I do did not bring for today is a cost to repair um the floor joist under the belt. So that is the preponderance of the problem. So here's some interior moisture in that stair and those small bricks on the outside. Um here's just a here is um the top. You can see kind of the bottom edge of that wood where water's hit it.

Um you also have some what I assume is aluminum wrap, metal wrapped items on the outside and a lot of times that holds moisture in. It's good for a um maintenancefree finish until you have to replace the whole piece. So, we would suggest that that comes off and it's scraped and it's painted. Any rot is removed and filled. Um, so these are roof photos, but it's kind of hard to see. Uh, the top photograph is the eve next to your 19 your 1890s portion. And there are some shingles missing out of the valley. Uh,

Julie. Julie. On the bottom corner there is where you can put it back into the slideshow mode. I'll go on the bottom. Where's the While you're while you're the section that is unfortunately clad in aluminum. That obviously must have happened in many recent years. Um that's below what you'll take down to the ground. Correct.

Well um and I didn't bring a photo of it. So we call them the the music note. So if you look on this phasing plan, so there's the green dome and directly below that um there's this kind of like in the cloth portion this kind of um decorative piece that sort of looks like a musical note. Um but my draftsman plays guitar so to him it's a music note. uh we would remove that and then the p the photograph I showed you is wrapped at the base of the column where the bell is. Now the bell is um we think that that so what we were going to do there's two ways you can remove the bell. We can take a louver and wall out. You can remove the bell and relocate it as you will or we can fix it in place, jack it up, support it and slip some floor joist and some plywood under it. Have we estimated the weight of the belt?

We have. I have not. The structural engineer has. Do you have that figure? Um, no, but I can send it to you along with an estimate of the repair because I I owed um Julie that from our last meeting. If you had to send it to me and Julie, then we'll disperse it. Okay. Awesome. uh because we figured well that might weigh in, you know, if it's like $5,000 or if it's $50,000, there may be some kind of cost implications. Keep it up there.

So, just some roof images. One of the things we'd like to do, you missing a couple um chimney caps. If um Historic Preservation is okay with us putting those back, that would be a good way to keep some moisture out. Additionally, while the roof is exposed, adding crickets behind the chimneys, although that might be u an issue with historic preservation. So, obviously, we would defer to what they're going to approve. Uh so, here's just kind of a rough sketch from the structural engineer of the building components. And you can kind of see he has um in red shown the trusses that are damaged. That's kind of like the reason for removing the roof and putting in new trusses. Um,

so would you be putting five back? We would put one um for each. One, two, three, four, five. I think we're putting seven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Yeah. and they would be a little bit taller to like so so the existing truss has plland on top and then sheathing and so the new trusses would set a little bit higher just to make up that gap.

Um and so here is some analysis of the bell as well as the clock looking at the floor. So, we have a plan in place that the bell can stay or the bell can go um depending on cost. And also in this PowerPoint that I'll leave um with you guys. It's a very brief scope of work. I've got one that's a little bit more extensive and once we get the initial focus together um probably present the budget to you guys and you can determine how far you want to go. you know, do you want to cop where the cigarette butts are or do you guys want to do that yourself? You know, so that's an option.

When you're just to clarify, when you say the bell to go, we're not saying get rid of the bell. No. No. So, I just want to be very careful how we say that. Um, when you're designing this, if you design something where the bell comes out, which would be my preference, it would be nice to have something designed on the ground where we can house the bell. We've kind of joked around it's our own little B County Liberty Bell. And so where people can actually see, you know, that piece of history up close where most don't get to see it when it's up there. That's a very good point. I'm really glad that Mr. Dr. Cullen mentioned that because obviously to give it

a really good aesthetic on the ground will be a cost in and of itself. So in the determination of leaving it up, which is my preference, or bringing it down to the ground, uh that'll be a cost factor to offset the hopefully five, not $50,000 to keep it up in the tower. Uh so probably what? So we'll get an estimate. we'll present it to you guys and you can say, "Oh, this looks good. You know, it can stay or it can be relocated." And I've tried to like not say, you know, remove the bell tower because those are like very

excitable words. I'm like, "Relocate, temporarily relocate." Um, but then you guys can reflect back to us and say, "Well, we do want to move the bell and could you give us a rough, we'd like to put it here and could you give us a rough estimate for this thing that we want to do to enclose it or if you want to put it on the second floor or just whatever you want to do with it and we could just give you like a quick schedule rough budget for work in the future. But I would if you do move it to think about doing that, you know, take ground and hold it, fix your building first and then kind of move on. Absolutely.

Yeah. And I know that most y'all this is the first time seeing or hearing anything about it, but but we have discussed all those different things, you know, about the bell and and where to located and, you know, what kind of structure it would need. And I'm just thinking that if we we need that cost as well. Yes, we do. Yes, we do to if we put it on the on the ground or you know, not not literally on the ground, but if we place it to people can actually do it. Yeah. In a structure, we need that cost as well. I think the public would really like to see that. I mean, it is such a cool looking bail that I mean, I've asked I mean, I I I was nice enough to take me up there one day and look at it and

and it was it's really cool. I mean, it's it's small. Yeah. But it's uh it's really cool for people to be able to see it. I mean, if if people don't know, a bell company, I believe still in existence in Northern Kentucky has shipped bells all around the world. Do we know the identification? Yes. Yes. Stamp on it. It's from Erie, Pennsylvania. And the company that uh ma manufactured it, some gentleman has written a book about all the bells they made and he sent us a copy and was very excited to see that we had there was a piece I wrote on Facebook about the history of the bell. That'd be I mean those are the kind of things that great to have

in that little structure if we put it on the ground. Well, and I understand you guys may have a I don't know what a 250 year bison it's not bsentennial, but you may be having celebrations. Yeah, that word that I can't say. Yeah, but I'm not the only 250. If you all are having a like a big birthday party, this might be a perfect time to roll this out as a marketing day,

you know, whether you leave the bell up or you move it down. Um, and especially if there's like some dudes wrote a book, you know, I mean, it's like a, you know, it's kind of a great opportunity to get some legs out of that. Um, I'm going backwards, I think. So, then I just brought photos of some existing conditions that kind of when we saw them, that's what stimulated our scope of work document. We've already talked about most of this. One thing that we haven't talked about and I'm sure whoever got to go up there saw it is there is some probably 99% sure there's lead paint up there. So that will be some remediation the contractor will have to do. But then there's also some bird dropping.

Is that the tin roof of the original front of the courthouse? Yes. So that was the original before they put the Koopa on. Right. That's very original. And then So yeah, I've walked on there. Yeah. almost there's an you know I mean it depends on how much you guys want to spend and what you want to do. Obviously if the bell stays up there you may want to work on your access the access getting up there because it's kind of circuitous. Um you may want to put a one of the things that we have on our extended scope of work which is on that flat drive is a maintenance light. I mean, there's like a looks like a sodium halli hanging up there, but you know, you might want a couple lights and

new access ladders, and I would think that that is a determination based on your clock. Your clock dude would love you probably. Um, and then it's pretty sketchy up there. It's there's beams that just sort of sway. Yeah, there's a lot of movement. I mean, you know, if anybody So, I'm from Lexington and Lexington Mall on um Richmond Road used to like move and stuff. So, I'm like

um but so originally the building had um turn seamemed metal roof and then your Koopa structure was built on top of it. That's what that box is and and um whoever mentioned it is correct. You can see the roof where they just put the box on and then just kind of went up from there. And apparently the beams only they probably only went so far back in the day. And so the structure is a little bit separated at the bottom of the Koopa and that's why you're beginning to get a little bit of a twist. Oh, that's so we've talked about all the moisture. We've talked about this talked about the roof and the caps and crickets if preservation allows it. Here is your bell. Um, scope of work. We've kind of loosely discussed that. And it's also broken out. Should have brought bigger drawings. If you guys have good eyes, you might be able to read that. We talked about phasing um, and timing. And none of the photographs came through and that timing may, you know, change. So, it's not anything in concrete because we have to work with circuit court and trials and stuff that they have going on. So that that timeline may change.

We'll see. We got to talk to Sabrina about that, too. So, yes. Kind of when is the earliest we can get the bail out? The bail's really heavy, correct? Yes. Really, really heavy. Yeah. So, when would that you you said maybe June or Well, um given the summer schedule that you guys have, so we have a new contract. the other contractor didn't feel comfortable putting shoring. He may not have had the manpower. He may not have had enough shoring. Um, we've got a a new guy that we'd like to invite to look at the project.

Um, and they have done some fairly extensive bigger projects. So, I would think sometime in the month of May the bail could come out if you guys decide. But now, obviously, we need to get you an estimate first. Would that contractor be totally um understanding of preservation? Yes. Requirements. Yes. Actually, they are um I don't know who knows how to work. It's in the flash drive. Um yeah, I just cut it up. It's no big. Sorry. Not a big deal. Um so that is their forte. They're Is it Buckeye? Buckeye. Okay.

I was like, you can't be calling yourself Buckeye. Well, so obviously they have a cheerleader. Useless nuts. Julie, Julie, your assignment is to find out if they've done any architectural work on the Ohio State University. Yeah. So they have included um kind of like some marketing stuff from them. Um all their projects and they are uh masonry heavy. So that's why I could you send that to Julie or Julie? Yes, it's on that.

And also they did we did a project for St. Luke Church in Nicholasville and they worked with us on that. So the contractor that was there had begun to struggle a little bit. So we got them to come in and kind of help. And that's sort of what we're doing for this one as well. What does this do to our new courthouse request in our spot on the list? If we'd start this in May, the Koopa won't have any effect. Okay. But if we start repairing the roof, then that may have an effect. So, we got to that's something we've got to discuss. And that's why I said the timeline may change. So, Okay. We worked on that yesterday. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm glad you told us that. We, you know, the roof is something that you guys need to do soon, but I mean, obviously. Well, we called and I think you were at a meeting or you were meeting with somebody or something, so we haven't had a chance to really fill you in. So, no, it's okay. It's okay. We had an open house with Yeah, that's what it was. Open house. Yeah. Yeah. This is just a lot of moving parts critical. Mhm. Things. So, so I mean, so I brought a set of drawings to leave with you guys. Okay. And um this one has Erie, Pennsylvania written on it, but I also have two more copies and they're also on the flash drive. Okay.

As well as um a longer version of the scope of work where it's probably a page and a half long. So it was, you know, my kind of like way to u make sure that we get everything in our bid set of documents. Thank you.

And that being said, so um originally you guys wanted to do a um public bid and so given the timeline we couldn't we it seemed like interest might not be so um there was a lot of interest in it. construction is still very busy and so we thought we would just go out and find three kind of expert people and see if you guys could negotiate some pricing with them. And so that's kind of what we've been working on. Um, one of the options y'all can do is like you can do like bid alternates. So maybe you know you want the Koopa and you know you want this this and this and that is your base bid and then we can break other item items out as alternate and you can say hey contractor give us a price to do this and it's got to be good for I can't remember 60 or 90 days and then if you have that's a good way to kind of hedge your bets with your um budget. So if it's a large if it's more than what you wanted to spend um for the full thing you can put some things as a lower priority and then you can add those as you as you want. Okay. Um, but everything that I brought is on that flash drive and aside from yesterday. Sorry. That's okay.

Um, anything? We appreciate you coming. Y'all have any other questions? Very thorough. Yes. Sorry. I was trying to like not drone on and on. My people are always like really We appreciate all the info uh bringing the the court up to speed. So, okay. Well, uh, if you guys be glad to come back anytime. Okay. Thank you. All right. If you'll send the jailer in. Do you want me to go in? Send the jailer in. Send the jailer in.

Morning. Morning. All right. We got the memorandum of understanding. Is that what you're going to talk about? I don't know. I don't understand what that is. Oh, I thought I was coming back to talk about the uh uh we got a contract. Yep. Okay. We've got a contract. I've never seen it. Okay. Shannon, can you fill us in?

It's the annual House Bill 556 memorandum of agreement. Is that the money that uh Did you not put that on the agenda? Okay. I don't know. Thanks for coming. Yeah. We We definitely got a discussion. Is this I mean I I don't know who put it on the agenda. So I did. Okay. But I don't know either. Do we need to discuss it right now or is can it wait? You know, would you like to look at it? Yeah. For another time. So, is this for the housing or what is it?

I thought it was yours. So, you'll have to tell me. Yeah, I haven't read it. There's quite a bit here. So, I'll probably You want to postpone it? Yeah. Okay. Is there a deadline? So, it's the sentencing credits. Is that what uh Let me see. Cuz I didn't Apparently they didn't send it to me. So, okay. Sorry about that. I wasn't aware. I I wasn't either. I thought they'd send it to Well, they usually do. If they send it, they'll send it here and

Mhm. to you all. I never We can postpoint to next meeting.

Yeah. But you can go ahead and discuss whatever else you want to discuss. So, um, I've sent you all the email on basically reasons why I believe we should we need to keep, uh, our state inmates. And, uh, I know the last time I was here, there was a, u motion made to have them out by 27, 627, I think, was the date on it. And I just wanted to see if you all had time to look at the information and reconsider where we're at because of the you know, not just the financial impact, but the operational impact that they'll have uh by by removing those inmates. Uh we're going to lose a lot a lot of services that we provide uh to the community. Um Brian, Chad, Paula and I have uh been discussing this as the committee and unfortunately the jail bill that passed um is is just an abomination compared to what our needs are. And uh Mr. Colin requested information uh that's in this document that to me proves that um we could even cause ourselves some problems of sending that email that we uh talked about three weeks ago when we when we last met. uh when you look at the document that Brian sent to us a couple days ago uh and and just look at the numbers uh it to me metaphorically speaking uh it's more than just keeping the plug in the wall uh we need those funds that's my opinion I don't know

and I think Master Harmon he he's we walked in the same shoes I think he'll agree but we we do have a win here and that's that they have to pay the medical bill and that's probably the greatest part of, you know, where we where we have a lot of issues, especially if you have just one inmate of 95,000. The biggest expense, one of the biggest expenses. So, you know, the expense is housing them. Yeah. Not and not getting the the actual true amount that's required. That's correct.

That's the biggest expense because if they weren't there, we wouldn't have to worry about the medical regardless. So, um, the I mean they it it's already set up as a negative and and honestly I like to ask that we stop using the word revenue. It's not revenue. It's it's uh supplement supplement is correct. Uh it's not revenue. Revenue you have to have a positive uh in order to have revenue. We do not have revenue from this. So they count on a lot of manh hours of labor that we'd have to pay out.

And that's thing too in those numbers that I provided you that's not including benefits. That's just if we were paying somebody. We use what we start our starting pay is $18 an hour. So that number is really greater if you had to pay somebody cover their benefits. So you know we're taking lemons and making lemonade. And you know, I agree with everything you said on on the part of the money, but we're we're turning that into an advantage for the citizens of B County and the detention center operations.

I contacted as soon as you we talked about this, I contacted someone at Junction City and I said, you know, I see the inmates doing a little mowing, but are they really that much help to you? And they're like, oh yeah, that's really they're really great. They they rebuilt structures in Pville and they've uh built something to barricade and they built them and painted them and then he went on and told me all these things. I was like, "Oh, I had no idea. I just thought they went around and did a little weed eating." You know,

if we don't put everything on Facebook that they do, I mean, that would be I'd have to have somebody full time because, you know, I mean, it's just like yesterday, you know, they they rescued an owl and um that those kinds of things. So, um, they're making a positive impact in the community, but I think the community is also making a positive impact in them with the relationships and I think Tom will verify that we got the master logger that that did all the work in parable. We wanted to keep him.

I mean, you know, when these guys, especially with the forland, you know, these people come up and talk to them, you know, they appreciate them and I think that's a big part of um rehabilitation and getting back on. But just just to confirm one thing, is there any specific rule or law that says we can't allow boil inmates to do these same things? Well, here's the risk. No, no. I mean, just my question is, you know, I have a rule, the jailer as the custody, but there's nothing that stops that outside of of your right.

Yeah. You go ahead. Because I can't take somebody that's in addiction that's just been locked up overnight and put them out. They live here in Bo County. They're going to run off or they're going to be bringing, you know, they know where they're at. So, they the risk just is not worth the reward for they they'll use uh they we'd either help mow the cemetery and they'll have somebody drop something on one of the stones and they'll pick it up. So, and you know, are they not check based on the if they get it out there and they get it on, it just takes a little bit of fentanyl to kill everyone. understand that, but you're you're you said before you were worried about them bringing stuff back into the jail. Are they are they checked after they come back from work release or

they're they're checked. They're they're they're patted down, they're searched, they ran through a sorder. That's not 100%. I get that. So, I mean, these guys have 247 to figure out how to beat the system and then by the time we catch on, we have to react to it. Uh sometimes we can kind of see something coming early, but um you know it's just like the be Grant County um somebody brought in a little bit of fentanyl, the jailer, everybody ended up in the emergency room. Um you know, it's just not a risk I'm willing to take.

Well, yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I I appreciate the work that they do in the community, but I'm still having a hard time justifying the fact that we're subsidizing the state inmate program just for the work they do in the community. You know, I think there's we can hire people for 10, 12, $8 an hour to do community work and not lose $30 a day per inmate. Um, so I'm still struggling with that math. Well, let me ask this. Uh, propose this. Would you all want to have a workshop with the jailer and go into more ind depth and weigh the pros and the cons and um you know just specific to that not while we're in

I I think that probably would help the the one thing you know Brian or jailer Wilford you know put this around that you know my my thought has always been build a small 100 bed jail and you know KRS says it has to be minimum 150 Right. You know, I'm I'm working on the legislative side to see maybe if we can actually have that amended, you know, but if we if if we have to build 150 bed jail and we generally only house about 40. Right now we're running 130. Our numbers are going back up. So, how many boil?

Um, probably about 50. So, so we got 130 in there, but only 50 are boil. And so, you know, you're looking at 80 state inmates right now. If we did build a 150 bed jail, we could actually because we know there's a need for it, you could actually instead of having state inmates in there, what we've talked about before, you could actually contract that out to other and I have and I've talked to other counties and they don't want to pay $65 a day. They can't they can't pay $65.

It's why we lost Mercer. I don't know that they aren't suffering for their decision, but Well, they are. They're now on to jail number two. Yeah. Uh but but it it would be at least a positive. You could actually I mean I I like like I asked before I asked for 72 before when Mercer was here and you know and it was like no no cuz we want them to stay here and they didn't end up staying anyway. But you know you put you put a price tag of 72 to 75 on there times 75 times 365 whatever you're looking at $2 million. That but nobody's going to do that. Well, I I've checked I've talked to jailers. I've talked to judges. I've talked to sheriffs.

About the best we could all would be able to make is $45 a day is is what counties are willing to pay. So, what size what size jail do you if we keep inmates and we we start rebuilding the jail? What what size jail do we need? I think Well, are we back up to 300 bids? Are we I think if you do you know we're at 220 now. Why would we go backwards? because we don't know what's coming. What's the next epidemic? You know, Barry, it was 400. I mean, they were laying in the one judge that

But that could happen again. You know, administrations changes, governors change, you know, fiscal courts change, judges change, county attorneys change. We don't know. I can't, you know, there's not a crystal ball. But how many of those 400 were Bo County inmates about approximately? Was it just of the Was it a half? Was it a third? What What was that? Was that mostly state inmates? We had 170 state inmates and some of those were merc and boy joint jail said keep them keep them and and money. So you know you know the thing too if you look at number two

I don't know how state has to approve us to build the jail. So we you know we can take a chance upsetting them and they can make it really hard on us when we try to build it. And so, uh, you know, my my my biggest concern is the state is pushing regional. They want everything regional and if we continue to bow down to them, they're going to make us build a regional jail at some point and and then we lose complete control. We've we've been through the Mercer debacle. It It's going to be bad.

Well, then we just don't build. We just put money into what we have. We put a new roof on it. We go and fix the plumbing. We We update the electronics. and and we just if we're just going to be housing a small number, you know, we can just stay where we're at and put some money into it, fix the building.

I mean, that's still cheaper. You know, if we spend $5 million to update the jail, that's cheaper than $75 million to build a jail for 150 beds. And then you've got the operational cost, plus you got to pay the debt service. Uh I I don't know that anybody else was along with Brian, Chad, and me when we went to Oldm and a couple of other jails. And just watching what they told us uh about their construction, plus the unbelievable political morass that's going to take place when the state really starts looking at regional jails and owning them. and what happened back in the late 1970s and early 80s when

they're not going to own them. They want them to be us, our property. It uh you're looking five years out and we've got to make some some decisions now. Correct. I think we do need to get together cuz because we could talk this to death right now. Yeah. And we're still not going to all come to an agreement. So, I think the workshop Could y'all look at your calendars real quick? U we're 18th, right? Thursday. Did you say you were Thursday? Yes. Do you want it to that we have we're under contract with or Well, I think for this meeting it's just to decide what direction we're going to go. Yeah. What um what's the uh you're talking about Thursday?

I'm talking about day after tomorrow. 16th not available. Not available. You're not okay.

I'm the big thing too is operations. I mean, if you just look at those numbers, you know, that doesn't include benefits and, you know, our medical cost is going to is gone down. Um, especially with the state and that that's a big impact. But, you know, I have to make the trains run on time. I'm expected every day to make the trains run on time and I can't do it without state inmates. That's just plain and simple because those guys are not that just been arrested last night are not going to be able to work. they won't work. Uh, I'm not going to have anybody to do cook the meals. That means they're going to have to hire somebody. Our food costs are going to go up. The food contracts going to go up. I don't have anybody that does the laundry, does the maintenance to do all the other things we need. So, I'm just saying as your jailer, I can't run it efficiently and come in, keep coming in under cost that I've done every year I've been in office without state inmates. We went into this evaluation somewhat optimistic that we could do without state and rates. And my gosh, the what we would do to stress our staff, uh what we would do to stress our budget and what we would do to look at the highways um that are quite unattractive with the letter litter that's being picked up by these gentlemen and ladies. Um,

well, the solid waste stat still does a good job of keeping stuff clean. It's not just all inmates. I think though in light of this new information we have, we need to look at it more thoroughly and not rush sending that letter. Thank you. Um, what's the what's what do we get in from state for per inmate? 3534. And did we get the wonderful $4? They I don't know. At least I heard that it come from Jim with KO president. He sent that email that we weren't getting it. That's right.

But I think you you know and I was told it takes two or three times for us to get anything. And even though we had 50 some people sign the house bill, um, you know, I think there'll be some movement because, you know, the next time around, but it just comes down to this. I have to operate the jail. I have to run it efficiently. I have to run it safely. And I do it without state inmates. That's the bottom line. Let me come back to what you just said. Can I finish my question at any point here? I've I I I've been interrupted like seven times just trying to finish.

I didn't interrupt you, but I want to say what I was about to say because I didn't hear your question. So, let me finish. Um just as I said, we're 5 years out minimum to opening up a regional jail. And I don't think that'll happen in 10 years. I really don't when they really look at the politics of it. But remember, we just had the 2-year the bianial budget. So, we're looking two years out if we want to be optimistic that we're going to get $4 more, which is an insult. So, any actions we take need to take place now.

All right. So, what does it cost us to house an inmate? They give us 3534. It cost $6.2 million a year. What's per inmate? What is it? Well, it changes. Right now, when you base it on 130, it's higher. If I base it on my 220 beds, it's lower. If we go up to 300, it's higher. That number moves. At the end of the day, it's cost $6.2 million. I'm just trying to have a conversation. And I understand that because the voters I mean, cuz before it was always it cost $55 to house in

Well, we had to have something to base to charge Mercer County when we did the new contract. The best way I could figure that was based on 220 beds because that number never changes. So, we know we're going to have 220 beds. U but the more inmates I have that cost goes down so it it slides. So 66 is kind of where we were between 55 and I think we were charging ber 65 plus medical

but I think it was like 55 we were trying a little bit. So you know for every inmate we're 20 bucks in the hole. So, and what my colleague to the right of me said, who who was a jailer previously, when we're talking regional jails, the state is not going to build them. They are going to make us build them and make us have all the liability for it. You can shake your heads, Tom. There's no statutory way that they can force us to build a jail. They encourage it. The the biggest thing on that 557 was that they were going to give you a million dollars which is a pittance a dangling of pittance.

If you want to build a regional jail, we're going to give you a million dollars. If you already have a jail and you want to start doing regional stuff, here's half a million dollars. That was the crux of that bill at first. So you you can say whatever. I I have But you cannot say we could be forced into building a jail. It would be litigated within about two days and councelor it would end quickly. He's he's saying that, you know, if we want to build anything else, the state's got to approve it. So, they've got our hands tied. But make sure it makes cold. For the record, you can't say that they could force us to build a jail.

They Well, they can force us to do unmandated fees, force us to pay them. So, they probably could force us to do whatever. Correct. I mean, you know, how many times do they pass something and they don't pass any way to pay for it? You just call back on the counties. They would have to do that for 120 counties or it would be litigated the next day and fail. I mean, we we we didn't litigate anything when when we had to pay medical for these people that are in there. Where's the litigation on that? Went nowhere. Every litigation that we do goes nowhere. So,

yeah. And I I think the state in their lack of legislative action sent to me a pretty loud and clear message that they're not interested in paying their fair share. And I mean, I don't blame them. Who would have if the if this were on the other direction, we wouldn't be in a hurry to pay that extra $30 a month or in their own numbers, it's like $115 a day to house their state in

the goal. The goal of state corrections is this right here. For every jail or not jail, but every prison facility they have, they will be 3% under their max number. They will never be over. You know who's over the county jails. Well, so where does it fall? On the county. Who do you think they going to summon? Now, are we required to have a jail? No. Mercer. No, but then you end up with, you know, you end up with, you know, having to pay whatever somebody else is going to charge you.

That would be cheaper. And then transport 2 hours away cuz there's not a county jail that could house cuz everybody in this area is full. But I mean, that's cheaper than 6.2 million a year, I would estimate. Yeah, correct. So

right now we're still talking just understand that at today's numbers and I know it fluctuates or whatever but uh we are um spending almost $600,000 uh to house state inmates um if it was 80 inmates whatever by 365. So, so while we're getting these other things, we're we're not really getting that. We're we're spending we're spending a lot of money. Yeah. But here's the thing, too. We're not manufacturing widgets to sell. We're we are a service. The service is not going to make money. It's going to cost money. It's a service that we have to provide for the citizens of county.

No, but see, it's not for the citizens of Bull County. It's for a portion of the citizens of Bull County. Bull County taxpayers are paying for something they're never going to use. And it's up to us to make sure that we are spending their money wisely. And you know, granted, there are some people in Bo County that are going to uh use the jail, but not everybody's using the jail. If we could use that money for other stuff, well, somebody in there that's stout stealing lawnmowers and they're getting treatment and mental health, that's the less chance of your lawnmower being stolen. So, it benefits everybody. I'm not saying that it it

it benefits everybody in the county. It's a county jail. It's a county service. Not everybody's going to use EMS, but we still have it. Not everybody's going to use the sheriff's department, but we still have them. You should because we have to provide those services to the community. You should look at what was cleaned up uh in Louisville just recently because the citizens finally got tired of what was going on on the streets of Louisville. Um, and if somebody we didn't provide the services to our people, we could end up with a homeless count that would be insurmountably greater than what we have. I I can save this for later, but you know, EMS and the sheriff's department touch a lot more lives than the jail,

but not everybody uses them. You said not everybody's going to It doesn't affect everybody in the jail. Not everybody's going to use the sheriff's department. Not everybody's going to use EMS. I mean, we can go percentages if you want. Well, the thing is is it's a service that we still have to provide. Well, we kind of

Well, and that's where and I guess it goes back to my point. That is my point, I guess, is that I want us to house and take care of our Bo County inmates. You know, we're it's not our role to provide a service for state inmates. That's the state's job. That's our our state our tax dollars that go to the state should pay for them to house their state inmates. So you pull out the state inmates and you have a liability of a half a million dollars that you can't cover already. It's going to cost more. It's going to cost fiscal court more without the state.

And then you have atrophy of services. You have leaky roof plumbing problems. Uh initiated plumbing problems by inmates. uh liability because an inmate su sues us and we don't have the money to cover it. I think I just

one thing that's really important that you said that hasn't been touched on that probably just needs to be a breakdown and this isn't like a morality issue. I think it's a financial issue, but one thing you said is about the cost of hiring people to cook, to clean, to do laundry and the the amount that that would cost versus that the state inmates are doing for free. And if that balances out, I think these are number issues that we just have to track. And I provided that the red number is what it's going to cost the fiscal court, $155,5574 is our best estimate extra that it's going to cost without having the state but without benefits to the new employees. Correct. Correct. Correct. That's why we didn't do the benefits. We just did an hourly

base. So add those benefits in. So you're looking at 200. Okay. That's why I think this warrants a special meeting. Okay. Uh so let me just email you all some dates and then y'all can respond. Yeah. I I do as long as we have a quorum, you know. Right. Right. Yeah. Because to Jenny's point though, I think that we do need to see that math really spelled out because I mean again because it still needs to equal $40 per person per day and I'm not so sure that you can't cook and provide stuff for people for less than $40 per person per day. I respect what you're saying, but I think we have the math right now. How many?

Well, you have you have portions of the math. You don't have the whole picture. Yep. I mean, this is the the the half I mean, the $600,000 I said were already in the hole per year at that's at just 80 inmates. We still have another 90 beds that we could fill on the state. You can't fill them with county inmates. If if we get rid of state, I lose those beds. I understand that, but I'm just saying that it's a 220 bed jail

and we're only at 130. 80 of those are state inmates. just based on 80 inmates were at $600,000 in the hole right off the the get-go. You put more people in that jail, that number goes up. You know, you could double you could actually be in in the whole 1.2 million. But you take away the 80, I can't use those beds. I can't put anybody else in. Yeah. So the take them away. Take them away. That's 220 beds minus 80. That's my kind of math. We're back to 150 beds. And another comment I want to make, you have to maintain a specific number of staff, right? Because your numbers fluctuate even

and I've been running below what I'm so if you got rid of the state inmates, what's that number that no matter what, whether you have 20 or whether you have 80, you know, look at that and kind of tell us that with that meeting, you know, so probably about where we are now, 33. So, we're not going to lower our We'll lower it some, but not. But, you know, here's the thing. You know, I I have to have enough cover vacations, cover training. Uh, someone calls in sick. Um, you know, when we get in, somebody comes in, we have to take them to the hospital. So, that's somebody at the hospital 24/7, however long they're there. Uh, whether you have 80 or 180, you still got to have ST.

Yeah. But you have what's your what's your requested total number of I would probably be about 33 including at you have 33 now but what's what at full I'm allowed to have 41. So if you if we did get pumped up to 220 inmates again 300 I would have to go back up to 41 just because the way the bill is laid out it's not good. Here we go.

All right. We really need to move on. Yes. Yes. If we fix this, we fixed a 40year problem. Can Can we do it, Mr. Harman? Can we do it? It's all based at the Department of Corrections. Yep. It goes no Brian. It's just it it's for us it's multiple issues with the state. It's not you. You do a fantastic job. You're a fantastic job. We appreciate your hard work. Absolutely. But the counties have always and probably will always be in an abusive relationship with this state. They'll they'll they, you know, they'll they'll abuse the heck out of you and then, you know, when you finally complain, they're going to bring chocolates and flowers and make it look real nice and say, "Oh, won't do that again." And and then we're back at it. So,

and I appreciate Thank you. But I I I will leave you with this. Nobody has more problems with the state than I do. I deal with them every day, all day. I mean, multiple emails and phone calls. And listen, there's nobody more upset in this room than how the state does treats federal jailers than I am because I'm the one that receives I'm the one caught in the middle. I'm caught between them and I'm caught between you all. But I'm still expected to show up and make sure we meet all our obligations every day. So they treat you, they treat all of us the same way.

Yep. Let us help you undo that burden then. Well, I'm telling you, if you want to help me undo the burden and keep going like we are for now, because I can't I can't do it without state inmates, you know. Well, this is not going to happen overnight either. This is a process that we have to work through and once we make that final decision, then you can do a timeline. Well, and it might just be us sending that letter that kind of gets their attention and says, "Hey, because if they if they realize more counties been on board with this, they're going to have to fix their own problem and maybe this is the message they need to hear."

Magistrate Sleeper and I walked in with the president of the Senate two plus years ago. Sorry to hear that. And um his acknowledgement of two to3 $300 million that they owe all the jails uh was going to be discussed back then was just discussed in this budget session and no resolution has been reached. Correct. Well, I can guarantee it's going to cost fiscal court more without state. It it's just it is

that's and I'm still I mean I I hear you and I and I you know I agree with everything Jason just said that you know we couldn't have a better jailer and person running this ship. But I'm still just struggling with that math. Uh that math is just not good math to me and I got to see that math in a better way. Will you bring your numbers? Can you make sure they all have a copy of the budget before our next meeting so they've had time to absolutely look through please? Absolutely. You're going to just put me on the next agenda for the contract and that way I'll have give you time to look through it to make sure um may need to send it to the county attorney a copy of that as well. I always have him look at the contracts. Sure.

And just make sure urgency before two weeks on that contract. I don't remember. I'm sorry. Is there urgency on that contract before two weeks? Okay. No, he said no. It'd be nice to kind of get a number as well kind of on Jaime's thought process here. If we have 40 to 50 inmates and we did go somewhere else, what that would cost versus what we pay transportation cost, all that stuff that

Well, you're still going to have to have enough to cover 24/7 for all the agencies in the county. And then, you know, you're going to have multiple people working because a damble shows up with one and they've got to take them two hours away and then the sheriff's department shows up. You know, they're going to who's going to set and hold that inmate until somebody you're going to have to have multiple people. It it it's still going to cost it. It probably, you know, may be cheaper, but we're also though we're going to lose what we're doing for our inmates on the treatment and the mental health because there's nobody else provides the level that we do. And that's always kind of been our goal as a physical court is is to have our folks coming out better than what they went in. So when they come out, they don't just

understand. We're just asking for numbers. Again, based on your position and your argument here or discussion, not what your your points, your points, then we shouldn't even be there's no reason to continue to ask the state for more. You're saying we already are we're we're we're making it work. Well, as it is. So, why would we even want to ask the state for more money? It

it's it's not the best situation, but by working these inmates and the labor they provide, the money that saves, that offsets what we lose. And not having to pay the medical now is a big thing. So, we we've moved the dial. We're not all the way over here like we were with getting the the medical paid now and by able to work the inmates. We've moved the dial. We're not all the way over at 100%. But we're better than we were. So, you're putting a lot of value on our inind contribution to the state. What do you mean by income? Cuz we're they're they're paying we're giving them $30 worth of inind contribution to make.

But we're taking that and taking that for what we work to inmates in the community. You know, that's that value there. So that if that breaks us even that breaks us even if you know from what we're taking for them by using the inmates offsets the 60 say let's just say it's 65 and we're getting the 35 42 or 34 U. So what we make up on just the inmates alone by working in the community offsets what we're losing especially now that we're not having to pay medical. Would you say the dollar amount was that most uh other jails are are charging?

45 is and I've talked to several jailers and that house uh that are you know there's only a couple jails that's overcrowded in the state and I think one of those is Madison County and um they are back where we were when Barry was here. Um but everybody else is hurting for inmates and the state is housing inmates that would be eligible for jails. They're keeping them independent because they're mad at us because of the lawsuit and that's kind of they're mad at us for but I just think you know just

I think the master association, jailer association, the judge association keeps fighting this battle and eventually something's going to have to turn loose. Yeah, they might give us four more dollars. Well, that's you know. All right, we really got to move on. We can hash all this out at at our other meeting. So, thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks, Bri. So, if we if we were to not have a jail Thank you, sir.

and we were to send our 40 inmates a day somewhere else. That's $657,000 cost B County a year in just what an inmate cost to send them somewhere else. and we've got a $6 million budget and we're going to build a $30 million jail. Now I see why it's lucrative for some of these places to not build a jail and to send them somewhere else. Exactly. I mean, why why would we want not want to just pay other people to house our 30 inmates? You're talking maybe total of a million dollars when you talk about transportation of court people and some staff or whatever. Man, that's a that's crazy.

And that allows us to still fulfill our constitutional obligations. That's Yeah, it's interesting. All right, thank you. Okay, sounds good. We'll continue this at a later date. All right, next up, County Administrator Julie Wagner. Resolution to a administrative code. Yes, if you um look at the administrative code, I think you got an attachment. There is language in there for the appropriation process and we have added the uh homeless coalition. So we need to pass a resolution to allow that to be done. Okay. So we have resolution 2026.04.14. Correct. Yes.

Okay. There motion to approve. Hold on. I'm trying to find it again. Okay. Yeah. That's Did it get sent somewhere else? I think it's got sent in a separate email. I believe it did the resolution. Didn't you send it out in a separate email and it might have Okay. Oh, yeah. It was a It was late edition. Yeah, that's where it was. There we go.

So, where do do we house anywhere on our um on our shared drive the actual administrative code or is it just in a binder? I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't know because it was reading this and I was looking up something else and because I want to make sure it looks like we did we change handle this first. I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, that's my question. I think I thought you should have gotten the copy of the code and I hope you did and if not the code specifically says you can do these what is it 12 agencies and that's it.

Right. So, if you want to hear the homeless coalition, which I believe you do, we need to pass a resolution to add them. And only the judge can do that according to the code. Only the judge can amend the code during the year. Um, so the cleanest way to do it is to pass a resolution which changes the code and adds them to it. Yeah. Right. Do we take anybody off? That's that can be done in June. Yeah. Yeah. So, she can change the code to add somebody but not to remove with your permission. With your approval? Yeah, we still have to vote. You have to approve. She has to bring it forward. You have to approve it. Get that. I'm bringing it forward. Second.

Have a motion. M sleep for a second by Master Gay. Any discussion on the resolution of adding the homeless coalition to the administrative cup? Mine's about something different. Okay. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Go ahead, Mr. P.

So, my question was I was I was just reading some stuff and this is this is for clarification for me, not for argument. When I was reading something before, it looks like we changed the code or did we change the code where prior the fiscal court approved similar matter. The judge would bring forth a deputy judge executive um request and then the fiscal court would approve that. It looks like maybe at some point of last year did we change that? There might be. Was that is that why we did the change? I I don't

because the I don't understand. Hold on. I don't understand. So

to clarify, Mr. Cullen, you're saying that we were not involved in that approval process, correct?

We used to be. So under 202-00 and then section.2 deputy county judge appointment. I think it used to read, "The county judge may appoint a deputy judge executive. The county judge may appoint subject of to the approval of the fiscal court a budget officer to assist with the county fiscal court affair." This was in June, I think, when we did the last change. And it's that all is crossed out. It says C301. 0. Yeah, that's what I have.

So, did we change that? Is that was that a change that we made because 300 is not about appointments. I don't know without going back and looking I can't remember that off the top of my head. Yeah, 301 is procedures for the deputy judge. But I only say that cuz originally on there was a question about previous judge was going to um assign a deputy judge executive and uh the court at that time had the authority to stop the appointment but now it looks like we don't have that anymore and so I'm just trying to clarify. Was that due to him wanting to put a salary with that person? Do you remember back?

No, it was not. It had Yeah, I hadn't even gotten to that point yet. Okay. Okay. I I don't remember changing anything with deputy judge other than when we reformatted we used Rich's template that Rich Ornstein had put forward and that was a couple years ago. It may have gotten changed based on what Rich had put out. Um and that was probably there was an email from Kina. I don't remember there being June 6. I I just don't remember of the with where we did some some changes to the to the administrative code and that was just one that stuck out to me. I don't

where we struck out that um that piece. And so that's why I was just trying to compare. Was it something to do with it being a full-time position instead of a part-time position? It just has to deal with the actual appointments like how appointments are done made straight assistant appointment. So right there it's this I I'm I'm this is my question. Was that language in there previously and we struck it? Okay. I don't know. We would have to go back and look at

Yeah, that's that and that's why I was looking to see if it was on there. Julie, this is actually just what I'm referring to. So this was in June. This was the deputy county judge appointment. And so this is under the appointments. Yeah. Appointments. And so was that the language that was there before that we now struck, which makes sense to me. And that says C301. But 301 doesn't have anything to do with appointments. It's just the duties of the actual deputy. So I I don't know. I'll have to go back and see if I have Okay. paper trail on that. Okay. I don't know. Yeah. No, that's that's all I'm looking for is just Can we get back to you on that? Yeah. Okay. No, I want an Let's

recess now. We get the county attorney, we need you real quick. Okay. All right. Is that that it was that? Yeah, that was Yeah, since we were talking about the Ministry of Code because there was several different things that day where we made changes. U okay I skipped Shannon so sorry Shannon I'll go back up to you now. There is a budget amendment. Yes that is in your packet uh that she needs approved. We need to amend the budget to add um the grant that Angie received for the illegal do so that we can spend that money this year. So moved.

Okay. We have a motion by magistr gay. Is there a second? Second. Second by magistrate sleeper. Any discussion? Have we gotten permission to tear it down for the building? No, I'm working on that. Okay. We requested permission. We just haven't gotten an answer. Okay. Okay. Any other questions, comments? All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Okay. Next, uh, we need to go into executive session pursuant to KRS61.810, paragraph 1, paragraph B, deliberations on the future acquisition or sale of real property by a public agency, but only when publicity would be likely to affect the value of a specific piece of property to be acquired for public use or sold by a public agency. I get a motion to go into executive session. Do you want Shannon here? Mr. Dallas, is there a second? Mr. Harmon. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Any opposed? Name. Motion carries. I would like for room to clear except for Shannon and Julie and the county attorney.

So, welcome back. Do you want to hold off reports and stuff like that and master your comments or or we can do them until lunch gets here. We'll make it short and sweet and then the rest of y'all say pass where we're at and say pass. That better. Let me know when you're ready. All right. Uh, we need a motion to return to regular session. Make a motion. No action taken. With no action taken. No action. That's your voter. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Gate. All those in favor? Second by saying I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Okay. We will now start with our magistrate reports.

Me. So I can go back upstairs. I'm sorry. We'll start with county attorney. Go ahead.

All right. Um I had received u an email from Kendall from the chamber you know how we collect the transient tax there's some issues he was asking is there some way we can like maybe amend or the ordinance to like if they don't pay it after so you know so much notice and you know put a lean on on them because most time like for a lean you have like sue somebody, get a judgment, then you get a judgment lane. So, I'm like, I'll check. I researched and there are several counties that do this and um I pulled their ordinance like city of Georgetown for example, and it's something I can look at and maybe amend um if y'all would want to do something like that. And for doing that, I think that we should also do that for occupational attacks because I I don't think there's the punishment and so forth on that is we've got a lot of people and you know seems like we have collected a lot but there's a lot more out there and seems like it's not they're not affected by what our punishments or penalties are. So like to beef that up. And then the other one would be our um nuisance abatement. You can also do that too with similar um to put leans on on properties and so forth cuz there's a lot of properties out there that we really need to clean up and uh nobody do anything about it. So that's something I want to do in the in the near future. If you guys would support something like that, you might it could be for all three. It might just be for one or two. You just, you know, tell me what you

what you think on that. Um I don't know if you guys been watching um legislatively how they did a budget and they cut like all these specialy courts um including our drug court.

I do a a program through the county attorney's office. It's drug courts mostly like when they go up to circuit court for have pled to felonies and so forth. But I have a a rocket docket program where um they might be charged with a felony and um if they agree to complete six months of treatment and it could be they have to be evaluated and go through an IOP program or um in inatient depending on what that evaluation proves. And um anyway, I do that. So, I think that's a help. Um even though we don't have a drug court, I was thinking about maybe just talking to the drug court people though. And maybe I could implement some of their uh strict uh standards and incorporate it into my my rocket docket I have already to be kind of like a pseudo rocket docket drug court situation. And I know that Barc would would support that. I would think, but I just wanted to let you know my thoughts for the future.

Good. As a reminder, that was one of the first things Chris did when he became county attorney was the rocket docket. Um, which has been very helpful help with especially with the jail numbers when we came into office. All right. Well, thank you. Appreciate it. All right, Master Harmon, we'll go to you next. the order. Huh? That's the order. The order? Well, I gave the invitation, so I'm just randomly picking. She has no order. You should I have nothing.

All right, Mas.

Uh, the EMS committee met this morning. Uh it was uh Jamie, myself along with Director Rogers, uh Captain Madding Lee, um Rita and Jessica. We talked about Jessica gave the crisis team update um and also the community outreach update as well. Um we've uh we've seen an uptick in uh suicide ideation and unfortunately a couple people have passed away from it. So, make sure you check on your loved ones. And a lot of times they they could show no signs of being suicidal, but something happens and then we've lost a loved one, so check on them. Um, Rita gave some extra information on uh the inind work we do for the crisis team. Um, Michael Maddingly gave a nice update on EMS emergency uh preparedness updates. So, he's working on the bowl 250, making sure we we're prepared for that. Uh the center commandment commencement. He's also working on uh mutual aid. Uh we had a slight discussion about um the new EMS building. Um we all agreed that pink's not an option.

Dang. Um, and then runs for February 561, March 682. Um, so it's about 27 a day, which, you know, is I think our EMS team does touch a lot of B County people. Absolutely. And I'm glad they're there. Um, so I'll go ahead and submit that for uh approval. Okay, we have a motion by Mr. Cohen. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Gay. All those in fa any comments? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Name. Motion carries.

Uh, had a great spring break. Went to Colonial Williamsburg. It's nice to remember how this country was founded and the the the spirit that it took to do that. And uh uh yeah, sure. kids kids enjoyed it, which which is important that they're getting a good history lesson there. So, other than that, we're fourth district's in good shape. I've heard a lot of people comment about the connector road and uh we've received a lot of I've seen received a lot of emails and stuff from people that said that they were very much not in favor of the connector road um and to fix the roads we have.

Great. Okay. And I did receive your message about the sign and I will go ahead and do that. So appreciate it. All right, Mr. K. All right. Um, yeah, I don't really have anything other than same getting I have yet to hear anybody that has anything positive to say about the the current proposed connector road. So I think that that's been, as far as I can tell, unanimously snuffed out against. So hopefully that's the state is hearing that loud and clear as well.

Point on that. Um, and Rich, uh, Juliet, if you'd call Rich, um, I I'd love to have it absolutely verified that if one or the other bodies, the city or the county, uh, is against it, that the state will not, I don't know whether it's by statute, by regulation, or what, but I'm hoping that Mister Collins comment that it won't move forward is accurate. But the state determines that, though. the state will determine that. Well, then that's that's different than than what we've been transportation is what I'm saying. I understand, but they make that decision.

But the assertion's been made that one or the other voting it down. It won't be done. And I'd love I'd love to know if that's statutory. It's not. It's not. We don't have a We really don't have a say in See, that's that's where I was all along. And but we've been told by the state that they like to have both bodies involved, correct, in agreement or they will usually not move a project forward. Yeah, they have done it on very rare instances and it's not worked out well for them. That's why they really don't like moving against the localities, but there's nothing KRS about it. then when we move on it, we really need to move hard.

But that the the biggest thing is the funding from the state. So that's where Amanda and Daniel come in. Um and making sure we're communicating with them as well. Um excellent point. Yeah. Minister Gray, please continue. Uh yeah, and then really just we've had a kind of a bad week as far as this in the community. Mhm. Um and so I would just like to ask that we adjourn in memory of John Irwin, Davidson, and Coach French who were all basically influential leaders within our community. I think that's appropriate.

Okay, that's all we got. Thank you, Mr. Sleeper. All right. Um, I mentioned this a while back, but I want to mention again, uh, Remedy Drive will be in concert at Centinary Church on April 26th at 6:00 p.m. And that's all the proceeds will go to the homeless coalition. Remedy Drive pretty much does their concerts to support human trafficking uh, efforts. And so, but this time it'll be fully for the homeless coalition. attended the flyin at the on the 11th for the Davo County Airport which was nice event and I guess Judge Bond was there but we weren't there at the same time. No, so we didn't see each other. We missed each other

but uh it was good to attend that. Uh the Liberty Tree celebration or commemoration of the planting of the tree on the 10th. Um what what kind of tree is that again? Yellow popler. Yellow popler. Okay. Tulip tulip. Tiny popler. Tiny. Yeah, tiny popler. Whatever. It's very popular. whatever. But Judge Bottom and Julie and Paula and Mary and I all attended that. So, um Ben Franklin was there. Yeah. BM was there. Yeah. Looking well for today. Um uh shelter director, uh Jessica. Jessica, sorry. Thank you. Okay.

Don't blink there. She provided me with a animal control report for March. I'll just share some of the highlights with you. Um, and this is only going to be a snapshot. So, I know it's the numbers are not going to be as significant as if we get several, we'll have a trend. We can see where things are going. But after a few months, but 32 dogs at the beginning of the month, and then then at the last day of the month, there were 35. There were three cats at the beginning and one cat at the end. Four TNRS uh last month and three this month. Um there were 24 incidences of running at large animals. 50 calls for assistance from citizens. One cited for dog no dog license. One side for no rabies vaccine. There were three citations issued. I don't know what those are for. Zero vicious dogs and zero animal cruelty cases. So that's that's good. There were three animals you euthanized. She also put a note on there that she still needs a full-time ACO animal care

and we're working on it specialist. So, in big letters, we're working on it. Uh, on April 1st, uh, Judge Botm and I and as well as a number of the sheriff deputies and Sheriff Bottom attended a human trafficking training. Uh, amazed at what

occurs in every county in this state. It was put on by Rick Lynn, who is a detective with the state police and been working extensively with human trafficking cases. And um you know, it's not the child being kidnapped and put in a cage like it does in other countries, but you'll have young people who maybe are living with um uh to a substance abuse parents and they don't have food, they don't have water, so they go somewhere and some man will entice them in by offering them food or water and then abuse them in certain ways. So, um just a lot of different things going on. So, I think at some point I'm going to want to see the county take an active role in educating and awareness in this situation because a lot of people are not aware of how prevalent it is. Um, and then uh attended on the second the pin wheels for the um abused children and that was a great event and

so I know Judge Bottom and I were there. I thought else was there. Uh Chris Chris County attorney county attorney was there. So um again it it amazes me to see the number of pin wheels that each one represent a child that's a victim of abuse. So we drove to Williamsburg and it was nice going through towns to see those pin wheels everywhere from here all the way up to Well, I mean it's not nice to say it. It's sad, but the support Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And uh that that's all I have. All right. Thank you, sir. Measure Ellis.

Hi. Thank you, judge. Um I looked last night and I still can't find anything about registration for the KCJA conference and I know that fills up quickly. So, have have we seen anything? Hasn't come out yet. Just as as soon as anybody knows, please. I say it be 1 of May. Really? I think it will be first of May.

Okay. because at one point a couple months back they were making sure to get yourselves registered and now we don't know when. Um I can say this as as uh a nonpartisan uh since I'm not up for reelection but I'm really talking to the public out there to say please um come out tonight to the forum. It will be just off Route 33 at 6:00 at I want to say Veterans Building but American Legion

American Legion building. Uh it's just critical that folks understand the candidates both sides uh u when they come out and and hear what the what the um platforms are and what their experiences are and and how important it is to have a very qualified electorate out there. Um, and tonight I think it's the second, third, and sixth districts, correct? Um, it says inner county energy. Well, now that's interesting because I think that's a change. I think it's a good thing.

It it's been advertised as now the sheriff's was going to be there at Magistr's district 2, three, and 4, April 14th, Tuesday, 6 p.m. And this email received I'll I'll study. Okay, good. because I had I think I'd even sent you uh a notice of of the inner county. So, uh let me make that correction. Okay. Email this morning says American Legion. Okay. Yeah. Oh, hold on. Yeah. April 14th. That's 14th. It does say American Legion. That's what it's got put on. That's right.

That's why I sent it incorrectly to Paula about 10 days ago. So I thought, so it is in fact American Legion 534. It was at the Legion, but then when I got that other one. Okay, good. That's good to know. Okay. Yeah. You want to show? Good to know. At 6:00. Yeah.

At 6:00. Okay. Uh this morning, uh Harold Edwards, uh from Pville, extraordinary Kentucky historian, passionate about the Pville battlefield, uh came in and uh the judge was willing to meet with us hurriedly this morning at 8:30 and talk about that nearly 4 acres around the Crawford House and how we very much want to turn that into a park. And uh it was interesting because it crossed my mind. Um and we even said something about the quote from President Lincoln that um uh you know, let God be behind me, but uh we sure need Kentucky. Uh and today is sadly the anniversary of the assassination of American of Abraham Lincoln. So, uh, we all need to ponder, uh, as Jason was saying, uh, the wonders of Williamsburg, which is a magnificent place to vacation. Um, and we all have to stop and ponder how we got to where we are today. Thank you, judge.

Thank you, Mr. Boner. I missed the fly in. That's the first time in three years, but I wasn't feeling well, so I missed that. And we've had uh spring break, so Junction City Matters did not meet. So, uh, that's I'm ready for tonight and that's all I have to say. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Short and sweet. All right. County attorney, do you have anything to add?

Only there anything come across interesting that there'll be there a house bill 762 just passed. One interesting point about that is um public defenders would no longer be appointed to represent defendants in child support court. and that we don't know where that would fall. I guess to to the county because by constitutional constitutionally they are entitled to representation. Um so that's just something that will be coming up that will be um I mean it'll probably be litigated but that is just something on our radar. What's the ration? They don't have any money

to pay. Should we put something in the budget for that? I don't know if it if at this point I mean it's not happening you know this month. I mean is it going to effect July 1? Is that the Wow. Well they can be different. I mean that's the norm but it can be different date into it the time. Yeah but we're definitely looking into that because that will affect a lot of people. I mean, we have people I'm in court every Monday with probably 5 to 10 people who are up to contempt of court. We'll look at that. That will just be something that'll be coming up, but we'll be okay. Looking into Thank you.

So, they pass that stuff, but they can't pass anything on the jail. That's fun stuff right there. Yeah. But it' be like paying the attorneys that represent people in disability court and that kind of thing. Julie,

the only thing I have is just a reminder, pickle ball bids will be open on the 27th. So that will be after our final budget review and we'll just have to insert a number before we send the budget in. So that's all I have. Okay. Thank you. I have just some dates to to um give out to you all and then we can adjourn. Um, of course, Saturday is Earth Day at Constitution Square, and if it's a rain date, that will be moved to the uh Bulcan Extension Office. Um, make sure you have April 21st on your calendars. That's our final budget review. April 23rd, um, the state will have a public hearing on the, um, results from the air burner. Um, help me out, Paul. Where we had the hearing of

the hearing that they advertised. Okay. They'll come and have a public public meeting on that. What date was that? April 23rd at 6:00 and that will be at the library. April 23rd. 6:00 at the library. At the library. And that's going to discuss the results. Well, I don't I don't know exactly what they're going to do. I guess it's to have people come and talk, have open Yeah. conversation. Okay. 6 p.m. library, April 23rd. Got it.

All right. Farmers Market will open on April 25th. So, everybody put that on your calendar to come out and support the opening day of the farmers market. Um, same date, America's 250th uh Abe Lincoln program will be uh presented down at Fortland at the Forkland Community Center. Um and then Julie mentioned pickle ball. Uh April is National Government Month. So that is all of us uh in this room and Julie is going to be posting on Facebook uh different departments within county government and what those departments do and uh services that they offer. And so uh just be watching for that during the rest of the month. We'll be we'll be getting something on Facebook about that. It's also animal control week. So if you see uh Jessica uh or Ally, you all can thank them. U they'll be getting lunch uh one day this week. Um so just want to be thankful for them, thankful for Jessica that she's in the position uh that she's in and that she's doing a fantastic job and she is really opening the doors out in the community uh for public awareness u of the pets and animals at the animal shelter. And so, um, she's she's really doing a good job out there. All right. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. And we will be adjourning in memory of John Irwin, David Sin, and Coach Larry French.

Make that motion. Measure sleeper. Is there a second? Second. Measure Gay. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. We're lunches here.