Fiscal Court - Regular Meeting

afternoon. Um, just a quick check of your cell phones to see if they're if they're turned off would be good. And so we'll go ahead and get started. This is the July 22nd, 2025 Harden County Fiscal Court regular voting meeting. Let's begin and call this meeting to order. The roll call, please. Square Clim here. Square Hicks here. Square Muse here. Square Pennington here. Square Saltzman here. Square Thompson here. Square Whitehead here. Square Yates here. Judge Tall

here. Uh, next we'll have our invocation. Magistrate Pennington and pledge of allegiance by Magistrate Whitehead.

Please bow your heads with me. Father God, we just thank you for today. We just thank you for the opportunity to gather and do uh the county's business. But Father, we just ultimately pray that it would be uh pleasing to you. And Jesus, we just ask that u you would continue to be with all those u first responders that are um uh dealing with the flooding and um Father, just all our all of our first responders all over the entire nation. God, we just ask that you would continue to protect us, protect our nation, continue to heal us. And it's your son's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance 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.

All right. Well, thanks again for joining today. Um, it's great to see all of you here. We do have uh the mayor Sesi of West Point, still part of Harden County, and uh Maria Bell uh have a council woman in Radcliffe here with us today. So, thank you for being with us.

All right. Uh let's let's review the agenda. Um next, we'll have approval of last fiscal court uh minutes and then we'll move into someformational items. um some department office reports. Uh we'll have a a time of any citizens concerns or comments. Uh we'll move into a close session after that. After we return from that, then we have uh a resolution uh to vote on and then we have u a few items in our consent agenda to vote on and then our typical uh comments at the end. So that's the agenda. Uh just a real quick note that as far as the April flooding um they FEMA is still their office is still open but it's it's only till Friday. I believe it's the last day. And it's not to say that people can't still get some some help after that. They just won't have the office to go to. So, just a reminder if if you're going to do that in person, um Friday's the last day. Also, I uh requested an update on the public assistance side of FEMA and uh so sadly there is no change to that report. Uh the request is still pending with the administration in DC. It's not been denied. It is still under consideration. And of course, there's been congressional interest in this issue and hopefully things will change soon and we'll be able to get that public assistance that we need to pay pay for um significant amount of repairs primarily for roads uh that that we need to repair. So, so we have that. Um okay, I think that's it. We'll move on

into uh approval of Harden County Fiscal Court July 8th, 2025 minutes. I need a motion to approve. So move. Moved. Second. Seconded. Uh any discussion. Okay. Roll call, please. Square Clim, yes. Square Hicks, yes. Square Muse, yes. Square Pennington, yes. Square Saltzman, yes. Square Thompson, yes. Square Whitehead, yes. Square Yates. Yes. Judge Tall. Yes. Motion passes. Still pretty handy.

All right. All right. Uh we'll move on to some uhformational items. And our first item is um a very positive thing. We've uh for the um the website re-imagine project, we had uh our first uh and I already showed this at another another court meeting and we're going to uh give this to u the main person that worked on this Aaron Miller here in just a moment. And so this was the best application serving the public Harden County uh gov re-imagine and uh so this is from best of Kentucky awards 2025 government technology. So that's what this one was and we'll hand that off. He wasn't here the day that we had this. And then the second award we have received is a 2025 achievement award winner and this is from the national not the state but the national association of counties and awarding uh Harden County Kentucky uh 2025 achievement award for its program titled best IT collaboration among organizations. So, uh, pretty big deal and I, uh, just think it's, you know, we need to celebrate these things, right? So, uh, uh, I was hoping that everybody else could join me down here in front and I can just present both of these to Aaron as a representative of the team that worked on this and, uh, get a picture or so.

All right. So, congratulations, Aaron. And uh I know you represent a team that worked hard on this for a long time. So, thanks again for all your work. All right. We'll move on to the next item. Uh and that is the Kentucky Ohio River Regional Recreational Recreation Authority or KORA as it's known. And this is an update that uh Mayor Sesi is going to provide for us today. Thank you. Good evening all.

Thank you, Judge Court. Good to see everyone. Uh I'll make this brief. Um, I just recently attended the third core meeting up in May's uh, no, this time we were in Northern Kentucky. Uh, the organizations moving forward. Judge Owen McNeel of Mason County is the chairman and we're struggling, but we're getting there. Uh, the PowerPoint is really for me, not for you guys because I can't remember what I'm talking about when I'm in these things. So, uh, just a Corora update. Kentucky Ohio regional recreation authority. Try to say that three times real quick. You won't get through it. I guarantee it. Created by House Bill 712. The purpose of the authority is to establish, maintain, promote a recreational trail system throughout re recreational areas designated by Kora to increase economic development, tourism, and outdoor recreation for residents and visitors. I think they could have got recreation there more than once, but you know, that's just your legislature. CORE is modeled after the KMR, which is a Kentucky Mountain Regional Recreational Authority. It's been in business a few years now, and what they've done is they have tied the trails together in Eastern Kentucky uh to make ATV trails, and it's become a huge tourist attraction, and they're pretty well funded, and they're making uh they're making real progress and and taking areas that were previous coal mines and wasted farmlands and making it useful to the public. Uh and as you all know trails particularly trails in this part of the country need all the help they can get as far as funding. So um okay then Harden County became a participant in the formation and governance imagine that of the authority by your resolution 2024 pass July 30th 2024 due to the 2.9 mile shoreline on the Ohio River in West Point. Uh we have the shortest shoreline of all 25 participating counties. If

that doesn't surprise you, half the people in Kentucky, most the people in Harden County do not realize that Harden County touches the Ohio River until it comes into our back door. Uh, Judge Tall made me the design for the county, so I get to go to all the meetings. So, he took my help and gave me another job. So, I don't know which one of those came out of the writing in that, but so it goes. Um, the real benefit for us is this very short shoreline. Although we don't so we're not looking at big investments but we will get the benefit of this overall regional it it goes it's the all 25 counties that touch the Ohio River in Kentucky. So it's a it's a major undertaking and we're almost right in the middle. Kora will be seeking funding in the coming state budget to achieve its statute stated obligation to employ an executive director. It's just like your your government to do give you a mandate not give you any money to do so. But uh in all honesty, the when they when the legislature formed this organization, it required at least 11 of the 25 counties sign on and do the resolution before they would act before it could actually be created. So funding's on its way. uh and we may charge fees, establish a sinking fund, and seek grants to meet the mission of construction, financing, maintaining recreational facilities on both public and private land. In in the Kentucky Mountain Recreational Authority, they most of that is on private land. And the the upside to these authorities is that the authority can assume the liability for the private land owner. So private land owners are much more willing to allow people use the trails and in this case will probably be using access to the river. Uh but you but they are then covered by the the uh authorities insurance. So there's no they have no liability. Uh we will uh one of the things that came out of the meeting that we just

came came from is we will be applying for $1 million in funding uh from the state legislature which we will more than likely get when the Kentucky Mountain Recreational Authority was established. That's the very f first year they got a million dollars. I think they're they're well over that now. But it is getting fund funded by the state uh in its largest portion primarily for tourism and land development. Okay. So what does this mean for Harden County? The biggest thing is a much larger voice in the legislature for state funding and for recreational assets and increased tourism while conserving local resources. I have to speak for West Point. We don't we don't have any local resources. We have very very little money to do this. and to be able to be a part of this larger group thanks to you guys uh is going to give us an opportunity to increase our tourism base probably add some trails etc. So it's it's a big deal for West Point but it's also a big deal I think for Harden County puts us back on the map. Um the opportunity to share the vast resources of larger counties with developed riverfronts. So when I'm in these meetings I'm in there with people from Cincinnati and Louisville and Coington and Mazeville. all these people that have these huge developments on the riverfront and they're really a big help to us in like how do you get there? How do you get the money? Where do you get the engineering? What's the best use of the property? So, that's it's a big advantage to us. And last but not least, increase tourism for the northern part of the county. So, you guys know we're like way up north, right? So if we don't uh we what keeps us think we're part of Jefferson County but not um and this will give us not only increase our tourism but should increase our investment in other things like homes and hotels and whatnot. Uh okay so all of this more good news uh

Kora really came out of the Ohio River Way. The Ohio Riverway is a organization that was started primarily by David Wixs that runs from Ashland to West Point that ends in West Point. Uh it's a it's it has recently just recently been designated a national water trail by the National Park Service. That means uh that that the water trail connects three states and extends 38 miles from Ashlin to West Point. But it also means that we're now available for federal funding for all of the things that go on on the river. Uh, next slide. There. There you go. The national designation creates opportunity for federal funding for new recreational sites along the river. Increased access to the trail which will will either buy land or give us access through the uh other people's land and um uh provide for parks and whatnot along the way and hike and bike trails is one of the big things they want to do. Uh, one of the other big things we do is water quality treatment, uh, or senko, if you're familiar with that organization that tests the river regularly for cleanliness. And for those who really want to know this, the river, the Ohio River right now is cleaner than it's been since the 30s. No joke. Seriously. Uh, and then trail tourism. So, all of this is just a big deal for uh Harden County and West Point, and I'd like to express my appreciation for you guys doing this for us and know that uh it will all go to good use and it'll make us all famous again. That's all from West Point and we're still in Harden County. Questions? Mayor, this may be off off the subject, but I've often wondered why West Point having 2.9 miles, we haven't had a maybe an effort for a port authority. Um, what's your thinking on that?

The major reason we have never done that is because most of the riverfront West Point's private land. Um, there is one farm that at one point they were going to put a a dredging operation in and a barge operation in. uh the local citizens killed it. They didn't want that operation. So, we don't have that huge space that you would really need. And there was a sand and gravel operation there at one time and there was a port there at one time in Salt River. Um but with the uh the riverport just being moderately upstream, it would be very difficult for us to establish anything of that magnitude and the money that it would take to put it in. It was just astronomical. Uh we're more interested in revitalizing a riverbank. We're working on a bank stabilization grant now to beautify our riverfront and be able to hopefully get fuel on the river somewhere down there at Salt River.

Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you so much for your time. All right. Thank you. Appreciate that update.

Okay. We'll move on then to uh department reports. Our first presentation is EMS Mark Peterson. Good evening. I have the uh end of year um report for Harden County EMS for you all this evening. Ended up with June. We Here's our call data. We finished uh June with 1,345 runs. Of those 1,323 were 911 type runs, 13 transfers, and 160 uh canceled runs. Reimbursements for the month of June, we collected uh $646,413 compared to $443,000 in June of 24. This is our year-to- date call volume. We finished the year with 16,683 runs. Uh of those 16,44 were 911, 279 transfers, and then uh 1,642 were cancelceled. breakdown of responses by uh our ambulance units and where they're assigned. As you can see, the top three there are all stationed out of our Etown station next door, followed by um our squad that is stationed um at the detention center, then our Radcliffe units, and then lastly our Sonora units. Breakdown of our 5-year response history. Um our overall volume is down. However, our 911 volume is up um as compared to years past. This is our collection uh comparison to last year. We collected um 7,63,000 versus 6.2 last year. And then a breakdown of our fiveyear

revenue history. As you can see, it's our best year that we've had over the last five years with revenue, even with volume down. This is a look at uh our first year with 911 billing and our average reimbursement per run by month. Uh we had a slow start. There was some computer hiccups um for them to get these uh get our run reports initially, but once they got caught up and going um they did very well. Our fiscal year average turned out to be about $367 per run. And as you can see, there's a five-year look at that, which was our best year as well for average reimbursement per run. At this time, I'll take any questions.

How does your ambulances? Huh? How are the new ambulances? They are good. Uh, one was inspected yesterday by Kentucky Board of EMS. It's ready to roll and the other two will be inspected next week and ready to go. Thank you. I think that's a new chart uh showing the runs from the different uh stations. Yes, sir. Thank you. That's very good. I like that chart. Yes, sir. I'll add it. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. Anything else? All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate the report. All right. Next up is 911 Mike Leo. Good afternoon.

Good evening. Good evening. Evening. It's kind of chilly here, isn't it?

I here to present the June statistics from 911 center. And then I have some year end data after that. So 911 calls answered for the month of June. 4,634 10,45 CAD reports created answered 5,624 administrative calls. Dispatched 1,362 EMS runs, 428 fire runs, handled 20 2,615 attempt to serve prisoner transport and traffic stop type calls and 39,699 NCIC and link transactions. Just shows the calls for service by agency. It's EMS at 33.8%. Rack police 27.7%. Sheriff's office at 20.2% and the remainder of the agencies we dispatched for. You can see their percentages there. Fire runs by department for the month of June to Etown 41.1 Cliff 19.5. You see the remainder of the agency's percentages there. cost transfer to secondary sites for the month of June. Total cost transfer 776, 689 to Etown police, 87 to the state police. So this is a 5-year comparison of our CAD events created. See there for 2025 we're at 59,997. A little drop from the years prior. 911 calls answered. 5-year comparison 2025 to 24,784. It's a drop from the previous years, which means maybe people didn't need to call 911 so much this year. It's good. Year-to- date wireless calls

19,959 for 2025. Also a little drop there from the years before. administrative calls 5-year comparison 2025 33,869 little decrease from the year before I just believe there's some leveling out with the tacular transfer that happened in between 2024 and now selfinitiated events 5-year comparison up a little bit 15,994 for 2025 from the year four NCIC and link transactions five-year comparison pretty steady from the year before just a few hundred numbers up and these are all the warn entries and EPO entries and traffic stops and tags and OS and everything we kind of do with a terminal down there and we track everything we do in it. So adding additional law enforcement agencies kind of brought that up. You know, you can see the difference between 2021. That's it. Any questions for me?

All right. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay. And uh also included uh on the website is a written report from planning Adam King. it's available. And now we'll move on to citizens concerns or comments. Do we have any comments concerns by anyone today? All right. Seeing none, um I have been approached to possibly make a change to the agenda to allow people um instead of having this close session next is to maybe have that after the consent agenda. Uh that would allow people that are interested in the the business part of of this, they can leave after that if they want to. Um, so I think that's probably best if we just go ahead and just change that up and put the close session after after we vote on these other items. So, let's move on over to um our ordinances and resolutions. Um the one that we have on here is to approve resolution 142 related to the approval of it's basically a recommendation uh to the Kentucky General Assembly which includes um primarily uh to our our state legislators are um u and and so we've got um actually in resolution itself. Um, if I can actually read this, uh, it's pretty short. Uh, resolution of Harden County, Kentucky Fiscal Court's support of renaming a section of 31W from the Harden County line north of

Fort Knox South to Veterans Way, Elizabeth Town in honor of our Iraq and Afghan veterans. Whereas Harden County respects and admires these individuals that have served with a great sense of patriotism and whereas their dedication and sacrifice have made a profound impact and we are truly grateful and whereas know that their bravery and commitment are deeply appreciated. And whereas Harden County would like to officially designate a section of 31W to honor our Iraq and uh Afghan veterans. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Harden County Kentucky Fiscal Court uh hereby recommends to the Kentucky General Assembly State Representatives Steve Bratcher, Josh Callaway, Payton Griffy, Sam He, Nancy Tate, State Senator Matt Denine to rename a section of 31W from the Harden County line north of Fort Knox south to Veterans Way in Elizabeth Town to be dedicated to our Iraq and Afghan veterans in honor of their service to our community. So, that's what we're voting on today. Um, is there a motion to approve this resolution?

I make a motion. Second. Okay. Second. Okay. Uh, is there any discussion? Uh, judge, just want to make a comment. Um, I'm a veteran myself, Vietnam veteran. U fully supporting any of our veteran group and recognizing their their duty to this country. But I would like to also since our resolution doesn't spell it out give the public a little bit of background. This started June the 9th I think in our public works committee. I believe uh Mr. Robert Casher approached you.

Uh he's with the JCVO that's a joint executive council of veterans organization. He requested that we pass a resolution in support of this not petition but in support of. So that's what we're doing today after I think we tabled it initially till we could find out more about this organization and check with our local veterans and stuff. So I'd like to give him credit too for uh initiating this resolution to the court. Very good. Thank you. Any other discussion hearing? None. We'll have roll call, please. Squire Clem, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Square Thompson, yes. Square Whitehead,

yes. Square Yates, yes. Judge Tall, yes. Motion passes.

All right, let's review the consent agenda. Uh the first four items A through D are all financial in nature and then also item J, which is the U financial transfers and resolution 140. Uh next is item E that is resolution 135. This is approval to appointment of Paul Hayes to the Harden County Water District number one board for a full term, four-year term from September 1st, 2025 through August 31st, 2029. The next item is approve resolution 136 and this is related to approval of no before IT security awareness training renewal. This is about a $5,000 annual expenditure. Uh the next item two items are around some road a road some roads and bridge. Um the resolution 137 is related to approval of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet uh county priority projects program. Uh this is u uh almost a half a million dollars to for Nike Nike Pike and Middle Creek Road for resurfacing. And uh this is about um uh for those that are interested. Uh Nike Pike is from Franklin Crossroads Road extending to Richardson Road and that's about 3.4 miles of road. And then Middle Creek Road is from Kentucky 567 extending to Red Mill Road for approximately 1.8 miles. So about 5.2 miles of road, about a half a million dollars there. So excited about um getting that through and u starting

those projects. Uh, next one is approval of resolution 138 related to approval of the Horseshoe Bend Road and this is about $136,000 to repair that bridge. All right. Uh, the next one is uh 139. It's related to approval of some EMS personnel changes. And then item K, which is resolution 141, is related to the approval of 2025 Kentucky Department of Agriculture, spay and neuter um grant application. This amounts to about $1,200 that we can get to help with with that uh program. Uh 143 is related to approval of agreement with CentOS for uh for uniforms that we use. And then item M is resolution 144 and it's related to approval of animal care and control personnel um change. And then the last four items are meeting minutes from our committee meeting meetings. Okay. So does um anyone disagree with or want to remove any of these items from the consent agenda? Okay. Hearing none, then we will need a motion to approve the consent agenda items.

So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Have a roll call, please. Square Clim, yes. Square Hicks, yes. Square Muse, yes. Square Pennington, yes. Square Saltzman, yes. Square Thompson, yes. Square Whitehead, yes. Square Yates, yes. Judge Shaw,

yes. Motion passes. Okay. So, that takes care of any business that we have. We do have a close session and I move to go to close session pursuant to KRS61.8101C. Discussions are proposed or pending litigation against or on behalf of a public agency. Is there a second? So, move. Any discussion hearing? None. We have a roll call. Squire Clim, yes. Square Hicks, yeah. Square Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Square Thompson, yes. Square Whitehead,

yes. Square Yates, yes. Judge Tall, yes. Motion passes.

So, we're back from close session. We'll continue on into the comment uh section and we'll start uh with our county attorney. I don't have anything. Thank you. All right. Our county clerk. Nothing.

All right. We'll move on to the magistrates. Uh magistrate Yates. Uh yes, Judge. I just want to let everyone know of a meeting ch date change for the emergency service committee. Um originally it was scheduled for uh the August meeting. Um it was originally scheduled for August 14th. We're going to have to move that to August 11th because there is a conference going on. I forget which one it is, but a lot of magistrates will not be here. And that's all I have, Judge. All right. Thank you, Magistrate Saltzman. Nothing, Sarah. Thank you. All right. Magistrate Whitehead.

Yes. Want to remind the public about the resources and community support committee meeting Monday, August the 18th at 3:30. Thank you. Okay. Magistrate Clim. Uh, thank you, Judge. The, uh, first thing is the town hall forum be held here Tuesday, July the 29th at 5:30. The community is invited. Second, the next finance committee meeting will be Tuesday, August the 19th at 3:30 across the hall. Again, the public's invited. And I just want to remind folks, please don't drink and drive and don't text and drive. Thank you. Magistrate Pennington, no comments, sir. Magistrate Thompson. Magistrate Hicks.

Yes. Uh we've got a big weekend coming up in Elizabeth Town this weekend. Uh Thursday evening, uh Smoky and the Bandit will be on to State Theater, the big car show out of Frimman Lake and a lot of good music will be out there Friday. So, I encourage people here to come out and support uh support this county and the city of of Elizabeth Town. And then the big uh car show downtown is uh uh Saturday, all day Saturday. They're expecting about 3,000 cars. So, I encourage people to come out and and you know, it's a it's a good time, if nothing else, to meet your neighbors and meet people that you maybe not see but once a year. So, encourage everybody to come out and enjoy the festivities.

All right. All right. Thank you, Magistrate Muse. Uh, yes. I'd like to remind everyone Vine Grove still has their first Friday events. This next one is August the 1st. It's at Op Optimus Park in Vine Grove. I believe it starts around 5:00. And the next public works committee meeting. There's been a date change. It's on 6th August 2025. And that's change was from 13 August due to the conference that's going on. Thank you.

Okay. Very good. Uh next FIS fiscal court uh will be August 12th at 3:30 right here in this room. And we'll mention that um Siccilia Days, another fun festival um is the second Saturday. So is that the eth ninth? So 9th and then the Friday is the 8th. So uh 8th and 9th. So that'll be before our next court. And so uh come on out to Cecilia. Uh, got a parade out there and all kinds of good stuff. Lots of fun. All right. Um, I think that covers it. Uh, is there a motion to adjurnn? So move.

Don't you dare. Don't you dare. I got Square Yates by by a hair. Okay. Second. Seconded by Do we have a second? Yes. Okay. Any objections? All right. Meeting adjourned.