Fiscal Court - Regular Meeting

mind real quick. Make sure that uh we have those turned off. All right, let's begin. So this is uh August 12th, 2025, Harden County Fiscal Court regular voting meeting. So let's begin and call this meeting to order. The roll call, please. Squire Clem here. Squire Hicks here. Squire Muse here. Squire Pennington here. Squire Saltzman here. Squire Thompson here. Squire Whitehead here. Squire Yates

here. Judge Executive Keith Tall here. Uh, next we have our invocation of magistrate muse and pledge of allegiance, magistrate saltsman.

Let's pray. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Dear lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for our many blessings. We thank you for this great country we live in and privileges we enjoy. We thank you for this opportunity to gather today to make decisions to improve our county. Help this court to make fair and just decisions. Help us consider all alternatives and come together to make the best choice possible. No matter the outcome, may this fiscal court continue to work together to make this county and community a better place to work and live. We pray that you protect us all each and every day, especially our first responders and the service men and women that protect our country here and abroad. Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

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, I have a few comments uh today. Um again, thanks for joining us. It's good to see all of you. And uh so let's uh review the agenda. Fairly typical agenda today. We have um our minutes to be approved. Uh we don't have anyformational items as such. We have some department office reports to go through today. Uh after that, we'll have some citizens concerns or comments if needed. And then we have um an ordinance and a couple of resolutions to approve. And then we have our consent agenda that I'll cover in more detail. After that, have comments and that'll be it. So that's the agenda today. Uh just a note um I guess um as far as our last meeting uh we didn't have the uh basically the approval by the president on a a public assistance for uh the flooding that happened back in April and it was just really uh hours after that that we finally received that approval. So, we do have that approval now and um that is big news and good news for uh the counties involved including our county with a lot of expenses associated with uh with with the damage that that we incurred um primarily on two roads and then uh other expenses associated

with that. So, very happy that that that has happened. Um we will um there's there'll be more about this as we as we get into one of the resolutions uh to get some help to move through that process. I just brought like the packet that's that several of of us uh attended uh recently last week and it's kind of a a thick uh little training here that we went through with our friends at FEMA and uh the Kentucky U emergency management. So they did a good job and went through all of all the process and all the things that you that you need to be aware of as you go through what you can and can't do. So, it's a pretty uh uh it was good training. Good to know. Uh we this this county hasn't gone through this process for a long time. So, we really don't have anybody here that's been here that long that uh remembers how how to go through this process. So, this this is good to know and just to let you know that we're we are doing the best to stay on top of this. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention was, uh, I received some information from our state senator Madanine regarding this month as railroad crossing safety awareness month in Kentucky. And um just a little information about it. It's uh Operation Lifesaver is a nonprofit organization that provides free public education and awareness programs in states across the US to prevent collisions, injuries, and fatalities on and around railroad tracks, and um highway rail grade crossings. Senate Resolution 39 provided for further education opportunities for young drivers as well as continued

reminder for local municipalities and public work departments to focus on removing vegetation from railroad crossing signs and sight lines to improve visibility for all drivers. So, that's kind of a a a general um information about what this month is about and uh what started a lot of this. Uh some of you may remember that there was a young man that died at Craft Road Railroad Crossing in Rinville, Kentucky on April 28th, 2020. And um so um the parent, one of the parents reached out and was concerned about uh maybe that there wasn't that there weren't any stop signs um at this crossing still today and that uh the vegetation uh in that area has has grown up some more since then and so asking for some help there. So in response to that um we are confirming that the specific crossing in Rinville is cleaned up and if it needs it and it and whether a stop sign is appropriate or not. Um what we have found out is what we can do at this moment is we can add railroad warning signs with a head. So a railroad sign with a head and so many feet from the uh the railroad um crossing and place signs on both coming from both directions. That's something that um that we are planning to do. What we uh need to do with the railroad company uh because they do have the right of way uh so far uh off of the railroad tracks. uh we would ask them to

trim back some trees because there are some trees that are uh uh not helping matters any at this particular crossing. Uh it wouldn't really take too much to improve that sight distance and to uh consider a uh moving it from a yield sign to a stop sign. That is also the decision of the railroad. Uh they they would make that determination. So, um, another things that we have asked them to do is consider adding flashing lights given at this intersection there's been two fairly recent crashes and uh, so even just got a note here right before the meeting. Um, got off the phone with P&L and they're going to check on these things and they're going to get back with us. So, uh, one thing it's difficult to, uh, twist the arm of the railroad companies. We have figured that out over the years. Um, but we will do our best to see what we can do to make some improvements there at that location. In addition to that, kind of reaching out throughout the county and there are several crossings uh, on county roads that don't have um, you know, the flashing lights and the bars that come down. Uh so we're get a count of how many of those that we have. Uh do some assessments of what what those look like, if there's anything that we need to clean up. Uh additional mowing that we might need to do around signs, those types of things. And uh add those to our maintenance um system so that we make sure that we're checking on those more frequently uh and make them as safe as we possibly can. So that's kind of where we're at with that. Um, and so we're responding to it, trying to do some things on our part to uh to make some improvements with safety at railroad crossings.

All right, I think that wraps up my comments. We'll move on to the uh next item of business, which is approve uh the Harden County Fiscal Court uh July 22nd, 2025 minutes. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded by Paty. Discussion hearing. None. A roll call, please. Squire Clim, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes. Judge Executive Keith Tall,

yes. Motion passes. Okay, we'll move on then to our department office reports. uh and the presentations. We'll start out with animal control. Mike McNut. Good afternoon. Thank you guys for having me. Good afternoon. Afternoon.

Um our numbers, I mean, pretty much the same um always going into this. It's right now our biggest problem um is the fact that we're overran with big dogs. Um last Friday we had 74 dogs that were over 50 lbs and uh 53 cats. Um right now we're running a special. We're doing our best to get them adopted to get them a home and get them um increase our live release rate which is really important to the staff and the community. um rescues. We actually, if you notice, we we had a few rescues. We had nine leave Friday, which was the most that we've had in two years. We've usually had three leave on a Friday, but we had nine go. And it was a it was a good day for everybody because we're one of the groups. I'm not going to tell you that I'm going to euthanize an animal just to get you to take it. I mean, if it's to the point to where that's going to happen, I I will tell you, but I'm not going to just say it to get you to take a pet. I don't I don't believe in in that. Um, you can look our dogs euthanized are at 9%. Um, our adoptions are at 65%. It is on its way back up. Hopefully, it gets to be a lot more, but we've been running the special for a couple months now, and it's just not a lot of people are adopting right now. Um, our return to owner are at 22%. The complaints investigated, you know, that number continuously goes up. We're at 193 complaints for the year to date. Those are actually calls that the officers went out and had to investigate and had to write a citation or trap a dog or find a injured animal,

you know, one of those types things. Uh that's a municipality report and wanted to get to we had 149 visitors that came to the shelter searching for their lost pet or to adopt. Um, let me see here. This is Jeremy Hall. Um, he's the teacher that we all went out to and saw their program. They have an excellent program. Uh, they recently received a grant for, uh, trapneuter return. Uh, and they do it actually at the school with a veterinarian that actually graduated from Mr. Hall's class. Um, we do help out a little bit with that, but not as much. You know, they they pretty much have their program. uh wrapped up and ready to go. They were doing it before uh we got involved. So, but uh the they came out and watched surgeries with us for a day. Um and Mr. Hall's just got a great program going. Hopefully, it will increase the number of veterinarians in the state of Kentucky. We're headed for a really bad place. There's no veterinarians coming to Kentucky. Uh this is something that we talk about at the animal control advisory board with the governor. Um and nobody's really doing anything to fix it. And what going to happen is it's going to cost everybody a fortune just to get a rabies shot. And um you know and then it's going to make our job harder because nobody's going to want to have a pet because it's so expensive. Um these are employees of Magnolia Bank. That's the photo on the left. uh and bluegrass supply chain photo on the right. Uh they volunteered by walking dogs, playing with the cats, and cleaning in the shelter. And this is the senior leaders core staff from Fort Knox. They volunteered for the whole for the day. Um they took

out dogs, played exercises, uh they cleaned the windows. I mean, they were everywhere doing everything. Uh the volunteer program has really taken off. We're seeing uh a lot more activity. Um and a lot of we're getting a lot of positive reviews about it. So, um I'm hoping to keep that going. Free labor is free labor. I'm trying to get as many volunteers as we can get to help, but they are limited on what they can do for us. Any questions?

Mike, uh just a comment. Um, I guess I know that's that's a great program and you're very uh involved with the FFA students and and Mr. Hall and the program there at John Harden. Are there any other high schools that have expressed concern in doing maybe something similar to what John Harden's doing? Well, no, not doing what they're doing, but they we have kids that um come to us and volunteer uh from school without getting paid. Um they had to name it something differently, but our program is always full. And you know, a lot of these kids are actually being able to go out to these other jobs and make money. We we don't have that in our budget to be able to do it, but it doesn't stop them from coming. So we at least have two or three. Mr. Hall's son was actually one of them that volunteered with us for I want to say two months, three months, but then he got a job in the field and he he and I I mean I don't blame him. He's going to get paid to do it. But um they come in and they help. They especially back in the surgery department, they love being back there with you know Dr. McIntyre. Um Dr. McIntyre is an excellent teacher. He he takes time to a to answer questions and he answers them in a way that that anybody can understand them. He doesn't throw out the big words to confuse you like some vets will do. So, but we have a lot of high school people that are interacting with us through that program that are but the school is not really do doing nothing with it. Just John Harden.

They plan to participate. I mean, I know school just started, but they're going to kick that back up again. Yeah, they're I've already talked with Mr. Hall. They want to do the kittens pup. They want to try and do puppies this year. Uh, I'm going to do everything I can to to get whatever I can with them for as long as I can do it. I mean, it's great for the kids and it's it's great for the animals. It's great for us. That was a great great program. Well, thank you, Mike. You say that vets are not coming in Kentucky. Large animal, small animal, both. both. What's the problem?

Um the pay and the fact of how much it costs to become a veterinarian. Um there's been several ideas tossed around. Um my idea, you know, was maybe we should help pay their tuition for a 5-year period or something and and gu get us a guaranteed five-year stake from them or something like that. Um but Andy has not acted on that yet. So, but I tell him about it every time I see him. So, uh because there's nothing there's nobody coming this way. There's just there's not many actual colleges that have veterinarian programs. No, there's not. It's because it's so expensive, right?

Yeah. That's I mean uh I would love for them to start going here that you know that if it was a a resident that was going to stay here that we could do some kind of free tuition or something just cuz we need more veterinarians here in this state when when we have wonderful veterinarians here now. Um but when they retire and there ain't none of them getting younger, you know. um when they retire, we're we're in trouble because there's only going to be a handful that's, you know, coming out of it. We do have one, her name's Katie, that she's coming back and um she plans on doing large animal here and she's been the one that's been volunteering with us ever since she started college. So, uh I'm not going to lie and tell you that I, you know, me and Doc ain't getting no younger either. So, I've tried to talk her into, you know, you could do the shelter work during the week and then you could do your large animal on the weekend, but I don't know. She she she wants to do large animal and I understand and you know, she should follow her dream. Anybody else?

All right. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate the Thank you. Thank you. Next, uh detention center, Josh Lindloo. Squires, have you missed me? Yes, sir. It's good to see y'all. Really? So, just saying. Welcome back.

Well, thank you. I really haven't been gone. I've been propped up in the office there, but uh the doctors let me sneak back in every once in a while and well, I didn't tell them, so you know, but anyway. But all right, the Harden County Jail, you know, um, our intake and release information, uh, lodging income for the month of July. I did this myself. I've been out a while. All right. 342,334.20. Uh, the intake for the month is 528 released for 532. Average daily population is 579 with temporary releases and 539 total count. If you look at the billing, we are creeping back up on the state to county numbers. So, we're back within uh 4%. So, that's a lot better than the 10 and 12% we have in the past. And I'm glad to say that for the first time since uh co uh our female site program is actually up to 50 people. Uh the program is is set up to hold 50 people and it's actually full. So, it's first time since uh since co and all the releases from the governor's office. So that's a big uh a big push in the right direction so far. So all right misdemeanor charges operating influence 29 assault forth degree 36 possession of marijuana 20 violation of Kentucky EPO DVO4 non-payment of fines 13 theft by deception code checks nine shopl 21 uh burglary first second third is 14 robbery first and second four assault first second third 13 possession control substance 53 flagrant non support four and traffic illegal substances 17. Our total week in our county is 67. Inmate hours worked 10,364. Um, so if you had to equate that to minimum wage to actually pay somebody to go out and do all those hours and stuff throughout the county, that'd been

57,942. And we've worked uh 2372 hours for other agencies. When I say other agencies, I mean uh road department and Kentucky State Police. Uh, outside appointments 31, emergency room visit zero. Knock on good. We keep it that way. Uh, nursing visits, 123, medical request 134, hospital admission zero. Uh, inmates on medication 310. So, uh, the inmate road trash cleanup program, it wasn't as high as it has been just on the fact that the good bulk of that was done working the, uh, county fair. So, but there was a lot of roads that were picked up and a lot of trash that was picked up. So, I'm not going to go through all of them because I'll probably run out of breath in the middle of it. But, uh, but bags, 2,110 bags. Uh, miles of roads 130.4. So, making Harden County look beautiful every month, you know, just saying. But, uh, but yeah, the guys are pretty tied up the fair that month. So, any questions?

I don't I don't really have a question. Um, I've noticed, you know, obviously I know you help around with the fair. I've seen you all out there preparing for that. And then I've seen you all around with um the police department helping clean up and that kind of stuff. So, it's just nice seeing you all out there and I think Project Learn, you all take care of them as well.

Well, so the Project Learn, of course, we always mow the grass. There's different 501c agencies like Clarity and and Project Learn. But all in all about about 68 properties, not counting cemeteries and there's about 60 cemeteries in the county. We actually mow at least twice a year and some that are mowed once a week. So, um the Indian cemetery gets about once a week cuz he actually has some foot traffic there and stuff, different things. But, uh lately we've been busy. Uh right now we're working on a project at Etown High School uh repainting the baseball stadium. We've had crews out there for the last couple days repainting the baseball stadium which I guess the bleachers were donated by Vanderbilt University back in early 1980s it sounds like. So but it's looking great saving them about $45,000 for Etown schools. Uh last couple weeks we've uh we had the crews over at the Lincoln Trail Elementary spreading mulch in the playgrounds. It's been uh I mean literally it was like eight loads of mulch, eight trials a load. So there's a lot of mulch and we went to two other schools uh in Ragcliffe and did the same thing. Spread mulch, get everything ready for schools. We've actually had two inmates helping out with Etown Independent Schools for the past uh o over the whole summer. Um you know, we've been doing a lot of projects. Of course, the fair is a big thing. And of course we got everything ready for sea days and then of course the road cleanup and then also u well you were talking earlier about the railroads and everything. So I got a call from Senator Ne like 11:30 last week and said hey the craft road and everything you can't see down the railroad track. So by like 2:00 we had it all weeded down and stuff for about a quarter mile. So everything looks good out there now. We've actually went and started hitting the other railroad crossings already and stuff and route to other places we've been doing. So, it's looking pretty good. I think we have a lot of uh line of sight issues with Harden County because the way the roads

are, but uh there's certain corners we've we do every month. Like u at four corners, we have to do that about three times a year just to make sure people can see to the right as they're coming off 84 uh coming to 62 from the P from the Parkway. Um trying to think there's a Well, 2 222 right there and the 62 is another one and stuff. When it grows up, you can't see nothing. So, we we always knock off those corners and everything else. So, the guys stay busy and uh they make sure everything's safe for everybody. So, yeah. Any other questions, guys? Just a quick question on the u that percentage that you reported at the very beginning of the state inmates. Yes.

What what kind of an impact uh is that having on revenue? Uh is that well the revenue will raise anytime that state number raises means we got more state prisoners. So it'll raise up and actually have some money come coming in for people that are it means we have more paying customers coming in instead of people that aren't that's on the county dime.

Uh we've working out a deal with Jefferson County. Of course we talked about this a while back and stuff but uh we've actually been taking some of their prisoners that are waiting to go to prison that are paying customers that don't have any medical issues. So we actually been you know pocketing some money with that stuff putting it in the general fund and stuff. So, uh, that's really helping out. But the SAT program is what the best thing is because you actually have 50 females getting cleaned up from drugs in a great program. And, uh, some of the smaller jails that couldn't handle the, um, I want to say almost like a jail recession. I mean, because right now the jail's taking a beating from the state funding and everything else. And, uh, but, you know, right now stuff, we were able to weather the storm for a little while and stuff, but now it seems like it's starting to get enough to prisoners. So, and when I say that stuff, I mean, you know, if you got 50 people getting cleaned up from drugs, I mean, that's that's where this weight can go there. So, but yeah, generally stuff, uh, you know, over the years, I we were able to get that number up to, you know, 60% 40%, uh, you know, years and years ago whenever this program was first started with the state prisoners and the building on the state prisoners stuff, you had about 8020 and I'm talking about 30 40 years ago, you know, whenever there's actually, you know, moving the prisoners around. So, but uh we're uh we're getting back up there a little bit and stuff and uh just doing different things with the state legislature. So, hopefully we can get some stuff done come January in the session. So,

yeah, I just be interested to know what that impact that actual dollar impact that is whenever we get a chance about by next month when it comes out. It should show on the lodging income. Okay. You said, you know, the increase should be right there. Okay. Yeah. Good. Anybody else? All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. I'm doing. All right. Next, emergency management. Joyce Scott. Afternoon, judge, members of the court. Good afternoon.

All right. I'm going to get present the July report to you all. Next slide, please. All right. Significant actions for the month of July. We uh Kentucky Emergency Management Area 4 quarterly meeting in Louisville. We attended that. Uh, also Harden County Fire Chief's meeting. Uh, we had a point of distribution meeting with FEMA, Harden County Fire Planning Meeting, and we also visited Warren County uh, for their fire planning meeting, and Warren County is making some strides right now on their county fire protection. So, we went down and uh, had a really good productive meeting with them. So, brought back some information to share with you all on that. So, emergency incidents for the month of July, we was involved. We made a fatal accident to 121 mile marker WK Parkway. Was called for missing person call on Corora Court in Sonora. Uh we were actually involved in the large fire at the Harden County Landfill. And and I got to say uh we had four different counties out there, 10 departments that uh really worked uh great together. Uh so Central Harden, Valley Creek Fire Departments of Harden County, Rinville was also involved in that. Uh can't say enough good things about everybody that came together and worked so good when we got the fire extinguished and uh was really proud of all the efforts there. Uh was also called for missing person in the Shepherdsville Road, Elizabeth Town area, community outreach. We um attended the Elizabeth Town Independent Schools safety roundt uh meeting which was um very productive. We had a it was a eight hour day and we met at the Philipstown Police Department went over some different u shared different different views on safety procedures and in and event we have severe weather and kind of what our roles as a Harden County would play into that as well and shared that with them. So that was a really good meeting as well. Uh we had the Quixie monthly

county report u and also attended a large c crowd control meeting with Highland Side Farm with their big concert they have coming up here at the end of the month. So all right, next is one I want to talk about is the rave alerts. Uh this is our county uh notification emergency notification system in the county and we're just doing a large push to get this information out there not only in this platform but anytime we can push this we're going to push it and Richard Dwit my deputy is doing just great things by getting it. I think this this month we've already got 200 to 250 people signed up already. So, uh, you know, we've kind of in the past, we've had this for a number of years now, but we really want to, our goal is to get the numbers up in Harden County. Uh, we we would like to have half our citizens on this system. Uh, because what it does, it sends out u emergency notification, not only storms, but any kind of disaster to their phones or can can ring a landline as well too or send you a text message. So, uh, it's, uh, the new wave of technology that we, we really want to make a large push on and notifying our public on RAVE. And, uh, again, if you want to sign up, you can go to our wwheartyky.gov. Uh, you'll there's a QR code on there. You can scan that and it'll walk you right through. It's pretty easy measures to sign up for it. So, all right. You all have any questions on my presentation? I was going to mention that that rave alert that's on um soon as you pull up the website it's right there which uh goes to um our IT department for that. But uh it's right there staring at you. So I was glad to see that. Also, do you have an idea how many citizens are signed up for that?

Not enough but not enough. We're about we're running about six to 8,000 right now. Six to 8,000. Yeah. And we need to we need to that number needs to come up. So that's why it's so important for us to push it out. And I I like, you know, thank Aaron Miller as well. He's really helped us out. Him and Richard have been working uh to make sure that's in the right spot, the easiest access we possibly can for the community. And then again, Stephanie Given, the solid waste coordinator, her event last weekend, she passed out almost 600 almost 700 flyers to to different cars coming through. So again, any exposure we can get, we're we're we're trying. So um we really want to get that that information out. Good job.

Yes, ma'am. Uh, real quick, if you don't mind, judge, I would like to do a quick presentation, just a recognization of some efforts that uh, went during the floods. I hadn't had a chance to do this because we've been so busy with with with wrapping up FEMA and with FEMA and everything. So, today I'd like to call a few people up front if you don't mind. I'd like to Amanda Crouch, uh, Richard Dwit, and Lewis and Angie Thompson from Kohl'sburg Baptist Church. I just want to speak a little bit about them. Judge, if you don't mind to come down, I'll download pictures.

Yeah. Like to give some uh Rita quick. Come on up here. Come on. Just want to talk about a little little bit about what they've done for the community and and how they've helped us out. So, I'll start first by saying uh Lewis and Angie Thompson. I met them during the floods in Kohl'sburg. Uh they're they're leaders in the Kohl'sburg Baptist Church and uh we uh you know we were ground zero. Um our crews were down there as soon as the flood started. Uh and we spent countless hours down there and uh you know Lewis walked up to me and said, "Listen, uh I want to make sure that the first responders are taken care of." And I I mean and when when somebody said that we're we're doing rescue operations, you know, these are people affected by the floods theirel, residents of this community came in and they opened their church ups Baptist Church. Uh you started cooking chili and had refreshments for all for all of our first responders and a place for refuge for the town's people and everybody. So I couldn't say enough good things about it. And uh I mean they they truly represent what community is all about and uh the Harden County spirit. That's what I like to call it. Um again I want to thank them for their efforts today and judge I'll have you present this to Lewis and Angie Thompson.

Why don't we can you just go through those and then have everybody come down? Sure. Sure. That's great. One at a time.

Then also I'd like to recognize uh Richard Det. Richard's my deputy deputy director for emergency management. And again I can't say enough good things about Richard. Richard that day uh all three weeks in a row would come in to work that morning, load his truck up, I mean to the gill with supplies and go out and do survey one 123s and pass out uh supplies to the communities. I mean it wouldn't come back in at 6:30 7:00 every night. So again uh you know you can't you you you can't measure success during a disaster but when you help somebody that is truly success and to see the smile on their face during their worst time of their life. So again, Richard, I'd like to thank him for all his efforts and everything he done for us as well. And Amanda Crouch is an EMS employee. Amanda's done uh Mark Peterson was great gracious enough to allow Amanda to come help us out uh during these floods and she uh she got out helped Judge and I doing some social media because we were terrible at it. So, uh, she she came out and took care of us on social media and and that was so important to get that message out to people and, uh, I couldn't believe the reviews and we were getting from people our Facebook posts that we were putting out about information because people really want to know what was going on in the county and uh, she done a great job and came out and also done survey one, two, three, went house to house and getting and that's so important with FEMA to get all those numbers in early and again success was measured there by the individual assistance that we got out to all the people of Harden County as quick as we possibly did. So again, I couldn't do any of this without all these great people up here beside me. So I just want to thank them today and thank you all for letting me present this to them. So um before we all come down and take a picture, I didn't get u anything for Joey for all of this hard work. So, I'm just going to give him a pat on the back and uh say uh thanks to you for all your u dedication and um it

was such a big team effort as you were talking about and it's just team Harden County. I mean, it was it was in full force. So, uh I just thank you for what everything that you've done. I thank all of you and for your part that you played in in this disaster that we had here in April. So that's the silver lining of a disaster is the teamwork. That's right.

So if y'all wouldn't mind coming down, we can take some pictures. [Music] I'll have them come up here. Good. [Applause] [Music] All right. Thank you all. All right. We'll move on to our next item of business. Uh citizens concerns or comments. Do we have anyone that would like to come forward? I don't see anybody jumping up. So, we'll move on into the next item, which will have um uh some approvals of uh an ordinance and a couple of resolutions. Starting with item A. This is the second reading and

adoption of ordinance number 344-1 series 2025. This is amending fiscal year uh 2025 2026 budget amendment number one. And uh as I mentioned at the first reading, which has been a month ago, uh this was primarily to pay for our ambulances. So $1.3 million and uh library uh unspent money, 264,000, and a couple other vehicles at $130,000. So that's what this amendment is about. Is there a motion to approve uh this ordinance?

Second. Second, did you get both of those? Who did the first? Was it first? Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh, any discussion? All right. Hearing none, we'll have a roll call. Squire Clim, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes. Judge Executive Keith Tall.

Yes. Motion passes. All right. The second item of business is to approve resolution 2025-155 related to the approval of task order and uh disaster aid services agreement with ER assist incorporated. And just for a little explanation to kind of uh uh give a little more information about this this uh I'll I'll actually read the the resolution here. It's short. Uh whereas Harden County has need for professional assistance in executing public assistance claims with FEMA related to the 2025 flood damage to infrastructure in Harden County. And whereas ER Assist Incorporated having been previously approved under the Commonwealth of Kentucky Master Agreement number MA758- 23 such and such. And whereas Harden County desires to begin remediation of damage to infrastructure as soon as possible. Be it therefore resolved upon recommendation of judge executive with the concurrence of the public works committee to approve the attached contractor agreement and task order for disaster aid services with ER assist incorporated to um and to authorize myself to execute any contracts and documents related to this agreement. Okay. So, this is a a p a person that we've already met um that we've got u really positive comments from other counties, other judge executives and magistrates that have utilized this company and this particular person to help them through this public assistance process that I was talking about earlier, this big book here, and uh to work through all of that to maximize the amount of dollars that we get back to us that we're um that we

need uh to pay for these things. So, um, so this person will be paid for by FEMA. It's the their fee is part of the FEMA reimbursement. So, it's um zero dollars to the county to have this person do this for us. So, that's what this is all about. And, um, so we'll move on and say, is there a motion to approve this resolution? So move. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Judge, maybe a clarification on the cost of the county. There will be some cost on the roads if they're approved.

That That's true. I was talking specifically about her fee, but you're exactly right. Uh there's um there's a c the FEMA will pay a certain percentage then the state pays a percentage and the county ends up paying uh I think it's 13% 13%. Right. And so, um, hopefully we will be able be able to utilize some of our already paid, u resources during the flooding and get that reimbursement that will that we won't have to pay any of that um any additional dollars to that is our hope. Uh, good clarification. Thank you. Anybody else?

Okay, hearing none, we'll have a roll call, please. Square Clim, yes. Square Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes. Judge Executive Keith Tall,

yes. Motion passes. Next item is item C. Uh, this is approve the resolution 20256 related to approval of striker lease agreement for 7 years. Uh this is at $125,962.78 per year for a total cost of $881,73946. U this one a little more um a little more detail. Uh, one thing to note is that we are um voting to approve this and but it's contingent uh upon the approval of our county attorney needs to actually uh see and review the documentation. The contract and so it's contingent upon her approval. we'll also have to send it to DLG for them to review it uh since it is uh looked at as a loan for that a seven-year loan. So, one other thing just to note um this what this actually entails um that the loan for the equipment is seven years at 4%. Uh it includes six power loads mechanical stretcher load systems, 10 power pro 2 mechanical stretchers and five stair pro stair chairs. Um all with proare and necessary accessories u includes annual maintenance, battery pl excuse me, battery replacement, etc. for the duration of the lease. Okay, with all of that, u is there a motion to approve this resolution?

So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? These are these are required to replace end of life equipment that we currently have, right? Yes, that's correct. Yes. I just wanted to note how long this has kind of been going on. You know, we've been discussing this for year and a halfish, right, Mark? Um, you know, this equipment is like Ichi was saying, it's end of life. It is it's it's important that we get to go ahead and get it replaced ASAP. So, any other discussion, comment?

Just want to add to that. Um it since it is end of life um we face liability if something happens if we don't replace this equipment we face some liability um on our part. So that's another good reason to to renew this to to purchase this. Okay. Anybody else? All right. Hearing none. We'll have roll call, please. Squire Clim. Yes. Squire Hicks. Yes. Squire Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes.

Judge Executive Keith Tall, yes. Motion passes.

Okay, we'll move on then to our consent agenda. Uh the first two items uh typically financial um item A which is August claims recurring July recurring claims July utility claims and then also uh excuse me um resolution uh 145 and that's related to approval of financial transfers. Resolution 146 related to approval of uh pending opioid uh litigation and this is a uh for us to participate in settlement of phases what we're calling phases four and five. Uh item D which is resolution 147. This is related to approval of the 2026 litter abatement agreement. So this is basically our anti-litter control program. Uh item E which is um resolution 148 and this is related to approval of our our typical annual contract for non-public school transportation is between Harden County government uh fiscal court and Harden County School Board for bus transportation for non-public school students in Harden County. Uh the next four items are all related to personnel changes and animal care and control, EMS, road department, and E 911. And those are resolutions 149, 150, 152, and 153. And then uh uh resolution 154 is related to the approval of annexation of a a portion of the Hayden School Road by Elizabeth Town. Uh it includes um basically Etown taking responsibility

for um Hayden School Road between Cecilia Road and Kessle Run. And then the last two items are committee meetings uh minutes for uh public works and e emergency services. Okay. Um, does anyone disagree or want to remove any of these items from the consent agenda? Okay. Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items? Second. Moved and seconded. And we'll move on to the roll call, please. Square Clam, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Square Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes.

Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes. Judge Executive Keith Tall, yes. Motion passes. All right, we'll move on then to comments. Uh, County Attorney, you have any? I don't. Thank you. All right. Um, how about our county clerk? No, thank you. All right. Moving on to magistrates. Uh, Chris Yates. Uh, yes, Judge. On behalf of Mayor Sesi, I would like to invite everyone out this Friday to Rocking on the River. It's from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Veterans Park. They'll have a live band and some food trucks. So, come on out for a good time. Sounds good. Um, Magistrate Saltzman.

Yes. I just like to remind everyone that school is in session. Uh, when you're going through a school zone, make sure you slow down and stop for the red lights on the buses. All right. Thank you, Magistrate Whitehead. Just a reminder that the uh resources and community support committee meeting will be Monday, August 18th at 3:30. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Magistrate Clen. The finance committee meeting will be Tuesday, August the 19th at 3:30 across the hall. Um and also, please don't drink and drive and don't text and drive. Thank you. Magister Pennington, no comments, sir. Uh, Magistrate Thompson, no comments.

Magistrate Hicks. Uh, yes. I'd like to invite everybody down Saturday to White Mills Day at the Christian uh campground. So, it'll be a full day. Uh, come down and visit your neighbors and just have a good time. There'll be a lot of food, big car show, uh, just a lot of stuff to do. Um, just invite everybody to come down Saturday. All right. Very good. Thank you, Magistrate Muse. No comments. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Uh just a reminder again, the next fiscal court meeting will be Tuesday, August 26th at 5:30 p.m. All right. I think that pretty much wraps it up. Uh is there a motion to adjurnn? Second. Second. Second. Uh any objections? Hearing none, that this meeting is adjourned.