Fiscal Court - Regular Meeting

How are you? I'm just getting myself.

All right, I have the message that we are live and welcome everyone to the Bull County Fiscal Court March 10th, 2026 meeting. I'll call this meeting to order. We have Magistrate Jason Cullen who is on video teleconference with us this morning and so he is allowed to vote uh because that has been advertised as well. So, first of all, if you have a phone, please silence it. um vibrate, turn it off, whatever. Uh and mine will be the one to ring. So, just know that. Cuz I'm not sure that mine is and I'm not sure that I know how to turn it down. That's the problem. All right, Master Gate, will you open us with invitation this morning?

I will. My wife Ricky and I just had the privilege of visiting Ephesus and uh it was quite a amazing experience and so and then coming home to a tragic death and loss of a young man that impacted a lot of people's lives in this community. I've been struggling with the word. So I decided to go to Ephesians and uh so here's Paul's prayer for spiritual strength from Ephesians 34.

Thank you. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you being read it rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, the length and the height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right. At this time uh we have a special guest that's going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. We have Reagan Shell who is the son of Jonathan and Samantha Shell. So Reagan if you'll come up and we'll follow your lead. I aliance 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. Okay. And Reagan, we have a certificate for you. All right. So, we'll turn around here and we'll face Mr. Patina.

Okay. Thank you so much for coming today. But here's your options. You can stay and be entertained. SCHOOL. Good idea. Sure. Yeah. Come on back here. He's been very nervous. Thank you for coming. Good job, buddy. That was sweet.

Okay. Uh approve our prior meeting minutes. We have two. We have February the 24th regular meeting. We can approve them separately. Is there a motion to approve February 24th? I make the motion we approve. Master Gays or a second? Second. Master Bodner. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Okay. And then we have our special call meeting on February the 27th. We can get a motion to approve. So move. Measure Sleeper. Is there a second? Second. Master Harmon. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Any oppose? Nay. Motion carried. U. Budget transfers. Miss Shannon. I've got budget transfer in the amount of $78,9948. Okay. Is there a motion to approve budget transfers? Move. Measure Ellis. Is there a second? Second. Measure Sleeper. Any discussion on the budget transfers? All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Any oppose? Okay. Motion carried. Cash transfers. I have cash transfers from occupational tax to the general fund of 2,49,71.88. From the general fund to the road fund 50,000 from general to the jail 150,000 from the general fund to EMS 150,000 and from the general fund to fleet um 10,000. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the uh cash transfers? So moved.

Maser Gay or a second? Second. Match it for Harmon. Tie goes to Barry. Okay. Match Harmon. Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? No. Motion carries. Transfers. All transfers are approved. Thank you. All right. And then we will approve our bills. Miss Elena. Good morning. Morning.

All right. You will see in the packet today that your original bill total was $3,585,9692. I do need to add four things. Um, two of those are AT&T bills. They're for our internet lines that are coming in. One is $160, one is $130. I need to add a try bill and that was for animal controls animal disposal. That was $7249. Um, and then I need to add a Parson's bill, which is paying for part of the bike park. Uh, and that is $9,117.50. That will bring your grand total to 3,595,44911.

Okay. There a motion to approve the bill. Make that motion. And I would like to add that 2.5 million of that is the transfer of net profits that go to gamble. So when the bill list gets to be that big, I like I like to make that clarification that we're just passing that money and there is $100,000 that is also going to the Constitution Square Endowment Fund. So that's going to be invested as well.

Okay. All right. And is there a second? Master Boner. Any other discussion on the bills? I think Jason's still with us. I'm not sure. There he is. He's There we go. There we go. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Name. Motion carries. Thank you, ma'am. Can I add one more thing? You sure can.

All right. If you all don't mind, I I need a motion. Um we need to purchase something called a cargo glide. It's a slide out bed for our fleet maintenance. Um Tommy, he right now has a generator and a air compressor that he travels around within his vehicle for um emergencies. when he starts that generator, it is pressed against the cab of his truck, which causes uh carbon monoxide to fill the cab of his truck. So, for safety issues, it is 30 3500 3500. Um, if you all can make a motion that we can order and pay on delivery.

Okay. We have a motion by measure Ellis, a second by Maser Bogner. Any discussion? For Jason's uh knowledge, uh this was quite a discussion yesterday because uh we all of a sudden realized the uh the danger that Tommy would be in with this with carbon monoxide bill buildup. He could be alone in his shop and uh no one would know. So, I'm so pleased that he brought it up to us because it it was an urgent thing that we decided yesterday in our budget conference that we would make this motion and and get it through today.

Yeah, Tom Tommy and I actually talked about that at the ambulance blessing when he had his truck in there and we looked at it and he showed it to me back then. So, yeah, I'm aware of that. Great. Thank you, though. All right. Any other discussion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Next up, we have an item in old business, our IT director, Bill Nichols. And yes, couple three weeks ago, you agreed to let the Kentucky National Guard Cyber Resiliency Team come in and check our systems. Well, they're here to tell you all about it. I have Lieutenant Colonel Dana Sanders and Staff Sergeant Billy Pinley to give you that report and if you have any questions with him and do so at the end.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, director. Um, thank you for the inter introduction. My name is Lieutenant Colonel Dana Sanders. Um, I'm the cyber program manager for the Kentucky National Guard. I'm also the deputy chief information officer for the Kentucky Army National Guard. Um, just before I start the briefing, he should have some slides I think that uh directors provided to you, but when I first came to the Kentucky National Guard in 2012, we don't have the slides, but that's okay. They do on their iPads on their iPad, but we didn't see it. I couldn't don't see number seven and it's out briefing. We We found the original email, but I didn't never find

It's not in the email. It's in the where you would find all your documents for the uh fiscal board meeting. Oh, okay. Okay. Amen. Okay. Gotcha.

Um anyways, in 2012 when I first came to the Kentucky National Guard from the Minnesota National Guard, um I picked up the phone. I was actually deployed in in Iraq and Kuwait. And I picked up the phone and I was like, I wanted to move to Kentucky cuz my husband was stationed at at Fort Knox. And I picked up the phone and I just at the time I don't know whatever the equivalent of Google was. Google, you know, Armory Kentucky, and the first number that came up was to an armor, the Armory here in Danville. And um the person that answered the phone, his name was, he's retired now, but his name was Brian Maddingley. And he he um he said, "Well, I got a spot for you." So, he brought me he brought me into uh the Kentucky National Guard, and I came straight to the the Danville Armory and Alpha Company 103rd. And that was in 2012. Uh I'm currently the battalion commander for the 10 also a logistician because um there's not a whole lot of promotability in cyber within the national guard. So I get promotions through logistics but uh I have I started my my national guard career at Kentucky in in Danville and um in the 103rd and I'm still I'm still in the 103rd. It's part with part of my legacy here in Danville. So I just wanted to share the connection. I don't make it this way very often. I live in Frankfurt. So, um, so just in front of you, well, I guess hopefully in front of you, you should have these slides. The slides provide a really top level overview of everything that our team did did for you. So, there's an agenda, uh, which is everything I'll talk about. So, I'll try to frame what our team does, uh, what we what we agreed to do here in Bo County and what we do for other counties, uh, some of the other missions that we do. Um, and then I'll talk about some of the the findings and make some recommendations to you all so that you can come out of this with some actionable items. Um, and then obviously just some follow- on recommendations. Uh, so the Kentucky Cyber Resilience

Initiative was formed in in in early 2024 when General Lambertton came to me and said, "Hey, I wanted to he wants you want to do a cyber exercise in Kentucky." And I was like, "Well, why are we doing this cyber exercise?" And um what we came up with was really was because we found that there was a gap of capability especially like you know at the county level a lot of counties don't have dedicated you are fortunate you have more assets than many of the other counties uh but they don't really have a very large IT presence and so to afford a an assessment or an incident response if your insurance doesn't cover it um is something that you may not be able to do because in the civilian market an assessment on a single like say one of your offices may cost upwards of $5,000. And so we really felt that we could do a lot by providing assessment services to to the counties at no cost to you. So um and that and you know over time we're only in year two here. So um we're we're hoping that that'll enable us you know to pro you know to reduce risk to the commonwealth especially at the county level. Um, and considering the interconnectedness and the threats to like our our our our networks and our information, we felt that there was value add that we could we could provide. Uh, so we appreciate you all supporting that and especially if you all knew the second county that we've done um at the and and we came in, we did everything for you. So, and we're we're very grateful for that opportunity and uh appreciate any recommendations you have moving forward. Uh, but in addition to that uh the we call that domestic operations. So, we also do uh incident response assessment training. Uh we can come in and help with any type of cyber security, baseline training, anything you need for your folks. Uh we also do community outreach. So, we go around to K through 12. We work with academic uh universities and we go and we we network with them to help promote, you know, to help bolster their programs

and just to pro, you know, to create trust with those entities at different different levels and not just government. So we really work with critical infrastructure partners, academic and civilian civilian industry partners as well. Um and then we also have our federal mission. So we're National Guard by nature of being National Guard, we always get called away to do something somewhere else. Hopefully uh hopefully not considering everything that's going on. Hope hopefully not anytime soon. Um

Lieutenant Colonel, before we go further and I lose my thought, um we have two associations, Kentucky Association of Counties and Kentucky Magistrates. Well, three kind of the judges association and magistrates statewide association um with what you've already impressed me with. Um we should try to get you not to 120 counties uh but to a virtual meeting uh with what you're about to share with us. So, um, if after your presentation you want to talk, uh, I'll give you my card and and we could talk about the possibility of you, uh, being in a virtual meeting to where any and all of the counties could could get what we're about to enjoy.

Yes, sir. We'd appreciate that very much. Thank you. Um, so the purpose of the assessment was to come in and provide a baseline assessment of all of your internet connected devices. And so what that does is provides you an understanding of what risk or what attack surface you all have exposed. So where you all can better invest in your infrastructure and in your IT networks uh so that to to reduce the likelihood of a cyber attack on any portion of your network. So that's really the end the the end state for this. Uh, so we want to both identify strengths and areas for improvement so that you're able to to make your own prioritization. So we're not here to tell you exactly what order, but just kind of give you a list of the things that we recommend you doing. Um, and then obviously support any any future initiatives that you might have for for bolstering resilience within within your county. So we're, you know, it's not just we walk away today and then come back maybe in a year or so. like we are here in the interim as well and we'll talk about some of the things that we can do in the interim to help you all do that. Uh just as a note we do use like there is an a national standard uh they're called the CIS or the center for internet security baseline control. So it's a it's publicly available for any one of you like if you have an IT team like your MSP or your cyber your your service providers can also use these same tools to continue on that baseline. So they're not exclusive to us. Um and then we want to help you um you know we want to assist in the the long-term planning process for you to provide that horizon. Uh the scope of our engagement uh we initially received uh the request in November. Um and then between November and January obviously we had a holiday period in there but we collect uh we do we sign a

non-disclosure agreement. That means any of the vulnerabilities that we find the specifics of those vulnerabilities will not be disclosed to any other entity outside of the county. Uh we also signed a memorandum of a memorandum of understanding. What that just says is hey we will do these things and we won't go you know outside of our box. Um so we we did that. Uh we also agreed to which areas we would we would look at within the county. So, uh, from my understanding is we we pretty we did a pretty comprehensive look here within Will County. Uh, so we'll, um, each one of those technical areas that we looked at, we'll they'll the team will provide them individualized outbreaks. So, you'll get a an opportunity to ask very specific and technical questions. So, your service provider will have the opportunity to to really go in depth with our team. And so, it's not just going to be left here. So I won't provide you that level of specifics just because it's publicly broadcast isn't probably a bad idea. Uh but that information will become available to to your teams. Uh so why we do the assessment I think at the county level you are are faced with a paradox right so do you invest into your IT networks or do you like provide a critical service or you know in this case was you know you know sliding flatbread for you know you know your emergency emergency responders. I think that those you have choices to make and I think you know you have to be provided that information. Um and I think you also have sensitive data to protect here right you manage social security numbers and addresses and PII. Um and I think that there so you have do we protect this you know do we provide this and sort of this this you're stuck in the middle. So having an idea of where you could invest um on a timeline is something that would be helpful to you to you all you know moving forward. So that's why we why we do it and why we think it really matters is we understand that paradox. Um I think that also um you want to make it clear to your to

your community that you do care about their data and information that you're doing something about it. So in a way doing an assessment actually helps you enhance the the trust or the relationship between you and your community members when they understand that you are doing something to protect your data and and them. All right. So we'll get into the results. Uh so the assessment identified uh strong leadership engagement and willingness to improve. I think the fact that you all agreed to do like do a comprehensive look is an indication of that. Uh we did have a little bit of you know it just anytime we work with a service provider it becomes a little bit difficult. I think that there's this underlining underlying sentiment or fear from the service provider that we're going to come in and you know tell you all the things that they're not doing. Uh I think you all understand that they're a small company themselves and a lot of times don't have the same resources or maybe not being um you know what are they're being paid for versus what they're what they're providing. I think there's a balance there. So we try to really ease those tensions but it wasn't certainly on behalf of of the leadership team here. uh some of the findings that we that we discovered were and this is not unique I want to say not unique to Bo County uh lack of standardized configurations and policies right so across each county office you'd have different configurations different devices different technologies and different policies being used for that so I think you know moving forward and you'll see this on the next slide is you know a recommendation to try to work towards a standardization and that helps you facilitate control and reduce risk to your network um outdated systems and hardware or uh hardware and software. So one easy thing and one thing that the uh adversaries and criminals like take advantage of is um your um is outdated software. So each like router or switch it gets to a point in its life cycle just like your your your cell phone or your computers where you can no longer maintain it. And so over and typically that that period is 5 to seven years.

And so after 5 to seven years the device like the ser like the actual manufacturer will stop publishing updates for it. And so it just be over time becomes more and more vulnerable. And so we did find a number of outdated systems not just unpatched but legacy systems that need to be replaced. Um across the network what we found is I'll say that you you do do a better job of segmenting. So you have a guest network and then you have a business network. But the business network it like if you have the password you anyone can get in. Uh and I think that that's um something that you have mechanisms you already have mechanisms that you pay for where you can create usernames and user specific passwords to ensure that each user is authorized to be on the network. So we instead of finding things like personal iPhones and personal tablets on your network, we wouldn't find any of that because they wouldn't be able to authenticate to the network. So that would help reduce your you know reduce the number of like unauthorized systems on the network. And even though like uh say like we we're mostly you know you're all trusted agents here uh you don't know what vulnerabilities their personal devices introduced to your network and there's something outside of your control and a risk that you're inadvertedly accepting by you know having that username and password or not having a username and password out there. um some of your your web facing um services and websites they had um unnecessary open ports and protocols meaning that um traffic that shouldn't necessarily be there could communicate with the devices on the back side. Um and so I think just working with your service provider to ensure that those are um restricted to like the absolute necessary and then also being secured themselves. So any unsecure websites. So when you go to websites, the little lock

in the corner is HTTPS is what that's called. So not running any HTTP protocols. So that ensures that you have a higher level of encryption standards on on your on your on your web services. Um and then just by nature of um the openness of your network, it was hard for us to determine what was supposed to be there versus what's not supposed to be there. So h you know getting a you know um a codified uh hardware and software inventory list becomes next to impossible when you have an open network. Uh so our immediate recommendations were to uh leverage domain authentication work with your service providers to enforce that username and password lock down your physical ports in your in in your um in your rooms and offices. um docu once you do that then you're able to document what is supposed to be there um in terms of hardware and software and then uh start patching those devices and upgrading your end of life and um those things that need your legacy platforms based on I would say the closer that the devices to the internet so that would be the ones that you should replace first so your routers and switches would be the first things that you would replace and then kind of work your way back to your your endpoints um and then limit any externally exposed services. So don't any um like if you have I know that there is a law requirements that you have to have certain uh documents and things available to the public. Just making sure that those things are sanitized before they they are hung out there. So in the background each one of those documents contains a thing called metadata and the metadata can be tied back to account information and in and network information. just making sure and Adobe has a a tool that's in like that's in like ingrained into the tool itself that you can uh sanitize that data.

I'm easily confused because if it's open records and you say we could sanitize it. Um so like like the way that it works is like like if you're looking at like a picture on the screen here like it on the back is a bunch of ones and zeros that are making that image appear. The data is actually in the ones and the zeros. It's hidden within that data. So there's no manipulation of what it says because that open record as the judge will tell you is something that has to be in the way it happened.

No sir. On its surface it's uh it will always stay the same. But a threat actor could get into the back end of that of that document and then like just access that data and then get information about your network or your users or your employees leveraging that data. It's not like when a bank or something gets hacked and but that that data then goes out to places it's not supposed to go. We don't want that happening.

Um long-term recommendations I think you know having a baseline across all of your offices would be helpful. uh it would reduce risk significantly. Um creating a long-term plan for uh life cycle management. So if you replace something, the next time you replace something, you can kind of put it in in a note or in a spreadsheet somewhere. It says in 5 to seven years we have to replace it again. So we can plan for that across the horizon. And then you've already done this. So we've already scheduled uh a followup in in January of next year. So, we will be back to to have to do this again and and give you guys an updated standard to see see how far you've come. Um, and with that, we just recommend so like the next steps we would recommend to to to the fiscal court would be to prioritize those immediate actions based on your resources, establish those timelines, and then just to continue the coordination and relationships that we have right now. Um and then one thing um I wanted to say was there are some other I funding federal funding has been very interesting in the last year but there are some grants available to the to the counties and to the the state and local government. So like the I think it's called the state and local cyber security grants program. Um so that is available it's now man centrally managed out of Kentucky office of homeland security. And then there is another program called innovative readiness training which is uh it's a way for you to access additional national guard resources without having to pay for it or having the state pay for it. The federal government would pay for that and I and I have provided all of those u all of those resources to you all. So hopefully we'll be able to maybe make some headway there and you get some additional resources. Um so our partnership I don't think I really need to talk much about that. Uh, but I think we'll continue to provide technical guidance. If you run into any um any issues or your service provider runs into any issues, we're here. They

can call us at any time. You can call us at any time. Like we we certainly can provide over the phone. You guys are not too far down the road. So, we can drive down here as needed. Um, we can assist you with any planning efforts. So, if you needed recommendations for that horizon or which hardware or you should go with moving forward, we can also provide that technical assistance. Um, and then we can provide continue to provide training and workshops. Uh we do this with Kentucky office security and and CISA like we do tabletop exercises. We can come in and we can do um combined like emergency management type stuff. Um and then obviously whatever whatever else you feel that we could do uh to help um strengthen your long-term cyber readiness. And so if you need templates for for policies or procedures, we could provide you all that as well. Um in summary, I just want to say that uh I think the first step is that you all you know taken this step and are being proactive about your you know your cyber resilience. Um I think that this is a indicative that you know we have a partnership and we'll continue that partnership and I think it sends a message to the community. Um and I think that uh whatever we can do to help you to to do those immediate recommended actions uh we're here to help facilitate that. um even if it comes down to helping you install and configure that hardware, we could probably do that. Um we were we we remain committed to you and your communities and the communities of the Commonwealth. Um and I think that um you know I I just really grateful for the opportunity to be here and I just want to say thank you again um for taking that step forward. Is there any questions? I just I have one on on um like do you have recommendations as far as like vendor management you know when because we have more and more entities I guess that we interface with and I'm sure there'll be more as we move forward you know in tax admin and and HR

in particular and Bill might be able to address others that how we make sure we're appropriately evaluating any vulnerabilities they may have as they're interfacing with our system and make sure we're doing proper vendor management so checks

I I've worked with the department of defense department war for a very long time doing this exact same thing there are standards and baselines for almost everything and these vendors especially if they're handling any any level of PII should have those federal standards in place because that's what's going to protect them. Um, so I think ensuring that when you write a contract or when you make, you know, you I don't know whatever the equivalent is. I'm sure it's a contract with a with that vendor at your level that those standards are written into service level agreements that ensure the enforcibility of them when something when you do discover that something is wrong and then conducting uh periodic penetration testing or working with another not not that company itself, we're with a different company to do that. you can we even do those services to it to a certain degree uh just to make sure that um you know that it's not vulnerable or something is wrong and sometimes the vendor might not even know about it and so I think that doing a combination of those three things uh will help better protect your investments moving forward and just being very wary that everybody's everybody everybody's selling something and um and almost anyone can go out to Amazon Web Services and stand up their own server and create these things. So thoroughly vetting your your vendors and going with a trusted vendor is very important.

Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Well, we thank you so much. Yes. For being here today and giving us the report and it's not as bad as I expected.

I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I thought we would pass with flying colors. camera. Uh if you can hang around a minute. Uh ma'am, our volunteers of America have a PowerPoint. I may need you to help with that. Okay. Okay.

So, next is uh our National Nutrition Month proclamation for the month of March. And um Ben was going to try to be here today, but I'm sure something has come up and or he would be here, but we'll go ahead and read it. Um, I wanted to present it to be Durant with the gathering place because so many people in our county depend on a nutritious meal that comes from the gathering place from those meals on wheels. And so I thought no better um opportunity than to have Ben come and and receive this proclamation, but we'll we'll make sure he gets it. Uh, whereas proper nutrition is fundamental to the health, well-being, and quality of life of citizens of all ages. And whereas balanced eating habits and regular physical activity significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and certain cancers. And whereas national nutrition month established by the academy of nutrition and dietetic dietet I can't say it is observed annually in March to promote informed food choices and the development of sound eating and physical activity habits and whereas registered dieticians nutrition professionals health care providers educators and community partners play a critical role in improving public health through evidence-based nutrition education and outreach And whereas increasing nutrition awareness and access to wholesome foods strengthens families, enhances workforce productivity, and supports the long-term vitality of the community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Truly L. bottom boil county judge executive and the boil county fiscal court to hereby proclaim March 2026 as national nutrition month and affirm our support for efforts that encourage healthy eating, physical activity and improve nutritional well-being for all citizens of Boil County this 10th day of March 2026. I get a motion to approve the

proclamation. Mer second by master boner. Any discussion? I go, excuse me. I used to have nutrition month and I would go to all the little classes and talk to them about healthy eating. So that's great. Glad to hear that. You've been doing that a long time. Long time. Promoting healthy eating. Long time. And physical activity. That's what else judge. I'm calling and and this is in the context of making sure that when we invest taxpayer dollars, we do it in a very judicious way. Uh Ben was here probably two years ago, guys.

Uh and they were updating their kitchen facility. Yeah. Um Shannon, you might be able to help me out if you recall a number, but we invested significant dollars on behalf of this type of nutrition program so that folks in need in this county uh would have it available and that is now about 56,000 John. Thank you. And it was going to be prepared on here in Boille County. That was a biggie. Yeah, that's good. All right. Well, all those in favor of the proclamation motion signify by saying I. I.

Any oppose? Name. Motion carried. All right. Thank you all for that. Next up, we have the Volunteers of America and we have Family Court Judge Bruce Petri with us this morning. Thank you for being present. And I will let you all come up and introduce yourselves and have your hook that up. Have your spiel. I don't know how to hook it up. Are you going to help me? Bill can help. Let's see here. We don't have a way to do that. I'm a little bit technologically challenged.

Me, too. Just ask the judge. That judge. I want to see if I can. If Bill can't do it, Tom Ellis can do it. Oh, absolutely. Grayhaired wisdom on technology.

While we're waiting, uh, who are you folks and where? Okay, we'll go ahead and get started. I have a packet for each of you. Good morning, everyone. And I want to thank you for allowing us to come today to present to you. My name is Jennifer Hancock and I'm the president and CEO of Volunteers of America Midstates. Hi, I'm Megan Mine. I'm the director of Rural Addiction Recovery Services for Volunteers of America. And I think you know this gentleman who's with us today. Um we're here to tell you about Where are you based? Pardon me, sir. Where are you based? We are headquartered in Jefferson County and we're responsible for serving the entire Commonwealth.

Thank you. So, we are a faith-based nonprofit organization that's been around, in fact, we're celebrating right now our 130 year anniversary of serving our nation and serving Kentucky. Um, we have seven divisions inside of our organization. We do everything from address homeless and housing needs throughout the Commonwealth. We serve veterans who return home and need a variety of supports as they're getting reaclimated. Um, everything from housing support to suicide prevention for our veteran community. Uh, we serve youth who sometimes commit crimes or behave inappropriately in schools by providing restorative justice solutions where they're held accountable by facing the individuals they've harmed and they make direct amends. Uh we take care of uh individuals who are disabled and provide an alternative to institutionalization by helping them be cared for in their own homes. And uh we provide public health services throughout the Commonwealth and provide community health workers. In addition to that, and why we're here this morning is because we provide evidence-based services for families affected by substance use disorder. And throughout the Commonwealth, we have a variety of ways that we help communities address addiction through direct treatment. We have a unique program that takes care of pregnant mamas and their babies by allowing the entire family to come into treatment that's called Freedom House. We're actually in the midst of building a Freedom House in Lincoln County that will serve this region. Um, so that will be something to come soon. We have that program already in Jefferson County and Klay County and we're making it more regionally accessible. But it's not just direct treatment. For those of us who have family members who have experienced

addiction, you know that there is life after treatment to help rebuild and repair. And so we do that by providing workforce re-entry solutions, housing opportunities, and a program that we're here to tell you about specifically today is Family Recovery Court. Are we doing okay here? BECAUSE I'M JUST ROLLING WITH IT. I'M THINKING ABOUT ALL OF OUR slides and hopefully I'm staying in order. I'm coming for you soon. Um to talk about family recovery court. Um this is a program that was first started in Jefferson County. It is a new way of thinking about the traditional drug court program. Okay. And we have a slide that will distinguish drug court from family recovery court. Family Recovery Court was proven to be so successful in Jefferson County in two ways. One, helping families stay together. That's always our goal at DOA. If we can keep a family together and preserve that family unit, we try to do that as much as possible when it's safe to do so. And so, we proved in Jefferson that this was a program that kept families together and kids out of foster care. And it also yielded really positive results for the participants to stay in long-term recovery, to get employment, to get stable housing. And we know that because there was an evaluator, a third party evaluator who measured the results and saw the positive impact. So VA took this model um five years ago to Clay County and had a judge there like Judge Petri who said I want to do this type of court because I am tired of seeing the next generation and the next generation come into my courtroom. I'm now seeing kids who were born to the mommies and daddies that were once in the kids in my courtroom. And so I want to disrupt the cycle of addiction and I'll try

anything. So we started in Klay County in 2021 and since then we have been able through the positive impact we've had to spread this in 13 other courts throughout the Commonwealth County. The funding is a mix of local funding,

state funding, and federal funding. And so each court is funded a little uniquely different based on the the mix of funding available, but in general, I'll tell you that we never come to a single source for all of the funding. We recognize why that's not a sustainable model. So we really try to diversify the funding to ensure long-term sustainability. Um, the evaluator is from the University of Louisville and so they're deeply embedded in the day-to-day of this program, measuring the success of us graduating families. Like I said, long-term recovery is our goal and avoiding those foster care costs as well as the upheaval of foster care. We know that that in and of itself is traumatic for children to be removed and placed in a separate setting, sometimes counties away. and we know that that's not in the best interest of that family if we can preserve them and keep them together. I'm going to turn it over to the real expert here who gets um to do this work with families and her team each and every day. It's really Megan's um leadership that has enabled us to grow this model as well as from judges who raise their hand and say I want to do this. I want to be part of this. This is a purely voluntary program. um it's not forced or mandated on anyone, including judges. And so, Judge Petri is a great example of someone who's heard about the success of this program and who has asked if he could participate in it. So, Megan, do you want to talk a little bit about how the program's designed and why it's been so successful?

Sure.

Yeah. So, as Jennifer mentioned, um it is a voluntary program and it is for parents who have an open CPS case um where there has been abuse or neglect has been substantiated and substance use is a factor. Um so they they have an open case with Judge Petri or someone in the family court system. Um so it is a threephase program. Um typically it can last between 9 and 18 months. So these participants are with us for a long time. Um and each phase of the program um is sort of meant to address a a specific issue, right? So when we get the clients um as part of the family and recovery court, they may still be in active addiction. So the first thing that we're going to do is bring them in. Uh, Volunteers of America provides a therapist who will assess and make recommendations for um, treatment. So that may be uh, residential treatment services or they may be able to do something like an intensive outpatient program um, and stay at home. And so that that soy piece is really the main focus in that first phase uh, that treatment piece. And then the second phase of the program um participants go through a clinical uh parenting it's called parenting through recovery. Um it's a clinical parenting group that is designed um for parents to sort of recognize the trauma that was um caused to their children through their substance use and also to um encourage accountability right for the for the parents own actions. Um, clients are very hesitant when they hear about that group, but

they come out on the other end saying that was impactful, right? Like I maybe they didn't recognize the effects that their substance use had had on their children and and usually the entire family. Um we also have a case manager as part of our family recovery court team. And so in they are working with the clients throughout the program throughout the phases um on things like sober and stable housing employment if the client's interested in maybe returning to school to continue their education. But that is really the focus of phase three because we're preparing them to leave us, right? and so they may not have um the increased support that they've had surrounding them and we want them to be successful long term. Um so they're really focusing on life skills things again that housing piece, employment, we want them to have some sort of stable income before they leave us because we don't want to just um we don't want them to be successful while they're in the program. We don't want to see them again, right? Like that that is ultimately the goal.

Um So, I think he's got a question for you.

Wrong. There we go. Don't look at my desktop. I get in trouble. Every time it gets on my computer, I get in trouble. You have an awful lot on your hands right there. I am not your idea. Not judging. Cannot judge.

Uh so while we have participants in the program with us, there are certain requirements throughout each phase. Um we're doing drug screening. We uh ask them to get a sponsor. That is a requirement to move through the phases. They have to attend a certain number of AA or NA or celebrate recovery meetings. um they're meeting with our therapist um and the case manager. And we have contact with these clients daily at least um via phone. So, they're calling in every morning by 10:00 a.m. um to find out if they have to drug screen that day. Drug screens are random. Uh and so they're also checking in with the case manager, right? So if if there's any issues or anything has has come up, they can say, "Hey, I need some some help." So they have that daily contact and for that reason we have found um if the children have been removed when they come to us that we see those faster reunification rates. DCBS is more comfortable maybe placing those children back in the home because we do have that that increased contact. Um we partner with DCBS in this program and so we're talking to them constantly. We have weekly established meetings, but again, if at any point that client comes into our office and we're concerned about something, we're calling that DCBS worker immediately, right? So, um, it kind of helps to, we know our DCBS folks are super busy. Um, and we like to to kind of take some of the load off of them if we can. Um, I think those are all the high points of the program.

Okay. Do you Sure. I'll be happy to say a couple things. So, first of all, thank you all for having the Volunteers of America here today. Mary, you were singing to me earlier. Every time I hear that phrase, I want to start singing that song. But any um I uh want to say first of all that I heard somebody say something about generational uh impact. I last in the last 5 years so I don't identify anybody. I had a family where uh since I've been practicing law, this is now the fourth generation that came through the juvenile courts and um and there was a termination of primary parental rights and those kids are doing great. But I remember that family quite well when I started practicing law here in 1991

and it's been substance abuse issues. I tell people all the time when you're a family court judge and you're doing especially juvenile dependency neglect and abuse work uh that about 90% of the cases have a component of substance abuse and that's because the other 10% haven't been fully candid with the court. In other words, it seems as if there's almost always a substance abuse component in these cases. Uh and so courts don't have to think about the money. You all have to think about the money and I fully understand that. But I also want to say that I it's hard for me to understand how there would be something that we could do more to affect our community to try to work on this issue these issues. It's been something I've been wanting to do for a long time is to have a family drug court. Um actually I wanted to do a drug court in district court and then I became a family court judge uh a couple years into that and then a family drug court. We lost the funding court statewide pretty early on. And so, uh, we do have drug courts now pretty much throughout the Commonwealth, but those are in the criminal context. And that's one of the things that they're going to show you all is the difference. Okay? My cases are not criminal cases. My cases are cases, the ones we're talking about here are cases where a child has been dependent, neglected, or abused. Depends a child that is under improper care for whatever reason. The most common of which is that mom and dad go to jail. And so as a result when mom and dad are in jail, we all know that they're presumed innocent at that point if somebody still has to take care of the child. So um it's a real impactful program. I have spoken to other judges throughout the Commonwealth next door to us. They're doing it. Judge Vanover and Judge Banner's over there and Lincoln Rock and Plasky have gotten a court started. Uh Judge Bren Hall down in Etown was one of my menty judges and he's got one. I was like, "Wow." that my menty judge has has a has a family recovery court and I don't have one in it and there's Judge Hall right there. So, I'm going to call him today and say, "Listen, I mentioned your name."

So, um but I do want you all to seriously consider what you can do to help. And like I said, I have no idea what there is, what resources are there, but I certainly want to apply my time to it. I think I will say to you all this, having been on the bench now for in my 27th year, I've been doing family court judge for my 25th year. This is the best opportunity we have to try to do something like this that we've ever had in my experience since I've been on the bench and I really hope we can take a swing at this thing in our circuit now in Mercer County considering this as well. Absolutely. In fact, we're we're on there next as soon as we leave here. Okay. But I do want to take this opportunity to say thank you all for hearing from us today. All right. Thank you.

Happy to take any of your questions. I will tell you that this is an approved uh program for opioid settlement dollars. I know that you have to discern what's eligible and not eligible in terms of spending those um important settlement dollars. This is um already approved in that process and we've worked with KO um and other counties to ensure that it meets all of the criteria and you can see the counties where we're currently serving. Okay. So is there an amount that you would ask for?

So this program typically requires about a quarter of a million dollars a year and that's because we pay for staff salaries and benefits um that are actually doing the direct service. In addition to that, we have some financial assistant dollars for families that we're serving um to address their barriers. And so based on the availability of local funds um that will determine how much we have to pursue state funding. We are in the process as you know of a budget session in Frankfurt and we are pursuing new state funding to support the expansion of family recovery court. Now not sure at this point in time how much of those dollars we will get. We'll know in the next few weeks um as the Senate contemplates their budget. We're all doing a lot of advocacy um to express the importance of the the the family recovery court model in terms of the cost savings and the real return on investment for families.

All of that to say based on the local amount that you may have available, should you choose to support this request, um that'll really determine how much we have to pursue state or other sources for this. I noticed that you're a licensed clinical social worker. um always a professional with these kids, I guess. And um judge, uh one of the things that was kind of heart-wrenching is that that child might be moved to county, two counties, three counties away.

How hard do you work to keep that child locally so that he or she is with the kids they're in school with? Uh the teachers know them. to know the circum I assume judge the teachers know the circumstance of a foster child.

Well, most of the time the teachers know first. The truth be known. That's what I found over the years. In fact, I tell people I'm going take put my other hat on for just a second. I always say some of the best information we can ever get in custody cases from the teachers because they see the kids more than anybody else. But they don't necessarily want to come to court and I totally understand that. But the reality is yes, I think the teachers are exposed to that. But I will say this. So when you asked that question of her, I I sense just which one is he asking? So in regular cases where they don't have family recovery court, the children get placed where we can find where the cabinet typically can find a place to put them. All right, I'm a judicial branch officer. I have a certain role to play in the system, which is is that I make determinations whether or not whether or not a child gets removed from the home. But if I make that decision and I place the child with the cabinet, now it's an executive branch decision as to where that child gets placed, I have no control over that. That's something that I'm glad to have an opportunity to tell everybody because nor do they. But here's the thing.

If they're in family recovery court and we're able to maintain the child in the home, we do not have to worry about that.

Okay, which is a big issue here. You know, I don't know if yesterday anybody had a chance to hear about the fact that Otter Gabbal just came out with a report about the number of children these days that are being housed in cabinet offices. All right. And I know that there was a lot of conrnation about the cabinet in that, but here's the thing I I would hope everybody would have a chance to say when they get to Frankfurt on this, the cabinet doesn't want those children there either. The reason those children are there is because there's no other place to put them quite frankly. And that's that's that's going to be a legislative issue from Frankfurt. I don't think we necessarily have to figure that out locally. But I will say part of the thing that we can do is to try to find ways to maintain the placement inside the home because as I tell people all the time, there's no non-traumatic decision that's typically being made in these cases, right? So the the case comes into court, the child is in in crisis because the family is in crisis, mom or dad is is on drugs, they're using drugs, they're using substances. So the question becomes, do I leave the child in the home and deal with the trauma there or do I remove the child from the home and therefore there will still be trauma. In other words, there's no neutral decision there. And so one of the things that we're that that I am excited about with this program is an opportunity to try to cut down the number of out of home placements. That is that is that is a key portion of this program.

Now are we looking at a a piece of $250,000 and and um does a staff member uh live here? We hire

That's right. We always hire local staff members. um this has to be driven by the community. We have a role to play as kind of I see VA largely as an economic engine to provide the resources to local communities and let them work from the ground up to deliver this this model. I I point to this particular slide because I think it answers a couple of points and questions here regarding the collaborative approach which is which is very different than the typical approach. Judge just described the judicial role, the executive role and then a legislative role. Well, here this team works very collaboratively. Megan spoke to the fact that we have a weekly case conference where the judge is inputting into his perspective on this case and family VA staff participates and DCBS participates and they jointly make decisions about the future and the next steps and the client him or herself has a piece of this as well where they're participating and inputting into the next steps. It's very collaborative. And if I can also add, um, so we're addressing the whole family, right? So, as Judge Petri talked about, if this child has been removed from the home, if they have or if they haven't, but especially if they have been removed from the from the home, one of the requirements of this program is that the children receive therapy services also, right? And so a lot of times what's being addressed in those therapy sessions is the child preparing to go back home because we know that it's been they've been removed from what they know and maybe now they're used to a new normal and they're going to be removed again. Right? So, um, that therapist is is working with those children and identifying any family issues that need to be addressed, um, prior to the to the children being sent back to the the FRC participation.

And how complicated is it when there are five or six children in a home because I've got them in my district and I'm sure everybody here does. Absolutely.

We're fully ready and capable of serving large families. Um and part of that assessment is to understand what are the underlying issues that is causing the disruption in addition to substance use disorder, poverty, unsuitable housing conditions and so really offering comprehensive solutions. That's one of the benefits that BOA having this program provides is that we do a lot of other things as well. Um we have linkages to housing opportunities and workforce re-entry opportunities. So, we want to be very holistic and comprehensive in the way that we're taking care of every member of that family.

Judge Petri and I have discussed drug court on several different occasions and uh I know how passionate he is about having a drug court established here for Bo Mer County. So, I am fully supportive of of doing that. Um but it is budget season and we would need to determine how much of our opioid funds we can um participate with. So when when is the deadline uh that you would need to know? There's there's there's truly no official deadline other than I think knowing what the state does which we'll know in the next few weeks. Okay.

Lining that up with your decision will allow us to know going into next fiscal year which starts July 1. Um, so we would like to know over the next couple of months just so that Megan and her team can plan for getting staffed up here, finding a location, getting the judge ready. So there's a lot of logistic management. He'll be ready to go on day one. I have no doubt. He's ready to go now. Right. Exactly. And so we'll need a little bit of ramp up time. So the sooner we know, the better just from a planning standpoint, but there is no finite deadline. Okay. Do you know what percent federal, state, local pay in other counties?

Well, I show you this slide, and we're happy to leave these for you. Um, so you can see here, um, Harden County has made a pledge of $60,000 a year from their local opioid abatement funds. And we've matched that with a federal grant. Um, we heard the lieutenant colonel speak earlier to the uncertainty of federal grants. I want to emphasize that again.

Um, yes. And so we cannot rely on federal funding the way that we once did even for a program as wellunded as this has been at the federal level. So I just want to highlight that. Um and then it's going to take all of us to advocate to Frankfurt for additional state funding because we have enjoyed representative me as an example made a line item for the Lincoln Pilaski and Rockcastle County jurisdiction which is judges Venttors in Vanover. Um so we have enjoyed some state funding related to that. So it's always been a mix of local um state and federal. And you can see Klay Jackson and Leslie, they did $60,000 a year as well of their local opioid settlement funding.

So, it's just a matter of us. Yes. Deciding how much of your funding you would like to invest in this program. Yes. Well, I know as my daughter Jennifer Gatis is a, you know, has been a social worker and works, she's definitely talks about the impact of getting it before you take the child out of the home and, you know, getting it early and she's very passionate to say. So, this sounds really great, you know. Wonderful.

My card is in your packets. It has my cell phone number in it on it as well. So, feel free to text, call, email me. Um, Megan and I will be available to answer any additional questions. And again, thank you so much for allowing us to be here to share about this part of our organization, a service that we would be proud and honored to provide here um in partnership with each and every one of you. And certainly, let me clarify that last point you made about uh uh Speaker Prom David me. Yes, sir. Uh he's earmarked specific dollars for those counties. Correct. Yes, judge. We can work that. I think so. Yeah.

He's aware of the request that we have um in front of him and his colleagues right now to enable additional dollars to expand this court here. Mhm. So, hearing from you would be certainly helpful in this process. Yeah, absolutely. Last thing, judge, I'll say this. I told you this the other day. Yes. I'm pretty sure that in 27 years, I've never come down here and asked for anything before. I'm asking. I know. I know. Yeah. Judge, does David know you? David me? No, he does not. I know Daniel Eddie. Yeah. I can go I'll go to Frankfurt any time. You say the word, I'll ride up there with you. How about that? Good. All right. Thank you all.

Thank you. Thanks for dealing here. Thanks so much. Thank you all. Bill, thank you for helping with that. Yeah, no problem. Let me see if I can find Jason. Yeah, we've lost forward that from there to I will uh make a PDF of this and I will stick it in your meeting packet folder for today's meeting. Okay. And then tell us how to get to that. I'll instruction. I'll create I'll email it to you, please. Yes. I don't think they have.

That's right. You don't have to worry about us sharing the information out of it. We can't find it anyway. All right. All right. Ben has joined us now from the gathering place and we'll just we've already read the proclamation and we've already approved it, but we want to get a picture with you. So, yes, y'all. I am so sorry. I had in my head that it was at 10:00 cuz it was 10:00 for 100 years. because you weren't here. I just rolled in at 10:00 and with the meeting half over, I thought, well, you're here. Better late than never. Thank you for all you do for nutrition in our community. Thank you. Absolutely. Well, okay. I've got three.

Okay. Yes, we talked about gathering place and how important it is that you all deliver meals to people in our county that uh might not receive meals otherwise. And so it's very important that that they get those nutritional meals and you're a big part of that and and we appreciate the support and and one thing that we don't think about is for a lot of the people that we serve, we're the only people that they see Yeah. they've got no family. They've got no friends. Um they've got no help. They can't drive. They're truly homebound. So when uh when they get that just couple minutes of, you know, one-on-one interaction with somebody makes a world of difference. So

u we we make differences in different ways before we even realize we're doing it sometimes and you all do that all the time in this county and uh very much appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for what you do. All right. And the people that you serve. I am sorry for the time being. Hey, better late. Better late than never. But if that's the worst thing that happens TO ME TODAY, I'LL TAKE IT. THAT'S RIGHT. Thanks for coming. Appreciate it. All right. Next up, we have All together recovery executive director Nick Rois. Welcome. Hello. Thank you. Uh good morning, folks. Morning. So, I actually got received promotion since the last time we talked. Oh, you did. Now that the CEO of All together recovery. Congratulations.

My name is Nick Rous. I'm a man in long-term recovery. I'm the CEO of that organization and I'm a citizen of Bull County. I've lived here my entire life. My family moved over here from Garrett County when I was about three and I grew up on Linda Avenue over in Dexter's Court. You are familiar with there.

Yes. Uh I think that it's uh kind of poetic that a number of the different things that I'm going to be discussing have already been represented here this morning by the various people that have spoke to the court. uh including the young man that gave the pledge of allegiance uh the lieutenant colonel that talked about uh the security issues and building up resilience in our infrastructure and of course the volunteers in America discussing substance use disorder and the havoc that it plays on our communities. Um so I came here to talk to you all about a couple different things. One is to describe a problem. Uh the other is to propose a solution and then finally to extend the invitation. So, the problem that I want to discuss is substance use disorder. And you've heard quite a bit about that this morning already. Uh, but I'm sure that maybe some of you are aware that SAMA reports that nearly 50 million Americans are diagnosed with it in 2023 with u them being 12 and up. So, it starts starts early. And that was my experience, right? Uh so the first time I used a substance that came out out of my daddy's ashtray and eventually uh he was passing me lure tabs across the table because that was his idea of fun and when you're a child that's the world right and that was the world to me and that's what I understood about things until I became a man and realized that not everybody grows up that way and so it is my story and stories similar to mine that were the inspiration behind this project we called the youth enrichment scholarship. What we're doing is we are integrating a psychosocial educational modality along with um meaningful activities in the community and removing financial barriers for atrisisk children ages 11 to 17. And of course we define at risk uh with pretty wide net. It would be anybody that's living at or near or

below the poverty line, any justice invol uh justice involved children uh kids with with parents that have substance use disorder or if they've been displaced for one reason or another and are living with uh in the foster system or with other other family members. We started this project in August of last year and we received a grant for $100,000 from the foundation for healthy Kentucky and we managed to provide services to over 100 kids between Boil Garrett Mercer and Lincoln counties with most of them coming from right here. So, we partnered with some community members, uh, local businesses, uh, ROC Martial Arts Academy. Uh, so they're providing, uh, martial art instruction, uh, for these for the children that sign up for it. Uh, the Back Stop, it's a sporting complex out in Junction City that's being led by Jeff Bragg. Uh, Kurt Singer's Archery, Sunrise Outfitters. Uh, we've been teaching the kids archery. We bought the the bows, the arrows, the targets, all the things. and uh Jessica is the instructor. And then finally, we've uh utilized West Till Community Theater for our theater project. So, what I'm hoping that we can accomplish, it's very similar to what the VA was talking about, right? Uh if we got 50 million people that are diagnosed with substance use disorder, how many uh are there that we don't know about?

Half as many. just as many.

So, can we say that between 75 and 100 million people in the in the country are choosing substances? That is a huge swath of our population. And what does it impact? I'm sure that each of you in attendance here have been impacted by it in some form or fashion. Uh it impacts all of our agencies, all of our businesses, all of our institutions from the schools to the hospital to the justice system to the workforce development, you name it. It's a cancer. We got to do something about it. So my suggestion is a two-prong attack. One is prevention and we could do that with you the youth enrichment scholarship. So we deploy uh community members that are maybe operating on the fringes of the problem but we bring them in bring them into the problem uh so that they can show people show these kids that there's more to life than what's not happening or is happening inside the home. So I was reminded of the the hope and the possibility of such a program just by watching the young man come and say the I'm to give the pledge of allegiance. I'm 40 years old and it's the first time I've been in this room. All right. So, when I was a kid, I imagine how it might make me feel to be able to come in here and do something like that with local leaders. It's going to increase his confidence. It's going to give him value. It's going to give him purpose. And those are the types of things that stave off substance use disorder. So what we're hoping to accomplish is by to to make resilient the children and to give them value, confidence in themselves so that when they navigate those difficult times in middle of high school, they'll make good decisions. What we need from you guys is well potentially funding, but the other thing is awareness, right? We just want to let people know that we're doing this thing

and we're doing it here and we're using local people uh to to to be a model, an example of what the rest of the country could possibly do. U the second attempt or the second uh prong of the attack I should say is treatment itself. And so now Damble has a a residential treatment facility for men. That's us. Uh we also have an intensive outpatient heal together counseling center. So there on the behind the new car wash and we also have 19 units that we are plann to use for recovery housing so that we can provide a full continuum much like the lady from VA was talking about cuz what we h what's happening now a lot of times is that you get folks that want to provide services for the first 90 days or so but without the carry through to the year and without job development and stable housing folks into relapsing.

Could we back up a minute? You got my attention when you said 19 units. Are those empty units that are somehow financed that are available right now? Because we're constantly looking in a relationship similar to what you're already talking about. Uh I have no concept of what those are uh and where they are. I mean, I understand where they are, but so

that's a surprise. We we we're located on Nama Street. So, it's kind of like right behind the BA alley over in Indian Hills. And if you're familiar with that area, uh you got the commas and you got Shaune and there's the apartments right there. There's a nice little dip, little hill dip right there on the corner. Yeah, that's all that is is ours. Very life properties and and they're empty and available.

They they are not empty. uh when they were purchased there were people that were already living there and some of them are still living there. Some of them have since moved on and those have been converted into intensive outpatient housing and recovery housing that are certified. Thank you. Any other questions? Tom, we discussed this at links when they purchased the homes when Mark came in and uh but we discussed this cuz uh it's in my district. So yeah, we've just that that whole there's a bunch of town homes right behind uh the bowling alley and the the shopping center there that that they purchased. Great.

Okay. So what we're what we're hoping to accomplish, like I said, is very much like what the lady from VA was talking about. You're creating a continuum of care that turns out results. uh that would be individuals that are not only sober but are contributing both culturally and fiscally to our community. And I think that if we have that long-term continuum that we'll see success, whereas if we continue to invest in the short-term bits, you're going to see people turn and turn and turn until they until they die. Yeah. And that's the sad thing that happens. I've seen it seen it a lot. Mhm. How many kids you have enrolled now? So I just finished up on it. We had we have 125.

Okay. 125. Now, those are folks that have gone through and completed it, right? Um with some of them still being involved like the baseball program we started at the back stop is fairly new. So, there's children up there that are still in the midst of programming and there's folks at the the ROC that are still in the midst of programming. But, we're looking to uh we're looking to expand to do some different things. We talked about doing volleyball at the community center. Uh we've talked about paintball, talked about, you know, a number of different things, but we we want to get u want to diversify so attract a number of different folks to it. Okay. And so you said you received some grants for funding. We did.

And then what other funding sources do you have? So we did ask the city. Okay. Ask the city and we have, you know, private donations and then we do fundraising ourselves. So last year, uh we did a kick for a cause that we did at ROC martial arts academy. Um, we managed to raise, you know, about $10,000 with that. So, we plan to do that annually and most of the funding goes directly to the program. Is there a specific amount you're requesting from the court or Well, um, honestly, I I didn't come to ask for a specific amount.

Okay. Um, I think that I'd have to get a sense of I guess what's available and the sort of programming that we would like to to offer, but we did ask the city for 20,000. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. Well, like I told the last ones, it's budget season, so Well, we may we can ask you for for 20,000 as well. Okay. Do we have a is there a form I need to fill out for that? Um, we can do that or we can just put it as part of a budget request and then we can vote on it at that time. Any other questions?

No. Well, thanks for letting me chair. I appreciate it. All right. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it. Thanks for what you're doing. Yeah. Have a great day. Go have a good one. Thank you. Okay. Next is our senior living specialist, Andrea James with uh NextStep Senior Living. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning, guys. Good morning. Everybody adjusted to the time change. No, you would take one calendar. I will like it. I will like it. But by June, I'll like it. Yeah,

so my coffee pot is set on one time. my car is set on another time. So, I'm kind of with Ben today. I'm just all over the place. Thank you for allowing me to come in today and thank you um Miss Bottoms for for setting this up for me. So, I'm kind of coming at you guys with a different aspect today. Seems like everybody else was talking more about the children. I want to talk to you about our seniors. Um anybody ever been to their grandma's nursing home in in what you'd consider grandma's nursing home? Well, that's kind of changing as as we as we as we grow, I guess you might say. Um, my mom was nurse and I'm 50. And so when I was in middle school, I would go get on the bus and that's where I would go to the nursing home and that's what I learned. That that's what I learned. So our care in senior facilities is not quite like it was years ago. However, there are some facilities that just don't quite meet that the guidelines that you and I would like to have our our families in. Um, my kind of my background is um I was an onbudsman volunteer, a social service director, uh, admissions. So, I've kind of done activities was my favorite job. We got to talk a little bit the other day over at Morning Point. So about I've been at Walker's Trail for I guess I was there about 3 years and there was something bothering me. I was a sales director. I was a top producer. I was bringing in these great numbers. We were having tons of admissions. But something bothered me. I was placing someone's family where my quota needed me to be, not where that family needed to be in our in our community. So back in October, I stepped away from uh the corporate world and decided that next steps was what was needed in our community. So what I do now is I am a senior living advocate. So if you were to call me, I am going to talk to you about all options available in senior

living. Uh my services are free to everyone in the community. So and everyone will say, well, how how exactly does that happen? Well, to the to the facilities, I'm a referral source. So that's how that's how I'm paid. But to the families, we're completely free. So the kind of the the guidelines there is I work assisted living facilities, but I get a ton of Medicaid calls. And if we could have anything more in this community, it would be more Medicaid beds. And I know that you guys probably can't help with that, but the Medicaid beds are so needed in in in this area. Well, in every area.

Um, so I work mainly with assisted living like our Mcdow Place. We just moved the family in there. Uh Morning Point, um Walker's Trail, and then um Carrie Wellel and their new assisted living over in Arle Park View, which she has done a lot with. So I work here in Boille County, but we've kind of in the last since we've met kind of spread out into central Kentucky. So if you were to call me, I would take you and your family. We would do tours. We're going to walk through. We're going to see, you know, what does it smell like when you walk in? Did everyone greet you? And I when I'm talking about everyone, I mean everyone from the administrator, housekeeping, dietary, what? Because this is where your loved one is going to live. So I'm not just serving as a referral source. I am this family's advocate. So when you call a facility, they're immediately trained as a sales director to call you seven times in a row, seven days, and then every other day, and then we're going to meet email you, and then we're going to drop off lunch. So, my job is to take that stress away from you and be the point of contact for all of these facilities.

Um, so I'm not asking for anything today. I'm just sharing. Um, so if if we if we did have if we did need monies, it would be to for our Medicaid beds and then for our friends with dementia. We have uh some amazing uh memory care facilities in our community. Um, but honestly, we don't have enough programming. I don't think in any in any community to talk about our friends with dementia. Um there's just there's just not a how do you say that? People are almost scared of people that have Alzheimer's

and they kind of back away and don't know how to communicate. Um so if you have someone in your community and they have dementia, talk to them, love on them. Don't make them feel like they're, you know, an outcast cuz at times that memory does come back and we want them to feel just as welcome as any of us sitting here. So today my my goal was just to tell you about Next Steps. If you have someone, please send them my way and I will we or if you want to go yourself

or if you want to go yourself. Absolutely. Um, assisted living is not bad. When you actually look at, we have independent living in our community all the way up to memory care. And some of these independent prices are only if you have a down place, they start around I think about 2400. But if you look at all your care, all of everything, all your food, your housekeeping, your tax, I mean, everything is included. Um, so I did sign myself up. So this is a good room to BE PROSPECTING. FOR TAKING A PITCH TODAY.

WELL, does anyone have any questions? I know you guys want to get on with your day. Well, Andrea, thank you for coming and she just wanted to come and share the information because you may know someone that needs this type of of a person to help them to, you know, get into a nice facility and and to meet the needs of what what they specifically need. So, u no better way to share than word of mouth. I would greatly appreciate it

and I'll take you to the hub and buy you a coffee or just love or I think seven brew is coming and so but guys please if I can help anyone um even if they they do have Medicaid that there's some folks in our community that's open new programs that's helping with Medicaid applications. Uh Mandy was here with me but she had to step out so she helps. We kind of wanted to create the trifecta in Bo County that we helped we helped everyone. Um, so if I can help, please give me a call and you guys have a great day. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. That's awesome. Yeah, it is. Awesome. Okay. Uh, county clerk, thank you all again.

Yeah, thank you all so much. Appreciate you. Okay. Uh, Steve, could you check on Casey, please? Good to see you. It's going to be slash big time.

There's nine there's over 9,000 senior citizens in W County. The gathering place served over 5,000 meals on wheels last year. And what he said about the some of these people, that's the only contact they ever have. It's once a day on a meal deliver. But that that was number one. Morning. Good morning. How are you? Good. Good. We got a amended budget is first. Is that right?

Yes. Yes. Uh I'll present the amended budget for the year uh 2025. The new budget receipts amounts is 15,189. I'm sorry. 15,189 197. The new budget dispersements amount is 14 million 9996,970. Um, with that with budgeted excess fees, this year we turned over $192,27. Woohoo. Yeah. Awesome. And I have, of course, I have the cashier check. Okay. Now you need us to

you can either sign this. Yeah. Right now and we'll record it or So we need a motion to approve the amended budget. So moved. Master Gays or second. Master Bogner. Any discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Then we have uh the amendment. That was all, wasn't it? Yeah, that was audited on that we have to approve. Okay. All right. Quarterly report we have

then if you want I can take that and get it recorded and just bring it to you. Sure. That'd be great. Okay. And then we have the excess. Thank you so much. That's awesome. Yeah. Appreciate it. See you next time. Thank you. asking again. All righty. Um, annual salary magistrate. Shannon, are you going to speak about this or I can.

Okay. Well, this is the only year, election year is the only year that magistrates can uh increase their showers. And so this is the time of year that we need to do that because we are in budget season again, right? I'll I'll address it. Finance committee. Good point. Um so we talked a little bit about this in our budget workshop yesterday as we obviously were going through the initial run at at every area's um budget.

Mhm. And one of the things that we have talked about in the past is the um first of all the amount of time and work. You know, none of us get in this for the money. I don't I don't think we any of us is run based on pay, but um I think we all care deeply about our community and want to see our community better and we want all of us want to leave it better than we found it kind of approach. I think that's all of our motivation. M

um but it is a it is a big time commitment and a sacrifice and you know I've always felt that in order to hopefully be able to attract um younger people into this role there has to be a certain level of um kind of I guess fair compensation for the commitment that's involved. And we we looked at it a little bit. We looked at it more yesterday. And really one of the things we talked about yesterday was the average magistrate baseline compensation in our state is $23,000 in annual pay. Mhm.

Bo County's baseline compensation level is $11,000 a year in annual pay. Mhm. And you can see that's a pretty significant gap. We're severely below the state average, right? And for a county and community that I think we all agree is a um strong community

to live and work in. And not only I think we've all contributed to that, I want to say and then but we have a lot of people before us that have contributed to that as well. So, uh, you know, one of the numbers that we threw out yesterday that I'd like to see us consider is increasing the magistrate baseline compensation in the amount of $5,000, judge, which would bring it to a $16,000 baseline compensation package. Okay.

May I speak? Um, I'm actually going to make the motion as not only the senior citizen of the senior citizens on this group, but the one who has announced my retirement. So to the public, this will have zero impact on me. knowing the dedication of this court and realizing that you'd go back probably a couple of decades. Mhm.

Uh to find when that $11,000 uh had been raised from whatever the figure was before that. Mhm. Uh I'm going to make the motion that we do discuss increasing uh by thou $5,000 the base compensation for magistrates to this court. Okay. You want to make the motion to discuss or you want to make the motion to do it? I'll make I want to make the motion to do it. To do it. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. All right. We have a motion by Ministry Ellis. Is there a second? I'll second that, Maser Gay. Okay. Is there any discussion? May I continue?

Sure. Um realizing beyond the public knowledge of what we do because I still run into constituents who ask me questions. What exactly is a magistrate? What is done by magistrates? Um just as recently as a couple of days ago and then last night or this morning I I acted on it in uh Magistrate Cullen's district uh there is a public meeting coming up on the new road that the DOT would put uh in that section of the county.

Um we desperately want folks to be aware of these things. We want them to either turn out or before the fact do something uh to communicate not only to this court but to city government because there's always an impact there and in particular the state so that we're operating with knowledge that we can't gather as part-time employees. Um, we we So, what I did is just go ahead and jump onto that Facebook uh post and say what I'm saying right now. We need for you to be aware. We need for you to come. Please don't come after the fact when it's already been committed on any given project. Um, that makes more work for everybody that I'm looking at in this room, and I mean everybody. Uh, so I am probably as far right in terms of spending a a dollar of taxpayer money as anybody in this room. Um, and yet realizing the decades in between increases. I respectfully uh speak to uh my colleagues who are going to remain any new ones who come that it's welld deserved that they would have a base of 16,000 whatever the other numbers around it might be as opposed to the 11 that we have at this point. Thank you, judge.

Yes, sir. Any other comments? Well, I can honestly say this is one of the hardest working courts that I have had the pleasure to serve with. And um you know, I've I've been around the courthouse. I've been on fiscal courts as a fiscal court clerk, what Kina's doing. And and uh not to say that, you know, the past course didn't do anything. They did. But working with you all personally, I can honestly say that that you all are very hardworking magistrates. And if you took the time that you all commit to your jobs and multiplied that out or divided that out by your pay, um it doesn't account for very much for for the jobs that you all do. So I think it's welld deserved. Uh I support the increase and um

thank you. I think that's what we should do. Call a question. Call for questions. Tom. Okay. Can I Yeah. Just one quick point. And I think the board was about 8,000 and it's only gone up based on you know compensation. I mean based on um cost of living cost of living

cost of living adjustments. Thank you. And so, you know, it's in the 7 years it's made it up to 11,000 and it's actually under 11,000. But, um, you know, you divide that out among 52 weeks, you know, you're you're talking about less than $200 a week is uh is what's paid. And like all of us have barely covered our cell phone bill, which is constantly ringing and texting. So, you know, are you asking for an amendment upward?

I I I think if if what Jamie said, you're trying to attract people. I think 16,000 is not going to do it. But, um, you know, we can we can tackle that later, you know, another four years and see how it works. Okay. It's a start. Yeah. Yeah. It's a start. Yeah. And to Mr. Cullen's point, you know, when your base pay is where this one has been, it takes a long time for a 3% increase to add up to anything. Right. Right. Um it doesn't it doesn't multiply real quick. Right. When it's at, you know, at 8,000 or 9,000 or whatever the base was when we started,

it takes a lot of years for that to multiply. and and you know so and again as I said before we're not doing it for the money but I do think it would be an important step in the right direction. Sure. I know I'm out of order. Major Alice, you called for questions. That's fine. All right. All those in favor uh the motion to increase the magistrate salary uh to 5,000 a $5,000 increase to a $16,000 baseline salary signify by saying I. I. on a date in the new it'll go into the next budget year. Okay. As long as they understand July public understand well it would go into it would have to take effect in January January of 27. Yeah. Okay.

Y effective January 27 with the next court with once the next court is sworn in. That's right. Yeah. It would go into place then. Yeah. Thank you. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. All right. We're ready for magistrate reports and Mr. Gay, we'll start with you. Uh, yes. I would like to give the Sorry if I do the MS committee report, Mr. Cullen, or you want to do that? No, I'm at it. Thank you.

Um, the MS committee met this morning and Magistrate Cullen joined us in combination phone and Zoom. So, he was with us this morning as well in attendance. And uh Mark gave the U crisis team update and he had 32, this is for all for February, he had 32 individuals he worked with and unfortunately in February um we had u eight suicide ideiation attempts and unfortunately we did have one fatality suicide fatality um in February. And then Terry gave the update on um community outreach and he had 14 substance use disorder um people he worked with. Uh three overdose cases and fortunately we did not have any overdose related deaths in that month. and um four referrals to treatment for substance use disorder. And he commented on the fact that working still working closely, you know, with people that are looking needing housing and working and getting a lot of feedback and and referrals in a lot of ways from our local hotels that we work closely with for housing. And February, obviously cold month that had a lot of things going on related to ice issues. Um, and then, uh, Mo gave the, uh, education update and Brianna Miller has completed her training. We have two MTs on orientation

and one medic starting soon. Um Tim Bryant gave his u updates about the fact that our fleet is actually in um in good shape at this point in time. And we talked about the u fact that of the chase vehicles that as Mike said, we don't need any we're in good shape going into next budget year, you know, with the exception of the um other unit that we're getting on order in that budget year. We did have the question he thinks one of the chase vehicles may not arrive until just because of timing

into next fiscal year. So, we may have to look at that within the budget that it's budgeted for this year, but it may actually carry into to next year. Okay.

Yeah. As far as the arrival time. Um, and then we they we talked more about the issues with the power lifts that they use and how we're having problems with those and and that's we talked about it in the budget process yesterday. So, we addressed that again. And then there was the discussion about the um staffing instead of the 12-hour shifts which we've been doing moving to a 24 on 72 off um staffing concept. And there seems to be a um a lot of support within the department to make that change. and the committee agrees that that's worth uh trying at least for a period of time

and seeing if it works like they think it will. And as far as morale and sleep and sleep patterns and work patterns and you know there's that concern that 24 hours on puts you at a fatigue point in that 20th to 24th hour for sure and how that all is going to work out. But they indicated there is a system to build in rest and other things within that 24-hour period. And the runs for February were uh 561, which is obviously a little bit less, but still very busy month for a 28 day

Mhm. Um month. So that still is. We had them two or three extra days that have been gotten up into the 600. So they stayed very busy in February, but it looks a little less in a 28 day month. So, I'll make a motion that we approve the EMS committee meeting report from this morning. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second?

There's like four of us. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. And then I just would like to uh ask and I'm I have a feeling others will say the same thing but that um we adjourn in memory of Michael Mingi. Yeah. Um he was just such a you know just

he lived life to the fullest and u such a I guess I kind of considered him an old soul. He was somebody that definitely crossed generations and I mean I had many long conversations with Michael um just about politics and life and and he just always had a smile and a hug for anybody he ever met.

Yeah. and that'll be greatly missed. And and just as a you know, and I I know everybody has a story about Michael, but um Ricky was uh coming out of Walmart and I think had stuff blowing everywhere and and he didn't know who she was. Um you know, he'd seen me a lot but didn't really know who she was and basically came to her rescue in the parking lot. Mhm. And so from that point on, she could never um remember his name, but she would always I would tell her a story about Michael just in some other event.

And she would say, "Who are you talking about?" And I would always just say, "You know, it's that guy that's everywhere." And she would, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah." Because that's who he was. He was that guy that was everywhere. Yeah. Um, no matter what was going on, Michael Mingy was there and uh and so he's going to be greatly missed. He is. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. That's all. Master Sleeper.

All right. Um, we went and had a uh animal control committee meeting on March 3rd. Our regular meeting wasn't scheduled till later this month, but with the situation of having an acting interim director, we felt it was important to kind of get together and and go over some things. Sure. On on both the director's acting director's viewpoint in mind. Um so we met together and um the animal control is actively scheduling a lot of numerous events uh and promotions in the community which are uh one notable example is that through March 18th if you take an unopened package of dog food to just love the new coffee shop that's opened um you'll get 25% off your order. So

done that and it's it's very worthwhile. Um, and that donation will go to the mobile food pantry, which supplies food for folks that need assistance in that area providing pet food. Um, and also if you order the confetti cake frappe, you'll get a do they'll donate a dollar towards the mobile pantry as well. So, I've done both. It's a good frappe. So, um,

and then they also presented with me with some drafts of a revised CAT policy, a TNVR policy, and an animal behavioral assessment, and an animal control firearm policy and procedure. And they're in the process of developing these. They did give me drafts, but they weren't really ready yet, but they've got some more tweaking they want to do. But once those are ready, we'll get them presented and so we can act on them as a court revive, re review them, and see if it's something we want to implement. um and approve. So that's it for that. Oh, I guess I need to make a motion. It's your motion to approve. I make a motion to approve the report if you'll sign it. Second, Mr. Harmon. All right. And then one other thing I have is um Let's take a

Oh, I'm sorry. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. Any oppose? Name. Motion carries. I assumed it'd be approved. You're right.

Okay. Second thing, last thing I have is um met with the uh homeless coalition and I try to serve as a local government liaison with them now and uh but some good things happening. There's continuing to make progress in the uh new ground transitional housing tiny home village. There's a lot of numerous steps legal wise and other things that are taking place. So, it's taking time, but they're they're getting closer to the goal. Um, also learned that FiveStar here in town is um, provides frozen food to uh, some one of the the food insecurity programs in our community. And also I made was made aware of a uh, agency organization whatever you call it called the food donation connection and they actually work with restaurants in our community to provide food to 501c3s that are in need of it. So that was really cool. Um, and I guess that's it.

Okay. Thank you. What else?

Thank you, judge. Um, in our budget meeting yesterday, Jaylor Walford and above and beyond uh what I think any of the other 70 plus uh jailers have have accomplished, uh he compiled data back from 2018 to 2025 and where the state would very much enjoy state corrections, would very much enjoy telling the public that it has saved us over that period of time $28 million. The fact of it is at $35 on average for a day in our jail and the other 70 plus jails. Um we're subsidizing that with Boil County Citizens Tax dollars with the group that was here today and the judges uh agreement after reading uh my text. I've sent that to the speaker prom several other leg our legislative delegation of Senator Fledo and representative Elliot and several others that I've gotten to know through the uh uh time I've been on the court plus some judges and magistrates who are extremely active and have uh jails in their district and getting good feedback on that. um it's just reached a crisis state for us subsidizing the state's inmates when we house them. So prayerfully, House Bill 557

will be acted upon. Uh Jason, since you weren't with us, um there's a likelihood that the Supreme Court of Kentucky will not hear the case, which works in our favor. And that's when you try to figure out how we'll be reimbursed for years past of shortfalls that our county taxpayers have been paying. So hopefully something will come from that. Roads, we have to be more than concerned because potholes that are already being filled in my district are significant and I'm sure that public works has been in yours as well. And yet we're going to be hopeful to be part of as much as $60 million, which if you spread that over 120 counties, that is not walking around money. So, we're going to have to be telling our constituents that we're doing our best with funds available. Uh and we have hundreds of miles of state roads through Boil County, which is not well understood by our constituents. And in my case, in my district, I was out last week with Brian Cowell and we have some incredibly dangerous sections on state roads on 34 and on 37. I don't want to drive that in a windstorm driving rain even during the daylight, but but definitely uh after dark because the gap down, excuse me, to the creek from literally literally the pavement because there's no grassy area

is vertical and deeper than the ceiling of this roof. So if you went off uh night or day, school buses go there every day, by the way. Um so the judge and I have been in communication with uh District 7 and something's got to be done on those, including the fact a message for my constituents out that way. It might be lane closure for one lane for a significant period of time. In a moment, my colleague uh Magistrate Boulder is going to speak to this, but my opinion about the burner and the issue of smoke is so well spoken in the past that I have grave concerns about it. Um that we need some asurances of what we can and cannot do. So, I'll defer and uh become active on that here in just a couple of minutes. Uh after my comments, uh I just noticed this morning at 9:02, we all received a message that there's a pipeline conference in Lexington May 16. in in my parting shot of being gravely concerned about we do what we dodged 12 years ago when they were going to open up a very dangerous 85y old pipeline and put sludge that uh has been estimated to have 12 to 15 carcinogens in it. Uh, I'm going to be there to make sure that there is no discussion or if there is reported back to the court because a year from now I will probably be writing letters to the editor again if that ever comes up. Um and and judge um along with my my dear friend and the loss of my

dear friend Michael Mingi. Um we have suffered our first Kentucky resident uh US Army um soldier Sergeant Benjamin Pennington's death just the last couple of days and if we might also add him to our adjournment. I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Benjamin Pennington. Benjamin. Sergeant Benjamin Pennington. Harden County. Harden County. And And if we might uh just send a note over to the judge over there that that uh uh I I think he'd appreciate that, too. Okay. Thank you, Judge.

Thank you, Mr. Boner. Uh, I want to make a motion that we have a permit, a burn permit for the Fred Kaine property in process as well as the Alum Springs proc uh, Alen Springs site because I know we're in the process of doing Alum Springs, but I want to make sure we have a burn permit process started over the judge's signature. Okay. I don't know that we I mean that's something that Angie does automatically. So I don't

we need to formalize that judge and I'll second that motion. We we absolutely need to know that that can be burned that can it can be moved into a residential area and I will respectfully put on record that I think the state will deny it which all the more complicates the circumstances that we have with that burner.

Well, what my my thinking is I think it could pass. So, I want the permit received because I think we'll have a better staging area. So, we'll have uh you know, I think we can make it a better site than what we're doing now. What we have now is in a little tiny community with all the smoke and with all the dirt and the the debris has been there forever. And so, it's it's going to make more smoke, I think, if we stage it. But I want to make sure that we have the permit for the new site. I want to make sure Angie said that she hadn't started that. So I wanted to make sure she had that process started so we can move. Do you see what I mean?

Okay. So you two questions. Um, I know you got a first and a second, but just for clarification, are you talking about all the actual Fred Keane property or are you talking about the railroad property where we've discussed it with the city just over where we're going to build that road? It's the EDA property. The EDA property is where the the second location had been amendment. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. That should have been said more clearly. I just I just amend that and I second the amendment.

Good clarification on that. And two, um, has this been brought up to the solid waste committee? No. For them to discuss because that's kind of the that's kind of the how this should go. It should go through the committee. The committee discusses it with with the director and then um and then it gets brought to the court. So, I don't know. Have you had the discussion with the committee about that all? Cuz that's the respectful thing to do. So

I respectfully reply to that by saying this is such a serious issue already in Junction City and I firmly believe with flow of smoke that will come and it will come because we will never have totally dry wood. I respectfully submit that this transcends the committee process and needs to happen. All it is is formalizing that yes, they will permit if we move that from junction. And if we cannot move it from junction, we have all the more serious a problem. And the clarification, it's not a residential area back there. Yeah.

Oh, but it is. I've driven all back in there and you're not you're not an eighth of a mile from houses. um on the on the railroad property. I have been on the railroad property. Uh just just do a GPS and take a look at the surrounding area. You'll find homes within a quarter mile.

And I think I'll interrupt just a minute. Um I think Tom and I are maybe on different ideas. My idea was uh yesterday I talked with uh Angie and I said we we're going to move that and have we gotten that permit process started because we can't move it till we've got that process. And so my purpose is to make sure we're getting the permit so that we can move it and you know and stage it to where like uh Magistrate Cullen mentioned staging it at Alum Springs. Well, we'll have better staging at a new area where we don't have a year or two of old debris rotting and all the dirt if we can stage it there. And if it burns quickly, I've talked to a lot of uh contractors who deal with incinerators or who have been around incinerators and they say the high heat burning and the double burning is what causes the less smoke. Well, this area is not within uh the range of 20 homes that it is right now. So, I think it can be worked out, but you know, we want that permit started. We want to make sure we get that permit started and get the permission we need

once that permit is in place. We know and a lot of planning uh that I'm sure you're mentioning there can take place and planning and preparation is going to be vital. Uh, as Magistrate Cullen had stated in our last meeting, uh, we most likely will find or need to lay down pretty expensive concrete to keep the wood off of the ground. Okay. So, you want to make a motion to authorize Angie to apply for burn permit for the EDA. To require is my motion.

Yeah. Well, that she's going to do that anyway. I mean, she has to. We can't move it there until we have it perman My sorry. Go ahead. No, no. I'm sorry. Um, is I know there's the process of getting the road built right now. And I don't know. I'm trying to figure out if we can kind of get that road and it's going to be gravel for right now, but that road taken care of so we can kind of get out there and plot exactly where we think it should be. Right.

I think that's I I really and Paul I don't I don't disagree with you that it should be out there cuz I think I've said that several times. I think it's kind of more of a centralized location for you know like right now we've put it over at the uh what is it the uh what is it the Lebanon road is where a lot of the brush went to you know um because we that's where we were chipping or whatever so um

I don't I don't disagree that it should come off Adam springs you know you know We we've all, I think, said temporarily it's going to go out there, especially with all of the bike park material coming down and we'll need to burn that and hopefully keep it as dry as possible so that way the the smoke isn't there. But, um, I think we kind of need to plot out exactly where it should be, which is something that we do with the city. So, do do you want to maybe do something where we have uh some sort of meeting where we go out there and kind of figure out where it should go? I I'll resend

and then that would give her the opportunity to put the permit in. I'll resend my my motion with the understanding that yesterday I asked had that process been put in place. I just want to make it public that I want that process to where we can move it and we have the permit. I don't want it being said, well, we'd move it, but we haven't started that and that'll be six more months. So, I'll just take that away since we all know and Tom, I don't know how you feel about that, but

as long as you're saying that we still file now within a day or two to ask for the permit so that we know whether or not we will be granted the permit. Because you can't Tom, you can't put a permit in for a place you don't know the location. You need to actually have a location. They have to come out and approve the location. EDA has a piece of property and EDA would be the piece of property and you don't have to have it pinpointed to the center of that property. So the EPA app well I'm not exactly which it's whatever branch. One branch has to come out and say it can they have to approve the location. Once the location's approved, then Angie can apply for the permit.

So, who approved Alam Springs? That's who I'd like to talk. Yeah, I'd have to go back and I'd like to have that name if you could find it. Just who approved it? Well, she sent it to you all and or I did in that email. Okay. In that email, that's who approved it cuz that's they said this is the permit. So, whoever's name is on that and I just I don't remember the name. Okay. But that's who has to be contacted. I just want to make sure we're serious about moving it and that we do as much as we can to forward that, you know.

Yeah. Let me and let me just address it. I'm on the Barry and I are on the salt waste committee. We'll be glad to continue to follow through on this. I do think it's important though to recognize that, you know, and as we've said, we want to make sure that we have all the permitting in place and that the equipment is working like it's supposed to work and being operated like it's supposed to be operated. I've said over and over again that I want to bring the people in.

And Angie is working to get some additional equipment that will help the process operate better. That's our belief and that's what we need to be assured of. Um, but it is going to be important that we do, you know, I don't want to give any false hope. We are going to need to burn the material that is there. Um, one way or another. I mean, we can have a big bonfire or we can burn it in the air curtain because it's there's no good way or no cost effective way to move what already is there to another location. So we do need to burn what is there and then we can obviously start the pro you know already have the process started but have a place to then relocate as magister Cullen saying it's a better location for most of the debris comes from the city of Danville right

which is in B county um comes from the city of Danville and it would be a lot more convenient for citizens of Danville to take it to the property we're referring to and have it disposed of appropriately um as opposed to driving it all the way down to Alam Springs and dropping it all along the road while you get there.

Um so that all makes a lot of sense, but I just I don't want to pretend like we're not still going to need to have some burning, which you know, and I do think it's important to point out though that there are plenty of people that burn a lot of wood in their homes there that produces a lot of smoke in Alum Springs. So I don't think we and and other things that get burned in Alum Springs. So I don't think we need to falsely pretend like people aren't burning stuff in Al Springs. I want to ask a question then I've got a comment. How many acres is the EDA property? Uh 77.

All right. Then it is easy to find out if the state would allow permit. That's the very word. Look at the definition of the word. Whether or not they would allow the burner to be on any area of 87 acres. With that in mind, I cannot imagine the logic of not finding out if it would be approved. Nobody has said we're not going to find out. Uh I'm now hearing Nobody has said that.

I'm now hearing not resistance. Then let's then let's vote on the motion. Well, she rescended the motion and I asked you did you resend yours? I'm going to resend. I have not. So, well, she rescended her motion. So, how do we handle Well, you don't have a second if there's no motion. Okay, there we go. Here's the thing. I have two comments, judge, if it's all right. Yes. One, we met with the bike trail committee and they said they could the we had thought it'd be a lot longer term to get that road done. Well, it's not. He said it probably midsummer.

Yeah, midsummer, 3 months. And he at the committee said, "Well, if you're" I said, "We've got a lot of people not wanting the burning because it causes so many health issues." And uh they said, "Well, can't we burn the big pieces and just leave the other to rot? Just let it go back to the earth. It makes really beautiful black dirt." Cuz I've seen them over there turning it over. Uh, so just get the big stuff and once we start hauling it over. So that that made sense to me uh somehow because we do have huge big pieces in there, get rid of that and then you don't have to move anything. You start a new process where you have a better situation to if to it double burning so you do not have all this smoke that we have with all the dirt. And then uh let's see one other comment. It's it's a matter of just making sure we're doing the steps as quickly and not dragging our feet. That's the whole thing. I want to make sure that we're not dragging our feet trying because it is a health issue to several of my constituents. So that's what I want to make sure.

Yep. And on behalf of and I don't want to speak for Barry, but I on behalf of myself as a member of the saw waste, I I'm all in favor of us proceeding ahead with getting the appropriate permitting and and continue to work to find a different location for the burner. Well, can I ask a question? Sure.

Um, just to kind of make sure that per Paula's request, we are moving forward with something. Can we set up a meeting with this, you know, Josh from the city of Danville and Earl and the EDA, um, you know, within the next two weeks before the next court session about where we feel this new location at the EDA property would work best. Um,

I totally support you on that. Yeah, because Tom, I while I I I agree that the permit needs to happen, but they're going to come back and say, "Okay, where on this property are you exactly?" Do you think that if they permitted the spot in Allen Springs, which does have residences a lot closer out uh at the EDA property, I don't have as much concern about it going out there and not being permitted. But I think that we should take a field trip and go out there and like kind of nail down the spot that we think would be best for this to go. Um, I think that's really the next step, but let's let's put some, you know, teeth into it and say, let's have it, you know, within the next week or week and a half,

go out there and just kind of like look at the space and agree with it's good with me out there. Um, so that would be my two cents. It's a wonderful recommendation. Absolutely. because we went through the exact same thing on dead animal and we went over to the distillery uh and the dead animal composting that was going above it in Frankfurt and that had a dramatic impact on the fact that we did not uh go that route on dead animals. So we will find we also took a field trip to Somerset and looked at the air burner too before we

and I will speak to what I realized at Somerset. Um, I do want to uh say I'm sorry for not going the right route through the committee. However, Angie was Miss Muny was here yesterday and I got to talk directly to her. So, I should have gone through you guys, but I I bypassed that step a little bit. Sorry about that. Sorry. Sorry about that. Um, okay. No worries. I mean, so this is good understand to bring it up and get it straight down in the next couple weeks. We will try to get everybody together and take a field trip. Excellent. Yeah, sounds good. Okay. Are you good with that? I'm good with that.

Okay. Excellent. Okay. Oh, and now did you have anything else? I just wanted to say uh our last um Junction Voices. We have changed our name to Junction or we're in the process of changing Junction City Matters to Junction Voices. Okay. We had some uh people that wanted that change and I I said that's great. Yeah, I like it. Uh we had a meeting on Monday and Michael Mingi came to our first meeting. A

and I said uh at the end he sent me a text said very productive meeting and I said thank you for coming and I did not know the next night that he would be gone. So he was a very energetic. He helped us with our balloon festival and he's always there with the hug and I haven't known him maybe a year, year and a half, but I'd heard his name for a long time and I finally got to meet him. So, I'm really glad we're going to mention him. Yeah. And and when we adjourn, that's all I have to say. Thank you, Measure Har.

Okay, Measure Kellen. Sorry, came off mute. Um, thank you for mentioning the connector road uh meeting on the 31st. Um, what what it really is is that, you know, we've talked to the state about this before. City of Danville is pushing this connector road. Um, and they can call it a connector road. It's a bypass is what it is. Um, and just think of every other bypass that we have in this community and other communities. the idea that they want to dump traffic coming from 150 and south or 127 over onto Lexington Avenue is a disaster. Um, and that's why in the past we've asked for other options and that's what this um meeting is about. It's they're supposed to come up with some other options to see where, you know, we could put this connector road. Um because going from Ghost Bike straight up over East Maine and then dropping it right off there by the water plant, you know, you're talking semis, you're talking, you know, lots and lots of cars coming through. Um is is just a terrible idea. I mean, if they if that community was upset about the the fire or, you know, gas station going right there and the traffic it was going to cause, just wait till this connector bypass goes through. So, we do need everybody to come out to that and to to really look at it um and see that's a bad idea because you're talking about last time it was like between 35 and $40 million for two miles. It's going to it, you know, cost has gone up, so it's going to be even more expensive. You know, I I really hope, you know, that we can come together as a court and talk about instead of spending

that much money on one road, we figure ways to improve several other roads that are already in existence uh to make them better to alleviate the issue. So instead of concentrating all the traffic onto one road, we improve Gogan, uh we improve, you know, 34 um out my way that really needs to be improved. Um and utilize that money there instead of just this one road. So please come out on the 31st because it's imperative. Mullen, may I speak May I speak in favor of what you're saying? Um

yes, you can. We're we're likely going to see ultimately eminent domain having to be declared to go through. How many properties would you guess? Mr.

I mean depending on the option uh it it would be dozens. So that that's even more than I thought and I'm in total agreement that this needs to be taken seriously slowly. All of us need to get our constituents out because if it affects the east today, it could affect the west, north or south, tomorrow being next year and the years after. And I've already looked at that map a year or two ago knowing what was going on with the respect of the distillery and others and and Master Cullen and I talked about those. And am I correct that this relates directly to those discussions that we had well over a year ago and the concerns with what it does with all those properties out there?

Well, yeah. I mean, the biggest thing to think about is, you know, this, think about like 2168 coming right through East Main Street, right past Hensen Pond and then right out onto um onto Lexington Avenue right there. Uh before the the car wash and uh before all those offices and just gets dumped out right there. uh you know, tractor trailers, just you know, and you're gonna you're going to see an increased amount of traffic than what we already see there. Uh and if you notice with 2168, the state actually owns more than just those two lanes. There's an option for it to be widened at some point. So, they'll do the same thing with this. And then it'll be two lanes right now with several uh roundabouts. you know that they talked about around about East Main right by Henen Pond and uh the amount's going to actually skyrocket once they find all the sink holes that are all through that area as well. But um you know I just cannot say we we need to improve the roads we have instead of building new roads. So

thank you Mr. Con. Hey, thank you all. And uh I've been in New York for one day and I already missed Angel. You look kind of fancy up there on that screen. Yeah, thank you. But I'm far from that. So All right. Thank you. And safe travels. Uh county attorney. Yes. U go to Portland this past weekend and attended a spaghetti pot auction. Mhm.

Really cool. I mean, it's amazing how, you know, the people they have at Forkland raising money to support their community center. It's just wellrun, I think, and had had a good time. And uh made a couple pies also. And u also I gave away a lot of expensive pie pieces. Yeah. One pie or cake went for $1,000. So nice. That was that was wild.

Remind everybody Masonic Lodge on Smith Street has every first Saturday of the month has a a fish fry and I went to that this past week. It's really good. U I mean the Masonic Lodge raises money for for many different charities. I think we should support that. And I was surprised I went there and they also had fried shrimp and love. It was really, really, really good. So, everyone should should try to do that. I think this week, um, on Friday, actually, the Catholic church is having a fish fry starting at 5:00 p.m. So, thanks, Peter and Paul.

Peter and Paul for due to lent. So, I don't think they have it every week, uh, but every other week or so. Other than that, u looking forward to some warm weather and um although Thursday it's going to get cold again, but hopefully that's just that's short and gets warm and gets back to warm again. So that's all.

All right. Thank you. Um, okay. So, just a reminder, the public uh information meeting on the proposed new road will be March 31st at Intercount Energy uh from 6:00 to 8:00. And we just invite the public to come out to that and voice your opinions, concerns, or uh interest and what you think uh should or should not happen there. Uh, I also want to uh let everyone know that the little cherubs uh children's sale is going on this week uh Friday and Saturday at Centinary uh church. So, come out and support that. The proceeds from that go to lots of different mission projects that they uh sponsor and support. So, it's always a good time and it'll be um from 8 to

4 I believe 4 on Friday or it's a little bit later on Friday and then 8 to 4 on just come Saturday just come just come sometime between 8 and 4. I I think last year over $50,000 was to charities and I know it was a record-breaking year and we want to break that record again for all the community interest that sent Mary supports on that

and that's one of the um civic projects that I do every year. I've been doing that for several years. I go and work on Friday and Saturday there and uh it's a good time good time. Good people out there. Um, also I just want to uh say that this court works very well together and we've had things come up where we don't always uh agree but we agree to disagree and I just want me Bowden to know that your concerns are not being overlooked. Uh we are all in agreement with you. Um it just takes time to get things done and processes to work through. So, um, just want you to to know that from myself. Um, all right. So, we need a motion to adjourn in memory of Michael Mingi and Sergeant Benjamin Pennington.

So, move. Master Gay. Is there a second? Second. Mister Sleeper. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. or a jack.