Fiscal Court - Regular Meeting

Mr. Pagel, would you lead us in prayer, please?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, another opportunity to come and for Fiscal Court to do county business, Lord, and support staff. We thank you for them and the way they can help our citizens carry out their daily tasks, Lord, and try to keep them safe and work on them when they need help. Lord, we just ask that you be with our 32,000 plus citizens and all the people that travel through and work in our county each and every day and that you heal the ones that are sick and calm the anxieties because, Lord, only you can fill those voids. We just, again, appreciate this opportunity and ask you to bless us. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen. god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay we'll call this marsh county fiscal court special called mating

September 14th, 2026 to order. And our first item, we have some guests here. Mr. Pagel, I'll let you take that.

Okay. So our 4-H art group traveled to Louisville for the state fair, middle of August, 18th through the 21st, and we had nine people compete. We always like to show off our young talent, whatever it is, and we're going to see some here. But they participated at the State Fair and Expo Center in Louisville and displayed their art and came away with some success. Again, nine participated. Five got blue, which means they placed first in their category. Four more got red. Another got white, which if you do the math, that sounds like ten students, but someone more than once. So that's good. So we have one today that's willing to share. results and i'll let her take away this is edie jones she is a junior at the high school also again a 4-h member edie comes well represented i see mom here and dad somewhere yes sir grandma all right aunt and colin's back there colin hi colin so cousin colin are here to support you edie so Share what you did, maybe share what some of the others did, and let us look at some of your work, please.

Hi, my name is Edie Jones, and I'm a junior at Marshall County High School. So I'm a representative of Marshall County 4-H. I'm vice president of sharpshooters, and I'm a reporter for FFA. So today I came to tell you about my opportunity to visit the Kentucky State Fair. This is one of the largest conventions held for agriculture achievements in the state. So first I would like to recognize all of the 4-H members that placed at the state convention. All of these people first had to compete at the county level and place and then be chosen out of all the entries across Kentucky. So the first winners are the blue ribbon winners, so this means like first place. So Zoe Hurley, Edie Jones, Ethan Minahan, Colton Wilson, Mallory Brown. And then some other winners are Evan Brown, Ryan Brown, Mariana Earl, and Vivian Minahan. So for the county or champions that won first place overall, for junior division was Zoe Hurley, and then for the senior division was me. So some of the works I entered you can see right here. This is a charcoal drawing and it was like a still life study of some of the things around my house. So I entered this originally for a different competition, but I ended up entering it too for the state fair. And then my second one right here is a acrylic painting I made in my AP art class. So it was titled girl with the guitar. And then my third one right here, it's a mixed media. And I think it was like, I think it was in the category for like senior trends and things that were going on. So all of these, except for the first one I made in my art class last year, and each of these won first place. So I'd like to thank Marcia County 4-H and Ms. Lena for providing me with these opportunities. Marcia County 4-H is a very active community that represents our county very well and is a great club for anybody that wants to be involved. Congratulations to the 4-H students that represented us today, and thank you guys for letting me talk.

Edie, you've done some other things for this. What are some of your other projects that you've done besides paintings and sketches?

So I make a lot of different things. One of the things last year I did was a sculpture, and it was a horse, and then I entered that for the state fair, and then it went to an auction that it got sold at. And then another thing I've made recently that I showed you, it was a guitar that I made, and I – It was originally painted, and then I had to take off all the paint, and then I stained it, and then we cut and put a license plate on the side of it, and then made the guitar completely. I've made skateboards. I've done a bunch of charcoal drawings and a bunch of different paintings that I've entered. But I've made a lot of different stuff. And then I've also made a couple of mixed media sculptures that I've entered.

Awesome. That tells me a lot about what's going on in your property. This is from your house. I don't know if that's an elf or an urn. I looked at my dad's car.

Whatever you are, Mr. Jones. Do you hunt also?

A little bit. Okay. But I do, for the 4-H and then for the trap team, I do... trap and then I do pistol and archery and a couple of other things. I don't hunt as much as I just shoot for like competition mainly.

Cool. Did you go to state this weekend?

No, I didn't.

You didn't get to go?

No, last year I did, but this year I didn't.

Now, Marty's coached here at 4-H for several, several years. So, you know, he's always been a big support. And he's always, like, the funniest guy there. But he really enjoys working with the kids and does a fantastic job.

Last year for my team, we competed and we got first place team in the state for pistol.

Yep, I remember that. Awesome. Could you teach me how to shoot?

Other than competing, what was your favorite part about the state fair?

So I went for the State Fair with FFA, and then we did a couple of things. So this was my artworks that I entered, but I also competed in, it was called Wildlife, which I had to look at deer skulls and measure the antlers and do a bunch of stuff like that. So that was my competition. But I really like State Fair because there's a bunch of different competitions you can enter. I've done a floral design one where you get to cut and design flowers. I've done The wildlife, there's a bunch of different competitions. And some of our students do really good. There's a bunch of interesting ones, too, like auction competitions and things that you wouldn't be able to expect that are really fun to compete in.

Do you do the flower? Are you the coach for that? Yeah.

That'd be awesome. So if I kill a nice buck this year, you can score it for me? Yeah. All right.

Maybe not too good. I didn't place, but.

As long as it's higher than what it's supposed to be, we'll be on it. We'll be on the high side.

Yeah, I'll be on the high side for Boone and Crockett. Okay. We'd like to get a photo for you later. Okay, Elena Blevins is here somewhere today. Good morning.

Good morning. Thank you.

Good morning.

For having me. We also were at the state fair, so we set up as a region, but it's always... Where's your pictures?

Did you win anything? That's how you did it.

I'm purely as artistic, so I'm mostly there just to talk about our area and promote the area, but it's always fun whenever I see Marshall County kids kind of walking around, so... Just a couple of announcements. This week we are hosting KCVB, the Kentucky Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau. So I'll have about 25, 30 tourism directors from all across the state here in our county this week. to experience our area, and we do training, quarterly training. So I'm looking forward to hosting them this week. We have a couple of events that we sponsored coming up in October this fall, so I just wanted to mention those. So Calvert City River Folk Fest, we sort of help sponsor some of the live music. happening that first weekend in October, as well as the Kentucky Bourbon Regatta. This is a sailboat race that we help sponsor as they continue to try to grow sort of sailboating on Kentucky Lake. We have another BFL, actually two BFLs, so we have a super-regional, that we'll be sponsoring in October. So looking forward to that. It's a multi-day event. And then, of course, the Jetta Marina Championship. And then we actually, we are excited to bring back the PKC World Championship Coon Hunt. So that'll be happening in October as well. So just a few things that we've got sponsored. We're sort of transitioning our marketing messaging into fall. How to extend your weekend or your weekend deserves a better view. So we actually just had an influencer in from Nashville that's going to help us get some content on how to spend your time on Kentucky Lake post Labor Day. So when you can't necessarily get on the water. But mostly what I'm here to talk about today is an online payment portal option. I was here back in the spring, so my board has asked that we look into an online payment portal, or at least an online payment option for some of our property owners. We believe this will help in starting to collect more transient tax, especially from our short-term rentals. And I do, Lake Barkley actually, their tourist commission just implemented an online transient tax and he said within the first two months he had received some transient tax payments from short-term rentals that he didn't even know about. But they had just, they'd seen the article in the paper that they were doing it, oh we didn't know we were supposed to, and then immediately started paying. So we do think that this might help capture some of that. You guys kind of tasked me with trying to find the most affordable route to do this. That was not going to cost everyone a lot of money. And so working with CFSB, they put me in contact with a third party vendor bank card that they work with. And then they put me in contact with another vendor that they work with called Sanat. And so after a couple of calls and kind of going back and forth, From what I understand, Sonat will build us an online payment portal that can be housed on the county's website, on our website. It'll be like a link that they click on and it takes them to, they would do that for free. And then we wanted to primarily focus on ACH option payment, which would be $1.50 per transaction. But for credit cards, which I was just looking, on the link that he gave me to the contract, it's 3%. So for credit card transaction processing, it would be 3%. But when I printed it out, it all says 2.85. So I'm not really sure why that happened. did that. So I think what we discussed was 3% because that was what, from what I can gather, the state of Kentucky the maximum that they can charge. So it would be 3% for Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, ACH or e-check would be $1.50 fee. And then they would not charge us because we will not have any point of sale system. This will all be online. So there will be no fees for, and we won't have any kind of actual physical device to take the payments. And then they do have a minimum batch fee. So if we don't do $4,500 in transactions a month, they will charge the CVB $40. So my board, I went through this with my board at our last board meeting. They were all agreeable to those terms. The fees, the credit card processing fees and the ACH fees would actually be passed through to the property owner. So it would not cost the fiscal court or the CBB. Those fees would just be calculated into their total payment. So they would just pay that additional percentage. So I think, you know, however... The money would continue to go to the account that is set up with the treasurer's office. The process would stay the same. It's just basically this is going to allow us to start capturing those payments online. So, okay.

So, question, because one of my questions was, it says in here MSB whatever will not provide a payment website. Yes.

Which I asked because I read that too and I followed up. And that is why they have put me in touch with Sanat. So Sanat is the vendor that they are working with to build the portal for us.

Okay. But there's no cost for the build out of the portal?

I have asked multiple times and they said there will be no cost to build us that payment.

What they'll do is build it and then give us the link and we put the link on.

on the county's website, it can be on our website, it can be, you know, and then from there. And I told them, and I was very clear, I was like, the thing about transient taxes, I don't invoice them. I don't know how much they're supposed to, you know, it needs to be a form and a portal that allows them to calculate. They type in their gross sales, you know, and I sent them the example from Russell County. And I said, this is essentially what we need it to look like. And they told me on the call that it would not be an issue to build something like that, so. I think I just need to know when it comes to signing the contract and who they want as they start to build the portal and get that all set up, who the primary point of contact needs to be and kind of where you want that information to go. But this is, from the research I have done, the most affordable option I could find.

And then they actually have minimums on there, too, per transaction.

I don't know that anybody would ever hit that. Most of the time, they're doing it a month's leap.

Yes.

It's a monthly.

The monthly minimum was $4,500, which we may not hit.

Well, I'm saying like it's $2 per transaction. Each individual. Per transaction. So I would assume there's not very many that would, I don't know, I don't know. In a $2, that wouldn't be.

Some people, when it comes to convenience, they don't really care what the fee is. They're just like, okay.

Yeah. Okay, so the $40 minimum fee is just only hits if you are less than that $4,500. Yes. It's not a straight up, here's the fee.

Yeah, and I have asked that multiple times just to make sure I'm understanding that correctly. And it's, yes, just a $40 flat fee. I was like, not per transaction if we don't go $4,500. He was like, nope, just a flat fee, $40 if you don't hit that minimum threshold. So I said, okay. Um, so, and it will, you know, if the CVB, what we would do is probably we would budget, um, to, if those fees are incurred, it would come out of our budget, obviously.

What's the length of term on this contract?

Three years.

Three years.

It was a three year, but it had like a 30 day out on each side, I think.

Yeah, I mean, it did seem like if it's not working, we could get out of it. I did ask, I had Jason review the contract. I did forward, he had a couple of EDITS AND SUGGESTIONS SO I HAVE FORWARDED THOSE ON TO COLIN TO SEE IF HE CAN SORT OF ADD THOSE INTO THE CONTRACT AND I DID ASK IF IT WOULD BE BETTER TO DO A SINGLE YEAR JUST IN CASE IF THIS DOESN'T WORK OUT WE'RE ONLY YOU KNOW BUT AND I WOULD BE OKAY WITH THAT AS WELL BUT SO

I kind of like the three-year just because you have the out because then you're locked into that rate at least. Yeah. You got an out that's 30 days. I don't see why it would matter to have a three-year, do you?

That was in there originally, so that was...

That wasn't one of your edits? No. Okay. It was not. I've never seen him not have an edit, by the way.

Never. This could actually increase your revenue, it sounds like, not even from convenience, but new users.

Yes, I do think... especially with short-term rental users, I think we could. And what we would essentially do is as we get the online payment portal, you know, as we get it online and get all the kinks worked out, we would send emails to every property owner that we have an email for, but then we'll do a mass letter, physical letter. We'll probably put a QR code so that they could literally just take a picture of it, take them directly to the site, or include a link in the letter. And we would probably try to do that at the very beginning of the year during tax season so we could say, hey, If you had a short-term rental and you didn't pay your transient tax or if you're unsure if your transient tax was paid, reach out to our office, confirm, and here's an easy way to submit the payment. So I think it's worth trying at least.

Treasurer, any thoughts, concerns, questions?

No, I think that Elena addressed what I would have been concerned with, which is the statute says that the treasurer's office collects the tax. So the tax would still be coming to the same account, which is in the treasurer's office name. We would still do the same transfer that we normally do. As far as information and where it should go, which I think is part of what your question initially was as far as who you wanted the point of contact to be, and I think that means who gets the information coming from it.

Yes, I when I asked them as far as like once they fill out the form and it you know sort of it'll kind of populate a return if you will and so I in Russell County the email can go to multiple email addresses saying hey a transient tax payment has been made. I'm assuming we can do the same thing with this. They didn't act like it would be a problem to have a confirmation email sent and so that way it kind of has a moment of record. But then also in Russell County, there is a place where they can download their return. So if we want to just keep doing it that way, where they have to still fill out the paper return and upload it to the payment portal, but then the actual payment is made and sent to the account that you have. Yeah.

As far as that portion of it, I have no preference either way. As far as what we do now in our office when those returns come in, we review for calculation accuracy, but any contacting for late payments or missing payments, that's done by them. So we don't go after people who have not got their payment in for that month. The Visitors Bureau does that.

You could have both.

Yeah, so really both of us probably need the information. But if for some reason it couldn't come to me, it's not that I'd do much of the reconciliation of that anyway.

So Elena would be doing that.

Which that would all be handled.

Going to her and CC you. Is that what you're saying? I'm fine with that, yes.

And honestly, it wouldn't probably come to me. It would go to my accountant, our bookkeeper at the CBP. She would handle all of this as far as.

So you're thinking we could have this in place first of the year?

I'm hoping, yeah.

Okay.

They didn't act like it would be a long build-out process, and so I think my guess would be within the next three months we could have it up and running and then ready to notify. Okay.

Okay. So is the motion for you to sign? It's not action. There's no action on it.

No, okay. Her board approves it, and Erica says it's okay.

Okay. Okay. Anything else? No, that's all I've got. All right. Thank you. Thank you all. I appreciate it.

Oh, oh, oh. Yes. What about, do we have an answer from DLG yet on our transient tax being added to? Just curious. Being added to the standing order?

That came back, and that was allowed to be added. And I don't know that I've actually told you that, but we added that line that when we record those transfers to you, it's recorded as an expense, the same as a check. So we added that to our standing orders, which are things that we write checks for that do not have to go through court, but the court does get copied on them, and that was allowed to be approved. So we will not have to wait for court to do a transfer, but they will still get the information, but we can transfer immediately.

okay okay thank you okay all right wonderful appreciate it thank you thank you

Okay.

Next up, we had a little technical difficulty last time.

Brian Harper, Parks Director, is back. He's going to talk to us about a few things. Mr. Pagel's got some photos. There's been a lot going on at the park. The road department's been out there with them doing a lot of work, and we've been doing a lot of improvement. So, Brian, I'll turn this over to you to talk about what he's got on the screen and anything else you want to discuss. Okay.

So, uh, several things have been going on this summer at the park. Uh, what you're seeing there, that is on field five of the, uh, on the baseball fields, we redid all the, uh, scoreboards, uh, painting them green at the black at the top. And then I think the next picture will show you then the finished product, which it will show shows Mike Miller park in the field number and just an update, just, uh, and we've already gotten compliments on a couple of tournaments. that have been out there, and it really pops at night with a green and white when the lights come on. So the lights are red, so it really sticks out in the evening.

You literally couldn't read them before, hardly. That was really needing attention.

Yeah, you weren't for sure where the balls and strikes were. It's clear you can see them now. Neither is the umpire, so don't worry about it. So, yeah, it was a really good project that we were able to get accomplished.

Next, I think there is the grand opening.

And all this has been on social media, these pictures. But we had the grand opening. And I think most of you were there, on the board there. And it was a great day. We had Murray State there over the first day. Of course, Judge there with the ribbon cutting. And one thing that you can see there, and you'll see it in some of the other pictures, back in the spring, our athletes They were wanting jerseys. They had had t-shirts in the past. And so with their registration for this fall, of course, they give us their shirt size. And we let them choose their number. So there are a couple of teams that have duplicate numbers. That's the number you want. That's the number you're going to get. And so that was a big hit whenever they received their jerseys. And so we've got nothing but compliments on the looks of those. It still has the original color, but we did some things there, and it's been great. And next project, again, has to do with the fencing and things that have been going on. And you can see that what we have there, if you go back one there, Andy, on the fencing. So we were pushing to get the fencing up before the opening day. The judge helped out with that, the road department. It was a team effort to get everything ready for that grand opening. But for safety reasons, we definitely felt like fencing was needed. And again, we've got nothing but compliments on the looks of it as well. And so we're excited to how that looks. Of course, you can see the awning there with the picnic tables underneath it, which the last couple of Saturdays have been really warm. So they have been very popular. to be able to sit under, especially some of our elderly and those who have, heat's an issue. And I'll get to that here in a minute, where the heat this week is becoming an issue already. But you can see we've had, there was a birthday party out there yesterday at the playground. And so it is being utilized even with this heat as it is. That's the most popular thing so far. Our athletes, and not just athletes, but anyone who visits, it's in a wheelchair. It's able to spin around, and it's just been a very popular piece of equipment so far that our families like to take advantage of. For sensory issues, we have visitors who have sensory issues, and these are pieces of equipment with a sound that they're able to utilize as well. Of course, like I mentioned before, we had Murray State there. That's the women's basketball team. And then, of course, we had the baseball team, and that's a group shot of all our athletes and the Murray State athletes as well. We had a cheerleader show up, and they were a great asset to some of our athletes who like to be cheerleaders. And so it was a great day.

Or like to hang out with cheerleaders, one of the two, right? A couple of them. Some of the guys.

Some of our athletes do like to hang out with the cheerleaders. Yes, that has occurred. And he was very disappointed that they were not here this past week. They had a football game, and I explained to him that. And he knew that. On deck, which really what's coming next, of course you can see that's a rendering of the concession stands slash restrooms. They're over on the left-hand side. Of course, you're looking at the entrance and on third base side. But that's a central location of where that will be once we start that project, which we hope to get underway fairly soon, especially with the grant that is in the process of going through the paperwork. We're going through the next step of getting that signed off on. And as soon as we get those funds, We should be able to move forward, working with the judge on that. You may have something to say.

Yeah, we're waiting on the next phase of paperwork from the PAT office. They've handled that grant for us, and Corey checked. this morning to see if they had it in yet, and they've not received it yet. So as soon as we get it, we'll run that through court. And I really anticipate things like this move kind of slow. So I'm hoping early, early spring or late winter we can be breaking ground on this, if not before.

Another thing.

about that. Been working with the road department, looking at grade and stuff on going ahead and possibly getting water and sewer run back there to that. So we are working on it as we speak on the things that we can.

And we do have funding for the retaining lot for the additional parking. Parking has been an issue, will continue to be. But not only do we have parking issues this past Saturday with Miracle League, but we had several teams that went down to the bottom of the hill with soccer. We had three states there, away from Indianapolis, I believe, was one of the teams. We just had a busy day on Saturday as well, but that's where we are. I do want to thank Roy and the road department for their efforts, not only with helping with Miracle League, but we've done some things with the soccer field, with drainage, and a We've been able to utilize our resources, which saves the county a tremendous amount of money just because of the talents of the road department, which leads into what last week the road department was helping with the trails, being able to do some patching with some paving there, and we've already gotten compliments on that, Roy, as far as that work from people walking this weekend. I had a couple people stop by this morning saying the trails look so much better, and so it's just good to hear from our residents who are noticing that those changes are occurring. I believe that's it. Got anything else? I think I did mention last time, it is a record. We have 71 athletes from three states. I believe I mentioned that before. But, you know, when you have visitors, just like this past weekend with people from Indiana, they were saying how nice the park looks. So whenever you get those people from out of town, we know what it looks like. But whenever you're able to see others come in and then they spread the word, that's good for tourism. That's good for our county, and it's just a good thing that's going on.

I know you all have already started working on Boo Bash, so you want to talk about that a minute?

Yeah, so we're working on sponsorships right now. That's going to be on October 24th. Last year, that was our largest day as far as visitors to the park. And we have inflatables. We're going to have a fun run. We're working with the hospital on the fun run in the morning. I think we're going to do it at 930. And we've reached out to all the elementary schools who have running clubs, trying to get them to register for that. We're partnering with the high school. They're helping with the design of the T-shirt. The business departments are doing the design for us. They're going to give us three for us to choose from. So we're looking at those avenues as well to partner with other organizations to get that.

One more, movie nights.

Movie nights. We do have a movie scheduled. I'm glad you brought that up because that was the heat. We do have a movie scheduled for this Wednesday night, which we have reached out to the youth groups and some pastors, and I believe even maybe some of you are helping us. But looking at the heat, I asked Bree to call Lake Kim to see. Do we want to continue with Wednesday night because at 6.30 it's still supposed to be 93 degrees? We also have that issue maybe for next Saturday. It's unusual heat for this time of year. On the way here, I understand that this was the latest for a year to have a heat advisory. So we're having to be mindful of that in the park of some of our activity this week. Judge, I'll get with you later on today about that. some of those just from a safety standpoint from the park as well. Make sure the water coolers are full of water, you know, with our people who are walking even early in the morning. But this week is going to be a challenge just with the way the heat advisory is coming in.

I think we'll have options going forward. I know we will. If we can get everything together on it, I definitely want to light the field up there. So we can look at some nighttime games there, American League during the summer for sure.

That's definitely a goal. I do believe that's something that would be beneficial to our athletes and families. I know Monty was there Saturday. He's a coach. But it was in the 80s on this past Saturday, but it rained Friday night. And for some reason, I mean, it just felt like a sauna. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I mean, and that's what a sauna does. I was glad to have the 930 game. Yeah, I mean, by – yeah, you had the early ones. Yeah. Yeah, but by 11 – It just felt like that heat was coming out of the surface. And so it's something we need to be mindful of.

The only thing I would say is if for some reason you feel like it's a safety issue and we don't need to have it Saturday, I would just say reschedule. I don't want to cancel. We've had two. I want them to have two more games. So that's all I would say.

I've had someone, this is something you'll be looking into. I've had someone reach out with interest in sponsoring sunshades for the bleachers. So we're going to be getting price on that and see what we're looking at there. But I really feel like they're going to probably do that. So that'll help out for those attending. Yeah, that'd be good.

Because we do have a lot of like grandparents and things who attend. And like I said, the last two Saturdays have been hot. Yeah. Okay. All right.

Thank you. Thanks, Brian.

Thank you, Brian.

Okay. Next we have some gentlemen here from blood river Baptist association, disaster relief.

Thank you, judge. I'm Mark sickling director of missions for blood river Baptist association. I have with me Larry Doty, our disaster relief director for our association. We represent not only Blood River Baptist Association, but the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the 2,500 some churches of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. We have a local unit of disaster relief trained volunteers that are available to help residents in our county, and we've been busy over the last month or two doing quite a bit of chainsaw work, not only here in Marshall County, but also helping our neighbors in Graves County do some trees. Larry told me this morning he had another call this morning to help out with one of our residents who has a downed tree, so we're busy doing that kind of thing. But we're coming today basically to let you know that we are available to assist our residents and our county when called upon. We do have trained volunteers that work the equipment. We have a chainsaw unit with different sized chainsaws, the equipment that goes with it, the chaps, the helmets, ropes, chains, all of that kind of thing, along with a Kubota tractor with a grapple. that takes a lot of the manpower out of dragging brush. So that has been a big addition to our unit that we included this past year. We also have a flood recovery unit. If there's a flood in eastern Kentucky or even in Mayfield a few years ago, we took our unit over there and did mud out. and cleaned out the homes so that the residents can go back in safely. We also have a mobile laundry unit that can be set up, and those who have been through disaster can come and have their laundry done and sent back with clean clothes. We also have a mobile shower unit housed at Blood River Baptist Association. Does it have three stalls? Four shower stalls? And also a laundry section in it. So those are available to you or to our residents if need be. The Kentucky Baptist Convention has some 2,500 trained volunteers, as I mentioned. They have additional equipment, additional units throughout the state. including several mobile kitchens that are available to us if we need that in our area. In fact, we had one stationed here in the Benton area until just recently, but it was costing too much to store that unit. So if the county happens to have an empty storage facility, we can get a mobile kitchen that can feed 10 to 15,000 people a day We just don't have the resources to store that here. So it's moved back to central Kentucky, Stanford, Kentucky, right now. Any questions about disaster relief and how we can assist our county?

Of course, they can always reach out to the fiscal court. But what's the best way, if somebody's watching, to reach out to you if they need assistance?

They can contact Blood River Baptist Association at the phone number 270-437-4203 or by email bloodriver at bloodriverassoc.org That's bloodriver, all one word, at BloodriverASSOC.org.

How big is the trailer you need storage for?

The trailer is 20 foot long. 20 foot long. It's a kitchen trailer. It's called the Sunshine Trailer. And it's about 20 foot, 22 foot long. Yeah.

You mentioned, uh, trained and I know this from seeing, um, several, uh, announcements out there, but also if someone's out there watching and wants to volunteer, you do have to go through a training.

Yes. And those are offered past weekend. It was offered, uh, in Shelbyville. There's four different trainings throughout the year. Um, the Western Kentucky one was in Madisonville earlier in the spring. I think there's one more in October in eastern Kentucky. And the training is minimal, but it's enough that you can't just go in and run a chainsaw without some training. I know many of our men throughout the county think they know how to run a chainsaw and do, but we want to make sure they know how to do it safely.

Y'all want to go ahead and make the joke now?

Yeah.

I was waiting on Commissioner Barrett. I know you're thinking it. That I would be one of those, Brother Mark. But you don't think you know how, though, right? No, no. I don't even think I know how, so that's a good point. You've got to have work boots, too, right? I've got that. Don't you worry about it.

Okay.

I want to see them.

Penny loafers don't count.

No, no, no. I got them.

I got them. We are not licensed and bonded, but we are volunteers. We don't charge a penny to do any of the work that we do.

We certainly appreciate all you all do, and thank you for coming in today and sharing that with us. Hopefully, we don't need it here, but it's great to know you're here for us.

Yes. And we need to follow up sometime on the discussion we had about the long-term recovery because I don't think we've – we probably hadn't had time to follow up since.

I also serve as your Marshall County Long-Term Recovery Group Chairman. And we're still somewhat active. We meet once or twice a year. And we are currently looking at providing some weather radios for some of our county residents. So we'll get back in touch with you at that point.

Can I mention one thing? Is there a word? We operate off the donations. That's all. We're not budgeted by nobody. We work off the donations. And sometimes, you know, for fuel and gas and oil and stuff like that. So we appreciate any donations we can get. We get donations from our churches, from the Blood River Association, but not all of them.

And you have an individual local. fund. Yes. To where it can just, this is in Blood River disaster. Correct.

Blood River has an old fund for their disaster relief unit. Okay. Yes. And budget.

That's good. Okay.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for coming. Appreciate y'all. Good to see you. Call for a short recess. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Okay. I'm going to call the meeting back to order. Our next guest is Tammy Blackwell with Marsh County Library.

Hi, before I talk about the library, Edie mentioned that Zoe received ribbons in art. Zoe Hurley also received best in show for her entomology project. So if you would like to see 31 photos of bugs that are correctly identified, I have them on my phone. So I know you guys are really interested in the bugs. But I have a paper. Is there anybody who wants a paper with the statistics that doesn't have it? Okay. I'm not going to go over all of those, but in the fiscal year 25, we were one of the top used public libraries in the state of Kentucky. With these numbers, I do not anticipate that changing at all. We are very well used. We had a great summer reading program. Thank you to Eddie's daughter for helping us out with that some this summer. Project-wise, we finished up the... Family Destination Project at Hardin last year, that has gone very, very well. We have lots of families using that. Our outdoor classroom has been completed at Benton. Last month we also opened, had a ribbon cutting on our patio area that's there on 12th Street at the Benton branch between the building and that little half wall. We've got really comfortable seating and three big raised garden beds and we're going to do programming with the master gardeners in that area. Hopefully one day it will be cool enough that we can go out there and sit. Not quite there yet. Last month we also launched a new service that I'm very proud to say we are one of the first libraries in the nation to offer unlimited streaming service to our patrons. The streaming service is called PureFlix. It is all family value based programming. About 40% of it is faith based. The other 60% think like Hallmark Channel, also some old shows like Bonanza and stuff like that and then a lot of children's programming based on children's book series. So they launched last month and we launched the exact same day and this is the first streaming service that has been available to public libraries and we're excited that we were able to get in on the ground floor of that. And then what we are working on right now is a bookmobile. Last year our bookmobile lent a little over 9,000 items. It would have been more if it hadn't been in the shop quite so much. It is a 2014 model. and the last couple of years we have lost a lot of on the road days. We tried to go about it the normal way and got some quotes from bookmobile companies and what we needed was going to cost at least $300,000 and our board decided that that was not really something that we could swing. Luckily, we do have Wes Smith on our staff, and he can do anything. So we're building it ourselves, which means we get to use local businesses for that. Our friends at Bitten Ford tell us that the van is going into production this week. So hopefully we will have that on our property in a couple of weeks and then have it on the road by the end of the year, which we're really excited about. This is going to be able to, we mostly see children or elderly with the bookmobile, which is of course two very different collections. The way this bookmobile will be built is we will be able to change out the shelving inside. So when she goes to visit our senior centers and retirement homes, she can pull on the shelves that have the large print books. And then when she's going to the schools and the preschools and the daycares, she pulls on the picture books so that they have a larger collection to look at once they get on the bookmobile. And as for our tax rate, we are taking the compensating rate. So we went from 7.8 last year to 7.5 this year. And that is what I have. Okay.

Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for Tammy? Okay.

I just want to say I'm glad to see we have both the Parks Department and the library here in the same day because it's, you know, we just had this discussion offline, that there are You know, some things that that we all pay for that we don't necessarily each one of us use. But that does not mean that it's not important to the community by any means. So quality of life is key when it comes to we all want to talk about economic development and all that. But I mean, quality of life is something that helps with that as well. You know, people when they're moving here are looking for stuff like that. So I appreciate the work that you guys do to help that. So thank you.

We put a lot of focus on our seniors. Right now, if you were over at Benton, they're getting ready to do chair yoga. We do lots of senior programming because we know that loneliness is a really big deal for those over 60. And so we want to make sure that they have that opportunity. to be with other people.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, Mr. Pagel. August personnel changes. Excuse me.

How's that, Ms. Denise? Okay. August 2026 personnel changes. Evan Timmons, SRO, effective 8-1-26 at 30-39 an hour. Nathan Maxlow, full-time to part-time, effective 8-1-26. Bradley Travis, wage increase to $26.56 an hour, effective $8.126. Shannon Morrison, wage increase to $29 an hour, effective $8.126. Daniel Jamison, wage increase to $25.33 an hour, effective $8.126. Ricky Castleberry, wage increase to $28.63 an hour, effective $8.1726. Jacob Denfit, termed $8.1726. Jared Dixon, road department, effective $8.1726 at $23.79 an hour. Amanda Harrington, termed $8.1226. Chad Ford, termed $8.1226. Trista Leavitt, wage increase to $25 an hour, effective $8.1526. Doug Runkle, wage change to $23.12 an hour, effective $8.1526. 816-26 and congratulations to Joy Jackson, retired 831-26. That's all I have.

Okay, thank you. Next item, I just wanted to announce we have an application process in place for opioid grant funding and you can go on our website, marshallcountyky.gov to apply. At the top, how do I? under Ply 4 and Marsh County Opioid Settlement Grant. Fill out the required fields and upload the supporting documents. If anyone watching needs assistance with this, please call our office. We'll be happy to walk you through that. 527-4750. We're going to be advertising this also to get the word out there on this. So hopefully we can make good use out of this money. I need a motion to approve the minutes of the September 1st meeting. So moved. Second. Motion and second. Any discussion on that? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. uh surplus we have uh need a motion to surplus a six foot by 32 foot tank car uh by seal bids you want to talk to us about that a second yeah it's a it's a culvert we pulled out of the ground that we would no longer need but it's in good shape to use on the farm or somewhere Okay. Do I have a motion to surplus the tank car? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We are getting new tables and chairs for the park, the visitor center up there, and need a motion to surplus the existing ones on gub deals. So moved. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Underground's policies just need a motion to approve the signs at the park pertaining to Boobash. There will be a lot of them, advertising and sponsors, et cetera. I'll move. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Board appointments. Need a motion to reappoint Paula Robinson to the Marshall County Library Board, term to expire October 2030. So moved. Second. Motion to second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Need a motion to reappoint Lisa Seals to the Marshall County Library Board, term to expire November 2030.

So moved.

Second. Motion to second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Need a motion to appoint Gary Wiggins to the nuisance board to fill the vacated position of Larry Ball, term to expire 4-30-27. So moved. Second. Motion and second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Let's see here. CDBG grant documents. relating to the senior center grant project. I need a motion to sign all documents related to that. So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Motion second. Any discussion?

Did you read every single word of all 17 or 18 of those?

Jason did.

OK. That works for me.

I'll never question Jason.

I want to wait a minute. Okay, go ahead, sir.

Even though you have, Commissioner.

I know. It's okay to be wrong.

Sometimes. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. The next item, we've not received all that yet. It was the grant documents for the Miracle League concession restroom, so... We'll table that one. Next item, the Benefit Service Advisory Agreement with Hub International. Need a motion to approve and sign?

Move we approve and allow you to sign.

Second. Motion to second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Audit letter. Need a motion to accept and sign Erica's audit engagement letter.

Is it on there? I don't think it's on there. we have to use outside, right?

Yes, we get to use outside again this year, and we have already chosen to go with Tammy Patrick and Associates. I believe we voted on that a couple months ago, but I'm not 100% sure. But yes, and their quote is very similar to what they quoted for 2025, and they are the ones currently doing 2025.

Do you all need a minute to look at that?

Okay, I move we approve.

Second?

Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Ordinance 20-2608, budget amendment, first reading. Eric and?

An ordinance relating to the annual budget and amendment thereof, whereas the County of Marshall has received additional funds, now be it ordained by the Fiscal Court of Marshall County that Section 1, the annual budget for fiscal year 2026-2027, is amended to increase the following revenue accounts. Share fund federal grants, $20,000. Share fund state grants, $12,750. E911 fund insurance proceeds, $13,443.75. Road fund grants, $100,000. Road fund insurance proceeds, $23,943. General fund state grants, $9,154. General fund insurance proceeds, $57,368.18 for a total increase of revenue accounts of $236,658.93. B, increase the following expenditure accounts. Sheriff grant equipment, $20,000. Sheriff grant equipment, $12,750. Communication, maintenance, and repair, $13,443.75. Paving, $100,000. Equipment for the road fund, $23,943.00. Rescue Squad Grant Equipment, $9,154. General Fund Reserve, $57,368.18. Per total increase of expenditure accounts of $236,658.93. Section 2, the amounts added to the revenue and expenditure accounts in Section 1 are for governmental purposes. Approved by the Marshall County Fiscal Court the 14th day of September 2026.

Okay, that's just our first reading. Not any action required on that. From that into tax rates.

Okay, so on tax rates, the fiscal court gets to have the final say in tax rates for all of our taxing districts other than the fire department districts. So those districts are the health department, the hospital, the library, the refuse, the extension district, and the soil conservation district. All of those districts have provided their tax rates and their calculations. Whenever I request those, I do request that the tax districts request their rate calculations to the state of Kentucky, and so they do provide us with some tax rate calculations. The fiscal court can then choose to do three things. The first is outright approve each district or fail to act on each district in which that allows the rates that they pass to move forward. in effect, the same outcome as approving them. The second option is to approve a rate that is less than their proposed rate but greater than the compensating rate. That's not a factor here since they all chose the compensating rate. And the third is to disapprove the rate outright, which then goes back to the taxing district, and they can set a rate that's no higher than the compensating rate. And I don't know that that one is necessary. So really where you are at here with them all choosing the compensating rate is that you can choose to go through and approve each of them individually. You can fail to act and just approve our tax rate order, which in effect does the same thing and approves it where they're set. So it's at your pleasure whether you would like to go through and individually approve them or not.

Does anybody have any desire to do these individually? If not, I need a motion to pass the order based on these being compensating rate for all districts other than the fire departments, which we have no control over. The reason I worded that that way in the event one of these was not calculated correctly to be compensating a rate, then we have covered ourselves on our end.

And Jason would like me to read it out, the order, if that's okay. It'll just take a second. It'll be lots of numbers, but just a second. Okay, an order relating to the adoption of the 2026 Marshall County tax rates, whereas the Kentucky State Revenue Cabinet has certified the Marshall County property assessment as real estate, $3,108,153,968. Tangible personal property, $325,370,270. Public service companies, $147,470,902. Motor vehicles, 396,890,294. Watercraft, 51,156,700. Aircraft, 414,000. Watercraft, 1,220,895. Inventory and transit, 109,013,797. Therefore, it is ordained by the Fiscal Court of Marshall County, Kentucky, Section 1, in accordance with KRS 68.245 through 68.249, There is levied for the year 2026 the general ad valorem tax per $100 assessed valuation on all taxable property within the jurisdiction for the general fund and such additional tax rates for each special district or other fund as indicated. General fund real estate 7.1, tangible 7.8. Health, 5.7 on real, 7.21 on tangible. Hospital, 3.2 on real, 4.32 on tangible. Library, 7.5 on real, 9.66 on tangible. Refuse, 6.457 on real, 8.0148 on tangible. Extension, 1.6 on real, 2.12 on tangible. Soil conservation, 6 tenths on real. Gilbertsville, 8.5 real, 8.5 tangible. East Marshall, 9.4 on both. Possum Trot Sharp, 7.5 on both. Brinesburg Palma, 10 on both. West Marshall Fire, 8.25 on both. Fair Dilling Olive, 10 on both. South Marshall Fire, 9.5 on both. Section 2, in accordance with KRS 132.487, there is levied for the year 2026 a tax rate of 11.2 cents per $100 of the taxable value of motor vehicles and watercrafts registered in Marshall County. Section 3, in accordance with KRS 136.575, there is levied for the year 2026 a tax rate of 25 thousandths of 1% on bank deposits held by all financial institutions within the County of Marshall. Section 4, this order shall be published in the Tribune Courier newspaper by title and summary within 30 days following the adoption. Section 5, this order becomes effective upon passage in publication. Order passed on this the 14th day of September 2026.

Thank you, Erica. Okay, I'll back up on this motion. Do I have a motion to pass the order based on all of those being compensating rate other than the fire departments that we don't have any control over.

So moved.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? I do want to add one thing. Well, let's vote on it before I add this.

want to vote on it before you do that i mean i i just think it's important just because we have offline discussion there um and i know we probably discuss this uh often and it's a it's a big topic out there of certain groups whether it's senior citizens or veterans or first responders if you go back and look there were like i said probably 20 different bills in this particular state legislature, and none of them passed. So it's absolutely on the state legislature if they want to do something like that to increase the, what am I thinking of, the $49,000, the homestead exemption, or if they want to do something like that. That is fully in their purview, not the county fiscal courts. So correct on that. Yeah. But I would say this, too. Any group that you do that to, then it will affect everyone else that is not in that group too. So it's a very difficult position for the state legislators to be in as well, because first time home buyers, young folks are going to say, well, what about us? We're having a hard time. Finding homes and being able to pay and all that so I think it's a it's an interesting Discussion to have not here. I guess evidently based on the way y'all are looking at me, but Okay ready to vote I guess

All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Now that the vote has passed, I just wanted to point out, gentlemen, since we've been in office this term, that makes a total of 14.6% that we have cut the tax rate. And on behalf of the county, I certainly appreciate that, and I know those paying the taxes do as well. Okay. Need a... Let me back up, about to get ahead of myself here. Appropriation transfers?

Okay, I'll start with the appropriation, and I do have some bank transfers as well. There are really essentially only a couple of transfers on here, although the list looks long. One is to up front our sheriff's rifle grant costs, and then once that money comes in, it will be amended in, and we'll put it back where we – I took it to up-front that grant, and then the other is a departmental transfer for the road.

Okay. We approve the appropriation transfer.

Second. Motion, second, any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries.

On our bank transfers, I have three transfers for budgeted subsidies for the jail fund, E911, and the general fund sheriff's fund within the general fund.

We approve the bank transfers.

Second. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Need a motion to pay the bills? Pay the bills. Second. Second. Any discussion on the bills? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We have no executive session. Just need a motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second. All those in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries.