Fiscal Court - Regular Meeting

Okay, Jason, would you pray for us, please? Dear Lord, we thank you for another day that you've given us. Even though it's hot outside, we thank you for the air conditioner and just ask that you would be with all those who are affected by the heat outside working and take care of all those folks in our area. And we ask that everybody would pause today and think about September 1, 1939 and the years that followed and the men and women who saved the world during that time period. And just ask that you would forgive us where we failed you so many times. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

amen you would stand with me for the pledge please pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible Okay, we'll call this Marshall County Fiscal Court, September 1st, 2026. Meeting to order. Our first guest is Brian Black with the Transportation Cabinet. Good morning.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Like the judge said, my name's Brian Black. I'm with the Highway Department. Most of you probably know me. Mike Oliver retired last year, so I took over his position there at the Murray Section Office. Just like he did every year, we come here. We present our rule of recommendations. I think I passed out some of these. If someone didn't get one that needs one, let me know. Everybody got one that needs one? Like I said, we come here every year to talk about our rule recommendation, our budget. Most of you probably do know that numbers are quite a bit down from last year. We're seeing that across the board. Marshall County, we're seeing it statewide. With all our other budgets, normally we do quite a bit of paving. Probably the only paving you all have seen here in Marshall County this year was 68 there in Aurora. We're trying to get some more projects coming through. But like I said, we're seeing that everywhere. But just for rural roads, this year our budget allowed is going to be $1,139,838. Next line there is from last year. We overspent roughly $101,000, so that comes off the top. And then the first thing that usually comes out is maintaining the rural roads. There's 130 miles in Marshall County, roughly $3,100 per mile for us to maintain that, and that comes out to be about $402,000. With the remaining money of $636,000, that's what we have to improve paving other activities that I have listed here. This year, Marshall County does qualify for 25% of that for the flex funds again this year, and that will come out to be $284,960. The first road we looked at to pave this year will be Kentucky 1824 Murray Highway from the Callaway County line to Hardin four-way stop. That's going to be roughly 1.25 miles at a cost of $170,664. The other road we found was Kentucky 1422 Tatumsville Road. It's going to be roughly 6 tenths of a mile starting At the 4.1 is 850 feet west of Country Lane County Road, extending east to the 4.8. That's about 925 feet east of Brinesburg-Taylorville Road. Like I said, 6 tenths of a mile, and that's going to be a cost of about $85,000. And then remaining balance was going to be about $92,000. I know we have some crawl strains that we've replaced. We try to patch over them, pave over them, some pipe replacements that we put in. I know in 1949, down there at the tunnel, it got washed out. So we're going to try to pave over that again. I got some complaints on the bridge ends on Vanzor. So we're going to work on that one also. Like I said, I know we have some crawl strains and other things like that. But at the end, we'll pay roughly a little less than two miles at a cost of $255,934. And like I said, the remaining, we'll do some patching and pipe replacements with the remaining money. Questions, comments, or?

That's on Denise. Get on to me. Question on Nanny Neal. That was used for the detour during the bridge replacement. Is there any discussion on the state helping with repaving of that? It took quite a beating.

I mean, I know last year when we discussed it, I talked to Kyle, which I don't know if y'all heard, you know, yesterday was Kyle's last day. So I'll have a conversation with Jason. I mean, I'll say we'll take a look at it. I know I've done some shoulder work, things like that, you know, when all that was going on. I mean, we, of course, take a look at it.

Okay.

Thank you. Anything needs to be done to it.

Okay. Appreciate it. Is anybody having questions? Okay. We appreciate you coming out. Thank you all. Appreciate all you're doing. Thank you.

Thank you, Brian.

Next up, Brian Harper. We had a good... slide presentation but we're having some technical difficulties and it's pretty serious if our staff couldn't get it going I'm just telling you so Brian if you'll come on up we'll get you to come back the next meeting and we've got a lot of great great photos but we can have some discussion since you're already here about what all is going on at the park sure so of course last Saturday was the grand opening of the playground and

our fall league, and we have 71 athletes this fall from three states, Kentucky, Illinois, and Tennessee, and 10 counties. So we're really excited about the volunteers that are helping out. Not all of them are from Marshall County, so I think that's good because it is western Kentucky. Actually, the Homer and some of our buddies this past week were from Callaway County. Of course, we had Murray State baseball team and the women's basketball team. And each of those squads have a local. And the cheerleaders. And cheerleaders that came yesterday. That was pretty exciting as well. But it was neat to see some of those athletes are local as well. And, of course, Rochelle being from Marshall County, I think it was great. that she was able to come and participate. We also had a slide to show you. We've also upgraded our scoreboards on the baseball field, so those have been refinished. Didn't have that on there, but we had our second movie night, which we had over 60 people there for that night, and we partnered with Lake Kim and did some advertising and voting, and I think that really helped on getting people out so they had input on the movie that was selected. So, uh, Our next one is coming up on September 15th. I think that's a Wednesday night. We're going to reach out to some of our youth groups to see if they would come as well. So that's kind of what's going on. And, of course, I think I may mention here later on the grant for the concession stand. We had a picture of that to show you guys. But we had that there Saturday of what that will look like coming up. And I'm sure you'll be getting updates as we move forward with that project.

Yeah, we've got a lot of great photos. We'll have that working before the next meeting. I want to thank Brian, all the park staff. We were all working feverishly to get that playground so we could open it. I know they finished the fencing about noon on Friday, the day before. All the park staff has worked very hard up there, the maintenance staff, road department. It's been a total group effort. Appreciate everyone's hard work. Playground turned out awesome. Fencing looks great. We've still got work to do, but we're working on that as we speak. We're going to put a retaining wall down the side to add about an additional 20 parking spots we wouldn't have otherwise. So still some work to do, but we announced the other day Land Water Conservation Fund grant of half a million dollars. We finally got that signed. So once something like that's signed, I'm not sure. It could take another three months, six months. I'm not sure, but the contract is signed. So that makes me very happy. I hope at the worst case scenario, we're breaking ground on that late winter or early spring. So we're already starting to move forward on some things toward that. met with Roy yesterday. He's got blueprints of the parking lot and drain lines and all that, so we're already starting to look and see about getting the sewer line over there, water line over there, getting some of that stuff, trying to get ahead of the curve on that. Brian, we got some more things that we got budgeted for you to do this year. I know we put in water bottle filling stations out there. basketball, soccer nets. We've got in there painting going on in the, not right now, but going to happen at the visitor center and concession stand. So, and some lighting, another one of the fields to be lit. So, a lot going on out there. You know, when something passes 20 years in age, there's a lot of lot of maintenance requirements but we're trying to stay on top of it and stay ahead of it as well as everything we're doing up at the Miracle League for that so couldn't have been more excited to see the turnout the other day and look forward to to the future with that but is there anything else you want to add or any well we had several of the parents and families comment of just the playground of having a place to go and we even witnessed that we were seven

some of the athletes were worthy of wanting to play on the playground versus come play in the game.

That was a good problem.

I know that the judge saw a family who was using one of the merry-go-rounds, and she's in a wheelchair, so she was able to roll on and just something that she wouldn't have been able to do before Saturday.

I think Josh from Miracle League Playgrounds told me maybe that we're the only ones with ramps, maybe the ramp from here to Owensboro maybe, something like that. That's correct. I think so. That's awesome. So when are we going to – I mean, I know we have – do you have an entrance – through the park that is available, or are we waiting until after the season to open that up?

No, actually it was open on Sunday, and we had some people up there yesterday. We are opening the entrance whenever you turn into the park versus Office 68 at this point. Yeah. And it's open until dusk because we don't have any lighting up there.

Okay.

So just from a safety standpoint, we don't need anybody. Okay.

I didn't pull in. I just saw that you couldn't get off 68, and I was just making sure. Okay. All right. Yep.

That's another thing we're starting to work on also, lighting up there. So I just want to say on that whole project, you know, the phase two on that – as it was initially laid out, was for the concession stand restroom facility. Because we had applied for the grant, and I assumed it would take place fairly soon. After talking to the judges throughout Kentucky that have applied for a LWCF grant, they all assured me it would be two years. And it was nearly two years to the date. So thank you all, commissioners, for agreeing unanimously to go forward and put the playground up front as phase two. So we were able to do that. Mainly with the money raised from Miracle Gala and those donating. Recently, TVA gave us a $25,000 contribution toward that. We thank them for that. That was huge. With businesses and individuals helping with this thing, it's made a huge difference in the time frame we're able to do it. But thank you all for agreeing to go ahead and do that. I think the community's excitement certainly showed on Saturday.

And the playing surfaces out there, I'm out there several times a week. The soccer fields and the baseball fields had a lot of comments about just the general maintenance for those. Thank you. I'll pass that along to the staff.

Okay.

Anything else?

Okay. We'll get you to come back when we got all those photos. We have some really good photos. Thanks, Brian. Mr. Ed Jones, come up and talk to us, sir. All right.

I had talked with the judge about this a little bit earlier, and he says, well, let's come by and speak with the fiscal court. And I'm pleased to be able to come before such a distinguished group and talk about things that's real dear to me. This is basketball. Basketball is easy to get conversations going anywhere in West Kentucky. So we've considered the fact that if we can save the basketball history, not only in Marshall County, but in West Kentucky, that's the idea that we have in mind doing it. It's called the West Kentucky High School Basketball Heritage Museum. At the present time, we don't have the facility, which the school board has said, once they get some place for the archery team, we'll be in that gym up there. And that'll be a place that we will display all of the artifacts. And people have been trying to give me a lot of them now. And I said, no, I don't have a secure building to put that in. So you hold on to them for a little bit. And I don't know when that'll happen, but we're patient. We're doing the things that we would probably do at this time anyway. I have about 25 or so coaches that we've sat down and did a video interview here on our website. We also have on our website a guy down in Carlisle County. that is putting the archives from the Paducah Sun, where they used to write a story about a game and then have a box score down at the bottom with names and numbers, and he's put many, many of those on there, just developing the interest. We have also, I have found that we could put these things in some pretty good places, but how you gonna keep the lights going? and so forth. So that was a problem that we dealt with and that's why we need the gym. We need the gym because people like to play basketball and people pay to see them play basketball. And that will give us some revenue to keep this thing going. We're in 13 counties. That's all of the first region here, Jackson Purchase and Livingston Line, Trigg, Caldwell, and Crittenden are all a part of this. We've got people in all those counties that's a part of us. We're a 501 board. And they're out there working for a lot of things. So that's pretty much what we've got in mind as far as developing a museum. We hope to make it such a thing that kids will come for field days or whatever up there. We're going to do several things in that gym once we get started to have displays and interest. I think it's going to be a pretty good thing for Benton and Marshall County. Everyone that I've talked with in all those other counties has said this is the right place to have it. Your center location. You know we in in effect. We got five state championships in this county already so that is Pretty good for us now the thing I've come today Of course you know we're like everybody else. We're always looking for some sponsors and so forth, but we have a musical concert that's going on the 29th of this month and It will be at the Shadow and Fine Arts Center out there. This is DJ on stage. Ronnie McWatters is going to sing with them. And also, we've got a country music singer and songwriter out of Nashville, Tennessee that will be with us. So we're all over West Kentucky. promoting this and the other things that we're doing. One other thing I think will be significant down the road, in addition to our board that operates this, we are developing a 50-member charter, 50 charter members. Each one of the charter members are putting up $200 to be that, and we've got a lot of good people. I know people are busy and we don't plan on them having to meet all the time. Maybe once a year, twice at the most. And those people will come together and once you get a bunch of those people that I'm now bringing in, there will be a lot of ideas floating out from them. The mayor over here, she's a charter member. Judge Faust, charter member. I got a banker and a newspaper man in Marion, charter members. It hadn't been too hard. Everybody would talk about it, and they'd say, yeah, we'd like to be a charter member. So that's what we're all about. We wanted to explain what we're doing and what we're going to be doing here and how much it may benefit us. And like I said, we're always looking for a sponsor. We thought we might find a sponsor, too, that Help us out with this. Because all the proceeds, this is a benefit concert. All the proceeds go toward our museum development.

What time is the concert?

Pardon me? What time is the concert? It is at 7 o'clock. Doors open at 6 o'clock. Start at 7 o'clock. They promised to put on a pretty good show out there for us. Of course, that's a pretty nice place to have an event like this.

And I think you might have said the 29th, but it's the 19th, right? 19th. 19th of September. 19th of September. And where can people go to get tickets for VJs?

Well, I have a few with me, but we have a will call number.

Okay.

It's Bonnie Rose.

Okay.

One of the crazy ladies out there.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

I think her number, her 3227, I believe is her phone number. I looked that up again. But tickets at the door. And like I said, I've distributed quite a few tickets along the way as we go. $15. That's not too bad a price for the place that we're having it and the type of show that we're going to have out there.

What's your website? I know it's westkentuckybball.com.

High School Basketball Museum. I have some cards here. I'll distribute them. It's got the website on it. It's got my name on it and so forth. We hope to see you out there, and we hope we get some consideration relative to sponsoring this program. Like I said, it's not hard to talk to people in West Kentucky when you start talking basketball. We've got some, if you look on that website, you're going to find some good stories and some funny stories. Things that happen, you know, when a team goes over here to play their opposition and the opposition steals their bus and they have to take all the bus drives to get home and things of that nature. It's pretty interesting. We are trying to preserve the history of basketball in West Kentucky. This is not a, you know, there'll be some history made this year that'll be added. There'll be an ongoing thing. Any questions anyone has? Any questions?

Thank you for coming out, sharing all this with us, and the concert should be great. They will put on a good show, I promise you that. Thank you.

I really appreciate it.

Did you have to skip going to McDonald's this morning?

Where was that?

Did you have to skip going to McDonald's this morning to come here?

He said, did you not get to go to McDonald's this morning since you had to come here?

Well, you know, I did make a short trip there.

Okay.

That group is very knowledgeable down there. This country music singer, he moved down to a camper at Moore's Camp. And he came into McDonald's one morning. And there were about six or seven of us sitting around the table and he said, guys, y'all are just the epitome of the song I just wrote. Well, he played it to us. And it was a song that people could identify. Old man sitting around the store playing checkers, blowing smoke, trading knives. He's got a good song there. And he said, so from that, that's how we got in touch with him. And since then, he's been with us pretty good. He's going to put three numbers in the concert out there. All right, thank you very much.

Thank you. We appreciate you coming in.

Come by and share that.

Yeah, thanks, sir.

Okay, next, I just wanted Kurt to share something with you all. He's like a rabbit dog chasing a rabbit when it comes to grants. He's constantly trying to seek something out that will benefit the county. What do you got now, Kurt?

All right, this is just an update. I came before you guys back in June. My first grant that I put in was a Kentucky Emergency Management grant. put into purchase they have them purchase a new drone for us and I was notified last week that I did receive that grant so we'll be taking possession of a new drone here shortly a little under $10,000 and fully paid for by the state I've got a couple more grants still out and I'll update you with them either good news or bad news when I hear on them okay thank you sir

Appreciate it. One other thing, if you've got anything to add to this, what Kurt got with me recently, we've added a monitoring system to the generator at the high school, our main tower site for our communication system, and that notifies us if the generator comes on, even if it comes on for a routine schedule. And so that way he can keep a better eye on that. If that thing comes on and continues to run, we know we have a power issue up there. Right.

That's the only one that really was an issue. It's not monitored during the weekend or nighttime, whereas in one here in the courthouse or 911, somebody's around to see them. And that one out there was pretty crucial because that controls the repeater tower for all the emergency communications. But now there's four, I think four of us that get a notification when it comes on once a week for testing or if there's a glitch and it comes on because there's a power outage, we'll get a notification on our phones that it is operating. One less thing to worry about.

That's right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Under old business, need a motion to approve the minutes from the August 17th special called meeting. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Under new business agreement resolution, Marsh County Fiscal Court and Commonwealth Land Water Conservation Fund grant, that's a grant I mentioned earlier for the concession stand restroom facility at Miracle Lake, need a motion to approve and sign. I'd like to motion. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Road department truck, we had two bids come in on that. Okay. You all have those on your drive. This is to replace the truck. that was involved in an accident in total that's used strictly for signage that has to have a specialized bed put on it, has a crane on it, and all of the equipment they need for installing the signs and the post and all of that.

So this is not... We had budgeted maybe for a truck, but this is not what we're talking about, obviously. This is replacement. What did we get insurance-wise? $24,000, I think.

$23,000, $24,000, $25,000.

Where are we going to take the shortage, I guess?

We received a, or are receiving a matching fund grant that we applied for for 100,000. So by receiving that, that's 100,000 less we're gonna have to use out of our allocated road fund money in the budget to do paving. So Roy was holding off on a couple of roads until we seen if we received that or not. 100,000 match, so that freed up 100,000 there.

still going to have expenses on up or whatever. Yeah.

The bed on it is still going to put a bed on it. So this has to be a one to one ton because of all the weight it carries with all the signage equipment. And it's got a it's actually got a lift in it and all that. So that's the reason for the one ton over the three quarter.

Do you have a I mean, they're relatively the same, so You have a recommendation?

Actually, I don't. The only thing is I contacted the Ford and the Dodge place today that bid on it. And I just received a text from Todd. The build week on the Ford is the fourth week of October. So that's when they'll start building it. Chris with David Taylor said that we would receive it by September the 30th.

It's relatively the same cost, so I don't. I'm looking to you for.

We need a truck.

Okay, you need the truck now is what you're saying. How long does it take you to put a bed on it?

I don't know. Once we get the truck, I'm going to take it to Hopkinsville.

They won't start a bid until we get a truck.

Yeah.

Make sure all the measurements are right.

Yeah, yeah.

That's why they are on dump trucks, too. I'll move that we accept the bid from David Taylor.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next item, rural and municipal aid agreement, grant pool funds. Okay, yeah, okay, so that's on the $100,000 one I was just speaking of. I need a motion to approve and sign. So moved. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, these meetings we set in on at our conferences and stuff, you know, definitely pay off. That's where I first heard about that grant opportunity for the matching. So, you know, there's definitely benefit, uh, to what we go and do there. Um, let's see. And that was for resurfacing Magnus and red river roads. Okay. We have a motion on that.

I kept talking. Is there a second?

Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Grounds policy. Anything we do on the grounds, we have to vote on. This one really isn't something we have an option on. I failed to mention when Brian was here too, part of the playground, We received a $79,000 crumb rubber grant. And with that crumb rubber grant, they require signage there indicating that crumb rubber grant contributed to that. When we get all done out there, Brian and I have looked at a location when you're first coming in right before you get to the gate there. We're going to do some landscaping. And once that's done and the retaining wall and all that, perfect place there to have something made that matches the color scheme on the playground, and then maybe do something nicer as far as a sign. But anyway, with all that said, need a motion to put the sign up there that's required by the state for the crumb rubber grant. I'll make the motion. Your second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. And they've done this before.

Correct. The Lions Club.

The Lions Club 5K need a motion. They want to put some signage up for Saturday, November 21st, before Thanksgiving. From 5 to 6? Okay. That's when the entrance will be closed at the park for that 5K for one hour, November 21st. Move we approve that. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, new hires and personnel. Mr. Pagel, what do you got?

We have several today. The first one will go with the wage change for Douglas Runkle at the Parks Department, effective 8-16-26, so it's a few weeks back, 23-12 per hour.

We approve. Second. Motion second. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries.

Okay. For the road department, Adam Knowles be a laborer at the rate of $20 an hour, effective 10-1-26. Move. Second. Road department, a Class A driver, William Shane Watkins. Hang on. I'm sorry. Stop.

I'm not sure that $20 an hour is correct.

That's not correct. Oh, I'm just reading what I said. What would you like it to be, Roy?

And that's Adam. Yes, sir. I'll show it to you.

Which one is this replacing?

It's not the mechanic. We've got that one coming up. He's replacing one that resigned recently, I think. I'll let him talk on that. Okay, but not the mechanic, okay.

Yeah.

He's got some steps to take before he leaves.

OK. Would you read that again, please, so we can start over?

Adam Knowles, road department laborer at $20 an hour, October 1, 2026.

OK. Do I have a motion? Motion. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. Road department class A driver, William Shane Watkins, effective today. at the rate of 24.11 per hour. So moved. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Mechanic at the road department, Billy Starks, effective 9.15.26 at $25 an hour. So moved. Second.

Motion second. He is replacing Jacob . We have a motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. And the last one is a laborer, someone to follow the mowing trucks. It's not a new position. It's another backup. Can't have enough of those. Robert Childress, $15 an hour, effective 9-1-26. I'll move.

Second. Motion, second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Is that it? Okay, thank you. Advertise for bids, this is gonna be a just in case situation. Kenny Pratt, coroner, called me the other day and they have a retired ambulance that they use for a backup vehicle anymore. They're having to take all of the autopsies to Louisville instead of Madisonville. So it's a lot of road time and obviously we're in a situation now where we have to have two vehicles there. So the retired ambulance went down in E-town, brought it back. I actually had Shannon, our maintenance superintendent, look at it yesterday, and he thinks it has a fuel system issue. It is a diesel. So set the road department today. They're going to try changing out fuel filter, look at that, maybe some fuel pressure and whatever. If we can't get that going, then my suggestion is going to be put out for bid an additional vehicle for them. They're going to have to have an additional vehicle. That's not a question. The question just is if we can get this ambulance going again. It's got 200,000 miles on it. The maintenance history, Andy pulled all that for me. I sat down and looked over all that with Kenny before they took it. It had not had many issues at all, you know, brakes, alternator, just minor things. So keeping my fingers crossed we can get this repaired and get another year or so out of it, being a diesel. If not, we need to be prepared to put something out for bid. What they would like to do going forward, I totally agree with this, is Livingston County has a single cab pickup that totally separates everything from the driver, and it's a slide-in pickup. bed thing kind of looks like a utility bed sort of but it slides into the bed of the pickup so that would be the route that I would suggest we go going forward and I know Kenny would certainly appreciate that so That's the reason this is on here. I'm hoping that we can get the repair done. But at this point in time, sitting here talking to you, I'm not sure if it's repairable or not. But we'll know probably, hopefully, by the end of the week. So with that said, I need a motion to advertise for bids for an additional coroner vehicle if necessary. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We've got on here, reschedule the fiscal court meeting. Erica, come over and talk to me a long time yesterday about several things. We could possibly have some bills that we have to pay before our next meeting, which is, or I'm sorry, before the meeting at the end of October, which is the 26th, because our first meeting is on the 1st. So we've got quite a gap there. And I know we all have a lot going on in October. So just want to kind of put everybody on notice. We might have to have a special called meeting to pay bills. We could do that over Zoom if we need to. So we'll just leave that at that for now. So you're going to keep current? Yeah, we'll keep that where it is. If she comes to me and says, we have to take care of this before we'll have a special called, it'll be short and sweet, and we can do it by Zoom for whoever needs to. Board appointments. I need a motion to appoint Carl Lovett to the Jonathan Creek Water Board to fill the vacated position of Ricky Jones. Term expires 6-30-28. So moved. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. This next one, he'll be replacing Ryan Boatwright. I want to thank Ryan for his service. He's been an excellent board member. Ryan has taken a job that will not allow him to attend the sanitation board meetings. So I need a motion to appoint Sean Penn to fill the vacated position of Ryan Boatwright, term expire 1-1-29. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 65-35 exemption. Eric, I'm going to let you talk about this. We've got a whole lot going on that has kind of forced Erica to address this, and it's good things going on. You know, the grant for the Land Water Conservation Fund grant with the concession stand, restroom, you know, some of our other projects that we've got going on, but I'll let her talk about that.

OK, as you probably know, there is a KRS that limits the fiscal court spending abilities in the election year. So you can only spend no more than 65% of each fund before the new term starts in January. And then there's some special rules regarding bonded debt that gets to be excluded. Any payments on that gets to be excluded from the calculation. And then there's some special rules around the road fund. So there is a method to request exception. So the court can submit... a list of anything that they want to be excluded from the calculation to DLG state local finance officer and those things would be anything that constitutes an emergency or if it would impede not doing that project or not allowing it would impede a legislatively approved infrastructure improvement or if there were additional deterioration that would be caused by delaying a project. So in your drive is our letter to DLG. And at the end, you guys will all need to sign it if you agree to everything that's in it. And I'll just go through really quick. You can read the letter, but I'll just kind of read out what these projects are. So our KIA debt service is one thing that we're asking for. Bryant Road FEMA project, our CDBG grant for housing from the tornado, the rural and municipal aid grant funds for the Magnus Road and Red River Road repair. our LARP money that's for Big Bear Highway, the House Bill money that was given for the Aurora Packaging Plant, the Park-Crumb River Grant, the money that we have set aside for the Senior Citizens Building Repair, the Miracle League Commitment, the $20,000 Highway Safety Grant that the Sheriff received, the law enforcement protection grant that the sheriff received for rifles. I've also listed just some statutory obligations for their consideration. They may come back and say yes to some, no to everything. They'll pick and choose and tell us what we can. It doesn't hurt to ask. We have $41,000 in our budget that's for hazmat response where we're statutorily required to respond if there's an event. That's on there. The audit fees that we have to pay, those are required, and so they should be, in my opinion, not included. Our PBA statutory contribution, let's see, all of our bonding that is required for all of our bonded officers, all of our funds that we use to conduct statutory elections, and then our workers' comp insurance premiums. Do you guys have any questions for me?

The LG, it's up to Robert Brown.

Yes, Robert will read all these, and he will give us a response on each item. My understanding is he's already acted favorably on things like that House Bill Aurora packaging plan. I think that we can know for sure that's fine. And I think there's been some favorable action on some other granting projects, so hopefully those will... be able to be excluded from calculations as well.

Are you required then at the end of the year to submit something separately than what you have to do?

In the past, they have never requested for me to submit any calculations. However, those calculations can be completed completely on their own with the things we already submit to them. And so they're likely doing that behind the scenes. And or, I don't know, Jason may know, maybe nothing ever comes of it unless there's Someone who is affected directly brings action against the court for doing something that's over that rule. I'm not really sure how that works. I've never heard of a county getting in trouble for it. There are very strict rules. There are a lot of penalties monetarily in jail time for going over it. So you just want to make sure you know what's going on. And we kind of keep an eye on it. Luckily, we do have some excess carryover and a couple of funds. If we get down towards the end and some of these are denied, we could amend those into our budget and not touch them. until after January. And we might have a little cushion there. And just for any of the department heads watching, just please remember, if it's something that you don't have to do until after January 1, please put off whatever you can that's in your budget until after the 1st of January.

Okay. So I need a motion for us all to sign that document. So moved. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? Thanks for the work on that. I'm glad.

Yeah, she's worked on that for a long minute.

You're welcome. I don't know why it's come to the forefront more in all of our trainings and stuff this year.

Interesting.

I don't know if it's just because there's a lot more money out there floating. A lot of people still have a lot of their ARPA money left. It has to be spent by December 31st. Of course, it had to be obligated a long time ago. So there's a lot of counties that have that money still floating around, and I'm thinking that's probably the reason it's in such the forefront this year for trainings.

Interesting. All right.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Make sure everyone signs that, please, before you leave. Erica has it over here ready for us. Before we move on to the next thing, I'd like to recognize our county attorney. The Kentucky County Attorneys Association selected their next executive board, and Mr. Darnall will be serving as V.P.,

Thank you.

Absolutely. Proud of you.

More trips to Frankfort. That's what everybody in western Kentucky wants is more trips to Frankfort.

That is such an exciting place. It is. I never was so shocked to find out there was not an Uber or a cab in the entire town.

so yeah the west kentucky project for a convention center that's going to be really nice uh but it'll probably be a couple of years so the west kentucky and bluegrass is just it's just god's country yeah it is it is okay standing order fi 2627 amended erica

I have requested to add two items to our standing order. One is the sheriff's Wi-Fi jet packs. So the jet packs, I'm assuming that those are in the cars. Those haven't been treated as a utility up till now. All other utilities are on standing order. So we'd like to add that and treat that like a utility. And then I've also added transient tax. I will still provide you guys the deposits that I make for transient tax. But if we add it to the standing order, I would not have to wait till a meeting to get Elena their transfers and their money. And so that I think that would be a lot easier for them Of course once you approve it if you do I do still have to send it to DLG They still have to say it's okay for those to be on standing orders. They may come back and tell me no to the transient tax I'm hoping that they don't but I don't foresee them saying no to the Wi-Fi just because they've not said no to any other utility

Separate orders? Separate motions?

No, it's just one. It's just a revised standing order, so just an approval for the revised standing order.

I need a motion to approve, please. Motion. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Tax rates.

Okay, so as you guys probably recall from last year, in the last couple of years there was a change to KRS that made the fiscal court a little bit more in control of tax rates for taxing districts minus certain special districts such as the fire departments. So all of our other taxing districts, the fiscal court has ultimate authority over what those rates end up being. The rates that we have received so far are the health department the library, the refuse, and the soil conservation district. We are still missing a couple. We'll have those for the tax order for next time. Just there's a little info for you on that. Now, we do need to set our own tax rates. So I put that on the drive for you. Our compensating tax rate is set at... 7.1 is what our compensating rate has been calculated to be for the fiscal court. The 4% increase would be 7.3. Last year, our rate was 7.5. So... You will, the court will have to set your real rate, your personal rate, and your motor vehicle rate. So 7.1 is the compensating rate for the real. Personal property, you then take that and you put this into this calculation to figure out what you can set your personal property rate at. And I have put that in your drive as well. And I did not write it down, so let me pull it up. 7.8. It was 7.8 last year. And then the motor vehicle rate, there are no statutory calculations on that. That's just at the pleasure of the court. It has always been 11.2 as long as I've been here and as far back as I can find in our records. As far back as I looked in our records. Let's say about 20 years at least it's been that.

I want to address the real estate rate before we get into discussion. This court has reduced that each year that we've been in office. And if we make that reduction again this year, that will be a decrease in this term of 14.46% that we have cut the tax rate. We obviously do not control the assessments, but we do have some say-so obviously in setting the rates, and I do feel like We've certainly done all we could do to be able to reduce taxes. And we've been able to do that partly because, well, wholly because our tax base has grown. This year was a little over $250 million. We've had projects come in. We had $60 million expansion at ARCMA, $40 million Churchill Downs and we've recently announced some more growth with businesses so I feel like we're we're doing our part to help with some of the pain on that but anyway we have to vote on these individually the compensating rate for the real estate tax would be 7.1 it was or it currently is, I guess, 7.5. Do I have a motion for the 7.1 rate? So moved. So motions are second? Second. Motion and second. Any discussion on that? Not? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Need a motion to set the tangible rate at... 7.8, what was that, what is that currently? That's the same, no change. Okay, that's the same. So keeping the tangible rate the same. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motions are second? Second. Motion second, any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Need a motion to set the motor vehicle rate at 11.20. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Motion, second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

So just looking through some of these, I'm not seeing, well, specifically like library. You looked at all four of these, what did you say, soil conservation?

Yes, we have soil, we have the health department, we have refuse, and we have the library.

So just in general, did they all?

Yes, they all chose the compensating rate. They all chose the compensating rate. Yes, and I did request of each of them to request from DLG to certify their calculations. And each of them provided me their calculations. So yes, they all chose compensating rates on their real property.

OK.

I did not verify their tangible property tax rates, but I did look at their real property.

We're going to do all those the next meeting. I know the hospital is meeting next Tuesday on theirs again. So we should have all those by our next meeting.

Yeah, I just wanted to know now so that if we needed to have any discussion between now and then.

Yeah, so far the four that have sent me their certified form have chosen compensation. Okay. And then, of course, I've got five of the seven fire departments. We don't have any control over those.

We don't have any control over them, but can you tell me, did they all stay the same?

Let's see. Let me tell you real quick. Do you have last year's pulled up by chance?

It's OK. I've got it. Let me just find it. I mean, we can have that discussion after.

Don't worry about it. Don't worry.

OK. We can talk about it later. OK. Appropriation transfer, Erica.

OK, on your drive, there are two appropriation transfers. One is for an inter-fund departmental transfer in 911. And the other I've just added, as you all finished talking about, the road front truck. So it's to move money from the paving line into the road equipment line for the truck. I'll go ahead and move around enough to cover the equipment as well, if that's OK with you guys. I put $65,000. Does that sound like enough to cover the equipment as well? OK.

You also have the transient tax on here. Is that inclusive of the last one? Or is that that $50,000 one? I know you weren't here.

Yes. So this that's on this one, the transient tax is $115,428.87. That's two different deposits. One was a $55,000 deposit and the other one was a $59,000 deposit.

I was thinking surely it's not 50 plus 115. Okay.

It's both of those.

That's two.

Yes. And as I said earlier, I'll still keep those down there, but I'm going to be doing them since you approved an outstanding order as long as DLG allows me. I'll do them before court, but I will still list them for you. OK. And that way you'll have them.

OK.

I move we approve the appropriation transfers. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Bank transfer?

Yes. The bank transfers are all of the budgeted funds that we budget to have OTA subsidized.

Move we approve the bank transfers.

Second. Motion. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Transient tax transfer?

I just included that. I did ask Corey to start putting that separately so they wouldn't get looked over. So we just included that.

OK. All right. Executive session. Litigation personnel need a motion to go into executive session.

We got to pay the bills.

Not to, well, I mean, I can. We can do it afterwards.

Don't move. It don't matter. Let me back up and go ahead and work that part. No, no, I'm sorry.

That's all right. No. Need a motion to pay the bills? Pay the bills. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Need a motion to go into executive session to discuss litigation personnel for KRS 618101CNF. so move second motion second all those in favor uh any opposed motion carries okay i just need a motion to adjourn so move second second all those in favor uh any opposed motion carries