Fiscal Court - Regular Meeting

agenda today. Um, so anyway, good good afternoon. Uh, again, just a check of your cell phones if if you can uh turn those turn those off or place them on stun, whatever you need to do there. All right, let's go ahead and get started. This is the August 26th, 2025 Harden County Fiscal Court regular voting meeting. Let's begin and uh call this meeting to order. All right, we'll start out with roll call. Squire Clem here. Squire Hicks here. Squire Muse here. Squire Pennington here. Squire Saltzman here. Squire Thompson here.

Squire Whitehead here. Squire Yates here. Judge Executive Keith Tall here. Uh, next we have our invocation by Magistrate Clam. And the pledge of allegiance will be led by Magistrate Thompson.

Pray with me. Our most gracious and loving heavenly father, we thank you so much for this beautiful day that you've given us. Father, we just come praising your holy name and thanking you, Father, for all the many blessings that you've given to us. And Father, we just uh lift up our leaders across this country. Father, give them strength. Father, give them wisdom. And Father, for those that protect our country day and day and day day and night, Father, we just uh lift them up and ask that you give them a very special measure of your your blessing, protect them, be with their families as their way. Father, go with us through the meetings today. And uh Father, just give us clear thought. Let us be uh mindful of uh the business that we're to conduct for this community. Father, may we uh go forward with a positive attitude and father with vision. Father, just lead and guide and direct us in all the things that we say and do. In your son Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.

Please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Well, thanks again uh for joining us today. It's good to see all of you here today. Uh I'll just uh take a moment review the agenda. Uh we will have some um severalformational items today and we'll work through those. Uh we do have a public hearing for our uh property tax rates. Uh after that we have a a couple of uh report outs and presentations. Uh we'll move on into any citizens concerns or comments section and then we have uh five uh resolutions that we need to vote on today and then finally the consent agenda after that. Uh just a note that the close session um will be pushed out to our next meeting in uh in September. So we will not have a close session today. Okay. Okay. And then we'll have the comments at the end as usual. All right. So, that's the agenda. Um I don't think I have anything else to um to talk about today. So, we'll move on in and look at our uh approval of Harden County Physical Court uh August 12th, 2025 minutes. Is there a motion to approve?

So, moved. Second. Been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll have roll call. Squire Clim, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes. Judge, sorry, Judge Executive Keith Tall. Yes. Motion passes. All right. Next, we'll move into the uhformational items. And first up, uh, we have, um, an update from Blue Oval SK. So, look forward to hearing what that might be.

Hello everyone. How are you guys doing today? Good. How are you?

Thank you for making time for us. We're glad always to get to come and share information about our company. I'm sure you may have seen a little bit about us in the news recently. I hope that you have, but I wanted to make sure we share an update as well about what's going on in um that little plot of land over there in Glendale. I I've met all of you, I believe. But my name is Kelly Mallister. Not advancing, is it? Let's see. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Uh my name is Kelly Mallister and I have the priv privilege of serving as external affairs director at Blueville SK. I also get to work with Miss Sarah Vaughn who's our community engagement specialist and uh any day I get to work with her is a good day. Right.

All right. Yes. So, um it is go time. That's what we say. Uh because as of one week ago today, we began full commercial production at Blue Oval SK.

So, we are very very excited. For all of the people who were unsure if we would make a battery, we are making a battery and they are going in the Ford Lightning F-150. They will be shipped up to Michigan and they will go in those trucks and we're very excited that the product made right here in Glendel and Harden County will be driving on the roads of America very very soon. So, um that was a big deal that happened exactly one week ago. But the day before on Monday of last week, we also had a very special time on our campus. And we actually have a video um we'd like to show you um that uh was very special for all of us. We are very proud to be an American company based right here in Harden County. So that was a very special moment. That was the first time that a flag has been raised officially at our plant. We had our ver veterans who are part of our employee um resource group and they took part in that and helped us raise that flag. So it was a very special moment and exactly how we wanted to start out the week before we went into production. It is what I would say a monumental time for us and we hope you feel that too. The fact that we have more than 1400 people who are working in our plant in Kentucky. 94% of those are considered local hires. And I think we've covered this before, but that means that they did not require to be

relocated. So they call Kentucky this area home. So we had two days of celebrations to officially kick off our start of production, also known as SOP. We did put a video up on our social media, but if you have not seen it, we wanted you to see exactly how fun it was to finally start production in our plant. This is awesome day. Been waiting for this for 3 years. Start a production. There's nothing like it. Let's go Kentucky.

And this is indeed the most exciting day.

And this is time to start producing for the world. Sir, I can't really I can't really put it into words. It's a freaking amazing time.

We held multiple uh celebrations. As you know, we operate seven days a week, 24 hours a day. So, to make sure everyone got a celebration, we partied well into the night and early in the morning. So, it was a very fun two days to make sure that every single one of our employees felt celebrated and appreciated. Um, I think we can all agree that we have indeed come a long way. It has just been three years. So to know that we have started from just that open field off of I65 and 222 to two 4 million square foot facilities is pretty awesome in such a mount a short amount of time. Uh, and you know it our company was actually announced back in 2021 when Ford and SKON said that they would build the the battery plants here in Glendale. And in 2022 in July, that's when we were officially formed. So we're just over three years old now. Construction, of course, the celebration there was in December of 2022. We moved in in November of last year. And again, we started production just last week. And you can see here the progression of how this field became what we are today.

And we will have an official public celebration coming up later this year which I hope all of you will be able to attend. Uh we like to say that we're built differently. We're making a different kind of product for a different kind of way to get around. We're changing the face of mobility right here in Harden County. Our teams are built different. You can see this is about 30 different teams uh that are part of Blue Obal SK. And uh everybody does something very very important in the process of building our batteries and getting them to our customer. So we celebrate our our our difference if you will. Part of that is also we are very proud of being a direct relationship employee. As you probably are aware, we are in the midst of a vote right now. The ballots are or the voting stations are open right now at our plant. They were open this morning. Several folks were able to cast their ballots then and they'll be open again tomorrow in the morning and the in the evening again to capture all of the crews. So, we have taken a very public stance that we would like to remain a direct relationship employer, but we will leave it up to our employees. they get to have their voice heard and that's what they're doing right now. They will determine if they want to continue our direct relationship or or let the union speak for them. But our stance is we do hope that they vote no, but we look forward to growth no matter what. And here I'm going to back up just a little bit. So, one thing that we did as part of our celebration is we celebrated exactly how far we've come and kind of the the road that we have ahead. Um, also because of the vote that's going on, I'm gonna have to leave right after this presentation because I have to get back. But we do want to show you a video that we showed just to our employees to again celebrate where we started, how far we've come, and we know that we have a long road ahead of us and some people who still aren't quite on board, but we're really we're willing to fight that

battle.

This was once just a vision. a future we had to create. While the world was talking, we were building. There were obstacles and setbacks, but our vision was clear. We had a road map, but we blazed our own trail. Brick by brick, skill by skill. We built this. We learned this. We prepared for this. The proof is not in the headlines. The proof is in what we produce. The power is not a promise. The power is a product. And it's built right here by us. So, we thank you most of all for your support for allowing us to call Harden County home and uh we're very excited about the future. We're very excited to have more than 1400 people working right now and building batteries. Any questions? got um just a a quick question. So we we've seen the first battery or we've got the first battery produced. So how's the production now? Is it is it rolling along?

It is. Okay. It is. We are we have employees there around the clock 247. So but once the operation starts it's good to keep it going and so it's going. So it's going along. How many batteries per day are they?

So that's really hard to say. you know, our production is based on our um request or our orders from our customer. So, we produce what they need. So, it's not a standard number and it will increase because right now the battery that goes into the F-150 Lightning is produced in Commerce, Georgia. So, we are taking that business. So, there is a transition right now. So as we get to full fuller production, we will take over all of that in the next few months and it will trend out of Commerce Georgia and we will be the sole provider for that battery. Can you share the status of Kentucky 2?

Kentucky 2 is still on pause. That building is completed. The construction is completed. Uh but we are waiting for the market to turn and when it does, we'll be ready. I watched the uh press release for the CEO for the Ford. He mentioned the word repurpose. We did not mention the word repurpose. But he's a CEO of Ford. I'm just saying he mentioned the plants that are not operational. No. So I can't speak for Ford. Our company is an independent company though Ford is one of our parents as is SKON. But there is no plans for for Kentucky too other than what it was originally planned for. Okay.

So Mr. Farley can speak for for Ford and himself, but I can't speak for him or interpret what that meant. Understand? I did want to say sure, you know, jumping out a plane on Saturday, I saw you all there in support of one of your employees and just your commitment to helping our local charities and stuff. So, I did want to say I appreciate you all and your efforts into uh digging into the community and helping. Thank you. We we love being there and we have no better advocate than Sarah. That is her purpose in our company is to make sure that we are part of this community in the right way. Thank you all very much. Yeah, I'll just say Oh, do you have something?

No, I just said thank you.

Okay. Um I just wanted to say uh thanks for being here today. I appreciate the update. Um it's obviously a very important part of our of our county and so that's why we are so interested in what's going on and the fact that we are employing so many people there from from this region and from this county of course is a big driver for for all of us to to see our neighbors uh family members friends uh having good employment there and and being able to be a part of that. So, um it's huge for us and u it's impressive what has been done in the last uh uh three years. Um it's it's almost unimaginable except for the fact that you did it, you know, and I I just have never seen anything like it so big go so fast and come out of the ground like it did. So, um kudos to um to your company for for doing that and uh we look forward to uh the next months and years working together to uh be successful in every way possible. So,

well, we're very appreciative. Thank you. And we're glad we're very glad to call Harden County Home and we know we wouldn't be here without your support. So, thank you all. Thank you. Appreciate it very much.

Thank you. All right, moving on to our next u presentations. Uh we have um the the next ones are presentation of of testimony of property tax rates per KRS65A.110 special purpose government entities SPGE. So we're going to start out with Harden County Cooperative Extension Service. Hello everyone. Sorry. Um so Harden County Corporate Extension Service and the extension board um have decided to take the compensating rate for real property which is at 0180. Um and then personal property is 0280. Um and then we are taking motor vehicle which is 0146 and then we have decided to take aircraft documented water air watercraft non- Kentucky registered watercraft and intransit inventory um tax rates. So any questions?

Okay. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that information. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up is Harden County Soil Conservation District. That's Mr. Thompson.

Good evening. How y'all doing? Glad to see you. Happy to be here. Um, so I'm here to announce that this is the second time in conservation district history that we're taking the compensating rate. Traditionally, we have decided to maintain that steady tax uh bracket and uh given the compensating rate and you know, just the way that things are. We all know the the sad tales of everything getting higher and everything getting more expensive. So that's uh why we opted to do it this time and hopefully next year we can uh maybe level back out and see how it goes. And traditionally I always have a good presentation of all the events that we're part of, but I think y'all by now y'all are probably used to the things that we're into and tree giveaway and all the schools. And so I'd be happy to go into it further if you'd like me to, but if not, I'll save y'all the time and let y'all move on with some business.

Any questions? All right. Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you all. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Next up is um the Lincoln Trail District Health Department, Sarah Joe.

Good evening, judge and members of the court. The Harden County Board of Health met on May 21st and voted to uh retain uh the tax rate of 2.2 cents per 100 of assessed property valuation for all real property, 2.2 2 cents of assessed value appropriation for all personal property and the rate of 2.2 cents per 100 of assessed property valuation on mo all motor vehicles in Harden County as of January 1st, 2026. And then the motor vehicle tax rate will be applied to the calendar year beginning January 1st, 2026. I've worked for the health department for almost 24 years and this is the same rate um that we've had across that time frame. All right. Any questions?

No, just um thank you, Sarah Joe, for all you do and it's it's nice when we can keep rates steady like that, not have to increase. So, thanks for all you do and apparently you're you're being very conservative with with your resources. So, we appreciate you. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you, Sarah Joe. Appreciate the presentation. Thanks. All right. Next, uh have the um our proposed tax rate presentation and I'll I'll do that one. So, we want to bring up the presentation. We'll get started.

Okay. Sheriff's Department, judge. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, well, we have a presentation further down the list here. Am I missing something here? On the fourth. Oh, I'm sorry. Item four. Yes, I uh I missed that. Thank you very much.

I give it during the presentation. Well, since we're kind of got this theme of taxes, let's just go ahead and do it now. Yeah,

as you know, and good afternoon, judge and members of members of fiscal court, before we can prepare the 2025 tax bills, we have to have the 2024 um tax settlement presented and signed by the judge so that we can get a quitus. And a quite is just simp simply a piece of paper saying you may go ahead and prepare the tax bills and get it sent out. So uh I'm I'm here today to present the uh 2024 settlement and um as you can see on the first page u the numbers that are in parenthesis are due to the sheriff's office. So, um, once we get those in, we'll be able to spend some money that we actually need to spend and paying other people back, money that may have been caused from a refund or exoneration of things of that nature. So, I'm just here really to to get let you know that the settlement has been made and of course, we have not received final audit on it, but we have made the settlement for 2024. Anybody have any questions? note.

Okay. Thank you all. All right. Thank you.

All right. Now, we'll go into the uh proposed tax rate presentation. Go to the next slide. And of course, the purpose of this is to provide u my recommendation for the 2025 county property tax rates. Uh our what we'll move through here. I've got about 200 slides. No, I'm just kidding. Um but we'll we'll move through it uh very quickly, but um we'll go through a an introduction, a timeline, basically review the methodology to calculate these tax rates. Uh look at our budget condition. Just one slide on that as a reminder and then the final recommendation and summary at the end. So um again to uh just to review uh our property tax revenue is the largest funding mechanism that we use in fiscal court and the tax rates are set annually and they are governed by the Kentucky revised statutes. This does not does not include school or city tax rates. These are levied by their governing bodies. The county PVA sends uh assessment information to the department of revenue. Quite a little process here. Uh department of revenue certifies the assessment and then they send that to the department, the local government, DLG. DLG then calculates the compensating rate and the 4% real property rates and mails that information to us. The county has 45 days from the date of the department of revenue certification to set the real rate as well as calculate and set personal property tax rates. So we are within that 45 days and uh then we also have a public hearing since we are looking at a 4% um revenue and so we'll have a public hearing today uh and

that had to be advertised for two consecutive weeks. So bit of a process there. Just a reminder again that this is only county property taxes that we're talking about today. U the school tax rates are levied by the local school boards. Uh state tax rates are levied by the state legislature and the city tax rates of course are levied by those city councils. Property tax and then we have the personal property tax that we'll be uh working through the timeline. Uh like we said, 45day countdown has uh began on July 17th. Uh this the first advertisement for public hearing went out August 9th, the second one on August 16th and then today we have the public hearing and then the presentation of tax rates and then we'll vote on those a little bit later on the agenda. So how are these things calculated? I'm not going to go into great detail, but we show you a little bit about how that happens. Uh we're looking at two possible tax rates. U there can be three or more actually, but the two that we're looking at today is called the compensating. Uh this is no increase in revenue. No increase in revenue from the previous year. And so that generates uh again approximately the same revenue uh as last year. It does not require a hearing process. And then the other u the other option is the 4% increase in revenue and that generates 4% more revenue than the compensating rate and it requires a hearing process. If we were to want to go above 4% that it would be subject to recall. And then you won't be able to see this, but the uh there's all these calculations and all the information

that came from PVA looking at the the assessments of um real property and personal property and motor vehicle assessments. All of that is included on this. It's got the uh calculations. At the end of the day, we end up with the two that are showing there. The rate for compensating is, and again, that's no additional revenue from the previous year. That rate calculated out to be 10.4 cents per hundred dollar. And the 10 the um rate for 4% revenue increase calculated out to be 10.8 cents rate. So as you can see here, this is uh showing that the compensating again no increase uh shows what the valuation for the county uh turned out to be for real estate property at almost $10 million. Tangible personal property uh which there's a a note down at the bottom saying what that is. Tangible personal property consists of business equipment and inventories primarily but also includes public service companies. And so that that number came in at 1 point almost $1.2 million. Uh right. And then so the total um would be at the compensating rate that we would end up at 11 uh a little over $11 million. Now, if we look at the the the 4% revenue increase, uh what that would end up being is you can see there uh a little some higher numbers and the difference between the two would mean that we have a revenue if we were to collect 100% which we don't and the next slide we'll get into that but uh the difference would be about $383 uh thou,000 between those two on the real estate the

tangible about 50,000 and so the total about 432 $433,000. So now if we take in consideration that the that we need to pay uh our our sheriff's department and office for collection fees and they don't necessarily collect 100% of of these uh taxes. So we use uh what I I believe to be a somewhat conservative approach and estimating about 92.2% collection rate. Once we apply that, just multiply it out, then um you can see the the resulting numbers there. We've also added at the top the budgeted uh amounts that we uh were looking at earlier this year. So, um those were um done to to try to get as close as we could to what these numbers would be. And you can see what those were at $9.5 million uh budgeted for real estate uh property tax. and then in revenue and then also the uh tangible personal property at $ 1.1 million for a total of $10.6 million revenue from these um two revenue sources. So if we uh you can see there that the 4% um increase um from the previous year uh brought us in very close to what we uh looked at and what we were able to predict. uh came in within a total of about $60,000. So very close to what the budget um what the budget that we are currently in uh shows. So very close. Now if we were to step back and say and take the compensating or no increase in revenue, then we would be uh automatically about $340,000 u in the red on our budget to start

with. So you can see that we uh we budgeted for this 4% revenue increase. And then the the the bottom line there just shows the difference between the two after you've taken that that uh collection rate into consideration. And so about a $400,000 difference between the two. Uh just a quick note of budget condition. Uh the reasons that we're taking this 4% increase is because of this. Uh we have our expenses at a little over $26 million. These are recurring net operating expenses. Okay. And then our revenue unfortunately is less than that at 23.5 million. And so what we had to do to make this thing balance is we needed to utilize about $2.5 million. Uh it was decided to use uh the blue oval SK uh pilot um uh in uh to make up that difference uh which is basically prior year reserves and u to to make this sum up to zero and be balanced. Uh so uh that's the note that we see below there. One time this uh u uh one-time payment to Harden County government was utilized to balance the operating budget and a note that the hospital sale annual payout of 2.7 million was not used to balance the budget but was placed in reserve for future projects. So with that, the recommendation uh is that we adopt the property tax rates with 4% revenue increase. What this actually means as far as tax rates is that uh it decreases the current real

estate property rate from the current or the pre uh the current uh 11.1 cents. what we've been what we used previously last year uh whenever taxes um were submitted. Uh so we we brought that down to 10.8 cents per $100 valuation. And the reason that we could do this to actually have an increase in revenue with less uh with a uh a tax rate that went down.3 cents is because it's due to our growing county really. and with almost a billion dollar uh increase in real estate property valuation. So that that allows us to be able to do that. On the other hand, if we look at the uh um from the business personal property rate, uh it actually is increasing uh from 11.1 cents to 12.3 cents per $100 valuation. Uh this was driven by a a $30 million decline in tangible personal property values and primarily due to a sharp reduction in business inventories. And whenever we researched what that meant, it basically meant it this is a uh this was following the completion of site work by blue oval subcontractors. So um their equipment leaving the area inventories and stuff um all that uh had a had a negative impact on u the valuation and therefore to be able to uh bring our revenue up to the point that we were counting on we had to u it it it made that rate go up a little bit. So at the end of the day uh we have

these two uh rates and we are proposing 4% revenue increase which gives us a 10.8 rate and brings in a net revenue and of course this is still estimated at uh $9.5 million. Next slide. Um just a quick slide on what does this actually mean? It really doesn't mean much of a reduction. Uh if you look at um a typical um just fit in a $100,000 home or let's let's look at a $250,000 piece of property. Uh you can see the difference is only $7 of a of a decrease. So maybe get a hamburger. Okay. So it's not much difference between uh these two rates. And then finally, the last slide, uh, is kind of a summary, more of a reference slide, if you will, of uh, all all of these rates that have been, um, talked about today. So, the two that we're working on here are the two that are highlighted, uh, the 10.8 8 uh cents and the uh 12 uh 12.3 cents um per 100 that you see there in the general fund and the rest of those have uh were communicated to us earlier. I think that's it, right? Okay. Uh so that concludes that presentation and we'll have some discussion about this here in a few minutes whenever we get to that uh resolution. All right, we'll move on then to uh any department and office reports. Uh I believe we have one here for from our coroner Pat Elmore.

Good evening, judge, members of the court, members of the audience. U excuse me. Tonight I have the June new life, excuse me, activity report for the coroner's office. In June, we worked a total of 72 cases. Accidents were three, and we had one overdose. Suicides were three, and naturals were at 66. For July, we've seen a surge in our cases jumped to 129. As you'll see, there was motor vehicle collisions accounted for two of those and we had overdose of oxycodone and hydrocodone. 122 natural, three suicides and we're pending one toxicology. Uh the next numbers will show we we're up considerable on our autopsies that we've done this year due to some unusual circumstances, some of the cases we've worked. So that's that we've seen a a small decrease in the cremations that we've done. And then on our transports, a number we've continued to try to improve on is EMS transported one and the corer's office transported 116. Um, next slide is our overdoses for the year. We're really proud of these numbers. We're down 16 this year so far. U which you can see and that's a fair ways under what we had last year. So we're hoping that that continues to see that trend down. Um before I go any further, I'd like to turn the the rest of our report over if there's no question for the coroner's officer. Quick response officer Justin Blair. He's got a lot of information. He wants to go over some of the activities that the QRT has been going over and uh a lot of information, a lot of things we're excited about. So there's any questions with far corner offices? Would

you like? Oh, I'm sorry. You went up to the capital for a big summit, I believe. corners in the state part of whatever. So yes, we've actually met what came out.

So So there was actually there's actually been two meeting. We went to the state capital and met with the governor and that was over mass fatality uh the corner's office and the board. I'm actually on the board association board now and we're working taking a lot of do measure of all the the incidents that's happened over the state with tornado stuff. So that was an adjusted meeting with the governor trying to get further funding for that to the state because unfortunately locally that's not funded, you know, it's and it's just 120 counties that's included in that. And then the other one was just some legislative issues with the with the senator and stuff. Now Justin will explain a little further. He actually went to Washington and testified there. Did I answer your question? No, no, no. I thought it was a positive thing. I

Yeah, we're trying to take a real active role there. you know, for the last several years, Corner Association was kind of I'm not going to say idle, but there was a lot of issues that came up and unfortunately that with legislation now we're trying to get that pushed through where we can get things done, especially with some of these overdoses. That's part of it. Obviously, some of the funds for QRT come from that part of the national level. So, that's that's what we're really trying. We're excited to continue to do that. So, I was just glad to see you up there. I appreciate it. Oh, thank you for the comment. Good evening everybody. Good evening. Good evening.

Okay, I brought some examples and I'll I'll get into those. I won't tear apart that whole backpack, but there's pictures of it on there. Um, okay. So, just going over this slide here. Um, so this month total we've received um six referrals. I'm trying to get a couple of my volunteers together now uh for Tuesday of next week so that we can um engage with those individuals. So, we've had four outings of referral engagements so far, and since I was able to um get a team trained to go on referral responses, um I've received 25 total at this point. Uh six we were unable to respond to. Uh two of them because they were labeled as dangerous. We actually got a call from dispatch telling us that we probably shouldn't go there. Uh, two were outside of the Harden County limits, so I'm kind of stuck within the limits of Harden County right now. And one was at a place of business, which would have um, violated HIPPA. So, we couldn't respond to those five. But, um, we did attempt to respond to two of the referrals that were suicide attempts. Um, the reason I bring that up is because, uh, I would really like to receive some training at some point, uh, on how to best approach those individuals because, um, I'd like for QRT to be able to respond to that this issue because it is uh, something that's more prevalent in Harden County than I had realized. Now, working uh, in the office of the coroner, I see all these stats and stuff and there's just there's just a lot of suicide attempts. So, uh, but that we could that that's another discussion. And then, um, the block byblock initiative that you see up there, um, this is this is where we go around and, uh, I go get on OD maps and I look at the hot spots around Harden County, um, for overdoses. And then, uh, a team, uh,

me, myself, and some volunteers will go to those areas. will literally door knock on all the houses or apartment complexes, let them know that there's a a high rate of overdoses in their area and then we uh do our best to to teach them about Narcan, what it does, why we use it. Uh and hopefully that they would take it and at least have it on their person. Um and so then we train them how to use that if they if they are going to if they do uh take it. So in July we knocked on 58 doors. We were able to engage with 21 community members and we distributed 10 twod dose kit kits of Narcan uh and trained them on how to use that and uh we left a resource guide at every door. So 58 uh doors got a resource guide. Year to date we've knocked on 165 doors engaged with 59 community members and we've distributed 39 twod dose kits of uh Narcan. Uh last week was kind of cool. I don't have it in this slide because it was last week before I gave um my report to Pat and Shaina, but we took the Lincoln Trail District Health Department mobile unit with us to the door knocking engagement uh and offered uh testing. And so we got six individuals tested, which uh the individual that was with me from Lincoln Trail said that was the highest number they've gotten so far. So, we were pretty excited about that. Uh from a community outreach stand point, July was a big month for community outreach for us. Uh I had a booth set up at five different events. One was in Radcliffe uh for the resource fair. Then we had the national day of deflection where I um had a booth in the airlock at the courthouse. Uh and then the back to school bashes. I had a booth at each one of those. So John Harden, North Harden, Central Harden. Um we distributed 25 twod dose kits of Narcan throughout that and handed out about 120 uh brochures of the information on QRT and the resources

that we have available here in Darn County. Uh as far as raising awareness and fighting stigma goes for our social media page. Um we h uh this is for 2025 total we had 464 over 464,000 views. We reached over 125 uh individuals and we had uh over 7,000 interactions with our social media page. That's a pretty big pretty big number. Um I was able to make my first I think you can go to the next slide. I was able to make my first purchase for um QRT supplies which I was super excited about. Uh I got most of the all my event needs uh supplies except for the tent. Uh I just got the quote for that today. but to uh we put together 46 backpacks to give out to individuals um when we see someone who's in need. So um that those backpacks and it's this right here. Uh those backpack these backpacks include a safe box, a first aid kit, socks, bathing wipes, uh hygiene kit like toothpaste, toothbrush, thermal blanket, water bottle, uh and then of course some harm reduction supplies. And then the women's bags have uh women's hygiene in them as well. Uh, and then also thanks to Pat for his uh great idea, uh, we added um a contact information card and um emergency medical information uh on the back of that. So if bag ever is found or if something happens, god forbid, to that person, we'll know who they are, who their emergency contact is and things like that. Um, next slide is the the trip to Washington DC. So I was contacted by Dan Mallaloy and his team at Core Data to represent the state of Kentucky on a panel presenting the policy uh presenting to the policy makers in Washington DC. And so we focused on how important deflection efforts are on so many different levels. Um just one is engaging the individuals so that they know that they matter to us. That's just one area. But some of the other ones uh is educating the

community about community about substance use disorders because much of the stigma or the misunderstanding about substance use uh and what's associated with it is simply from a lack of just not knowing the facts about the disease. Uh and then so and also the the effects of harm reduction and how much they make it uh they impact uh our community. And so then uh we also talked about the impact it has on lowering an individual's reoccurring visits to jails and emergency departments. And so Ohio brought a study with them to this that shows that um the number of QR contacts impacts uh the local systems of care which include law enforcement's jail bookings uh and hospital uh interactions. It lowers those numbers on an average. Um, QRT making just one contact with an individual dropped the total interactions of these systems by 29%. QRT of making two contacts dropped it by 46% and QRT making three or more dropped it by 53%. The hospital association reported that uh, one QRT visit saved the hospital emergency departments $9,000 per year per individual. Two QRT contacts saved them 21 over 21,000 and three QRT contacts saved them roughly 22,000 per person per year. So it reduced hospital charges build roughly by 17,000 from just one contact from QRT, 31,000 from two QRT contacts and roughly 42,000 from three QRT contacts. I was blown away by those numbers. I didn't realize that uh it would be had that much of a subst substantial change or uh impact just from one two three contacts from from the QRT. Um and then last but certainly not least um I was able to uh I think it's next slide please. I was able to initiate a leave behind program for EMS. So uh these are just bags that I provided EMS uh they can leave with individuals who

just experienced an overdose but refused to be transported to the hospital. So, they contain a Narcan, two fentinel test strips, a CPR face shield, uh cope resource guide, and some uh information on QRT. One of the issues that I I ran into whenever I was going out uh when we were doing the referral responses was the only thing I really had to leave behind was my business card. And coming from that world, uh, if you if I came home and found a business card with a government ID on it and a label that says quick response officer, the odds of me calling that are very, very, very slim. So, um, I had these printed up, something that we can leave behind. It just kind of shows uh, our partnerships and then just says that like we miss talking to you about our outreach efforts, offering support and resources, and then how they can contact us if they want to hear more about that. So, that's where we are. I know I said all that really fast, but that's where we are right now with QRT. Any questions?

So, I think we're on a good trend here with the overdoses at 16. I project it, just doing the math, I think if the average continues be roughly 27 for the year, which is still way too many, but it's almost half. Yeah. But it's a lot better than what we've seen over the past four or five years. Yeah, for sure. Keep doing what you're doing. Good job. And hopefully we'll continue to see numbers decline hard. Yep. That's the plan. I think it's great that you're going to pick up suicides also. Start working on that. Yeah, that'd be great. I'm looking forward to hear that plan. Yeah, I'll need to learn more about how to approach it and stuff, but yes, I want to

see what we can do to help you with that. You mentioned the training on that that you'll need the training. So yeah, we'll try to support that in any way we can. I appreciate that. Yeah. Anybody else? No, I just wanted to thank thank you for all your work. It it's making a difference and a lot of times in stuff like this you may not see it. Uh even though with these statistics I think you are seeing it but there's a ripple effect you know in families that are impacted and it just goes on and on. So, uh, very, uh, very happy that you're doing this. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay. Sheriff, did y'all have any u some more presentation, right? Yes, sir.

I had Terry lined up to come first. My daughter had called right before I was getting ready to present and I wasn't about to miss that. She's uh just left for school on Sunday and uh which I we were in Danville Sunday and uh happened to be by there last night. So just happened to be by there

if y'all will according to how long court lasts. I I might drive through there tonight. I don't know. Good afternoon, Judge M. It's uh county cler county attorney and and and guest and members of the county public here. Sheriff's Office activity law enforcement June and July arrest 189 284 citations issued 163 warrants served 993 civil papers 248 complaint calls 199 accidents investigated 178 criminal cases and 20 282 other activities. ities. 95 school safety checks, 178 violation warnings, 2529 attempts to serve. And office operations, 102 records checks, 111 carrying concealed deadly weapon license issued, 1528 vehicles inspected. have a new category, victim's advocate contacts. We have a grant for a victim's advocate. Anna doll, she made 26 contacts with victims this past u this during this period. It um anywhere from uh assisting vict victims through court. you know, it's un, you know, most people don't aren't accustomed to going to court. If they're a victim of a crime, they they're not used to the processes and uh she assists with that. Um, assist them with treatment and and

various various other services. at uh in our community engagement. The SRO's and deputies provided security uh at the Harden County Fair and um they had many changes at the fair this year. I know most of y'all saw and for my opinion everything went well. The way they had the new fence with parking the cars and I know most of y'all were farmtotable to dinner. And it was great to see that as a as a sellout. It uh also on special guest day on Thursday. That's something that I wish you all would think about for next year. It uh that's that's the best day. That's the best day at the fair. And it uh if if you go there on that day, it uh it uh makes you realize why why they have a why we have a fair. And it it's a it's a it's a very very good day. But uh court transportation 71 adults transports the court juvenile 15 112 instate transports. We also we have a new program starting at the sheriff's office in the near future. will soon be conducting child safety seat inspections at two locations here in the county. That's something that um used to be done here locally. Uh used it used to be done at post and uh the state police has quit quit doing them and uh we've seen the need that it's you know people can go by child safety seat and uh you need to you need to use them right. You can't just stick one in there and your

child's going to be safe. And this is something where new parents can come in and have have a deputy check that child's safety seat to make sure it is installed correctly. That's all I have. Does anyone have any questions? Have you already sheriff? Have you already started that child safety? No, that's going to be starting um it'll be starting within the next month. Okay, good. Awesome. I I'll I'll give all the details. Uh okay. It might when we do start that and I'll I'll report on it the next That's great. Our next my next report. All right. Thank you all. All right. Thank you, Sheriff.

Thank you. Just to note too that there are some um uh written reports available um online for you to look at. Okay, we're going to move um and step take a step back and we have time for a public hearing for Harden County uh 2025 property tax rates and this is uh will be conducted by our county attorney Jenny Olden.

Thank you, Judge. Um so you've heard the proposed tax rates for Harden County. KRS68.245 requires us to have a public hearing. So, if there's anyone here um who would like to give input or ask questions about those rates, um you can come to the podium. This was advertised as required by statute on August 9th and also August 16th as required. Um and just repeating those rates, a real estate tax rate of 10.8 8 per each $100 of assessed value. The personal property, business inventory, non- Kentucky registered watercraft and aircraft rate of 12.3 cents per $100 of assessed value. And then the motor vehicle and watercraft tax rate of 11.5 cents on each $100. And we will be approving after the hearing those rates. The ones you've heard for the special purpose government entities are simply an announcement. um fiscal court does not approve those rates. But if anyone's here who would like to provide input, you can come to the podium now. And seeing no one, that will close the hearing. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. All right. Move on to uh a time of any citizens concerns or comments. Um so we'll open that up for anyone that wants to come forward. They have any comment or question. Okay, seeing none, we will move on. Um, I'm thinking too that since we're we've had this theme of of tax rates, uh, that we'll just go ahead and vote on that first. So, I'm going to skip down to item D and look at, uh, approving resolution 2025-1 171. This is uh, setting the tax rates that we just discussed. So, is there a motion to approve the resolution? So, move Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll have roll call, please. Squire Clim, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes. Judge Executive Keith Tall.

Yes. Motion passes. Next, we'll move to item A and this is to approve resolution 2025-160 and this is related to the approval of addition to the personnel policies and procedures handbook on on call duty. Basically, this is changing uh or increasing our uh on call duty pay from $15 a day to $20 a day during the week and on the weekend it will be $50 a day on the weekend. And um so this uh will impact the road department and it will impact the um animal um uh shelter also those two departments. So, is there a motion to approve the resolution?

So, moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion?

Yes. I guess I have discussion or opinion on it. Uh we we increase the on call from $105 a week to $200 a week and they get a three-hour minimum if they get called. And I think that's I guess I want to say excessive or a big increase when we're trying to balance our budget. I I worked at Fort Knox. Our on call people didn't receive any stipen and they got a two-hour minimum if they got called in. So there there are organizations or people or companies that that operate that way. and we didn't have a we didn't have a big problem because there was people that was willing to be on call and I understand that maybe we don't have that at our rope department or the animal control but as I said trying to balance the budget or trying to keep cost down I thought this was a big increase and I guess I can't approve all the increases all the time and I realize this is a small one, but the small ones add up. So, that's the reason I'll vote no on this resolution.

All right. Thank you. Anyone else? I just I think that $20 for to give up one of your week nights is pretty cheap myself for $50 to give up one of your weekends. I think it's fairly cheap as well. I know that um the white presented us with uh what area around us such as the water company, city of Elizabeth Town and the adjustments we're making are comparable and I think fair. So I'll be voting yes.

Very good. All right. Anybody who else none is um we'll go ahead and then take roll call. Squire Clim. Yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, no. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes. Judge Executive Keith Tall,

yes. Motion passes. All right. Next we'll we'll go to item B and this is the to approve resolution 166 and this is related to approval of the judge executive job description revision uh for the communications officer uh previously called the P PR officer and so this is mainly moved from a part-time the main change is part-time to full-time salary position. Is there a motion to approve the resolution? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Judge, I have a few comments.

Yes, sir.

Little background for my comments, please. Uh, as you stated, currently this position is listed uh as a public relations and it's budgeted as a part-time position. This resolution will take it from the part-time to a full-time. And in addition, it'll give it also an increase by an elevated grade, which would bring the salary for this position close to $60,000 and with benefits close to $87,000. Say that again. $87,000. And this is not in the budget. Um just a short three months ago, the same body was considering completely doing away with this position in the budget as a line item. In three months, I don't know really what has changed, but uh now we're uh considering this full-time position uh from a position we were questioned we were questioning as a part-time position. Uh on August the 18th, the step and grade committee met. uh I don't know what time but it was prior to the uh committee meeting and they considered the job description they considered the salary and they also made the name change from public relations to the communications officer uh which I think is a good is a good move there as far as the uh title uh after they made the decision on the job description the job title and the salary it was presented that same day at 3:30 at the uh committee uh had no time other than that time to discuss it. Uh during that time I asked that we give it 30 days pause to give us a chance to dig into it and look at it and see if the description met the the salary. Um I was in the minority and the uh the majority moved by consensus to bring it forward today for approval. U this job title is

communications officer but in the description there are a number of different activities that they would also be responsible for special events um financial seeking out financial aid uh also grants I think we're headed down the road of having the same problems we had before by having too many things packed into this description. If we're going to have a communications officer, I would like for it to be a communications officer and that would be their duty and the salary being in align with that duty as as well. So, uh, part of part of the issue with this, uh, grant writing, um, I know we discussed that in the committee meeting, and this person is not going to be responsible for actually the grant writing, but they're going to be responsible for the process of making sure of the grants that are available. Uh, also making sure the department heads that are on top of it, uh, and also seeking out financial aid from the the fed federal government and the state government. We have right down at the end of the street, Provident Way, the Lincoln Trail uh district, ad district. They have a professional grant writing department. They provide this service for cities and counties and we have not tapped into that. So my opposition to this is putting all the things into this package under this one for this one person to to be responsible for. And it's almost like the advertisement you see today. We do windows. I mean, this person's going to be grabbing a this and grabbing at that. If you're going to do something, do it right. And I think we're giving this person way too much responsibility to do. Uh, and I think the salary package is too high. And so, for that matter, uh, for those reasons, I will be voting no.

Thank you, Judge. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments?

Yes, sir. Uh, I believe our focus should be on balancing and maintaining our budget rather than adding new expenses. Uh, I did fully support providing additional pay where it is earned and deserved. For example, the changes that we just made on the on call compensation for our road department, our animal control. They were long overdue and needed to be addressed. However, giving a raise and making a position full-time less than two months into our new budget is not good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, especially considering that during budget discussion, this very position was nearly eliminated. For that reason, I'm not in favor of granting a raise to the communications director.

All right. Thank you. Any other discussion?

I think a lot of the discussion at budget time wasn't necessarily for me anyway the position or opposition to the position. It was the effectiveness that we was getting out of a part-time job. So, I I didn't like it when we moved it from full-time to part-time. But now that uh we're proposing to bring it back to full-time, I think it's know the fourth largest city in Harden I mean in the state, I think we do need a good public relations director and I think the right person in the job it would be well worth it. So I'll be voting in favor. Thank you. Anyone else

to speak on it, please? Um the position as as it was it was part-time the PR position was part-time. Mainly that position entailed uh social media and and dealing with things that had to do with social media and and doing some other responsibilities uh along with that. I think they were involved in in some coordination of grant uh efforts also. But as it's proposed now, taking it to a full-time position, it's more it is a communications position. Now, it is uh weigh heavily upon uh county government. And it's an important position and I think it's crucial to county government to have someone in that spot that can coordinate and direct and implement effective communication for this county for the county and government body to our community. This person will serve not just as a PR individual, someone responsible for social media, but they will in addition to that serve as a writer. Um, someone that will have direct contact with the media, someone that the media can call first to find out about important things that are going on in the county that affect county government. We've elevated this position. And when you elevate a position and you add requirements to the job description, most of the time you elevate the salary. That kind of goes hand in hand. I think that it's time we bring this back. I think believe the position used to be full-time. um maybe at a different

level, but I think it's time that our county had a full-time communicator, not just a PR person, but someone that that could embrace all of those communication efforts in an effort to bring the county together. In addition, this individual will be responsible for internal and external communications. So, they'll be responsible for internal communications within the employee body also. and they'll serve as a liaison between the different departments and the media. So when we have a flood, for example, instead of our our EMS uh director going out and and having to respond to the media, that individual can go to the the scene and and do what needs to be done. and our communicator, our communications officer can take care of what needs to be communicated out there to the public. So, I mean, there's more to this position than just helping with with grant writing and and and they're not responsible for grants. They're coordinating that that effort. So, that's not a real big part of this position. And the biggest part of this position is the communications and the PR and then they will be assisting with grants. So I think it's a crucial uh position. I think the uh the salary base is within line with other uh communicators out there and and I'll be voting yes for it. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Anyone else?

Yeah. In light of transparency, I think a lot of our constituents as a whole are wanting to hear more. There's a lot of changes. There's a lot of things that are happening. Someone's got to be the voice. And I mean, we all have different responsibilities. We all do need to be a voice, but having one person is probably an important um aspect of that. Again, I think Chris hit the nail on the head in regards to the budget time. I think there's a lot of unsure um aspects of what the actual job description was, but now that it's fully defined and um and I I do think there are a lot of um aspects to it like you were saying, Fred, however, you know, communication is going to be consistent every single day, all day long. Social media is not going to be consistent every day, all day long. I do think it's important that we have somebody that, you know, we're searching for somebody that could potentially bring in grants or help coordinate with grants, not necessarily write them um to, you know, maybe it is just communication with Lincoln Trail AD, making sure we're on top of things. But right now, if I'm not mistaken, when we heard in committee, we that position's been open and we've had no candidates. Um, and that's an issue for that part-time position. And now that job duty is now being thrown upon other employees and that's not necessarily in their job description. So, do we look at giving pay raises to people who aren't doing this or aren't are taking on an extra role or do we hire somebody and have somebody that can effectively do this job? Um, so I I do thoroughly think that we need this and I always I said all along I think if we're going to do it, we need to do it and we need to be allin. Um, but I just I I think that the job duties and the u the task that they are tasked with is important and that's why I was supportive of the grants.

All right. Thank you. Any anyone else? Okay. Hearing none, uh, then let's go ahead and have roll call. Square Clim, no. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, no. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, no. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes. Judge Executive Keith Tall, yes. Motion passes.

All right. Next we will move um to uh resolution 170. Uh this resolution rescends resolution 156 which is related to the approval of the striker lease agreement for the seven years for the ambulance equipment. Uh what has happened here is that we have found out that uh this uh lease agreement that we needed to obtain bids before the approval and signing of the agreement. And so, uh, because of that, uh, that's another step in the process and we really shouldn't have, um, um, a resolution 156 that says let's sign it before we've actually, um, had the bids, u sent out. So, and and receive those. So, this is we'll resend that. Then we'll go through this process and then we will um have another resolution at our next meeting hopefully the next meeting and be able to u vote on this again. So that's what this uh resolution is all about. Uh is there a motion to approve the resolution?

So moved. Second. Catch that. Who was it moved over here? EG. Thank you. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All right. Hearing none, we'll have roll call, please. Squire Clem, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes. Judge Executive Keith Tall, yes. Motion passes.

All right. Next is re resolution 172. This is related to a contract that we need to sign with the Kentucky Department of Transportation flex fund agreement. This is for uh 394,000 about uh dollars and for the resurfacing of Blue Ball Church Road and Tunnel Hill Road. Uh is there a motion to approve the resolution? Second. We have who second it. All right. Moved and second. Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Square Clam, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Square Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Square Saltsman, yes. Square Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates. Yes. Judge Executive Keith Tall.

Yes. Motion passes. All right. Uh we'll move on then to the consent agenda. Just a explanation a few of these items that are in here. Uh the first three are all financial uh treasures financial report August claims payroll with registers and then I'll throw in um item G which is resolution 161 that's related to the approval of some financial transfers. Uh after that we have an appro uh resolution 157. This is related to um approval of a 2020 Tahoe transfer and sale to Grayson County Correctional Center. Uh this is from u this this uh vehicle is at our jail right right now and so this is the sale of that uh 2020 Tahoe. Uh next is uh resolution 158. This is related to approval of um Vertive uh Corporation to replace 10 batteries. These are backup batteries on the main communications tower. Uh the importance of this is that this is our uh um our emergency service radios that um that are used all the time. Commun uh it's our communication, our main communication with our ambulance, 911, etc. and fire. So very important that we have a backup there. So that uh replaces those 10 batteries. Uh item F is excuse me uh resolution 159 and it's related to approval of the time clock plus. Uh this is a renewal for the employee license. Uh again this is time clock software renewal and is this will be locking in the prices for the next

five years. Item H is resolution 162 is related to approval of a bid for a new never titled 3/4tonon with service bed for a road department about $58,000. The next three items are personnel related 163, 164, 165 U and some personnel changes in the road department, EMS and E 911. The next item is resolution 167. This is related to approval of revisions to the personnel uh of policies and procedures handbook. basically cleaning up some documentation uh regarding our incount vehicle uh use section. And the next item is 168 and this is um some a change to our uh finance uh personnel. And then we have uh resolution 169 and this is related to approval of of surplus four-wheeler. and we're transferring this to Hajenville Police Department at no cost. And so this is an inventory item that we're moving out. And finally, the last two items are minutes of our uh a couple of our committee meetings. So that's what's in the consent agenda. Um, does anyone disagree with or want to remove any of these items

hearing? None. I don't know if I count, but No, no, I'm I'm sorry. We'll This is just for us going through right now. Okay. Thank I appreciate it. So, um, uh, we'll go ahead and have a motion to approve the consent agenda items. So, move. Second. Moved and seconded. Let's go ahead and have roll call, please. Squire Clum, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, yes. Squire Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Squire Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead, yes. Squire Yates, yes.

Judge Executive Keith Tall. Yeah, excuse me. Yes. Motion passes. Okay, we'll go ahead and move on then to some of our comments. Um, county attorney, any comments? No, thank you. Okay. Uh, how about our county clerk standin? Yes. Okay.

Um, Harden County Clerk launches a wheelchair program to ensure voting access for all. It's a press release put out by Brian D. Smith today, the Harden County Clerk. All of our vote centers are fully ADA compliant, but we know that the walk from the parking lot to the poll booth can be a challenge for a lot of folks. The clerk's office has a plan to have wheelchairs available at the largest polling locations. Each wheelchair will be operated by a student aid who can escort voters who need a little extra help navigating through the building. To make this program a success, we need your help. We're asking residents to donate unused wheelchairs to assist voters at our polling locations. The clerk's office can arrange pickups and every donation will be cleaned and restored for use. The clerk's office is hoping to collect 10 wheelchairs by the end of the year to prepare for the 2026 election season. Voting is a fundamental right. We're committed to ensuring every Harton County resident can exercise it comfortably and with dignity. Anyone interested in donating a wheelchair can call 270-765-6762 or email hc elections at hcccoy.org.

Thank you. Very good. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to our magistrates. Uh, Magistrate Yates. Judge, only thing I have is our next emergency service committee meeting will be Thursday, September 11th at 3:30 p.m. All right. Thank you, Magistrate Salsman. Nothing, sir. Thank you. All right, Magistrate Whitehead. Yes, just that the next resources and community support committee meeting will be Monday, September 15th at 3:30. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Magister Clam. Uh yes, the next finance committee meeting be Tuesday, September the 16th, uh at 3:30 across the hall. And I want to remind folks, please don't drink and drive and don't text and drive. All right. Thank you. Uh, Magistrate Pennington,

no comment, sir. Magistrate Thompson. Um, I'll just take a moment to recognize and express my appreciation to um, Judge, I'm sorry, um, Chief Robert Weatherington, uh, the Sonora Fire Department for his uh, diligence in in acquiring a $10,000 grant for the Sonora Fire Department. Uh, I think they received those funds today. They were one of three in the state that were fortunate enough to get that grant. They'll be using the $10,000 grant to improve safety for their firefighters um commendations to uh Chief Weatherington and his department.

Fire departments throughout the county. They do such a great job for us. Very good. Thank you for bringing that up. Uh Magistrate Hicks, I have none. Okay. and Magistrate Muse. A reminder, the next public works committee meeting is Wednesday, September the 10th at 3:30 across the hall. And on September the 6, we have two church picnics in my area. St. Bridget at Vine Grove and St. Martin of Tours in Flity.

All right. Very good. Thank you. Uh, next fiscal court meeting is Tuesday, September 9th at 3:30 p.m. And then just a quick reminder that we have Labor Day holiday coming up on Monday, September 1st, and so our offices will be closed on that day, but not EMS and not 911. Right? Those guys are still rolling along. All right. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. Second. Have a second. Any objections? Meeting adjourned.