Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, that's all. All right. All right. I'd like to call to order the Rackliff City Council meeting held for February 17th, 2026 at 5:30. This meeting is being held at Rackcliffe City Halls being streamed live on Facebook and reported by Hart County Television. If you can please rise for an invocation and remain stand for a pledge.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this beautiful day. Thank you for all our blessings. We ask that you give the mayor and the council wisdom as they consider the business of the city. We thank you for our citizens. We ask that you be with those who are in need in poor health and suffering loss. Lord, we thank you for getting us through the recent storms. We thank you for all of your blessings. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, we have roll call, please. President Brown here Owens. We have a All right. Can we have uh I'll wait for this. All right. Can we have roll call or see Miss Owens? You got me all screwed up here. I tell you. Can we have consideration approval for minutes for January 20th, 2026 regular meeting and February 9th, 2026 work session? So move.

Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Any oppos? All in favor?

There you go. Any oppose? All right. Motion carries. Well, thank you all so much for being here tonight on our regularly scheduled council meeting. Um I'm going to make two changes on the agenda just to switch them around. I'm going to moveformational items up and then switch it down to public comments. So, I'm just going to flip those two around uh just because we got some guests here tonight. And so, uh, first of all, I'd like to, uh, recognize some of our people. I got the Williams that are here with us. Uh, if you don't know who the Williams are, you probably not from Rackcliffe or been around Rackcliffe for the last several years. U, but we, uh, came across something. I was made aware that you all are celebrating something tomorrow, I believe. Um,

I'm trying to think how to say this last. She's put up with a lot 60 years, had you, Mr. Mr. William? Thanks, Mr. if your daddy was here. But you all are celebrating your 60th wedding anniversary in tomorrow. So, we'd like to recognize you all. Mr. Pike uh every once in a while does a very good job. He gets paid quite a bit of money. So, I'm allow him to read this. He does a lot better job than I do. So, I'm allow him to read this proclamation. Recognize you all.

Thank you, mayor. This is a proclamation of the city of Radcliffe. Whereas on February 18th, 1966, Howard and Mary Williams were united in holy matrimony and will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary February 18, 2026. And whereas their family grew to include two daughters, Angela and Sheree, and four grandchildren. And whereas Howard and Mary Williams are pillars in this community, Mr. Williams spent over 26 years on active duty and 23 years as a business executive. And Mrs. Williams spent 26 years as a federal employee. They continue to volunteer for numerous civic and community organizations. And whereas Howard and Mary Williams set an example of love, kindness, and equality to everyone they meet and are the epitome of commitment and dedication to each other, their family, friends, and community. And therefore, I, James S. Duval Jr., mayor of the city of Rackcliff, Kentucky, by virtue of the authority vested in me, do proclaim February 18, 2026, Howard and Mary Williams Day in the city of Rackcliffe. and in doing so urge all citizens within the city of Rackcliffe and surrounding communities to recognize their commitment to the city of Rackcliffe and the Fort Knox Harden County communities and to congratulate them on 60 years of marriage and wish them many more years of love, happiness, and memories to come. Signed the 17th day of February, the year of our Lord 2026 in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, city of Rec. James S. Duval Jr., mayor, city of Reckley. Congratulations. I don't know if Got

everybody. Gosh.

We'll let y'all say a few words, please. We've been in the we got assigned to Fort Knox back in 1981 and didn't take for long to determin county was the place that we wanted to build our retirement home and raise our children. And so it's been fun. It's been a pleasure to serve the city and various types of positions that the mayors goes back to Smith. Hey, I want you here and it's a pleasure. It's a great community. You have a secret young I would say learn you know when to say yes ma'am and no ma'am but you know you don't have an attitude. Mr. Howard,

this is how important the night was. John Tendle even showed up. Look at this.

There's a ball game going up. All right. Uh, next, uh, on the agenda, uh, we have a recognition of one of our firefighters. I'd like to call up our chief, Mr. Marsh,

if you want to come up. And I'm going to actually have you grab that mic, sir. And obviously, um, and tell a little bit just to recap. Just you can take it off the if you want to take it off the stand. Um, if you remember back at our Christmas um, council meeting, uh, Chief Marsh explained to us kind of, uh, what Sergeant O'Donnie, I'm sorry, you're Lieutenant Go was able to do and and kind of some of the measures he took to help save a life here in our community. So, I'll let him turn that over to you.

So, uh, back on, uh, December 14th, uh, we had a house fire. It was 8:10 in the morning. It was 10 minutes after shift change. Uh, Lieutenant Sean was on his way home. We got dispatched to a fire with possible entrapment. Uh, he turned around and was on scene within a minute. He was the first one on scene. He didn't hesitate. He uh confirmed that there there was somebody inside the house. Uh, that the house was on fire. And uh at that point in time, he proceeded to enter the house to uh pull the homeowner out. Uh at that time, he was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt because he was off duty, had no protective gear. So uh he was able to get the uh able to get the homeowner out to the front stoop. And then at that point in time, firefighters had arrived on scene and were able to assist him to get the uh gentleman to the yard. Uh unfortunately, the the homeowner did pass away about two weeks later. Uh we were praying and hoping for a better outcome. You know, we gave him the best chance that he had. Uh but uh through Sean's efforts, uh you know, he could have, you know, could have been a lot worse. But you know, the family did have two more weeks, got to spend Christmas and say goodbye to him. So, uh, but like I said, we were we were praying that it was going to be a better outcome because he was able to get him out of the house. Uh, Lieutenant O'Neal did uh did have carbon monoxide poisoning from that being in that atmosphere without having protective equipment and everything. So, uh he he struggled with that for a couple days but recovered and was back to work the next shift. So, uh, we're we're really proud of him for his

efforts and what he did. And I would hope that, uh, anybody would do that that situation, but we don't condone general public to run into a burning house. I mean, we know what we're getting into, but you know, in that situation, we we hope, you know, everybody would help. So,

so at this time, uh, I had, uh, requested to present him with the fire department medal of honor. So the uh to receive the medal of honor, the firefighter in the performance of duty while on a call under extreme hazardous conditions in which the firefighters confronted with imminent personal risk has full knowledge of that risk, performs an act of conspicuous heroism which furthers the highest traditions of the fire service. So, we'd like to present this to Lieutenant Sha Darling for his actions on December 14th, 2025. Okay. Come on. Everybody else.

Yes, sir.

Appreciate it. Thank you guys. See y'all.

Hey man. Chief said you have to stay the rest of the meeting. Have a good night. Oh, this guy.

Oh, not the firefighter. I got you. All right. At this time, at this time, we will open the floor to public comments. Uh, please keep your comments relative to the council things that the council can work on. We'll keep the minute. We've gone about two to three minutes. Uh if you want to come up and speak, anybody none will move on then. Uh at this time we have new business and uh first on the agenda is the consideration approval of Iraq Police Department's policies and procedures of domestic violence. That is what we discussed. chief is here. That is what we discussed at the work session and the new policies and updates to the current policies. Any questions regarding that?

All right, hearing none. Roll call vote, please. Oh, I need a motion. Shoot. Need a motion. Second. Motion. Second. Hearing no discussion. Vote, please. Yes, sir. Bell, yes. Brown, yes. Ro, yes. Merl, yes. Owens, yes. Thompson, yes. Motion carries. Uh, next on the agenda is consideration approval of the surplus items is what we discussed. You should have the list of those. Need a motion and a second. Second, Thompson. Any discussion? Hearing none. Got roll call books, please. Yes, sir.

Brown. Yes. Ro, yes. Merl. Yes. Owings. Yes. Thompson. Yes. Beth. Yes. Carries. All right. Final item on the agenda is the consideration approval of the bid for the commercial property located at 987 North Boulevard. This is what we consider the FFO building. This is the discussion that we had at the last meeting. Um, you all should have that. We need a motion to second. We can have discussion.

Motion. Second motion and a second. Um that is on the sheet that is the bids were open February 5th, 2026 at 10 p.m. Um the bid was submitted by Mr. Tindle which was for 58,000 to 500 500 58,500. Uh the reserve was met by Mr. Tindle and he did include a 10% earnest fee. What's that? discussion. Roll call vote, please. Yes, sir. Yes. Merl, yes. Owens, yes. Yes. Bell,

yes. Yes. And we will contact Mr. Tindle. I know he's present tonight, but we will contact discussion. Mr. Pitt forward with that closing. Sounds good. Yes, sir.

All right. Mayor, council comments. Well, the first I'll kind of start off um we've had uh several things going on. One of the things uh Boys and Girls Club opened up um this past week. That was I know some people wasn't able to attend, but we appreciate the people that did attend and could be there. Um that was exciting. Today was their first day officially opening. And so, uh hopefully I didn't get the chance to go over there yet, but hopefully everything went smooth. hopefully stop over there by tomorrow. See how the little ones are doing, but they were at capacity. Um they met their goal already and the goal is based on staffing obviously and so um everyone that was there, the excitement was there and so uh it's a great youth program I think that's going to do great things here in our community. And I think if anybody watched the uh we got two, we got to add another one. WH did a story. I know Pete shared that to me the other night. Um, but if you watch any of the stories, you saw a mother who went through the program and now her son's in the program and here at Rackcliffe, but it was something that she said helped her drastically in her youth time frame. So, we hope we have many, many, many, many more stories like that, but it'll be coming out of the Rackcliffe um, Boys and Girls Club. So, we're excited about that. Next thing I want to ask the council just for you all's advice. Obviously, the mayor's breakfast got postponed. U, we've been trying to figure a date. Ashley's been working with Becky back there trying to figure out what date works best. Um March 7th is the I think the date that was open, but um I don't know what everybody's schedule looks like and there's so many things that are going on. And then I threw out the idea, why not have it at night sometime breakfast? I've eaten breakfast before my own house. But any ideas or anybody in the crowd know something going on March 7th the morning?

Kind of short notice, but it's kind of one of those things that popped up. Anybody know anything else going on? Back the crowd Kevin Bobby I can't think of anything. So we will Yep.

Well, you know, you know, Kim, as long as we go back, I really just wanted to say no one's going to notice, but I couldn't do that to you. I wasn't going to say it out loud. Uh well, we'll uh we'll let the council know. Um but you can still give a door prize.

It uh we'll let everybody know by the mid by the end of this week for sure, but we will try to get it out as soon as possible. And then with that, I think Maria, you got anything? I want to say that we are we survived several weather conditions in this area including tornado warnings and all the stuff about what we experienced last week for two three weeks. We still can see some patches outside. It's it's it's a impossible to believe what happened. But we're all well and learn how it is for the people who live in Alaska to be like that every day and Iowa and Utah and all these places. I don't think Kentucky could do this every day all year round. I have a some sad news to announce that we found out today. My brother told me he first saw it on Facebook. Drew um Cooker Master uh had an accident and if you don't know who Drew Drew Cooker Master is, he worked for RSBA for the marketing for a while and I still can't believe I tried to reach out to his partner. They were doing a podcast how to invest in real estate. He did a good podcast recently. I don't know have any more details about his way and what happened exactly when I get more but pray for him and rest in peace you he was he was a good guy he was he was a go-getter a lot of people in this area met him because he worked for Spectrum and

that's how I met him because he came to the restaurant to sign me up and then uh RSBA needed somebody to market and he accepted and rest in peace. He has a wife who survived by his wife. She I don't know if she had a pregnancy going because they lost one in the beginning baby. So it's sad. He was young, very young. And life is short. Enjoy the present and wait for tomorrow. What can I say? And my closing spring is right around the corner. How many more days? 19.

Mr. Brown pass tonight. Ma'am pass. I met a couple uh on on Facebook when there was the tornado uh donations that we were doing last fall. Um Tim and Trisha uh Kuay and as a result of meeting them, we became friends and I learned something. So, I want to congratulate the John Harden Lady Bulldogs wrestling team region champs. They were just uh became the region champs. North Harden High School Lady Trojans came in second and Central Harden Lady Bruins came in respectfully. They came in second. They are going to state, the boys and the girls are going to state um the se 27th and the 28th. So I I called her and I said, "Well, first of all," and I did see that our rack police department escorted them back from their region tournament. Um I did not know that Harden County schools had a girls wrestling teams. So I had to call and ask for I saw that. I had to just say when did this happen because I don't have children or grandchildren in the school. So, in 2023, uh she said that um the Kentucky High School Athletic Association um formed a girls wrestling teams and um so our girls, I say our girls in Harden County, they will be going to state and hopefully they can come back with that trophy as well. So, I was just excited to learn that, proud of and congratulate all the uh girl wrestlers in the in the county.

Thank you. Um, you know, the legislation is in session for this for the season right now. So, House Bill 500, if you look that up when you're at home, that's the budgetary appropriation for things like education, transportation, and so I think what will happen or could happen increasing and paying money for some of the programs if your teachers and educational staff tend to a little stressful at this point in time. You're thinking about things of the funding base frozen for some of the programs and they still have to be able to make it. Transportation might take a cut and we're already short and bus drivers as it is. It also covers their health care and the way that premiums are looking right now. Maybe it might be a little tough for them based on what they've made. And with all of that house bill 500, it may in reverse make the education department or actually the education districts are kind of rely a little bit more on property value because that's where the revenue is going to come from if you don't get it from the state. So I want you all to be a little bit patient depending on how this legislature moves House Bill 500 to the Senate and then of course out to the governor. So if you do take hits in the education funding where it's appropriation, you'll know where it's coming from. I I I encourage you to go on the internet and look up what House Bill 500 is about. And if you got kids, grandkids, you know, people who work in our public school system, understand it may take a big cut or even if it's a minimum one, they're already kind of operating base right now. But on a good note for Lu Chapter 110 and the They are having their annual brawl on the 20th, which is this weekend. It will be at the Haycraft from

700 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. And like most of the social organizations here, we raise money in order to support our kids going off to wherever mostly school when they go off to, you know, their colleges or some go to vocational schools or go off to a job. We have to invest in that kind of stuff. That's a great economic development. in a sense it's human capital and so we have this weekend and we know there's a lot of competing activities going on but this is how we show up fat Tuesday all right and then uh

actually anything else we got agenda we need to mention I think everything's Good. Uh Pete sh not show stand up for a second. Pete, if you'll show the audience, I don't know how you came up with this so fast, but if you all will notice Mr. Countryman's shirt, that is our new logo for the city. If you I don't know if you were able to zoom in. I don't know how you got it so fast on a shirt. connections

for sale for you have some great

uh but we want to so that logo as as we started the process in working with Lincoln Trail uh area development uh actually Gina needs you all to stay after they all the council don't get up and leave um she needs to do a little video with you guys but As Gina had reached out to us to get some work done, um my deputy here, Miss Russo, uh started to create a new logo that we needed to send them because Gina needed to put that on all of our information stuff going out. We were tweaking a little bit and so Ashley and uh started tweaking it to she gave me two different designs and uh I think Chance had came up with some ideas and they had kind of put it together and that's where this kind of came. We sent it to Gina. Gina said, "Hey, I need to tweak it just a little bit to make everything work." The font and really, you know, with the I didn't know that I had this much talent sitting next to me to come up with a whole new idea at the time. But, you know, when you get good people with good mindsets working together and then kind of throw ideas off each other, it really came out. And I think the designs, Pete, show one more time. I think it shows very well. I was a little concerned on what it looked like on a shirt, but I think it shows. I think it shows pretty well.

Yes, I think it looks pretty good. So, kind of a new direction, new design. And I think if if y'all have noticed uh our relationship and working with uh Lincoln ad, the some of the posts and stuff that's being made and some of the just even like the Boys and Girls Club, some of the photos and stuff that were taken, uh that's just the beginning of our process of working with um Lincoln Trail AD. But, um as far as a new logo, new design, I think it was just something I think kind of set a new fresh start for 2026. And so, I want to thank Miss Russo. And do I need to thank Chance? Absolutely. Chance is the one. Oh yeah. Does Chance need the He's probably watching. See, he says Chance Fox is watching. So, absolutely.

But we appreciate their hard work in making that logo a reality. So, that was I was actually kind of surprised when we saw it. We put them side by side and we started looking at it. I was like, "Oh, why did we do this before?" I was like, "I didn't know we come up with." But I think it it kind of sets the idea of what, you know, we're kind of looking for. It's that historic. And if you ever look at there's a city called Taylor's Mill, Kentucky. Has anyone heard of it? But their logo is actually a Gristville. And it's it's kind of if you remember back when Mike Weaver was talking about a Grisville, he had saw this. I had showed this to him. He said, "You should have put a Grisville on there." I like Mike. So, uh, but I think the idea, so thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Chance. And of course, thank the ad for their hard work getting us started in our public relations.

But who was the one who said about the American flag? I don't think we can get an American flag. I don't know if we can fit an American flag. You could do one in the background square behind it. I don't think there's a place to I like the way it is. I think it looks I think it looks like So, all right with that. Do we have anything else? If we do it, it'll be if we do it at March 7th, it would be from 9 to 11. It's on seven. Uh motion to return.

Any discussion? All in favor? Any oppose? You know, I haven't I haven't brought this thing out in like 10 years. Gina, you got to