Woodford County Fiscal Court - Regular Meeting

We're going to go back into open session. All right, we are back in open session. Return from executive session. 61.810 subsection F. And we are um I need a motion to re reenter uh open session. Make a motion. Motion by second by Square Gill. Second by Square Gil. All those in favor, please vote signify by saying I. I.

All those opposed, nay. There being no action to come before the uh court in executive session pursuant to car 61810F regarding personnel uh we are adjourned.

Madame clerk, would you please call the role? Taylor here. Gentry, he's here. Barner here. Carl here. Downey here. Blackford Hill here. Brown here. Thank you. Offering our invocation this evening is Reverend Tony Harden from Journey Church.

Thank you all. Would y'all pray with me? Heavenly Father, tonight I'm just feeling thankful to be placed in uh in such a wonderful community in a county. Uh Lord, it's just a privilege to be here. And I'm also thankful for these men and women who have uh chosen to take up this mandle of leadership. And Lord, I pray that you would guide them in their decisions tonight. Uh that you would be with them and encourage them. And I pray protection over them. And I pray that the works that they do would be good and pleasing to you. Lord, I offer these things in the name of your son and our savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. If you're able, please rise for the

pledge of 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. Tony, I'd like to open up the floor for anyone wishing to make a public comment. Anybody wishing to address the court or the community? Mr. Manfield, sir. Thank you. I I just have one question. When you get to the the discussion about the broadband sir,

will there be a way to find out if your specific residence will be served for that? I saw the map that showed sort of the route, but you know, we want to get down to will it be at our house. Thank you, Mr. Mansfield. Um, oh, I'm sorry. And thanks for still having uh the possible tweaks to the farmland preservation ordinances.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. So, um, as is, uh, our practice and policy, we do not address public comment directly. We allow the public to have a comment. However, we do have with us folks from um All Points Broadband and um we will make sure that question is directed to them. I think I know the answer. Squire Squire Taylor, I believe you know the answer as well and um the short answer is I believe yes is the short answer. Uh but we will have them address that when they come up. Um all right. Anybody else have any public comment? Anybody wishing to uh make a public comment? Seeing none, we'll move on to the approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of March 10th, 2026 and the special meeting of March 16th. Are there any additions or corrections to any of the minutes? Seeing none, are there any objections to approving the minutes as presented? Seeing no objection, I'll approve the minutes as presented. Um, we do have the Pisgga Farms and Furlongs event request and Jill is with us and uh I told her I would have her up uh first to have the opportunity to uh discuss that with us. So,

okay, welcome Jill. You mind to turn on the mic there for us, please? All right, there we go. Um, I know I did this once before, so if you can walk me through like what you need from me. I know this is a new policy put in place last year, the year before because it county was becoming a bit overwhelmed with these events. Yes. So, I would just say um kind of talk to us a little bit about the route and any um plans you have to notify um neighbors and businesses and residents along the route.

Sure. So it is a half marathon which is 13.1 miles that is going to run through the Pisgga district. So we're going to start and end at one of the farms which would be Ashbrook Farm right on Pisgga Pike and we'll go out and we'll head up um I guess that would be north towards Winstar Farm. We we're going to go in the main gate. We'll run through about a mile of WinStar Farm. We'll come back out, head up to Payne's Mill, take a right like we're going to town. Uh we'll go up through there. We'll take a quick right and we'll be on Williams Lane for less than a mile. Come back towards Payne's Mill. We'll run up to Buck Palm Farm on Payne's Mill. We'll go all the way up to the house. Come back come back through um and we'll finish up. I did we rerouted the course a little bit last year. We're going to be going before we head up to Winstar Farm. We will be taking a left so south on Pisgga and to New Town Anorstud run through their farm and come back out. So it adds about 210 of a mile on Pisgga. So we will do this Saturday May 30th which is the first Saturday after Memorial Day weekend. And in the past there we've done a couple things to allow neighbors and and Woodford County to let them know everybody that this is going on. We have um an e an extensive email list of all the neighbors that reside within the district and we let them know that way. We also have a mailing list that we let we mail out in case some people don't have access to email. And then last year you guys had us do I think it was it's a Woodford County alerts and I don't remember exactly. I think I talked to

Is that who I Okay. Okay. Um and so and then we work with um the police department and they're very helpful having us shut down the roads for a couple hours on that Saturday morning. So that's kind of how we handle the road closures and it's roughly from about the first the the half marathon goes off at 6:45 and we shut down the roads right at 6:45 and we're done about 10 o'clock. And if I may ask, Miss Richard, the um are the roads fully shut down or are they allowed for internal traffic or is it fully shut down?

A combination of the two. Um I would say they're fully shut down. However, we allow vets um trailer. It is the end of breeding season, so we allow trailers with mayors that are coming through. Um anybody working on the farms would come through. And so we do have people posted at the intersections who we don't want just somebody who's trying to cut through to go to to you know to Wallala station from from um town. So we don't want to keep that down for safety reasons but we do allow internal traffic and vets and breeding shed runs. Well, I think that's appropriate and um um that is one of the concerns that we did receive in the lucky leprechaun uh event a couple years back was that some uh horse farm horse farmers weren't able to do what they needed to do. So, we appreciate that.

Um we have already started the advertising for this on our Facebook for you. We're spreading that word. Um, other questions of the fiscal court. Squire Taylor.

Well, I just I know that you all um are unique compared to many other circumstances where uh this is driven by the community. Correct. There. And I think that uh that really is helpful in communicating that when it's your uh neighbors putting on the race, it helps. And so I appreciate you all's uh initiative on that and what that means for you all. Um, but I also and as inconvenience as it might be for some folks to have it shut down given this route, I appreciate that limited that partial shutdown because um I I worry a little bit about that kind of that blind turn by Buck Pond Farm.

And and what that could be for safety. So I really appreciate your all's precaution on that. We we learned um there was a race that started it ended at Keeland and we learned from them that and having run that race a number of times myself, they they closed it down to all traffic. They didn't even allow vets or trailers to go through which caused some pretty upset people coming through there rightfully so. Um and so yeah, we try to work with the neighbors and and our we're really fortunate that all of our volunteers are our neighbors. They have a vested interest. Yeah. So 100% of the um funds that are raised stay within the Pisgga district for historic preservation.

And I would say that uh of all the events, this one touches um some of our most beautiful county roads and is mainly on county roads, which we appreciate. Yes. Thank you. We appreciate that. So what do I need to do from here? Do I need to So we'll we'll first I'll ask Yeah. If you approve it, what do I do from here? Like Yeah. So continue your notifications. Um you work with Bob Bainy, right? Yep. So he knows how to inform and notify people and um you know, we'll we'll do your regular notifications and those sort of things and you'll be good to go. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. We really appreciate it. Squire Taylor, would you like to make a recommendation that we approve this event?

I do. Thank you. There's a motion and a second. Are there any other questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please vote signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, nay. Greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. I want to um move forward with our report of committees. I just want to note that we had some issues live streaming our meeting on Facebook, but it was livereamed on YouTube. Um just and we also um sent out the link to the YouTube live stream so that anybody could follow along. Um but we are back on Facebook live for uh the court's information. So, I'll go through this uh budget and finance committee in a little bit more in depth just for those that weren't able to see it on Facebook. So, the budget and finance committee met prior here too. We had a discussion of department budgets. We had a presentation from the animal care and control department. We also had recycling and solid waste. And uh we took notice of receiving the Jack Jwitt House preliminary draft budget and some other draft department budgets. And then um we had a discussion of the planning and the planning commission budget. Uh there was a discussion about fees um the required um amounts requested from the fiscal court and the cities for the projected need for the budget. Um and we discussed some personnel questions related to the planning commission office their the cola for their employees and their benefits. And that was a discussion to be had uh with the fiscal court.

And that was the total sum of business to come before the budget and finance committee. The budget uh work continues. So any member that has any questions or comments on any of the budget items, they can uh get with the treasurer or myself. And we are anticipating the detention center budget due April the 1st. Um following the budget committee, we met in the committee of the whole um to discuss the interlocal agreement with the city of Verscel's and that was for the uh recommendation of the adoption of revol resolution 2026-7 approving and authorizing the adoption, execution, and delivery of an interlocal governmental agreement previously entered into on November 25th, 2025 between the fiscal court, the city of Verscell and the Woodford County EDA for the acquisition, maintenance, development, and promotion of the properly locate property located at 105 industry drive currently occupied by the Yokohama Industries. Um, so there was a recommendation of the full fiscal court to adopt the resolution. I need to um a motion to adopt that recommendation and the resolution 26-7 for the interlocal governmental agreement for the purchase of the Yokohama building.

Make motion.

Motion with Squire County. Second by Squire Taylor. I would like to open up the floor for any discussion. Um some of the uh procedural items are that um the fiscal court is required uh in any any debt obligation capacity to report to the department of local government. That's a common uh requirement that we are well aware of. The city of Verscel's does not have a similar requirement. So um this step is for our ability to be involved in the debt obligation for the purchase of Yokohama. So we adopt a resolution which essentially recognizes the interlocal partnership agreement that we've already entered into and it makes record of that. I would note that we did have Stan Kramer from from Kentucky First Securities um join us and discuss that. He's working on the bonding with the city of Versailles and we also had Lucas Wit, our EDA director. Um, the main point I think that we're making is we're moving much closer to a final decision and vote on the purchase of the Yokohama uh building. I want to also say that um since we've received since we've received notice that we were awarded the $2 million grant for KPDI funds um there have been companies express interest in the Yokohama building. So we are very um we are optimistic that this looks like an opportunity to bring jobs and opportunities back to that facility. Um I can share with the fiscal court that um the loss of occupational tax revenue from the Yokohama building. Um of course this year we're doing very very well in our finances. This budget is setting up

very very well. We have a very high amount of cash balance in our bank account. We have the lowest amount of debt that Woodford County Fiscal Court has ever had. I assume except for the day that it was incorporated by the Constitution of Kentucky when they had zero debt. Uh but we have a very very low amount of debt both historically and as it pertains to other counties our size and counties that are a lot bigger than us but have a similar budget size. We have low historical debt. And the reason that I point that out is because we are not in a situation where our uh debt cost burden would be one that would be impactful of our of our budget. we have the ability to cover um the debt payments uh that would be proposed in this bonding um solution. So in addition to that um one of the things that I think is something that will increasingly be an issue in our budget is if we are not able to backfill those 300 jobs from Yokohama that left. Now, there are still 30 to 40 jobs still in that facility that are that are good paying jobs, and we'd still receive some occupational tax revenues from that. But as those jobs go away, uh, as the economy continues to contract, um, as gas prices continue to soar, as inflation continues to rise, as the trade issues and and and trade war continue to impact all of our inputs, we need jobs and generational opportunity for our people. And so for this Yokohama economic development project, this is one of the key critical opportunities for the fiscal court to secure jobs and opportunity. Should we choose not to uh go forward with this opportunity, uh I believe the city of Versailles would not be able to go

forward or not want to proceed with the project without us as a partner. And that facility would probably uh be sold to um somebody with an idea probably for warehousing distribution or some other low impact non-job providing uh use for that as an enduser of the Yokohama building. I share all that to say uh that we should proceed as a fiscal court uh with the effort to attract and retain jobs at the Yokohama plant. And I'm very optimistic that in our decisions that this will be uh that we will be successful. I want to thank the EDA and Lucas Wit and all they're doing for this economic development project. Um and I appreciate the members of the court that support it. So there is a motion on the table to adopt the resolution. Are there any other questions or comments? Seeing none, all those in fa favor of adopting resolution 2026-7, please vote and signify by saying I. I.

I. All those opposed, nay. Nay. Madame clerk, roll call, please. Taylor, I. Gentry, I. Spar nay. Sparl. I. Spar Downey. I. Spar Blackford. Hi. Spar. Nay. Spar. The motion passes unanimously. Excuse me. Oh. The motion passes and uh thank you madame clerk.

Uh that was the some of the business has come for the committee. The whole squire verner will note that the fairboard lease is on there. Um the the fiscal court is working on the final version. You all will recall that you have the given spire verner the county attorney and myself theision the ability to present that draft uh fairboard lease to the fair board. We anticipate doing that uh in the next upcoming days. Thank you Squire Varner for your work on that and Mr. County Attorney. That was some of the business come before the committee of the whole and we'll move on to our regular reports. We have with us uh from All Points Broadband, we have Mr. Philip Brown for a project update. And uh thank you Mr. Brown for being here and we are excited about your update today. Yeah, great. Um,

you're on there. Uh, turn on. There you are.

Okay. Um, doesn't Red Lights on. Red lights on. Um, good evening. It's never taken me as long as it as it did tonight to travel the 13 miles from Frankfurt to Rosales. Uh so um I was able to route through Lawrenceburg and take the old road um that I remember so well as a kid uh all the way in. Um so I wanted to start um before I hand it over to um my associates from Congress X who are doing all of the construction uh from soup to nuts on the project here in Woodford County and they're going to give you a progress update on where things stand as far as their work. But um at our last meeting we talked about a map and I wanted to show you two that we have and that we will make available to you. Um the first um shows the locations um in the project. Uh so these are 1,850 approximately uh locations here in Woodford County that are covered by this CIT project. Um, you know, you'll see they span north to south, east to west. Um, and then we also have to show you tonight a map that we included actually in our initial grant application uh to the state which rather than locations illustrates the fiber runs that we'll be deploying which of course is running all in exclusively on public rightway. um you know digging mostly uh most of this fiber will be um deployed underground and uh with the exception I think of one small span here in the county that we've identified that um is unsuitable for directional boring and where we're going to pop up out of the ground and use um utility poles for about I think it would what 40ish

about 40 poles uh before we go back underground. Um so again two maps you know one showing again the initial application that we made to the state. Um and then those are locations a little bit more detail on exactly who is included in the project um across the county. Um, and so then one thing I wanted to show you as well, uh, to bring back in front of the court before turning it over to Congress is just the project's FAQ page that we have built, uh, for people to go and um, if they're looking for more information on the project. I don't know that we've ever shown this uh, website during a fiscal court meeting. I know we've talked about it. Um, the URL is up there. It's allpoints broadband.com/woodford-county-ro project project-facqs for frequently asked questions. Um, and just as a small walk through, you know, we've got our general information section. Um, talks about speeds, talks about the network itself. Then we have a question section on deployment and construction. um when we're going to begin um you know will will pro the you know property be affected by the installation what happens if something goes wrong and we tear up the grass you know who who do they call um here we have a section on if folks want to figure out if their address is included in the roll out they can use this URL here and um all points will be back in touch with them um we have a section on signups and um so on and so forth. Uh if these FAQs, by the way, if if you all determine that we need to make an amendment, if you'd like to see something added, if you're getting a question frequently that we don't have we don't address here, um let us know

and we can make an amendment and um and and and take care of that. Well, thank you, Mr. Brown. We really appreciate that update. And um I think to uh our public comments the question therein uh the answer is those are your resources for uh the specific locations and the general mapping. Yeah. Correct. Correct. Um with that I'd like to uh to ask Mr. Blazer to come up and talk a little bit more about the project's uh progress to date and um and you know he can get into any details about the construction as it's occurring today and what's going to be coming in the next few months. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Thank you, Phil.

All right. It's very nice standing in front of you guys again. This has been a um we've started off and it's been, you know, really great to this point. So, um we have some good news and um I'll share some challenges as well. Uh so, we'll start, you know, obviously we've all we've all dealt with it, right? We had the um the weather, we had the terrible ice and the snow that came through that was kind of unprecedented for our area and it it did it affected us a little bit and the our ability to uh move forward, right? The last thing we want to do is destroy your rideways and destroy your destroy your world. And so um because of that, we received about 20ish days of weather that that did impact a little bit of the schedule. However, um the start milestone that we shared back I believe it was two months ago now, was it? um roughly uh was April 15th through tax day and I'd like to um proudly announce that we started last Monday the 312. So we are now operating in Woodford County. Um we have started throughout one of the the first DAs and actually began in a second as of as of today this morning. So um working diligently and as safely as physically possible while we adjust to the new um land and architecture. Um, one thing I will tell you is as we get used to how traffic flows and how things move and how you all operate within day-to-day, we we will get better in terms of, you know, learning this area and learning where we can and can't be. Um, the other thing I want to talk about was um obviously we're going to be starting the other part of that was Mercer County. So, we will be starting in your neighbors county as well next week is the plan. So, we will be ahead of schedule on both Woodford and Mercer in terms of beginning on this side of the state. Um, a couple things that I wanted to talk about is now that we're here, I want to talk about what it looks like while we're here. So, the first thing you're going to get when we show up on your road before anything really, you know, we finished our construction drawings, we've begun the permitting processes, whatever that is, you're going to get a door hanger. I believe Matt, uh, Judge K has shared that door hanger with you. Um, it is, it's going to go on your your mailbox, and it's

going to have a QR code on there as well as quite a bit of documentation, but that QR code is kind of your your go-to. If you scan that, it'll take you to a website that talks about what we're doing, where we're doing it. I believe it has a link to your a connection to that website he showed as well. So, that will be there. That's step one. Step two, after you see that, you're going to start seeing white markings in the road on the ground. If you see white or pink, that is us. If you see blue, orange, red, those are all of your utilities in the area marking flags for us so that we don't affect your utilities as we come through and make sure that we're doing this as safely as possible. Um, so again, white or pink. If you see it in the road, it'll be on the road side on the edge, that is us. It's dictating where the the markings will go for our construction guys as they come through. And then the other colors will be um the locates from 811 or so forth showing us where we can and can't be. Um, and the next step, um, about that QR code that I wanted to offer was that you're going to, if you scan it, it will give you an opportunity to give, if you've got questions, complaints, something didn't go the way it was supposed to go. Maybe we um, we nicked a mailbox. I mean, anything is very possible while we're driving through here with large equipment, that QR code sends directly to Matt. He gets an email the second there's a voicemail that's left in that thing if it's not if it's not taken as a call immediately. Um, and it will tell us exactly what we need to do. So, just as if you could reach out to your um to your judges. You're more than welcome to use that QR code to tell us what's going on. Um the last thing you're going to see while we're in in market is you're going to see a lot of signs. You're going to see signs that say flaggers ahead, road work ahead. Um you're going to see cars kind of off the side of the road the best that we can. Obviously, these are very small roads at times that we're on. So, we're going to do the absolute best we can to give you um runway and to give you those kinds of things so that you can Apologies. We have bears in Wford County. Oh.

Um, so we'll we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that we're as safe as possible and that you are as safe as possible while traversing our workways, right? Um, we we ask that you just give us a little bit of patience while we learn. That's all that we ask is to, you know, we will do everything that we can to make sure that we're we're safe, that you're safe, and that we get we get a better a better world in the end. That's all I have for you all. Does anybody have any questions? Thank you. And I will uh share that um you know, you started on Delaney Ferry

and um uh I did have a a concern from a constituent in that area. I know he talked to you as well, Squire Brown, and we were able to uh um address that concern, communicate with with you all about it, and uh I appreciate the responsiveness. Absolutely.

Um so, we I I was working with that individual and sharing his information and we've been able to um hopefully take care of that. So, and I do anticipate that there's going to be issues like that. Um, regardless of the door hangers, regardless of the uh communication, the promotion, the explanation of what's going on, some people uh this will catch them by surprise. Uh the markings, the the other utility markings, not your markings. The other utility markings are what ultimately um caused that constituent some concern.

Absolutely. And again, um, you know, I don't know why they had to spray them across the the plants, but they did. Um, but we will inevitably deal with our um, constituents and citizens and and our goal is to make sure that we communicate as best we can, help them understand and deal with any issues that come from that. And you all have been good about that so far and I appreciate that. Thank you.

Other questions or comments? Squire Taylor. just really excited to see you all. I I drove out to Delaney Ferry the other day to see them and they were hard at work and uh courteous and and respectful folks passing through and I just really really welcome uh to have them. Yes, sir. Are y'all going to stay down on the south end till you get done with the south end? Whatever we got. So, currently the process is working as we're working through permits, right? So, if we can get a permit, we will follow the build design build path as we have it as as close as we physically can.

However, when it comes between county and KYTC, if we can, you know, if we get to a point where it's like, man, I can't go any farther in this moment until I get a permit, we might jump a little bit to make sure we can continue working and get work done while we wait for that permit to come through. I'm probably going to ask you a stupid question, but what do you mean permit? So, KYC or the traffic cabinet requires us to have a permit to allow us to be on their road. We cannot dig, go under, any of that nature unless we have been permitted by them to do so. Do you have any permits down on the south end now that you'll be going to? So, we do talk about

we've got quite a bit of permits that exist within Woodford County. We ride I mean even Delaney Ferry is a partial KYTC maintained road. So, um yes, we've got a significant amount of permits within the traffic cabinet right now. We're working with them diligently to get those approved so that we can um get continuity and get things going as fast as possible. Thank you, Squire Brown. Squire Gil, thank you. Um OP 169 is hidden away estates. They've contacted me several times that said if you have to put telephone polls up out there, they don't want it. We will not be placing new polls on utilities.

Yes, we will. We will not be placing new polls and unless I mean it'd have to be a last ditch effort. We will be doing everything I can we can outside of those 40ish polls that we um recognize to stay underground. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And if there's anything that we can do to assist you in the permitting process or communication with anybody on permits, please let us know. We're happy to help. Yes, sir. Thank you. Yes. Um other questions or comments? Seeing none, um thank you all. We're excited. Um, broadband and fiber is being deployed in Woodford County. It's a big big week for us. Awesome. Thank you guys very much.

And you all are more than welcome to be excused. Thank you. Thank you. Um, madam treasur, your report.

Tonight's balance is 14,460,742.

Anybody have any questions?

Anybody have any questions for the treasurer? Um, also I sent you all the issuer comment from Nudies who does our they they do our bond rating. So I just wanted you all to see that. It was a pretty good report. It had um some pretty interesting information in it and it um talks about what our our debt and our financial performance and those types of things. So I didn't know if you all had any questions about it either. Well, I would just share that um so our bond rating is one of the best for uh again for a county our size, for a budget our size. Um it reflects our excellent financial position. It reflects the conservative and effective budgeting and financial responsibility of the fiscal court. And so I think it's something to be very very proud of. There are few counties that have that level of bond rating. Um, and again, we're we're in we're not in the best of economic times as far as a national economic picture, but our local economy is still fairly strong and our county finances are top rated bonds. So, Madam Treasurer, to you and all those who uh do the work on our finances, congratulations. Great job, and thank you.

Um, another thing I just wanted to give a heads up that I will probably be asking for an email approval for quarter and transfers. We just got the um appropriations, the expenditure side done this afternoon. So, we kind of have to wait on that before we do the receipt one. So, I'll be sending out an email probably the end of the week, maybe middle next week, asking for those. And then lastly, we have our 2-year renewal contract for House Bill 556. Those are the department of correction sentencing funds that we get. Um so we have to do that every two years. So I just need um approval for the judge to sign this.

Is there a motion for motion by Squire Maryanne Gil? Second by Squire William Downey. Are there any questions there on? Seeing none, all those in favor please vote and and indicate by saying I. I. All those opposed nay. And that motion is unanimous. Thank you. Anything additional, Madam Treasur? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Great job. Uh Joe, since you presented your budget, I will entertain a motion to authorize the execution of the household hazardous waste grant application as presented and recommended by the director of solid waste and recycling. Motion.

Second. All those in favor, please vote and signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, nay. That motion carries unanimously.

All right. Thank you, Joe. You're more than welcome to be excused if you need to. Director Chandler, did you have a report? I don't think you did, but I just wanted to make sure. No, sir. Thank you.

Um, so we do have an opioid abatement fund request. Um, we're working through that, but I want to um start out by saying that the agency for substance abuse policy met last Tuesday and they made a recommendation to um create a position using opiate abatement funds uh that is tenatively being called a substance abuse community opioid abatement resource specialist. And um so that position would be one that would have several very very important uh responsibilities. The first of which I think is a gap in our community is the need to be a case management individual and family specialist to deal with people in crisis. So if you or your family member are addicted uh that are dealing with substance abuse disorder that you can go and meet with this individual and they will immediately try uh attempt crisis intervention, attempt to connect you with specialist resources, other agencies in the community. Uh currently our only uh position that that directly does that outside of um EMS and our hospital is Ellie Castle at the Verscell's Police Department. And um our goal would be for this to be a specific uh position that would would address those issues. The the second main goal would be for this position to um help coordinate resources for um addiction, treatment, recovery, prevention, and education uh specifically related to opiate abuse. Um that's something that does not currently exist in our community. Uh the third would be for this individual to assist

the fiscal courts, the city council, and the agency for substance abuse policy to um vet and review all proposals for the opiate settlement funds. Uh to also uh help communicate with the community on what we're doing, how we're doing it, uh and review those projects. In my communications with the ASAP board and the city of Versailles, um we we still have the draft job description open for additional um for additional recommendations and what needs to be in that specialist position. But the main overview of what the most important aspects of that job would be are the ones that I've set forth. We have shared a draft of that job description with you. Um, and I've had some conversations with the opiate abatement advisory commission, the bluegrass ads um, opiate advisor, Lauren Carr from KCO, who also advises on opiates, uh, and the county attorney. And our recommendation uh as made by the ASAP board to the fiscal court and the city council would be for this position to be housed in the Woodford County Health Department. Uh reason being is the health department is already a center for um assistance and resources for those who are seeking treatment uh those that deal with the harm reduction program. Um and we also have a new waypoint uh United Way resource advisor who will be there dealing with folks uh in crisis. So the health department would be the physical location and office for this position and they would report to the uh director the public health director. Um, but I would I would make note that this would be somebody who we would hope would uh deal with and

work directly with the agency for substance abuse policy and make sure that all of the responsibilities of the position are being handled um efficiently and effectively and to the standards of the ASAP board. So there would probably be an ASAP advisory committee created for this individual to work with directly uh on day-to-day accountability and effectiveness. Um that being said, the salary for the position is recommended for a um for a substance abuse resource specialist. The market is between $45,000 and $55,000. That's how that position was u the the salary was recommended is that's the market position for a general resource specialist for substance abuse. So that would be um a recommendation for the city and the county to jointly fund this position which would be the salary and additional costs and benefits associated with that salary. uh for an employee at the Woodford County Health Department um which would be between 45 and $55,000 with benefits. So that is a general recommendation to the fiscal court for initial approval and my recommendation is that we would make that contingent upon the city council of ourselves's um agreement to approve half of that expense keeping in mind that that we um both have received these opiate abatement funds in a similar amount. Mr. County Attorney. Anything additional on what I've explained?

No, judge. And and just to remind everyone why this is the Verscell City and and Woodford County government, Midway uh does not receive opioid litigation settlement funds. They did not qualify for that. In effect, we cover Midway for that. So, if there's anyone wondering why isn't Midway a part of that, uh that would be why. And I think the way the judge has proposed this would be the appropriate way because there is a little bit of a disconnect between fiscal court and the health department. This person would in effect be employed by the health department. You all along with the city would be the conduit for the funding to go towards that because you all and the city are the recipients of those settlement monies. Um, but I like the fact that it would not be a fiscal court employee that the person would be employed by the health department. So, I think the way this is being structured and tailored would be an appropriate way to pursue it if the city is willing to go uh uh along with the county in in jointly funding this position.

Thank you, Mr. County Attorney. And I would also share that um this is for use of opiate abatement funds and therefore the um the resource specialists would be tailored in their position according to the statute and the requirements of the o opioid abatement commission. So for example um I I've had some communications and meetings with folks and they ask about using the funds for other types of drug treatment programs. meth, cocaine, other drugs. But the reality is these abatement funds are limited and specific to opiate um abatement resources. So the now this individual would deal with anyone in crisis. They would they would treat anyone in crisis and they would be a frontline first response type uh position. Other questions or comments? Squire down.

Judge.

Yes, Mr. point out along the lines of what you just said. That's an important distinction. We uh the court has to be careful in utilizing these funds because if it is determined that you have utilized them improperly, you lose future funding. So, you do have to be careful and cautious. But we have looked into this. We're comfortable with determination the way it's being structured that you all can do this. But um again, and that's why the judge points out this has to be for opioid abatement, not for just drug use, drug issues in general. And um this position would be for that. And the other thing it does for the fiscal court, if you'll recall very early in this process, we didn't want you all to have to come to meetings and vote on approving this and vote on approving that. again, you serve as the conduit to get the programs and people in place to be able to do that for you. And this is what this is set up to do.

Thank you, Mr. County Attorney Squire Downey. Thank you, Judge. You clarified these funds are from the uh opioid abatement settlement for that. And then would the and this is maybe a little technical, I guess. So would we be then uh dispersing those funds directly to the health department in their budget and then they handle the payroll etc from that vantage point? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yes, that's a good clarification. That would be the plan. Uh other questions or comments? Yes. Square Carl and the mic there

with uh obviously I'm on ASAP that board and Larry's on there too. I just think this is the perfect connect for you know everybody is wants we want to do the right things with the funds and we just need someone that can you know coordinate this and communicate and being out of the health department I think it's just the right relationship for all of this and to be able to utilize this in our community. Yeah.

Thank thank you Carl. I tend to agree. I think that uh the most important investment you can make is an investment in people and we need somebody to do the daytoday work of helping those in crisis and need in our community. And we also need somebody to be working on um the way that we most effectively use these funds for long-term sustainable success. And I think that um this partnership with the city and the health department is the um best way to go forward with that. Other questions or comments? Squire Brown. No, I didn't know.

I want to thank uh thank uh my wife Nancy and Freeman Bailey and the the ASAP board uh for us coming together in the community to do something like this to get something going to help those who have need of it. So just want to say that

and and I want to thank uh Nancy Blackford as well. Um one of the things that so we have Ellie in place uh at Verscell's Police Department as a victim's advocate and she has taken that on as a bas basic social service role and is really making a difference in the lives of people in need. Uh Nancy has worked as our ASAP coordinator and so that is the position that is the umbrella for all addictions and substance abuse. And so there's so much more than opiates that we deal with. Um and so our our ASAP is um widely recognized across Kentucky is one of the most effective. You know, we're a recovery ready community and I think this is the next step to um effectively implement programs to help folks through opio debatement. Thank you, Square Blackford. Other questions or comments? Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to approve the use of opiate abatement funds for the position of substance abuse community opioid abatement resource specialist as recommended by the Woodford County ASAP and contingent upon the approval by the Purcell City Council. Motion by Squire Carl, second by Squire Blackford. Are there any other additional questions or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor, please vote and signify by saying I. I.

All those opposed, nay. And that motion carries unanimously. Any other department or agency seeking to report to the court. Seeing none, move on to the general orders and unfinish. The bills to be paid are before you. Are there any questions or comments on any of the bills to be paid? Seeing none, are there any objections to approving the bills as presented to be paid? Also seeing no objections, I will approve the bills to be paid without objection. I do need a motion to approve the claims from Southern Communications, Axon Enterprises, Inc. and Stuncuff for uh total amount of $12,1447 cents for the sheriff's office using asset forfeiture funds. Motion was Squire Brown Square Downey. All those in favor, please vote and signify by saying I.

All those opposed, nay. The motion carries unanimously. We do need to approve the transfers. Is there a motion? Motion. Motion by Squire Gil, second by Squire Carl. All those in favor, please vote and signify by saying I. All those opposed, nay. That motion carries unanimously. Uh we do have a personnel order. Um I will reserve that at the end of uh unfinished business. Uh but we do Squire Varner have the rightway service fee proposal for the big sink sidewalk project. Um everybody's had the opportunity to review that. Uh, Squire Varner, would you entertain a motion to approve the same? So move. There's a motion

and a second by Squire Down. All those in favor, please vote and signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, nay. And the right ofway service fee proposal is approved. And we will continue moving forward on the big sink sidewalk project. Uh, Squire Taylor, are there any additional article 7 uh, updates? Not at this time. Thank you. Thank you. We do have the second reading of the proposed ordinance 2025-20 of the county road system incorporating Laureland Lane as a Woodford County road. Is there a motion to have second reading of synot?

Motion by Square Carl, second by Squire Gil. Are there any questions? Seeing none. All those in favor, please vote and signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, nay. That motion carries unanimously. Mr. County Attorney, sir.

Yes, Judge. Thank you. An ordinance relating to formal adoption of a certain new public road into the Woodford County road system be it ordained by this fiscal court that the following described road is now ripe for acceptance and is hereby incorporated into your road system as a county road. It is Laran Lane. Its length is 2,415 ft.457 miles. Its width is 22.7 uh5 feet. The rideway is 50 feet. The description is from Carpenter Pike to the end of the culde-sac and back to Carpenter Pike. Uh the Woodford County Road Department at the direction of the road supervisor shall maintain this county road as needs and standards dictate and erect any attendant necessary signage. Uh this being a second reading, the adoption is final, although this ordinance does need to be published in summary form within 30 days.

Thank you, Mr. County Attorney. Thank you, judge. And now that we have a new county road in our road system, we need a road supervisor.

So, uh, I want to first, uh, express to the personnel committee. Uh, I want to thank Gail Smith and Terresa Tipton, uh, and everybody who spent many hours in our screening committee and our interview committees for the road supervisor position. I'm pleased to inform the court and the public that we had some really qualified and excellent candidates who applied and uh we had a very difficult and challenging decision. But it's a good problem to have to have qualified people and good people uh applying for the road supervisor position. In the executive session prior here too, we worked on a uh a final understanding of the screening committee and the interviews. the final candidate interviews from the fiscal court. And I believe that um Squire Carl had a recommendation that the Woodford County Fiscal Court appoint Scott Dean, road supervisor for the Woodford County Fiscal Court for a term of 2 years, 9 months, two weeks, and one day from today's date to January 8th, 2029. That is your recommendation?

Yes, Miss Judge. Is there a motion upon that motion? Is there a second? Second. Mquuire Brown. I'd like to open up the floor for any discussion thereon. Judge, can may I for the clarification for those wondering why such a specific uh term?

Um yes, please. By statute, a county road supervisor is to be employed uh at the outset of a fiscal court for two or four years dependent upon the decision of the court. And that position is to be revisited uh and um at the end of that term on the second Tuesday of an odd numbered year. So we are in an interim process. The next odd number year is January of 2027. That would be too short of a term. This is kind of a mid-rate term from the two to four years. And the reason you made that specification is the next fiscal court will have to take another look at this position um at the sec on the second Tuesday in January of 2029. So that's why the term is as the judge just set out. Thank you, Mr. County Attorney. Other questions or comments on the motion to appoint the road supervisor? Seeing none, all those in favor, please vote and signify by saying I.

I. All those opposed, nay. That motion carries unanimously. Congratulations, Mr. Road. I would um request that the uh personnel order adopting same be approved. Motion by Squire Carl, second by Squire Brown. All those in favor, please vote and signify by saying I.

All those opposed, nay. That motion too carries unanimously. Uh thank you. We want to thank everybody for applying. Um and congratulations. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to new business. We do have a telecommunications franchise ordinance that we are working through the process that we will bring to you uh soon. And um we do need to approve the detention cent's policies and procedures for this calendar year. Is there a motion for motion by Squire Carl? Second by Squire Gil. Are there any questions there on? Just say yes. Uh,

I just want to say I talked to Michelle about this and this is just routine procedure that there's really nothing changed from last year in the policies and procedures. So, thank you Squire Gill. We always appreciate you uh doing your homework and checking in with folks. Appreciate that. Motion on the table. All those in favor, please vote and signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, nay. And the motion carries. Madame clerk, I did jump around.

So, is there any thing additional that we need to address or approve? That is all. All right, we'll move to announcements. Magistrates Squire Kelly Carl. Uh, yes, Judge. Just real quick, there's going to be a 5K. It's the Donut Dash and Kids Fun Run, Eerts Orchard on June 21st. It's a Sunday. I know it's early, but you got to get it on your calendar. And all the proceeds will go to our food pantry. They have been picked as the charitable recipient of all the proceeds for this doughnut doughnut dash at Eerts. So

awesome. The best cinnamon donuts you ever find out there. Squire Varner, sir. No, judge. Thanks. Thank you. Nothing. Thank you, Squire Gentry. Nothing judge. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Squire Downey. Thank you. Squire Downey. Uh just a lot of good burgers out there participating in Burger Mania. So go check them out. Appreciate all the local restaurants participating. Thank you. Squire Down. Mr. County Attorney, sir. Judge Jessie, I guess this is our last meeting uh between now and and Easter. So I hope everyone has a blessed and happy Easter.

Somehow that is possible. That's Thank you, Mr. County Attorney. Sir, Mr. Woodford's son. Uh, nothing. I was just confirming Allan's view on Easter. I want to make sure that you know, but I'll defer to him because he