County Approves New Dump Truck Purchase To Replace One In Crash

Homemakers Honored In Proclamation

County dump truck involved in a rollover crash on September 18, 2023.

Darren Doyle, story:
Magistrates voted to approve the purchase of a new dump truck with a price tag around $200K, after a county road worker was seriously injured in a dump truck crash a few weeks ago.

Jimmy Cook, who was driving a county dump truck for the road department and lost control of the truck while working on KY HWY 185 on September 18th, was ejected from the truck in a rollover crash, as was discussed at today's Edmonson County Fiscal Court meeting.

Judge/Executive Scott Lindsey said that Cook is still recovering after the crash. County Treasurer Tammi Willhite said the dump truck was insured for $75K but it is still unknown what the total insurance payout will be to the county.

Magistrates approved the purchase of a 2024 Kenworth T480 single axle truck for the price of $193,212.

Edmonson County Homemakers:

Judge/Executive Scott Lindsey with members of the Edmonson County Homemakers and the proclamation in their honor.

Also at today's meeting, Judge Lindsey read a proclamation in honor of the Edmonson County Homemakers for their collective works done for Edmonson County.

The Homemakers are preparing to host the Mammoth Cave Area Annual Day on October 19th at Tayvin Gardens. The group will host approximately 130 people from the region during the annual event that is held in one of the 10 surrounding counties each year. This year, it is the Homemakers' turn.

County Parks and Rec Will Combine Parks and Program Director Position:
Magistrates also voted to combine two open positions into one job at today's meeting.

The position of Parks Director has been mostly a maintenance-driven job for the past several years, with the focus on mowing all parks, while the Program Director position focused solely on the programs run by the parks system. All youth league sports and annual events were overseen by the Program Director, the position recently vacated by John Kiernan. The Parks Director was recently left open by A.B. Webb, who stepped down a few weeks ago.

According to District 2 Magistrate T.J. Massey, who served on the committee to research the posting of both positions, the deciding factor was being able to combine salaries for a higher pay scale to attract more talent and to minimize the confusion between the two roles.

"Having one person allows us to set clear and concise expectations of that one single person instead of having it separated," said Massey. "The director will be just that. A director of all things parks and rec and will ultimately be responsible for how that organization is ran. It will streamline decisions within the parks and recreation and a single face to bring forth to fiscal court for support, help and ideas. We will certainly learn as we go with a new person but I also think that will be easier learning with one person vs. two new people at the same time."

He also said contracting the mowing instead of requiring the director to do it also helps the combination of the two.

Other County Updates:
Judge/Executive Scott Lindsey said that thanks to recent House Bill 9, Edmonson County has been moved into one of 41 counties that qualify for assistance when it comes to funds-matching grants. The county has often qualified for federal grants for various projects, but could not accept them due to the requirement to match the funds of the grant. If the county received a $200K grant for a certain project, they couldn't accept it because they couldn't afford the other $200K required to complete the project.

"This HB9 program helps cover that," said Lindsey. "So what they'll do, if we get a federal grant, we can apply to them for the secondary and they will actually pay the matching portion for us."

Lindsey also said that these projects are meant to be large, transformational projects at the county and city levels, not simple landscaping jobs.

He also updated the court on Sunfish-Roundhill Road, a portion of which is still closed due to the road being demolished at the creek. He said that FEMA has moved the road up on their priority list and are trying to move forward much more quickly. The county has stated multiple times that the local funding is not there to rebuild the road. He also said the planning stage of the rebuilding of Willie Webb Road has passed and is now moving on to the legal stage. Once that clears, the reconstruction will begin on a portion of the road that recently washed out. Part of it is gravel-only at this time.

The fiscal court meeting was held today instead of yesterday due to the Columbus Day holiday.

The court also voted to:

• Approve 2022 County Clerk Fee Account Close Out Letter per final Audit.
• Acknowledge Dog Control’s September CAD Report.
• Acknowledge BGWC September Shelter Directors Report.
•  Approve October Cash Transfers.
• Approve Treasurer’s September Monthly Settlement Report.
• Approve Judge’s Quarterly Financial Statement Report.
• Approve Jailer’s Quarterly Report.

The next Edmonson County Fiscal Court meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 23rd.