Fiscal Court Approves Upcoming County Surplus Sale List

Full Surplus Item List Published

The Edmonson County Fiscal Court met July 12, 2021 in the Edmonson County Community Center.

Darren Doyle, story and photo:
A short meeting was held today for Edmonson County's Fiscal Court in the Edmonson County Community Center. The location of the meeting was changed due to HVAC problems in the upstairs courtroom in the courthouse.

Magistrates today voted to approve the county's upcoming surplus sale, which isnormally held annually but was cancelled last year due to the pandemic. The Edmonson Voice obtained the full list of items approved by the court today, which is published below.

The following county offices gave reports to the court:

Road Report: County Road Supervisor Greg Carroll reported a number of tile installations across the county and Railroad Street in Rocky Hill is ready for new paving. He also said that mowing was continuing throughout the districts and that approximately 60% of the work on Brooks Road has been completed. The county road collapsed into water on June 8th, and at that time, the road was expected to be closed for approximately 10 days: however, much more damage occurred than what was initially thought.

Carroll said that over 1,500 tons of rock have already been delivered to Brooks Road. He told the Edmonson Voice after the meeting that even more is going to be required to finish the job. He also said that other parts of the road will need repaving due to the high volume of heavy trucks and equipment that have been traveling in the area during the repair of the project. The project has been submitted to FEMA for federal flood funding.

Emergency Management Report: Edmonson County Emergency Management Director Terry "Moose" Massey reported a total of 19 emergency runs made in the county since the last fiscal court meeting, six of which were fires, including one on a farm of District 3 Magistrate Charlie Tarter, who lost several bales of hay. Massey also asked the fiscal court to consider signing a new agreement with the Edmonson County Rescue Squad, which has been reorganized since the county cut ties with the organization a few months ago.

The county did not renew their annual agreement with the Edmonson County Rescue Squad in April of this year, which ended the squad's affiliation with anything related to county government, fire departments, or local dispatch. The squad failed to submit the proper documentation required by the Judge Executive's Office for insurance and auditing purposes. At that time, Massey recommend cutting ties with the group, due to lack of training, equipment, and oversight. The squad's commander at that time, Dakota Yates of Roundhill, was arrested in May on meth and other drug charges. Yates was removed from his position after his arrest.

Since that time, Massey said that the squad has undergone an overhaul, has met the training requirements for local emergency personnel, has submitted the proper documentation for their finances, and has a new commander. Judge Cannon said the original plan was to reassess the situation at the end of the year and that the new organization needed to be observed by the county to ensure they are following the proper county protocols. Cannon said he was open to doing it sooner than the end of the year but the county would need time to examine the request.

County Clerk Report: County Clerk Kevin Alexander updated the court on a number of problems his office had faced over the last week due to updates performed by the state that wreaked havoc on systems all across Kentucky. The issues became so bad that Alexander was forced to close his office on Saturday. He said one of their current systems is a DOS-based system, first implemented 40 years ago. He said that several clerk offices around the region had to close during the week because of the problems. His office is open, but some services are still down. For more information, call the office at 270-597-2624.

Judge Cannon also announced that the annual Freedom Fest, which returned to the county last weekend, was successful, providing free fireworks to the community and raising over $3600 in concessions for Parks and Rec.

He also said that regulations for spending over $2 million in funds that the county recently received are beginning to loosen, although he felt like it was still too early to earmark the money.

"We can't spend this money where it's still questionable because the county has no reserve," he said. "If there's an audit sometime down the road and the government decides the money wasn't properly spent, then we'll have to pay it back and unless there's some sort of an economic boom, we don't have the means to do that."

He said the current regulations are still unclear and he wants to be sure the funds are spent where it will do the most good for the most county residents.

The court also voted to:

• Approve American Auction and Realty to handle the upcoming county surplus auction
• Approve the application process for the 2021 Spay/Neuter Grant
• Approve to hire Amanda Heaverin, part time Dog Control Officer at $10/hr, date of hire: 7/06/21

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, July 26, 2021 at 6PM in the upstairs court room at the courthouse.