|
|
|
Fiscal Court Hears Comments From Public On ARPA Projects: Magistrates Will Vote In Future Meetings2/28/2022  Edmonson County Fiscal Court special meeting on February 28, 2022. Darren Doyle, story and photos: The Edmonson County Fiscal Court met in person today for the first time in nearly a year. While little was discussed during the regular meeting, the focus today was about the special called meeting that was held after the regular meeting. That meeting was for the purpose of discussion regarding Judge Executive Wil Cannon's proposed American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) appropriation between magistrates and the public. About three dozen community members showed up for the special meeting. Judge Cannon welcomed everyone to the meeting and reminded the audience that what he'd already outlined were suggestions only. All of the $2.3 million that the county will receive in ARPA funding will be voted upon by magistrates. This was to hear feedback from the public as well as magistrates. He began by reminding everyone that three expenditures had already been passed through the fiscal court, which were $150,000 worth of premium pay for county employees (a $2/hr bonus for hours worked and lost during the COVID shutdown), a $67K skid steer machine for the county road department, and a $245K ambulance, which was voted upon at the last meeting. He also noted that the county had already budgeted for new voting machines, and that the fiscal court had voted to purchase them; however, that amount was budgeted from the general fund. Since that time, Cannon learned that the machines could be purchased through ARPA funds and he suggested that in order to free up those funds in the regular budget. He also noted that the state allowed some financial assistance on the machines and the final bill would be $127K. He continued with his proposed list that included the following:
Judge Cannon said he realized that different people had different ideas as to how the money needs to be spent and we have to start somewhere. He said that the animal shelter was something the county was simply going to have to do. According to KRS 258.195 (1): The governing body of each county shall employ, appoint, or contract with an animal control officer, or shall contract with an entity that employs, appoints, or contracts with an animal control officer, and shall establish and maintain an animal shelter as a means of facilitating and administering KRS 258.095 to 258.500. One (1) or more counties may enter into intergovernmental agreements for the establishment of regional animal shelters, or may contract with entities authorized to maintain sheltering and animal control services. Animal shelters shall meet the standards provided by KRS 258.119(3)(b) within three (3) years after July 13, 2004. Governing bodies may adopt additional standards and ordinances related to public health, safety, enforcement, and the efficient and appropriate operation of their shelters and their animal control programs. He said that he didn't know if BG/WC Animal Shelter would even continue the contract with the county this past year, since the county's original 5-year plan was fulfilled; they did, but he didn't know if they would again, as they don't need money from the county, they need the space that the county's animals are utilizing. He also discussed the cost of a county animal shelter, for which he'd suggested a $700K allocation. "I don't think it's going to cost $700,000 to build an animal shelter, but it might cost more than you think now to build an animal shelter," he said. "I'd like to get it done for a lot less. That doesn't mean we have to spend $700,000 on an animal shelter. If we can build it for $400,000 that would be great, and that would leave $300,000 for the fiscal court to decide what to do with at a later date." He continued by saying the reason he's advised to allocate that much is to ensure that all the funds will be available to make sure everything is completed. He also said he didn't think anyone would believe it would actually cost that much.   Judge Executive Wil Cannon at today's special called meeting to discuss ARPA funding possibilities. He also discussed again as to how the funds can be spent, which are for items normally purchased in the county's normal governmental expenses. "If anybody's under the impression that we can just write a check to fire departments for X amount of dollars, that's not going to happen," he said. "We can't do that. We can't do that for the ambulance, we can't do that for the water department, we can't do that for anything unless fiscal court approves it as an item that we'd normally spend through the regular government process. Because the fire departments, the ambulance service, the water district are not in our normal government process (none receive funding from county's general fund), there's a little bit more that has to be done." He then asked for comments from the public. Mike Clubb, member of Kyrock Fire Department outlined just the basic costs of equipment necessary for local firefighters. He said turnout gear (the normal firefighter clothing/equipment setup per person) ranged anywhere from $3400-$5000 each. Clubb said the annual budget for Kyrock is only $20,000 and $15K of that is insurance premiums. "I mean, everybody struggles, and Bear Creek and Rocky Hill's not here and they don't receive as much funding as some of the others, and they really need equipment to be beneficial to their communities," he said. "But they don't have it, so they do the best they can. We all do the best we can." Clubb also discussed other financial constraints that the local volunteer fire departments have and asked the court to reconsider the $5K allocation. "Every little bit would help and I understand it has to be give to everybody else, too, but $5,000 is not going to go a long ways," he said. The question was asked about the timing of the spending of the funds. Keith Brock, a representative from Compass Municipal Advisors, LLC., a company that will help administer Edmonson County's handling of the funding received from ARPA, said the county has until December 2024 to allocate the funds and until December 2026 to spend it all. County resident Paul Miller suggested that the court simply wait until the next administration takes control of the fiscal court, since the judge executive and three magistrates are not seeking re-election and will be different in 2023. Cannon said he somewhat agreed with Mr. Miller, but he felt like he would not be fulfilling his duties if he didn't at least get a plan in motion. The court also heard from Preserving Edmonson Pride member Shaksa Hines. She said PEP would like to advocate for the hiring of a commissioned grant writer. Member and local business woman Andrea Brantley later spoke to the same subject. They each believed that hiring a grant writer could stretch the funding out tremendously. Edmonson County Superintendent of Schools Brian Alexander said that Kyrock desperately needed to be connected to a sewer system. The county sewer only goes as far north as the KY State garage on HWY 259 N. He suggested studying the cost of bringing sewer further north.  Jordan Jones, a candidate for judge executive, asked if the water district was putting up any of their own money for the proposed water project. Edmonson Water General Manager Tony Sanders said he couldn't answer that, as it would be a decision made by the board. Jones also asked Mr. Brock from Compass if the county was completely protected in the event of an expenditure made through Compass that was audited and found in violation of the spending requirements. "It's not an insurance policy," Brock said. "It doesn't work like that. It's not just Compass, we do have a legal firm involved as well, Stites and Harbison. They sign off on every expenditure approval, so it's a two-part process: the court approves it, they put their signature on it. We can't guarantee that something might not happen, but I think obviously, there's a layer of protection there." He and several others in the audience spoke against the RV hookups at Chalybeate. The question was also asked about another potential property for an animal shelter that was reportedly offered to the county a couple years ago. Local businessman Jeff Jacobs was in attendance and he spoke on the matter. Jacobs said he had purchased some buildings behind the Riverhill strip mall and offered one of those and 3/4 of an acre lot to the county for animal shelter use at a heavily discounted rate in exchange for the Jacobs name being on the building somewhere. Cannon said he remembered the conversation differently. He said Jacobs didn't actually offer it at that time because it was currently being used for storage and that sometime later it would be available. "Well, I mean, I felt like I offered it to you at that price, but I don't want to argue about that," Jacobs said. Cannon responded with "I don't recall ever hearing a price." Jacobs said the offer was still on the table and Cannon said he would be interested in looking at it, and also getting someone from another animal shelter to take a look and see if it would be a feasible option. County Attorney Greg Vincent asked the crowd to consider an important point, which was that while the county did not need to make hasty decisions, it would definitely have to make timely decisions. He noted that in order to determine the costs of just one project, it might be necessary to include architectural plans, environmental studies, or other proposals or measures. He said even though the timeline is two or more calendar years, it would be far less time than many would think to have everything in order on some projects. Another candidate for judge executive, Greg Hudson, suggested that since a vote for an animal shelter was coming soon, to stop the arguments about that topic. Several other opinions were given on a wide range of subjects; many of which where off topic from the ARPA discussion. Judge Cannon asked for opinions from the magistrates. District 1 Magistrate Mark Meeks said most of the calls he was receiving was for the court to slow down on the process so that the court could take more time to determine the most needed areas. Cannon agreed but also noted that nowhere was there any implication that the court was voting on these items today; however, there were timelines in order to put things in play. District 5 Magistrate Johnny Brooks said he was in favor of both the water project and animal shelter and he was open to seeing if 50/50 grants could stretch out the funding. District 4 Magistrate Edd Rich had to leave for a doctor's appointment during the meeting. District 2 Magistrate Corey VanMeter said he knew the animal shelter had to be built and he was also in favor of supporting fire departments and emergency services as much as possible. He also wanted to explore PEP projects. Cannon said he liked the idea of some of the projects from PEP but that they were cosmetic and not all would be possible. District 6 Magistrate James Vincent said he was in favor of supporting fire departments and the water project could be helpful to a large number of people. He was also interested in researching additional grant possibilities. District 3 Magistrate Charlie Tarter was absent due having a scheduled surgery today but sent a statement to the fiscal court as well as the Edmonson Voice. We spoke to him Friday and he shared his thoughts with us. "I'm 100% against $700,000 for a dog shelter," he said in a phone interview. "Plus all the expense to keep it up. I'm not for the RV hookups at Chalybeate Park. On the voting machines, $130,000 was budgeted for that already. I'm not sold on using ARPA money for that. It just seems like a rush in fiscal court to make these decisions now. I don't think we need to make snap decisions about this." In Tarter's submitted statement, he also noted that he was in favor of a $20K expenditure for each local fire department. County Treasurer Tammi Willhite asked magistrates to consider using the ARPA funding for the voting machines, even though the county had already budgeted the amount. She said the county had only $100K in the general fund in 2018, which was far too tight, but now they have $1M in that fund, thanks much in part to conservative spending from the budget. As the three-hour meeting came to a close, Judge Cannon said the discussions would continue during future fiscal court meetings. 
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
January 2025
|