Meeting of April 22, 2025

little buddy there. Is he Is he okay to start? Get a thumbs up. Okay, good. All right. Well, it's good afternoon. If you wouldn't mind to check your cell phones and uh make sure they're turned off today. This is the April 22nd, 2025 Harden County fiscal court regular voting meeting. And let's begin and call this meeting to order. Start out with a roll call, please. Squire Clim here. Squire Hicks here. Squire Muse here. Squire Pennington here. Squire Saltzman here. Squire Thompson here. Squire Whitehead here. Squire Yates here. Just here. Uh, next we'll have our invocation. Uh, Magistrate Yates and Pledge of Allegiance, Magistrate Clen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together today in service to our community. We ask for your guidance as we work through matters before us. Help us to lead with wisdom, listen with respect, and work together with a spirit of unity and cooperation. We pause to give special thanks for the brave men and women of our military and

for our first responders, those who protect us, support us, and run to run towards danger so that others can be safe. We ask for your continued protection over them and their families. Today, we also lift up our fellow Kuckians across the state who are recovering from the recent floods. We ask that you bring them comfort, comfort, strength, and steady hope as they rebuild. May we all remember the importance of standing together in times of hardship. Bless this meeting, Lord. May our words be thoughtful, our decisions just, and our actions always guide it for a greater good. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. The pledge. I pledge algiance to 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. All right. Um, thanks again for joining today. It's good to see all of you here, especially my mom. It's always good to see her. So, let's review the agenda today. We have um someformational items

that we'll go through. Uh we have a couple of uh department office reports. Uh we'll have a time uh as usual for citizens concerns or comments. Uh we uh then I'll be uh providing an overview of the proposed uh budget. So, I'll be doing a presentation at that point in time. After that, we have uh a couple of um items to vote on, an ordinance, a resolution, actually two resolutions, and I'll get into that when we get there. And then um we'll have the consent agenda, and then our comments at the end as usual. All right. Um let's go ahead and move along. Um I I I guess before I do that, let me just uh maybe give a short status of the of the flooding disaster and um Joey was nice to to show up today in case there's if I miss something blatant then he can uh you know fill fill that in. But um basically uh as far as roads are concerned, the county roads uh unless something has happened today, I think there's still five county roads that are still uh closed because of the flooding, which is a bit unheard of, you

know, for water to be standing around that long uh after the after the rains. So uh but but it's down from a very long list. So we are making some good progress. Um the bottom line really at this point is is that uh Joey and some others are going around the county uh to uh the victims of of the flooding doing some analysis um surveys that are required by the state of Kentucky uh uh the um Kentucky emergency management and so they are sending those in. They've made a lot of progress and have most of those done. Um I think they just finished up West Point today and is Koh'sburg done. So we've got Kohl'sburg done and I think Joy's been to the I think White Mills area and and some other of the other areas that have been hit. So there's still a few more to do uh more individual type out in the county. Is that correct? So there's they're they're making really good progress on that and um getting those things done. Um the thing that is at this point that's holding us up is we are still waiting on a declaration for a disaster area by the president of the

United States. So um all the information has been sent sent to uh his office and the people that need to receive that and it's been there for some time. So, um, we're still waiting for that. As soon as that happens, which there's some confidence that it will, but you never know until it's actually signed. So, whenever it is signed, then uh that will open up uh the floodgates basically for FEMA to start doing all kinds of activity in the county and trying to help people uh with individual assistance. Um I believe that um Joy has also started to collect information on on public assistance for some of the roads and and other uh you know other um issues that we've had with um um you know not just I guess not individual assistance types of items. So, uh, public, um, our things that Harden County government is is having to pay for and having to come up with the money to and and in the future will have to repair. So, there's both of those types of assistance that will become available. And, uh, so we're we're just looking forward forward to that that moment whenever that is signed and that

will really uh change things and get us going again. Um, just a a comment too that uh, you know, there's been a huge amount in the last couple of weeks since we first discussed this at the last meeting, a huge amount of of community support. Um, you know, churches bringing clothes and and different items and and organizations, a Red Cross. I mean, it's just a huge list of which I tried to go through last time and failed, but so I won't try it again, but it's just amazing. It's a silver lining in in this whole thing to see everybody come together like they have. Did I miss anything important, Joey? Okay. All right. Thanks. All right. So, we'll move on then to approve the Harden County Fiscal Court U April 8th, 2025 minutes. Is there a motion to approve? So, moved. Second. Okay. Moved and seconded. And any discussion hearing? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Squire Clim, yes. Squire Hicks, yes. Squire Muse, yes. Square Pennington, yes. Squire Saltzman, yes. Square Thompson, yes. Squire Whitehead,

yes. Square Yates, yes. Judge Tall, yes. Motion passes. Okay, we'll move on then toformational items. Um, our first up uh is uh Karsten Le Harden County Election Ambassador Award. Yeah, I just would thank you for um allowing me a few moments on on today's business to recognize um what I think is truly an outstanding achievement by a young Hardenian. Uh the Engles family is is I think well known in the community for being a family of service. And um Karsten, who is not yet old enough to vote, um has three times won the Secretary of State's essay award, statewide essay award, uh bringing honor and recognition to our community. And so I felt that was worthy of of special recognition. And so Carson, we're going to name you a give you the honorary title of Harden County Election Ambassador. I'm going to bring this read this briefly and ask you to come up and we'll all take a quick picture and then move on with business. But uh whereas free and fair elections are necessary for the preservation of our rights as a free people of the United States of

America in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Harden County Clerk has conferred this honor on this 22nd day of April in the year of our Lord 2025. Carson, if you'll come on up, join us up here. Mom, Dad, whoever wants to take pictures, come on. Come on up. I know you got those pictures. Now, one of these he interviewed the county. That was probably the best one. The other two are Happy early birthday. So,