Meeting of February 27, 2024
Fiscal Court Meeting - February 27th, 2024 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Hardin County Fiscal Court – February 27, 2024
This meeting featured extensive annual presentations from both of Hardin County's water districts, department reports, and a light consent agenda. Judge Tall opened with recognitions of the jailer's assistance during a sewer backup at the coroner's office, Animal Control's grant-funded microchip scanner program for local police, and a lifetime achievement award for longtime shelter worker Mike McNutt.
Hardin County Water District No. 1 (Justin Metts) detailed major infrastructure projects including unserved road water line expansions, a new booster pump station, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) rollout now at 70% completion, and several state/national awards for its treatment plants and staff. Water District No. 2 (Sean Yurovich) reported on a pending rate increase application before the Public Service Commission (first full increase in 17 years), major projects including new water tanks, the Gilead Church Road relocation tied to a state road realignment, and unserved road expansion plans funded by ARPA/SLFRF dollars.
The Coroner presented 2023 statistics showing overdose deaths declining and zero indigent burials. The Sheriff's Office reported arrest/citation statistics, new hires, an upcoming third detective, and the rollout of Flock camera technology in partnership with schools and local law enforcement. The County Clerk covered a special election for the 26th legislative district, expanded May primary polling locations, a new property fraud alert service, and ongoing struggles with the new CAVIS vehicle registration software causing longer wait times.
The Court gave second reading and approved Ordinance 339 (certification of recovery residences), effective July 1, 2024. The consent agenda passed with numerous routine resolutions covering personnel matters, mowing contracts, a leased laptop agreement for EMS, reappointments to the Lincoln Trail ADD board, and acceptance of a surplus travel trailer for emergency management use; committee minutes were pulled for correction before approval. The Court moved into closed session to discuss pending litigation before adjourning.
Residents should note the expanded May primary voting locations, the pending water rate increase for District 2 customers, and severe weather warnings issued for the night of the meeting.
Agenda (15)
- 7:23
Roll call and opening
Judge Tall called the meeting to order and conducted roll call of magistrates.
- 7:45
Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance
Magistrate Muse gave the invocation and Magistrate Yates led the Pledge of Allegiance.
- 10:12
Judge's opening comments
Judge Tall praised county staff for teamwork during a sewer emergency at the coroner's office, recognized Animal Control's microchip scanner grant program, and recognized Mike McNutt's lifetime achievement award.
- 14:19
Approval of February 13th meeting minutes
The court approved the minutes from the previous meeting.
- 15:05
Hardin County Water District No. 1 annual presentation
General Manager Justin Metts presented an overview of the district's utilities, finances, capital projects including unserved road water expansions, AMI metering rollout, and recent awards.
- 44:16
Hardin County Water District No. 2 annual presentation
General Manager Sean Yurovich presented financials, a pending rate increase request before the PSC, capital projects including new tanks and the Gilead Church Road relocation, and community involvement highlights.
- 1:07:15
Coroner's 2023 annual report
Coroner Pat Elmore presented case statistics, causes of death, demographics, and noted declining overdose deaths and zero indigent burials.
- 1:14:34
Sheriff's report
The sheriff's office presented arrest and citation statistics for December and January, new hires, addition of a third detective, and the Flock camera partnership with schools and law enforcement.
- 1:19:18
County Clerk's report
Clerk Brian Smith covered the special election for the 26th district, expanded May primary polling locations, a new property fraud alert service, and ongoing CAVIS system delays.
- 1:32:37
Citizens' comments
No citizens came forward to speak.
- 1:32:50
Second reading of Ordinance 339, Series 2024
The court approved on second reading an ordinance establishing certification of recovery residences in Hardin County, effective July 1, 2024.
- 1:34:16
Consent agenda
The court reviewed and approved numerous resolutions covering financial reports, personnel changes, job description revisions, an EMS laptop lease, mowing contracts, board reappointments, a surplus travel trailer, and committee minutes (with emergency services committee minutes pulled for correction).
- 1:41:26
Magistrate and staff comments
Magistrates and department heads gave closing comments including recognition of Animal Control, safety reminders, litter concerns, church fish fry promotion, and severe weather warnings for the evening.
- 1:47:43
Closed session
The court voted to enter closed session pursuant to KRS 61.810 to discuss pending or proposed litigation against or on behalf of a public agency.
- 2:32:01
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned following closed session.
Motions & votes (5)
- 14:23
passedApprove the February 13th, 2024 fiscal court meeting minutes
unanimous roll call
- 1:33:42
passedApprove second reading of Ordinance 339, Series 2024 regarding certification of recovery residences
unanimous roll call
- 1:39:48
passedApprove the consent agenda items including resolutions 30-45 and committee meeting minutes
unanimous roll call, with emergency services committee minutes pulled for correction and resubmission
- 1:47:43
passedEnter closed session pursuant to KRS 61.810(1)(c) to discuss proposed or pending litigation against or on behalf of a public agency
Moved by Judge Tall · unanimous roll call
- 2:32:01
passedAdjourn the meeting
Transcript (84 segments)
- 6:52
ready to get started uh just good afternoon and and welcome everyone for being here today uh just again again just a quick check of your cell phones just to save you the embarrassment and uh and me too just to make sure all right so this is the February 27th 2024 Harden County Fiscal Court regular voting meeting so let's begin and call this meeting to order I have a roll call please Squire Clen here squire Hicks present Squire Muse here Squire Pennington Squire Saltzman here Squire Thompson here Squire Whitehead here Squire Yates here judge tall here all right we'll next we'll have our invocation by magistrate Muse and Pledge of Allegiance led by magistrate Yates please stand in the name of the father son and Holy Spirit dear Lord we thank you for this beautiful day we thank you for this great country we live
- 8:05
in and privileges we enjoy we thank you for giving us this opportunity to gather today to make decis decisions to improve our County help us consider all Alternatives and work together to make the best decision possible please protect our First Responders as they perform their duties and protect our servicemen and women as they protect our country we humbly ask that you bring peace to our country and throughout the world in Jesus name we pray amen amen I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all than you all right again thanks uh for joining us today today and um the agenda is again fairly typical we'll go through the uh previous Court meeting minutes and we'll have some uh um we do have both of our water districts um today Water District 1 and two with their
- 9:18
annual presentations I look forward to we got several of them here today and some board members so um I'm excited about hearing uh how things are going and uh after that we have some uh Department office reports presentations uh we'll have our typical U opportunity for any citizens concerns or comments uh we have one ordinance today to have a second reading on so we'll go through that and then um we have our consent agenda that's got uh several items in there that I'll review and then our typical comments at the end uh we do have have a closed session uh scheduled today that we'll uh break away from and then we'll adjourn so that's our our um agenda today um just a few comments uh some I just think some positive things I I I I want to just um talk a little bit about um just some Partnerships some coordination um a simple thing like yesterday uh I was just talking to our coroner um just right before the meeting today
- 10:32
and yesterday they had a uh a situation over there in their building um and uh really you know whenever you have a backup of a sewer uh so you can imagine that that was not a pleasant experience um you know it sometimes it just takes a bunch of people to get together and figure out what's going on and to take care of and to take care of it so you yesterday you know you had your emergency management you had um you know uh various people over there in the building um you know the and finally it took um our our Jailer uh big Josh to bring his heavy equipment over and U and really uh take care of the situation so it was just a uh a good I I just think another opportunity to f one one thing to say thanks to our Jailer for H having the equipment to come over and and handle that and um and just working together uh as a as a team to take care of a a simple situation but yet one that was very disruptive so uh thank you Josh um another another item I just want
- 11:46
to uh make note of here is uh I I don't know if some of you seen the paper today but it's got a a nice long article and a very nice article about our animal control and how they um uh came up with a way to equip area police agencies with microchip readers and uh it's just a I think another example of um someone thinking a little bit out of the box coming up with a new idea of how this could be helpful and of course you can you can read the article um and and see what uh the details behind it but you know this was something that Sharon Kelly our deputy director over there and um that uh was able to use grant money didn't didn't cost any taxpayer money at least not local taxpayer money and um you know be able to get five scanners and and get the local police agencies which was the other part of this you know they had to be willing to to go through a little bit of training and to and to take on those scanners and have and and understand how to use them and take their time to to work with our animal control people to
- 12:59
make this happen and they were willing to do that so um anyway I just want to um you know just say a few positive things about that and just uh that that was um um great work um sh uh Sharon on on pulling that together and coming up with that idea and seeing it through to fruition and one last thing uh again on our animal shelter um and talk a little bit about Mike mcnut some of you saw the article on the paper again about uh the Lifetime Achievement Award that he received from the Humane Society um recently and um it it's a it was a pretty big deal so uh if any of you know Mike and um you know want to um send him a thank you or you know congratulations for I don't know how many years it was 30 some years I think in in this area this business and and this um um work from the heart for him I know um I just wanted to say something publicly at this meeting uh that we're we're proud of him and what he's accomplished so those are just some positive things I wanted to bring out
- 14:13
today um and um we'll move on all right so um move on to our Harden County Fiscal Court minutes from uh February 13th is there a motion to approve so move second okay mooving second any discussion hearing none have a roll call please Squire clim yes Squire hick yes Square Muse yes Square Saltzman yes Square Thompson yes Square Whitehead yes Square Yates yes judge tall yes motion carries all right so next is um a time now that we have U Harden County Water District number one um coming up for their annual presentation by Justin Mets can you hear me all right yeah I guess kind of pull it up there closer to where your mouth actually is all right thank you very much for allowing me to come and give you an update on Harden County Water number one my name is Justin Mets I'm the general manager for Harden County Water number one I've been working for the district's utilities for 19 years since 2005 um started out as an entry level person and just worked my
- 15:27
way through all different rungs of the ladder to ultimately be promoted to the general manager so I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak for you today and give you an update thank you uh quick rundown uh we are we consist of and I'll hit it on another slide but we have five independent utilities but as far as the customers serve our County Water System serves 11,270 service connections our rackless sewer system services 9,833 service connections Fort Knox water and our Fort Knox sewer systems there are less than 150 water meters on Fort Knox so giving you a a service count from that standpoint is uh really not the way to present it better yet we serve a population that varies a pretty wide range uh in the winter time when the cadet summer training command's not there and things di down a little bit the population approximately 7,750 on post um and then it it balloons up pretty in the summertime when that Cadet summer training command comes in to nearly 23,600 being served we service um five five distinct utilities um a storm water