Meeting of January 14, 2025
Fiscal Court Meeting - January 14, 2025 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
The Hardin County Fiscal Court met on January 14, 2025, opening with thanks to first responders, road crews, EMS, dispatch, the jail, and volunteer fire departments for their work during the recent ice and snow storms. Several magistrates shared personal experiences riding along with road crews during the storms, praising the road department's planning and execution under Road Supervisor Dwight Morgan.
The court approved the December 2024 meeting minutes and heard year-end reports from Planning & Development (Adam King) and the Road Department (Dwight Morgan), which covered zoning changes, permitting statistics, and major infrastructure projects including bridge replacements, drainage repairs, and cost-effective in-house chip sealing and resurfacing work. Both reports also recognized long-serving employees: electrical inspector David Beers (41 years) and retiring road department employee Timmy Carr.
The consent agenda, covering claims, resolutions on personnel, financial transfers, EMS medical director salary correction, a 911 tower maintenance contract, the detention center medical services contract, a coroner's office insurance grant, and E911/solid waste personnel, was approved as a block except for one item pulled for separate discussion.
The pulled item, Resolution 2025-009 approving a Solid Waste Coordinator position, generated significant debate. Magistrates Whitehead, Saltzman, and Thompson argued the position was unnecessary and that the Public Works Director job description needed restructuring back toward a dedicated Solid Waste Director role. Judge Executive Keith Tall strongly defended the need for administrative support in the solid waste department, citing its revenue importance and lack of backup staffing. The motion passed 5-4, with an agreement to review the position's effectiveness in six months.
In closing comments, the court welcomed new County Attorney's Office Manager Tori Miller, offered condolences to Magistrate Saltzman for a family tragedy, and reminded residents of upcoming committee meetings, a town hall forum change to January 27th, the January 28th fiscal court meeting, and the county office closure for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 20th.
Agenda (12)
- 7:57
Call to order, roll call, invocation, and pledge
The meeting was called to order, roll call taken with all magistrates present, followed by invocation by Magistrate Thompson and pledge of allegiance led by Magistrate Hicks.
- 10:37
Judge Executive remarks and storm recognition
Judge Executive Keith Tall thanked first responders, EMS, 911, road department, emergency management, jailer, coroner, sheriff's department, and volunteer fire departments for their work during the recent snow and ice storms.
- 14:01
Approval of December 2024 minutes
The court approved the minutes from the December 9, 2024 meeting.
- 15:45
Planning and Development report
Adam King presented the November/December planning report covering zone changes, board of adjustment variances, and year-end statistics on permits, plats, and inspections, and recognized retiring electrical inspector David Beers.
- 21:55
Engineering report postponed
The engineering report was postponed to the next meeting because engineer Mark Abshire was sick.
- 22:16
Road Department report
Dwight Morgan presented the November/December road department report and a year-end overview covering bridge replacements, drainage projects, chip sealing, resurfacing, and the department's storm response performance, followed by magistrate comments on ride-alongs with road crews.
- 49:08
Citizens concerns
No citizens came forward with concerns or comments.
- 49:20
Consent agenda
The consent agenda including claims, resolutions on transfers, personnel, EMS medical director salary correction, a radio tower maintenance contract, detention center medical services, a coroner's grant, and E911/solid waste personnel was approved as a block except for Resolution 2025-009, which was pulled for separate discussion.
- 53:11
Resolution 2025-009: Solid Waste Coordinator position
After Magistrate Whitehead pulled the item, extensive debate occurred over whether a Solid Waste Coordinator position was needed versus restructuring the Public Works Director role; the resolution passed 5-4 with agreement to review in six months.
- 1:08:34
County Attorney comments and introduction of Tori Miller
County Attorney's office introduced Tori Miller as the new office manager and administrative assistant.
- 1:09:50
Magistrate comments
Magistrates gave individual comments including condolences to Magistrate Saltzman, congratulations to retiring employee Timmy Carr, thanks to road crews, and announcements of upcoming committee meetings and a rescheduled town hall.
- 1:12:49
Meeting announcements and adjournment
The Judge Executive reminded attendees of the next fiscal court meeting and the MLK Day office closure before the meeting was adjourned.
Motions & votes (4)
- 14:06
passedApprove the December 9, 2024 Hardin County Fiscal Court meeting minutes
unanimous
- 53:00
passedApprove the consent agenda items except Resolution 2025-009 (pulled for separate vote)
unanimous (by consensus, no objections)
- 54:15
passedApprove Resolution 2025-009 establishing a Solid Waste Coordinator personnel position
5-4, Squires Clem, Saltzman, Thompson, and Yates opposed
- 1:13:20
passedAdjourn the meeting
unanimous, no objections
Transcript (58 segments)
- 0:28
e e e e
- 2:28
e e e e
- 4:28
e e e e
- 6:28
e e e all right well good afternoon everyone um good to see all of you here today we got um some cell phones that
- 7:42
might need to be turned off so please check those I'll check my own here I think I already did but all right so let's go ahead and uh begin this is the January 14th 2025 Harden County Fiscal Court regular voting meeting and let's begin and call this meeting to order all right so we're going go ahead and start with a roll call please Squire Clen here Squire Hicks here Squire Muse here Squire Pennington here Squire Saltzman here Squire Thompson here Squire Whitehead here Squire Yates here judge executive Keith tall here next we'll have our invocation magistrate Thompson and Pledge of Allegiance magistrate Hicks would you pray with me Father God we uh thank you for this day we thank you Father for seeing us through uh each day each moment Lord um you are in charge we praise you for that father we thank thank you that uh you're
- 8:56
present today and that you'll guide our thoughts and our decisions help us Lord to focus on the business at hand and make the best decisions in Jesus name amen amen I pledge allegiance to flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible for liberty and justice for all all right again thanks uh for joining today uh great to see everyone after the big um snowstorms and Ice storms of 2025 that hopefully are past us and no more storms right mayor okay so um let's review the agenda um we have next we will um um have approve uh the uh minutes from the last meeting back in December uh we will have some department and office reports after that um then we'll have an opportunity for any citizens concerns or comments for
- 10:10
any of the um specific agenda items uh after that we do have a consent agenda that we'll go through and talk about that and then our regular comments and at the at the end of the meeting so pretty basic agenda today I did want to uh just recognize a few people uh after being through the storm last last week uh I just wanted to again um show some gratitude and thankfulness for our team here in in Harden County government and all those around that uh played a part in getting us through that storm um you know our uh our First Responders of course were they don't have an option they they can't just stay home and and stay inside and and stay warm in their homes they they come out no matter what the weather and uh take care of us Whenever there are emergencies medical emergencies uh accidents these types of things that are going on during a storm or when there's not a storm so I just want to say thank you to our EMS Department to
- 11:24
911 um and and just you know uh and then when you get over to clearing the roads we've got our road department and uh again they um worked very hard um I got to ride with them this time just to kind of get a feel for that I know several of our magistrates uh also took time to go and get in a truck and ride around um just to just to understand some of the things that they had to had to deal with and I think that was I think Chris and Kenny and uh Aaron uh believe are are you did uh Fred also so fantastic so about half um were out there and can U um experience that and know that these guys are are working hard out there whenever they're clearing these roads and the leadership of Dwight Morgan of course uh to make sure that it all happens appropriately so just uh a lot of gratitude you know I know I started through this and I didn't write it down so I know I'm missing people you know we've got our uh a Coroner's Office of course you know that still still has the function um and U you know we've got our Sheriff's Department you know just just