Meeting of October 24, 2023
Fiscal Court Meeting - October 24th, 2023 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Hardin County Fiscal Court – October 24, 2023
The Fiscal Court held a routine voting meeting covering department reports, a consent agenda of financial and personnel resolutions, and citizen concerns. The court approved minutes from the previous meeting and a large consent agenda without discussion beyond noting satisfaction with a bridge repair item.
The Coroner reported on August and September activity, noting continued high numbers of overdose deaths and a troubling rise in suicides, now trending toward middle-aged residents rather than under-30. He also flagged that several states have banned kratom, a substance the court had previously discussed. The Sheriff presented routine arrest, citation, and service statistics, and thanked community groups for meals provided to first responders. The County Clerk gave detailed information on upcoming election deadlines, absentee voting, and polling locations, notably moving the Pritchard Community Center voting site to Elizabethtown High School for safety reasons. The Sheriff's office financial report showed the office running at a routine deficit that is typically resolved once tax collections begin.
A resident raised a longstanding concern about a shared county-line road (Two Mile Road) where trash service is split awkwardly between Hardin and Larue counties, causing road damage from duplicate truck traffic. No resolution has been reached, though officials indicated further talks with the waste companies are planned.
The consent agenda included approval of financial reports, claims, payroll, and several resolutions: hiring/personnel changes in EMS and E911, a new occupational tax clerk position, a bid for a modular bridge deck to repair the Middle Creek Road bridge (partially grant-funded), building panel repairs at the government center, purchase of a new pickup truck, and purchase of electronic road signs funded by grant. All passed unanimously.
Closing comments included magistrates recognizing Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Veterans Day, the passing of respected community member Bob Aslin, successful local festivals, and a road safety improvement near a Glendale fire department. The meeting adjourned with the next session scheduled for November 14 at 3:30 pm.
Agenda (12)
- 10:24
Call to order and roll call
Judge Tall opened the meeting and roll call confirmed all magistrates present.
- 10:55
Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance
Magistrate Thompson gave the invocation and Magistrate Hicks led the Pledge of Allegiance.
- 13:39
Judge's opening remarks on plant closure
Judge Tall asked residents to support workers affected by a large local plant closure who will be seeking new employment.
- 14:40
Approval of previous meeting minutes
The court approved the minutes from the last fiscal court meeting.
- 15:24
Coroner's report
Coroner Pat Elmore presented August and September case statistics, highlighting rising overdose deaths and an increasing trend of suicides among middle-aged residents, plus states that have banned kratom.
- 19:38
Sheriff's report
Sheriff John Ward presented arrest, citation, and service statistics and thanked community groups for providing meals to responders.
- 22:07
County Clerk's report and election information
Clerk Brian Smith reviewed fee revenue, voter registration numbers, absentee voting deadlines, and changes to polling locations including moving Pritchard Community Center voting to Elizabethtown High School.
- 27:10
Sheriff's financial report
The Sheriff's office presented August and September expense and fee totals, noting a normal seasonal deficit resolved once tax collections begin, and reminded residents about upcoming tax bill mailing dates.
- 31:25
Citizen concerns: Two Mile Road trash service dispute
Resident Dena Embry followed up on an unresolved issue where two waste companies split service on a county-line road, causing excess truck traffic and road damage; no resolution has been reached yet.
- 35:50
Consent agenda review and approval
The court reviewed and approved a large consent agenda including financial reports, personnel resolutions, a bridge deck bid, building repair bid, vehicle purchase, and electronic sign purchase.
- 40:52
Closing comments from magistrates and officials
Magistrates gave closing remarks on community events, Veterans Day, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the passing of Bob Aslin, and a road safety fix near a fire department.
- 50:15
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned with the next fiscal court meeting scheduled for November 14 at 3:30 pm.
Motions & votes (3)
Transcript (33 segments)
- 9:54
5:30 it's time to start so just want to say good afternoon and welcome welcome everyone even those in the back row back there I can see you back there okay uh just a reminder on the on the cell phones um if you can put those on turn them off or on stun or something and that would be helpful all right so this is the October 24th 2023 Hardon County Fiscal Court regular voting meeting so let's begin and uh call this meeting to order all right so let's start with a roll call Squire Clen here Squire here Squire Muse here Squire Pennington here Squire Saltzman here Squire Thompson here Squire Whitehead here Square Yates here judge tall here all right next uh we'll have our invocation by magistrate EG Thompson and Pledge of Allegiance by magistrate Larry Hicks would you pray father God we we just praise you for the blessing of this time lord when we um
- 11:09
walk through the sunshine feel the warmth we're reminded that that is from you you have all things in hand father we pray today that you would uh turn our hearts and our minds to the business that we should be about hard County God we thank you for your blessing on this County this fate in our nation Lord we pray that you would uh continue to exert or extend your mercy to our land as we often find ourselves not where we need to be with you we pray Lord that um you would provide protection and care for those who love you through the world we thank you so much much for those who step forward to stand for what is good and right bless them Lord and protect them encourage and strengthen in Jesus name glad Alle United States of America to The Republic which it stands one nation
- 12:22
under God indivisible liberty and justice for all all right again uh thanks again for joining today we don't uh have u a huge number of items on the agenda but uh just a quick review uh like I said fairly typical we'll look at the last minute uh last Fiscal Court meeting minutes and vote on those and then we've got a department uh and office reports from the coroner and sheriff and Clerk and some written reports we'll have a time of any citizen concerns or comments uh we don't have any uh specific ordinance and resolutions to vote on today but in the consent agenda we um uh we'll we'll have some um items to vote on and then which I'll go through later and then uh and then comments at the end so that's about it for that um just uh I I just something that's on my heart really just wanted to uh uh for those of you that may not know there's there's a um a
- 13:36
plant a large plant amre or aconoidasida just um you know as some of us may know some people that work there and it's it's just a time for our County and um you know people in our County to reach out to those um that are working there right now and then will'll be looking for employment at some point in the future and just uh reach you know to to reach out with a helping hand in any way that we can to help them through this transition so I just wanted to to mention that today okay uh I don't see any inform information oh first of all I guess we have um um our minutes from the last minute uh from the last meeting is there a motion to approve second second okay uh any discussion hearing none we have a roll
- 14:51
call Squire Clen yes Squire Hicks yes Squire Muse yes yes Squire Salzman yes Squire Thompson yes Squire Whitehead yes Squire Yates yes judge tall yes motion passes next um would be our department or office reports uh so we'll just start right off with our coroner uh Pat Elmore good evening judge members of the court and the audience always a pleasure to be here we want to cover our August and September readout for the this report u in August just a check real quick is that microphone working okay test test test okay just kind of pull it pull it towards your mouth people typically don't have trouble hearing me but we'll go ahead anyway for August we had 86 cases that we worked uh six accidents D two motor vehicle collisions I feel like a broken record when it come about talking about
- 16:02
our overdoses but we had a oxycodone and alcohol methampetamine and of course we get into the the methamphetamines and the fent uh one homicide we're still pinning autopsy on one of our cases undetermined in 78 Naturals for September we worked 888 cases u 11 accidents it was a busy month as you know for accidents uh we had two fils that resulted in deaths five Motor Vehicles lesions and we get into the uh overdoses and again you see the fenel and faur fenel and stuff like that suicides we had two and 75 Naturals our manners of death again we have today we have 57 accidents homicides have already took a surge this year with six and then with suicides that's a number that it continues to climb um again it's as we've reported in our last meetings it's something we're trying to track really no R reason to those um again on our cremations you're going to see we've signed 380 autopsies for the year are 22 um and then of course our transports are 112 next overdoses again like I said we
- 17:17
seem like we talk about those a lot but those are continuing to climb we're working on some different things in the county as far as uh kind of track those we're having some other meetings tomorrow so we'll update yall the information comes these are the residencies again Elizabeth Town is our biggest number followed by R and kind of follows according to population down and of course um we had a few more out of state and out of County deaths this year already so again some of those are accidents on the interstate and so are there any questions ad I'm curious about the suicides 19 suicides um you see a pattern in age or you have no ma'am really we haven't um like I reported a couple meetings ago we we used to track those it was seemed like it was in under the age of 30 now that number is kind of creeping up a little bit you know it's around 40 41 um so you know that's something it's it's unfortunately it's hard to track you know you don't know if you we can't begin to understand what's in somebody's mind but uh we just don't know right now but the age has has increased somewhat on that so yeah one informational thing at uh M clim asked
- 18:32
me we talked about katum a couple of sessions ago and we were talking about some of the states that had outlawed it uh Alabama Arkansas Rhode Island Vermont and Wisconsin those are states that have presently outlawed creative so um if you want to and I know Brian mentioned to me he kind of looked at some of those items too as far as different states but that's something we're continue to watch so far we haven't had any more of those but obviously we're going to continue to watch them so any other questions thank you all very much thank you thank you uh next presentation is our Sheriff John Ward good evening judge members of the Court good evening good evening County attorney and County Clerk and fell Harden County Sheriff's Office report um arrest 204 302 citations 128 warrants 741 civil processes served 1,479 complaint calls 91 accidents