Meeting of June 27, 2023
Fiscal Court Meeting - June 27th, 2023 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
The Hardin County Fiscal Court met on June 27, 2023, in a regular voting session dominated by a highly contested zoning request. The court approved routine minutes and issued an executive order naming Magistrates Clem and Saltzman as chair and vice-chair of the county's new quarterly town hall forums.
Department reports included the county coroner's overdose and death-investigation statistics (fentanyl remains the leading cause, suicides already matching last year's total) and the county clerk's voter registration and fee updates, which showed real estate transactions slightly down and voter registrations climbing toward the 2023 general election.
The bulk of the meeting centered on a request by Stonefield Solar to rezone roughly 1,030 acres in the Handsboro Valley area along Litchfield Road/West Glendale-Hodgenville Road from rural residential/commercial to heavy industrial (I-2). Ten citizens spoke for and against the change, raising issues of farmland preservation, industrial growth, sewer/fire service capacity, and property rights. The court first voted on a resolution to deny the rezoning, which failed 4-5, meaning the denial was not adopted. The court then voted on first reading of an ordinance approving the rezoning to heavy industrial, which passed 6-3, moving the request to a second reading in July.
The court also approved an updated county administrative code (raising bid and purchasing thresholds, updating ethics and IT policy references) and a large consent agenda covering claims, payroll, various contracts (HCTV recording services, propane leases for 911 towers, an IT service agreement, a spay/neuter grant), and personnel actions, all passing unanimously.
In closing comments, several magistrates expressed strong disagreement over the zoning vote, with Magistrate Hicks voicing disappointment that the court had overridden the planning commission's recommendation. The meeting adjourned with announcements of upcoming committee meetings and a July 4th holiday shutdown, with the next fiscal court meeting set for July 11.
Agenda (10)
- 20:19
Call to order, roll call, invocation, and pledge
Judge Tall opened the June 27, 2023 regular voting meeting, called roll of all magistrates, and led invocation and pledge of allegiance.
- 23:43
Approval of meeting minutes
The court considered approval of minutes from the June 13 regular meeting and the June 20 and June 21 special called meetings.
- 24:42
Executive order on town hall forum leadership
Executive order 2023-008 formally appointed Magistrate Clem as chair and Magistrate Saltzman as vice chair of the newly formalized quarterly town hall forums.
- 27:19
Coroner's office report
Coroner Pat Elmore presented case statistics from February through April, highlighting fentanyl-driven overdoses, a new drug (xylazine), and a rise in suicides matching last year's total.
- 32:51
County Clerk's report
County Clerk Brian Smith presented monthly fee/commission comparisons and voter registration statistics ahead of the November general election.
- 35:35
Other department written reports
The court noted written reports submitted by EMS, 911, the detention center, and planning, with no questions raised.
- 36:04
Citizens comments and zoning map amendment hearing
The court heard ten speakers, alternating for and against a request by Stonefield Solar to rezone about 1,030 acres from residential/commercial to heavy industrial, before voting on the associated resolution and ordinance.
- 1:27:17
County Administrative Code update (Resolution 2023-139)
Judge Tall summarized changes to the 2010 administrative code, including raised bid/purchase thresholds, updated procurement rules, and removal of outdated hospital references.
- 1:32:21
Consent agenda
The court reviewed and voted on a consent agenda covering financial reports, claims, contracts for HCTV, propane leases, an IT service agreement, personnel actions, and a spay/neuter grant.
- 1:36:17
Magistrate comments and announcements
Magistrates gave closing remarks, including congratulations to a local athlete, committee meeting schedule changes, and strong criticism from Magistrate Hicks over the zoning vote outcome.
Motions & votes (6)
- 24:16
passedApprove fiscal court minutes from June 13, 2023, and special called meetings of June 20 and June 21, 2023
unanimous
- 1:13:01
failedApprove resolution 2023-138 denying the zoning map amendment request to change roughly 1,030 acres to heavy industrial (I-2)
4 yes (Clem, Hicks, Whitehead, Tall) to 5 no (Muse, Pennington, Saltzman, Thompson, Yates); motion to deny the zone change failed
- 1:19:28
passedApprove first reading of ordinance 2023-334 amending ordinance 269 series 2009 to approve the zone change from R2/C1 to heavy industrial I2 for the Stonefield Solar application
approximately 6-3, with Clem, Whitehead, and Judge Tall voting no
- 1:31:49
passedApprove resolution 2023-139 updating the Hardin County administrative code (procurement thresholds, ethics code reference, IT policy recognition, etc.)
unanimous
- 1:35:56
passedApprove the consent agenda including financial reports, claims, HCTV agreement, propane lease agreements, board reappointment, personnel resolutions, and service/grant agreements
unanimous
- 1:40:32
passedAdjourn the meeting
no objections
Transcript (66 segments)
- 19:24
my phone says 5 30 so it's time to start I can get everyone's attention please so just I want to say good afternoon and welcome everyone welcome to all of our elected officials that are here and all the department heads that are here too and of course all of the citizens that are here and uh you know being a part of your local government uh it's it's good to see all of you here today uh just a one note about cell phones and uh to to put those on vibrate turn them off check mine right here that looks good and we'll go ahead and proceed this is the June 27 2023 Hardin County Fiscal Court regular voting meeting so let's go ahead and begin and call this meeting to order we'll have the roll call Squire Clem here Squire Hicks here Square Muse here Squire Pennington here Squire Saltzman here Squire Thompson here Squire
- 20:37
Whitehead here Square Yates here judge tall here next is our invocation by Magister E.G Thompson and our Pledge of Allegiance by magistrate Larry Hicks father God we just looked ourselves up to you today and we asked father that she would guide this meeting that it would be a meeting for a new honor and that would glorify you Lord to give us Clarity of mind give us all we need to make the decisions that we need to make today Father we thank you for your ongoing mercy and love that you extend to us to the act of your son Jesus Christ this again on the cross for us father we thank you that through him we can have Redemption and eternal life with you father we pray that today as we deal with these temporal things that you continue to bless us father we thank you for this community being a community where he can speak out and again I praise you pray father that today with the attack
- 21:52
when you would be uplifted in Jesus name which stands invisible liberty and justice for Allah okay again uh thanks everyone for joining us today and participating uh just uh as usual just kind of a quick review of of the agenda uh next up will be a vote for uh various meeting minutes we'll move on to just an informational item of an executive order that I'll talk about we'll have a couple of of department and office reports these are office reports and and their presentations well there's uh some written reports that are included in the package and then we'll have a time of citizens
- 23:06
concerns or comments and then we'll discuss that when we get to it a couple of resolutions and ordinances to look at and into into vote on and then we have a consent agenda after that and then we'll have some time for some other comments um at the end before we adjourn so that's that's the agenda and so we'll kind of uh go ahead and proceed through this the first item here to look at is our Fiscal Court minutes from our last one at on June 13 2023 in addition to that we will vote to approve the Fiscal Court special call meeting on the 20th of June and then the minutes from the the day after that on the June 21st the the minutes of that special called meeting so is there a motion to approve these minutes okay okay
- 24:17
any any discussion hearing none I have a roll call Square Clem yes Squire Hicks yes Square Muse yes Square Pennington yes Squire Saltzman yes Square Thompson yes Square Whitehead yes Square Yates yes judge tall yes motion passes all right next is uh an executive order number 2023-008 uh this is in regard to import appointment of a chairperson and a vice chairperson for the town hall forums if you remember our last meeting those of you that watched or was may have been here we passed a resolution that that we move the times for the Committees and some other changes but one of the things that was included in there was it formalized a quarterly Town Hall forum and um and it required the appointment of the chair and the vice chair and this
- 25:31
executive order appoints magistrate Clem to the chair and magistrate Saltzman to Vice chair so please note that uh one thing I guess I want to make clear too is that even though this is a you know these these Town Halls kind of formalizes four of them a year one each quarter and the dates associated with those it doesn't mean that we can't have other uh town halls and so any of the magistrates um and myself can call other Town Halls at any time in in magistrates in their own districts as they wish and so this this just uh basically formalizes at least four a year and they'll make decisions on where those forms will be and what time they'll be held on those dates so that information will be forthcoming for any of you that want to be a part of that again these these Town Halls are open uh agenda so there will be open to any kind of topic that you want to talk
- 26:43
about it should be a two-way flow so there should be if there's any information that that the Fiscal Court has that might be interesting to you then hopefully that will be communicated and then any issues or comments or things that you want to present back to the magistrates in Fiscal Court then of course you'll have opportunity to do that with no no real restrictions there okay so that brings us to department and office reports presentations so first up is the coroner Pat Elmore afternoon judge members of the court and members of the audience uh certainly appreciate the opportunity to come in and present our activity it's going to actually go back to February throughout our last one but uh I think can you all hear him can you pull that yeah just get as close to the mic any of at least it has a better yeah any speaker today get as close to the mic as you can okay thank you I'm sorry to interrupt you that's fine next screen please
- 28:02
so in the in the month I think it's running up backwards here but you should have February I'll start with April April we had 96 cases you can see we had about five accidents one of them being a motor vehicle accident overdoses made up for those and then you'll see the the method of the overdoses as far as fentanyl cells seems to be the issue that we're having then we've had a new drug showed up xylazine it's that's to get to be a prevalent drug throughout the state now so we had Naturals we had 89 cases and suicides we had two for April February we had 76 cases again accidents the overdose has made up the majority of those 69 Naturals and two suicides and then in March we had 85 cases with again overdosed with the Fentanyl and and then we had three accidents there one homicide 78 natural suicides and we're pinning autopsy on an unknown case at this time brings up a manner of death you can see these the of course Naturals will always be our main