Meeting of April 12, 2022
Fiscal Court Meeting - April 12th, 2022 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Hardin County Fiscal Court – April 12, 2022
The court opened with routine business, including reports from Animal Care and Control and Emergency Management. Animal Care reported strong adoption numbers and a 94% live-release rate, while Emergency Management gave an extended presentation urging residents to rely on NOAA weather radios and cell phone weather apps rather than outdoor sirens, warning of severe weather expected the following day.
The most significant and contentious item was the first reading of an ordinance raising the annual fire department subscriber fee from $30 to $40, the first increase since 2006. Several magistrates strongly supported the increase given inflation and rising equipment costs, while Magistrate King and Magistrate Williams raised concerns about whether fire departments were properly billing non-subscribers' insurance as required by the existing ordinance, since they had not received requested documentation. After lengthy debate, including public comment from a volunteer firefighter, the ordinance passed on first reading, with both King and Magistrate Plymouth abstaining pending further information.
The court also approved on first reading a budget amendment (ordinance 3244, series 2021) of about $792,040.35, covering solid waste, sheriff's department summer training costs, and road department reimbursements. The consent agenda was approved after a comment from a magistrate urging that planning commission appointments reflect agricultural interests.
During department reports, magistrates discussed upcoming roadwork disruptions in downtown Vine Grove due to storm water infrastructure repairs, which will affect traffic for several weeks. The County Clerk reminded residents of upcoming voter registration deadlines and early/absentee voting schedules ahead of the May primary. The meeting closed with reminders about upcoming committee meetings and the next fiscal court session scheduled for April 26th.
Agenda (7)
- 5:15
Animal Care and Control report
Mark McNutt reported strong adoption and return-to-owner numbers, a 94% live release rate, and continued high volume of rescue transfers, notably to Canada.
- 9:54
Emergency Management report
Bryce Shumate discussed outdoor warning sirens, urged residents to use NOAA weather radios and weather apps, and warned of severe weather expected the next day.
- 18:21
First reading of Ordinance 328 – Fire department subscriber fee increase
Ordinance would raise the annual fire department subscription fee from $30 to $40; extensive debate occurred over whether fire departments were billing non-subscribers' insurance as required, leading to two abstentions.
- 46:59
First reading of Ordinance 3244 – FY21-22 budget amendment #4
Budget amendment of $792,040.35 covering solid waste, sheriff's summer training, and road department reimbursements from state funds.
- 48:20
Consent agenda approval
Consent agenda approved with discussion about ensuring the planning commission appointment represents agricultural interests.
- 50:21
Magistrate and department comments
Magistrates gave updates including road construction in Vine Grove affecting traffic for weeks, solid waste and resource committee meeting times, and reminders to drive safely.
- 55:26
County Clerk's office update
The clerk reminded residents of the voter registration deadline and outlined absentee and early voting schedules ahead of the May primary.
Motions & votes (4)
- 19:14
passedFirst reading of Ordinance 328, series 2022, increasing fire department subscriber fees from $30 to $40 annually
Moved by Mr. Wiseman · seconded by Ms. Williams · Passed with King and Plymouth abstaining, all others voting yes
- 47:37
passedFirst reading of Ordinance 3244, series 2021, budget amendment #4 for FY21-22 in the amount of $792,040.35
Moved by Mr. King · seconded by Mr. Wiseman · unanimous
- 48:32
passedApproval of the consent agenda
Moved by Mr. Doug Goodman · seconded by Mr. Easter · unanimous
- 57:12
passedMotion to adjourn the meeting
Moved by Mr. Glenn · seconded by Mr. Wiseman · no objection
Transcript (44 segments)
- 2:42
good afternoon welcome to the april 12 meeting of hardin county fiscal court i'd remind you this is a voting meeting and if you have cell phones please turn them off or put them in a vibrate mode we'll begin with the roll call if you would miss donald trump ronnie goodman yeah king here judge barry here easter here doug goodman here william here mr plymouth will lead us to invocation and mr wiseman pledge if you'll please stand pray with me our most gracious and loving heavenly father we come praising your holy name and thanking you father for this beautiful day that you've given us and all the blessings that uh you've given to us uh this week and father uh we just uh thank you so much for those father we lift up our nation and father we just pray for our leaders and pray for those that protect us around the world and locally statewide at our national level as well father we just ask that you be with our first responders each and every one of them and father we just thank you so much for the privilege of being able to serve and father i'm just uh i'm thankful to be able to serve with this body that i
- 3:56
serve with now and i'm thankful for the civility that each one over the last 11 years and three months have uh have shown and i just uh i'm just blessed to be able to serve with each and every one of them and father we lift up the the people of ukraine and father we just ask that you be with our our leaders in the decisions they make there and be with the people that are suffering so badly we just lift them up and ask that you comfort and put your hand on that situation father go with us in this meeting other exercises be with us in the things that we say the things that we do and your son in jesus name i pray amen amen would you please join me in the pledge i pledge america and two republic for this one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all we'll start with department and office reports and first up is animal care and control mark mcnutt hello everybody how are y'all doing all right so
- 5:14
um last month we adopted out 65 and we returned 29 back to their homes safely and we sent 10 to rescue next slide um our dog adoptions are up 187 compared to last year and that's just that's just dogs the cats are up as well but that's almost 200 up that's people are coming back and they're they're coming to us to find quality animals which is a good thing we returned 190 dogs to the owners for the year to date which is up 55 compared to last year you know a lot of these are happening in the field so they're never ever coming into the shelter like we've talked about in the past if people are not constant their animals are not a nuisance if we're not out on them all the time if it's just somebody left the gate open and the animal got back and there's identification on the animal we return them in the field to the people a lot of people don't know we do that when we do show up with their animal it's some of the reactions that we get are really really good so next slide please for the year to date and rescue we're at 11
- 6:28
um you know canada with uh covet has really stepped up their the hoops that we have to jump through and they're one of our biggest rescue groups we i was telling lisa that we have groups that meet every friday in the whole parking lot is field and it'll be people that have drove 15 miles and they'll park and they'll have five dogs and two will go into one vehicle three are going to another and then they'll start another 10-mile journey that goes all across the nation but a lot of ours go to canada and it it's like i was telling them whatever they're doing in canada they're doing right and if i can figure that out we'll do it here next slide please for euthanasia for a year to date we're at eight percent on dogs uh next slide for on for the year to date on dog adoptions we're at 57 that's up 15 compared to last year next slide return to owner for the fiscal year is at 24 percent next slide we've inves we investigated
- 7:42
for the year for this year we've investigated 1106 complaints it's up four calls which is not a lot but i mean where the calls are coming in next steady um we're at 44 for unincorporated and 56 for incorporated next slide for the year to date we're at 42 for unincorporated and 58 for incorporated next for the year to date the shelter live release rate for all animals is at 94 percent the year to date for just cats is 96 percent so we're at 92 on dogs so 94 i don't think we could ask for better numbers next slide the monthly live release rate for cats is like i said at 92 or is it 92 percent next slide we had 933 visitors looking for lost pets or to adopt inside our shelter last month next slide this is the information that we give to the employees this is the things that
- 8:55
they find important for me the biggest thing is we did 252 surgeries when you think about each one of those having six to eight liter of that number is pretty significant for one month 25 of those were returned to field cats so any questions comments for mike good job thank you appreciate it thanks next we'll hear from emergency management mr bryce shumate good afternoon judge and members of fiscal court it's good to be back good to see you all uh i appreciate you all everybody asked so many questions called me and checked up on me while i've been out and healing and so not 100 yet but i'm getting there so thank you all for all your notes and uh and phone calls uh i wanted to talk because we're in the we're in the uh severe weather season and we've gotten several calls since december concerning this so this is a presentation that i gave to you all last fall and it's concerning
- 10:10
ways that we can get notified as far as severe weather coming we have 36 outdoor warning devices now let me give you a little bit information on this because more and more people are saying can we put more sirens up outside those outdoor warning devices are for warning people that are outdoors our best placement of those would be places that we have our population that are in outdoor activities like our ballparks those are the the ideal places for us to have them and we have them at the ballparks in the county areas all throughout hardin county i will tell you this that next slide please there are some in radcliffe radcliffe has their own signs owns their own owns their own sirens we help maintain them for them and we um set them off for them next slide please elizabethtown has 12 they own their own sirens and have upgraded theirs within the last few years next slide please in the county we have 12 next slide please we are going to have to think about in the next few
- 11:22
years what we want to do especially when we have these sirens that are near our ballparks where we have outdoor activities going on when we want to upgrade those because they're over 20 years old now and so some of them are quite costly as far as maintenance in the last couple years we've probably spent close to five thousand dollars a year on making sure that they're upgraded and new batteries and so on so it is not an inexpensive endeavor buying grove has three and they put in for a new grant uh recently steve is that correct uh to upgrade their three outdoor sirens that that one has been there since i was a little boy that you all are seeing on the screen right now and i'm 61 years old so that is an old air raid siren that was probably gotten from fort knox many years ago next slide please the best thing i can tell our folks that are watching fiscal court right now on tv is that a noaa weather radio is your indoor siren it is your best notification of siren or a nest best notification of any type of weather that we're getting when we set the sirens off we're getting