Meeting of September 9, 2025

So um we won't have him here to infect all of us. So we've asked him just to uh stay away and so that will just be a written report today from engineering. So, we do have the written reports available online. Uh, we'll have some citizens concerns or comments if there are any and then we'll vote on a resolution and then we'll have our consent agenda as usual and then comments and then we do have a close session at the end of the meeting uh that we'll go through and then we'll adjourn. So, that's the agenda. Um, I don't think I have anything else. So, we'll just move on to the next item of business, and that is to approve the Harden County Fiscal Court uh, August 26, 2025 minutes. Need a motion to approve. — So, move. — Second. It's — been moved and seconded. Uh, any discussion? — Hearing none, we'll have roll call, please. — Square Clim, — yes. — Square Hicks, — yes. Yes. Square Muse. — Yes. — Squire Pennington. — Yes. — Squire Saltzman. — Yes. — Squire Thompson. — Yes.

— Square Whitehead. — Yes. — Squire Yates. — Yes. — Judge Tall. — Yes. Motion passes. All right. Next on the agenda. Um happy to say we have uh an award today, I believe. And u I'm just going to turn that over to our clerk, Brian Smith. — Absolutely. There's a occasionally a couple of fun things you get to do as county clerk. Um, one of them we uh always try to recognize and promote our local elections. Uh, the Secretary of State's office hosts every year an essay contest for students and also an I voted sticker, a design contest. And there were nine finalists in this year's I voted sticker contest. Three of those finalists from were from Harden County. Um, and uh, fortunately so is the winner. And uh, before I want to honor that student, I want to recognize her teacher, Mr. Roland, who is a phenomenal civics teacher. He lives it, he loves it. Um, I the phrase I use when I refer to him is he's the teacher I wish I had when I was in middle school. He really pushes those kids and encourages them to go above and beyond what they think

they're capable of. But I'm pleased to to recognize tonight Allison Marinich who uh was not only the I voted sticker contest winner, but we do something very special here in Harden County. We have an a position we call elect Harden County election ambassadors. These are folks here in our community and throughout the state who promote elections and encourage people to vote. And I don't think there's going to do anything more to encourage local people to vote than to click that one of a one-of-a-kind I voted sticker. So Allison, if you'd like to come forward, um all of us, we'd like to get a picture with you. Uh if that's okay. [Applause] is actually speeches when she announced

[Music] [Applause] And I didn't mention she's a student at Bluegrass Middle School. So, um, Bulldogs are are making things happen out there. So, to the other students, you got something to look forward to. Thank you. — Very good. Give her another hand. [Applause] I think her brother wanted to give a speech for her. Is that right? — Don't you? — No. — You did good. All right. Well, congratulations. Thank you. All right. Next up on the agenda is the Harden County History Museum and uh our friend Tim Asher's going to come up and fill us in a little bit. — Tim Asher. I thought that was Mr. uh Mr. Haycraft.

— Mr. Haycraft totally on Thursday night. — Uh thank you, Judge Squires. It's a honor to be here. I was telling somebody before the meeting, it's been 17 years before I stood before the court. usually making report as a staff person and uh he's not here today but Francis Simpson would always treat me like a grandchild before the meeting and once we got into the meeting he'd hit me with left hooks and things that I just never had seen before. He's pretty sneaky. So, we'll see what happens today. I guess just a couple of comments on um we have our county attorney Jenny Odum who said she's not running for that office again. uh she grew up in that office. I don't know if you know that she was uh in high school in that office. So, nobody knows the county attorney better than than Jenny Olden. And u we had some fun with Kenny Sman the other night at the at the walking tour. There's a part where I'm talking about we had held the county government building heard the county's business in individual homes and I always point somebody out in the crowd we had it in

your home unsuspecting and of course he played it off pretty well but I pointed him out and said thank you for your hospitality. So um he came to the walking tour and had a had a big crowd that night so and he stayed till the end. I was surprised at that. So anyway, uh let me get going. — It was very fun. I I enjoyed it. Thank you. — I'm glad you did. Come see us next year. — Yes, sir. I will. — Um I I have uh written or given you a lot of information there so I wouldn't have to talk as much. Uh I have a memorandum basically on most of the stuff that we do. And we have just adopted a cultural heritage plan. And the cultural heritage plan is basically encouraging uh our tourism bureaus uh and county governments powers that be to uh concentrate on cultural heritage tourism. Uh we have an incredible story to tell here in Harden County and uh that is the job of the uh Harden County History Museum and uh I think it would benefit uh the county u uh with tourism dollars uh to uh

concentrate on uh on tourism. And I'm not criticizing anything that our tourism bureaus have done. I think they've done a fantastic job. But we have such a wonderful story here to tell. I I think uh that's something that we may have overlooked over time. Uh the Hardtown County History Museum has really been in existence since 2002. Uh the um library moved out of the building and moved to a new building and there was a group um that got together and said it's time for to try to put together a history museum. So in this in uh the fiscal court was kind enough to give us the building and u we had help from the county from uh uh Lewis Lawson the jailer who put a foreman and and inmates in to do most of the work constructing or changing the building from a library to a history museum and uh we simply couldn't do it without the fiscal court. Uh our um uh mission statement has remained unchanged since it began and uh what we do is preserve, exhibit, and educate the public to the history of Harden County, Kentucky. Um

we have a 25 member board. It's all volunteer. We our board is all volunteer. Our uh ambassadors who are the face of the museum, they're all volunteers. Um, and uh, they're in there to keep the doors open, anyone who comes through to answer any questions. Uh, we're open from 10 to 2 from Tuesday to Saturday. And during the summer we have extended hours, but uh, primarily what we do is we educate uh, the public to um, local Kentucky and national history through the lens of Harden County history. We offer group tours. Uh we work with local schools with their projects. We have a speakers bureau whereby monthly we have uh someone either museum personnel, authors or or other accomplished individuals to speak on important topics and local interest or uh historical importance. Uh we have weekly articles on Facebook on a variety of topics. One of the last ones uh written was on uh General Robert Anderson who was the first commander of Fort Duffield.