Meeting of May 24, 2022
5-24-22 Ohio County Fiscal Court Meeting · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Ohio County Fiscal Court – May 24, 2022 Meeting Summary
The Fiscal Court opened with prayer and the Pledge, then approved the minutes of the May 10th meeting and the payment of bills and claims without discussion.
A major portion of the meeting was devoted to park and tourism presentations. Bo and Tori reported on the wide range of activities now happening at the park (livestock shows, soccer, cheerleading, airsoft, kayak rentals, craft/car shows, and new events like a color run and cornhole tournament), and Bo requested budget help of roughly $13,000 to cover rising park utility costs for the remainder of the fiscal year, citing higher electric and water usage from campers and building upgrades. The court discussed possible fee increases at the park (camper rates, new state sales taxes on rentals under House Bill 8) and conservation measures like LED lighting, but did not take a formal vote on the utility shortfall itself.
Jody Fleener, the tourism director, then asked the court to help fund her part-time assistant Connie Gastell, whose position through the AmeriCorps/Audubon senior program is ending. She proposed the county split roughly $900 among the five magistrates to cover six months of Connie's pay, with tourism and museum funds covering more in future years. After discussion, the magistrates committed to fund it for six months, and a motion to support this was passed.
The court went into a brief closed session to discuss potential real estate/litigation matters (KRS 61.810 Chapter 1) but took no action. Returning to open session, one personnel hire was approved (a seasonal position at the golf course) along with pay-grade advancements for two road department employees.
In committee reports, the court praised the county's clean audit results and thanked the treasurer for keeping finances in order. Updates were given on a stalled boat dock project (rock wall/pier work still pending final cost estimates), and magistrates discussed scheduling a future public meeting on a proposed regional jail project. The meeting closed with congratulations to graduating students and to Magistrate Titchener on his primary race, before adjourning.
Agenda (13)
- 0:02
Opening, prayer, and pledge
Judge opened the meeting, Sam Small led the prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
- 1:12
Approval of minutes
The minutes of the May 10th meeting were presented and approved by motion.
- 1:38
Approval of bills and claims
Bills, claims, and payments were reviewed and approved without issues noted.
- 2:19
Park department presentation (Bo and Tori)
Bo and Tori presented on the wide variety of park activities and events now taking place, including new programs coordinated by Tori.
- 6:00
Park utility budget shortfall
Bo requested about $13,000 to cover a park utility budget shortfall for the remainder of the fiscal year, citing rising electricity and water costs.
- 11:11
Tourism billboard and marketing update
Ann reported that a new tourism billboard was installed near Owensboro using federal marketing funds, and tourism visitation is picking up.
- 13:03
Request to fund tourism/museum assistant position
Jody Fleener asked the court to help fund her assistant Connie Gastell's position after her AmeriCorps/Audubon program ends, proposing a shared cost among magistrates.
- 26:38
Closed session – potential litigation/real estate matter
The court went into closed session under KRS 61.810 to discuss a possible location/litigation matter; no action was taken.
- 27:10
Personnel report
A new seasonal hire at the golf course was announced, along with pay-grade advancements for two road department employees.
- 29:47
Committee reports and audit results
The court reviewed a favorable county audit result and praised the treasurer for well-kept financial records.
- 31:00
Dock/boat ramp project update
Magistrate Sam reported the dock project's rock wall numbers were still pending, delaying an update on cost and timeline.
- 34:03
Discussion of future regional jail meeting
Magistrate Larry proposed scheduling a public meeting or special session to discuss a potential regional jail project with input from an experienced jail operator.
- 35:13
Closing remarks and congratulations
Magistrates offered congratulations to graduating students and to Magistrate Titchener for his primary race before adjourning.
Motions & votes (5)
- 1:15
passedApprove the minutes of the May 10th meeting
Moved by Sam Small · seconded by Larry Kam · unanimous
- 1:44
passedApprove payment of bills and claims
seconded by Sam's mom · unanimous
- 24:54
passedSupport funding initiative for six months of Connie Gastell's pay (~$900 per magistrate)
unanimous, six-month commitment
- 26:22
passedEnter closed session under KRS 61.810 Chapter 1 for litigation/real estate matter
Moved by Justin · seconded by Sam
- 27:10
unclearApprove personnel action for seasonal golf course hire and road department grade increases
Transcript (30 segments)
- 0:01
[Music] order on this uh 24th day of may 2022 at 5 00 pm i'm going to ask sam small to lead us in a prayer and face the flag [Music] heavenly father we come to you tonight or we just ask that you watch over this meeting lord and guide us in our decisions we make and have it to be pleasing unto you lord jesus we just ask that you bless our attendants and those who are sick and hurting the lord we just ask that you undergird and strengthen them lord jesus just be with us watch over and take care of us in jesus name amen amen i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all before you you have the minutes of the may 10th meeting
- 1:15
emotion promotion of sam small sorry second by larry kam uh is there any discussion corrections or additions during discussions corrections or additions on the minute being none on favor say aye aye opposed like sign the minutes are approved before you have the bills claims payments are transferred so motion blurry cam okay segment sam's mom uh any discussion [Music] any discussion on bills and claims no we're good we've been in we did everything that's right yes yes including lately so on thursday aye close black sign motion carries uh now we're going to have a couple presentations uh bo and tori are here from the park to give us a report on the arka program that they got as well as talk to us about something else
- 2:27
tori would you stand up with him she's the shower you're a little better looking folks [Music] i just wanted to show some pictures but that's all good i have it over here so some of the things that we've done some of the things that we've done since she's been here this is ongoing stuff that's been taking place is some of the beagle trials is still going on um the horse shows is coming back livestock shows tractor pools the cowboy games is something new that we've established of course the boys and girls scouts the dances day-to-day building rentals soccer games that's a big thing out there again softball tournaments cheerleading they've came out and they're actually practicing in our buildings now so she's been coordinating with a lot of people airsoft that's pretty pretty cool little
- 3:41
atmosphere i do that it's uh we have airsoft airsoft it's like a paintball but no uh yeah you get to shoot each other pretty awesome and also is our kayak rentals that's taking place uh from donations from the kentucky sportsmanship craft shows we've had a lot of them of course we've had flea markets the car shows and we're going to do a back to school bash again and then of course we done the halloween bash with the car show trunk or treat that was a big hit so we're going to try to do that again some of the things that she's come up with is having a kids day camp scavenger hunt she's coordinated with the library the hospitals to get more people involved to have some camps out there for the kids and she wants the 5k color run this year where it's just powder and you just throw it out and everybody has fun with it so i've participated to them as well and a cornhole tournament um and the last one and seeing that one is the trucks and treasures what that is is basically it's big trucks equipment
- 4:56
large equipment whatever they got to showcase for the kids to come out and look at and such like that so she's been really working hard at what she's been doing and doing a lot of networking with other people so we look forward to having them come here on out so you got anything said here [Music] i gained questions for him thanks for the presentation uh y'all do a great job of getting it and our activities has really picked up and that's what we wanted tori to bring on board uh and a lot of things we already have that she's bringing and if there's any other new ideas that anybody from the public or the court that sees an interest in just holler at us we'll look at everything an idea on the willingness to help yep so and the last thing is i do have something the next time you're in the last thing is uh utilities has gotten a little higher than expected and uh we are in the red at this time and i'm asking for 15 13 13 000 for the remainder of the budget a year to get us out of the red let's put you in the river uh the light bill's going about where did
- 6:10
it come from man um but with the help of the soccer lights being led now i mean that's something that we need to get more participation on uh purchase of led lighting and another thing is our cam campers are pulling more with the acs being on now and just they're pulling a lot well understand utilities is going up but i also understand bowling would have a budget that we have to live within well i understand but if i'm not mistaken i think maybe two years ago we got cut in our utilities is this year was the same as last year and the year before was do you remember what it was i don't know about ten thousand dollars because at that time he was able to conserve so that's that's why the utilities this is something we will face from now you know for the next foreseeable future because there were several on the transfer list of utilities they're just they're going up utilities have
- 7:21
his is bigger because he has more but this is the end of the budget it's what i'm saying yeah so on the new budget do we do we look at that or we just can't until nothing has changed so if you remember we discussed that the surplus money we have we're going to have to put back a large amount just for utilities right to be able to pull from another thing too we're looking at putting conservation program in place not only at the park but everything we've got some conservation of utilities we're looking at some things in this building we put in some different type of uh air conditioning units they're supposed to be more efficient and we're doing some things here in this building and uh i'm haven't put one in place at the senior building yet but we will so we're looking at trying to uh improve utilities as well so you mentioned the the camper's pulling so raising the campsites a little bit yeah we're man hers discussed that anyways because of the tax what do you do with the uh
- 8:34
camper money where does it go it goes back to the agenda they're also going to start january 1 on the golf side charging rent on things like that sales tax yes sales tax tax on the rentals yeah the state is looking at slowly doing away with income tax and in order to make up that revenue they are adding on what is taxed with sales tax so it would be a consumer-based tax instead of a state and it's much like tennessee yeah is that somewhat in the works i haven't given yes folks they added uh i have two pages of stuff they've added of things to be taxed room he rents out the buildings your park campers that'll be taxed now well i would agree with uh what mr barnes said if you know if you're