Meeting of February 9, 2021
2-9-21 Ohio Co. Fiscal Court Meeting · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Ohio County Fiscal Court – February 9, 2021
The court handled routine business, approving minutes, bill payments, and financial reports from the treasurer and county clerk. A transfer of over $9,000 from emergency reserve was explained as covering rising phone costs, and money from golf sales tax was moved to cover a state-mandated tax collection that hadn't been budgeted.
Three pieces of county equipment — a wrecked senior center vehicle, an old ambulance cab, and a dump truck — were declared surplus and approved for sale on GovDeals, with Charlie Shields overseeing the listings. The court also approved a resolution supporting a Bluegrass advertising facility and approved a one-year lease on a county-owned house on Liberty Street to two tenants.
A motion was made to release nearly $22,700 from the McHenry Carriers Act fund, pending the mayor's consent, to help pay for fire equipment for the City of McHenry. Committee updates included an ongoing survey of county offices for possible policy changes and a newly formed committee to look at reducing high utility costs in the courthouse. COVID-19 updates showed active cases declining slightly but a concerning death rate more than double the state average, with no current hospitalizations from the jail outbreak.
The bulk of the meeting was devoted to a lengthy, frustrated update from Mr. Haney on the stalled river/debris-removal project involving the contractor Maverick (now reportedly operating as AMS) and FEMA. Years of delays, shifting contacts, and an application stuck in Atlanta have left residents like Haney watching property erode into the river with no resolution in sight. He and his wife have reached out to Congressman James Comer's office and state officials for help, but no clear timeline has emerged. Magistrates expressed sympathy but noted the county has limited control over the waterway project.
The meeting closed with magistrate comments, including a request for prayers for a young relative facing a medical procedure, before the court adjourned to meet again in two weeks.
Agenda (16)
- 0:10
Call to order, prayer, and pledge
Judge executive called the meeting to order and Sam Small led the prayer, followed by the pledge of allegiance.
- 1:24
Approval of January 26th minutes
The court reviewed and approved the minutes from the previous meeting with no corrections.
- 1:59
Bill claims, payments and transfers
The court discussed and approved bill payments, including a large emergency reserve transfer for rising phone costs and a golf sales tax reserve transfer related to a state tax change.
- 5:08
Treasurer's January 2021 financial statement
The court acknowledged receipt of the treasurer's January financial statement.
- 5:37
County Clerk's January 2021 financial report
The court acknowledged receipt of the clerk's January financial report.
- 5:55
Declaring equipment surplus for GovDeals sale
Three county vehicles/equipment items were declared surplus to be sold via GovDeals auction, with Charlie Shields managing the listings.
- 9:27
Closed session under KRS 61.810
The court entered a brief closed session; no business was conducted and no votes were taken.
- 10:14
Resolution 2021-8 on advertising facility
The court approved a resolution concerning who the advertising facility will be for a Bluegrass-related matter, passed by roll call vote.
- 12:10
Lease approval for house on Liberty Street
The judge executive was authorized to execute a one-year lease on a county house to two tenants.
- 12:39
Committee reports
Updates were given on a committee surveying county offices and a newly formed committee to address high utility costs at the courthouse.
- 13:59
COVID-19 update
A joint press release with the health department was announced for Friday addressing vaccinations; active cases dropped slightly but the death rate remained high.
- 15:44
Magistrate comments and requests
Magistrates shared personal updates, including prayer requests, and discussed the county's high COVID death rate.
- 17:32
McHenry Carriers Act funds for fire equipment
Joe Bond reported on funds set aside for the City of McHenry and moved to release money for fire equipment pending mayoral consent.
- 19:26
Road department update and weather preparedness
Road department readiness for incoming bad weather was discussed briefly before turning to Mr. Haney's river project update.
- 19:26
River debris removal project update (Maverick/AMS/FEMA)
Mr. Haney gave an extensive, frustrated update on the years-long delays in the FEMA-funded river cleanup project involving contractor Maverick (now AMS), noting lost contacts, stalled paperwork in Atlanta, and outreach to Congressman Comer's office.
- 31:26
Adjournment
With no further business, the court voted to adjourn until the next meeting in two weeks.
Motions & votes (11)
- 1:32
passedApprove the minutes of the January 26th meeting
Moved by Sam Small · seconded by Joe Bond · unanimous
- 2:05
passedAccept and pay the bill claims, payments and transfers
Moved by Jason Bullock · seconded by Sam Small · unanimous
- 5:15
passedAcknowledge the treasurer's January 2021 financial statement
Moved by Sam Small · seconded by Joe Bond · unanimous
- 5:40
passedAcknowledge the county clerk's January 2021 financial report
Moved by Jason Bullock · seconded by Joe Bond · unanimous
- 7:13
passedDeclare three pieces of equipment surplus and place them on GovDeals for sale
seconded by Jason Bullock · unanimous
- 9:27
passedEnter closed session under KRS 61.810(1) sections a through m
seconded by Joe Bond
- 9:57
passedReturn to live/open session with no business conducted in closed session
- 10:13
passedApprove Resolution 2021-8 regarding the advertising facility
small yes bullock yes barnes yes johnston yes
- 12:14
passedAuthorize execution of a one-year lease on the Liberty Street house to Ashley Davis and Jennifer Osmond
- 17:57
unclearRelease $22,698.81 from the McHenry Carriers Act fund, pending mayoral consent, to pay for fire equipment
Moved by Joe Bond
- 31:32
passedAdjourn the meeting
Transcript (26 segments)
- 0:05
[Music] [Music] hey guys the red light means on okay uh i call this meeting a wildcat fiscal court to order on february the 9th 2021 at 5 pm i'm going to ask sam smalls to lead us in a prayer and a place to play thank you straight to heavenly father lord we just ask that you would be with us tonight in the decisions we make we ask that you would just watch over and take care of of everyone that's uh out about it and through this weather lord we just ask that you would guide everyone and give them strength to do your will lord jesus we just ask that you would be with justin tonight and tomorrow lord just lay your healing hands upon him lord we ask that you be with all those that are sick and suffering and put your heads of protection around them and keep them safe in jesus name i pray amen i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america to trump [Music]
- 1:24
before you you have the minutes of the january 26th meeting uh need a motion to create sam small second by joe bond blair larry okay okay is there any discussions corrections or auditions any discussion corrections or addition [Music] if there are none all in favor say aye all right suppose like sign minister approved before you have the bill claim payments and transfers make a motion to accept motion by jason bullock thank you second sam small is there any discussion what's paying this uh out of emergency reserve for 9115 000. their phone last year they did something and it made it go up that much a year that's an annual every is that for one year we we are going to
- 2:41
try to get some inflight uh another a judge executive from another county was vested here last week and he said he had made some deals with the phone company to get theirs down so i'm going to ask him exactly what that is and if there's anything we can do we will it's a pretty big and what's this reserves out of general fund reserve to golf sales tax bit 1600 well in august of this fiscal year they decided not to charge sales tax on golf memberships and usage and then august they decided to do it so we're collecting it but we didn't have enough budgeted to make that payment into it so it's money we're collecting but that was the state deal that was something the state did that we didn't have any it's not really cost us anything larry we collected it and we send it in but we just didn't have a line item uh or the sales tax that we paid uh coming to pay to the state and when we collected the money did you had to take it out of reserve well it wasn't budgeted yeah when you get money in it doesn't
- 3:55
automatically fall where it needs to be spent from you've got to move it around you didn't have it you didn't have a uh account set up for the i had an account set up for it but not enough to cover all that but that was because the statements that they were going to do and then also they turn right around and act like they were in india that's typically what we do when we have small amounts to transfer instead of amending in fifteen hundred dollars which that's a two reading process we just transfer it from reserves and in the park calendars 55 do they buy some or yeah it's a promotional other promotional give them to their customers in campground oakland any further discussion thing nine uh autumn flavors say i suppose black sign the bills are paid you have the treasurer's january 2021
- 5:08
financial statement ahead of you uh we just need to show that with god i make a motion that we that knowledge acknowledge second motion by sam second the joke uh any discussion or questions being that on faith say aye opposed like saying it is it we have it we acknowledge god same deal with the clerk's january 2021 financial report i'll make the most of the acknowledge we received the clerk's january 2021 motion by jason second second of a job any discussion or questions like sign it's pay hey before you in your packet there there's a one-page deal there it has to do with some equipment that we want to sell on dove deals and we have to declare them surplus in order to do it the little car that's been wrecked is from the senior center the uh emergency management charlie department's got the
- 6:22
old ambulance uh cab there off the van there okay and then nick wants to sell the dump truck uh he's got several trucks and that one uh probably could be fixed if we had the machines and stuff to do it with the analyzers and things are outdated i'll make a motion too will these be sold on governor deal yes sir include that on your motion if you don't make a motion to surplus the equipment that we were given here on this page of three items and to place on government deals all uh second toes motion second but jason is there any discussion are we not going to answer no no um [Music] okay
- 7:44
okay uh i'll folks say ah all right say you got it so those those things will be placed on gov deals uh i'll put charlie shields in charge of that so he'll be the one to put them on there can uh you send us all an email let us know when they get on there yes you so those on there i'll get charlie too okay yeah we just want to know the dates when the final date's going to be up for the final bid and we probably won't know the knowledge and everything on them because people ask us don't we it'll be on it'll be on there okay yeah we might want to buy them you know oh by the way just just for the uh just for so you know and and the public will know uh anyone since it's done fairly it's advertised it's on the site uh and it's public advertising all that there is anyone can bid on even if you are a county employee or county official uh a matter of fact i had that looked up this past week
- 8:59
to see because of the deals yeah because you remember one of the voting boys did buy a piece at one time two there and his questions so i want to make sure that it was legal to do so so yeah you could be the only one uh i need a very brief closed session under krs 61.18 1 sections a through m i'll make them a second second but joe and i'm going to ask jody uh ask me to join us for the for just a minute and then then we'll finish the business be right back here i'll make a motion go back into live stream uh for the record we did not conduct any business no votes were taken in the closed session judge yes i'd like to make a motion