Nuisance Ordinance Again Discussed By Fiscal Court
May 14,2009 00:00
by
Lawrence Harris
The continuing process of defining a nuisance ordinance for the county was once again brought to the forefront during Tuesday night's regular meeting of the Adair County Fiscal Court.During the meeting Adair County Judge Ann Melton along with Sheriff Ralph Curry informed the court that there have been several calls placed to both of their offices expressing concerns about the importance of establishing a nuisance order.
"It seems like the problem is getting larger instead of smaller and we need to get something worked out with this issue," stated Melton.
Magistrate Terry Hadley agreed with Judge Melton and stated, "If the state is going to make a nuisance order mandatory for all counties we are going to have to do one, so we will have something for next month's meeting."
Judge Melton appointed Magistrate Hadley to head a committee to look at nuisance orders from some of the surrounding counties and devise a plan that would suit the needs of the county.
The court also discussed a pressing issue concerning the county volunteer fire departments.
According to Judge Melton there is a serious need to help the county's fire departments because they have not been able to collect fire dues from a lot of the residents in their districts and they could be in danger of closing.
"The fire departments in Knifley and Breeding are going through some very stressful times and we don't want them to have to close their doors," stated Melton.
"We need to urge everyone in those districts to pay their fire dues now because they may not realize the importance of paying those dues until there is a fire at their home and they are in need of the fire department," commented Melton.
Currently the fire dues are voluntarily paid at the department that serves the area where the residence is located, however state law does allow county government to establish an ordinance to collect the fire dues through property taxes.
Adair County Assistant 911 Coordinator Justin Bailey addressed the court concerning a grant that will be used to purchase a new vehicle for the 911 Center.
Bailey informed the court that he had been working on the grant for several weeks and was near completion and asked the court and received approval for an order allowing Judge Melton to sign the documents to complete the process.
According to Bailey the grant is a reimbursement grant that requires the county to make the initial purchase and then receive full reimbursement from the federal government.
Bailey told the court that the new vehicle will be equipped with state of the art mapping equipment with a GPS system and has a total estimated cost of $50,000.
The court also approved a motion to continue the contract, including a 3% rate increase, with Southern Health, which provides the medical services at the Adair County Regional Jail.
According to Adair County Jailer William "Bug" Knight the original contract was for $104,000 and the rate increase would make the contract $107,000.
Jailer Knight suggested that the court take the additional money from the canteen fund to make up the difference and informed the court that he is very satisfied with the service they have been receiving.
During the meeting Magistrate Joe Rogers inquired about the amount of money the county had spent on drug testing for the month of April.
According to Rogers the county had spent $711.00 for drug testing and asked if that was normal.
Judge Melton informed Rogers and the court that the reason for the high cost was due to all of the new hires that had to be tested.
However Jailer Knight also informed the court that the drug testing for the jailers has been done by the nurse from Southern Health at no charge.
"The nurse at the jail has been doing ours and we are only having to pay for the test kit, which is $10 per kit," said Jailer Knight.
The court decided to have Jailer Knight check with the nurse to see if they could have all of the drug tests done that way and will discuss the matter at next month's meeting.
Judge Melton asked the court for permission and was granted approval to write two checks in two separate court orders.
The first in the amount of $500 to Alice Stephens for her work on the Sheriff's Tax Settlement and another in the amount of $20,000 to be paid to the Kentucky Association of Counties to pay half of the amount owed on the Mack Truck lease.
"I contacted KACO and asked if we could pay $20,000 this year and $20,000 next year on the $40,000 left on the lease and they said it could be done that way," said Judge Melton.
The fiscal court also hired Jamie Luttrell as a full-time deputy jailer at a rate of $8.50 per hour as well as Fred Dorman and Johnny Blackwell as part-time deputy jailers at a rate of $8.00 per hour after a recommendation by Jailer Knight.
Under the recommendation of Judge Melton the court also hired Amanda Chadwell as a part-time employee at the Green River Animal Shelter.
Magistrate Terry Hadley addressed the court about the need to put up address markers at every location in the county.
"The signs are essential for public safety and can help save lives," said Magistrate Hadley.
Hadley informed the court that he had already purchased an address marker and urges all Adair Countians to do the same.
Judge Melton told the court that her office is currently working to get the signs on all of the county buildings saying, "We need to set an example and we should get them for our buildings on the square before the next meeting."
In addition, Adair County 911 Coordinator Mary Allender said that it is especially important to get the markers on churches and schools around the county.
Allender stated that the 911 center has the street address numbers for almost all of the churches in the county and encouraged pastors or church secretaries to call her office to find out the exact numbers for their church.
Originally the court was supposed to received an update on the county's new web site from Shamarie Claiborne and Justin Bailey but were unable to access the wireless network while in the basement of the Annex Building, so the court decided to adjourn and break into groups of three to view the website in the judge's office.
Photo:Shamarie Claiborne (seated) discusses the new Adair County website with Magistrate Danny Goodin (left), Perry Reeder (center) and Sammy Baker after the Adair County Fiscal Court meeting Tuesday night. (Photo By Lawrence Harris)