Clinton County Fiscal Court held its regular meeting last Thursday with all magistrates present with the exception of Magistrate Charlotte Bernard. The court dealt with a full slate of items in its’ over two hour session.

(A separate article on the budgetary issues discussed can be found elsewhere.)

After approving the monthly treasurer’s report and a list of fund transfers, the court held second reading of a budget amendment to accept $23,000 in pass through funds from the Department of Homeland Security for the purpose of installing a reverse 911 system in relation to repair work at Wolf Creek Dam. Also, they approved a budget amendment accepting $58,500 in state grant funds that was used to upgrade voting machines.

County Treasurer Dallas Sidwell then presented the court with the jailer’s 2011-12 proposed jail budget, with no official action being required. The official jail budget will be included in the county budget to be adopted later this year.

The court then approved the annual Road Aid Agreement with the Kentucky Department of Transportation for the county to receive $389,000 in rural road aid funding for the year.

Representatives of Mediacom Cable then addressed the court pertaining to the extension of its’ franchise renewal.

Magistrates asked several questions and voiced several opinions during the discussion.

Magistrate Patty Guinn told the Mediacom reps that the price of the cable kept going up while the service was not getting any better. There was also continued complaints about some areas of the county not being served by the cable company in outlying areas.

Magistrate Willard Johnson told Dale Haney, the new Director of Operations for Mediacom, that the way he figured it, the cable company owed local customers about $41 each. This was in reference to Channel 8 out of Lexington being kept on the cable line-up, although it was never viewable even though it was a channel that was charged on a monthly basis.

Both Haney and J.R. Sizemore, the local technical supervisor, told the court and those on hand, the company would make every effort to improve services, including phone service and take suggestions for channels that local viewers may want on the cable, such as the new Louisville station (Channel 3) that was added a couple of months ago.

After the discussion, Magistrate Johnson made a motion to extend the franchise agreement through the end of this calendar year, but did add that “the only reason we’re extending this is because we can’t find anyone (cable company) to offer a cheaper rate.”

The court, with minimal discussion, voted unanimously to renew the contract for all the solid waste haulers in the county for another five-year period. Court members were in unison in agreeing that all of the haulers in the county were doing a good job with trash pick-up and commended them for their service.

Judge/Executive Huff then announced that Lisa Beard had resigned as a member of the Industrial Development Authority and recommended Randy Speck replace her on that board. A motion was made by Magistrate Guinn to appoint Speck to fill out the unexpired term, which passed by unanimous vote.

Tuesday Davis, Finance Officer who works with the PRIDE program, then informed the court that the organization had awarded Clinton County a $7,000 grant to be used for spring clean-up. This is down from over $12,000 allotted a year ago.

The court decided to again use the funds to offer free dump days to local residents, with the day and a half being May 6 and 7. More details on the free dump days and spring clean-up will be published in next week’s Clinton County News.

Judge Huff also said the county had been approved to receive $3,000 in funds for tire amnesty and a date and guidelines on that program will be announced at a later time.

The court also accepted the county clerk’s 2010 final settlement, with Clerk Jim Elmore returning $4,853 in excess fees and voted to proclaim April as Red Bud Month in Clinton County.

The next regular meeting of Clinton Fiscal Court is scheduled for April 21 and will begin one hour earlier, at 4 p.m. and is open to the general public.