Clinton County Fiscal Court held its regular meeting last Thursday evening June 19 with all members present and a variety of issues being discussed and/or voted on. The meeting also included another brief closed session pertaining to possible litigation.

The court finalized the 2014-15 fiscal year budget of just over $4.6 million, with no changes being made since the totals were published in recent weeks. County Treasurer Dallas Sidwell, in presenting the budget for second reading, noted it had been approved by the Department of Local Government.

The court also approved the monthly treasurer’s report and fund transfers.

After voting to pay claims and bills, Magistrate Terry Buster asked whether or nor there was any money to give county employees any type of raise. Judge/Executive Lyle Huff said that without some type of revenue source, he didn’t think there was but did assure magistrates he would look over the budget with Sidwell in the coming weeks to see if there was any place in the budget that could afford an employee raise.

The judge also noted that about $200,000 in FLEX discretionary road funds would be reimbursed to the county into the road fund.

Sheriff Rick Riddle then addressed the court, requesting they approve CPA Ed Lanham to once again do the sheriff’s office tax settlement. After the court voted to approve Lanham, sheriff Riddle presented the county with a check in the amount of $21,745 in excess fees from his office of the 2012 calendar year.

Bids were then opened on various road materials, with Gaddie-Shamrock being the only bidder on blacktop (coal mix, etc.) and Albany Quarry also submitted bids on gravel and Albany Building Supply on pipe and tile. The court voted to award bids as equally as possible to all the local bidders on items sold at the lower cost to the county when needed.

Virginia Conner, Occupational Tax Administrator, addressed the court and explained some things she and county attorney Michael Rains were doing to try and collect back or unpaid occupational license fees, as well as raising awareness to employers and individuals about the occupational tax. (A separate article on the occupational tax can be found beginning on page 1.)

The court also voted to approve a salt contract purchase, recommended by KACo for 300 tons of salt at $97 per ton. Delivery is to be made in August and hopefully be a large enough supply to cover the county’s needs next winter.

Judge Huff then told magistrates he was still working to find someone to do work on widening a doorway at the Community Center and asked magistrates to make suggestions if they knew of any contractors that could do the job correctly.

Grady Wilson then addressed the court about county employee health insurance. Under the new healthcare act, policy renewals are now being done on a calendar year-to-year basis and the court had the option of renewing the policy that came up for renewal back in the spring, or switching policies.

The updated renewal policy is approximately five percent higher overall and based on the number of employees covered in the plan will cost the county a little over $1,000 more per month to provide the insurance. After a brief discussion, a motion was made and passed 5-1 to renew the policy, effective July 1 through June of 2015.

The motion to approve the renewal for the policy, underwritten by Anthem, passed with Magistrate Ricky Craig voting no. Once again Craig said he felt the county should have “shopped around” for other insurance companies to try and get a lower rate.

Magistrate Mickey Riddle then made a motion to send a letter to the Heritage Foundation for the court to officially go on record as turning down a grant for a nature trail project in the Wells Bottom Community. The project, which originally began last year, has been controversial since the start. Riddle said he had been accused of being for the project but had never voted on it. His motion to send the letter turning down the grant was made by Craig and passed by unanimous vote.

Judge Huff told the court he had already indicated to the Heritage Foundation that the county was no longer interested in the project but warned that the court would be dealing with such issues again as there are apparently some other areas in the county that might be interested in using property for nature preserve sites.

Magistrate Craig then took issue with some comments in a letter pertaining to the Wellness Center that was published earlier this month in the Clinton County News after a copy had been obtained at an open meeting of the city council.

Assistant County Attorney Gary Little, who was sitting in on the meeting in the absence of Michael Rains, suggested that if the letter dealt with any type of litigation, the matter would be better discussed in closed session.

The court did enter into a 20-minute closed session to discuss possible or pending litigation but took no official action.

Also during last week’s meeting, the court approved the 2014-15 Industrial Authority budget.

The next regular meeting of Clinton Fiscal Court is scheduled for July 16 at 5 p.m. and is open to the general public.