After holding two brief special meetings to get the new year underway, Clinton County Fiscal Court held its first regular session last Thursday evening, January 15 in the upstairs courtroom at the courthouse with all members present.

The court first approved the county clerk’s and sheriff’s office budgets for this year, both which mirrored the amounts from 2014.

The court then approved the monthly and quarterly treasurer’s reports, expenditure and receipt transfers to the EMS and jail funds and voted to pay claims and bills.

Judge/Executive Richard Armstrong then reviewed some road department personnel, taking note of three employees and recommending a $1 per hour pay increase to each. He said two of the road department employees had been with the county for a few years now and were not receiving the same rate and another has completed his 90-day trial period. Magistrate Hershell Key made a motion to grant the pay increase for the three employees, and further to review other employees’ rates on a regular basis.

Some Industrial Development Authority board members–Keith McWhorter, Jim Soma, Crystal Irwin and Barney Latham were reappointed, but not before a brief discussion on the issue.

Judge Armstrong noted that the aforementioned names were the only ones submitted to him for consideration.

Magistrate Ricky Craig, however, stated again he felt members of not only the IDA, but other county appointed boards, should change from time to time, without having the same members serve over and over. This led the court to request that county attorney Michael Rains review the board appointment process and review the ordinance created setting board appointments.

Judge Armstrong then told the court that at a recent meeting with state officials, he had learned that due to lower gas prices and other reasons, the Kentucky Department of Transportation budget this year was expected to be over $120 million less this year. He noted this would mean less state road money for all Kentucky counties over the next four years, estimating a total loss over that time in Clinton County at about $120,000.

Armstrong further said state officials had estimated it would take up to six years to get back to where funding was just last year.

Armstrong then asked outgoing county road foreman Jim Pennycuff to discuss the needs of the road department, pertaining to equipment.

Pennycuff said the county has had, with the exception of a couple of pieces, the same equipment they have had for years. He suggested the county possibly replace just one piece of equipment each year to help keep the fleet needed to do the work. He specifically noted the county needed a new grader.

The discussion of the needs for new road department equipment, was sidelined as the judge noted the cost to the county each year to fund the ambulance service and jail, and then continued in the discussion of the Occupational Tax issue, that was also on the agenda last week. (A separate article on the Occupational Tax can be found, beginning on page 1.)

The court passed on an issue pertaining to work on the Ewing Branch Road as a state official, who was to be present to discuss the funding, could not attend the meeting.

Magistrate Mickey Riddle and others noted that if work couldn’t be done on that bridge, there were others in the county that were in need of repair where the funding could be used.

The court also briefly discussed a grant that was supposed to be used to replace a drain at the Tri-County Animal Shelter, with no action being taken.

The next regular meeting of Clinton County Fiscal Court is scheduled for Thursday, February 19 at 5 p.m. and is open to the general public.