Clinton County Fiscal Court held its first regular meeting of the year last Thursday, January 21 with a busy agenda and some important items of business to be discussed. Five of six members were present for the approximate one hour meeting, which saw a couple of more split votes among the group.

The court first approved the monthly and quarterly treasurer’s reports and after reviewing the claims and bills, with some questions about a couple of items being asked, the vote to approve was 3-2 in favor, with magistrates Terry Buster, Hershell Key and Johnny Russell voting in favor while magistrates Mickey Riddle and Ricky Craig voted no. Magistrate Patty Guinn was not present.

The court did approve an AT & T bill of $70,201 that had been used for the new equipment at the dispatch center. Director of Emergency Services Lonnie Scott explained those funds were from a grant left over from 2013 and the county would be reimbursed for the amount paid on the equipment.

One issue that all court members totally agreed to was the renewal of the contract for the three current solid waste trash haulers, whose current contract expires in March.

Initially, Assistant County Attorney Gary Little advised the court that since the current contract now has three franchise areas instead of four areas that were in the franchise and contract five years ago, he felt the process should be re-bid.

Little said there was little change to the new contract with the exception that trucks be covered and leak proof.

Currently, the haulers are operating under an executive order, after a fourth hauler ceased operations and the three remaining, working together, divided up the area to continue to provide full county trash pick-up service last year.

Little said contracts could be extended for up to 20 years, but the court and trash haulers that were in attendance agreed it should be kept at five-year intervals, but questioned the need to re-bid the franchises.

Magistrate Craig said, “These three haulers bailed us out of a mess…and they were told they would have their contracts renewed.”

Phillip Boils with Boils Sanitation questioned if the contract couldn’t just be renewed but amended in a three-area franchise instead of four.

Little said that third parties may want to bid and that officials in Frankfort had advised rebidding due to the change in the number of areas in the franchise agreement.

Boils said he appreciated having the job as a hauler, but warned if it (bidding) was opened back up, the county wouldn’t get service for $12 per month and some magistrates said people may bid lower rates, but not be able to fulfill their contracts.

Judge/Executive Richard Armstrong said, “I’m not going to hold back on it if we have to re-write it and split the four areas into three.” He also said the meeting last week was an open meeting and everyone knew about it and if anyone else would have wanted to bid on a franchise area, they would have been at the meting.

Following the discussion, attorney Little recommended simply adding an addendum to the current contract, noting the change from a four area franchise to a three-area franchise.

Magistrate Craig made the motion to renew the contract with the addendum changing the number of areas, with the haulers (Boils Sanitation, Melton Sanitation and Dicken Sanitation) at the same rates for the five year contract period. The motion passed by unanimous vote.

Solid Waste Coordinator Rick Stearns then gave an update on illegal dump cleanup and the recycling facility.

Stearns presented a list of smaller dumps that have already been cleaned up and noted that the county is in line for a $190,000 EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) grant to clean up a major dump site in the Blue Ridge area. The work would have to be contracted out and advertised for bids for a two-week period. He said he was working on putting together bid specifications for the advertisement.

The grant is an 80/20 matching grant with the county’s share being 20 percent but could be in in-kind services such as labor and equipment. Contractors who clean the site would be reimbursed by the county from funds received through the grant.

Magistrate Craig made a motion to advertise for bids for a contractor to do the work, with the motion passing by unanimous vote.

Stearns also noted that the local response to the recycling center has been overwhelmingly positive. He gave a report on the equipment available and said the recycling center is picking up items every day and at many businesses on a weekly basis, some two or three times a week. He noted the community response to the recycling program in general had been very positive.

The court then re-addressed the issue of establishing a Tourism Commission board. (A separate article on that issue can be found beginning on page 1.)

Following discussion on the Tourism Commission, the court voted to establish a “pick-up” fee at the Tri-County Animal Shelter for persons who pick up the same animal repeatedly, which has apparently been somewhat of a problem at the shelter. The court voted unanimously to set the fee at $25 for each time the same animal is picked up a second or subsequent time by the same individual.

The court also approved, on a motion by magistrate Hershell Key an engineering payment to Arnold Consulting out of Bowling Green in the amount of $5,362 for services rendered on the Ewing Branch Bridge project.

Also on a motion by Key, the court voted unanimously to appoint Penny Jo Stearns as a member on the Clinton County Industrial Development Authority. Stearns will serve out the term of Crystal Irwin, who recently resigned from the IDA after being appointed as a member of the Clinton County Board of Education.

The next regular meeting of Clinton Fiscal Court is scheduled for Thursday, February 18 at 5 p.m. in the upstairs courtroom of the courthouse and is open to the public.