Clinton County Fiscal Court dealt with a trio of issues in two separate special meetings over a five-day period late last week and early this week. Both meetings saw five of six members present with magistrate Patty Guinn absent due to family medical issues.

The court first met last Thursday morning July 17 to deal with the proposed purchase of two pieces of road department equipment which had been discussed at the court’s regular meeting the prior week.

On a split 3-2 vote, the court opted to purchase–on the state surplus rate–a 2006 Chevy truck for $7,500 and a 2005 Case backhoe at $18,500, or a combined $26,000 total.

The motion to approve the purchase passed with magistrates Hershell Key, Johnny Russell and Terry Buster voting yes and magistrates Ricky Craig and Mickey Riddle voting no.

The court had discussed the matter at the July regular meeting when judge-executive Richard Armstrong recommended selling some older equipment via online bidding and to purchase the new equipment only if it was assured the older equipment could be sold.

The court held another call meeting on Monday morning of this week, July 31, with two items of business on the agenda.

The first item was a payment to Nunn Excavating for clean-up of an illegal dump in the county.

Judge Armstrong told magistrates that there were issues with the company that prompted him not to pay the total invoice price of $103,000. The work was funded by a state Division of Waste Management grant awarded to counties for dump site cleanups.

Armstrong said after meeting with several state officials on the issue, they (state) had authorized $68,927.97 to be paid with grant funds for the Hwy. 696 dump clean-up, and settle with Nunn Excavating for that amount. Magistrate Mickey Riddle made the motion to pay the state approved rate which passed by unanimous vote.

The court then briefly discussed the entry level pay for new county employees, with judge Armstrong saying there was some confusion pertaining to the waiting, or trial period for employees, whether it be 60 days or 90 days.

Emergency Management Director Lonnie Scott noted the entry level rates were set last about 11 years ago. It was also noted that entry level pay is different for each department, depending on the job description and certification requirements.

The lowest starting rate for any county employee, for example, is $8.50 per hour with a trial period to follow.

After a brief discussion, the court, on a motion by magistrate Ricky Craig, voted unanimously to simplify matters and keep the entry level as is for each department with an automatic 50 cent per hour pay increase after 60 days, effective August 1.

The next regular meeting of Clinton Fiscal Court is scheduled for Thursday, August 17 at 5 p.m. in the upstairs courtroom of the courthouse and is open to the general public.