The initial regular meeting of the Clinton County Fiscal Court in 2018 was brief, with all votes being unanimous and four of six members, along with judge Richard Armstrong, on hand.

The court first acknowledged receipt of the monthly treasurer’s report, approved the quarterly report to be forwarded to the state, approved fund transfers and voted to pay claims and bills.

On the latter, Magistrate Mickey Riddle questioned a $455 bill for recycling pick-up, in which judge Armstrong responded was due to non-recyclable items, such as household waste and trash, having to be picked up from the recycling bins and paid to be hauled off.

Armstrong noted the county had done all it can do to stop the illegal use of the recycling bins, but people continue to put household waste in them.

The county then opened the lone bid for fiber optic, or high speed internet service lines, to be run on county rights-of-way. The only bidder was Duo County Telecom of Jamestown, which had initially asked the city and county to allow the lines to be run on rights-of-way to provide the high speed internet access, primarily to schools, government offices, library, etc. but eventually offer rates to residential customers in the service line areas.

On a motion by magistrate Terry Buster, the court accepted unanimously the Duo County bid, which is for a 20 year, non-exclusive franchise, meaning other companies would have the right to provide the same services if granted a franchise.

The court also voted unanimously to approve first reading of the franchise ordinance, advertise it and have second and final reading and passage next month.

Two motions were made by Magistrate Terry Buster of the third district, to advertise for a hearing on two roads that have been petitioned to be accepted into the county road system in his district, one known as Hoosier Hollar and the other Kylee Lane.

County attorney Michael Rains explained there was a question on whether or not Kylee Lane was actually a subdivision, but noted the owner of the homes has indicated it was not and would likely be at the public hearing to address the issue pertaining to that road.

The public hearing, which will now be advertised, will allow public comment from affected residents prior to the county taking further action to accept the roads.

Emergency Management Director Lonnie Scott then addressed the court about the drug testing company issue, saying that Premier Tox, which had been previously awarded the right to do local employee drug testing, was now practically non-existent, but that Lake Cumberland Drug & Alcohol testing company, that had done drug testing on county employees before, had offered to do the tests at a set rate of $25 per test.

The court, on a motion by magistrate Mickey Riddle, voted unanimously to contract with Lake Cumberland to do random employee drug testing at the $25 per test price.

With no further items of business to be brought up, the meeting was adjourned after about 22 minutes.

The next regular meeting of Clinton Fiscal Court is scheduled for Thursday, February 15 at 5 p.m. in the upstairs courtroom of the courthouse and is open to the general public.