Clinton County Fiscal Court held its monthly meeting Thursday, January 16, with all members on hand, and other than passing a 2A Sanctuary County resolution, discussed and/or voted on other important issues and topics of concern to local residents.

The court first received the monthly treasurer’s report, voted to pay claims and bills and approved, on a separate motion, fund transfers from the Occupation Fund to the jail in the amount of $20,000 and $40,000 from the Occupation Tax to the ambulance service for payroll.

Judge Ricky Craig and the fiscal court also thanked anyone and everyone who helped in any way during the heavy damaging storms that passed through the county a week ago Saturday, including those that were on the scene during the storm and those who volunteered time to help in cleanup efforts afterwards.

Those include, but are not limited to, the road crew, fire department, law enforcement, RECC crews and many other volunteers.

The judge then stated that Lucas Abner, who had been serving as interim EMS/DES Director after Lonnie Scott left the position a few weeks ago, had done a good job and recommended hiring Abner to that position, with the same rate of pay as the previous director was making at the time of his departure.

Magistrate Jerry Lowhorn and others objected, saying Abner would be getting a raise and didn’t feel it was fair to the other employees.

Magistrate Terry Buster noted that although Abner would be receiving $2,400 more a month, that raise came with the job description, saying again it was the same amount of pay that Scott had been receiving.

Judge Craig then asked for a roll call vote, with magistrates Lowhorn, Mickey Riddle and Gary Ferguson voting no. Magistrates Buster, Ray Marcum and Johnny Russell voted yes with the judge breaking the tie to hire Abner with a yes vote.

The court then approved a resolution to apply for a grant to fund a mount for an ambulance, heard department head reports and approved first reading of a budget amendment and two line-item budget amendments.

Brian Mills, Regional Field Representative for U.S. Senator Rand Paul, then addressed the court briefly, noting some things the senator’s office may be able to help Clinton County residents with, such as Social Security, veterans benefits and so forth.

Mills also thanked the court for approving the Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution, saying Senator Paul was in total favor of a citizens’ second amendment rights.

One issue that did draw quite a bit of attention was some citizens concerns about the recent closing of the recycling center operations in the county.

Roger Owens and his wife Sherry, who operate Days of Grace Food Pantry and an employee at the Clinton County Community Center, spoke on the issue, saying they wished there was some way to keep the program operating, at least on a limited basis.

There were also questions about the amount of equipment stored at the recycling facility, which was purchased several years ago with grant funds.

Magistrates Riddle and Buster then had somewhat of a disagreement on the cost it was taking to operate the program and the amount of money claimed to have been lost by the county over the past four years of the program being in operation.

Riddle handed out documents with figures showing the program had cost $431,000 in operating expenses over the past four years, a figure Buster didn’t totally agree with.

The lady who works at the Community Center said the trash problem was getting out of control, with debris being blown as far away as Golden Harvest Village located behind the Senior Citizens building.

Some suggested trying to keep the center open just a couple of days a week to help alleviate the problem, but no motions were made.

Magistrate Marcum, who had made the original motion to close the facility due to the cost to the county, pointed out the necessity to cut something from the budget, noting that such items as ambulance, jail and sheriff’s department would not be feasible to cut.

He did, however, leave open the possibility of looking into ways to somehow reopen the recycling program if the county can ever afford to do so.

Judge Craig also noted that several smaller counties had also done away with their recycling programs for the same reasons and others are getting ready to.

Sherry Owens, in noting she wished the recycling program could at least stay open part time, did thank that the county and magistrates for supplying the service to residents in the county, including the food pantry, over the past years.

Marcum discussed another issue of concern to both county and city residents, that being the water system situation. “We have water issues (in the county),” the magistrate said.

Although supplying water to residents in both the city and county lies on the city government, it has been a growing problems for a lot of water users of the past few months and even years.

Marcum asked if there was any way the council could have a joint meeting with the city council and lobby for grants to help make upgrades to the water system to repair the ongoing problems.

Mills also noted he would get in touch with Sen. Paul’s office on that issue as well and judge Craig noted he had a meeting next month in Frankfort and would ask state lawmakers about possible help.

Marcum said, “It’s a city problem…but it’s a county problem too.”