The Monroe County Jail will remain open despite new mandates from the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice requiring additional full-time deputy jailers to be on duty at all times.

In a special call meeting of the Monroe County Fiscal Court on January 5, County Judge/Executive Tommy Willett and all five magistrates voted unanimously to increase the Monroe County occupational tax rate from .5 percent to 1 percent to fund the additional expense. Willett explained to the court that since the mandate requiring additional staff at the jail went into effect, the county has had to transfer an additional $50,000 from the general to the jail fund monthly to meet its obligations. “That can’t continue,” Willett told the court. “We don’t have extra money to keep our jail.”

Magistrate Alonzo Ford expressed his feelings about the tax increase saying, “This is not what we (the court) want to do, but we have no choice. This will increase my taxes too, but I’m willing to pay it to assure we keep our jail.”

Ford went on to say that if the jail were closed and prisoners had to be housed in other counties, there would be no way to monitor medical expenses which can amount to huge amounts of money that the county would be forced to pay. Jailer Doyle Fox told the court that medical expenses have been kept in check largely due to the fact that Dr. Michael Carter has worked very closely with the jail to keep county expenses to a minimum.

“We’ve lost all our tax base,” said Magistrate Roger Deckerd, referring to the number of jobs that have left the county over the last few years. “When all the factories were still here this (money to operate the jail) wasn’t an issue. Now we just don’t have the money anymore.”

Magistrate Mitchell Page told the court, “I hate the thought of raising any tax, but the fact is that surrounding counties have been on a higher occupational tax rate for a long time. While we’ve kept ours down to .5 percent, Metcalfe and Allen counties have been at a full 1 percent and Cumberland County has been at 1.25 percent.

Magistrate Ricky Bartley said, “It would be an absolute disgrace to our county to lose our jail…this is the right thing to do.”

Willett told the court that he wanted to use a portion of the additional revenue generated by the tax increase to help fund the volunteer fire departments around the county, noting that “we nearly lost one (Gamaliel) last year over insurance rates and utilities.” He was referring to the City of Gamaliel voting early last year to discontinue paying the utility bills for the fire department and placing a cap on the amount the city would pay on the department’s insurance premium.

Everyone on the court pressed their desire to work with Willett to help the fire departments, noting publicly that Monroe County Fire Departments, all of which are volunteer, do an excellent job and continually struggle financially.

County Attorney Wes Stephens told the group that he would prepare the new tax ordinance and have the first reading ready at the next regularly scheduled fiscal court meeting, and that the second reading could be held at the February meeting.

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Tompkinsville’s Bart Rowland was selected by the Republican Executive Committees from Cumberland, Green, Metcalfe and Monroe counties to represent the Republican party in the special election for the House District 53 special election. This election is to fill the seat vacated by newly elected Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer.

“I’m honored to receive the Republican nomination for the special election in the 53rd House District. I’ve lived all my life in south-central Kentucky and want to make this area a better place to live, work and raise a family,” said Rowland.

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Two defendants in Monroe County voter fraud cases were sentenced in Federal Court on December 22.

A year after her guilty plea, Wanda Moore of Tompkinsville, was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $400 in court costs. She pled guilty to conspiring to buy votes in the 2006 Monroe County general election and to buying votes during the election.

Moore, along with Gary Bartley and Ronald Muse, both also from Tompkinsville, supported Wilbur Graves, former judge/executive for Monroe County, in the 2006 general election.

In an unrelated case but in the same election, William H. “Billy” Proffitt, also of Tompkinsville, was also sentenced on December 22 to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine plus $100 of special penalty assessment costs.

Proffitt had pled guilty in June to conspiring with Tony Gumm, Martha Hughes, Corey Page, Michael Page and Todd Newport from October 2006 to November 7, 2006, to either pay or offer to pay voters to vote in the November 2006 Monroe County general election. Two remaining charges against Proffitt were dismissed. He was originally indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2010.