Clinton County Fiscal Court opened bids on the proposed connection road from the middle school to the bypass, approved taxing district budgets and voted on other items of business at its regular meeting held earlier than usual–at 8:30 a.m. last Thursday, April 19 with all court members present.

The court first voted to pay claims and bills, then approved the monthly and quarterly treasurer’s reports, a list of fund transfers and a budget amendment pertaining to grant funds for the Wellness Center project.

Kent Gilley, of Arnold Construction Consulting of Bowling Green, then opened four bids that had been submitted for construction of a connector road from behind Clinton County Middle School to the new U.S. 127 Albany Bypass.

Once the bids had been opened and read aloud, Judge/Executive Lyle Huff told the court that bids came in over budget.

The low bid for construction of the project, which included the roadway, school property area and parking lot, was from ATS Construction at $292,485. All other bids came in a little over $400,000 total.

Judge Huff noted that the Department of Education, which is supplying funding to the local school district for the portion of the project that involves school property, was limited. The county will receive a certain amount of funds on the project as well, but apparently both allotments of money will not cover the low bid price submitted.

Huff recommended that the court have Arnold Consulting take the bids and review them and come back to the court at a later time to make a recommendation. A motion to that affect was made by Magistrate Mickey Riddle and passed by unanimous vote.

Corey Craig of Vegetation Managers Company, then presented the court a proposal for spraying weeds and clearing brush along county roadways. The initial herbicide spraying would take place during the initial mowing time this spring.

Craig said his company specialized in doing work for counties and cities and did not do state right-of-way work.

He noted the company sprayed twice per year, and possibly three times, depending on the amount of rainfall received during the spring and early summer months, sometimes dictating a third mowing. He said if the company did the weed and brush control measures for the county, they would do it in cycles across the county, starting out with the worst areas first. Eventually, that would help keep the weeds and brush along county roadways down throughout the year.

The weed control spraying cycles would be done in February or March again in April or May and a third spraying, if necessary, around July.

He also explained the brush clearing program that would help clear back brush from alongside county roads and gave a three-year guarantee on that work, which would take place in the fall.

Craig offered to mow, in the first of three cycles, 100 center line miles, beginning with roadways that need the weed control the most, at $60 per mile or $6,000 total. And, he recommended a one-day brush clearing at $5,000.00.

Following some discussion, court members agreed that the 100 mile (from the center line) radius in the first cycle should include the worst areas in each of the magisterial districts, and a couple of districts–the first and sixth, would only contain a few total miles.

The program could save the county and road fund money in the long-run by cutting down on the amount of mowing that would be necessary each year, not to mention a possible savings on maintenance equipment that goes hand-in-hand with the mowing season.

Following the presentation and discussion, Magistrate Phillip Parrigin moved to proceed with the weed and brush control program–which will be funded from the county’s road fund. The motion passed by unanimous vote.

The court then voted to approve 2012-13 fiscal year budgets presented by three entities, the Lake Cumberland Action Agency, Soil Conservation District and Extension Service, the latter two which are taxing districts.

Judge Huff then announced the county had been awarded a $216,000 grant that will be used to replace the Ewing Creek Bridge, that had been washed out by flooding and also announced that the sale of surplus county road department surplus property would be conducted at the county maintenance building on Saturday, May 5.

On a motion by Riddle, the court voted 4-0 (Magistrate Charlotte Bernard had to leave the meeting early due to other obligations) to authorize County Treasurer Dallas Sidwell to execute an application for Disaster Relief FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funds for the purpose of obtaining federal financial assistance under the Disaster Relief Act or from the President’s Disaster Relief Fund.

Director of Emergency Services Lonnie Scott then explained to the court about the grant cycle now going on for community “safe rooms” and indicated the Lake Cumberland Community Action Agency may help write the grant application for such a project.

If approved, the “safe rooms” may be placed at some voting house locations and could possibly even been used as voting locations–which could save on repairs and/or replacements of voting houses in some areas of the county.

“Safe rooms” are storm resistant locations where the public can go when severe weather threats, such as tornadoes, etc., occur. Scott said each facility is capable of holding up to 210 people.

Each safe room would cost about $40,000 and the county would be responsible for .13 cents per each dollar spent, with the remaining 87 cents per dollar being funded with grant and other monies. Each safe room constructed would only cost the county about $5,200.

Magistrates discussed whether or not to include a certain number of such safe rooms to apply for, but Scott recommended not putting a specific number in the application, noting if the county was only funded enough for two of the shelters “it would be more than what we have now.”

Also, depending on the number of shelters that might be approved, the court could decide then on what areas of the county to place them.

Magistrate Craig moved to proceed with the project application for the safe rooms, with the motion passing by unanimous vote.

Road Supervisor Jim Pennycuff then presented the court with a list of equipment the road department needs before the primary mowing season gets underway, noting the backhoe was down and a primary need was for a front-end loader for one of the tractors and a box blade.

Pennycuff submitted a short list of equipment needed, including the front-end loader and box blade, at just over $12,000 total. Magistrate Craig made a motion to purchase the equipment–to be paid from the road fund–and it passed unanimously.

The court then entered into a 20-minute closed session on personnel but took no action upon returning to open session prior to adjourning the approximate one hour and 10-minute session.

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