Clinton County Fiscal Court held its July meeting two days early, gathering Tuesday morning, July 17 with all court members present, including newly appointed magistrate Charlene King.

After voting to pay claims and bills, County Treasurer Dallas Sidwell presented the monthly, quarterly and annual financial reports, with all passing on separate motions. However, King voted no on the quarterly report, saying she had some questions about it and hadn’t had time to fully review it.

King also questioned totals about the ambulance service in the annual statement, which showed the ambulance service taking in just over $600,000 but the payroll is about $1 million. Some of that discrepancy in funds were explained later in the meeting in discussions about possibly purchasing an ambulance.

The court also approved a budget amendment to include $216,600 in grant funds for a recently completed bridge replacement project.

Sheriff Rick Riddle presented the 2011 tax settlement, which had been prepared by CPA Ed Lanham. The settlement included totals for all taxing districts and came out within about .13 cents of being totally even. Magistrates commended the sheriff on the tax settlement and on a motion by Magistrate Larry Hatfield, voted to accept the settlement and pay Lanham’s fee in the amount of $1,014.96.

The court then discussed the possible purchase of a much needed ambulance for the EMS fleet with Director of Emergency Services Lonnie Scott. He noted that most of the current ambulances have high mileage and the state legislature may consider a law that would not allow any ambulance to have more than 200,000 on them.

Judge/Executive Lyle Huff said that since funding through the 75/25 matching grant programs had basically been depleted, he recommended possibly purchasing an ambulance through a revolving loan program at a low interest rate over about a five-year period.

Scott noted the ambulance service had $11,909 from 2011 funds received annually from Senate Bill 66 that can only be used toward ambulance funding and another $10,169.49 from that fund in 2012 for approximately $22,000 that could be used toward the purchase.

Scott also noted that the cost of a new ambulance is around $112,000 but recommended a ‘re-mount’ where the box is placed on the chassy, which costs around $80,000.

The DES also touched on why the ambulance service runs in the red, noting there simply isn’t enough ambulance runs made for the service to break even, noting it would take over 300 runs a month. Currently, the ambulance service makes only 200 plus runs per month.

Scott also noted that the same staffing requirements are in place for smaller county ambulance services as larger ones and it costs the same (to pay employees) whether a county has 5,000 runs a year or just 3,000 per year.

The court members took the proposal under advisement and will possibly make a decision on whether or not to try and purchase another ambulance prior to this year’s funding cycle deadline, which Scott noted was December 1.

The court then approved a change in personnel in its policies and procedures, replacing Dallas Sidwell as Drug Testing Coordinator for county employees with Scott.

Finally, Judge Huff updated the court members on the status of the proposed connector road project that would, if totally funded, build a road from the back west side of the middle school to the new 127 Bypass.

Huff questioned a discussion recently held at the last meeting of the Clinton County Board of Education, when a board member questioned new Superintendent Charlotte Bernard about the status of the project.

Bernard said at that time she would check on the status and inform board members and board attorney Lindsey Bell also noted at that meeting that deeds for the project had been prepared.

Judge Huff told the court that former Superintendent Mickey McFall, who retired June 30, knew and was informed of the status of the project.

The judge presented a letter dated May 16 from Arnold Consulting Engineering Services of Bowling Green about the status of the project, and the bottom line is that the project needs some $132,767 in additional money to complete the project. That is money the judge says the county doesn’t have and they (county) were only involved in the project to begin with to help out the school district.

The letter from the consulting engineers noted the rise in costs stemmed from the original low bid from ATS of $292,485 did not include a cost of $74,715 in asphalt base and surface and the Kentucky Division of Water requesting a change from 72” pipe to 96” pipe, which would require a detailed stream hydraulic analysis and the total increase in cost would be just under $35,000.

Additionally, the letter noted, “Navitas gas company is maintaining that they will cover the cost of engineering design, but they want the county to pay the cost of gas line relocation” in the amount of $15,775.00. Also, ACES requested an additional $4,500 in engineering fees to cover some of the costs in working through the Kentucky Division of Water permit and gas company issues.

State funds available by the county on the project now total $160,000, according to Judge Huff. The school district has committed $150,000, for a total of $310,000, which is short of the new projected cost of design, construction and inspection which totals $442,767.00.

Judge Huff said during the presentation, “I’m not picking a fight with the school board…but this is not a county project.” He said he just wished to clarify the status of the project.

The brief court meeting was then adjourned, with the date and time for the August meeting to be announced at a later date.