BENTON – [VIDEO FOLLOWS REPORT] Marshall County met in regular session Tuesday, February 7, 2017 with a long list of agenda of items to get to.
County Clerk Financial Settlement
Tim York, Marshall County Clerk, presented his Financial Settlement for the County Clerk’s Office for the calendar year 2016. Total receipts came to $10,235,103.19, disbursements $9,960,315.57 and excess fees in the amount of $274,787.62 paid to the Fiscal Court. York said receipts were up in 2016 in the amount of $473,000 and have been up by $800,000 in the last two years compared to 2014 citing an improved economy in Marshall County. The report was approved subject to audit.
ABC Report
Scott Brown, ABC Administrator, gave the quarterly report of an abbreviated quarter from November 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016. The following quarterly revenue breakdown is from 35 establishments.
6 Restaurant Establishments – $3,914.00
22 Malt Beverage Package Stores – $13,912.10
3 Private Clubs – $4,599.81
9 Package Stores – $25,116.64
Fines/Penalties – $193.12
License/Application/Renewal Fees – $25,116.65
TOTAL – $72,852.63
Conservation and Wildlife Awareness Festival
Casey Madole and Kimberly Sykes with the Wildlife Refuge came before the Fiscal Court with a plan for a proposed Conservation and Wildlife Awareness Festival, partnered between the Friends of Clarks River and Marshall County.
The festival’s purpose will be to bring local communities together to celebrate and promote the outdoor legacy unique to our area, a family oriented event. Several activities are being planned to attract a broad audience of outdoor enthusiasts, as well as vendors. They hope this will become an annual festival that will grow throughout the years. They plan to partner with Mike Miller Park for the site of the festival in October, and would like for the Fiscal Court to partner with them and help cover basic costs they might incur. The court approved their involvement with the proposed festival.
CORRESPONDENCE
Waste Tire Grant
The Fiscal Court was awarded a 2016-2017 Waste Tire Grant in the amount of $4,000 in June 2016. A letter from the Energy and Environment Cabinet informed the court that the grant funds have been appropriately expended and the grant is officially closed.
E-911 Board
A letter from Bryan Cutsinger, E-911 board chairman, spoke to the fee based funding from traditional land lines that no longer meets the needs of the E-911 Center due to the rapidly declining use of land lines. This has caused an on-going financial short fall which the Fiscal Court has had to subsidize to allow operations to continue. The board has researched other funding options currently available to them and would like the Fiscal Court to explore them as well. Judge Neal feels that Marshall County is in a great position to seek alternative funding opportunities which they will explore.
OLD BUSINESS
FEMA Report
Curt Curtner, Emergency Management Director, gave an update on the latest FEMA funding. FEMA reimbursements in the amount of $320,075.10 have been received from 19 Project Worksheets, all were County Road Department except one Mike Miller reimbursement. All have been paid with the exception of one.
Shar Cal Bridge
Judge Neal would like to move forward with the construction of the new Shar Cal Bridge even though the money from FEMA has not come through yet. Shawn Miller with DLZ addressed the court about their investigation results on the bridge replacement, and gave a preliminary report of their findings with a line item summary of estimated costs for the proposed bridge replacement.
Current costs which include; Bridge Removal, Hydraulic Analysis, Survey, Geo-technical Exploration and Preliminary
Engineering total $64,016. Additional costs which includes; 96′ Single Span Box Beam Bridge, Approach Roadway, Construction Administration/Observation, Mobilization/Demobilization, Right of Way, Utilities Relocation and Final Engineering will amount to $652,500 for a Total Replacement Cost of $716,516.
They are waiting along with the county to see if the FEMA reimbursement comes through. According to Miller, the Total Replacement Cost could vary saying they like to aim high and hope to bring costs down as they go.
The court voted to move forward with DLZ and the construction of the new bridge.
County Uniform Bids
Sealed bids were received by three companies with one received after the deadline, that will be reviewed with a decision made at the next Fiscal Court meeting. The bid received after the deadline may receive consideration if it can be determined it was given to the carrier with an expected arrival before the deadline, but the carrier neglected to delivery it on time.
Ambulance Management Contract
Jeremy Jeffrey, Executive Director of Mercy Regional Ambulance Service out of Paducah owned by Baptist Health and Lourdes Hospital, explained to the court their management services. Jeffrey spoke about the national shortage of paramedics and EMT’s currently. Mercy Regional is training their own people to combat this shortage which is a concern to the industry.
The discussion covered 68 Whiskey trained paramedics that come out of the military services highly trained, but due to state rules and regulations have to start all over with their training. Jeffrey said they reach out to Fort Campbell regularly with incentives to get them to come over to the civilian side as paramedics.
Mercy Regional, or another outside service, would transition the local service into their management with the relationship with the hospital remaining the same. Companies such as Mercy Regional would carry the employee insurance as well as 401K, which Judge Neal feels could be an opportunity to save money for the county.
Commissioner Cocke said he has spoken to Marshall County Hospital CEO David Fuqua and had a meeting on Wednesday along with Commissioner Bowlin on Wednesday with Judge Executives from counties who are using Com-Care, Inc. that serves Logan, Ohio and Todd Counties. Jim Duke with Com-Care in Ohio County had planned to be at Tuesday’s meeting but due to weather issues in his county could not attend.
Jeffrey said he runs the numbers through many different entities to make sure he is doing everything the most efficient, cost-effective way possible saying, ideally 45 days would be enough time prepare a fair estimate.
The court will continue to look into the matter of accepting bids for management of the Marshall County ambulance service and weigh all options.
NEW BUSINESS
Jonathon Creek Water District
A list of three names were recommended to fill a current vacancy and another vacancy that will be open in June. With large upgrades coming in the future of the district, board members with backgrounds in this field will benefit the district. The three recommendations are Jeff O’Bryan- owner of O’Bryan Trucking and Logging, Bryson Gibbs- Manager at Shop-O-Rama and Kara Wilson- Kentucky State Engineer.
Heather Adams, a resident of the Harvey community, appeared before the court to ask for “funding or whatever needs to happen to get them potable water.” Tests on the water done through the Health Department that test for chloroform and E coli, according to Adams, results on chloroform and E coli were so high they could not be recorded. Adams said they shocked their well, according to state guidelines and retested their well. E coli had come down but total chloroform bacteria was up over 24,000.
“I’m here today to ask the Fiscal Court to maybe appropriate some money to have the wells in our neighborhood tested”, Adams said. “I feel pretty strongly that my neighbors and the people in our neighborhood have a right to know what they’re dealing with in their water supply.”
Adams feels a lot of these people don’t have the ability or the want to spend the money to have their well tested and some may fear having it tested would result in the well being capped. Adams said after a rain their water is disgusting and she provided a photo on her phone of what the water looks like and said they spend approximately $200 a month to have water delivered.
“Potable water is really up there on a list of what humans need to live”, Adams said. “Today I want a commitment that the court will do something to have our wells tested and not only for the bacteria the Health Department tests for but also for pesticides since we are largely agricultural.”
“It’s our responsibility as a Fiscal Court to manage the taxpayers money so that we can assist those water districts and it starts with the board appointments”, Neal said. “It’s very important to get the right people on those boards that have the background or knowledge to make those decisions.”
Commissioner Gold said, “they have been pressing our legislators at the state level to appropriate some funds that could be used for projects like this.” Gold said the last estimate was 700 homes that need potable water in the county and it would be a $10 million dollar project, almost $15,000 per home, which Gold said is probably higher since the original estimate was done.
The cost for a water sample is $50 through the Health Department, an amount set by the state. Once it has been treated and they return for post treatment testing, there is no charge, according to Juli Conner, Environmental Health Director.
Commissioner Gold wanted to encourage these citizens to have their wells tested and emphasized their wells will not be shut down. Conner stated that the Health Department does not have the power or authority to condemn or cap off a well and are only there in an advisory capacity.
Returning to the business at hand, the board appointment on the Jonathan Creek Water District Board, which the court agreed all three are good candidates. Judge Neal made the nomination of Kara Wilson to fill the board vacancy which the court approved.
Elected Officials Salaries
County Treasurer Emily Martin presented a cost of living increase of 2.74% for approval for Marshall County constitutional and local elected officials which the court approved.
Pay Day Delay
Deputy Judge Executive, Brad Warning, addressed the current pay dates of the 1st through 15th of the month and 16th through the end of each month, saying department heads have to turn in their time at least three days prior to the last day of the pay period for direct deposit purposes. Warning said, the difficulty of this is estimating things such as overtime and then reconciling it by making adjustments in the next pay period.
Warning said beginning July 1, 2017, payday will be delayed by seven days for time sheets to be turned in without estimating days that employees have yet to work. The new schedule for the remaining six months of the year will have payday falling on the 7th and the 22nd of each month.
This will give employees plenty of time to make adjustments in the way they pay their bills or to move automatic bill payments they may have coming out of their accounts. Approval will be made after feedback is received from the department heads.
Mandatory Direct Deposit
Once the new pay period is in place, Warning said mandatory direct deposits will be set up to cut down on paper checks and create an opportunity to email pay stubs, cutting down on expenses and labor. In cases where an employee doesn’t have a checking account, Warning has spoken to banks willing to work with these issues.
Extension Board Audit
The court accepted the Marshall County District Extension Board Audited Financial Statements dated June 30, 2016.
2016 Sheriff Fee Settlement
Sheriff Kevin Byars presented the 2016 Free Settlement reporting Total Receipts of $1,373,734.66 and Total Disbursements of $1,373,734.66 which the Fiscal Court approved pending audit.
Sheriff’s Department fuel line item budget, as well as vehicle maintenance and upkeep funding was discussed, with monies coming from ABC line item budget and general fund budget that can be moved around when needed. The court approved the redistribution of these funds as needed until April, when they will re-evaluate.
Executive Session
Court went into Executive Session to discuss a personnel issue in the Parks Department.
The next meeting of the Fiscal Court will be Tuesday, February 21, 2017.