Members of Meade County Fiscal Court tackled a rezoning request to start off the first meeting with Judge Executive Leslie Stith at the helm.
Several members of the Payneville community came to show their support against a proposed Dollar General that could be located at the intersection of Kentucky 144 and 1239. The two acre site has drawn controversy after a zoning change request was made in to make way for the development. Some residents are split on the need of the store or to preserve the rural nature of the community. During the public session, those who spoke at the regular Planning and Zoning meeting was able to voice their same comments to Fiscal Court in a short time frame. Two people spoke in favor of the development while three other spoke against the new store. After some confusion, Fiscal Court voted not to set a special public hearing for fact findings on the issue and carry forward to on the issue. In the business session, the court unanimously approved the rezoning request to allow the new store to be developed.
In other business, magistrates set Halloween trick or treat hours for the county to be from 5:30 until 8 pm on Saturday, October 31. The court approved the appointments of Ethan Straney and Tracy Huffines to the extension board. The court accepted the tax rates from the Meade County Health Department which kept the rates the same at 2.7 cents per $100 of accessed value on property and 2.83 cents per $100 of assessed value on motor vehicles.
Magistrates opened three sealed bids for the electrical inspector for the Nucor project. After a brief review and discussion, the court took no action to allow them to further review the bids before a selection is made. The court heard and approved the second reading of a ordinance related to the bonds for the Nucor project. As result of the land transfers with the Nucor project, the court updated lease agreements with Bluegrass Cellular for the newly installed site which is located on Mooreman Road.
Fiscal court approved updates to a interlocal agreement with the Meade County Water District related to the radio equipment for the emergency services located on the water towers at Garrett and Payneville. The update placed the E911 Center Director as the point of contact for the document. E911 Intrim Director Jeremy Miller provided the court a update from the E911 committee which outlines a communication plan to add two new radio repeater sites in Flaherty and Rhodelia. The Flaherty site will be on the tower at the Flaherty Fire Department and the Rhodelia site will at the Rhodelia Fire Department. The overall cost of the project would be $290,000 which includes radio equipment and the necessary preparations to complete project. The project would make drastic improvements to emergency radio communication coverage in those areas.
Miller also reported work on the backup E911 Center in Muldraugh is nearly complete on the communication links for telephone trunking. He also said the committee evaluated the staffing in the dispatch center and decided to eliminate part time staff creating all position to full time and immediately filling two of the three vacancies in the center.
The court went into a half hour closed session, which no action was taken in. The court returned to take action to move forward with a feasibility study to locate a new grain elevator in the county. The study will help guide the next steps to find a replacement facility for the one dismantled in the wake of the Nucor project. Magistrates also voted to terminate one employee at the Solid Waste & Recycling Center. They also approved advertising job vacancies at Meade County EMS and Solid Waste and Recycling.
You can watch the entire regular monthly meeting of Meade County Fiscal Court in our “On Demand” section.
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