Several residents attended the regular monthly meeting of the Meade County Fiscal Court Tuesday (3/9) night to their concern of a recent re-zoning request.
The concerns were related to a 2.5 acre lot along Old State Road near Ekron that was recently purchased by Pike and Tucker Properties to build a duplex home. The request was to change the zoning from R-1 to R-3 to accommodate the potential development. Neighboring residents stated that they believed a multi family dwelling would take away from the rural and agricultural life style that has been known in the community for generations. After some discussion, Fiscal court voted 5 to 1 to approve the request.
Magistrates revisited the recently approved solar ordinance and after a generous discussion voted to repeal the ordinance after concerns were raised about using favorable farmland and the size of the proposed 1200 acre solar farm near Irvington.
The proposed Green River Solar field by Nextera Energy would the biggest in the state so far and would generate 200 mega-watts of electricity that would inserted into the Big Rivers power grid to sold on the open market. The bigger concerns of county leaders is amount of land that would be used and the purchasing of property instead of leasing from land owners for the project. The repeal of the zoning ordinance will block any possible local permits for the proposed project until county leaders adopted a new ordinance. Nextra Energy officials were hoping to get state permitting secured by the end of May to finalize the footprint of the project. Currently, no local solar permits have been requested.
In other business, the court discussed and tabled funding request by City of Brandenburg for a new aluminum boat dock. County leaders stated that they will support the city but want to wait until the requested funds can be worked into the next budget cycle that begins on July 1. Fiscal Court approved the striping a small parking lot next to the old courthouse along Main Street in Brandenburg. County leaders will look into the possibility to quit clam deed the parking lot to the city. Magistrates approved funding for the Meade County History Museum which included a increase to cover rental costs of additional space to expand the exhibit space.
Judge Executive Leslie Stith read proclamations designating Arbor Day and Telecommunicators Week in the county during the month of April. The court approved a second reading of a budget amendment related to the CARES act funding along with updated resolution related to the bonds for the Nucor Steel Project.
Magistrates approved changing the road name of Valentine Lane to Valentine Court in the Garrett community. After a twenty minute closed session, magistrates came back to take no action.
You can watch the entire regular meeting of Meade County Fiscal Court in our “On Demand” section.
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