Members of Meade County Fiscal Court worked through a lengthy session during their regular monthly meeting Tuesday (5/9) night.
Meade County Sheriff Phillip Wimpee asked magistrates to approve a resolution to provide hazardous duty retirement for full time deputies in his department. The additional cost to add hazardous duty retirement for the 14 deputies was $114,000 based upon current salaries. The cost would fluctuate by percentage each year. Sheriff Wimpee said that the added benefit would help with deputy retention and recruitment for the department. He said that it was important to be able to provide for the younger deputies who serve their time in job that modern society doesn’t want to do. During the half hour discussion, Magistrates Gary Chapman comment on the suddenness for action as the county leader were minutes away from hearing the first reading of the proposed budget, which had already been reviewed by the court during a recent work session. After the discussion, the court unanimously approved the resolution in favor of adding hazardous duty retirement.
In other business, magistrates approved an interlocal agreement between them and the City of Brandenburg regarding the insurance tax fees from annexation. They approved the renewal of the franchise agreement with Spectrum/ Charter Communications for cable television within the county. Magistrates approved the annual CPI issued by the state for their salary. Judge Executive Troy Kok read a proclamation designating May as Mental Health Month in the county.
Fiscal Court approved the hiring of Kyle Hardesty as the Assistant Park Director; Jessica McKinney as the Judge Executive Administrative Assistant; Kyleigh Frymire as the Judge Executive Receptionist. They also appointed Carolyn Kendall to the Meade County Fire Protection Board; Monica Pack to the Flaherty Fire District board; Bill Wilson to the Meade County/ Brandenburg Industrial Development Authority; Marie Barr, Nik Powers and Charlie Wilkins, Sr. were appointed to the Reapportionment Committee.
Magistrates heard and approved the first reading of the proposed 2023-24 County Budget which totals: $36,310,420. The court is expected to hear the second reading of the county budget during their June regular meeting. The court approved renewing the Electrical inspector bid with Hendricks Electrical Inc with the same pay structure. After some discussion, they tabled the building inspector bid until the June meeting for clarification of issues related to certifications.
Court members approved the first reading of an ordinance of rescinding and reestablishing the collecting of Solid Waste in the county. The ordinance comes after several months of negotiations of between the county and trash contractor.
The court went into an hour and half closed session to discuss: Discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment, discipline, or dismissal of an individual employee, member, or student without restricting that employee’s, member’s, or student’s right to a public hearing if requested. This exception shall not be interpreted to permit discussion of general personnel matters in secret; Deliberations on the future acquisition or sale of real property by a public agency, but only when publicity would be likely to affect the value of a specific piece of property to be acquired for public use or sold by a public agency; and Discussions between a public agency and a representative of a business entity and discussions concerning a specific proposal, if open discussions would jeopardize the siting, retention, expansion, or upgrading of the business.
After the closed session, the court voted to terminate a Solid Waste employee for insubordination and violation of personnel code.
You can watch the entire meeting in the “On Demand” section.
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