Members of Meade County Fiscal Court approved the first reading of an ordinance which places a year moratorium on data center proposals in the county during their regular meeting Tuesday (12/9) night.
The action comes two months after a rezoning request near Garrett that sparked public objection related to the possibility of a data center. County leaders verbally enacted a moratorium on data centers at their regular meeting in October after they denied the rezoning request. County leaders were not able to conduct the first reading of the ordinance during a special meeting in November due to the document was ready to be presented.
The ordinance blocks any data center proposal from being applied for at least 12 months or until a data center ordinance is approved to the county’s planning and zoning regulations. Fiscal Court and the Planning and Zoning Commission is expected to conduct several public work sessions in order to craft guidelines for large scale data centers in the county. The first work session is scheduled on December 22 from 6 until 8 PM at the Meade County Extension Office.
In other business, EMS Director Jerome Morgan reported to the court that the recent bids for a new ambulance and remount will be redrafted to be able to attract more bidders. The recent bids were too specific with needed functions. Magistrates approved accepting Valerie Court as a private lane into the county’s road addressing list for emergency response. The court approved the 2026 Holiday schedule and approved the County Clerk’s budget of $10,568,040 that includes a projection of excess fees of $154,310. The clerk salaries totaled $934,825.
Fiscal Court approved the appointments of Jacob Mattingly, Tim LaTondress, and Andrew Barr to the Planning and Zoning Commission. They approved Debra Gibson and Ben Sheran to the Board of Adjustments. Third District Magistrate Billy Sipes and Judge Executive Troy Kok announced that improvements are coming to the intersection of Kentucky 313 and Highway 144 near Flaherty School. Sipes said that the Judge and Roger Rhodes of the Flaherty Fire Department have worked with the state Transportation officials on site to review issues with the major blind spot with the southbound turning lane. Judge Kok said that funding has been made available for the improvements, which is expected to move the turning lane closed to the right of way fence to allow motorists on Kentucky 144 to see oncoming traffic.
Fiscal Court met approximately a half hour in closed session for the purpose to discuss future acquisition or sale of real property by a public agency and discussion of personnel. The court returned with a vote to dismiss an employee.
At the beginning of the meeting Judge Executive Kok asked a for a moment of silence in memory of former Sixth District Magistrate Randall Hardesty, who passed away on Monday (12/8). Hardesty served as magistrate for 14 years and was active in many activities in the community. Funeral arrangements can be found here.
The next regular meeting of Meade County Fiscal Court will be held at 7 PM on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. You can watch the entire meeting in our “On Demand” section.
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