Beech Tree News Network

Butler County Fiscal Court meet with all magistrates present in their regularly scheduled session on Monday, April 24th.  Several items were on the agenda for the night, all being brief with the exception of the closed session that took place.  All items were passed unanimously.

Rhonda Vaughn and Ali Johnson of BC Drug Free were first on the agenda to discuss information related to passing the Social Host Ordinance.  This type of ordinance is a civil penalty that will be placed upon adults who knowingly or “should have known” that underage drinking is taking place on their property. Ms. Vaughn also highlighted several statistics that pertained to underage drinking in our county.  These are available in PDF format below.  The Fiscal Court will be reviewing this ordinance to vote on in the future.

Butler County Clerk Sherry Johnson discussed the need for the Fiscal Court to appoint someone to the Board of Assessment Appeals.  A new individual is chosen on a yearly basis. It is law that the judge-executive chooses an individual for one year, the mayor of the largest city in the county to choose one the next year, and the following year the Fiscal Court must choose one.  Judge Fields spoke briefly with the magistrates and they decided to have an individual picked by the next meeting.

It is required that it be recorded in the minutes that certain budgets were presented to the court.  The following budgets were presented in accordance with this requirement: Butler County Extension Office 2017-2018 Budget, Butler County Health Department 2017-2018 Budget, and proposed 2017-2018 for Butler County Fiscal Court.

Coleman Contracting was awarded the bid for the contract for open dumps.  This was the only bid received but was still under what was budgeted for the contract.

House Bill 510 was discussed in regards to what would be done with the remainder of the grant money left.  It has been decided that the money left over will be used to chip and seal the gravel on Leonard Oak Church Road.
Per a letter written from Butler County Jailer Rocky Tyree, a motion was made and passed to approve a pay increase for Darrel Elder to $11.20/ hour. This is due to his position being moved from part-time to full-time.
Before adjourning for the night, the court went into closed session and asked for Don Jenkins to join them while they discussed the following: Potential Pending Litigation KRS 61.810 (1) (c) and Personal Issues KRS 61.810(f).  Upon returning from closed session, it was voted upon and passed to hire Michael Price as the part-time worker for the recycling center and ferry at $10/hr. not to exceed 100 hours a month.  It was not made public why Mr. Jenkins joined them in closed session.

When the floor was opened to the public, Magistrate Stevie Givens advised the court needed to consider gathering bids to cut and grind the stumps of some of the trees in front of the court house.  He also discussed the need for displaying better signage for our boat ramps after being asked by an individual trying to locate the ramp.

Osei Thomas discussed the need for the county to be more proactive in helping the Butler County Animal Shelter.  He referenced a study that the University of Kentucky recently published highlighting that Butler County had one of the worst shelters in the state due to underfunding.  Mr. Thomas asked the court to offer help in seeking and applying for grant money to better the shelter.

Other items passed on the agenda for the night were as follows:
•    Motion to approve 2nd reading Fire Dues Ordinance
•    Motion to approve Judge Fields to sign AOC reimbursement form
•    Motion to approve refund to the Butler County Sheriff in the amount of $310.39 for 2015 excess fee overpayment per Auditor
•    Motion to approve 3rd Quarter Financial Statement subject to audit
•    Advertise in House position for Full time Rochester Ferry Operator
•    Bills and transfers