Beech Tree News Network

Butler County Fiscal Court met in regular session on Monday, February 13, at the courthouse.  All magistrates were present.  The biggest discussion of night ended up being a topic not listed on the agenda.  When all items on the agenda had been discussed, Fourth District Magistrate David Whittinghill made a motion for Fiscal Court to take full control of 911 Dispatch, effective July 1st of

Repeal of provision would protect benefits for Kentucky Teachers

FRANKFORT, Ky. (February 16, 2017) – Today, the House passed House Concurrent Resolution 7 urging the United States Congress to amend Title II of the Social Security Act to repeal the Government Pension Offset Provision and protect benefits for Kentucky’s teachers. Introduced by Rep. Kenny Imes, R-Murray, This provision reduces public employees’ Social Security spousal or survival benefits by up to two-thirds of their public pension.  

The Butler County Board of Education met in regular session on Tuesday, February 14, at 6:30 PM at the Butler County Education Complex. All members of the Butler County Board of Education were present. Members currently include: Ryan Daugherty, Debbie Hammers, Amy Hood, Delbert Johnson, and Aimee Sanders. Newly appointed Board member Aimee Sanders was recognized and welcomed to the Board.

Butler County Sheriff's Deputy Chris Reneer is advising residents to be aware of a new scam that has been recentlyreported.  A Butler County resident was having issues with her computer and within days an individual going by the name of Kevin, speaking with an accent, called her claiming to be a representative from Microsoft and said he could walk her through the steps to fix her computer issue for a fee of $2.95.  The number he

Timmy West, former Butler County Road Supervisor, appeared in Butler County Circuit Court on Monday, Februay 13, with Special Judge Sam Potter presiding over the jury trial. West was found not guilty of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and/or other substances which impairs driving ability.  The incident stemmed from a 2015 incident in which West was arrested on various charges related to alcohol and controlled substances while operating a vehicle.  West was employed as the county road supervisor at the time of his arrest. 

The Morgantown City Council met for its regularly-scheduled meeting on Thursday, February 9th.  After approval of minutes and the meeting agenda, the council went to work listening to various board reports:

Planning & Zoning
Board member Jody Forgy discussed the need for the zoning map to be updated.  By law this is required to be done every five years.  The council is in the process of getting large working maps to use as reference in updating the  zoning process.

Beech Tree News provides courthouse statistics on a regular basis. Courthouse information provided in this article is a matter of public record. The following records are from the Butler County Clerk and Circuit Clerk’s offices and cover January 19th- February 7th.

Civil Cases:
Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance vs. John Bratcher
Discover Bank vs. Ashley Weathers
Midland Funding vs. Samantha Phelps
Personal Finance Company vs. Stephanie Warren
Citimortgage vs. Greg Carter

The Butler County School's district-wide spelling bee was held Tuesday, February 7, at Education Complex.  Carter Hawkins, 7th grade representative of Butler County Middle School, won first place. Carter is the son of Jeff and Annie Hawkins. Morgan McKinney, 5th grade representative of Morgantown Elementary School, won 2nd place. Morgan is the daughter of Brian and Paige McKinney. Briley Webster, 5th grade representative of North Butler Elementary, won 3rd place. Briley is the daughter of Jeff and Krista Webster.

The flu and other assorted illnesses have taken their toll on attendance this week in the classroom.  Therefore, Butler County Schools' Superintendent Scott Howard has made the decision to cancel classes for the remainder of the week due to consistently low attendance.