Court Has Full Agenda For First Meeting
Judge Executive Luke King addresses the Court, with Magistrate Rondal Wray, and County Attorney Coleman Hurt looking on.
By Greg Wells
CCN -Editor
For their first meeting of the year Cumberland County Fiscal Court addressed a two-page agenda this Monday.
The meeting started off with Road Department Supervisor Ricky Melton praising the work of city and county workers, sheriff’s deputies and many others in ensuring that the counties roads remained passable through the second storm of this winter, which was the first to bring serious snowfall.
Road Department Supervisor Ricky Melton speaking during the meeting.
County Judge-Executive Luke King praised the work of Melton and the rest of the road crew for the effective strategic free treatment of local roads to ensure they could be efficiently cleaned.
Later in the meeting King pointed out that the county has been and will continue to plow the area around the hospital, as the property belongs to the county, though the buildings belong to the hospital.
The absence of District 3 Magistrate Larry Anderson was noted by King as he read a letter from the Magistrate to the court.
King said that Anderson had suffered two strokes recently and is in recovery, and rehabilitation. Anderson’s focus though was on all the cards letters and messages he has received wishing him well and offering prayers for his recovery, which he expressed great appreciation for.
There was no word on exactly when he will return to court, as Anderson pointed out none of the doctors or nurses are yet ready to give a definitive answer.
In other personal matters it was pointed out by King that sheriff Keaton Williams was celebrating our birthday, though the court refrained from singing happy birthday to the sheriff.
In the sheriff’s report he noted his department responded to 293 calls for assistance in December, made 62 traffic stops, 18 arrests issued 30 citations and responded to seven wrecks in the county. He noted that 16 of his departments interactions with the public involved alcohol.
He said his department has arrested two people in response to a rash of break-ins at the start of the year, for full story see next week’s, Cumberland County news.
In another actions the magistrates voted to maintain the county’s prohibition on the use of marijuana by county workers while on the job, regardless of any medical prescriptions. They voted to seek out a new contractor to finish work on the Marrowbone tornado shelter, as the current contractor is not responding. That associated cost being deducted from what is due to the present contractor.
In both old and the new business, the Christmas parade, and in particular the toy giveaway was the subject of several items, including recognition of the Cumberland County civics club’s recognition by several area television news outlets. And an upcoming Kentucky educational television segment. The magistrates voted to approve the purchase of a video recorder to aid the civics club’s dissemination of local news.
King also announced that due to the success of that initiative the coming USDA commodity food distribution on January 29 will be supplemented by additional food for as many as 350 people. The additional food will not have an income limit on receiving households. King said that distribution will be later in the morning after the regular distribution.
In other reports to the court Junior Smith the alcohol and beverage commission officer for the county said that sales for November or $83,907, a year to date $590,172. He said fees associated were $4,052 in November and $72,802 for the year.
When King asked him if license renewals in February were except expected to be the same as in previous years, he said it was very likely.
Smith continued giving the jailer report as Thomas J. Brown was unavailable. That report was that 57 jailer runs totaling 5,550 miles were made by staff in December, and that the month started with 19 county inmates and ended with 24.
