City request on behalf of food pantry prompts questions from council

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Wednesday, March 23, 2016, 12:15 a.m. — The City of Bardstown is asking Nelson Fiscal Court for $4,358.62 to help pay the annual utility bill for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at its new location in the city-owned COBEC building.

Councilman Roland Williams and City Attorney Tim Butler talk private during Tuesday’s Bardstown City Council meeting.

The rent and utilities each of the occupants of the former OKH Middle School is based on the square-footage they occupy, the letter states. The COBEC building has 44,018 square feet of space, and Bardstown Mayor John Royalty said the food pantry will occupy 5,200 square feet — or 12 percent of the total floor space.

The food pantry is asked to pay 12 percent of the overall utility bill. The building does not have separate electrical services for each tenant. The city previously agreed to accept $10,000 per year in as rent for the space that the new St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry will occupy in the building.

While St. Vincent has agreed to pay rent, the letter — written by Greg Ashworth, the city’s risk manager — states St. Vincent cannot pay the utility bill “due to a lack of funding.”

The letter, dated March 14, asks Judge-Executive Dean Watts and Nelson Fiscal Court to agree to make annual contributions to go toward the food pantry’s utility bills.

Councilman Francis Lydian noted that the council did not receive a letter from the organization about the lack of funding to pay utilities. He suggested the council avoid getting involved in St. Vincent’s business affairs and let the organization send its own letter asking for money.

Lydian said in his opinion, Ashworth’s letter asking Nelson Fiscal Court for funding should have come before the council and not been an administration decision.

“The city council makes decisions,” he said. “If you analyze this, it relates to revenue.”

Sending the letter was a decision that was not approved by the council, he said.

“That’s why its on your iPad,” Mayor John Royalty told Lydian.

Councilwoman Kecia Copeland told Royalty it looked like the city was deferring to the county to help with the utilities.

Royalty explained that the city gave the food pantry a good deal on the rent. “Since this is a community effort and everybody benefits from this, I’m just asking (Nelson Fiscal Court) to come on board and play the game.”

Lydian noted that Nelson Fiscal Court participates in the Feeding America program that helps feed residents of both the city and county, and in three years, has distributed by his county 200,000 pounds of food.

“We need to take into consideration that the county has contributed to city residents,” he said.

Royalty said he was waiting for a response from Judge-Executive Dean Watts and Nelson Fiscal Court.

In other action the council:

— approved revisions to the sanitary sewer policy

— re-appointed Clara Mackin Fulkerson to a one-year term on the Wickland board

— approved 10 Historic Review Board recommendations.

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