Fiscal court gives unanimous approval of city council’s E-911 proposal

From left, Magistrates Bernard Ice, Sam Hutchins and Keith Metcalfe at Tuesday’s Nelson Fiscal Court meeting.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016 — Nelson Fiscal Court unanimously approved Tuesday morning a 911 agreement approved last week by the Bardstown City Council.

The vote was taken without comment or discussion of Mayor John Royalty’s email to the magistrates asking them to turn away the council’s 911 proposal.

In his email to the magistrates, Royalty called the relationship between city first-responders and dispatch “irretrievably broken.”

Magistrate Keith Metcalfe looks over a sheath of documents during Tuesday’s Nelson Fiscal Court meeting.

Watts said the proposed agreement addressed the three points left unresolved from prior negotiations. In the new agreement, the city will have an ownership stake in equipment purchased moving forward. that state will be an approximate percentage based on the city’s financial participation in the overall dispatch budget.

The agreement also provides for both governments — Nelson Fiscal Court and the Bardstown City Council — to agree on the hiring of the dispatch director. The agreement also sets the city’s financial participation at a maximum of $130,000 or 40 percent, which is the lesser of the dispatch costs not paid for by 911 dispatch fees

Neither Watts nor the magistrates had comment regarding Royalty’s email last week to the magistrates.

Royalty told the Gazette last week that he felt it necessary to send the email after talking with the city’s first-responders.

“They are worried about the liability of their officers being hurt by the incompetency of the dispatch, and they are willing to hold each individual person personally liable and responsible,” he stated via text. “I am just standing up for my department heads and for my employees.”

EMS. The court approved a request by EMS Director Joe Prewitt to advertise for bids for a new ambulance.

One of the existing ambulances was damaged in a fire and must be replaced, he explained. The cost of a new ambulance is $140,000 to $155,000, while a low-mileage demonstrator is expected to cost about $90,000 to $95,000.

Magistrate Jerry Hahn looks over the county’s bills list at the start of Tuesday’s Nelson Fiscal Court meeting.

PAVING APPROVED. The court approved a request pave sections of three roads in Magistrate Jeff Lear’s district.

The roads include 1,170 feet of Welches Lane; 1,580 feet of Lutheran Church Road; and all of Creel Lane.

MURPHY LANE / GREEN CHAPEL ROAD REPAIRS. Watts told the court that state money will be available to make repairs to both Murphy Lane and Green Chapel Road. Both roads have had recent road surface failures.

The emergency repairs will begin later this year, and will require closure of both roads while each is being repaired.

In other business, the court:

— approved a request from EMA Director Joe Prewitt to use existing grant money to replace one of the county’s existing weather sirens. The county has $5,800 in grant money which requires a matching contribution to pay for the siren. The siren that is replaced will be relocated to the Nazareth campus, Watts said.

NEXT UP. Nelson Fiscal Court will hold a special meeting at 9 a.m. Sept. 13, 2016, to give final approval of the county’s 2016 property tax rate. The proposed rate is unchanged from 2015.

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