Fiscal Court gives final OK to Woodlawn Springs golf course zoning request
Magistrates Jerry Hahn, Jeff Lear and Bernard Ice talk prior to the start of Tuesday’s Nelson Fiscal Court meeting.
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, March 6, 2018 — Nelson Fiscal Court unanimously gave its final approval to a requested zoning amendment that will allow for the redevelopment of the Woodlawn Springs golf course property.
Magistrate Sam Hutchins made the motion to approve the zoning request by Woodlawn Springs Golf Course LLC. By voting, fiscal court agreed with the recommendation by the planning commission to approve the zoning amendment. The change will allow the property owners to develop the golf course property into residential tracts. The magistrates did not discuss the matter before or after the vote.
Residents of the Woodlawn Springs development had opposed the change, and voiced their opposition at a planning commission public hearing in December, and were in attendance at the last fiscal court meeting Feb. 20th. The court weighed the evidence and testimony from that hearing in its decision to give final approval of the zoning amendment.
Nelson County Jailer Dorcas Figg reviews changes she has implemented at the Nelson County Jail during Tuesday’s Nelson Fiscal Court meeting.
Don Thrasher, Republican candidate for judge executive, had asked Fiscal Court to delay its final vote and conduct an “argument hearing” in order to give Woodlawn Springs residents an opportunity to voice their concerns about the zoning change. Watts did not comment on Thrasher’s request at Tuesday’s meeting, but indicated prior to the meeting that the court would move forward with a vote.
JAIL PROCEDURES UPDATE. Nelson County Jailer Dorcas Figg presented the court with a list of policy changes and building updates at the jail in the wake of a number of recent security breaches at the jail, which included contraband entering the jail via a hole in an outside wall, and an incident involving inmates who broke out of a cell and took tools.
THE CHANGES. A head count will be conducted hourly, and will require a deputy to go inside the cell and physically check the showers, windows, wall, mats, bunks and vents. Nothing will be allowed to block the view of the bunks from outside the cell. A second deputy will be required to stay at the main door when a deputy is in the cell. The time of these checks and items found will be recorded in the activity log.
Figg told the court that all tools have been removed from the jail. A new security camera will be placed in the areas of Cells 107 and 111.
The window at the rear of the jail that was recently beaten and damaged by an inmate has had a steel plate welded over the window frame.
Outside the jail, a fence was installed across the front of the jail to protect the wall of the jail facing the road, which was where a hole created by inmates had been located.
In an effort to reduce overcrowded, Figg said she has asked the state to move up to 50 prisoners from the jail, which was designed to house 104 inmates. The jail often has 50 or more state prisoners housed at the jail.
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