Magistrates votes 4-1 to approve 50 cent garbage rate increase; Metcalfe votes no
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, July 7, 2020 — Despite a lawsuit challenging the move, Nelson Fiscal Court voted 4-1 Tuesday to approve a 50 cents per month increase for county garbage collection.
Magistrate Keith Metcalfe told the court that due to the current litigation he couldn’t support raising the garbage rates at this time.
Don Thrasher, a former GOP candidate for state representative, filed a legal challenge to the fiscal court’s initial approval of the 50 cent rate hike in June. Thrasher seeks an injunction to prevent the court from enacting the rate hike.
Fiscal Court met in closed session following its regular meeting Tuesday, presumably to discuss this litigation.
RECYCLING PICKUP STARTS THIS WEEK. Solid Waste Director John Greenwell told the court that the county’s recycling pickup will start again this Wednesday with subdivisions located on Old Nazareth Road, KY 245 and Louisville Road.
The following week, recycling pickups will run in subdivisions in the New Haven and Woodlawn areas.
GENERATOR GRANT. Fiscal Court approved a resolution to support a FEMA grant application submitted by Emergency Services Director Joe Prewitt that will be used to install a generator at the City of Bardstown’s COBEC building at the corner of First and Muir.
The intent of the generator is to allow the building to serve as a Emergency Operations Center in the event of a large-scale emergency or natural disaster. The generator would allow the building to be used as a mass shelter if needed. The generator will be large enough to power the entire building, Prewitt said.
Prewitt also advised the court that E-911 Dispatch had been awarded a CMRS (Commercial Mobile Radio Servie) grant to help pay to update the dispatch center’s communications consoles.
ROLL-OFF BOXES. The court approved a bid to purchase 10 additional roll-off boxes for the county’s garbage operation.
Gregory Container’s low bid of $47,480 covers the cost of two 20-cubic-yard, six 30-cubic-yard, and two 39-cubic-yard roll-off containers.
The county already owns more than 230 roll-off boxes, but there’s currently a waiting list of customers who want to lease the boxes, which are used for demolition debris, remodeling projects and other construction projects.
ELECTION COSTS. During a discussion of the county’s regular bills, the fee charged by the county’s election machine company, HARP, was discussed due to the bill being higher than anticipated.
Nelson County Clerk Jeanette Sidebottom said the reason their fee was high was due to the fact they original programmed all the voting machines for the normal election as had been expected to take place in May. When the pandemic changed the election process, HARP had to return and reprogram the machines to work with the modified election procedures.
In other business, Nelson Fiscal Court:
— accepted the annual budget of the Nelson County Public Library.
— approved the purchase of a third police cruiser that is on the lot at Conway Heaton. The county has already budgeted the purchase of two police cruisers in the current budget. Sheriff Ramon Pineiroa asked the court to also equip the new cruiser with the in-car computer system.
— Prewitt reported of the 100,000 masks the city and county purchased, 55,000 have been distributed. Prewitt also noted that the county has had 94 COVID-19 cases. At the court meeting three weeks ago, Prewitt noted he reported the county had 48 cases, indicated that the number of cases in the county has nearly doubled.
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