County votes to place medical marijuana question on November election ballot

By JIM BROOKS & ELIJAH BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, July 2, 2024 — Nelson Fiscal Court approved a resolution that will allow county residents to vote on the question of allowing medical marijuana businesses to operate in Nelson County.

The resolution will place the following question on the November ballot:

“Are you in favor of the sale of medical cannabis at a licensed dispensary and the operation of other cannabis businesses in Nelson County?”

The City of Bardstown plans to consider a similar resolution at its next city council meeting next Tuesday evening.

DRIVERS LICENSING. The new regional drivers license center is now located at the county owned career center building on West Stephen Foster Avenue.

Nelson Circuit Court Clerk Diane Thompson told the court that the office equipment and staff are in place, working to make sure all the equipment is working properly.

The office is not officially open for business yet, Thompson told the court. They hoped to open by July 8, 2024, but that may be delayed. There’s a great deal of interest in when the office will be open, she said.

“My phone is ringing off the hook, so there’s a need for their services,” she said

The state transportation cabinet will issue a press release when the Bardstown license office is ready to open, she said.

Thompson thanked state Sen. Jimmy Higdon, state Rep. Candy Massaroni and all the other parties locally who lobbied and worked to bring a regional license office to Nelson County.

“In my mind its a miracle that we have a regionals office here,” she said. ‘It took a lot of hard work in Frankfort where it had to happen.”

RURAL SECONDARY ROAD FUNDS. Representatives from the Kentucky Department of Transportation were on hand at the meeting to provide details on the state’s rural secondary road program funds allotted to Nelson County.

The county has 141 miles of rural secondary roads, and the county will receive $716,600 for maintenance.

Additional money will go to two additional projects. The first is to pave 5.2 miles of KY 457 from KY 84 to KY 52. Ths second project is repaving 3.35 miles of KY 2739 from the Cox’s Creek bridge to KY 523.

NEW PASTOR INTRODUCTION. The Rev. Randy Hubbard, the new pastor of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral, spoke briefly to the court at the start of the meeting.

Hubbard said he is a native of Meade County and has spent most of his ministry in the Louisville area. In 1981, he was a seminarian who spent the summer at St. Joseph in Bardstown. He was ordained in 1990.

GARBAGE COLLECTION. Due to the July 4th holiday, garbage collection will be delayed one day. Thursday’s garbage routes will be run on Friday, and Friday’s routes will be picked up on Saturday.

In other business, fiscal court:

• accepted a $19,500 grant for the county’s EMA to purchase some quad band radios that will operate on the 800 MHz band. The grant is a 50/50 match.
  
  
• approved a motion to solicit bids for new vehicles and radio equipment defined in the 2024-25 budget.
  
  
• declare an assortment of outdated police vehicle equipment as surplus property.
  
  
• approved to declare as surplus and sell the county-owned structure collapse training equipment and the trailer used to store and move it. According to Deputy Judge-Executive Brad Metcalf, the equipment will be offered to state-level training teams that can make use of it.
  
  
• approved the purchase of a used 2022 Freightliner garbage truck. One of the county’s truck had an engine failure, and the used truck will be available immediately. The county had budgeted a new truck, but a new truck cannot be delivered for another 10 to 12 months.
  
  
• Nelson County Coroner Danielle Chladek reported the county has had eight suicides so far this year. The county had a total of nine last year.
  
  
• approved second and final reading on the 911 ordinance and the solid waste ordinance. Magistrate Keith Metcalfe cast a “no” vote on the 911 ordinance.
  

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