In addition, fiscal court approved hiring seven temporary road department workers with money from the federal Workforce Investment Board. Wilson said this money originated from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Meanwhile, Michelle Elison, a partnership specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau, spoke to fiscal court to stress the importance of all citizens being counted in the national census in 2010.
Elison, whose assignment includes 13 counties and about 25 cities, said about 30 percent of U.S. citizens choose not to participate in the census. This can cost their communities money when $300 billion in federal money is divided each year on the basis of population and goes to such projects as road, hospitals, schools, community centers and senior citizens centers.
In 2010, all households will asked to complete the 10-question short form, the first time this will have happened since 1790, she said. Previously, every sixth household was given the long form to produce additional information about the nation's population. But now information is collected in the American Community Survey, conducted in each of the nine years between censuses.
In other business, fiscal court:
* heard from Jay Hettmansperger, the new Garrard County Extension Agent, who previously spent two years in a similar post in Casey County and 20 years in the retail fertilizer business in Kentucky and Indiana.
* heard from Karla Sefcak urged support for Earth Day Festival (10 a.m. to 5 p.m., April 25 at the Garrard County Fairgrounds on U.S. 27 North). She also beat the drum for the 3rd Annual Garrard County anti-Litter/Beautification Campaign, which will conclude with "The Party on the Square" from 7 to 10 p.m. on June 19 ."A county that is clean is one people want to visit and come back and maybe live here," Sefcak said. For more information, go to: www.beautifygarrardcounty.blogspot.com; send e-mail to beautifygarrardcounty@yahoo.com; or call (859) 792-6704.
