Magistrates asked to remove Library Board members

Tuesday, Teresa Robbins, speaking on behalf of a group of library patrons, asked the Lincoln County Fiscal Court to fire the five members of the Library Board citing the court’s power under Kentucky law to do so in cases of inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance or conflict of interest. County Attorney Daryl Day advised the court not to immediately vote on the issue saying that members of the board, like all citizens, have a right to due process which would include a public hearing which could be a lengthy process. Robbins rejoined, “Twenty days; it is not a lengthy process.”
Day told Robbins that she needed to produce witnesses to corroborate her accusations and Robbins offered to produce letters documenting patron complaints, but Day said her backers needed to come to court. “The board members have the right to look their accusers in the eye,” Day said.
When Robbins agreed to produce witnesses, Day told her the Fiscal Court needed facts. “It takes facts; you just can’t parade ten people through here to give their opinions, those are just opinions,” Day said.
Judge Adams stepped in at this point, saying, “I want to give my two cents. I was told in the case of Kay Peppard (a former librarian) that she resigned and in the case of Miss Mingo, she resigned for health reasons and those are facts. Until we have other facts I don’t know what we can do.”
Magistrate David Faulkner told Robbins, “I’m sympathetic, but we’ve heard from no one who has said, ‘I was wronged.’ We just can’t say, ‘Everyone is gone!’”
Magistrate Dexter Todd told Robbins that she had his support if the board members would resign, but “I don’t want to go in there and open a can of worms.”
Martha Martin, the only Library Board member present, rose and told Robbins, “You have said that we have forced people to resign. That’s a lie!”
Robbins promised to produce witnesses for her case at the next meeting.
In other business, no action was taken on the proposed synthetic drug ordinance because there was some confusion over its publication in the newspaper as required by law. The ordinance is published in this week’s Interior Journal.
Chris Thomason, the Garrard-Lincoln Solid Waste Coordinator gave his annual report saying the two counties managed to recycle 955 tons of solid waste last year that would have gone in the landfill and generated $126,000 in income for the county. He also reported that his operation had received grants to clean up five illegal dumps and one to use crumb rubber, produced from 5,100 recycled tires, to pad the children’s play areas in Logan-Hubble Park.
Thomason did warn magistrates that he would have to change his operation slightly next year due to a decline in the number of prisoners able to work outside of jail. He cited changes to Kentucky law that has reduced the number of Class D prisoners in the Lincoln Jail.
Magistrates accepted County Road Supervisor Bo Gander’s report comparing county mowing of roadside compared to a proposal by Naturchem for roadside spraying. The court voted to continue to use county labor to mow roadsides because it was cheaper.
Steve Hosner of WiMax Express received permission to erect a tower to extend broadband internet coverage to Kings Mountain. Hosner said the tower would be less than 120-feet tall and could be used for county emergency radio antennas.