Fiscal Court

Boyle County native Ricky Smith was attending a Christian church service about five years ago when he had an unusual epiphany - he was an atheist. Smith, 46, says he is the county resident who recently met with Boyle County Judge-Executive Harold McKinney about the issue of Judeo-Christian prayers during public meetings. As a result, county magistrates voted to change the invocation to a “moment of silence.” A 1984 Boyle County High School graduate who has lived in the county his entire life, Smith had attended several fiscal court sessions because he hoped to run for political office.

Boyle County Fiscal Court will not directly provide additional funding for the sheriff's department, but on Tuesday unanimously authorized the sheriff to have more freedom spending money that the department generates through duties such as serving papers. In July, Sheriff Marty Elliott reported to the Fiscal Court that despite a dramatic increase in crime the county had the same number of road deputies that it had in 1985. Under the 2013 calendar year budget, the Fiscal Court will continue funding nine full-time sheriff's deputy positions.

STANFORD - Lincoln County Fiscal Court may consider next month taking on the cost of rerouting 911 calls for the Hustonville area if no other solution can be reached. Emergency calls for approximately 1,300 phone numbers with the Hustonville 346 exchange currently get routed to Casey County dispatch instead of Bluegrass 911, the dispatch center that serves Lincoln County. In order to reprogram the trunklines and send Lincoln County numbers to Bluegrass 911, the area phone provider, Windstream Communications, wants to charge an initial setup fee of more than $700 and monthly recurring charges that add up to almost $8,000 per year.

To take God out of any government meetings. How absurd!  And people ask why God allows disasters. You take prayers out of schools, bad things happen. You tell our leaders they can't have prayer at meetings, nothing good is accomplished. Seems now is the time to lift your head to God and ask his forgiveness for your actions. You need to pray for the souls trying to close God out of everything, when he could help us in these time of needs. I'm not from your county, but it still affects me the same.

STANFORD - Members of Lincoln County Fiscal Court took issue Tuesday with plans from the sheriff and county clerk to send their employees home with a little extra cash in their pockets. Magistrates voted against a budget that would have allowed a one-time bonus for County Clerk Sonny Spoonamore's employees, while Judge-Executive Jim Adams expressed strong disapproval of Sheriff Curt Folger's move to give his deputies 4-percent raises. Both situations stemmed from the fact that while the sheriff and county clerk's offices are responsible for their own budgets, fiscal court can still regulate salary caps, which limit how much each office can allocate for paying employees.

Boyle County Fiscal Court is changing its long-standing policy of prayer during meetings to a “moment of silence. " An area resident who recently attended a Fiscal Court session was offended by what he believed was a Judeo-Christian prayer and threatened to sue the county if officials did not stop the practice, Boyle Judge-Executive Harold McKinney said during Tuesday's meeting. The six magistrates present, Boyle Jailer Barry Harmon and audience members all expressed concern about the issue of removing prayer from the meetings.

STANFORD - Construction may still be years away, but Lincoln and Garrard counties are planning ahead for the widening of U.S. 27 from north Garrard County to Stanford. Lincoln County Fiscal Court approved Tuesday a memorandum of agreement with Garrard County and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet setting up a plan for the new U.S. 27 to dissect Logan-Hubble Park on the Lincoln/Garrard county line. The proposed route will travel across about 23 acres of what is now an "underutilized" part of the 329-acre park, according to the memorandum.

 STANFORD - Lincoln County Fiscal Court is more than halfway through using a state grant to replace wood-topped bridges along rural secondary roads. Magistrates approved a $28,098 payment to Kevin Hopkins Concrete on Tuesday for the completion of two bridges on Fishing Creek Road and Ephesus School Road in southern Lincoln County. Three other bridges on Vic Greer, Sims Branch and Patrick roads were upgraded earlier in the year by Hopkins for $22,895, Judge-Executive Jim Adams said.

The Jessamine County Fiscal Court is aligning with the detention center in a concentrated effort to expand the massively overcrowded jail. The Jessamine County Detention Center (JCDC) has 118 beds but at times has housed as many as 170 inmates, forcing them to sleep on mats on the floors -  if there are enough mats. When there is not room, the county has had to pay to transport inmates to other counties and return them for court dates. Jailer Jon Sallee has said that there is a move to expand the jail but would not comment further this week.