City commission to review budget amendments of $150,000 in additional spending

Nov. 24—CORBIN — The Corbin City Commission was presented budget amendments of about $150,000 in additional spending and one was approved during Monday's regular meeting as the need was immediate.

IT Director Josh Hunt explained the need of a new server for the city as one server was out of date and the hard drives were dying.

Hunt recommended the purchase of a server for $21,995, which he stated was a mid-level server. That recommendation was approved.

Amendments presented by City Manager Marlon Sams however were tabled as Corbin City Commissioner Allison Moore wanted to see a side by side view of what was in the budget and the amendments needed.

Sams presented new costs for code enforcement salary, annexation cost, city attorney retaining fee, legal fees and supplies, Downtown Corbin legal fees, fire department training, fire department, recycling equipment, and Engineer Street bridge Christmas lighting. In total it was about $150,000 in additional spending that needed approved.

He also said the property tax amount listed in the budget needed adjusted which should see an increase in revenue. It was listed as 1.4%, but should have been 1.6%.

"I do remember seeing some of these in the budget that we talked about," Moore said. "In the budget meeting, I know they were discussed and at least some of this funding should've been included already so I'd like to go back and look at it before we okay this additional spending."

"I'm sure you're frustrated because of the work that you and Seth [Reeves] did," Razmus said to Moore.

Razmus said that Sams, Moore, and city commissioner Seth Reeves, who was not present at Monday's meeting, should sit down to discuss the budget and the amendments can be reviewed at December's city commission meeting.

"I'm prepared to vote on the IT cost because that's something that we absolutely have to have," Moore said. "The others, I'm not prepared to vote on without seeing the side by side and figuring out why this happened, how it happened, and reaching a different solution."

An ordinance to expand the parties that pay transient room taxes and to make it be paid monthly instead of quarterly was also approved. This was a change made in the Kentucky legislature that will be in effect beginning in January 2023. The change on the parties was to include lodging in places provided through Airbnb and others of that nature.

The commission also discussed three certificates of deposit. It was decided that two would be placed at L&N Federal Credit Union for 13 months with an annual percentage rate of 2.82% and the annual percentage yield of 2.85%.

The third CD was going to be placed in Hometown Bank for 12 months at a 2.02% annual percentage yield based on an interest rate of 2% with a 90 day interest penalty that would be waived for one withdraw during the line of the CD. It was determined that the CD would need to be withdrawn at some point during 2023 for repairs to the city pool.

In total the three CDs were worth $362,000, so by splitting the three, it may change the rates provided by the banks. If the rate for the Hometown Bank CD was different than what was presented, then that money would instead be placed in the General Fund.

The commission also approved the renewal of a line of credit at Hometown Bank.

"I personally think that's awesome. I think it's a no-brainer to go ahead and keep that line of credit," Razmus said. "Hopefully we won't need it, but if we do, we'll have it."

In other business, the Corbin City Commission: — Approved the retirement of Glenn Taylor, a Corbin Police Department officer, effective Dec. 31. The commission said it would honor Taylor at the next city commission meeting in December. — Approved the appointment of Raenae Moore to the Housing Authority Board.

Moore is replacing Dell Sams who no longer wished to serve on the board.

Corbin City Commissioner Allison Moore made the motion to appoint Raenae Moore.

"I think this is an excellent pick given her extensive background working in housing previously," Moore said.