KYTC gives Pulaski Fiscal Court rural road fund update
Jun. 20—Pulaski may be seeing some improvements to several secondary roads, thanks to incoming funds from the state.
At last week's Fiscal Court meeting, Pulaski officials heard from Chris Henderlight, a project engineer from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's District 8 Office.
He informed the court that Pulaski would be allotted $2,645,000 in the upcoming fiscal year through the Rural Secondary Road Program.
Henderlight said that Pulaski has a total of 220.47 miles of secondary roads, "of which, routine maintenance costs are set at $1.1 million. This leaves 1.45 million of which $476,302 is for the Pulaski County Flex Fund."
That flex fund money can be used towards county or state secondary road improvements at the discretion of the Fiscal Court, he said.
"I am recommending the following projects: Resurface Ky. 235, beginning at Parker Road, extending north to McGlothin Road; resurface Ky. 328, beginning at the Lincoln/Pulaski County line, extending east to Ky. 865; and resurface Ky. 761, beginning 700 feet north of Tarter Cemetery Road, and extending north to Ky. 235."
He said that final decisions on road projects would be made in Frankfort, and said that if county officials had any other recommendations, they should submit them to his office.
Magistrates voted to accept the recommendations provided by Henderlight.
Also during last week's meeting, local Election Coordinator Mark Vaught presented the bill list for the cost of running the May primary election, which stirred up a discussion on how much the county is spending to conduct elections.
After magistrates approved paying the bills presented by Vaught, County Judge-Executive Marshall Todd pointed out that the primary election cost the county a little over $50,000. He added that there were 86 poll workers for that election.
He asked Vaught if the county was saving money by having the consolidated polling locations, saying, "It seems like we've still got a lot of workers, and it's still costing the county a lot of money."
Vaught clarified that the salaries for poll workers were only $40,000, which is $2,000 cheaper than it was in the past.
Of the rest of the money, $3,600 went to paying the voting commissioner and $6,600 of it went towards security.
Todd then asked if security at polling places was mandated by the state, to which Vaught replied that it isn't, only suggested by the state board of elections.
"Is it necessary?" Todd asked.
"You all said it was," Vaught said, adding that Pulaski County Clerk Tim Price got security payments approved for the last two elections.
"I'm looking for ways to save money without endangering the public," Todd explained, "It seems like if we have control of the voting precincts ... I don't know if we need a 12-hour security there. Maybe we do."
Todd then asked how many people had voted during early-voting hours compared to voting on election day. Vaught said it was roughly 25% — out of the primary's 6,423 votes cast, around 1,700 people voted early.
Todd noted that the early voting days were running up the cost of the election, "But maybe it's a good thing. I don't want to crowd everybody in on one day. But it does prolong the pay period."
One item that was on the agenda for last week's meeting ultimately wasn't discussed by magistrates — the second reading of an ordinance that would prohibit medical cannabis dispensaries from operating within the county.
Magistrates held the first reading at the court's May meeting, but Todd said the second reading would have to be delayed.
"We had some other stuff come up that we failed to proceed with," Todd said.
While the county can vote to disallow medical marijuana sales, that vote would pave the way for incorporated cities to create laws allowing dispensaries to operate within their limits. Both the City of Somerset and the City of Burnside have marked up ordinances that would dictate zoning rules concerning medical marijuana shops and growing operations within their limits.
Carla Slavey can be reached at cslavey@somerset-kentucky.com
