By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Carter County Fiscal Court held its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday to discuss county business and hear concerns from county residents and other interested parties. Listed on the agenda was normal business such as hearing the sheriff’s quarterly report, other department reports, claims, transfers and dispensing the previous meeting’s minutes. New business included rescheduling the May meeting for May 20 and hearing from Renee Parsons of the Business Cultivation Foundation.
During open comments, local resident Jan Varney brought a problem before the fiscal court and asked for some guidance toward its resolution. Varney said that she lived on a dead-end street and one of her neighbors was allowing his children to cause an inordinate amount of mud to be brought onto the right of way by their four wheelers, making it difficult for her to upkeep her own vehicles and yard. Varney also said there was a large amount of litter on the property and provided the court with pictures as proof.
The Carter County Sheriff said that he or a deputy had responded to numerous complaints and had seen the pictures, but that upon arrival the adjacent property had been cleaned up. Without any provable criminal activity, the court informed Varney that her best course of action would be to file a civil suit. However, magistrates discussed putting a camera in the area to monitor the situation.
Parsons, who serves as Executive Director of the Business Cultivation Foundation, addressed the court on behalf of the Olive Hill Center for Arts and Heritage (OHCAH). Parsons said that her goal was to help the OHCAH repair a hole in their roof, and to this end her foundation was seeking grants or other possible financing.
“As I started looking at grant options, one of the things that came up was the opioid abatement money,” Parsons told the court.
The money Parsons referred to comes from the lawsuit against opioid producers, some of which has already been awarded to qualifying Kentucky counties and cities, and the balance of which went to the state level to be awarded from there. Parsons told the court that she believed given the work the Center for Arts and Heritage does to prevent and help in drug recovery, the project would qualify for those funds.
The opioid settlement money awarded to counties has in many cases been a point of concern and has simply gone unused because of a lack of clear and concise guidance on how the funds may be utilized. One appealing factor to such funds is that, unlike most taxpayer funded grants, there are no matching funds or reimbursement requirements when utilized as regulated. The serious downside to these funds is that should they be used on a project that fails to meet those qualifications, then the entities awarded the money would be required to pay back any of those funds which were used, with applicable interest.
Laurel Matula of ER Assist Disaster Funding Solutions also spoke to the fiscal court, addressing the recent weather event, and offered updates on certain projects. Matula said that although Carter County had far less damage than the surrounding counties of Boyd and Greenup, the county should still report any damage that occurred.
“Any and all damage that the county or city, or a nonprofit or church has, please report it. And if you don’t know how to report it, text or email us and we will help you report it,” Matula told the court.
She said that on a state level it was very uncertain whether a disaster would be declared.
“Even though Greenup might have suffered two million dollars in infrastructure damage (as an example),” she told the court, “On the state level there isn’t enough for a disaster declaration.”
Reporting all damage, even those with a relatively small dollar amount, helps in the statewide calculation, she said.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
