A light to read by

The Olive Hill City Council held a special meeting on October 23, rescheduling their regular meeting for the month. The first item on the agenda was to hear from the Carter County Library. Chair of the Carter County Public Library Board, Mindy Woods-Click, addressed the council concerning library funding. Click and library director Diane Wingert provided the council with a list of events the library had recently sponsored in the area.

“When we look into our statistics and our circulation numbers, they have increased dramatically over the time that Diane has been in charge,” Click told the council. “And we are very fortunate to have her with us.”

Click also discussed the interlocal cooperative agreement between the library and local governments for the operation of the library.

“When our library was formed, it was a cooperative agreement with the fiscal court, the City of Olive Hill, and the City of Grayson,” Click explained.

The agreement basically amounts to each of the three entities contributing money for the continued operation of the Carter County Public Library. Occasionally the interlocal agreement, she told the council, needs to be updated to keep it in accordance with the law.

The agreement Click presented to the council was essentially a two year agreement or contract, and one of the stipulations of the contract is how much each of the three entities agrees to contribute.

“The amount has been $27,000,” Click told the council. “So, we have included that amount on the agreement.”

But that doesn’t freeze the amount local governments can provide for library operations or programming.

“It states not less than $27,000,” she said. “So, any time you feel like giving a raise to the library, that would be perfectly legal.”

Part of the agreement gives the Olive Hill City Council the right to appoint two of the five members who serve on the Carter County Public Library Board, Click reminded the council. Olive Hill is allowed two appointments, the City of Grayson is allowed two appointments, and the Fiscal Court is allowed one appointment, Click said.

Both of the board members previously appointed by the Olive Hill Council have resigned, Click told the council. To rectify the shortage, Click proposed that the balance of Shalene Green’s term be filled by Kristen Bledsoe until the end of the term in June of 2027. Nellie Middleton also resigned before the end of her term, and Click proposed that the balance of her term be filled by Dovey Stevens. The council voted to approve those suggested members to fill the board vacancies. Once the official copy of the agreement is signed by the mayor, it will be passed to the Carter County Fiscal Court and the Grayson City Council.

In other business, the council held and approved the second reading of an ordinance for the City of Olive Hill to enter into a lease agreement with the Commercial Bank of Grayson for a principal amount of $25,000. The lease agreement is to finance the cost of the acquisition of a used vehicle for city use on utilities.

The council also received an update on grant projects from city grant writer Jennifer Meade. The brownfield grant process is ongoing, Meade told the council, but the government has yet to indicate it was open for the submission of those proposals. There were five proposals in the pipeline, so to speak, before the current federal government shutdown, she said. Those proposals would not be considered until after the government shutdown ends.

The current, and proposed, cost per kilowatt hour of electricity was discussed by the council. The cost per kilowatt hour a customer pays is dependent upon a number of factors, but most directly by the provider in question. Electricity cost is also affected by the power cost adjustment (PCA), a line item that consumers will see on their monthly bill. Theoretically, the PCA adjusts for both when the cost of generating power is less for the provider (and generates a refund) and an increase to the consumers’ bill when the cost of providing electricity increases for the provider.

The City of Olive Hill recently changed its own provider from American Electric Power (AEP) to Kentucky Municipal Energy Agency (KYMEA), a joint public agency. The City of Olive Hill discussed the need for an assessment, and a work session to determine what factors including kilowatt per hour and PCA affect city consumers and how best to keep costs low while still meeting the support and maintenance needs of city residents.

Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com