By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Jeremy Rayburn of Olive Hill Tourism presented Olive Hill City Council with an update during their October meeting last Tuesday. Rayburn told the council that tourism had paid $2,000 for Christmas on The Hill Festival of Trees for advertising and promotion, and also $600 for the year to the Police Department to help clean the facilities. Rayburn reported that tourism had also spent approximately $33,000 toward the playground near the park, with $28,700 of that amount for the playset. Rayburn told the council that the merry-go-round cost came in at $10,000 but said that purchase would require a vote from the tourism commission.
Rayburn said tourism also gave back to the city for the replacement of four fiberglass light poles with steel poles. The cost for the poles, Rayburn said, was $13,388, and once those were installed, he said tourism would vote to replace more poles. Tourism also spent $10,000 on additional Christmas lights. Rayburn said that Main Street had already been started with Christmas lights, and the plan was to work on the Depot area this year. Tourism also paid Megan Smedley $1,500 for fifteen press releases.
Members of the code enforcement board were present at the council meeting and requested updated ordinances to clarify code enforcement’s position. City attorney Derrik Willis told the board members that there were ordinances from 2017 and 2021 that would need to be supplemented for clarification.
In other business, the city conducted the second reading of the property tax ordinance, ordinance 2026-06. Residents of the city can expect property taxes in Olive Hill to remain the same as last year, which is .2260 per $100 of property value. The city also had the second reading of sanitation ordinance 2026-02 to determine rates of garbage pickup for residents and businesses within the city. It also establishes the need for uniform trash receptacles.
The sanitation ordinance will establish a new cost model for both residents and businesses. Residential customers inside the city limits will pay $20 per month, and residents outside the city limits will be paying $23 per month. Commercial customers without dumpsters will pay a flat rate inside city limits of $31 and a flat rate of $36 outside of the city limits.
Customers with dumpsters will be paying, for two cubic yards, inside city limits $60, while those with the same size dumpster outside of the city will be paying $66 per month. Customers with four cubic yard dumpsters inside the city limits will be paying $100 and outside of city limits will be paying $112. Customers with six cubic yard dumpsters inside the city limits will be paying $120 and those outside the city limits will be paying $134. Customers with eight cubic yard dumpsters inside the city limits will be paying $150 and outside city limits will be paying $165. Institutional customers will be paying $625 per month.
Additionally, the ordinance states that residential customers will be allowed a maximum of six, thirteen-gallon bags picked up per week. For residential customers, the fees will cover the use of one city provided trash receptacle. Customers will be able to use their own trash receptacles if those receptacles are suitable for pick-up and their use is not burdensome on city sanitation workers.
The city is not responsible for damage to customer owned receptacles, and incompatible receptacles may not be picked up. All lids for receptacles must be able to be closed to prevent the container from filling with water and rubbish spilling outside the receptacles. City sanitation workers will not be responsible for collecting any trash not inside of the receptacle in use. Additional trash receptacles may be requested from the city at a cost of $12 per month. The complete ordinance can be requested from the city.
The city also held the first reading of an ordinance to amend the tourism tax (2026-05). The ordinance only affects the tourism tax and does not affect other city taxes. The council and members of the tourism board discussed points but only minor changes to the new ordinance, and the second reading will be held at a subsequent meeting.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
