By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
After failing to gather a quorum for their regular August meeting, the City of Olive Hill held a special meeting on August 29 to handle the business of the city. First on the agenda was hearing from Bluegrass Engineering. The engineering firm submitted two proposals for the city to consider, related to designs for a sewer station and intake. After reviewing those proposals, the only bids the city received, council entertained a motion to make Bluegrass the city’s engineering firm.
Mayor Jerry Callihan told the council that even if other companies had submitted a bid for engineering, that he personally would have recommended Bluegrass.
“I have been doing this for a long time, and they don’t come any better,” Callihan told council. “Bluegrass was my engineering firm at Rattlesnake Ridge. And they brought Rattlesnake Ridge back to life.”
Callihan said that Rattlesnake Ridge had been going in “the wrong direction” for years, and Bluegrass Engineering turned that around and put it on the right track.
“They are a top-notch outfit,” he said.
Many of the city’s projects operate with grant money obtained through FIVCO, which requires the city to have an engineer and a clear plan. Also, there were deadlines that needed to be met on those grant agreements, and Callihan said they were not being met. He told council he believes Bluegrass Engineering will help them to both follow guidelines and meet deadlines going forward.
“This has to be engineered and approved by October 1, or we lose grant money that had been approved from 2021,” he explained, noting the urgency of making progress on the sewer project.
“I have tried to get Bluegrass for a long time, and now they are here,” Callihan told the council. “In fact, Bluegrass came and helped me with projects as a favor last year.”
Sewer lines and leak detection were just a couple of the things Callihan said Bluegrass had offered assistance with. After discussion, the council voted unanimously to hire Bluegrass Engineering, effective immediately.
Next the council heard from the Police Chief Bruce Palmer, who presented bids for new police cruisers, specifically 6-cylinder Durangos. The bid for each came in at just under $43,000 for 2023 models, Palmer told council.
“The reason I’m asking for cruisers is the Tahoes we have are falling apart. And the amount of money we are putting into them just to keep them together is ridiculous,” he said. “We are working on them at 32,000 miles and 67,000 miles.”
Palmer told council he felt that it was largely a waste of money to try to maintain the current fleet.
The police chief also presented council with the possibility of having the cruisers placed on a rotation schedule. This would mean that the city would be getting new cruisers every five to seven years, and the could rotate the best of the old cruisers into service for other departments in the city such as Code Enforcement. The cruisers with the most wear and tear would be traded in on the newer vehicles.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
