Barren fiscal court approves budget

Published 8:00 am Wednesday, June 19, 2019

The Barren County Fiscal Court has a new budget for the upcoming fiscal year, as well as plans to establish a new speed limit on a local road.

The new budget calls for roughly $15.596 million in spending for the fiscal year beginning July 1, which is about $1 million more than the current fiscal year’s $14.4 million budget.

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Barren County Treasurer Denise Riddle said increased contributions to the state’s ailing pension system make up about 1.3 percent of the budget approved at Tuesday’s meeting.

While Riddle said the county did not need to increase taxes or make significant sacrifices to cover its state-mandated pension contributions, the situation could become more difficult if the amount that counties are expected to pay into the pension system grows at 12 percent a year, the maximum rate allowed.

In another matter, fiscal court approved on first reading a measure to establish a speed limit of 35 mph on Old Scottsville Road Loop 1. Barren County Judge-Executive Micheal Hale said landowners along the road have been asking for a speed limit.

“There’s no speed limit at all on the road, and when you have a rural secondary road, it’s automatically 55 miles an hour if it’s not posted,” he said.

At the meeting, Hale had a petition with the signatures of 29 people living nearby, at least 75 percent of whom are landowners with property bordering the road. Hale said he has not heard complaints that Old Scottsville Road Loop 1 is a particularly dangerous or traffic-prone road.

Fiscal court also approved the purchase of radio headsets that will allow the Barren County Sheriff’s Office’s deputies to communicate more effectively. The set includes 10 headsets for $7,640.50 and will be paid with funds from the sheriff’s budget.

Barren County Sheriff Kent Keen said the headsets are noise-cancelling and would enable emergency responders to speak to each other without shouting, adding that chatter on the system will not appear on police scanners.

Hale believes the system could correct safety issues created by some communication scenarios.

“Our folks, they basically do an approach to a house to remove people, and obviously you have to separate your people front and back and really the only way they have to communicate is to raise their voice,” he said. “Well, you may hear them and you may not hear them. So, to me, this created a safety issue.”

Fiscal court later went into closed session to discuss proposed or pending litigation. When open session resumed, no action was taken.