Warren County’s growth has led to changes in how its residents are represented on the six-member Warren Fiscal Court.

The six magistrates, meeting Thursday in the Bowling Green City Commission chambers while renovations continue at the county courthouse, voted unanimously to accept an update of the magisterial districts’ geographic boundaries that was presented by the three-person commission appointed in May.

That commission, made up of Bob Young, Mallye Schultz and Todd Davis, came up with a plan that puts the six districts at nearly equal size after some had grown disproportionately larger in recent years.

“The most important thing for us was to make sure that every citizen of Warren County was represented well,” said Young, who presented the final plan Thursday. “We focused on making sure each district was of equal size.”

Young pointed out in his presentation that the variance among the districts will now be less than 1%, a far cry from boundaries that had the second district that represents more of an inner-city area fully 25% lower than the sixth district that takes in much of the fast-growing southern end of the county.

“When we started, I don’t know that we anticipated getting as close (in the size of districts) as we did,” Young said. “It just worked out that way.”

The changes will take effect after the November election and won’t affect any magisterial races until the 2026 election. By making some districts (the sixth in particular) geographically smaller and enlarging others, the plan puts the population of each district at or near 22,300.

For the sixth district, represented by Ron Cummings, that means going from a population of 25,474 before reapportionment to 22,392 now.

In contrast, the second district represented by Tom Lawrence grows from 20,293 to 22,402.

Changes aren’t as dramatic in the other four districts. Their populations, after the reapportionment:

– First district, 22,894

– Third district, 22,781

– Fourth district, 21,785

– Fifth district, 22,300

In addition to evening out the numbers, County Judge-Executive Doug Gorman said the districts will be realigned to make it easier for residents to determine which magistrate represents them.

“What I like is that all the districts now have natural boundaries,” Gorman said. “You’ll easily be able to go by rivers and roads to know who your magistrate is.”

Young said he and the other members of the reapportionment commission “tried to use boundaries and roads that make sense. We tried to avoid breaking up neighborhoods.”

Now that they have been approved, the realigned magisterial districts will soon be posted to the county government’s website.

In another item related to the county’s growth, the magistrates on Thursday approved the request of County Public Works Director Josh Moore to create the new position of county engineer at a salary range of $80,000 to $90,000 per year.

According to the document requesting creation of the new position, the county engineer will “develop and manage capital improvement projects, provide plan review and inspection of construction of certain public infrastructure.”

“Long-term, the best thing is for the county to have an engineer on staff,” Moore said. “It will allow us to do things in-house without farming them out to third parties.”

Gorman agreed, saying that having an engineer on staff “will bring a lot more efficiency to the public works department.”

The magistrates also approved a five-year agreement with Brightly Software in the amount of $29,017 annually for work order operations software to be used by the stormwater, road and engineering departments.

Two approvals made at Thursday’s meeting should enhance security at two county parks.

County Parks and Recreation Director Chris Kummer was approved to advertise for bids to build a boundary fence at the south side of Buchanon Park.

According to the request submitted by Kummer, the 3,863-foot-long fence will “provide an after-hours security barrier between the park and a new residential development.”

Kummer was also approved to bid for a new boundary fence at Basil Griffin Park.

In his request to the magistrates, Kummer said the 1,388-foot fence “will provide a security barrier between the park and an existing residential development.

“The current fence is falling apart (due to age) and multiple complaints have been made by adjacent residents of intrusions by various park users.”

The next scheduled fiscal court meeting is on July 27, and Gorman said he hopes the renovations to the fiscal court meeting room will be complete by then.