The Warren County Fiscal Court ensured that a local men’s recovery center will get $300,000 in federal funding and discussed how to go forward with setting policies for the county’s health insurance at its Friday meeting. 

Fiscal court approved a measure allowing Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon to sign a community development block grant agreement that will provide $300,000 to the Men’s Addiction Recovery Campus for operational expenses.   

Buchanon said there’s a need for an addiction recovery center in the area.

“To pretend that addiction doesn’t exist is far worse than treating it,” he said.

The county was not involved with planning or funding the 107-bed facility, which opened in June, Buchanon said. Rather, the county served as a financial conduit for Recovery Kentucky to apply for the grant with the Department of Local Government, he said.    

Groups wishing to apply for a community development block grant must use government entities as fiscal agents, Buchanon said. 

Though the center is located in Bowling Green, the city was ineligible as a fiscal agent because it is an entitlement area, meaning the city gets a certain amount of grant funding from DLG each year and can’t apply for more. 

In 2013, Barren River Area Safe Space, a shelter for victims of domestic violence, challenged the recovery center, which had recently been proposed, based on safety concerns. 

The BRASS shelter is about 2,000 feet from the men’s campus, which has 60 slots for men referred there by the state’s court system, the Daily News reported in June. 

While BRASS was never opposed to the idea of the center, the group objected to the center being so close to its shelter. 

Tori Henninger, director of BRASS, said that since the recovery center opened, there have been no issues.  

“We all had our concerns of course but we seem to be having a smooth transition,” she said. 

Henninger and Chris Thomas, program director with the men’s campus, both agreed to keep an open mind and communicate with each other “to ensure we maintained an environment of healing,” she said.  

After a bit of discussion, fiscal court also voted to approve an agreement with Houchens Insurance Group to service health insurance for Warren County and for Peel and Holland, working under the Kentucky Association of Counties, to provide wellness, advisory services and analytics. 

The issue of insurance for county employees was discussed heavily at the previous fiscal court meeting as well, with Warren County Jailer Jackie Strode arguing for a $100 increase to the existing $450 employer contribution instead of the $50 increase that was ultimately decided on.  

Strode brought the issue up again at Friday’s meeting, saying that providing better benefits is crucial for maintaining employees.

Mark Young, magistrate for the Fifth District, was the only magistrate to vote against the measure.  

Young said that he would rather use KACO as the insurance provider. KACO, because it insures a larger pool of county employees throughout the state than Houchens does, would result in a lower rate for Warren County, he said. 

“We have a tremendous amount of turnover as far as employees and that’s one of the ways we could keep employees is better benefits,” he said. 

Buchanon said the rates would have been the same whether KACO or Houchens serviced health insurance and the court voted the way it did because most of the magistrates wanted to go with Houchens, a local company.

“With all things equal, they really wanted to stay with an agency they were close to and had a good relationship with,” he said. 

In another matter, the court approved a second and final reading of an ordinance that calls for issuing general obligation bonds at or below $3 million and/or entering into a general obligation lease with a principal amount of $3 million or less, with the proceeds going toward developing a commercial kitchen in the former Taylor Chapel AME Church downtown and financial reimbursement for five new firetrucks purchased for a combined $1,360,000 last year.

Near the end of the meeting, Warren County Sheriff Jerry “Peanuts” Gaines presented the results of this year’s tax collection. According to a document he handed out, the county collected $66,999,420.93 in revenue. 

This is 83.46 percent of what the county is expected to collect, the document said.  

By far the largest disbursement from the tax revenue, more than $26 million, will go to Warren County Public Schools. 

In another matter, fiscal court also approved a measure, with First District Magistrate Doug Gorman abstaining, to pay $2,342 to Illuminanz Lighting for additional lighting fixtures for the temporary ice rink being built downtown. 

Buchanon said this will not delay the opening of the rink, scheduled for Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving. 

— Follow reporter Jackson French on Twitter at twitter.com/Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.