Joe P. Asher

Staff Writer

During a special called meeting of the Harlan Fiscal Court on Wednesday, a bid was accepted for installation of a sprinkler system at the Appalachian ChalleNGe Academy.

Simplex Grinnell, a subsidiary of Tyco International, was awarded the contract to install a sprinkler system for a price of $45,260.

According to Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop, this price is for installing sprinkler equipment in state required areas only.

“We’re doing the three dorms and the elevator,” explained Grieshop. “That’s what the state said because they have 24-hour sentinels in the building — three individuals 24-hours a day. So, the dorms would have the sprinkler system, and the elevator, for that price.”

Before voting on the matter, magistrate David Kennedy questioned the court about the money involved.

“Joe where’s the money coming from to pay for this?” inquired Kennedy.

“Coal Severance,” responded Grieshop.

According to Grieshop, the money will come from the original coal severance money that was earmarked for the project. The court is waiting to hear about an additional $200,000 of multi-county severance money that was also requested.

“It’s my recommendation that we accept this, so we can do those three dorms and the elevator,” said Grieshop.

Magistrate Jonathan Pope made the motion to accept the bid, and the motion passed with no opposition.

Simplex Grinnell was the only bidder for the project.

Much of the discussion centered around ways to save money in the event that there is less income from coal severance money in the future.

Kennedy pointed out the practice of sending trucks and trailers out to residents and business to use to collect garbage is one area where money can potentially be saved.

“I don’t know anywhere (else) where you can call your magistrate up, they’ll bring you a truck, they’ll bring you a trailer, and they’ll park it in your driveway and come back the next day and haul it for free,” stated Kennedy.

In an interview after the meeting, Kennedy clarified his position concerning such trash collection.

“The county’s got five trailers, that are little dumpsters on wheels that we haul around through the county to drop off at people’s houses and businesses and so forth to do cleanups, and the cost of that is just astronomical in what it’s costing the county,” explained Kennedy. “Last year it cost the county including manpower, fuel costs, dumping fees — the entire thing was close to $600,000. With the budget crisis going on everywhere, including Harlan County, we may need to look at charging a recovery fee on dropping those things off,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy does have a plan that would do away with the trailers.

“I would like to replace those trailers that we haul around and put in clusters of dumpsters throughout the county,” Kennedy said.

He explained that a cluster of dumpsters in every district of the county would help. It could be publicized to where the people in those districts would have places to bring their things to dump.

“That way it would save the county a lot of money,” Kennedy said.

The court was presented with a rebate check from Kentucky Association of Counties in the amount of $14,182.91.

According to Grieshop, KACo also sent a letter along with the check stating Harlan County had received, so far, more then $52,000 in dividend payments.

In other fiscal action:

*A motion was made and passed to advertise for bids to install a ram hydraulic pump at Lynch.

*A motion was made and passed to apply for a $10,000 flexi-grant for an Aquaculture Learning Center.

Reach Joe P. Asher at 606-573-5410 or jasher@heartlandpublications.com