Latest news with #DaviessFiscalCourt
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
County creates public safety director role
Daviess Fiscal Court approved the creation of a public safety director position and promoted Daviess County Fire Chief Jeremy Smith to fill the role during its meeting Thursday night at the Daviess County Courthouse. Daviess Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen said he had for some time been looking to see if there was a way for the county to better provide and address public safety. 'Just over time I've looked at it, and from my perspective, this is an opportunity to try to maximize inter-agency communication and cooperation, to develop and update organizational emergency response protocols, to enhance communication with staff and all of our first-responder agencies that are in Fiscal Court, and just to ensure that Daviess County consistently has the highest quality resources, services for public safety.' Castlen said the position is not an overlap with the duties of the county's Emergency Management Agency. 'It's not in the same realm,' he said. 'EMA is primarily planning and reacting to an emergency, and I guess at some level, for lesser emergencies, the same would be true for fire departments and police. 'I think that Jeremy's role is going to be more of an oversight. It's connecting the two agencies, and a lot of bigger counties have a public safety director position. It's not unique to us.' Castlen said public safety is 'absolutely' among his highest priorities. 'I think that's the real reason that we have our government,' he said, 'is to be able to deal with those things that the private sector is really not designed to deal with.' Castlen said Smith's experience as fire chief, which he became in 2019, made him an excellent choice for the position. 'With Jeremy, with his depth of knowledge and his skill set, he's a good fit for it,' said Castlen, who anticipates there being multiple in-house candidates interested in the fire chief position. 'There is not an obvious pick; we've got three or four fire assistant chiefs. I would think all of them might have some level of interest unless they just decide, 'I don't want to be fire chief.' ' Smith will officially begin his new role Sunday. The annual salary for the position is $120,000, which County Treasurer Jordan Johnson said will be partially funded through attrition. In another personnel move, Fiscal Court approved reclassifying David Smith as parks director, a position he has held on an interim basis. Smith was previously the county's director of legislative services. 'David has been in that role for five or six months, and I think he's done a good job,' Castlen said. 'He and I have talked about whether or not he wanted to remain in that or whether or not it was something where he would switch back to his old position and we would put it out to the public to be parks director. 'But he indicated an interest in filling that role, and he absolutely has shown he can do the job.' Castlen said at this time he doesn't anticipate filling the director of legislative services position, since the position had evolved since he took office. 'He will assist as needed, but in his old job he was also over the landfill and the animal control, so David had some people reporting to him,' Castlen said. 'I made the decision that I have department heads report directly to me. 'But one of the things that David has a tremendous skill set on is research, a skill set that is very beneficial. I'll still call on him.'
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
County to resurface nearly 13 miles in 2025-26
Daviess Fiscal Court approved the 2025-26 roadway resurfacing list, which totals 12.861 miles of roads, during its meeting Thursday at the Daviess County Courthouse. Dirk Dooper, county engineer, said his staff didn't find 'any major shocks' related to damage from weather, but damage caused by inclement weather can take time to develop. 'Even with the major flood we had, we didn't have anything that went too awful bad,' he said. 'We did have two hard snows this winter, so we'll see how it shapes up over the summer. We can probably see the issues a year from now, where it could show up down the road, but it takes a while.' Dooper said a short list of roads that show signs of needing attention is built throughout the year, then its whittled down to the resurfacing list. 'Me and my staff, I've got an inspector and a road foreman and a road supervisor, and essentially the four of us go out, we drive the streets, we've got the experience, so we go out and look at the worst streets in terms of deterioration, potholes, you name it, and then we kind of compare it. That's how we do our initial selection.' Dooper said having the short list allows the department to keep track of which roads are trending toward needing attention. 'We'll put a road on the list, and it may not make this year, but we'll see how it does another winter and then may add it on, so we keep an eye on it,' he said. 'Then when it gets worse from that, it comes to our (resurfacing) list.' The road selection process also factors in how many county roads are in each district. That percentage is used as a guide for how many roads to address in each district. For example, the East District has 46% of all county roads, and 51% of the resurfacing list are roads in that district. Similarly, the Central District has 20% of the county roads and totals 19% of the resurface list. The West District has 34% of the county's roads and makes up 30% of the resurfacing list. The county has budgeted $1 million for the resurfacing, and the county will also receive flex funds from the state, but that amount hasn't yet been released. Dooper said costs have remained steady in recent years. 'It was bad several years ago when the price of oil went up, back in 2022, but that hasn't been affected recently, so we haven't seen a big price increase with that,' he said. 'It's been kind of steady with asphalt the last couple of years.' Ten roads and one alley are slated to be resurfaced in the East District, with Scythia Road between Free Silver Road and Kentucky 1389 and Cedar Hills Subdivision the only areas slated for resurfacing of more than a mile. The longest stretch of road on the list at nearly 3 miles is the only project in the Central District, with Masonville Habit Road to be resurfaced between U.S. 231 and Millers Mill Road. The West District has two projects of more than 1 mile: Old Lyddane Bridge Road between Kentucky 279 and Haycraft Road and W. 5th Street Road between Lyddane Bridge Road and Worthington Road. Dooper said the work will be ongoing through the fall as long as the weather permits.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Disaster recovery center opens in Daviess County
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has opened a Disaster Recover Center in Daviess County, to assist people affected by the recent severe weather. The recovery center is at the Stanley Volunteer Fire Department, 159 Kentucky 1554. Business hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. A FEMA press release says the office can provide in-person support for people who suffered damage and loss from the severe weather that caused flooding and storms across the county. A representative will be on hand to provide information on federal, state and community assistance, the release says. Assistance will also be provided in applying for aid. The deadline to apply for assistance is June 25. A press release from Daviess Fiscal Court says people seeking FEMA assistance will need to provide: an address or zip code; insurance information, if available; a Social Security number; a phone number, current mailing address and an email address; the condition of the damaged property, if known; annual household income; and account information (if you prefer to receive assistance through direct deposit). People can also apply for assistance on the web through, or by downloading the FEMA app. People can also call for assistance at 800-621-3362.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
City opposes state bill to collect local occupational taxes
Owensboro City Commissioners approved a resolution Tuesday, voicing their opposition to a bill filed in Frankfort that would have the state collect city and county occupational taxes. Occupational taxes are local taxes collected by the entity that imposes them. Both the city and county have occupational taxes. In fiscal year 2023-24, the city collected $23.644 million in occupational taxes and $6.399 million in net profit license fees. Daviess Fiscal Court collected $6.194 million in occupational taxes and $3.354 million in net profit license fees. The bill, House Bill 254, was filed Tuesday by Rep. Jared Bauman, a Louisville Republican. The bill wasn't available online Tuesday afternoon, but a press release from the House GOP leadership office says the bill 'would establish a working group to assist the State Treasurer's office in the modernization of occupational tax collections.' The press release says the bill would create 'a unified online portal for businesses to streamline the payment of local payroll and net profit taxes across all jurisdictions.' The bill would make it simpler for businesses to pay occupational and net profit taxes, according to the press release. The city's resolution says occupational tax collection 'is best accomplished at the local level by professionals who have local experience and local knowledge of our communities,' and creating a state system for collecting occupational taxes 'would have a severely adverse effect on the fiscal condition and economic development of Owensboro and all local government entities if mandated by the General Assembly.' An official with the Kentucky League of Cities said Tuesday the organization's board voted to make opposition to the plan their top priority during this year's legislative session. Occupational taxes make up an average of 60% of a city's revenue, the KLC official said. A copy of the resolution Owensboro city commissioners approved Tuesday evening was sent to cities across the state by the KLC. Owensboro City Manager Nate Pagan said the KLC has taken the lead on the initiative, and said word of a possible bill was brought to the city's attention last week. Pagan said a concern is the state would have to create a mechanism to collect the tax. 'There's no structure in place' for the state to collect the tax, Pagan said Tuesday. Any collection system the state creates could come with a collections fee taken from occupational tax revenues, Pagan said. 'It's a cost that's not incurred at this point' by the city, Pagan said. The current system, where the city collects the tax for both city and county, is working well, Pagan said. The city's finance department 'has years and years of experience and expertise' collecting the tax, Pagan said. The KLC official said businesses would have to file multiple forms and would have to file with the state to pay the tax. Mayor Tom Watson, who is on the KLC board of directors, said before the bill was filed that another concern is occupational tax revenue would go to the state, where it could possibly be held for a period of time. 'We are definitely opposed to that, because they could hold (the funds) as long as they wanted to,' Watson said. City Finance Director Angela Waninger told commissioners at Tuesday's meeting she had several concerns about the plan. Waninger said with taxes the state already collects on behalf of the city, such as the tax increment financing (TIF) revenue, the state provides no information that city officials can use to reconcile their estimate of the TIF revenue with what the city receives. Waninger also said the city is currently able to collect unremitted occupational tax revenue through audits, but said that will be lost under a state system. People who pay their occupational taxes at City Hall won't be able to get local assistance as they can now, Waninger said. Pagan told commissioners he had seen a comment from Bauman, who said an electronic system could be managed by two people. Pagan said he thought that was unlikely. 'It's a little head-scratching,' Pagan said. Before the meeting, Watson also expressed a concern about not all of the revenue collected returning to the city. 'Usually, when money comes down from D.C. to Frankfort to Owensboro, everyone takes a little cut off it,' Watson said.
