By Al Owens

Meeting in regular session last week the Lewis County Fiscal Court moved to approve the Managed Pharmacy Benefit Services Agreement with the National Association of Counties (NACo) Prescription Drug Discount Program.

Discount cards will be furnished free to all county residents through the local Health Department. The cards can be used at selected pharmacies. Details on how to apply will be announced at a later date.

Shayne Schnell, consultant for MedCorp from Toledo, Ohio, and Fred Isch, General Manager of MedCorp gave a power point presentation of the MedCorp Emergency Medical Service.

First District Magistrate Milt Stanfield asked Schnell if the company could provide two full time ambulances for the county and keep one stationed in Tollesboro.

County Judge Executive Steve Applegate asked the representatives to present two proposals to the county, one with one full time ambulance and the other with two. The proposals will be considered at a later date.

Sandy Marshall, Marketing Director for the River Valley Agritourism Alliance and Philip Konopka, local Extension Service agent explained the work of the Alliance to the court and requested a matching fund donation of $2,500 for the program. The court complied with their request and approved the matching fund contribution.

Marshall said that the Alliance attempts to get people to come to the community's fairs, markets and festivals. A main goal is to create markets for farm products such as produce or crafts.

River Valley covers Bracken, Fleming, Lewis, Mason, Nicholas and Robertson Counties. Marshall explained that farmers can have gift shops right on their farms. An available brochure states "Agritourism is the crossroads of tourism and agriculture: when the public visits farms, ranches or wineries to buy products, enjoy entertainment, participate in activities, eat a meal or spend the night."

The Tollesboro Lions Club Fair, the Vanceburg Harvest Festival, the Lewis County School and Agricultural Fair and the Lewis County Farmers Market are among the activities and features listed in the River Valley Agritourism brochure.  

The court approved the county tax rates for the fiscal year.

The county property tax rate on real estate will be 12.8 percent per $100 of assessed value and 14.10 for personal and tangible property.

The tax rate for the Board of Education will be 41 cents per $100 of assessed value for real estate; 40.7 for personal and tangible property; and 49.0 for motor vehicles and watercraft.

For the Library Board the tax rate is 3.60 for real estate; 6.34 for personal and tangible property; and 1.76 for motor vehicles and watercraft.

The Health Department tax rate is 3.40 for real estate; 3.80 for personal and tangible property; and 3.80 for motor vehicles and watercraft.

The tax rate for all the fire districts is .10 per $100 of assessed value; and for timberland and forested acres it is .03 per acre.

The court moved to advertise several items as surplus property for future sale.

At the request of the Buffalo Trace Area Development District the court moved to adopt an ordinance requiring all utility service providers to require all persons seeking new service to provide an address as assigned by the fiscal court in order to establish a uniform system of addresses for Enhanced 911.

During the public response time on the agenda Lewis County resident Dewayna Adams appeared before the court to complain about the weeds needing to be mowed and the ditches cleaned out in the Green Briar, Vance Creek and Rock Creek areas.

Applegate told Adams that a mowing crew had been out mowing practically every day and a crew was mowing that very day, but he would make those areas a priority.

Third District Magistrate Keith Chapman disputed Adams' claim that the roads had not been ditched for nine years. He said he had been out there when they were being ditched, and he said that the road sides had already been mowed about twice this year. Chapman asserted that Adams' complaints gave the impression that the fiscal court wasn't doing anything when in fact it was doing its job. Before sitting down Adams commented that the first time the country crew mowed this year they didn't do a very good job.

Before adjourning Applegate announced that the next regular session of fiscal court will be on Monday, November 13, at 9:30 a.m. in the third floor courtroom of the Lewis County Courthouse.

By Al Owens

Meeting in regular session last week the Electric Plant Board of the City of Vanceburg heard an update on the 2004 Water Project.

Superintendent Phil Kennedy told the board that Kentucky Rural Development has notified him that the department is giving Vanceburg an additional grant of $76,000 for the project and would itself loan the utility company the balance of the funds needed for the project.

Kennedy said that 70 percent of the funding comes through grants and 30 percent through low interest loans, and that is unheard of. The project cost totals $1,450,000 with $1 million in grants and $450,000 in loans.

He told the board that the company has 7,200 services, noting that that means water, electric, gas and sewer. Some homes have all four services. He delineated the services as follows: electric 3,424; gas 477; sewer 773; and water 2,536.

Kennedy was pleased with the number of water customers and explained how the recent water projects have added to that number. He said that within the city limits the company has 794 water customers, 108 on Rt. 8 towards Quicks Run, 508 in Black Oak, 138 on Town Branch, 779 on Rt. 59 and 384 on Salt Lick.

He informed the board that the budget for the combined sewer project has been submitted to Frankfort. The Environmental Protection Agency will return its report to the company by December 31, and then he will develop a long range plan for upgrading and improving the local sewer system.

Kennedy noted that all the electric work at the Vanceburg-Lewis County Industrial Park at Black Oak has been competed and commended the CW Wright Company for doing a good job. He said that Wright was able to complete the job without one power outage.

The board moved to authorize Kennedy to purchase a new backhoe at the state contract price estimated at $63,940. The backhoe will be a Case 580M with an extendable dipper and both 18-inch and a 24-inch buckets.

He said that the old backhoe still works rather well, but it is 12-years-old and is beginning to have problems, and repairs are expensive. The company plans to keep the old unit and use it as a backup.

On Kennedy’s recommendation the board moved to reduce natural gas rates by five percent. The rates were reduced by the same amount last month.

Before adjourning the board approved the financial reports and the October invoices, and Kennedy announced that the annual audit was completed and would be presented at next month's session.