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Nolin RECC officials recapped the electric co-ops activities and business figures from 2023 during their annual membership meeting Thursday afternoon.

Nolin District 3 Director Rick Thomas said the co-op ended 2023 with 36,814 active accounts.

“If you’ve kept up with that the last few years, that number’s been going up and it’s pretty obvious,” Thomas said. “Part of it, you’ll see new houses and things going up, but right now the biggest surge is in apartments, and you’re probably seeing them go up in a lot of places too, so we expect that to continue. I don’t know where we have a guess on when we’re going to get to 40,000, but we’re getting pretty close to it.”

Operating revenue was reported at about $85.3 million while operating expenses were reported at about $84.8 million. Thomas said the operating margin of about $497,000 is down from years past in part because inflation has increased the cost of materials and impacted supply chains, but the co-op’s staff has worked hard to limit the impact.

“We’re very fortunate that we have the staff that we have that have taken it in their hands to keep an eye on that, trying to keep those costs down, and also there’s an issue with just getting materials now and they’ve had to work through that, so I hope you appreciate their efforts on that,” Thomas said.

Nolin RECC President and CEO Greg Lee said the focus of operations continues to be what is best for the co-op’s members.

“In 2023, we found ourselves in the fortunate position to be able to retire just over $2.7 million in capital credits,” Lee said. “That was the fifth straight year we had been able to make a general retirement and the cumulative total over those five years is now over $20 million.”

The annual meeting can be viewed on Nolin RECC’s YouTube channel. The annual report was included in the items distributed in the buckets members received during meeting registration.

If you are attending, or are thinking about attending, Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, you can take a look at campus ahead of the school year. 

New and prospective ECTC students are invited to attend Open House Days, which will be held from 12 to 6 p.m. each Tuesday in July.

ECTC says attendees will have the chance to learn about the college’s student support programs, talk to college staff about educational and career pathways, get information on financial aid opportunities and help completing the FAFSA, and complete admissions files and order transcripts.

No registration is required. Guests should start their visit at the Welcome and Admissions Center located in the Regional Postsecondary Center. For more information on open houses or other tours, contact the recruitment office via email at ectcrecruitment@kctcs.edu.

The first day of the fall semester is August 19. Visit the ECTC website for more information.

The Meade County Ethics Commission reviewed an ethics complaint filed against Meade County Jailer J.J. Scarborough during a hearing Tuesday night.

Attorney Peter Hill served as legal advisor to the ethics commission during the hearing. He said the complaint alleged three violations of the standards of conduct section of the county’s ethics ordinance.

“The sum, kind of the essence of the complaint, was that there was a conflict of interest by the current jailer, J.J. Scarborough, because of a relationship he had with an employee within the jail, and that led to unwarranted advantages and other things that would violate the ethics ordinance,” Hill said.

Scarborough and the complainant were each represented by legal counsel at the hearing, with both sides submitting evidence and calling witnesses. Hill said after deliberating the ethics commission sustained the complaint on one ground.

“The commission found that there was sufficient evidence that the respondent, the Meade County Jailer, had a direct or indirect financial or personal involvement that might reasonably be expected to impair his objectivity or independence of judgment,” Hill said.

Hill said the violation is of the reasonable man standard, meaning that there was no finding of an actual conflict of interest or actual seeking of an unwarranted advantage or privilege, but it would look to an outside observer that the actions would impair somebody’s objectivity.

Hill said the ethics commission has the authority to issue a monetary fine, and while Hill said he could not speak to the commission’s reasons they ultimately decided not to issue one.

“In looking at all the circumstances and the relative lack of evidence that in fact this relationship led to something bad for the county, no allegation that the county lost money, and plenty of evidence actually that the county jail is being fairly well run, especially its medical department is being fairly well run, the ethics commission (again, without reading their minds) may well have considered that evidence and concluded, ‘We’ve made a finding of a violation here. We’re not going to assess a civil penalty,’” Hill said.

Kentucky law says the Meade County Circuit Court has the authority to review the complaint. Scarborough was elected Meade County Jailer in 2014.