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The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the month Tuesday afternoon.

After being removed from the consent agenda for further discussion, the court approved the hiring of Johnathan Jessop as solid waste support coordinator. Magistrate Fred Clem said he was not against the person being hired but rather the position, as the duties of the position can be covered by other county personnel. Magistrate Kenny Saltsman said he agreed with Clem and said the creation of the position was part of why he voted against approving the current county budget.

“Things need to be revamped,” Saltsman said. “We have had an engineer now for around eight months, I believe, and the public works director’s job description has not been re-updated to do away with some of those things. I think it’s still in there just for fluff to make it look like there’s a lot for that job to be doing.”

Hardin County Judge/Executive Keith Taul said the position was budgeted for because currently other county personnel are covering the duties of the position, which in turn takes time away from their regular duties. Taul said the job fits what the county needs right now.

“Unless there’s a big change and we don’t have as many services or something happens in the county, I don’t know, right now we’re in a growth type of situation, so I don’t see our services decreasing any, so it bothers me that basically you guys don’t believe me,” Taul said.

During department reports, Hardin County Road Supervisor Dwight Morgan said the county Road Department in 2024 handled multiple projects, chip sealed about four miles on three roads, and paved about 32.7 miles on 28 roads.

Hardin County Planning Director Adam King said in 2024 the county approved 268 land use applications, 125 plats and 164 lots were approved, and 1,696 permits were issued including 137 construction permits for single-family dwellings.

“That is an increase from 2023 when we were at 113, and 112 in 2022,” King said. “Average square footage under roof reported to our office was 3,281, and it probably won’t come as a surprise to anybody but the average reported construction cost was over $290,000.”

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet January 28. The next Hardin County Town Hall Forum will be held in the fiscal court chambers at 5:30 p.m. on January 27.

Area law enforcement is warning of ongoing scam attempts.

The Elizabethtown Police Department is warning residents of a scam concerning fake alerts from RiverLink. The EPD says the scammers send a fake toll notice via text warning of an unpaid fee and impending late fee. The message links to a fake website to collect payment, where customers will be asked to enter their personal and financial information. The EPD says never click on the link in a suspicious message, verify tolls on the actual RiverLink website, and report phishing texts to your mobile carrier or law enforcement.

Meanwhile, the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office says a scammer has been spoofing the sheriff’s office’s number and making phone calls to residents. The scammer tells the caller they missed jury duty and must pay a fee in order to avoid a warrant being put out for their arrest. The sheriff’s office does not solicit money over the phone, so if you receive such a phone call, do not give any of your personal information and hang up. If you have concerns, contact the sheriff’s office’s non-emergency line.

Scams can also be reported to the Scam Tracker on the Better Business Bureau’s website.

The Elizabethtown City Council met for their first meeting of the month Monday afternoon.

The council approved three ordinances on their second readings that annexed 154 acres at 1750 Gaither Station Road, .482 acre at 2031 Bardstown Road, and 68 acres at 1001 Ring Road/Patriot Parkway from unincorporated Hardin County. The Gaither Station Road property will be zoned Regional Industrial while the other two will be zoned Regional Commercial.

The council also approved a municipal order amending a contract with construction firm Congleton-Hacker for the next phase of the Commerce Drive outdoor music venue project.

“The amendment to the contract will include tree clearing and site work for an amount not to exceed $10 million,” said Elizabethtown City Attorney Ken Howard, reading from the municipal order.

Congleton-Hacker was previously contracted for pre-construction services on the project.

Elizabethtown Director of Public Works Don Hill provided statistics on the city’s snow removal efforts. Hill said city workers put in 1,900 man hours to plow and treat 1,000 miles of city roadways as they tackled nine inches of snow and 3/10 an inch of ice over the week.

“This week’s focus, we’re going to be working on getting the equipment ready, making repairs, getting that ready, restocking our salt storage, working on removing obstructions from drainage facilities because as the snow melts off we have to get it off the streets, and then also we’re doing street inspections and assessments to look for potholes and deficiencies that may have been caused by the operation last week,” Hill said.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet January 21.