By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Members of the Barren County Economic Authority Administrative and Personnel Committee recently gathered in the conference room to discuss a request from Park City and various policy wording changes.
The meeting was called to order by committee chairperson David Peterson on March 15 and was attended by committee member Brad Groce, Cave City Mayor DeWayne Hatcher and authority President and CEO Maureen Carpenter.
Before the committee was a sparsely populated agenda with only a handful of items for consideration. The first involved updating the bid requirements from $30,000 to $40,000 as dictated by Kentucky Revised Statute 424.260, which states “…no commission of a city or county…may make a contract, lease, or other agreements for materials, supplies, equipment or services without first making [a] newspaper advertisement for bids.”
According to the Legislative Research Commission note this statute was revised in June of 2023.
The committee members also revised the authority’s investment policy. As carpenter explained before the authority had multiple Certificate of Deposits, or CDs, that only went to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s maximum of $250,000 and some would like to see a revert to that policy or something similar.
“We have our investments, which right now are $679,759,” Carpenter said. “So a little less than half of the available cash is in one CD at The People’s Bank. We have the FDIC insurance on the $250,000 and then a pledge to cover the remaining. There are concerns about having that much cash in one bank. From conversations with the finance committee and other board members they would like to see a policy in place where we don’t have more than the FDIC insured investment dollars, not operating dollars, in more than one CD.”
In the end they decided to go the route of multiple CDs — even if they are at the same bank — at the insured maximum to ensure safe and smart investment.
In the realm of other business, Carpenter read to the committee members a statement from the mayor of Park City, who is listed as a nonvoting member of the authority’s board of directors. Other nonvoting members are Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd, Glasgow Mayor Henry Royse and Cave City Mayor DeWayne Hatcher.
“We received a request from Park City,” Carpenter said. “I’ll preface this by saying this is their request. It’s not actually how things are done and I don’t know if they understand that but they said they would like to become a paid, voting member of the board. You’re not paying for a seat on the board, you’re paying for economic development services, which then give you the ability to then appoint people to the board to protect your interests.”
Carpenter explained that Park City joining the authority’s ranks would involve amending interlocal agreements, which she suggested Rich Alexander look over.
“This request would require everyone that’s involved in the interlocal agreements… would have to agree to modify them,” Carpenter said. “As far as economic development services over there…, I’m not sure their interests align so much [with industrial and property development].”
Carpenter and all the committee members agreed this request was likely due to Park City wanting financial assistance from the economic authority. Rather than providing outright financial aid the authority helps write grant request and administers economic development project, Carpenter said.
“There have been a couple requests for funding since I’ve been here that we have not done,” Carpenter said. “I think that’s where this stems.”
“I feel like there’s some misunderstanding,” Hatcher added. “They have some projects going on over there but they’re not what the authority gets involved in and I think there’s a misunderstanding there on getting aid.”
Peterson said he did not mind Park City joining as a voting member, but suggested an explanatory meeting with Park City Mayor Larry Poteet before making the final decision.
“I have no problem with it if they want to pay the monthly fee and have a voting member but I think they need to understand what they’re going to get for their money,” Peterson said. “We need to put something together and explain to them how it works.”
With nods of agreement from all present, Peterson adjourned the committee meeting.
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