Save special-called meetings, the Barren County Fiscal Court meets twice a month in the court chambers on the third floor of the Barren County Government Center. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1.
By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
The approval of the federal lobbyist contract was postponed during the Feb. 4 meeting of the Barren County Fiscal Court.
Discussions regarding the Statesmen Advisory contract was first broached at the Dec. 16 Administration and Budget Committee meeting with Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd said an individual she had met during a trip to Washington D.C. that “followed up with her” in October and offered his firms services.
The two projects Byrd said she wanted Statesmen to focus on would be the Ag Expo Center, which the court recently put out the architecture and design bid, and the Glasgow Water Company’s water treatment expansion, which sells water to Allen County. Total contribution from the county would be $2,000 a month, the Glasgow Water Company would contribute $2,000 and Allen County would contribute $500 a month, Byrd said, which is $2,500 less than originally discussed at the committee meeting.
The motion to approve the contract was made by Magistrate Marty Kinslow and seconded by Magistrate Brad Groce. The sole opposition came from Magistrate Tim Coomer, who said the county already has a lot of projects going on and they should “focus on what’s going on now.”
He also raised concerns over the wording of the contract itself, citing possible ambiguity in the travel expense section and the lack of a specific mention to the Ag Expo Center.
After some back-and-forth between Coomer and Kinslow, who voiced his full support of hiring a lobbyist firm, the motion to table the contract until the next Barren County Fiscal Court meeting was made by Groce and seconded by Kinslow. Byrd said she would work with the firm to fix the language in the interim, but wanted the magistrates to make a decision on the contract by the end of the month because “things were happening in D.C.”
The next fiscal court meeting is Feb. 18.
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