By CECIL PERGRAM

Times Editor

The Powell County Fiscal Court held a special meeting on January 18 at the Powell County Courthouse.

Residents living on and around Virden Ridge spoke to the court about their opposition a proposed construction-demolition debris landfill to the area.

“I lived there (Virden Ridge) my whole life as my kids and my grandkids have. I don’t want any of them to be breathing asbestos or any of the things that will be blowing in the air,” David Hawkins said.

“It would be in my front door. We would share the entryway to that property so it’s personal to me and I don’t want to have to look at anything like that,” Bridget Sebastian said. “The biggest concerns that I think the majority of us have is that mention of a landfill when you look at our property values if I was buying a piece of property and there was a landfill close by I wouldn’t want that property and I don’t want my property value to go down as I believe many of my neighbors that have lived around Virden Ridge for a longtime would feel the same way.”

Sebastian told the court she also had reservations about dump trucks along with large equipment traveling on a road the size of Virden Ridge.

“I hope that if you all have any decision making power that we will not have this in our community. I would like to see my property value go up and not down,” Beckie Woods said. “For the people who have been there their whole lives they don’t want to lose their investments and it’s not just a money issue it’s also a health issue.”

“I just don’t want to start to see my community to decline its a beautiful area and we need to start showcasing that,” Woods said.

You all are preaching to the choir when it comes to me I highly opposed to that proposal at that location and you all have my sympathy,” Powell County Judge Executive James Anderson said. “I’ve been a proponent of planning and zoning and it’s people such as you all that I have desire to try to protect your property values and it doesn’t devalue because of something your neighbor is doing.”

“This is a prime example of without planning and zoning that if we don’t step up locally and do some of things that we need to do that we are stuck with old statues,” Anderson said. “As we are currently sitting we are vulnerable to a lost of these planning and zoning issues and passing this ordinance will give us the ability to hopefully to have a local say,”

“I’m with you guys and this is why we are putting this ordinance in place so that we can have some sort of control,” Magistrate Mike Lockard said.

The court approved the second reading of site ordinance #18-29-07 regulating the siting of waste management facilities in Powell County.

The ordinance prohibits constructing or operating a solid wast management facility including construction/demolition sites until approval has been obtained by the Powell County Fiscal Court.

Powell County Emergency Medical Services Director Nathan Hall spoke to the court about updates about the ambulance service. Hall told the court the department recently had a vehicle that was damaged in a hit-and-run accident while transporting a patient in Lexington. The county’s insurance had covered the claim and issued the county a check.

The court voted to pass a motion to accept a check in the amount of $4,044 and to spend an estimated $3,800 making the necessary repairs to get the vehicle back in operation.

“If at all possible I would like for the Lexington Police if they can just send us a clip if nothing else just so we can send it to the insurance company,” Anderson said. “We can say that it’s a hit-and-run but all those intersections are under video surveillance so I would rather have that just to prove that we’re not trying to pull something or anything like that.”

The court also took the following action:

The court passed a motion to appoint Rodney Barnes Jr. to the Beechfork Water Commission.

The court passed a motion to appoint John Barker to the Beechfork Water Commission.

The court approved paying the bills submitted for payment as they were presented to the court.

The next regular scheduled meeting of the Powell County Fiscal Court will be held on February 18 at 6 p.m. in the Powell County Courthouse.