The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their second meeting of the month Tuesday.
The court approved on second reading the county’s ordinance for the certification of recovery residences in the county, which is modeled after the ordinance recently approved by the City of Elizabethtown.
“This ordinance will go into effect, if we approve it today, go into effect July 1, 2024,” said Hardin County Judge-Executive Keith Taul. “We also, at the last meeting, approved an inter-local agreement with Elizabethtown for the enforcement of that.”
That’s Hardin County Judge-Executive Keith Taul.
Hardin County Coroner Pat Elmore gave his office’s annual report for 2023. The coroner’s office handled 1,066 total cases, which included 962 deaths due to natural causes, 70 accidents, and 8 homicides. Elmore said there was at least one positive note in the data.
“Our overdoses were actually down from 55 to 37,” Elmore said. “We’re looking at some things about that. We feel like there may be some early interventions with NARCAN being available more readily. That’s going to help. We hear it a lot here in our office, we’ll hear where they’re going out on that response, and we feel like those are being revived, so that’s one positive thing we had there.”
The court heard annual reports from Hardin County Water Districts Number One and Two, with both utilities discussing revenue status and projects for the past and coming year. Water District One General Manager Justin Metz said estimated consolidated revenue for 2024 totals more than $21.8 million. Water District Number Two General Manager Shaun Youravich said water revenue for 2023 came in at about $17 million, which was $1.9 million higher than budgeted, but the sewer numbers show a negative net income, which was anticipated.
“Our revenues do cover expenses, we’re just not fully funding depreciation,” Youravich said. “Of course, we have a very young sewer division. In fact, it was $16 million worth of infrastructure and 47 customers. So I don’t expect to cover, fully, depreciation until we start to grow our customer base, which we’ll do, or until we begin collecting sewer waste from the battery facilities in Glendale.”
Water District Number Two is working with the Kentucky Public Service Commission on a rate increase to cover depreciation, which would see the average customer’s monthly fee increase from $28.88 to $34.32. Youravich said the water district has not instituted a full rate increase since 2007.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet March 12.
