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.
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