Court kills 911

By Loyd | on June 07, 2023

Marshall County Fiscal Court has removed a tax on electric services intended to pay for the county's central dispatching service to settle a lawsuit with two local electric utilities.

Marshall County Fiscal Court voted to repeal their ordinance that would have placed a fee on every electric service in the county during their meeting Tuesday morning. The move end litigation between the county and the two electric utilities that serve Marshall County.

The court took the action to tax electric service in the county to provide an infusion of cash to the fund the central dispatching operation of Marshall County. Central Dispatch is the communications system that provides police, fire and emergency communications, including E-911 and ambulance service in Marshall County.

Like other counties across the state, Marshall County originally relied upon fees placed on land line service to pay for central dispatching services. The huge reduction in the use of land lines has resulted in a dramatic loss in funding for central dispatching services. That coupled with the state of Kentucky taking the lion's share of fees generated for dispatching services from cellular telephones have resulted in a revenue short fall for central dispatching.

When the county imposed the fees on electric service both West Kentucky Rural Electric and Jackson Purchase Energy filed a federal lawsuit against Marshall County to halt the fee. The repeal of the ordinance that levied the fee has now ended that legal action. According to Marshall County Attorney Jason Darnall, in a statement he made during Tuesday's court meeting now the parties to the suit can just walk away.

Commissioner Monti Collins and Commissioner Marty Barrett indicated in the meeting they and the court would be pursuing other funding options which would relieve the few land lines and the county's general fund from continuing to shoulder the cost of the central dispatching service.

The court heard a report from Health Department Director Billy Pitts and a request to approved the board of heath's tax rate of seven cents. The seven-cent rate is unchanged from last year but is projected to provide a $300,000 increase to the health department because of the increase in property values. The amount generated by the tax will go from approximately $2 million to $2.3 million.

The court approved the tax rate for the health department.

The court gave its blessing to a grant for voting equipment that amounts to $2,096 for the county clerk's office. They also gave the go ahead for work to be complete on a upgrade to the county's radio communications equipment.

The court approved a bid of $60,525 for a new truck for the road department. They also approved acceptance of a 100 percent grant for video equipment at the count detention center.

In other action the court approved lease agreements between the county and all the organizations that lease county property.

The court also approved the setting of two called meetings, one on June 19 at 8:30 a.m. and another on June 30 at 9 a.m.

The court went into a closed meeting at the conclusion of their regular business for the purpose of litigation and personnel.

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