UPDATE: Due to an ommission we failed to report that council member Angie McGuire abstained from voting on whether to have a new water and sewer board, but she voted ‘no’ on Jeff Kinzer as a board member in the voting on individual members. Kinser is the son of Colleen Stone, who has complained about the election of officers for the local Democtrat women’s club where Ms. McGuire is an officer. Also, Gloria Johnson voted “no’ on all the motions explaining the council does not need a water and sewer board at $250 extra per month for doing what the council is supposed to do. Ironically Ms. McGuire’s vote would not have changed the outcome either way. She is the wife of David McGuire, the Supt. of the city water and sewer dept.

City will lose $100,000 due to drop in Coal Severance taxes;

Lester, Lycans, Kinzer, Preston and Castle named to new Louisa Public Utilities Board…

LOUISA, KY — The May 2016 meeting of the Louisa City Council brought the completion of the forming the new Louisa Public Utilities Board, with the appointment of members and date for the first meeting scheduled for later this month. 

Mayor Harold Slone appointed 4 community members to serve on the new Louisa Public Utilities Board, each bringing a talent or skill that would be useful to the success of the new board and water/sewer departments, he said. The council voted 3-1 for Slone’s appointees with member Gloria Johnson voting no.

Appointed to the 4 year term was Sam Lester, Mayor Slone stated, “The reason I chose him is that he worked for division of water for 30 years and retired from division of water. Where he directly supervised people who inspected sewage treatment plants”. Slone made reference to the ongoing problems at the sewer plant and that Lester would be very beneficial in helping correct those problems. 

Slone appointed Steve Lycan to the 3 year term, saying “Steve is knowledgeable in business, and is familiar with business operations and management, and has proven himself as a business leader in the community.” 

For the 2 year term, Slone appointed Jeff Kinzer, stating “he was previously a member of city council and also a member of the previous Utilities board”. Noting the importance of having someone on the board that was familiar with what past practices for the water/sewer departments were.

The final appointee was Heath Preston, for the 1 year term. Slone stated that he chose Preston because, “ he was a community liaison with Hal Rogers office for several years, where he specifically worked with City’s and County Judges getting funds for sewers and water systems.” Preston is also chairman of the Lawrence Co. Board of Education.

Mitch Castle was appointed as the non paid member from City Council, he will serve for the remainder of his current term on Council. Mayor Slone will serve as a non voting, non paid member of the board. 

It was determined that the new board would meet on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, the first being May 17, 2016 and receive $50 per meeting stipend. Lycans was the only new member to attended the meeting.

Also present for the meeting Lee and Marla Balaklaw, of Schooley Mitchell Consultants, to present the renewal options for the city’s communications services audits. Options from various telecom companies were presented, but council voted to keep service with Lycom Communications, due to the lower price as compared to AT&T. 

The May Meeting also served as the First reading of the 2016/2017 Louisa City budget and water department budget. 

Mayor Slone noted that the City faced a $100,000 reduction in budget for the upcoming budget cycle due to a decline in coal severance, mineral tax and insurance premium tax. 

Slone said, “we asked ourselves how are we going to overcome an over $100,000 decrease in revenue, so we looked at each department to see what we could cut.” 

“We started by reducing the budget in areas where last year they didn’t use all of their funds,” he said. He provided an example that if $8000 was budgeted for uniforms last year and they only used $3000, then the new budget amount was $3000. 

Slone also stated that they are projecting a budget surplus from the current year, which can carry over to the new budget. The surplus will be used to create a $100,000 “rainy day” fund to help absorb further reductions in coal and mineral severance money, which is expected in the future. 

The City of Louisa Budget, Louisa Water and Sewer Budget, City of Louisa Compensation budget, and Louisa Water and Sewer compensation budget, were all approved by council, With Angie McGuire abstaining from the vote for the Water and Sewer budget and the Water and sewer and City compensation budget to avoid conflict of interest since her husband David is Supt. of the Water & Sewer Dept.

Council members Gloria Johnson, Mitch Castle, Tom Parsons and Angie McGuire were present as council. Schaeffer and Cordle were absent.

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