LOUISA GETTING NEW ZIP ZONE, DAIRY QUEEN, DOTY SAYS

LOUISA, KY. — The mystery (sort of) of what is being constructed beside Arby’s on U.S. 23 turned out to be perhaps the most interesting item during this morning’s Lawrence Co. Fiscal Court meeting which was a day late due to a doctor’s appointment for one of the court members.

Deputy Judge/Executive Vince Doty informed the court during his announcements that  the new structure will be a Zip Zone and with a Dairy Queen inside. Speculation has been raging since the work began a month ago on the spot which is near the Louisa WalMart and the two shopping centers located nearby. The Zip Zones are a chain of gas stations that include a restaurant with several of them operated statewide by a company owned by entrepreneur Jim Booth of Inez.

Doty also said the county is using a different mode for graveling on county roads and that a couple good size businesses are looking at coming in but he said it was too early to name them.

Lawrence BOE member Garnett Skaggs was present asking the court for help in clearing off very old cemeteries in Lawrence County, some that have been ignored for decades. She said she works with a group of people who are interested in the preservation of grave sites and asked judge/executive Phil Carter if the county could help them get labor perhaps from the BSRDC to clear the graves.

Mrs. Skaggs said her group is not part of the Lawrence Co. Historical Society. 

She mentioned the Cole Peter Skaggs grave which she said was one one of the oldest in the county and that he had been one of the first settlers here. Mrs. Skaggs also mentioned that the Prince cemetery is in “bad shape” as well as many others. Her group is interested in cleaning up the gravesites and possibly placing markers on the graves.

Carter told her the local DAR has a record of many of the graves and County Clerk Chris Jobe also has a list of graves for Lawrence County. “They can come in a look at what we have, although we don’t have them in a book or anything,” Jobe said. “It’s definitely not a complete list but it might give you an idea about many of them.”

BSRDC board chairman Daniel Castle was in attendance and he said in order to get inmates from the jail to do public works there is a process.

“All they need to do is have a person who will agree to supervise them and who will take a training class to learn how to do that,” Castle said. “The class only takes a couple of hours to complete.”

Judge Carter asked Mrs. Skaggs to work with the existing cemetery board on the project.

“I’d like for you to work with the cemetery board because there should be some funding available from the state for this,” Carter said. “In the past we got one grant for $50,000 to do similar work in the county, and I think there was one for $25,000 for Pine Hill Cemetery.”

In other court action today: 

Approved minutes of the September 17, 2019 Regular Meeting Minutes

Approved Treasurers Request (no list provided)

Approved Bills

Accepted Treasurer’s Report

Approved Resolution for HB 20 Project $34,000 for Road Grader & 2 Trucks on motion of Mouse Halcomb and second John Scaggs.

Approved Sheriff’s 2018 Unmined Coal Tax Settlement (No amount given)on motion of David Pinson and second by Mouse Halcomb.

Opened Bids on Surplus Property but Judge Carter told court members that all bids were too low and none of them were accepted.

On motion of Mouse Halcomb and second by David Pinson the court unanimously voted to accept a $67,120 bid from E&E Construction of Vanceburg, Ky. on the 25 ft. Old Lick Creek Bridge.

Approved a $100.00 Donation to Unity Baptist Church Autumn Fest

Public Comments

• . Rob Mattieu attended the meeting and asked for a strip of property on Spamkem Branch to be ceded back to him as part of his other property there. He said there is an old fence that he wants to repair and there is a small sliver of land that was once given to the county for a right of way that he would like to have back since the county is not using it and has no plans to ever use it.

Judge Carter told Mattieu that he would appoint a committee to visit the site and report back to the court. Mattieu had survey maps with him to present to the court.

• Judge Carter announced that Kelly Ward from FIVCO had delivered a check for $7,000 for the county to use on “fixing up the courthouse premises.”
• County Attorney Mike Hogan delivered some somber news to the court in the form of an illness to former sheriff Garrett Roberts who Hogan said is now on the list for a kidney transplant.  “I’m sure everyone’s thoughts and prayers are with him as he goes through this time of sickness,” Hogan said. He said he had contacted Roberts about a report from the state auditor that said he still owed $17,000 in a fee account from 2017.  Roberts told Hogan that the money is there, it just has not been paid to the state. “There is no money missing,” Hogan said.

The meeting was then adjourned.