Lack of funds will continue to hurt the county, Patrick says

In one capacity or another, Mike Patrick has served in public office for the last 16 years either as jailer or judge-executive. During that time he has seen some ups, and more recently some downs in the form of the temporary closing of the new jail, and a financial crisis that threatened to shut down county government and resulted in a payroll tax.
Even so, if he had it to do over, Patrick said he still would have filed to run for office nearly 16 years ago.
“I don’t regret being involved, and trying to move forward. Have I made mistakes along the line? Yes, I have, but I feel like overall I have done things that have benefited my area, and helped the people who live here with me. As I well know, my legacy will probably be an occupational tax. That is not popular, but at the same time, I felt like I did what I had to do, but I’m mature enough to realize the consequences of it,” Patrick said Tuesday morning following his announcement that he will be resigning at the end of the month.
Patrick said his biggest regret isn’t passing the payroll tax, but rather that he couldn’t keep the county out of a position where an occupational tax had to be instituted.
Patrick said his successor’s biggest challenge would be dealing with many of the same things he has had to in regards to the county’s financial situation.
“There is much more need than there are funds to deal with it,” Patrick said. “The need out there, it is deserving. Drinking water, a paved road, people deserve those things. It is getting things together and getting funds so you can provide those things. Our employees deserve a good job with decent pay. It is the same old thing. It is being able to provide those, and that comes back to money.”
His advice for his successor, whoever that may be, is to “work hard, and do the best you can.”
Patrick said he will miss the people the most when he moves onto his new job in state government next month.
“Sometimes you are able to make a difference. Sometimes you are not. Some days you leave feeling like that you helped somebody that really needed it. I don’t know that I will necessarily have that feeling and closeness to the people I have had in this job,” Patrick said.
He admits that the thing he will miss least about being judge-executive is the pressure of the job, and the “seeing of a need and having the inability to do anything about it.”
“We tried to do some things. It can be debatable on whether or not my choices were the best. I hope that they were, but even myself I can look back, and think of times when I said, ‘I wish I hadn’t done that,’ but it is too late,” Patrick added.
The one thing Patrick is most proud of accomplishing during his 16 years of elected service is the laying of waterlines along Ky. 92E, which started out as a nearly 41 mile project, and ended up with over 80 miles of waterline being laid.
“It served a whole lot of people, and we did a whole lot to bring water to other people in the county. I don’t know an exact number of miles, but that would have to be the thing I am most proud of,” Patrick said. “Next along those lines is I felt I worked to try and develop a sense of unity and working together between Corbin, Williamsburg, and the county.
“I hope that will continue, and that will benefit our area. I hope that impact will be maintained for a long time. We have to work together. We can’t fight one another. I tried my best and did my part along with other people doing the same thing from the cities. We may disagree, but when the sun goes down we are working for the betterment of our people.”