Whitley County gives judge-executive authority to lower garbage rates

Earlier this month, the Whitley County Fiscal Court got into the garbage collection business in response to a move by an existing waste hauler, which refused to provide service any longer to some places in the KY 92E area of the county.

On Monday afternoon, the fiscal court took a step to ensure that its new garbage collection business will remain competitive.

During a special called meeting, the fiscal court approved a resolution giving the judge-executive the discretion to set garbage collection rates at $1 less than any advertised or promoted rate by a solid waste hauler for garbage collection.

Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. noted that there is a Barbourville-area company, which has been expanding garbage collection service into the KY 92E area with competitive prices.

White noted that the move would guarantee that Whitley County could offer the best price.

“The general concept is we started into this not as a for profit venture. We started this to ensure people could get service, reliable service, and get service at a fair price. We are trying our best to do that,” White said. “What has been introduced will allow us to be more competitive.”

The only other major item on Monday’s agenda dealt with approval of a resolution that authorizes the judge-executive to sign a contract with state transportation officials in order to receive funding from the County Road Aid Coop program beginning on July 1, 2020.

Whitley County is set to receive $1,543,163.22 in funding, which represents the county’s portion of the state gas tax.

Last year, Whitley County received about $1.4 million.

“In years past, I think it was more in the $1.8 million range before the steep decrease we had several years back in gas prices. One year we lost about $370,000,” White said.

This is the primary source of money, which funds the county road department annually.

The agreement calls for 3 percent of each county and city’s funding to go into an emergency road repair fund, which is maintained by the state. Participating entities can request funding from the program for emergency road repairs.

Whitley County has utilized funding from this emergency fund in previous years.

In regards to recent flooding damage that the county experienced, White said he is hopeful that the county will receive Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding to cover those repairs.

“FEMA is supposed to be here with us this week looking over some of the damage. We will kind of be getting some final approvals hopefully for a FEMA declaration. They are authorized to do a response from that flooding,” White said.

“We have been able to get FEMA assistance the last two years from flooding. The flood this year was at substantially higher levels than it was the last two years. We are optimistic that we will get to see some assistance. We are hoping to be able to use those funds to fix those areas affected by the flooding.”