County tables airport payments

Commissioner Eddie Jones broached the subject during the discussion on budget transfers and proposed striking a portion of operational funding from the transfers.

Judge-Executive Craig Clymer balked at the idea, asking first whether other commissioners had begun a dialogue with the airport authority.

“Why are we gonna withhold money from them that they’re expecting for operations, if we’ve not asked them first without withholding any money?”

Jones withdrew that motion, and commissioner Bill Bartleman said he hopes the debate “sends a message to the airport board that we’re serious about having this discussion.”

Following the approval of the transfers and other business, the airport came up again, with a motion to approve paying the county’s half of a nearly $67,000 invoice.

Jones voted to table that motion, effectively delaying the payments, as he contended some projects at the airport are now “overfunded,” as further grants have been approved that would fund more of the project than was known at the time of the agreement.

“At that time … we didn’t know those grants were gonna come in, and neither did they,” said Commissioner Richard Abraham.

Commissioner Bill Bartleman said the decision to keep using the interlocal funds despite an apparent surplus was a logical decision on the airport authority’s part.

Commissioners discussed the idea that some of the remaining $1.5 million allocated for the airport, or previously paid invoices, could be returned for the county to use for other projects.

“It’s not like we’re trying to put the money in the bank,” Bartleman said, listing projects reimbursed funds could be used for.

Jones told the fiscal court he believed the authority “would make fun of us, if we didn’t have this conversation.”

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve tabling the payments.

The fiscal court also voted to approve entering into a contract to fix the leaking roof on the Paducah-McCracken County Convention and Expo Center.

The issue has been hotly discussed at previous fiscal court meetings, as commissioners hoped to secure a funding match from the city of Paducah for the repairs.

The city contends the county is responsible for the repairs, as the county’s transient room tax funds are specifically designated to be used for the center.

Little discussion attended the vote Monday, though commissioners did discuss the nature of the repairs and the higher cost of material necessitating that the roof be repaired and not fully replaced.

The county also continued to discuss the fate of its performance stage that’s often used in city events.

Clymer has continually lamented the city’s refusal to allocate its own parks department workers to setting up and tearing down the stage, as has been the case in the past.

Clymer has said the city will reimburse the county for the hiring of personnel to set up and take down the stage, but commissioners have discussed the logistical difficulty of hiring workers for such a short duration.

Abraham on Monday suggested seeking help from volunteer firefighters used to “dangerous” jobs, but Deputy Judge-Executive Steve Doolittle countered that a firefighter might have another job or a fire to attend to, leaving the crew short and unable to erect the stage for an event county on the structure, with no time to find a replacement.

Abraham expressed frustration at the fiscal court’s waiting on the city to make significant recent decisions before determining its course of action.

“We have a stage, and people have come to rely on it for events,” he said.

“I just get a little bit irritated looking over my shoulder across the street it seems like all the time … If we have the ability, if we have the resources to do the job that our taxpayers elected us to do, we should do it.”

The county voted not to designate the stage as surplus, but to stipulate that, following this year’s Lower Town Arts & Music Festival, the stage would only be erected at Carson Park.