Daviess County fiscal court approves contracts, grants and personnel moves including bridge work and park lighting grant

Daviess County Fiscal Court on Thursday approved a number of contracts, awards and personnel actions tied to facilities, public safety, parks and economic development.

Treasurer Mr. Johnson opened the business portion of the meeting with the August 2025 financial report, stating the county's total cash balance at $80,073,024.60 and a general fund balance of $43,349,348.13 (cash available for general fund operations after reserves $33,005,607.70). The court then moved through a sequence of approvals and motions.

Notable approvals included a five'year alarm monitoring agreement with Premier Fire & Security for county facilities at a fee of $25 per month per facility; a 10'year, conditionally refundable contract with Kenergy to extend electric service to Yellow Creek Park with an advanced contribution of $525.26 refunded annually over 10 years; and a subscription to First Due Holdings software to support the transition from NFIRS to NHERES at a first'year cost of $12,250 and annual subscription of $10,450 (subject to a potential 5% annual increase).

The court approved a professional services agreement with STV for design of the Browns Valley/Red Hill Road bridge over Shoemaker Branch, noting the project is prequalified with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and that KYTC will subsidize roughly 80% of construction costs under a prior 80/20 arrangement.

For Stanley Park lighting, the court approved a memorandum of agreement tied to a Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grant. The full project estimate is $291,616; the LWCF requires a 50% match ($145,808). A second grant program at the state level is expected to cover up to $138,865 of the county match, leaving an estimated county contribution of $6,943; the project was included in the FY25'26 budget.

Economic development assistance for Hollisyn LLC was amended by a three'month extension moving a loan due date to Dec. 31, 2025, after the company cited extenuating circumstances affecting repayment; the original fiscal-court assistance totaled $300,000 (comprised of a $134,000 contingent grant and a $166,000 0% interest loan, repayment previously extended from 09/30/2020 to 09/30/2025). Court members discussed possible stronger assurances but accepted the short extension.

Other procurement actions included rejection of all bids for parks signage (staff will rewrite specifications and rebid); approval to declare surplus inventory and schedule an in'house auction on Oct. 3; a $9,215 HVAC change order for the Morton J. Holbrook Judicial Center (AOC reimbursing the cost); award of a replacement half'ton pickup to Bachman Auto Group for $48,519; and purchase of seven sets of bunker gear for $24,265 to meet national standards. Personnel actions approved included promotion of Wayne Barks to operations lead and the hiring of Isabel Velez as communications coordinator and Larry Worth as a seasonal park attendant, pending preemployment screening.

All motions presented on these items were approved by voice vote at the meeting; no roll-call vote tallies were read into the record.

The court did not adopt any mid'meeting budget amendments for these items beyond those already included in the FY25'26 budget.