Fiscal court meeting ends on sour note

The Estill Count fiscal court meeting ended uncharacteristically Monday night after Judge-Executive Wallace Taylor exited the meeting abruptly.
Following the courts quick run through the agenda, Darrell Johnson, Magistrate for District 3,  made a motion during the “other considerations” section of the meeting to “wipe Mr. Horn’s slate completely clean.”
No explanation was given at the time as to why Horn’s slate needed to be wiped clean.
Taylor said he was hurting from a fall he’d taken recently, and he was leaving.  He made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  He left the meeting room, but stepped back in the room briefly to toss a thick manual of “administrative code and personnel policy” on the table.
After Taylor exited the meeting, Magistrates Johnson and Young voted “yes” to absolving Mr. Horn of whatever wrongdoing he had been accused of.
In a later interview, Taylor said he sent Horn home for three days without pay for making a disrespectful hand gesture toward him while Horn was on his job as the supervisor at the recycling center.  Taylor said another employee, whom Horn supervises, was the only other person present.
Taylor said the magistrates did not handle the personnel issue according to the guidelines in the policy manual.
In other business, discussion of the agenda prior to that episode was brief.  Taylor said the price offered in the reverse salt auction by Detroit Salt is $99.50 a ton, compared to the $68 a ton paid for salt in last year’s auction.
The judge said that was better than the price of salt back in the winter “when we needed it, but it’s still high.”  He said 1000 tons is available to them at that price, but their storage facility will hold about 275 tons.
Taylor also said that no bids had come in the mail yet for blacktop, but a bid from Hinkle is anticipated to be less than the state price.
Fred Rogers, Estill  County’s Emergency Management Director, said FEMA wants some of the cell towers in the county upgraded according to new federal specifications.  He said he wasn’t sure how much it would cost, but the state would be paying for it.
Taylor said, “I think we need to bid it.” He questioned why recently built towers needed upgrading, and then called for a motion to advertise for bids for additional grounding at the towers.  A motion was made and Johnson and Young voted yes.