Marshall County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously adopted an ordinance that will effectively merge the county’s two sanitation districts into one countywide district and board during a regularly scheduled meeting of the Marshall County Fiscal Court in Benton.
The ordinance – art of the county’s ongoing effort to improve sanitation infrastructure, ensure public health and facilitate economic development – establishes one district to oversee sanitation in areas formerly managed in districts No. 1 and No. 2, which serve the Aurora and Draffenville communities respectively. The consolidated district will oversee and regulate the development of wastewater facilities in the county among other tasks previously handled by the two standalone districts.
A five-member board, appointed by the judge-executive with approval from the fiscal court, will set district policy and rates of service.
The change will take effect Jan. 1.
In addition to establishing a single countywide sanitation district, the ordinance also requires residents with access to a public wastewater system within 500 feet of an occupied dwelling to hook onto that sewer system. Those without access to a centralized public system must use an approved onsite wastewater system, such as a septic system.
The ordinance prohibits the use of straightpipes, cesspools, privies or outhouses within the county, or any disposal method that could potentially wash into the county’s natural water sources.
It’s common practice in many counties across the state, said Roger Recktenwald, director of research and planning with the Kentucky Association of Counties, and brings the county current with its approach.
“This is a relatively standard approach anymore in the last, whatever, eight or 10 years,” Recktenwald said. “It basically, years and years ago it was determined that it would be best to have a mandatory requirement for everybody to hook onto a sewer system if it was available. Since that time, and with both federal and state changes in environmental law, this is the expanded version of what is typically done in that, regardless of where you are and who you are, you have to have an approved wastewater approach. You’ve got to have a system in place, whether it’s an onsite system approved through the health department – again, the health department has been doing this for years and years, but many instances there was ways that, for whatever reason, a lot of folks would be able to get around the process – so this case clearly sets up that if there is a public system available you will tie onto that public system. … Same way with onsite systems.”
Residents who have constructed a septic system at a home within the last 10 years in an area of centralized system accessibility or have when a public system becomes available may file for an extension with the Sanitation District to continue to use the system for a time before hooking on.
“It used to be a relatively inexpensive venture to put in an onsite system,” Recktenwald said. “Well, anymore it’s not. You’re going to comply with environmental laws, it can be a costly event. And so the intent here was to, if someone has just recently upgraded their system, we want to have them get as much benefit out of that system as possible, and so they would be granted an extension by request.”
See the full ordinance here.
The court on Tuesday also voted to approve a lease agreement with the Marshall County Senior Citizens for a period of 10 years, rather than the year-to-year assessment the court approved on the county’s remaining properties. Commissioners voted in favor of the arrangement, after seniors raised concerns about losing the center at a point in the future. District 3 Commissioner Rick Cocke, during the Oct. 17 fiscal court meeting asked that the matter be tabled, after seniors had informed him of a possible lifetime endowment on the property. Cocke, who said the City of Benton and Coy Creason had once given the property to the Senior Citizens before it was later given over to the county, asked that County Attorney Jeff Edwards look into the matter before any lease was approved.
Edwards found only the deed on the property, but no reference to a lifetime occupancy of the Senior Citizens.
“In the change of title there is no reference to any reservations or restrictions on the property,” Edwards said. “My understanding, or the way that title runs, is from the City of Benton to the Senior Citizens to Marshall County. … There’s minutes to reflect the transfer from the Senior Citizens. At some point after that Judge (Mike) Miller appeared before the Benton City Council and reported that there was going to be a transfer from the Senior Citizens to the county because of monies that were available – when Richard Lewis, a former attorney here in town and state representative at the time – apparently they were able to make some monies available for the construction of a new building. And I think the transfer was necessary in order to obtain those monies.”
Cocke said seniors were concerned about a yearly agreement and the possibility they could lose the building to another agency, particularly as the group had given the county the property.
“The only problem that they have, is the security that they have that they don’t have to go through this every year,” Cocke said. “The lease is fine, though. The citizens of Marshall County and the county is protected.”
Judge-Executive Kevin Neal said the county’s intent was only to ensure its properties were being properly maintained, which he said had prompted the court to set yearly lease agreements in the first place. Neal, who opposed Tuesday’s vote, said he was concerned that allowing one entity that term would open the door for others, and put the court back in the position it had initially hoped to avoid.
“I don’t think there’s a question of the lease agreement, but we’re not being consistent with the other organizations that are being housed in our county facilities,” Neal said. “… I just want to make sure that if we give a lifetime endowment, that’s changing what the court originally set out to do, and that may open up the door for other entities to come and ask for such. … I think that we need to think about the taxpayers, the taxpayers that own the facilities. This agreement protects the taxpayers from any type of liability. … This is agreement is for one year, because we identified that we had two lease agreements well over 15, 20 years that none of us knew about. This lease agreement was drafted so that we would not have that moving forward in the future. So that anybody that sits at the table will know annually what properties we own and what organizations are there and what the agreement is. … You change it with one, you might have others come forward wanting the same thing, and we’re going to backtrack on what the original intent was.”
In other business, the court:
- Reviewed the quarterly ABC report, which states the county received $84,745 in alcohol revenues from 43 establishments in the county;
- approved a part-time hire for Marshall County Animal Care and Control at a rate of 10.21 per hour;
- approved a Delta Regional Authority request for reimbursement of $6,810 for engineering expenses associated with the wastewater plant and rehabilitation project in Aurora;
- approved Jennifer Brown and Doug Hall to serve on the Marshall County Extension Council – District 2 Commissioner Johnny Bowlin and Neal recused themselves from the vote due to personal relationships with nominated parties;
- approved payroll and personnel changes;
- approved a part-time laborer position hire at Mike Miller Park at a rate of $8.17 per hour;
- reappointed Jean Sanders and Jimmy Newton to serve on the Gilbertsville Fire Department board; and
- adopted an ordinance approving and authorizing an assistance agreement with the Kentucky Rural Water Finance Corporation to proceed with additional financing (principal amount not to exceed $687,500) to rehabilitate the county’s sanitation infrastructure.
See the full Nov. 7 meeting here: