LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. — The Laurel County Fiscal Court approved a pay raises for county employees Thursday to start on July 1.

For the new fiscal year, hourly employees will receive a 50-cent per hour raise. Salaried employees will receive a standard 2.96 cost of living (CPI - Consumer Price Index) raise, according to a representative with the Laurel County Judge Executive’s office. This raise will not include employees at the Laurel County Detention Center and the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, both of which operate on a separate budget.

Employees at the sheriff’s office and the jail receive raises according to their departmental budget and those raises are set and approved by the sheriff and jailer, for their respective agencies, according to their individual budgets.

Also during Thursday’s regular monthly meeting, resolutions 2012-01 and 2012-02 were approved unanimously by magistrates. These resolutions, through Hazard Mitigation, on behalf of the 9-1-1 Board and the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, allow the pursuit of grant money through coal mining funds to purchase digital communication equipment for the 9-1-1 Dispatch Center and sheriff’s office.

While most emergency agencies are trending to the digital communications systems, the equipment is costly, and grant money would go a long way to bringing the 9-1-1 Dispatch Center and sheriff’s office up to the newest technological standards.  

The Cumberland Valley Area Development District will administer the grants, according to a representative with the Laurel County Judge-Executive’s Office.

Magistrates also approved taking two more roads into the county’s road maintenance system. Good Neighbor Way off Sasser Road in the eastern part of the county and Tornado Hill, in the Hawk Creek community, are now part of the county road system.

Greer Construction got the bid to seal pavement on county roads at a cost of $3.80 per square yard.

The county is now two more trucks closer to stocking their fleet with enough trucks to serve each community in the county — a goal Judge-Executive David Westerfield is diligently pursuing during his administration. Magistrates voted in favor of purchasing two surplus highway trucks from the state transportation department. The cost of both trucks is $20,500.

The second reading of Ordinance 230.4 of the amendment to personnel, policies and procedures was also adopted. This amendment applies to training for the county’s road department and pertains to potential pay raises as certain trainings are completed.

Magistrates also approved the 2011 audit for Laurel County Clerk’s Office. The clerk’s office took in $12.8 million during 2011.



njohnson@sentinel-echo.com