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County Council Approves Several New Hires

Last updated on Wednesday, January 29, 2014

(BEDFORD) - The Lawrence County Council started their first meeting of 2014 with appointing Jason Mullis as president and Craig Turpen as vice president Tuesday night.

The council and salary commitee approved the new hires for several departments:

* Curtis McBride from Lawrence County Soil and Water Conservation District requested to hire a person to replace District Coordinator Marsha Ralston, who retired. The salary committee agreed to fill the position but pay would be based on experience.

* Lawrence County Public Defender Lorinda Youngcourt asked to hire a new public defender, who will replace John Plummer III who is taking a position as Circuit Court referee. Youngcourt will hire the new attorney on a 30 probation period and their salary will be paid out of public defender fees.

* Sheriff Sam Craig requested to fill a jailer's position, two full-time dispatch position and a part-time dispatch position and to hire an animal control officer.

* Circuit Court Judge Andrea McCord requested to fill a position in her office.

* Lawrence County Prosecutor Michelle Woodward requested to fill a position in her office that is funded through a grant and pretrial diversion funds.

* Auditor Jody Edwards requested to fill a part-time position in her department.

Edwards also requested to purchase new transfer ledgers for the department and a new phone system for the auditor's office and the treasure's office. The ledgers which will cost approximately $7,400 and the phone system will cost approximately $2,600. The money will be taken from the auditor's ineligible deductions fund.

* Commissioner Dave Flinn updated the council on the purchase of the former Elliott Stone Company on Mitchell Road. The county purchased the property for $400,000 for the Solid Solid Waste Management District and Community Corrections program. The county will pay for the property over a five-year period and lease the facility to the district for use as its new headquarters and recycling center. The district will pay the monthly payment.

The commissioners say the Elliott property is more easily accessible and offers ample space for both a recycling plant plus headquarters for Community Corrections, which is currently operating out of a small building at the county complex on Sandpit Road.

Flinn also updated the commissioners on the courthouse renovations. On Tuesday morning, the commissioners awarded the bid to replace the 100 windows in the courthouse to Tri County Builders.

"Tri County's bid came in $23,000 under budget," Flinn told the council. "We are not sure when the work will begin we are having a meeting with them on February 5th at 10 a.m. and we would like the council to attend."

* Veterans Officer Brad Bough gave each council member a letter of appreciation.

"Our neighboring counties don't have the support that we have and many are only open one day a week," Bough says. "We wanted to show our gratitude for your support with this letter of appreciation."

During 2013 the veteran's office provided more than 5,730 services. Bough told the council that because his office is open every day of the week they are seeing several veterans from other counties coming in for assistance.

"No veteran is every turned away," Bough added.

* The council approved the grant budget for the Lawrence County Health Department for the medical reserve core.

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