Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Harlan County Fiscal Court discussed various topics during their November meeting, including an update on the Portal 31 Welcome Center Renovation project and the issue of bears rummaging through people’s garbage.
Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley brought in Scott Noel of Summit Engineering to bring the magistrates up to speed on the project’s progress.
“Finally, the Portal 31 plans are finished,” Noel said. “We had some utility matter we had to get squared away, and then the concrete roof/deck showed some really bad signs of deterioration.”
According to Noel, the project is ready to proceed.
“We’re seeking your approval for us to advertise for bids,” Noel said. “Upon approval, we’ll get the advertisement ready. Right now, we’re under the threshold to have to bid past 21 days…I’d like to be able to seek bids before your next Fiscal Court meeting.”
Mosley mentioned restrooms were a top priority of the project.
“That’s really the base of the project,” Noel stated. “The safety stuff is in the base bid. But there are some other things at the facility that are in need of repair, it’s just we all have the budget we have to work within.”
Noel said lower priority items such as windows will be bid separately.
“We’d like to only accept this bid one time and have the project move forward,” Noel said. “That’s why we’ve broken up some of those other things that are less of a priority.”
Magistrate Paul Browning asked if heating and cooling systems would be addressed in the initial bid.
“It will be addressed, obviously, for the restrooms,” Noel said. “The structure is not that big, so what we have to put in for the restrooms will be more than enough…so that’s automatically going to be addressed.”
Browning made a motion to advertise for bids for the Portal 31 Welcome Center Renovation project, seconded by Magistrate Paul Caldwell. The motion passed with no objection.
The court also discussed a solid waste contract between Harlan Count and Waste Connections.
“I had this on here today because the contract technically has an auto renewal in it for the first five years,” Mosley said. “There were some things in auto renewal that we really didn’t like that we wanted to talk through. We met with Waste Connections a couple weeks ago and had that conversation, and they’re in the process of looking at that to see what they can do on their end.”
Mosley said Waste Connections is looking into adjustments on garbage pickups the county is having to perform due to Waste Connections lack of a vehicle which can access certain locations.
“One of the issues we had was that they acquired a one-ton truck to be able to pick these up,” Mosley said. “It creates a lot of undue burden; at one point it was over 90 individual pickups county wide that the solid waste department/recycling center was picking up weekly. We’re going to eliminate that, they are acquiring a one-ton truck, we know that’s going to happen. We discussed some ways that perhaps additional services could be provided, they’re looking at that as well.”
Mosley told the magistrates he expected to be able to act on the matter in December.
“I just wanted to give you a heads up,” Mosley said. “I’ve been very happy with the commercial and residential service Waste Connections provides.”
Magistrate James Howard took the opportunity to mention bears are a constant problem when it comes to garbage.
“This is going to be one of the worst years for bears getting into garbage,” Howard said. “I’ve had all kinds of calls, and I know the other magistrates have too.”
Howard noted the task of keeping bears out of garbage is easily accomplished by using garbage cans with securable lids.
“Bears are really smart,” Howard said. “Once they’ve seen they can’t get in there, they look somewhere else.”
Howard also suggested not putting garbage outside until garbage pickup day.
“That’s the best advice,” Mosley said. “Try not to put (garbage) outside until the morning of pickup day. It’s hard for people that have larger families to do that…but we do it because we are blessed with bears in our community.”
Howard pointed out there have been bears sighted in Harlan County expected to weigh approximately 800 pounds.
“It’s something that certainly have become a bigger issue over the course of time because there are more bears out there,” Mosley said.