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The Clark County Fiscal Court met bright and early at 8:00 a.m on the morning of Friday, March 8. 

At this special meeting, a few points seemed to be the main target of conversation. 

Actions to be taken regarding the budget of the Clark County Fiscal Court were discussed, as were following steps regarding the CSEPP, or Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. 

Regarding the first matter, Clark County Judge-Executive Les Yates spoke. 

“If you look at all the numbers, there’s going to be a cash shortfall [that] could hit as early, I think, as the end of March. Then the option comes up: ‘What do we do?’” he said. “We have [pretty much] implemented…a freeze on spending. The main monies that are available right now [are from] the ARPA money.” 

ARPA funds are associated with the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. 

In terms of the financial numbers presented, there were disagreements with several magistrates, who sought clarity on the issue. 

“We all certified [the] budget and agreed upon it. The numbers aren’t the same. The numbers shouldn’t move,” saidMagistrate Ernest Pasley. “Whatever the numbers are in [the county budget] ought to be the numbers that you’re working off of…A lot of them are different. That’s why I’m trying to understand why the expenditures or the revenue aren’t the same [as] on the spreadsheet.” 

Acknowledging that they should be, Yates responded. 

“That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to get this out for discussion right now,” he said. “If a number’s not correct, we’ll fix it. We’ll update this. Eventually, if we’re getting into a situation which I think we might be into, then I want to have this updated probably on a weekly basis and have this emailed to all the magistrates. We need to be coming up with a solution.” 

Yates hypothesized that some budget amounts might have been moved to fill in appropriations on separate line items. 

Magistrate Robert Blanton questioned if any suggestions were possible other than utilizing ARPA funds. 

Magistrate Dan Konstantopoulos suggested that, for different reasons, utilizing only ARPA funds would be an ineffective long-term solution if there were issues that needed to be resolved involving overspending. 

“That doesn’t fix the problem,” he said. 

Seeking further clarity, no decision was made, with the issue to be continually monitored.

Additionally, both CSEPP Director Perri Wilson and Jerrod Dean, the local programs branch manager for the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management, were present to discuss the program’s next steps. 

Created in 1985, the primary goal of CSEPP has long been to enhance and educate the public in emergency preparedness concerning the chemical stockpile stored at the Bluegrass Army Depot. 

It followed as a result of the US Congress directing the US Army through law to dispose of their chemical weapons inventory to maximize protection to the public and environment. 

Wilson spoke. 

“We are now beginning the baby steps projects of closeout for the CSEPP program,” she said.

Dean also spoke, describing CSEPP’s actions and plans. 

“There are three major dates or milestones that the CSEPP program has been looking at over the next several years,” Dean said. “That first milestone was hit July 7, 2023, with the destruction of all chemical munitions on Bluegrass Army Depot. At that time, [the] United States didn’t have any more declared weapons.” 

Though operations are ongoing, future milestones lie ahead. 

“The next major milestone that we’ll see is [forecasted] for December 2024 [or] January 2025. That date will be the surety date.” he said. “The Department of Army will provide KYEM with a surety letter that basically declares there is no more detectable agent at the Depot. What does that mean? At that point, all preparedness funding stops…Anything that has to do with emergency preparedness is no longer eligible for reimbursement with CSEPP funds. What is eligible is closeout costs, so if there’s something in Clark County that CSEPP mandated you to have that you no longer wish to maintain, the program will pay or reimburse the county to remove that capability if there is a cost incurred with that.” 

Such examples could include disposition of equipment. 

Several magistrates had questions, including Magistrate Chris Davis.

Davis inquired whether, if the county wanted to use the property afterward for public safety purposes such as moving a law enforcement agency inside, the court would need to address CSEPP or KYEM during the year as disposition occurs.  

“The guidance we’ve been provided from FEMA Region 4 is to go toward public safety and you have to describe what that intent is,” Dean responded. “If it still serves as an emergency operations center and there were other public safety…it’s still meeting the intent of why that building was constructed.” 

No action regarding the matter was taken.