Director Reports - October 2025

Directors met with the Court to report on the progress and activities of their respective departments at this month’s meeting held on Tuesday October 21st.

Finance Office

Michael Mackin
Finance Director

Mr. Mackin delivered a report to the Fiscal Court detailing ABC deposits, pre-paid occupational taxes, rental income taxes, and net profits collected. He also relayed that their office had sent out Net Profits reminder postcards for the first time, calling it a “successful venture.” His office will be looking into email notifications in the future as their online payment and recordkeeping system is developing.

Judge Clark also highlighted the fact that employee numbers across Rowan County had ticked down by about 78 positions over the course of September according to the report, and while it was a decline, it is not a cause for alarm as the job market fluctuates normally due to position vacancies, construction contracts coming to their conclusion, and a number of other factors.

Road Department

Steve Kelsey
Road Foreman

Mr. Kelsey began his report by thanking Office Manager Doris Plank for her service to the County and wishing her well, as she will be leaving near the end of the month.

He followed up by addressing some comments made on social media from a few days prior to the meeting, the general sentiment of which was that there were many roads still requiring attention across the county after the contracted resurfacing by Hinkle Contracting Company was completed for the year. Mr. Kelsey stated that while the contracted resurfacing was completed with remarkable success and with an excellent product, the work of the Road Department itself is still very much in full swing with ditching and patching continuing across the county.

The Court is considering renting two shouldering machines this fall to work with the County’s two skid steers, with plans to dress the shoulders of all roads paved in the last two years. Crews are stockpiling dense grade aggregate in preparation for this, and Judge Clark is in talks with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for the purposes of acquiring asphalt millings to apply to the roadsides with these machines, something to our knowledge which has never happened before and would make a great improvement to road conditions.

He thanked his employees at the Road Department for the good work they’ve done over the last year, and thanked the Maintenance Department, Mr. Rodney Perkins and Mr. Josh Brown, as well as Building Inspector Mr. Justin Caudill for their work on building the County’s new salt barn, which is now complete and ready to be filled for winter. Mr. Kelsey also thanked Jailer Wes Coldiron for allowing the inmates out to help with some of this work.

Moreover, the Road Foreman had many good things to say about the two mechanics working in the new county garage, Mr. Kent Logan and Mr. Justin Perkins. They are tasked with not only maintaining the road department’s large fleet of vehicles and equipment. They also maintain vehicles operated by Rowan County EMS, Emergency Management, the Detention Center, the Recycling Center, the Animal Shelter, and nearly every other vehicle owned by the County. Bringing this type of work in-house, which was not the case up until a few years ago, has saved the county an enormous amount of money in repair costs, and work is being put out at a much faster pace than ever before. In one recent instance, Mr. Logan and Mr. Perkins replaced the transmission of an ambulance unit themselves rather than having a large job like that sent out – saving the County over $7,000. Magistrate Winkleman remarked that he thinks bringing this work in-house is one of the best decisions that the County has made.

More discussion was had over the 350+ miles of road in Rowan County that this department is tasked with maintaining, with well over 700 named county roads in all to mow, ditch, pothole patch, and gravel as funding is allowed.

If you don’t see one of our 17 dedicated employees working directly in front of your residence on any given day, rest assured that they are without fail working on another road somewhere in Rowan County that requires more immediate attention. Resources and manpower are our limiting factors, and we try to address the most glaring issues on the most traveled roads first. However, please do not hesitate to let us know about your road concerns by contacting the office at (606) 784-4492, or by contacting your Magistrate, and we will see that it’s addressed as best as we are able.

The county’s newly constructed salt storage barn. This structure has nearly double the salt storage capacity of the Road Department’s previous shed, and we intend to order enough salt to fill it this month in preparation for winter.

Pictured above is the newly surfaced Community Way, leading to the Harry T. Community Park. Hinkle Contracting Company was kind enough to donate their labor to this project, with an estimated value of around $25,000 in savings to the County.

One of the Road Department’s trucks undergoing maintenance in the new county garage.

The asphalt emulsion tank for the Total Patcher machine the county recently purchased has been installed, and the smaller temporary one pictured at the foreground will soon be returned.

Wes Coldiron
County Jailer

Detention Center

Jailer Wes Coldiron reported that the Detention Center was again having an issue with their chiller, having blown a valve and subsequently a copper line. It is currently being serviced and is at 50% operational capacity, which thankfully it’s not as critical at this time of year with temperatures starting to back down. He also thanked the Road Foreman for his crew’s help in maintaining the Detention Center’s transport vehicles.

Jailer Coldiron commented, “This is a small county. The whole nation needs to take a look at how this county operates and works together. … If you work together, you can get things done, and I feel like we all do that pretty well here.”

The population of the Detention Center on October 21 was 270.

Tyler Brown
Env. Services Director

Environmental Services

Mr. Tyler Brown began by relaying the litter abatement statistics to date, which constitute 27 open dump sites cleaned up, 558 road miles cleaned, and 7,813 bags of garbage removed from the roadsides of Rowan County. He also reported on the recent Free Disposal Day at the landfill, with around 90 cars participating. As was customary at this point in the meeting, he also thanked Steve Kelsey and the Road Department for helping maintain the Recycling Center fleet.

Tyler and the Court discussed the upcoming tire disposal event, remarking on the lifecycle of these tires, how the County is now getting some of these tires back in the form of recycled rubber picnic tables and benches at the new Harry T. Clark Community Park.

Kim Adams
Animal Control Officer

Animal Control

Kim began the report by delivering shelter numbers for the previous month, taking in 13 cats and 18 dogs, adopting out 24 cats and 11 dogs, 4 cats and 3 dogs being reclaimed by their owners, and 2 dogs sent to rescue. The population on October 21st was 17 dogs and 16 cats available for adoption. Kim thanked the volunteers who were helping out a lot around the shelter, as well as the Road Department for maintaining their truck.

Kim and the Court discussed how rescues and shelters alike were having trouble moving animals across the state. The importance of spaying and neutering your animals cannot be understated.

Homer Lewis
EMS Director

EMS

Mr. Lewis began by reporting that 5,287 runs had been made as of the morning of October 21st. The daily run totals are slowly increasing, and if they keep the same pace, we are projected to have a record breaking 6,500 runs this year. Transfers are slightly down, but emergency calls for service has made up the difference.

The new Stryker stretchers the County ordered in September have arrived and are in the bay, but not yet in service. The power load systems that are to be installed on the trucks are scheduled to be fitted at the end of October. New Lucas Devices are in, and on the trucks in service. UK St. Claire has agreed to purchase a ventilator for EMS to use during transfers, something we do not currently have but would be a great benefit to both the hospital and EMS.

All trucks are currently operating and in service.

Paramedic Kevin Brown with one of the new LUCAS Devices to assist with automated chest compressions during patient transport.

Pictured above left to right: Greg Wells, Kevin Brown, Ginger Lewis, Homer Lewis, Tracy Perkins, William Logan, Cindy Glover, Harry Clark.