The Leitchfield City Council held a special called meeting Tuesday afternoon and voted on a replacement for Raymond “Tooty” Cottrell, who stepped down from his position effective Tuesday night at midnight.
The meeting, with no visitors allowed, was broadcast live on the city’s Facebook page. Councilmen Harold Miller and Billy Dallas participated in the meeting via cellphone hookup.
Cottrell replaced
After a 3-3 vote by council members, Mayor Rick Embry, who promoted former City Attorney Dennie Fentress as Cottrell’s replacement, broke the tie with a vote for Fentress (Billy Dallas, Tooty Cottrell and Kelly Stevenson voted yea; Harold Miller, Clayton Miller and Margie Decker voted nay).
Fentress will serve the remainder of Cottrell’s term which expires on December 31, 2020.
Cottrell said when he submitted his resignation that he is stepping down for medical reasons, as he has a surgery scheduled that will cause him to miss several meetings and render him unable to effectively represent his constituents.
He made it clear, though, he will remain on the ballot in 2020. He said his medical issue will be resolved by the time he would take office again if elected.
Bids for computer wiring work
The council received bids for computer (IT) wiring work at the new Leitchfield City Hall and Leitchfield Police Department headquarters, also known as the old Rite Aid building.
Commonwealth Systems’ bid of $37,673 was the lowest bid received, but Leading Edge Networking, a small company based in Elizabethtown, won the contract with a bid of $43,000.
The council selected the company partly because it has worked extensively with the Leitchfield Police Department, the Leitchfield Animal Shelter, and city government. Furthermore, according to Embry, if issues were to arise regarding computer wiring, Hollowell is “only a phone call away.”
Additionally, the $43,000 bid included supplying components above and beyond the original bid specs.
LPD HQ to receive camera upgrade
The council also approved amending the city’s budget by $10,640 to purchase a “high-grade” camera upgrade at the Leitchfield Police Department. The cost includes equipment, installation and moving the camera system to LPD’s new location at the old Rite Aid building. That project is expected to be completed in August 2020.
LPD Chief David Riley said the cameras currently utilized by the police department “are becoming unreliable, (and) these cameras need to be functioning and they are not.”
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
