Grayson County Judge-Executive Kevin Henderson is responding to the Leitchfield City Council’s decision to not join the county in building a farmers market location.
“For a couple of years, we’ve talked to a couple of different individuals about possibly building a farmers market,” Henderson said during Thursday evening’s Fiscal Court meeting. “We’ve looked for different locations to build it. We want it to be on the main drag where people could use it.”
The proposed location would be at 1150 Elizabethtown Road near the American Legion Post 81.
Grayson County is one of only four counties in the commonwealth that does not have a designated location to hold farmers’ markets.
The facility would not be something that would just be used for the market and instead could become a multi-use space, the judge-executive said. He envisioned an ice skating rink that could fill the vacant space in the winter and it could turn into a rain location for events like East Main Market or the Twin Lakes National Fiddler Championship.
Henderson said that it was the city that first contacted him with the idea of building in that specific location.
“I was contacted one day by (Leitchfield) Mayor Harold Miller and Councilman (Dennis) Fentress to look at a piece of property on Highway 62,” he said. “(They wanted to know) whether the county would be interested at going in with them to purchase the property.”
The property owner, Aubrey Beatty, was willing to give the county the first rights to the land because the plan was to use it to benefit the community.
Henderson said he called a special called meeting soon after the visit with the city so that another party could not purchase it from under them. That meeting was held on May 24 when the magistrates voted to acquire the land for $300,000.
“From my understanding, I don’t think the council was for (the idea originally),” Henderson said. “They wanted more information about what was going to be spent, what was going to be done, what kind of facility was going to be built. All legitimate questions.”
Henderson believed that some of those differences were resolved when he learned that the City of Leitchfield budget committee had a meeting that added the purchase of the property.
The council then reportedly unanimously approved the budget with this land purchase/construction in it.
That brings us to Monday evening where Henderson attended the council’s meeting under the impression that moving forward with the project was what the city wanted.
His presentation laid out the plan and tentative cost of the facility. For a location that is 100×200, it would cost approximately $550,000.
To finalize the details on the size, he recommended forming a committee involving representatives from both the city and county to discuss options.
He also told the council that both Warren Beeler, who helped Henderson a lot with the planning stages, and Grayson County Extension Office Agriculture Agent Whitney Carman were willing to help with a $250,000 grant to help fund it.
Despite the presentation, the council voted against the measure with Fentress and Clayton Miller voting in favor and Billy Dallas, Terri Haycraft, Tooty Cottrell, and Jeanna Carnes voting nay.
None of the members of the council gave a reason for their decision during the meeting.
“I was sort of in shock because I was contacted by the city to partner with them and then this happens,” Henderson said. “I knew it was in the budget and it was voted down so I was a little confused quite honestly.”
He says he isn’t sure why the councilmembers that voted against it did what they did, but said that he thinks “there are some underlying issues that I can’t answer.”
While the council’s decision could slow the timeframe down, Henderson still hopes to move forward with the project.
His goal is now to still form a committee with magistrates and representatives from the Extension Office since they’re the ones that sponsor the grant that could match up to $250,000.
Henderson apologizes for ‘hasty decision’ as a result of the city’s vote
Henderson also took time to apologize for a decision that he made on Monday night following the vote where he took away inmate labor from city facilities.
“I made a call and said that if they don’t want to partner with us – it was a hasty decision – just don’t send any inmates down there,” he said. “After cooler heads prevailed, I sent them back down there. They were gone probably 12-14 hours.”
The inmates in question help staff the Leitchfield Animal Shelter and the transfer station with about 20 being sent every day. Additionally, the county provides two full-time employees for the animal shelter to use when needed.
“I wanted to let everyone know that this was under no circumstances a decision of any of the magistrates, the county attorney, sheriff, jailer, clerk, or treasurer,” Henderson added. “This was solely my decision and I corrected the decision.
The judge-executive said that he felt the response from the community almost immediately after the word of taking away inmate labor from the animal shelter was released.
“I got beat up on Facebook and I understand,” he said. “I am as transparent as I can be. I will tell everyone anything they need to know. They might not like the answer, but I can promise you it is the truth.”
Henderson closed by saying that while he is disappointed that the city did not move to join them on this measure, he hopes they can on future projects to truly benefit the area long term.
By: Sam Gormley, Local News
Reach Sam at sam@k105.com
