The Leitchfield City Council at Tuesday night’s meeting agreed, with a caveat, to allow the purchase of a truck for a city employee shared by parks and recreation and public works.
Parks and Recreation Director Tammee Saltsman requested permission from the council to purchase a 2017 Toyota Tacoma extended cab truck, with 91,000 miles, for Terry Ashley, a licensed electrician and HVAC expert who primarily works for the parks and rec department but also provides expertise to Leitchfield Public Works.
Saltsman said she originally approached the Leitchfield Tourism Commission about the purchase, but the commission requested she first speak with the city council.
Saltsman asked the council to approve reallocating $10,000 from the parks and rec budget, earmarked for resealing a section of the Beville Park parking lot (the “upper” lot by the playground and pavilion), to the purchase of the $23,300 truck. The remainder of the $13,300 purchase price would be provided by Leitchfield Tourism.
She said the vehicle Ashley is currently driving is “a very, very old” truck “built in the ‘90s” that has no air conditioning and over 200,000 miles on the odometer.
The current truck “has some issues. It functions, but we don’t know how long it will function,” Saltsman told the council. “I feel it’s a need. He (Ashley) does do a lot of traveling. And to be honest with you, he’s done a lot of work for the pool. If it wasn’t for him, we probably would have had to close (the aquatic center) three weeks ago.”
Mayor Harold Miller noted that the truck currently driven by Ashley “was pulled out of the weeds and freshened up for him to drive.”
Ashley, Saltsman said, lives near Bee Spring and comes into town for pool season seven days per week, in addition to his duties with Public Works.
Councilmember Billy Dallas raised a concern about the purchase. Not because he feels Ashley doesn’t need a vehicle, but because of the number of city employees who have take-home vehicles.
“I guess what I’m getting at is, we have a lot of people driving vehicles,” Dallas said.
Miller agreed, saying, “I think that’s a valid question (regarding) take-home vehicles. A good portion of the year Terry would need one because of the standby issues with the aquatic center.”
Councilman Denny Fentress then proposed reviewing and possibly rewriting the city’s take-home vehicle policy, an idea Miller said he was open to discussing.
A vote was then held, with the council unanimously approving the reallocation of $10,000 within the parks and rec budget to purchase the Toyota, contingent upon the Tourism Commission agreeing to remit the balance of $13,300.
Zoning changes
The council approved two zoning request changes, following the lead of the Planning Commission, which approved the zoning modifications on August 15.
The first zoning change request approved was for 201 Mill Street, which will be amended from B-1 (neighborhood business) to C-1 (highway commercial).
That approval was followed by changing the zoning designation at 161 Hanging Rock Road from I-2 (heavy industrial) to R-2 (single-family, medium density).
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
