In their quest to complete 13 storm shelters across the community, Christian County Fiscal Court and its magistrates made two moves toward those efforts Tuesday morning.
The first: entering into an agreement with the Pennyrile Area Development District, so its leadership can assist with grant pass-through and other administrative needs.
The second: accepting a shelter engineering bid of $891,000 from Spurr Architecture, who will now serve as design leader for all 13 shelters during Phase I — which has a deadline of April 2025, and a cost of more than $10 million mostly funded through grants.
Magistrate Phillip Peterson iterated of the two bids received, including one from Poage of Lexington, Spurr’s was the lowest.
In other court news:
— Emergency Management Director Randy Graham told the court that his office received only one bid for radio system communications shelters. It came from Tower Direct for $151,000, allowing for a quartet of 50,000-pound refurbished buildings to be delivered by crane to each site.
Graham said new ones would cost about $90,000 each, plus shipping.
— Christian County Regional Animal Shelter Executive Director Melissa Goff said more than 220 animals came in through receiving last month: 34 from Hopkinsville, 19 from Oak Grove, 20 from Trigg County and 15 from Todd County. In all, more than 350 animals came in, alongside more than $3,000 in financial donations.
Goff, and Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam, said many of those were specifically for animal sponsorship.
Also last month: there were more than 150 adoptions, 16 rescues, 15 reclaims, 39 pets of the week, accounting for more than 220 outgoing pets. That was 93 dogs, 33 puppies, 32 cats and 62 kittens.
— According to Magistrate John Bruce, the fundraising drive for the Carolinas and Tennessee, through the Hopkinsville-Christian County Airport, generated more than 7,000 pounds of supplies that were airlifted to the devastated region.
Bruce noted it took at least a dozen flights to get everything there.
— County Clerk Melinda Humphries gave a brief election update for the community. She said that Phase I, in which voters can request at-home ballots for mail, ends at 10:59 PM Tuesday night. The people of Christian County, she said, have made 1,000 such requests, and more than 340 have been returned. Citizens have until 6 PM November 5, Election Day, to return them
Phase two begins with absentee in-person, which opens Wednesday at the courthouse and runs about a week.
— Magistrates once again closed Tuesday’s meeting with executive session, with no action taken.
