SALYERSVILLE – The Magoffin County Fiscal Court met in special session on Wednesday, May 17, discussing surveillance camera coverage at the park and the possibility of reapportioning the voting districts in the county.
The fiscal court approved an agreement with ABCO Security for a video system and maintenance for Ramey Memorial Park, with this newest upgrade providing full video surveillance throughout the park.
Magoffin County Judge/Executive Matt Wireman said he hopes this will deter a lot of the drug activity and other illegal activity at the park, noting that Magoffin County 911 staff and administrators in his office will monitor the surveillance footage. He also said they have similar systems at the Bloomington and Half Mountains parks and they’ve already seen benefits of the system at those areas.
“The people that’s doing that stuff is going to do it somewhere, but I don’t want them doing that where the kids are,” Judge Wireman said. “I want them going into dugouts and finding needles and we don’t need people going down there doing donuts and putting people’s lives in danger. We can’t have someone down there watching the place 24/7, but we can have cameras watching.”
Wireman also explained in that meeting that they would have a special-called meeting this week to appoint reapportionment commission, which is required every 10 years after the Census data is released to reevaluate the magistrate and constable districts are reflective of the population.
“What this commission will do is look at all the Census data and the political boundaries, and look at where the people reside and see if we can leave it alone or if we need to adjust it,” Wireman said. “If it’s less than 10%, from the most to the least, we can leave everything alone and come in and say it’s good and move on for another 10 years or until the next Census. If it’s not, then that’s when the work begins and we have to start looking at do we move this precinct over to another ridgeline and take in another hollow to get that 10% or less variance and that’s required, so no way around it.”
Wireman said the commission will have 60 days to look at the data and report a plan to the fiscal court and, once the county gets the plan, they have 60 days to review the plan, accept it or revise it.
In the May 23 special-called meeting, the fiscal court met briefly, appointing the following to the reapportionment board/commission: Stanley Holbrook, Pamela Patrick Russell and Jimmy Salyer. The magistrates on the fiscal court each proposed a name from each district, and was unanimously approved by the court. The commissioners will each be paid $150.
The next regularly-scheduled Magoffin County Fiscal Court meeting is slated for June 20 at 6 p.m. in the fiscal courtroom of the Magoffin County Courthouse Albert Patrick Building.