SALYERSVILLE – The Salyersville City Council met in regular session on Monday, February 16.
The council held the second reading of an open burning ordinance, which prohibits open burning of garbage within the city limits, allowing only recreational or cooking fires. The ordinance passed in a unanimous roll call vote.
While discussing the bills, Councilman Paul Montgomery mentioned there are several street lights out on Dixie Avenue. Salyersville Mayor Stanley Howard said he would have those checked and called in to be serviced.
The council approved to pay the bills for the city and for Salyersville Water Works.
They also held the first reading of the ordinance to set the date and time for regular monthly city council meetings, to be held on the third Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at Salyersville City Hall.
Howard said he had received an email from the Department of Highways that they could proceed with the Parkway Beautification project and will be receiving the permits to start working on the project. They will be ready to open bids for that project in roughly six weeks. They will have to advertise the project (bid as one project) in the newspaper and contractors can receive the bid package from Lynn Imaging. The bid package will also be available for review only at Salyersville City Hall.
The council approved the invoice of $6,000 for Bell Engineering for their design work on the beautification project and Howard said he would arrange for a meeting with the council and Bell for next week to discuss the design before the project is bid out.
The city reportedly received state and local fiscal recovery funds, unobligated funds totaling $5,150.12 that have not been used and the Department of Treasury wants refunded, which the council agreed to refund.
Howard updated the council on the Salyersville Water Intake Generator Project, stating they would be receiving more FEMA money and their share of the project would be $19,917 for a generator at the river. He claimed they will get $114,900 from the federal and $18,358 from the state for the project, but they have to pay for it first and then get reimbursed. The council approved for him to go Salyersville National Bank to get the paperwork started for a loan for the project, to be paid back when the money is refunded. Howard said they expect the money to be reimbursed in a few months. He also said they have submitted the project to the KIA in hopes to have the $19,917 covered, as well, but that’s not guaranteed. Big Sandy Area Development is overseeing the generator project.
The council considered a set of resolutions for the sewer project, including a fair housing resolution, model procurement code/resolution, cost over run resolution, and anti-displacement relocation assistance resolution. The fair housing resolution basically states that they won’t displace anyone from their homes through this project. The resolutions have to be passed so state funding can be released after the audit is concluded. Each were approved by the council.
Mayor Howard said the city has applied for $3 million for FY27 congressional line item funds to help repair the existing sewer system.
Howard said he signed the final paperwork on the pending audit for the city last week, so he expects it to be released this week (no news of it at press time).
A community member in attendance said he had talked with several Hispanic people on a job site in the city limits who had told him they were working here for cash, driving in from Lexington, noting the job sites need to be policed to make sure the contractors have appropriate business licenses and pay their occupational tax. Howard said he has contacted the contractor and they are back-paying the occupational taxes owed.
Another member of the public addressed the council and stated her name was Rebecca Mortimer. Mayor Howard then said, “Oh, you’re the Dairy Queen lady? The reason I don’t go in there.” She confirmed she has worked there for 26 years and has never had any sewage issues. She stated that they do not pour grease down the drains. She said she had researched that areas with restaurants, gas stations, or any public traffic, the sewer system is supposed to maintenanced and cleaned every six months. Residential is every two years. She said she asked the mayor and he told her they do not do any maintenance whatsoever.
“In order for your infrastructure to survive, you need to do preventative maintenance,” Mortimer said. “You all as a council took over the water and the sewer. They couldn’t even tell me who the main person is over the sewage. Stanley named Butchie. I asked Butchie and he said no, he was just water plant. Who’s the boss over sewage? Where’s the schedule for maintenance?”
Mortimer further asked, “When’s the last time the lines were took care of?” You can buy pumps all day long, but if you don’t have the clean line, that pump is just going to tear up. So where’s your maintenance? If you all do not know how to run a business and how to maintain the equipment that you are responsible for, why are you even in charge of it?”
She also asked the council if they have ever had sewage smell in their own homes or noticed it while dropping of their kids at the middle school.
“I’ve had doctor’s offices [employees] come through Dairy Queen saying they have smells, too,” Mortimer said. “We’ve had a leakage in front of Dairy Queen and the hot dog stand for days and nobody came out there to service or clean the lines until it was backed up into Dairy Queen. But do you all have a maintenance schedule?”
The mayor replied, “Not at the time.”
David Gardner said the three-minute time limit was not passed specific enough to be enforceable. He congratulated the council for correctly reading the title and summary of ordinances passed. He also pointed out that the city took over Water Works, but Salyersville Water Works does not exist as an entity, but as a department of the City of Salyersville.
“You continue to operate and act as if it is separate,” Gardner said. “It is not a separate entity anymore.”
Gardner showed a copy of the bill list for about six months, noting they don’t approve certain items in meetings if those items are generally included on the budget, but said there is no budget for Water Works, so all expenses should be approved, otherwise it would be fraud. His time limit ended and they did not respond to his statement.
Brandy Lain presented a comment dated January 2026 from the City of Salyersville stating the city does not maintain policy, procedures, ordinances, resolutions, rules or guidelines governing public comment at council meetings, including time limits, etc. She stated her concerns were in regards of helping the community to be better informed.
“Through speaking through various groups, some state-level officials, department leaders from different agencies involved with infrastructure – sewer and water, utilities – I have found we are facing a very alarming situation here in our community because guidelines have not been met, records have not been maintained or up to date, maybe there was no preparation for maintaining certain services, whatever the case may be, we find ourselves in the situation. My concern was to find out what does the council do? What does the mayor do? What are all these things you’re working with? The rules, the regulations, the ordinances, etc.?”
She explained she has made a variety of Open Records Requests to the city, noting she knows she has overwhelmed the city clerk with those requests. She said the city has responded to some requests within the time limit, asked for extensions for some of those, and several were not responded to. She also said she appreciated the city employee for giving her TikTok page views.
Earlier in the meeting, during the discussion about the street lights, a city employee seemingly turned her laptop toward the crowd and media cameras and then played a lip sync-style video from TikTok of a woman in attendance. The woman in the video had addressed the council last meeting with questions about information from Open Records Requests she had received from the city and the Division of Water.
Terry Salyer also addressed the council, noting he is a resident of Back Street and referenced the water issues they’ve had during the accumulations of ice recently. “There were line breakages all over Back Street, at least probably seven instances, and it’s probably happened another seven times over the last two or three years. The line is just about obsolete and I’m here, basically, like some of the other people, with a concern. I’ll be honest with you, I know some of these people in the gallery and I know all of the council. It disturbs me to see what is going on. People have got to work together. People have got to listen to each other. People have got to listen to things. And come up with some solutions or a plan. We can’t be mouthing off at each other and ticked off at each other from the personal level. This city has got to start working together. As business people, as residents and all this, we have concerns that we want to come here on a three-minute time limit to be able to express our concerns from the resonance of people who pay taxes to the city and pay taxes to the county, so we ought to have the right to be able to speak and say our concerns. If something’s not done, well, there’s probably other neighborhoods in Magoffin County in which this Water Works issue applies still. We’ve got to have a plan. I’ve had raw sewage dumped down my sewage on my street from other areas, because they’ve got problems there, and in mine sewage is backed up all the way to the river back here, so when we get any flooding action whatsoever, guess where it comes. It comes right in front of my house. Right up to my door. Please, ad I’m appealing to you all, and I’m willing to offer my services to help in any way possible because I’m semi-retired. We’ve got to get a plan and communicate with the residents who are in this county and city of what you’re trying to do.”
Salyer said he went without water pressure for five days. He said more can be done with the state of emergency, but they have to be willing to work together with the community to make a plan and keep the community aware of the plan to avoid the attitudes expressed during the public comment section of the meeting.
Public commentors were given a three-minute limit during the meeting.
Councilman Montgomery said it’s not only people’s right to question the way things are going: it is people’s duty as Americans.
“I’ve been called a thief and a liar,” Montgomery said. “I’d like to know the first thing I’ve lied about and the first thing I’ve stole. I’ve had people go up to my child and say, ‘How come your daddy won’t fix the sewer?’ He doesn’t even know what a city council is. To get respect you got to give it. I’ve tried my best to help anybody that asks me. If you ask me for something or other, I’ll get it for you if I can possibly do it. I agree with Terry. We have to work together and we have to come up with a plan. But that being said, that doesn’t give anyone the right to call me a thief and a liar, because I ain’t a thief and I ain’t a liar. Or a fool. I’ve been called a fool, too. I’m foolish and stuff, but I ain’t no fool. I’ve been told I don’t care what happens. I live in this city. I have family in this city. I love this little town. To think I don’t care about what’s going on, and the sewer and the water, that is absolutely ridiculous. I’m not speaking for another person in here. I’m speaking for Paul Montgomery.”
The next regularly scheduled Salyersville City Council meeting is tentatively set for March 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Salyersville City Hall.
The Salyersville Independent is currently looking over claims made by various sides during the meeting for accuracy and legitimacy. Further reporting on issues brought up during this meeting is expected.
