Page 2 October 9, 2014 Adair County Community Voice

see if they want to be taxedon that? Rather than haveeight guys decide on that?”If a petition went through,McKaker said he wouldhave no opposition to thetax.Roy Rademacher com-mented differently, sayinghe was completely support-ive of the council membersand their proposed occupa-tional tax. Every tax is un-fair to somebody, but thisone appears to be justified,he said.“I think the only unfairtax would be an unneces-sary tax,” he said.Rademacher also findsthe council members to befocused on the city rather

than their upcoming elec-tions due to the timing ofthe vote on the tax.“Bringing it up prior tothe election is a pretty bravemove,” he said. ”And I be-lieve that your hearts arewith the city and as a con-cern other than your popu-larity at the poll.”On the other hand, TomFrasier, who works but doesnot live within the city lim-its, is opposed to the tax.“I don’t think it’s right,from what I understand,that it only affects 12 per-cent of the people that livein Columbia,” he said. “Thatmeans 88 percent of thepeople who are going to betaxed have no say inwhether you all get to sit inthose seats or not, and Ithink that’s wrong.”

Frasier sees the occupa-tional tax as taxation with-out representation, as wellas being unnecessary. Hebelieves Columbia is a finesmall town the way it is anddoes not need to competewith Campbellsville andother cities.Mayor Mark Harris be-lieves otherwise. He saidColumbia has been missingout for not having imple-mented the occupational taxsooner, as have other towns,some that Columbia resi-

dents work in.“We could be so far aheadnow had this been done along time ago,” he said.“This is a major thingtonight of moving Columbiaforward.”County member RobertFlowers said this tax wouldalso benefit other cities. Theportion of the income fromthis tax going into economicdevelopment could eventu-ally allow job growth thatwould employ people fromall over Adair County and

other counties, Flowerssaid.He also said the fundingwould improve parks thatfamilies could enjoy androads connected to othercities.Following his comments,Flowers made the motionthat the ordnance beadopted, which was sec-onded by Craig Dean.Linda Waggener then at-tempted to start a motionthat all of the income fromthe occupational tax be putinto the general operatingfund. This motion was im-possible due to the fact thatthe other one was alreadyput into place.All council membersvoted in favor of the occupa-tional tax except Waggener,who voted against it.

Another motion, made byCharles Grimsley and sec-onded by Waggener, waslater passed to implement anew strategic plan, whichwas formed by Grimsley.“(The plan is that) themayor and city council getcharged with creating astrategic plan that will entailall the operations of the citygovernment, including therestricted uses of the occu-pational use tax, that in-cludes specific details ofpublic meetings, with meet-ings to commence the sec-ond quarter of 2015,”Grimsley said.All council membersvoted in favor of the planexcept Flowers, who votedagainst it.

By James D. McIntosh Jr.james@adairvoice.com

Continued from front page

City passes occupational tax

be presented at the fiscalcourt meeting next Tues-day.Because the rate was notfinalized last month, the fis-cal court voted to delay taxbills.

PVA Jeff Feese said taxbills should be able to go outthe last week of October.The two percent discountoffered to taxpayers whopay in the first 30 days is ex-pected to begin on Nov. 3,Feese said.

By James D. McIntosh Jr.james@adairvoice.com

‘I think the only unfair tax wouldbe an unnecessary tax.’

Roy RademacherCitizen of Columbia

EMS decidestax rate

Continued from front page

One person was injuredin a single vehicle accidenton the Louie B. Nunn park-way last Wednesday andwas flown out for her in-juries.According to police,Marissa Combs, 18, of New-port, was traveling east onthe parkway when she ran

off the road, over corrected,struck an embankment andthen a tree.Combs was transportedby EMS to Westlake Re-gional Hospital where shewas flown out for injuriessustained in the accident.Columbia City Police areinvestigating and were as-

sisted by Adair CountyEMS and Columbia/AdairCounty Fire Department.Shortly following the ac-cident, a second accidentoccurred at the same scenebefore law enforcement hadcleared the first wreck.Apparently a motoristquickly stopped to view the

accident, causing a semi be-hind the vehicle to veer offthe roadway to prevent acollision. The truck over-turned in the median. Thedriver was not injured. Kentucky State Police Ve-hicle Inforcement investi-gated. See more details onpage 7.

Tuesday morning fatalitybeing investigated

The Adair County Sher-iff’s office is investigating afatality accident that oc-curred early Tuesdaymorning in the MillerfieldCommunity.According to the policereport, the call was re-ceived around 2:30 a.m.for a single vehicle acci-dent on Millerfield Road,just before FreemanCoomer Road.Upon arrival, a yellowFord Ranger was found offthe roadway and it’s driver,

Billy Grider, 39, of AdairCounty was ejected fromthe roadway.Grider was pronounceddead at the scene by AdairCounty Coroner ToddAkin. Adair County Sheriff’sDeputy Jared Conover isinvestigating. He was assisted by Co-lumbia Police Department,Adair County EMS andmembers of the KnifleyArea Volunteer Fire De-partment.

One flown out after wreck on parkway

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The audit of former AdairCounty Clerk Shelia Blairwas released by State Audi-tor Adam Edelen last week. According to the release,Blair had three items that re-quired comments from theauditors.The audit found a lack ofinternal controls over ac-counts receivables and theywere not properly reconciledto the receipts ledger.Also, there was no writtenpolicy for the allowance orcollection of accounts receiv-ables. The audit states that Blairallowed automobile dealer-ships, attorneys and othersto charge services. Thedeputy processing the chargetransaction was responsiblefor recording the receivablein the charge book as well asposting the collection of thecharged amount when it wasreceived. It was noted thattotal charges were not beingreconciled to the total

charges paid and althoughthe monthly charge reporttotals from the automatedcharge system agreed to theamounts posted to the re-ceipts ledger, there was anoverall difference of $652between the year end totalsfor charges and charges paid. The auditor’s office wasable to account for all thefunds but $120, which couldnot be explained. The audit also states thatBlair’s office lacked adequatesegregation of duties over ac-counting functions. It says that Blair anddeputies were responsiblefor receiving cash and eachdeputy balanced their owncash drawer. Deputies ro-tated the responsibility ofpreparing the daily checkoutsheet, posting to the receiptledger and preparing as wellas making deposits. The audit says that this in-creases the risk that errorscould occur and not be de-

tected. Blair used a fingerprintrecognition time keepingsystem to record hoursworked by the employees ofthe office and that the em-ployees were required toclock in and out each dayusing this system. At the end of each pay pe-riod the system would gener-ate a report that wasreviewed by Blair and usedto document the hours foreach employee.However, auditors weretold that the county clerkand at least one other em-ployee had the ability tooverride the fingerprint sys-tem and enter employees’times manually. The audi-tors found that during the2013 calendar year, therewere 1,084 overrides. The clerk’s office had atotal of 10 employees andoverrides were made for allof them. Overrides per em-ployee ranged from six to 173

times. Overrides without ex-planation were limited tothree, all of which were forthe same employee. The audit says that Blaircould have documented thereasons for them and main-tained this documentationfor the auditor’s review. This was the only sectionthat had a response fromBlair, while all others wereleft blank. Blair stated that the timeclock system was not work-ing correctly due to technicalproblems and compatibilityissues. Blair stated that em-ployees manually wrotedown their times whichwould have been recordedon the time clock. Blairstated that she manually en-tered the times in the sys-tem, but failed to keep thedocuments with the explana-tion because she was un-aware she needed to do so.

By Toni Humphresstoni@adairvoice.com

School district scores headed in right direction

The numbers for theschool district have been re-leased for the 2013 schoolyear. The Adair County SchoolDistrict as a whole is in theneeds improvement cate-gory with an overall score of64.1.Adair County High Schoolshowed the biggest im-provement with a score of

69.4.While that is still in theneeds improvement cate-gory, it is now listed as aneeds improvement/pro-gressing, known as a highprogress school. The high school alsojumped from 10th in 2012to 65th in 2013 and the col-lege and career readinesspercentage went from 48 to

69.8, meaning more thantwo-thirds of the highschool students are collegeor career ready. To be a proficient school,a high school needs a overallscore of 70.1.Adair County MiddleSchool is still classified as aneeds improvement schoolwith an overall score of 61.9but is now considered pro-

gressing and has gotten outof the “focus school” cate-gory, which it has been infor several years.Adair County Elementaryand Adair County PrimaryCenter received a score of62.8 and are also listed inthe needs improvement cat-egory.

Toni Humphresstoni@adairvoice.com

Edelen releases audit on former county clerk

A Newport woman was injured in an accident on the parkway last week.

ACHS EARNS ‘HIGH PROGRESS’ RANK