Brandenburg City Council convenes rare special meeting By JOE REDMON Mayor Ronnie Joyner welcomed guests and gaveled a special called meeting of the Brandenburg City Council into session Nov. 29. Agenda items included a first reading of an ordinance to rename streets and the first reading of an ordinance amending the general fund budget in order to purchase a backhoe. Council members Scotty Applegate, Bruce Fackler, Margaret Love, Carol Nelson, and Bradley Johnston assembled to consider these recommendations. Councilman Patsy Lusk was unable to attend. Discussion regarding the renaming of roads within the city limits ensued, with specific mention that E911 had spurred those changes. However, it quickly became clear the proposed ordinance would change very little about addresses in Brandenburg. “We’ve changed addresses as little as possible – we’ve done only what is necessary and logical, and nothing more,” commented Johnston. When asked for further comment after the meeting, Johnston was candid in his assessment that addresses didn’t need to change for everyone in order to comply with E911 dictates. Each address would have to be manually updated in the master file with or without a new street number. The council viewed assigning new street numbers to everyone in Brandenburg as unnecessary. The vote was unanimous to accept this first reading of Ordinance #457. Ordinance #457 establishes protocols to be utilized when naming streets within the city limits. It also changes the name of Fairway Drive to Hillcrest Drive and changes the current street composed of three names – Atwill, Harden and Monroe – into Atwill Street. The council deemed this logical as this is actually one street which turns and shouldn’t be renamed at each turn. The purchase of the new backhoe sparked some discussion about its financing. Meade County Bank offered financing at a slightly higher rate than that available though the vendor in Louisville. The total cost, counting interest, would be over $60,000. Joyner stated this purchase didn’t need to go through the “normal bid process” because the price paid was already arrived at “utilizing state bid-pricing procedures.” The council voted 4-1 to purchase the backhoe with Johnston objecting to the financing deal. “It’s still one thousand dollars,” he replied when reminded by his fellow council members they’d rather deal with a local bank which pays taxes locally. The council then adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Brandenburg City Council will be Dec. 11, 7:30 p.m., at city hall.
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