Christian Fiscal Court on Tuesday morning gave final approval to a $42.3 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Judge-Executive Steve Tribble says while it marks a $13.2 million increase from the current budget, almost all of that increase is due to incoming federal pandemic relief funds.
Planned renovations to the historic Christian County Courthouse didn’t happen this year due to the pandemic and Judge Tribble says funds are in the budget again to get the work done.
There’s also funding in the budget to build a new storage building for the Christian County Jail, though Judge Tribble notes it’s not a done deal it will happen in the next fiscal year.
The budget fully funds the Hopkinsville-Christian County’s Public Library request for $548,223 and gives county employees a 2.4 percent cost of living raise.
Magistrates approved a rural and secondary road fund request from the state to resurface all of Barkers Mill and Cerulean-Princeton Road and to resurface portions of Cox Mill and Crofton Fire Tower Road. The Cox Mill work will go from KY 117 to just past KY 345 and the work on Crofton Firetower will be all but 1.7 miles of the entire route.
The Christian County Animal Shelter received 324 cats and dogs in April and found homes for 302.
Listen to Judge Tribble’s entire comments on budget below: