The Harlan Fiscal Court learned during a meeting on Tuesday the Tri-City Rescue Squad has been dissolved and the organization is being merged with the Harlan Rescue Squad.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley brought the topic up to the magistrates near the meeting’s halfway point.

“There has been an ongoing issue for the last several months with the Tri-City Rescue Squad being out of compliance with the state,” Mosley said. “(Harlan County Emergency Management Director) David McGill has been working with them trying to get everything back up to par over the last several months.”

Mosley explained efforts to bring the Tri-City Rescue Squad into compliance have not succeeded.

“They submitted a lot of material to the state back at the end of December,” Mosley said. “However, the state determined it was not sufficient and they would not reinstate them from a worker’s compensation perspective.”

Mosley said a meeting was held with the Tri-City Rescue Squad at 5 p.m. Monday.

“I also scheduled a public meeting to discuss the issue with the public at 6:30,” Mosley said. “After meeting with the rescue squad, it was our belief that it was time for the Tri-City Rescue Squad to dissolve and become part of the Harlan County Rescue Squad so the doors could open back up as soon as possible.”

Mosley said the Tri-City Rescue Squad has been unable to respond to any incidents since May.

“Their members have not been certified to respond due to not having worker’s compensation coverage,” Mosley said.

Mosley noted the meeting included Magistrate David Kennedy and members of the squad.

“The members believed that considering the amount of people that have participated with the Tri-City Rescue Squad in the past…that indeed it was time to vote to dissolve and merge with the Harlan County Rescue Squad,” Mosley said. “They signed a statement of dissolution and merger and we had that notarized.”

Mosley advised Harlan County Clerk Donna Hoskins to reflect in the minutes as of Feb. 19 the Tri-City Rescue Squad voted to dissolve and merge with the Harlan County Rescue Squad and transfer all assets to the Harlan County Rescue Squad.

“The bottom line was we lacked volunteers,” Kennedy said. “The people are okay with it becoming part of the Harlan County Rescue Squad…it’s going to be a good thing for everybody.”

Mosley said 17 individuals from the Tri-City area stated they would now be willing to volunteer to be members of the Harlan County Rescue Squad.

“That was very encouraging,” Mosley said.

Mosley stated there is a meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Senior Citizen’s Center in Cumberland to take applications from those who are interested in joining the Harlan County Rescue Squad.

In other court activity:

• Monitoring and reporting services for 2018 from Bell Engineering for the Harlan County Landfill were approved;

• A grant agreement for the Cumberland Hope Community Center was approved;

• KY 219 at Wallins was named “Mountain Santa Mike Howard Road”;

• A bridge located on 3451 White Star Road at Dayhoit was named “A1C William “Billy” Nagel III Bridge.”