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The Harlan City Council was advised of a bill being proposed in the Kentucky House of Representatives which would make cities across the state responsible for a large percentage of incarceration costs for inmates arrested within the city limits.

Mayor Joe Meadors brought the proposed legislation to the attention of the council.

“I got an urgent email from the Kentucky League of Cities,” Meadors said. “There’s been a bill introduced in the Kentucky House of Representatives, it’s House Bill 687…it’s a bill that proposes…any offender arrested within a city jurisdiction – for example, anybody arrested in the city of Harlan and taken to the Harlan County Detention Center – we would be subject to a 40 percent cost share of their incarceration fees.”

Meadors urged the council members to contact Kentucky State Representative Adam Bowling and make him aware of their opposition to the proposed legislation.

“It could bankrupt some cities,” Meadors said. “The guy that introduced it is Representative Ryan Dotson of Winchester. I don’t know what his motivation is, but the legislation provides that if we don’t come to an agreement with them and sign a contract, there would be a default agreement that we would be responsible for 40 percent of the total cost of housing an inmate in the county jail.”

The council also considered plans for the upcoming Spring Cleanup, which the city conducts each year.

“I’m going to give you some dates for the next Spring Cleanup,” Meadors said. “They’re subject to change, but I’m pretty sure this is how it’s going to be.”

Meadors told the council Spring Cleanup would include dates from April, 8, through April, 26.

“The first week beginning April 8, and the next week of April 15, that will be Fairview, Bailey Hill, North Main, South Main, the downtown area, Ivy Hill, and Sunshine,” Meadors said. “We’ll make a couple rounds at that, and then we’ll give a number to call if we missed them or they weren’t around when we came around the first time for pickups, so they’ll have a chance to call in and we’ll go back out.”

According to Meadors, the last week of the cleanup will be April 22 – 26.

Meadors also updated the council on some lighting equipment the city has been waiting on.

“We did get word that they have the bases for the roundabout lights,” Meadors said. “I don’t know if they have all of them, they were special made and I know they’ve got a couple of them made, so we’re thinking by the end of this week all of them will be. So, we’ll be starting to put those lights up at the roundabout.”

Meadors mentioned the area at the roundabout can be very dark at night.

“We need those lights,” he said.

Meadors also mentioned a recent issue with sewer odor.

“We’ve had an issue with some sewer odor near Hardees,” Meadors said. “We’ve made tremendous progress there; I think that’s going to be handled. We’ve done a lot of work, and the people are willing to work with us. It’s a bad situation, but we’re going to get it remedied. I look for that to be straightened out in the next couple of weeks.”