Imel recaps election in Greenup Co.

GREENUP Greenup County Clerk Andrew Imel provided a recap Tuesday morning for the first presidential election in his term.

"It was jam-packed every single day; and I want to thank you very much for allowing us to use this room," Imel said. "This place was absolutely booming on early voting. We had almost 1,000 voters on each day of early voting."

Imel reported a 55% voter turnout — 17,517 voters casted ballots by Election Day's end.

He said everything went smoothly, crediting precinct officers for their work.

A few more highlights from Tuesday's fiscal court meeting:

• Garth Wireman, the county's emergency management director, said the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) tabletop exercise on Oct. 24 went well, featuring an "excellent turnout." Marathon partnered with Greenup County Emergency Management to conduct the event at McKell Middle School.

The U.S. Coast Guard, Greenup County Health Department, Kentucky Department of Public Health, UK King's Daughters Hospital, local police agencies, local fire departments, elected officials and local partners such as Boyd County, Lawrence (Ohio), Scioto (Ohio) and other emergency management teams were represented.

"It was a real good exercise, so what we'll do now is build on it and move forward," Wireman said. "... We'll take lessons learned from that event and develop an after-action report and improvement plan."

Commissioner Lee Wireman gave a hat-tip to Wireman and Buford Hurley, the county's public safety director, after hearing feedback from the U.S. Coast Guard.

"(The Coast Guard) bragged on our emergency management — Buford and you — and it made me smile real big as a commissioner. ... I want people in Greenup County to hear that as well, how well you all protect our citizens."

• Kevin Callihan, Greenup County Ambulance Authority Director, reported 636 transports for October and 12,556 miles logged during that month. Callihan said the ambulance service responded to 6,845 requests since its Jan. 1 inception, covering 162,375 miles along the way.

• Lance Warnock, the county's solid waste director, said his crews cleaned up two illegal dump sites in October — on Happy Ridge and Pleasant Valley. In total, the solid waste department collected 364 bags of litter, 23 tires, eight pieces of furniture and an appliance in October.

• Anne Stephens, extension agent for community arts and development, said the extension office is gathering information from the community to implement into its plan of work, which "will guide us for the next five years." Stephens said the University of Kentucky considers that to be the extension office's contract with its community.

Between surveys and conversations, the office has identified the top three topics as follows: vitality/health and wellness; substance abuse and prevention/support; and work force development.

The plan of work will be implemented in July 2025.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Look for more stemming from Tuesday's meeting in an upcoming edition of The Daily Independent.