Henderson County Fiscal Court approved a $20,000 grant Tuesday to help the Highland Creek Watershed Conservation District conduct ditch maintenance throughout the three-county area over which the system runs.
Of the watershed’s 135,000 acres of ground, 55,000-56,000 are in Henderson County, 61,000 are in Union County and 17,000 are in Webster County, said Danny Brooks, an official with the Webster and Union County Conservation districts.
Brooks said that of those 135,000 acres, the watershed’s taxing district taxes property owners of land in the watershed that have an elevation up to 380 feet, which limits the land that can be taxed to 18,000 acres. The watershed receives about $14,000 a year from taxes to maintain its ditches, Brooks said.
As with most every other goods or service, the cost to maintain the ditches—both labor and equipment—is increasing, and board member Harold Baggerley said inflation is outpacing the amount of tax the watershed receives from its taxing district.
Baggerly said the work involves spraying along the ditches and removing logs using trackhoes and john boats.
“We’re short on money right now, and we need money,” Baggerly said. “I’m here to ask you for $10,000 to get us through the year.”
In a meeting last week with county judge-executives and the watershed district, Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider said the district asked for $20,000 between Union and Henderson counties.
Magistrate Butch Puttman asked if the ask for $10,000 would be one-time. Baggerly said that the district will probably need more next year. “This is just our short-term answer,” Baggerly said, adding the watershed district is looking into grants as an added revenue source.
Puttman suggested a $20,000 grant from fiscal court and later motioned for that. It passed unanimously, with Magistrate Tim Southard abstaining because his mother is on the Highland Creek Watershed board.
Habitat asks for $340,000 for Corydon build, gets $100,000 of budgeted money
Habitat For Humanity of Henderson came to Henderson County Fiscal Court on Tuesday hoping to persuade magistrates to allocate more money for a four-home project planned in Corydon.
That didn’t happen, at least not in this fiscal year. It appears the entire request, though, could be granted in the next fiscal year.
Habitat Chief Operating Officer Matt Reynolds was seeking $340,000 to assist with a project that will eventually bring a five-bedroom home and three three-bedroom homes to Corydon.
The fiscal court in the past budgeted $200,000 for Habitat projects. Habitat had hoped to build one home in Corydon and one in Robards, but Habitat and Robards officials have not yet been able to find a suitable parcel on which to build there.
In Corydon, however, Habitat built a home and dedicated it in December. Now, a family is living in the home.
Of the $340,000 that Reynolds was seeking $100,000 is the budgeted money that had been marked to be used to build a home in Robards. Because a suitable site has not yet been found there, Reynolds asked that that money be used for the Corydon project. Fiscal court agreed to that.
The additional money he requested would allow the work on the four-home project to be done more closely together, instead of one at a time, and would save money, Reynold said.
Of the remaining $240,000 of the request, fiscal court demurred.
Schneider said it’s a significant amount of money for a single project and later added that the most fiscal court can do is to say it will discuss adding money for the project in next year’s budget during the budget creation process.
Magistrate Taylor Tompkins said he’ll work toward making that happen in the budgeting process.
“I’ll work for it as hard as I can,” Tompkins said.
Reynolds told the Hendersonian that Habitat will use the $100,000 to begin the Corydon project and will build the five-bedroom home first.
In other news:
- The fiscal court approved a $61,049 appropriation to pay yearly installment of a four-year contract for body cameras for the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office. The money comes from the Local Assistance and Consistency Fund, which is a federal fund that was given out post-COVID-19. The county received $100,000 from the fund, which has set specific guidelines for what the money can be used for. One of them is public safety, said Schneider.
- J.R. Stanley, president of the Baskett Community Fire Department, asked if a May 2025 offer from Henderson County Government to purchase a piece of property adjacent to the Baskett ballpark is still in place. The fire department board accepted the offer, but hasn’t heard anything about it since. There have been delays as officials determined the title on the parcel as well as replacing a septic tank that had been used for both the fire department and recreational league facilities. Stanley said the fire department needs the money to finish work at the department. Later in the meeting, resident Shannon Hill proposed the county grant the Baskett Fire Department $10,000 to help with the funding the department’s current needs out of the money remaining in the Local Assistance and Consistency Fund. Schneider suggested that Stanley create a grant proposal and bring it back to the next meeting.
