By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
A new way to get released inmates their money, Barren County taxes and property given to the city of Glasgow were some of the items discussed by the Barren County Fiscal Court magistrates on Nov. 18.
Magistrate Tim Durham made a motion to open a new bank account for the Barren County Detention Center that would allow the jail to save time and money when returning former inmate’s money. Durham serves as the chairman of the county jail committee, which discussed this idea prior to the fiscal court meeting.
As Barren County Jailer Aaron Shirley explained to the committee members on Nov. 17, in addition to making things more efficient, the new account — which will only be used for inmate commissary funds — will allow jail personnel to put money on a card instead of sending them their money via check.
“Basically what happens is when an inmate comes in and have money in their pockets that goes into the commissary account,” Shirley said. “When that person gets out…, we have to send them a check from the [commissary] account…. Once we get this set up we’ll actually be able to scan a card and get their money even before they walk out the door, which keeps us from having to pay all this postage [and] keeps us from having to do reconciliations on all the money that comes back to us.”
The motion to open the trust account was approved by the Barren County Fiscal Court.
Barren County Sheriff Kent Keen also gave a brief update on tax collection, saying that his office has collected around 33 percent of the total property taxes, so far. There is a 2 percent discount if a person pays their tax bill before the end of November; bills paid in December will cost face value.
The fiscal court magistrates also approved a resolution transferring surplus property to the city of Glasgow. County Attorney Mike Richardson said the city and the county came to own the property at 302 Humble Ave. in Glasgow, which is near Gorin Park, through delinquent property taxes.
“The property was foreclosed on…back in 2008,” Richardson said. “The circuit court, correctly by law, ruled that any entity that owned a certificate of delinquency, which was the city and the county, would be made owners of the property…. In my opinion, the county really has nothing to gain by keeping this property.”
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