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The Jessamine County Fiscal Court approved a resolution concerning broadband internet on Tuesday.

Initially, the court voted to allocate $250,000 for broadband expansion with Spectrum. Part of the application for this funding was to challenge other providers to create infrastructure and offer internet in that area alongside Spectrum. As a result of this challenge, only $139,000 of the original $250,000 has been used.

The court recently applied for a new broadband grant. If the county is awarded that grant, it has voted to add the remaining $110,000 to the grant amount to continue to support broadband access.

In other court news:

• Sheriff Kevin Grimes, along with Lt. Anthony Purcell, proposed an update to the property tax ordinance.  Grimes said that this would “give people more time to pay taxes at a discount or face value.” This would expand the 2% discount to 32 days, from Oct.1- Nov. 1, and extend the face value taxes time frame to 61 days, from Nov. 2-Dec. 3. No draft ordinance was presented, so nothing was passed. Jessamine County Judge-Executive David West said that the court will work with the sheriff’s office to draft the ordinance.

• The court approved the deposit of opioid settlement money from December 2022 into the county budget. Last month’s payout came in six payments, totaling $285,933. The county will receive payouts of various amounts annually until 2038.

• The Kentucky state government has recalled E-poll books and voting machines from all 120 Kentucky counties. The Jessamine Journal Fiscal Court will have to purchase new machines and E-poll books but will be refunded by the state.

• Last week, the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office and the State Board of Elections notified Jessamine County that it needs two more voting centers to get ahead of population growth in the future. The Jessamine County Clerk proposed new voting locations at West Jessamine Middle School and Edgewood Baptist Church. The court approved the proposal.

• Magistrate committees will be assigned at the fiscal court’s next meeting.

The next Jessamine County Fiscal Court meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 4 p.m.