Fifth District Magistrate Joe Clements locked horns with the Morganfield City Council Thursday over the distribution of county funds for road improvements, prompting Mayor Jerry Freer to threaten to end Morganfield's 911 emergency dispatching for Waverly residents.
After councilman Ricky Wyatt expressed his disapproval of the mayor's decision, the idea was scuttled.
The mayor's decision stemmed from a discussion at the meeting between the council and Clements about what the council feels is the magistrate's unwillingness to extend District 5 funds to the city to construct a road for large trucks and heavy equipment to bypass Hwy 60 through the center of Morganfield.
When city administrator David Presser said Morganfield should be considered for road improvement money as much as anyone else, Clements suggested that money should be found "in other places" because the funds in this year's budget have already been earmarked for other projects. Later he said he is not opposed to the city's proposed road, to be called Crutcher Blvd., and that he hopes the county can find money to help with the project.
Presser said the bids to build the road were 25 percent higher than expected and that the council hoped to get $50,000 to $75,000 from the magistrates. Judge Executive Frank Eiter has suggested that the magistrates use some of their district allocations to help the city with road work.
But at the council meeting, Clements didn't seem to think it was feasible. "We don't want to bankrupt the road department," he said to the council. "Don't you all have money for streets? Waverly saved money and paved their streets." Later he said Waverly used state funds for this.
"They don't have the water and sewer problems we do," Presser responded. "We've got a $4 million sewer project." Presser later said that Morganfield has 27 miles of streets to take care of, comparatively more than Waverly.
"We're paying the same taxes, so we should get the same consideration," Presser said. "We should get our share of county funds."
Near the end of the meeting, when Clements and most other attendees had left, Mayor Freer stated sarcastically that since "Morganfield is no longer part of Union County" it would cease Waverly emergency dispatching.
But Wyatt was uncomfortable with the idea.
"I agree that (Waverly) shouldn't be getting free dispatching, but I'd hate to know that somebody's going to burn up (because Morganfield won't dispatch their emergency call)," Wyatt said.
Councilman Mike Williamson also expressed disapproval of the mayor's decision, causing Freer to scrap the notion.
