By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
This year’s Lead Forward class got a glimpse of how one aspect of city government functions this week at a mock city-council committee meeting.
Only half of the four voting members of the Glasgow Common Council Public Safety Committee were present for the gathering Wednesday morning in Council Chambers in City Hall. With no quorum, no formal actions could be taken, but Mayor Henry Royse and the three pertinent department heads participated with informational items. The agenda mostly contained items, though, that had previously been discussed at other meetings and covered by Glasgow News 1.
The mayor welcomed the group of roughly 20 in the leadership development program offered through Barren Inc., and he explained a bit about the council’s committee structure and how full council meetings take place.
“I know a large number of y’all, and these are some natural leaders already here, and I’m sure that you all are going to learn a whole lot today,” Royse said.
He also briefly noted that state law requires that such meetings are open to the public, including representatives of the news media.
Glasgow Fire Department Chief Lucas Tinsley spoke about the two new trucks expected after July 2025 – a tower truck that cost roughly $2 million and a new engine that cost nearly a million dollars, after a $40,000 savings for prepayment. They’ll be replacing 1999 and 2010 models, respectively, and the maintenance costs on those are climbing, he said.
“That will put the fleet at about 2017 and newer,” Tinsley said.
In each case, personnel from the GFD will travel to where the vehicles will be constructed for prebuild conferences to fine-tune exactly what features the apparatus is to have.
The chief also provided an update on the man whom firefighters rescued from a burning home last month after they heard an individual in the upstairs of one of the apartments in the fourplex banging on a window. It turned out he was in a room next to one that was “fully involved” with fire, Tinsley said.
“We spoke with his aunt yesterday; the gentleman is now back home …,” Tinsley said. “He spent about three weeks in Nashville at Vanderbilt on a ventilator. He is now back home. He’s still having some problems talking, because of the amount of time that he was on the ventilator, but according to the doctors, they don’t see any sign of permanent damage to the lungs.”
He said he was super proud of that crew that not only saved a person’s life but also put a quick stop to the fire, which had spread to the attic space that spanned all four apartments, as the damage was essentially contained to one apartment.
After he answered a few questions from the audience, Glasgow Police Department Chief Guy Howie told them about the Flock camera system and how it works and what it does and doesn’t do, and he informed the group about ongoing work to freshen up the headquarters building on Pin Oak Lane. In addition to fresh exterior paint and a mural and new small parking area closer to the door, he said they’re getting the interior painted and carpeted.
Beverly Harbison, director of the Barren-Metcalfe Emergency Communications Center, educated the group on how the 911 service, which has been here for 30 years, has been funded in the past and some of the ideas under consideration for future funding mechanisms. This had been discussed at the prior Public Safety Committee meeting as well the past two full council meetings, as the interlocal agreement among Barren and Metcalfe counties’ governments and the governments of the cities within the adjoining counties as to the management of 911 fees has recently been updated, but the question of future funding options remains to be decided.
She also spoke about emergency medical dispatching and pointed out options that are available such as texting to 911 in situations where a person can’t safely speak on a call, and she provided an update on staffing levels, with two full-time positions open and four people in training, and explained the amount of training that goes into being an emergency telecommunicator.
The mayor made a few closing remarks, including that the city employs 186 people.
“It takes a whole lot of people to do this,” he said, listing some of the departments and staff roles before adding, “You can rest easy when you know you’ve got good people minding the store, so to speak.”
Earlier in the day, the group had met with county government officials and the state representative for this county, Steve Riley. After the mock committee meeting, the focus switched to federal government for a few minutes, with Kylie Foushee and Hunter Whitaker, who work for U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, respectively. They filled in the group about what field representatives do and other types of staff roles within the offices of the U.S. Congress.
Later in the day, the class had plans to visit the Barren County Detention Center and meet with elected and other officials in the local justice system, including the commonwealth’s attorney, circuit court clerk and judges, as well as to have a mock trial.
