Hawesville Council approves budget, supports fire department vehicle request

The Hawesville City Council approved the city’s 2026-27 budget and supported a request to help fund a fire department vehicle during its June 9 meeting. The council also received an insurance update from the Kentucky League of Cities, noting premium increases for liability, workers’ compensation and health coverage. Councilmen Tracy Johnson and Kevin Linn were absent.

Hawesville Police Chief B.J. Burton reported 27 calls for service in May, along with five mutual aid responses to assist the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, 12 courtesy notices and citations, eight traffic citations and two traffic accidents. He said May was “a pretty nice month.”

Mayor Rob McCormick asked about the handheld speed radar, and Burton said the department received it at no charge as an extended demo unit. He said they were told to use it, apply for a grant and document its impact. Burton said the device has helped increase speeding citations and he hopes that feedback will help the department secure a permanent unit.

City Manager Jake Powers was not present because he was attending the annual Chamber Dinner in his role as Hancock County Chamber of Commerce president.

McCormick reported progress on drainage work on Darwin George, saying recent checks showed no water flow issues and that the situation “is a lot better.” He said there will be streetlights in the new subdivision under construction by CTR Homes.

“Councilman Doyle, you asked at the last meeting if there would be lighting in the new subdivision being built,” McCormick said. “I did affirm that there will be streetlights in that subdivision. I’m not sure how many, but it will be lit up.”

He said that the city had addressed the water challenge at Art Pulliam’s home. There is still discussion about replacing an old galvanized water line that serves Pulliam’s house and neighboring home. He said city staff can install a new PVC line from the top of the hill and run it down, allowing the city to remove the galvanized line and reduce the risk of future problems.

The city has also purchased a load of coal patch from J.H. Rudolph for street repairs on Main Street. He said the material has been hauled to the site.

McCormick said copies of the official plans for the Highway 69 Bridge Approach Relocation Project would be made available for all of the council members to take home with them and review.

Members also reviewed earlier renderings of the Bridge Approach Project at their February regular meeting, which illustrated the bridge approach and its new alignment. The approach will come through slightly farther east at the top of the hill than in earlier designs, and Hawes Boulevard will become a dead end at one end once the project is complete. A few of the required easements have already been signed.

Powers reported at the May meeting that work needs to begin on the Phase One funding for the project and that the city was waiting on the final Area Development Fund, or AED, quote. The AED program helps local governments pay for infrastructure projects that support growth and development.

The Bridge Approach Project is scheduled to begin in September 2026. Crews will start work once funding is released, and the first phase will focus on relocating utilities. That includes moving several water lines that run up the corridor to the top of Town Hill. Some of those lines date back to 1953 and will be replaced as part of the project.

The city is losing one of its summer help workers, Carter Lyday. Friday, June 12 was his last day, as he will be attending school.

“Carter Lyday is a very valuable asset,” McCormick said. “He is going to maintenance school. He is going to work for Waupaca. He will be going through the maintenance program, so we’ll be losing him. We’ve been talking about finding another summer help member for mowing, weed eating and those types of jobs. I’m not sure who or if anyone will apply for that. I hope they do because it is a much-needed role.”

McCormick met with representatives of the Kentucky League of Cities and was told the city’s insurance rates have increased 4.7% for liability and workers’ compensation and 9% for health insurance.

“We have to accept those increases,” he said. “I talked to Brandon House. We can’t get insurance any cheaper anywhere else through KLC. He is our underwriter. That’s the cheapest insurance we can get.”

The city has rebuilt several mower decks with what he described as a modest expenditure and noted compliments on the mowing at Serenity Hills Cemetery.

“Mowing looks good there,” McCormick said. “We’re happy with that, and Josh Jones is doing a good job at Memory Gardens. He had to get caught up and he did. It looks good. Saint Paul, I went there and it is being upkept and looks good too. I’m pleased with what our crew is doing. I know it’s a tedious job to mow around those headstones and not damage any of them. It looks like we’re doing a good job on those.”

Timothy Meserve said cemetery work is progressing, “slowly but surely,” especially at Serenity Hills. He said aerial photos have been taken and divided into sections so each plot can be matched with a picture. The photos will be placed in tubes at the cemetery for reference to help visitors locate graves.

Meserve said organizing the old cemetery will be “like looking at a jigsaw puzzle,” but officials plan to work through it. He said he would like to get prices for placing American flags at each cemetery along with solar-powered lighting and believes that would enhance their appearance.

It was noted that there is $2,200 in the cemetery account. McCormick agreed that the flags and lighting would be a good addition.

“What is the bill to cut the grass on this one up here?” Meserve asked.

City Clerk Amy Roberts said mowing the cemetery currently costs $1,000 per mowing and has been needed weekly, although that will likely drop to every two weeks as conditions dry out.

Meserve asked whether the city is responsible for resetting headstones that have come off their bases at the old cemetery. McCormick said it is not, explaining that doing so would create liability for the city and that the rules and regulations place that responsibility on the families.

Hawesville Fire Chief Shane Richards reported 35 calls for service in May. He said 24 of the calls were EMS runs, along with two vehicle fires, three motor vehicle accidents, one structure fire, one electrical fire involving Kenergy, two fire alarms and one false alarm or “other” call from a plant.

“We added two new members to the roster,” Richards said. “Josh Vandgrift and Keegan Vandgrift have joined and are now working on getting certified.”

He said two additional members are pending a vote, which would give the department four new members.

“Our membership is going strong right now,” he said.

A crew of five firefighters was leaving Thursday, June 11, to attend the Kentucky Fire Commission’s state fire school.

Assistant Fire Chief Jason Bevill presented a report on a fire truck that has become available for purchase, and council members received a fact sheet in their agenda packets to follow along.

“We’ve been watching this for a couple of years,” Bevill said, explaining that the Owensboro Fire Department (OFD) ordered a new rescue truck and took almost two years to get it into service because of manufacturer issues. During that time, he said, Hawesville officials knew the truck listed on the fact sheet would eventually become available.

The truck has been used in a reserve role in Owensboro, brought into service when another truck was out. Now that Owensboro’s new truck is in service, Bevill said, the reserve truck is being officially retired. He has spoken with Owensboro’s fire chief and the battalion chief in charge of the fleet, and they confirmed the truck is available.

The packet included specifications and background information on the truck available from OFD.

After reviewing the specifications, Bevill told the council the OFD rescue truck would replace the department’s small orange utility truck, a 2500 pickup with a utility bed and four-person cab that is already carrying as much equipment as it can hold.

In recent years, the department has acquired additional tools and gear, including equipment from the former Hancock County Rescue Squad and from Century Aluminum’s TeraWulf project, he said, and some of that equipment cannot currently be loaded onto the truck.

Bevill said the truck from OFD is built on a full-size International chassis, similar to the department’s other large trucks. It would give the department more space for that equipment and allow it to carry more of its rescue gear and consolidate it on a single vehicle.

He said a similar truck would typically cost between $50,000 and $80,000 on the open market, but Owensboro officials have indicated they will work with Hawesville on a lower price, with any proceeds going back into OFD’s fleet program. The Hawesville Volunteer Fire Department has set aside $15,000 toward the purchase and asked the city to contribute an additional $5,000 to help acquire the vehicle.

Under the plan presented to the council, the fire department would purchase the larger Owensboro truck and move its equipment from the utility truck onto the new vehicle. Once the new rescue truck is in service, the department would sell the orange utility truck to the city, and the city would assign it to the water department.

The orange truck already is equipped with a built-in generator, scene lighting, slide-out equipment trays and a 35-foot, remote-controlled light tower. Those features would remain on the vehicle when it is transferred to the city, giving water department crews improved lighting and power at roadside water line leaks and other work sites without having to haul a separate generator in the back of a pickup.

The OFD truck carries a cascade air system of the same type the fire department already uses, but its air bottles are out of date and would require hydrostatic testing before returning to service. Bevill said the four 6,000-psi bottles and related gauge clusters and air system components would be removed, and that the cascade system could be made available to the Hancock County Dive Team.

McCormick told council members the city could provide its $5,000 share from the budget and said the vehicle would help update the city’s aging fleet. Councilmen Danny Doyle and Tyler O’Bryan moved and seconded the request to contribute the additional $5,000, and the council voted unanimously in support of the purchase.

City Attorney Jamie Stephens completed the second reading of the city’s annual budget ordinance for the 2026-27 fiscal year. No changes were made since the first reading, and council members had no additional questions. Councilman Doyle made the motion to approve the budget, seconded by Councilman Junie Morris, and it passed unanimously.

Stephens also gave the first reading of Ordinance 2026-03, establishing the city’s ad valorem tax rates. The rates are unchanged from last year for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, and ending June 30, 2027. The proposal sets a rate of $39.40 per $100 of assessed valuation on real property, 75 cents per $100 on personal property and $41.28 per $100 on motor vehicles.

Stephens completed the first reading of Resolution 2026-05, which adds Joshua Lane to the city’s street ordinance.

“This is for adding Joshua Lane to our list of road maintenance,” McCormick said. “Appendix A is the list of the roads we do take care of. B is the list the county and state take care of.”

The council also approved correcting the name of Hillcrest Drive to Hillcrest Lane on the street list. The motion passed with all in favor.

The city announced that beginning July 1, 2026, all Automated Clearing House, or ACH, payments made through the online system will include a $1.50 fee. The charge is being added by the payment processing company.

Customers who want to cancel automatic ACH payments may log in to their online account at hawesville.us and update their settings. The city will continue to accept cash and check payments at City Hall and in the drop box on the side of the building.

Residents who need help accessing their online account may call the office at 270-927-8707.