The Clark County Fire Department may be getting a new tanker and a new engine in the coming fiscal year, but there’s a big catch.

Clark County Judge-Executive Chris Pace told the magistrates Monday evening said he was still waiting on a budget request from the city for EMS services. Pace said he was expecting an increase which may be as high as $450,000 in addition to what is already budgeted.

“It would almost double,” Pace said.

The county pays a portion of the EMS budget, according to an agreement between the city and county, to provide service throughout Clark County. The city has not begun its budget process yet and had not finalized its numbers for the county, Pace said.

Winchester Fire-EMS Chief Cathy Rigney told city officials she was asking to add 10 personnel to add a fourth front-line ambulance to the city’s fleet.

“If the city sends us a $500,000 bill, I’m taking (the fire trucks) out, simple as that,” Pace told Clark County Fire Chief Ernie Barnes during Monday’s budget workshop meeting.

Barnes said he had negotiated a package deal to purchase both trucks at the same time including trading in one of the department’s existing trucks.

“My tanker is a 1991 tanker,” Barnes said. “It’s a milk truck that was converted to a tanker. I have a lot of guys that are nervous about driving it. A lot of guys won’t drive it.”

The new engine would replace the department’s Engine 3, which is having reliability issues and engine problems. If the engine fails, it would be about $20,000 to repair, he said.

The new trucks would be the top priority, though the fire department’s Station 1 has some structural issues which would cost about $85,000 to repair, he said.

“I need (the trucks),” Barnes said. “I don’t think my building will fall down tomorrow but it could.”

“If our long-term plan is to build a new station, I hate to spend $100,000 to fix this,” Pace said.

Barnes said a new fire station could cost around $1.5 million.

“I’d rather approach the county about a new station than repairing Station 1,” Barnes said.

Pace said the county is also waiting for more information on the pension situation for the budget as well, which could also be a significant increase.

Barnes’ presentation was the largest increase requested for the county’s $15.1 million budget for fiscal year 2019-20. The magistrates went through the entire budget Monday evening and recommended a number of cuts, though none appeared as big enough to cover the fire trucks or any EMS increase.

Several items, such as eliminating the magistrates’ expense pay or cutting the salary of a detective at the Clark County Sheriff’s Office did not reach a consensus.

State law requires the county judge-executive to present the budget to the fiscal court by May 1. Following a successful first reading, the Department of Local Government must review the budget and may make changes prior to a second reading.

The budget must be approved by June 30, the last day of the fiscal year.

Later in the meeting, magistrates split on whether taking action following a closed session was proper in a special meeting if it was not listed on the agenda.

According to Kentucky’s open meeting law, special called meetings are required to follow the agenda and are not allowed to deviate from the agenda.

The meeting agenda included a closed session to discuss personnel, which ultimately lasted about 20 minutes. After returning to open session, Magistrate Greg Elkins made a motion to terminate the employment of road department employee Aaron Rogers.

Magistrates Robert Blanton and Travis Thompson abstained from voting because the agenda did not include taking any action after the closed session.

Clark County Attorney William Elkins said he believed the agenda was proper and there was a motion and a second, so the court was entitled to vote. Tuesday, William Elkins supplied a Kentucky Attorney General Opinion involving Northern Kentucky University indicating the college violated the open meeting law by an insufficiently specific agenda, but did not violate it by failing to indicate a vote may be taken after the session.

With the two abstentions, the motion was approved.

Greg Elkins followed with a second motion to send a letter of intent to terminate the employment of road department employee Lee Watts. This time, Pace abstained along with Blanton and Thompson, and the matter was approved.