Clark County will receive nearly a half-million dollars to repave nine miles of county roads this year.

The announcement was made Tuesday evening during the joint meeting of the Winchester Board of Commissioners and Clark County Fiscal Court.

According to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, the state will reimburse Clark County $481,000 to resurface Thompson Station, Goshen, Log Lick, Sewell Shop and Jackson Ferry roads.

Clark County Judge-Executive Chris Pace said it was the largest single award of discretionary funds to Clark County in recent memory.

The announcement started nearly two hours of discussion between the two governmental bodies Tuesday evening on items of mutual interest.

Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner said the commissioners and the fiscal court have met in joint session at lease once a year for the last 13 years. Generally, the agendas include items where the city and county are partners.

Much of Tuesday’s discussion focused on finding ways for Clark County to grow, both in terms of population and industrial footprint.

Pace said he and state Sen. Ralph Alvarado, along with others, have discussed expanding the U.S. 60 corridor between Winchester and Lexington as a potential growth area.

Homebuilders in Lexington, he said, have nowhere to build but Clark County lacks some of the infrastructure along 60 to support that growth, such as water and sewer service.

“How can we increase development of upper middle class homes to spur development in the community?” he said.

“Those guys need a place to build homes,” Alvarado said. “We have a potential for that growth in Clark County.”

Burtner said there was a proposal at one point between Winchester Municipal Utilities, East Kentucky Power, Kentucky American Water and others to extend water service further along 60, but things stalled.

“What WMU did was try to apportion the costs,” Burtner said. “It failed because the partners were not prepared for the cost.”

Improving the highway already has one thing going for it.

“I’m glad the development part was brought to us because that’s a key part,” state highway engineer Andy Barber said. “U.S. 60 is fortunate because there is quite a bit of right-of-way” along the road.

Winchester City Commissioner JoEllen Reed said Clark County has grown by 20 people between 2011 and 2015.

Reed said she would like to see a study showing where the city and county are lacking in terms of development, particularly in terms of restaurants which regularly decide to locate elsewhere.

All the issues are related and intertwined, several people said Tuesday.

“We’ve got to be realistic. If we don’t prepare the community for growth … all this talk about restaurants is completely tangential,” Clark County Magistrate Chris Davis said. “If we don’t ignite our growth, it is not going to happen. The numbers don’t lie. If we don’t build it, they won’t come.”

The remaining item on the agenda revolved around the city and county fire departments and the costs of providing ambulance service to the county. Winchester Fire-EMS Chief Cathy Rigney would like to add nine employees and add a fourth front-line ambulance, but City Manager Matt Belcher did not recommend it in the fiscal year 2020 budget because of the expense.

There is also a question about whether merging the city and county fire departments would be an effective move. Burtner said the issue was studied in the 1990s, but the city chose not to proceed because the merger would lower the city department’s ISO (Insurance Service Office) rating, which would in turn affect insurance rates for home owners and business owners alike.

“If it’s been that long, we need to look at it again, “ City Commissioner Ramsey Flynn said.

Neither body took any action Tuesday during the meeting.