County Council tables additional appropriations requests from County Plan Director Ty Adley for Plan Commission & BZA

During Thursday evening’s Marshall County Council meeting, Councilwoman Nicole Cox asked to have the Board of Zoning Appeals additional appropriation of $1,350 for printing and advertising pulled from the Consent Agenda.

Councilman Will Patterson asked to have the Plan Commission’s additional appropriation requests of $1,500 for printing and advertising and a second of $6,000 for legal services also pulled from the Consent Agenda for additional consideration by council members. 

Councilwoman Cox asked if Mr. Adley was in attendance and he was not.  Council president Jesse Bohannon said he spoke with Adley on Wednesday about the concerns council members had on the additional requests. Mr. Adley sent Bohannon an email to clarify the requests, thinking it was sufficient to answer their concerns.  The council president shared the email with members and said he would take phone calls if necessary. 

The email said the additional request of $6,000 for legal services directly relates to the need for additional review and consulting for the large-scale solar farm and battery storage ordinances.   The legal line-item started with $8,000 and they have used 60% of the budget in the first 4 months of this year and anticipated expenses will bring them over budget before the end of the year.

Adley’s email said the additional requests for printing and advertising in both the Plan Commission and BZA budgets is due to a significant increase in advertising costs to meet the legal advertising requirements.  Some of those against the solar project said the meetings hadn’t been advertised correctly so he is having to provide more details, thus increasing the cost by two to three times. 

Adley said they have spent nearly 70% of this year’s budget during the first quarter of 2024.  He told Bohannon he is only a phone call away. 

The County Council unanimously decided to table the additional appropriations requests from Ty Adley for more clarification.