As I sit and reflect on 2019, it was a good year. On January 6, 2019 I took the oath of office to become your new Adair County Judge Executive. I have tried to see everyone who came in my office and return calls to the ones that came in and I wasn’t available. I know I haven’t made everyone happy with my decisions, but that was one of the first things I learned…. If you make everyone happy, you probably aren’t doing your job right.
Some accomplishments we have made over the past year are listed below:
Green River Animal Shelter: We adopted out 400 animals in 2019 and sent 357 to animal rescues. Our adoptions were down almost 100 animals, but our rescues were up almost 300 animals.
Adair Co. 911 Center: The call volume for the 911 Center was up over 2,400 calls from 2018. The incident count was up over 5,100 incidents from 2018. One thing I’m the proudest of is that we went from one dispatcher to two dispatchers per shift 24 hours/7 days a week.
Adair Co. Recycling: The recycling center wasn’t one of strong points in 2019. With the decline in price for recyclables and the lack of ability to store full tractor/trailer loads of materials our recycling center took a big hit this year. Closing the center completely is not something I will consider at this time. We are looking at options for the new year to improve our recycling center and program.
The Adair County Fiscal Court was able to purchase 4 new vehicles for the Sheriff’s Department in 2019. This was a much-needed investment for the safety of our officers and the citizens of Adair Co. The one thing I want to work on in the future is to secure funding so that the Sheriff Department can have 2 deputies on duty at all times.
The Adair County Road Department is busy every day. We have had a very wet and windy fall and winter. With that comes a lot of flooding, downed trees, and stopped up tiles. Between discretionary and flex funding from the state and county money allocated we put down over $1.3M in blacktop in 2019 as well. We hear a lot of the time people wanting to know why their road doesn’t get blacktop. Especially on State funds, we submit roads to the state for funding to be blacktopped, but sometimes they remove roads from our list. The state transportation cabinet sends someone to look at the roads we submit, and they may or may not approve those roads.
Economic Development: We are in the process of extending the road in the Industrial Park on N55. We are in hopes this will help us get industry and jobs in our area. We have made several contacts over the last year. We have also had a couple visits from the State Economic Development Department to look at our area.
As you can see, 2019 was very productive in some areas and not so much in others. But we will continue to work for Adair County and do our best to improve each year. My office is always open to hear the complaints or your ideas. I wish for each of you a prosperous and Happy New Year in 2020.
Gale B. Cowan
Adair Co. Judge Executive
