First of all let me say, for the sake of full disclosure, I am no fan of the current Perry County Fiscal Court and have been a critic of county judge Denny Ray Noble.

However, with that said, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, I attended a fiscal court meeting, one of only a few meetings that I have ever attended during the 57 years I have lived in Perry County. I went there to speak of my concern over the county purchasing a new Ford Raptor pickup truck for the county judge. A very expensive vehicle. This was the first fiscal court meeting that I have ever attended for the purpose of speaking.

The issue was brought up by another citizen before I had the opportunity, a lady sitting on the other side of the courtroom. I then entered the conversation and Judge Noble gaveled me down and refused to discuss the issue any further. He did not want to hear what I had to say about purchasing this very expensive truck, a debt put on the back of the taxpayers.

If the taxpayers cannot air their grievances with the court, where can they go? It has been said that “dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” This fiscal court refuses to hear any dissention from anyone and will go to the extreme to stop it. If you dissent then you are accused of having an agenda. The fiscal court should know that freedom of speech still exists in this country. They have operated with total disregard to the law with their private meetings until it was recently questioned by a citizen of the county. Had that citizen not spoken up the fiscal court would most likely still be meeting in violation of the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

That’s not the only thing that happened in the meeting. Third district magistrate, Earl Brashear, very arrogantly challenged the lady by saying: If you don’t like the job we’re doing why don’t you run against us and try to beat us.

Arrogance personified! This is the attitude of our fiscal court.

Then Judge Noble accused me and others, some of which I didn’t know, of having a political agenda. That’s not the first time we’ve heard that from Judge Noble is it? I admit, I do have a political agenda. My agenda is for an honest, open, efficient, and transparent county government.

Judge Noble then took the Obama approach, he started saying what a bad shape the county was in when he took office and what a good job he has done. I’m surprised he didn’t throw his shoulder out of place patting himself on the back. This court is an embarrassment to our county, in my opinion. This fiscal court has been asleep at the wheel on many issues that I won’t bother to go in to at this time.

Why is everything going to the first district, Judge Noble’s home district? A good example is the Eagles’ Landing campground, a former campground that was operated unsuccessfully by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Army Corp of Engineers runs campgrounds from the east coast to the west coast and could not make this campground successful. This court wasted, by what I’ve been told, thousands of your tax dollars refurbishing a failed campground. People from Perry County that want to go camping aren’t going to Perry County to camp. How does this serve Perry County taxpayers? It just doesn’t make sense.

If you buy the corner lot on Main Street and build a hotdog stand and a year later you are broke, you don’t tear down that hotdog stand and build another one, you will only go broke again. The county would have been better served if the fiscal court had used that money and tried to negotiate a deal on the Trus Joist property. They could have used that property to entice badly needed manufacturing jobs to our county.

Then how about the water plant that Judge Noble, Pat Wooton, Frank Hurley and others are quietly working on at Buckhorn, also in the first district. I’m not opposed to any community getting improvements, but an unfair portion is going to the first district, Judge Noble’s home district. All this while a set of approved drawings for a water plant in the Leatherwood area are gathering dust. Judge Noble pledged to support building the water plant in Leatherwood, just go back and look at his campaign advertising just before the last county election.

How much more of this foolishness is Perry County going to put up with? It’s time to stand up and speak up. The Denny Ray propaganda machine kicks into gear anytime they think he is in trouble. I am reminded of Kim Jong Il, the late leader of North Korea. According to news reports, Kim Jong Il had the people of North Korea believing that he walked at three weeks old, talked at eight weeks old, had written over 1,500 books, made 11 holes-in-one the first time he ever played golf, and never has to go to the bathroom. Don’t be surprised if Judge Noble tells you he can walk on water. Oh, I forgot, he won’t need to now, that’s one of the reasons he purchased that expensive Ford Raptor.

Rodney Hall

Jeff, Ky.