Nola Sizemore

Staff Writer

During a meeting of the Loyall City Council on Monday, Mayor Clarence Longworth said the city swimming pool, which has set unused for a number of years, may have to be filled in if funds aren’t secured in the near future for repairs.

“Our insurance company keeps on us about the pool being open and not being used,” said Longworth. “We’ve tried every angle out there trying to get people interested in repairing the pool and everybody keeps saying there are no funds available. The county has been approached and they don’t seem interested. We’ve approached Sen. Brandon Smith and Rep. Fitz Steele and no one seems to be interested in helping us.”

Longworth said the last estimate they had from the pool’s original builder was $300,000 to re-do the pool and kiddie pool. He said the builder offered to come and address fiscal court if the city thought it would help their cause.

“It’s going to come down to we’re going to have to just fill it in if something isn’t done soon,” said Longworth. “The county says they have $500,000 set aside for recreation for the county’s youth. That money could be used to open this pool back up, which would benefit youth across Harlan County and tourists as well. I’d hate to see the pool filled in with its potential, but it’ll have to be done if we can’t get something to help us out with this.”

Presenting his findings from a 2009-2010 audit of the city’s finances, Certified Public Accountant Richard Scruggs said the city is in “a stronger position than the previous year.”

“In the statement of findings and recommendations there were two findings for the city — the previous year there were three,” said Scruggs. “The two findings for 2009-2010 were segregation of duties. This is something I think will always be there with the small accounting staff the city has. It’s hard to break all the duties down. The other one is the nepotism ordinance where you have family members employed by the city. That will go away in the next year’s audit with the ordinance the city put in place on March 14, 2011. The city seems to be in a stronger position in 2009 than it was the year before.”

Scruggs said all of the city’s records are in “excellent shape.” He said he had no issue in finding things.

“Your accounting group is very knowledgeable and I enjoyed working with them,” said Scruggs. “I have already started on your 2010-2011 audit.”

Reach Nola Sizemore at 606-573-4510 or nsizemore@heartlandpublciations.com