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Judge Executive Logan Chick and others met recently to discuss land-use management for the county. Chick told members of fiscal court Tuesday that the meeting went well, however, more needed to be learned before anything official could be presented. He suggested scheduling another meeting soon.

First District Magistrate Russell Poore has been pushing for some type of management since coming onto the court. He says he feels the county needs to have more of a say on what can come into the community to better represent the citizens who live in it.

“We want to assure our county stays the way the citizens want it to,” said Poore, adding that land-use management was something he wants to see happen. “We need to do something now and not wait until something we don’t want is already here, which will be too late.”

Judge Chick formed a committee to look into the possibility of some type of planning. He, along with Poore, county attorney Joe Ross and solid waste coordinator Dwight Cockrill are all serving on the committee. Chick says he would like to see some additional people added to the committee such as Russellville Zoning Administrator Bill Pearson.

“I feel positive that everybody is in agreement we need to do something,” said Poore, adding he didn’t feel, however, they needed to rush the process and do something wrong. ” We need to take our time and look at all the options.”

Poore said he is not against anybody out there trying to making a living, but said there are places for things to go and places for them not to go. “We need to come up with a plan for the whole county and not just a few individuals,” said Poore.

Chick said the committee needs to learn more about land-use management and are going to have to include some others in the discussions, mentioning Tom Harned, executive director of the Logan Economic Alliance for Development (LEAD). Harned has expressed how land-use management could be a good thing for Logan County. He did say, however, he would be against restrictive zoning that prohibits economic development. Chick agrees.

No desisive plans came out of the recent committee meeting despite some being kicked around. Chick said he really didn’t want to expound on actual ideas at this time. “The meeting went well, but when we got to discussing plans, we found out we really needed to learn more about it before we went any further,” said Chick, adding the committee is planning on attending a workshop on land-use management at Cave City in May. “We talked about some ideas in the meeting, but would run into stumbling blocks because we need more information.”

Poore feels the the workshop should help bring about that information and and committee members can get some guidelines that attorney Ross, who would be drawing up the plan, would feel comfortable with to proceed.

“Maybe we will ask one individual from each district to come and give their thoughts on it,” said Poore on one of the steps towards a plan. “We are not wanting to push anything down anybody’s throat, but we need to limit things that may come in in the future and protect us where we are. I want to leave the county better for my kids and grand-kids than when I was coming up.”