Which Local Newspaper Has Largest Circulation Becomes Issue During Fiscal Court Meeting
Without any advance notice and without the legal opinion of the County Attorney, the Russell County Fiscal Court decided in a 5 to 1 vote during their monthly meeting Monday night to solely use The Russell Register newspaper for all matters required by law to be published instead of The Times Journal. The issue of which local newspaper to use for such matters was not on the meeting’s agenda but was brought up by County Judge Executive Mickey Garner after all other matters had been addressed. State law requires the Fiscal Court to determine which newspaper shall be utilized for advertising all “legal notices” based on “in-county circulation numbers”. The County Judge told the magistrates that late Monday afternoon his office received a prepared statement, which included affidavits from Russell Register general manager Teresa Kraner and Jamestown Postmaster Richard Shivel, declaring The Russell Register’s “paid distributions” during the reporting period of October last year to present date were higher than that of The Times Journal. Kraner’s affidavit stated The Russell Register averaged 3,910 issues circulated compared to The Times Journal’s 3,302. The Times Journal’s managing editor, Greg Wells, told the Court members the numbers and reporting methods were questionable and that the Kentucky Press Association still considers The Times Journal to be the larger of the two. 1st District Magistrate Greg Popplewell motioned for the matter to be “tabled” until next month’s meeting to give the County Attorney and Court members time to research the issues further, however, Popplewell’s motion died due to lack of support. A few moments later, County Judge Mickey Garner made the motion to utilize The Russell Register for publishing the county’s legal matters when required by law to do so. 2nd District Magistrate Steve Bledsoe seconded Garner’s move which resulted in a 5 to 1 vote with Popplewell being the sole opposition.
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