Hardinsburg Town Attorney Gives Analysis on Ownership of Senior Citizens Building

For months, a small building tucked away off Cheshire Lane in Hardinsburg has been the subject of a county-wide controversy. During the August 19 town board meeting, S. Coy Travis, the Hardinsburg town attorney, aimed to put that controversy to rest.

"I'm gonna dim the lights," Travis said as he set up a projector, explaining that he had a slideshow presentation to give. The slides from the presentation are included below.

"Based on all of that," Travis concluded, "the Block Grant, the SRA – none of those documents had anything in them to indicate that there was ever an intent for the Seniors Corporation to own this building. It was obvious that the intentions for the uses of the building were for the benefit of the Senior Center, it was to allow for more programming here, but nothing about ever transferring ownership to the Seniors Corporation. So under the strict terms of both of those [documents] ... in fact, that one particular clause specifically said, "the ownership reverts back to the town at the conclusion of all of this", and the property records from the Auditor's office and the GIS confirm that is in fact what ultimately happened with the building."

" I hope that clears it up. I know some people had some questions, so that's the legal document's answer to the questions about who actually owned the building and how this all transpired when this building got build twenty-eight years ago."

During the meeting, Councilman Hank O'Neill read a proclamation into the record that stated that the building would henceforth be known as the Town of Hardinsburg Senior Citizens and Community Center, and that while the Senior Citizens Corporation would have first rights to schedule their events in the building free of charge, the Town of Hardinsburg would assume responsibility for the security, maintenance, utilities, and operating responsibilities of the center. The proclamation went on to say that furthermore, November 7th would henceforth be recognized by the Town of Hardinsburg as "Senior Citizens' Day".