By Fiona Morgan

fiona@amnews.com

The Fiscal Court announced the recipient of the 2023 Paul Chandler Distinguished Boyle Veteran award, Cyndi Poland, at their meeting on Nov. 28.

Paul Chandler was a World War II veteran who earned eight Battle Stars, and other awards in North Africa, Italy, Sicily, France, Germany and others. Each year the court recognizes a veteran in Boyle County with an award named after Chandler.

This year’s recipient, Lucinda ‘Cyndi’ Poland, is retired from the U.S. Navy, and served for more than 21 years. Since retirement, Poland has been a member of VFW post 3634. She has been in leadership roles, including as the Post Quarter Master and Post Service Officer.

Jack Hendricks, a representative of the VFW, has worked closely with Poland over the last 15 years. He said the work she has done is in the highest standards of the military.

“Dedication, commitment, duty, and compassion are just a few words that describe this year’s recipient,” Hendricks said.

He said that as a Service Officer, Poland helps veterans get the benefits they’ve earned, sometimes when they’ve had trouble getting those benefits.

“At times there’s been veterans that have gone through every other avenue to find and get benefits, and couldn’t get them for whatever reason; and Cyndi works her miracle and she’s got it for them. She’s done that several times,” Hendricks said.

Boyle County Judge Executive Trille Bottom read the award as she presented it to Poland. Some of it states, “She has been very active in community activities, such as organizing and directing such things as the KSD Easter Egg and Christmas programs for the kids.”

“Organizing the City County Luncheon as well as working with others to make it an event that all the folks at the city and county look forward to, also raising money for the Police and Fire Department drive for Christmas gifts for the less fortunate kids in Boyle County. She has been a major community leader in several events and a significant organizer of numerous veteran support functions.”

The court also recognized Donnie Conatser, post commander at VFW, for his many years of service.

New foster program

The fiscal court adopted a new foster program for Animal Control. The new Animal Shelter Director Sissy Slone presented an agreement and a fostering manual that people will sign if they want to foster.

Slone explained that the application to be a foster is through Shelter Love. Anyone can be a foster. For those interested, they can start a profile, and sign an agreement by the shelter.

Fosters will get a manual that goes over best practices for fostering, and different things that could happen while fostering, like bite protocol, special cases, sickness like ringworm or other things, etc.

Slone said the manual is a standard foster program manual. The agreement protects the shelter from any liability, such as if a foster takes their animal to the vet without Slone’s approval.

“This protects us a lot going forward and I think it fills a lot of gaps in care that has been between the Humane Society and Animal Control,” Slone said.

The foster program is new to Animal Control, and the Boyle County Humane Society has a separate program. However, Slone said the Humane Society will still be involved in their program since the application is through Shelter Love, which they have access to.

Humane Society Director Kari Kuh said she believes they’ll work collaboratively with fostering.

Slone said one purpose of starting the foster program is to help neonatal animals. She said they get a lot of sick kittens that have trouble surviving in the shelter since they need so much care.

In other business:

• Both Fiscal Court meeting dates in December have been moved. Meetings will be on Dec. 11 and Dec. 21 at 9 a.m.

• The court agreed to hire a third cleaner for Animal Control, and double the hours of one cleaner. All cleaners are part time and will not go over 100 hours a month. They will maintain the hours of one cleaner, double the hours of one cleaner and hire a third cleaner to pick up extra hours.

Magistrate Jamey Gay said the Animal Control committee has talked about this idea for a while. He said they had three cleaners before the Covid pandemic and then it went away, and hasn’t been reinstituted until now.

• The AMVETS Chaplain and 2nd Vice Commander Daniel Glackin presented the Fiscal Court with an award for their support. AMVETS had a car and bike show on Sept. 30, which the Fiscal Court sponsored.

“The Fiscal Court donated generously to help us make that event possible and it was a great success for the two months we had to put it together,” Glackin said.

He gave magistrates their t-shirts from the event, and presented them with a plaque. The Fiscal Court was a gold sponsor for AMVETS Post 123 Car and Bike Show.