RICHMOND — Madison County residents who need transportation, or cheaper transportation, to Fayette County destinations will be able to take advantage of a new Kentucky River Foothills program beginning in September.

The “Madison Commuter Service Employment Transportation” program will begin Sept. 15, and Foothills representatives soon will begin reaching out to the community to decide which Lexington stops should be included.

Foothills transportation representative Melissa Gross made the announcement Tuesday to the Madison Fiscal Court.

“We’ve had this program in Winchester and Clark County for a couple of years and we are hopeful this will be well-received in Madison County,” Gross said. “We will do some surveys and public forums. People have to be pre-enrolled. They can’t just show up (at the departure location) that morning. We don’t have enough seats for that.”

Popular Fayette County stops for Winchester riders include the University of Kentucky, Veterans Affairs Medical Centers and Lexmark.

The Richmond bus will leave for Lexington at a departing destination near Interstate 75, Exit 87, but the exact location has not been decided, Gross said.

The shuttles being used for the Fayette County shuttle are the ones currently being used as the Foothills Express calls (non-scheduled bus routes), said Karen Bailey, Foothills public information and project manager.

The three shuttles seat 28, 24 and 16 riders.

State funding was used to help pay for the $60,000 project, Bailey said.

“The state has given us $30,000 and we have to come up with the match,” she said. “The way we’re going to come up with that money is by charging the $50 per month.”

The first month off the shuttle service is only $25, but the following months will require riders to sign a contract agreeing to pay $50 a month for the service.

Dates and times for the public hearings to help determine stop locations have not been scheduled. More information soon will be available at www.foothillscap.org, and on Facebook and Twitter, Gross said.

Call Gross, David Sowder or Sandra McFerron at 624-3236 for more details.

In other business:

• Approximately 175 voters will be impacted by a recent magisterial redistrict reapportioning conducted by an appointed board of three people, in addition to Madison County Clerk Kenny Barger.

Barger gave the court a report about the board’s findings.

A portion of the Rosedale voting district will be moved from District 2 to District 3, affecting 103 people.

“This move was made to adjust the number to make our county below 10 percent from deviation,” Barger said. “The statute states that you have to make them as even as reasonably possible. It’s pretty much three blocks, and this will put our numbers back into compliance (with state statutes).”

The second change will impact 38 voters from the Mayde voting precinct, moving those people from District 4 to District 1.

A portion of the Summerfield Court precinct — 31 people — will be moved from District 4 to District 2, and a boundary line separating the precincts of Brassfield Bearwallow and Bobtown-Redlick will be moved, affecting three voters.

Four additional changes were made to straighten boundary lines in precincts, but do not affect any residents.

District 1 is represented by Magistrate Larry Combs (population 19,942), District 2 is represented by Roger Barger (population 21,618), District 3 is represented by Billy Ray Hughes (population 19,708) and District 4 is represented by Greg King (population 21,645).

Any voter who would like to know if his or her residence is included in the above changes should call the Madison County Clerk’s Office at 624-4703.

According to state law, a county’s magisterial districts must be evaluated every 10 years upon the release of new census information.

Voters will be notified of their new precinct boundaries once the fiscal court votes to accept a final redistricting plan.

The court has 60 days to turn the plan into an ordinance, which requires two readings and a vote.

• The county entered into a memorandum of agreement Tuesday with the Kentucky Department of Transportation which will provide funding for an inmate trash pick-up program.

A jail deputy will be in charge of five to eight inmates who will pick up trash alongside state roads, Clark said.

The state funding will be used to provide the van, gasoline, mowing/weed eating equipment and a $5-per-day for each inmate’s lunch.

“It’s a really good program and a lot of counties are doing this,” said Madison Judge/Executive Kent Clark.  “They just wanted to make sure they (the Kentucky Department of Transportation) had the court’s support.”

The inmates chosen to participate in the program will get time taken off their sentence, according to Madison County Jailer Doug Thomas.

“There is training involved,” he said. “It’s going to be about a month before this can go into effect.”

• Carl Richards, director of Madison County Emergency Management Agency, gave an update on the progress of delivering new tone alert radios to county residents.

As of yesterday, 25,616 radios had been delivered, with an unsuccessful delivery rate of 5.4 percent, Richards said.

“We have our last set of 3,186 to deliver, bringing the total to 30,178,” he said. “We have about 9.4 percent left to deliver.”

All radios should be in homes by the end of August. Residents with the previous model tone alert radios will be able to submit them for recycling by September, he said.

• The court agreed to hire Byron Abney as an employee at the Madison County Animal Shelter.

The next meeting of the fiscal court is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 26 at the Madison County Courthouse.

Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 624-6608.