Amid financial turmoil, Pike County’s longtime treasurer resigned this week.

Johnda Billiter, a more-than-30-year county employee, tendered her resignation Tuesday. It came less than three weeks from when the county is required to have its budget submitted to the Department of Local Government in Frankfort.

At Wednesday’s special meeting of the Pike Fiscal Court, Finance Commissioner Frankie Stacy, a 17-year Pike County employee, was appointed as the county’s new treasurer.

Billiter’s resignation left the county scrambling. The long-serving treasurer had been under fire recently for unreconciled finances, and other issues that she attributed to personal problems that ultimately affected her work.

Deputy Judge Executive Herbie Deskins said Billiter originally filed this week for two weeks medical leave, with a notice of intent to retire at the end of the month.

Billiter’s choice to go ahead and resign Tuesday evening cleared the way for Stacy to now see the county through reconciling some of the county’s finances in order to pass a budget for the upcoming year.

There’s also hope another major issue will also be addressed.

Earlier this spring, the county’s bond rating, under Billiter’s watch, was drastically lowered, thanks in part, Deskins said, to an unfinished audit of the county’s 2017 finances. Deskins said he he’s confident the bond rating will be increased back to “BB” status by the end of the year under Stacy’s watch.

Pam Vanover was promoted to the position of finance commissioner for Pike County. Johnda Billiter’s resignation was effective Tuesday. Stacy’s tenure as treasurer began during Wednesday’s fiscal court special meeting.

See the attached video for comments from Stacy and Herbie Deskins.

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