Joe Monroe Is Burgin’s New Mayor…Again
The Harrodsburg Herald/Robert Moore
Burgin resident Margie Brothers poses with Burgin Mayor Joe Monroe in this file image from 2023. Monroe, who resigned in 2025, was unanimously selected as the new mayor at a Burgin City Council meeting Tuesday night.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
[email protected]
Joe Monroe is the new mayor of Burgin. This is not a repeat from 2022.
Monroe, who was first elected mayor in 2022 after serving a term on the Burgin City Council, was unanimously appointed interim mayor at a special-called meeting of the city council on Tuesday, July 21, at Burgin City Hall.
Monroe resigned as mayor in June 2025. In his letter, Monroe said he was resigning “due to health reasons requiring his full attention,” which necessitated “stepping back from mayoral duties.”
The city council appointed Councilman Jamie Keebortz to serve as Monroe’s replacement. Keebortz , who had served on the city council since 2016, resigned earlier this month.
“I believe it is in the best interest of both myself and the city at this time,” Keebortz wrote in his resignation letter. “I have full confidence in the capable leadership of the council and city administration to continue serving our citizens with integrity and commitment.”
On Tuesday night, Monroe told the Harrodsburg Herald that he was resuming the duties of mayor because “Several people asked me to.”
Monroe said he had received several phone calls and had face-to-face meetings with citizens of the friendly little city, which has been engulfed in controversy since the council gave first reading to an ordinance annexing 10 properties for a possible hyperscale data center at a July 9 special-called meeting.
The council canceled another special-called meeting scheduled for July 20.
In a Facebook statement, the City of Burgin said, “I hope this will help for No Data Centers for the City of Burgin. It has come to our attention that the meeting is not legally accurate as we have not had a first reading of the ordinance.
“Therefore the council cannot legally have a second reading of the ordinance. AS SUCH the Special Meeting Schedule for 7/20 will not Occur.”
Asked to explain the city’s Facebook post, Burgin City Attorney John Wood said, “No comment.”
“I’m not going to comment,” Wood told the Harrodsburg Herald.
“There has not been a second meeting yet or a meeting to give a second reading yet,” Wood said.
Shortly before being sworn in by Burgin City Clerk Angela Stewart, Monroe was asked what he intended to do once he re-assumed office.
“First thing, we’re going to have to look into a lot of stuff that’s been going on the last several weeks and get things straightened out,” Monroe said.
As mayor, he said he would “listen to the public, for one.”
The new mayor was asked if the city intends to continue with the annexation.
“I don’t know what the council is gong to do,” Monroe said. “We’ll have to see what the council is going to do on that.”
The City of Harrodsburg has formally objected to Burgin’s annexation of the 10 properties, which contain nearly a thousand acres of real estate along Shakertown Road, Handy Pike, Maude Lane and Bailey Pike.
In addition, the Mercer County Fiscal Court has voted to draft a data center moratorium. Judge-Executive Sarah Steele clarified that, if approved, the moratorium would affect only the county, not Burgin. Steele also said the moratorium would be null and void once the Harrodsburg-Mercer County Joint Planning and Zoning Commission’s ordinance dealing with data centers was in place. Steele called the moratorium a pause to give them time to work on the ordinance.
The planning and zoning commission will hold a public meeting on the proposed data center ordinance at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 23, at the Campbellsville University Harrodsburg Campus gymnasium. The full text of that ordinance is available here.
The next regular meeting of the Burgin City Council will be Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 6:30 p.m. at Burgin City Hall (117 Maple Street, Burgin).
