City Commissioners - Regular Meeting

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pledge. Let us pray. Lord, we are thankful for our city and the blessings that you've shown us in recent days. We ask and invite your Holy Spirit into our chambers today to preside over our meeting. We ask for your wisdom and guidance over this board of mayor commissioners as we strive to make the right decisions for our city that is in the best interest of our citizens. Be with our city manager, our staff and employees and those in attendance today. We pray always in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Stand and salute. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Commissioner Gut and Mr. Wartz. We appreciate that. Okay. Uh motion to receive and file the agenda. So move. Second. Discussion or additions? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. All right. Um, a motion to receive and file the minutes for the January 8th, 2026 meeting. So, second.

Any additions or changes, corrections? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. All right. We'll move into our our hearings from uh mayor and commission. Mr. Goo, we'll start with you this time. Just want to welcome everybody to our meeting. I just I'm going to be brief. I'm just thankful for our staff who has got their heads together on this storm that's coming up and everybody's on the same page. Thank you, Todd, for your communication and Steve and and uh uh Mark Hall and uh I'm thankful for our staff and their uh speedy uh looking over this storm that we have on our way. U welcome to our meeting. It's a lengthy agenda and so I'm glad you're here.

Mr. Martin, stay safe this weekend. I want to thank uh Barry and and Mark for the work they did on the consent agenda uh request that I made. The information you've provided is very helpful. I think the public will find it uh edifying as well. I appreciate the work that you put in and um very good. Thank you.

Um I'll go ahead and go. Um, uh, one thing that I did receive, I received a a very good compliment on our, uh, department for water. I think Mark, I was telling you about that earlier out on Skyline Drive that they were, uh, worked in the coal and got it done. So, that's we have had two calls on that. So, I don't know what they did out there that was uh but they've done a great job and we appreciate, you know, when we have these water breaks, when the wipe pipes uh expand and contract, uh it's a problem that every city in the nation has and uh we try to get in on it as quick as we can and we have a terrific crew. I responded to uh the message that was sent to me uh complimenting them. I said, you know, the greatest asset that we have uh is our people. Not only the people that do the work, but also the people that we serve and the people we do the work for. So, we appreciate that. Um we have a cake count, which is a um coming up on the 28th that'll be uh conducted from a group here uh of volunteers within the in the area uh to count our homeless in the area. So, we'll try to get an as accurate as possible. Uh, but that'll be done on the on the 28th. Um, and during the um public participation, I did ask Mr. Martin to uh to come and and give a a short presentation on what the chamber is doing and uh to kind of keep us up to date. So, that'll that'll be coming up here uh soon. All right. Uh, Commissioner Rymer.

So, I want to welcome everyone here today. I I put a little thing together here. Uh it says, "This weekend, our city and the surrounding region face a possibility of significant winter storm with forecast predicting heavy snowfall ranging from several inches to over a foot. Residents are urged to pri prioritize safety during this potentially hazardous weather event to avoid driving unless absolutely necessary as roads conditions uh may become dangerous. U a little note here. Our street department currently has over 600 tons of salt on hand uh ready to face this storm uh head on. We encourage everyone to check on their friends and family, especially those in need of assistance uh and take any and and all necessary precautions to stay safe. Also have here that power outages are possible due to this storm. If you experience an outage, please report it to Kentucky Power on their website or by calling them. I need to to stress this to do not call 911 to report power outages or to inquire about road conditions. Uh emergency lines need to remain open for urgent situations. So that's all I have.

Just want to welcome everybody here. I'll be brief because we got one in the audience that liable to go at any time. Um but I will say uh rest up Sean Murray. Thank you sir. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would yield my time to Mr. Workman for our annual audit presentation.

Okay. Workman move these kind of out of the if that's all right. Anthony Workman with Kelly Galloway Smith Goulsby the audit director on the audit again this year. We go ahead and say appreciate everyone's help on getting the audit completed. if you have a a book in front of you, you know, it's not necessar it's pretty heavy duty. Kill a cute few flies with it easily swatting them. Uh so I'm I'm going to hit some high points in the audit. Uh as you can see, it's very thick. So if after the meeting or another point in time, if you have questions or concerns, um uh you can get my phone number, my email address. I'd be happy to to address any questions or you have if I can't answer them here or just once you get actually get through and look be able to look at it in detail yourself. Feel free to ask me to contact me later. So I'll like I said I will hit some high points about three pages in is our independent auditors report. It states, "We have audited the company financial statements of the city for the year ending June 30th, 2025. And our opinion is in the second paragraph. There it states that the financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respects the financial position and the activity of the city for that year end. So it's what's considered a clean or an unmodified audit report. On page four starts the management's discussion and analysis. This breaks down some information prepared by the finance department, provides analysis and comparisons the prior year and some budgetary highlights and a few things. I won't go through that. Just kind of want to point it out. Our responsibility for for this is to make sure it doesn't disagree with the financial statements and um we did not know the issues there. The first statement I will point out is

over on page 18 and starts at I'm sorry, page 19. I apologize. This is a statement of net position. It is essentially the balance sheet. If you looked at at the city as a whole, it includes every fund of the city, not just the general fund. All the business type activities such as utility fund, bus system, u the new the parking garage. It consolidates all those on this this statement here. At the end of the year, overall cash between every fund was about 48 million. The issue with that is almost I'd say 32 of that was was uh restricted. You had about 12.5 million restricted as part of the ARPA grant money still sitting there and another 12 in uh conference center grant money that was that's included in that amount and then another $7 million in bond proceeds that were still out there for the conference center at the end of the year. On the following page, the liabilities of the city, there was about $60 million in long-term liability. Oh, I'm sorry, $60 million in net pension liabilities. That's that's the retirement u liabilities that go along with the state every year. The city can't really control those. Uh there is about five and a little over 5 million for the police and fire and the utility pension that's still hanging out there. That's been decreasing over the years. All the city can really do is for the county or for the state retirement is pay what's required as part of the payroll as a percentage. Now that percentage rate has been decreasing over the past couple years and it's supposed to decrease next year. I believe I did some quick math here. If pay payroll stays the same, they'd be between 25 and 26 about $400,000 worth of savings because of that decrease. And then

another $200,000 worth of savings to 27 because of that uh rate decrease that's going through there. At the end of the year, there was 37 million in uh long-term obligations, other bonds, um leasing obligations out there. that was increased at 6 million from the 9 million that was issued less the payments of about $3 million. So that's what's outstanding for the year. The statement that you're probably more used to seeing or I would say more relevant is is over on page 24. It's a statement of revenues and expenditures for all the governmental funds of the city. It breaks down the general fund and each fund. And there's actually 11 or 12 now adding getting more adding more and more columns on here. The first column you'll see is for the general fund. The the general fund ended the year with 11.1 million in fund balance. Um and and that's I would say that always sounds nice when you break it down a little bit. There's about 13.8 million due from other funds that the general fund has basically fronted the cash for at the end of the year. um that's due due back to it. That makes it's included in that. And then also at the end of the year, there was $1.7 million due on that on the line of credit that's out there. And and actually there was about $3 million in negative cash at the end as of the end of the year. Essentially checks written that hadn't been mailed out yet is what it was. Um so I mean 11 million overall, but when it was kind of a cash crunch obviously for the that's why the line of credit was taken out. um during the year and but the one thing is I'd say one upside is if you look at revenues year-over-year they were up a little bit. Um, see if I have it here. Overall,

I believe I apologize. I thought I had it right in front of me. Tax taxes, tax collections and occupational license fees were up a few hundred,000. And in total expenditures, if you look at the total expenditures line item for the general fund, they were down year-over-year a few hundred,000 as well. the tax increment finance fund uh over the second column over it had a decrease of $25,000. That is an improvement over over prior years. I think last year was a couple hundred,000 decrease. That's where the tax collections just for that tiff district are coming in are designated for that bond fund and those have upticked over the past past year so are helping to offset that bond payment.

They are one of the funds that owes the general fund lots of money. Is that correct? that is one of them that owes yes it owes about 1.3 to the um to the general fund at the end of the year is what's outstanding there. So, capital projects over last column on the right or second to last column on the right, capital projects fund has about had about $4 million in grant revenue in there. That's related to the Winchester Avenue project and that's the majority of if you look at the capital outlay that ran through the year of 6 million. Majority of that was still related finishing up the Winchester Avenue project. There were some other items in there. I believe some sidewalk replacements and some uh city building repairs as well are included in that amount. So to point out a couple new items here, like I said, I will not go at them in detail, but over on 20 page 28, there were a couple new funds. If you were to look at this on the basically the business type activities of the district for the year, if there's two columns, we added the conference center fund and the paramount arts fund. Those are two new funds of the of the of the city that were added during the year. There wasn't much activity, but I just wanted to com point those out in case if you'd compare back to last year that you'd see where those those were added on to the statements this year. So, starting on page 40 45 is actually the foot begin the footnotes to the financial statements and that's probably 45 probably next 30 30 pages or so. I won't go through all of them. I'll hit a couple. The first uh footnote just goes over the reported entity. The second is the accounting policies the city city utilizes which

are considered generally accepted that if you were to compare to other cities within the state they would have very similar policies that the that the city utilizes in their in their statements to prepare their financial statements. So on page 54 I said I'm just want to point out a couple here. It's the capital asset footnote. Footnote six, you can see the breakdown of the increases and the changes in what the the city has spent on capital projects during the year. The one on page 55, it's broken down by governmental activities and business type activities. Over on page 55, business type activity, the majority of course being the utility fund. You can see overall there was about an $18 million increase in um in additions offset with last year. So it's in net it's about 9 million. Most that has to do with water uh plant repairs, water plant project and things things of that nature. Um about then the following footnotes seven and eight go through the retirement obligations of the city quite a bit of disclosing here assumptions using the calculating those uh retirement obligations. It is a all this is required to be included. I was going to say there's if you want to see what the discount rates were what the projected cash flows were it's in it is included in there. Uh, the other footnote I want to point out is on page 69, the long-term obligations. Actually, it breaks down the outstanding bonds of the city at the end of the year and the activity for the for the year. Uh, you can see the added on the general obligation bond for 2024, the 9.9 million and being offset by the payments. But I did want to show that that you can see

the activity within that within those bond payments. And following that there is actually a for the next I believe five pages there's actually a payment schedule. You can see over the next five five years and every five years after that for each individual u outstanding bond. Oh, on page 77, I kind of always like to I always like to point this out. You can see there's a summary of the health insurance claims for the year. About middle of the page as far as summarizing the claims liability on the health insurance over year-over-year. There's about an $800,000 increase in claims on the health insurance health insurance fund. at ended the year at almost almost $5.5 million of claims processed for employee health insurance.

Was that basically the the amount we were paying or number

that is the claims the number would be this claims payment. So if you look over that next column over that's the actual amount that that were was actually paid out in cash during the year that 5.1 and the second column from the right claims payment. So the liability increase during at the toward the end of the year but he has a little over $5 million was actually paid out in health insurance claims during the year. The next statement over on page 103 following that there's a I would say a bunch of required disclosures on most oh sorry hit the hit the microphone uh on the retirement plan but over on page 103 this is a schedule of expenditures of federal awards. This shows all the federal awards that flow through the city uh during the year and we are required as part of the of a single audit to test certain major programs. We go through a risk assessment the and look at the usually more of the higher dollar um programs. This year we looked at the housing choice voucher program which is usually right up there a little over four million every year and the still leftover of the corona virus local uh fiscal recovery funds which is essentially the ARPA money. We looked at both of those. Um we do have some compliance and internal control items over in the back for the voucher fund for the housing choice voucher for the section 8 program essentially. I think we've talked to the city manager and the director over that and gave some uh recommendations that they're going through. Nothing was considered material non-compliance that would require any sort of uh qualifying of the report or anything, but there's other recommendations and um compliance compliance items that are included on there.

additional items that you may have. I believe I'm not sure Michelle, did you you know if they have there's a couple other letters were those included? There's a couple other letters that are kind of detached in the back. One is um our report on agreed upon procedures for that for the section 8 program. They're required to disclose enter their financial information into another system with HUD and we're required to make sure that agrees with the audit that does. That's what this report basically says one those two that those information that information agrees and but that report's included in here as well as well and it is listed separate. So would anybody have any questions or concerns? Like I said I know I went through it pretty quick and if

I'm sure we will after we have a time to digest this. I mean oh I understand completely. It's you're talking 115 pages so and it is a it is a lot to to go through. Can you explain the audit process for folks that may not know uh like the timeline when your team comes in to audit, the length of the audit, how long you're here, how many folks are here.

Yes. So, we usually start before before the end of the year, usually in June, we'll do some um planning and some transactional testing, looking at individual invoices, looking at individual payroll transactions, start looking at the grant um program to see what would be considered major. And then we usually come in in September, usually right around Labor Day it seems like, and to go through the end of year balances and look at and look at anything else uh transactionally wise, individual invoices that um that would that would be required to this year. The audit was delayed. Uh I know it's been actually a little bit sooner than usual, but we usually try to shoot for it used to be a November, December try to get it finalized. This year, the federal government delayed that. I mentioned we do a single audit. That's basically testing the federal the federal money that comes through. They didn't release the the what's called the compliance supplement or what we're required to use to test those programs until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. So, all of our audits this year were actually have actually been delayed a couple months. That's usually out in May. Um, and they that's with the government shutdown and everything that that got delayed until basically Tuesday I think at like 4:00 right before right before Thanksgiving that actually came out and issued so then we could start actually finalizing our our

So that that explains why we're kind of getting this late. That's why you're getting in January. Yes. If we would have got that in in May when it usually comes out, we could have actually finalized start finalizing stuff in September and October and got it and got You don't anticipate for that for the coming year, right?

I would say no, but that's I can't I I don't know the mind of the federal government sometimes uh office of management budget. So I don't OMB office, but they did release a draft, but we were not allowed to actually issue a report based on that draft. Right. So once it wasn't until they actually finalized it that we were actually able to to issue our our report. But we usually have as far as number of people you mentioned number of people six. I usually have about five or six of us in that week in June that we come out and then we're usually out in a couple other weeks in September with another five or six or usually the same five or six people out at that point. Where can the public receive a copy of this?

It is available I believe will be on the city's website. Is that is that correct? on the city of website and we also um are working on a paffer. It is a non-account um audit that we actually send in the utility bills that takes the findings of the audit for the major funds and it puts it in non-accounting terms where our public would understand where their money is going. it it would show like the graphs of you know like where the money is spent like public services, public safety and the finance department does send that in every utility bill every year. Okay.

And this audit is for only six months of your term and so the total um expenses that you all reduce through personnel reductions and stuff will not fully show in this audit because it's only six months of it. But there is have been some expense reductions in the general fund but not to the total level that you all have reduced. Okay. The audit is also available through federal government's website. It does get submitted to to them. It's called the federal audit clearing house. So it is available uh on there as well. If anybody just look up city of Asham. So

and anybody can come to the city building. We would gladly provide them a copy also. Okay. Any other questions? Yeah. Um, on page 74, you noted inter fund transactions. There was $25 million that were transferred between funds. Was that an unusual amount of transfers? Those are that's basically overall amount due at the end of the period at 25 million. Those are basically amounts due and it is up. I believe it is higher than what it it has normally. What did you say? What amount the utility fund owns owes the general fund?

The utility fund owes the general fund. I can tell you here about 4.8 million at the end of the year. Is that a result? What what were the transfer? Can you tell what the transfers? What usually that is it's not really a those are just amounts due from the utility fund to the general fund. Usually what happens is the general fund sometimes will pay uh expenses and paychecks through the general fund and that's and it's kind of just an accounting of before it gets classified over the utility fund. That's more of what what those are basically expenses that the general fund is fronted essentially.

And um the line of credit uh when when did that go into effect? Was it in January of last year? Yes. January of and at the time um that the audit was um dated from June 30th. Mhm. Uh 1.8 million had been used on the line of credit. I think it's about 1.7 remain. Yes. No, I think 1.7 was utilized at the end. It was 1.8 remain. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Now we're zero, right? We're at zero. Correct. Oh, at zero. Okay. Yeah. That's that's we wanted to note that. Yes. It's good to know. Yes, that's great. About 120 days we've been at zero.

Very good. Due to the reductions made due to the reductions made. Yes. Is that is a huge part of it this later this year? We'll be able to see fully or what we got accomplished. What you all got accomplished? We all accomplished as a team staff and uh your own leadership. All right. Any other questions? Thank you very much for commenting and I'm sure we'll we'll have some other questions. If you have any other, like I said, feel free to reach out, call me or email me, however you need. Thank you again. Thank you, Mr. Workman. Thank you. All right. Any other Mr. City man? Yes, sir.

All right, let's move on to our public participation. Uh, Mr. Martin, if you want to go ahead.

Afternoon. We emptied out the whole office. We have Sydney Pierce with myself and Samantha Prince, Hunter Boyd, who as you all know is the executive director of the Northeast Kentucky uh economic development authority is our office space as well. And that's our new intern RJ Pritchard who just a great team. Uh we just uh Mayor Charles and I uh of course the city of Ashlin has a seat on our board. Uh and uh the mayor and I were talking about at our last meeting we gave kind of a recap of what had gone on in 25 asked us to come in do that. We're always happy to do this. Thank you guys for showing up at the events last week the business after hours. Always something going on. We have grounds for discussion coming to Ashlin here in two maybe three weeks as as we keep moving around. We had a really great year um uh in in calendar year 25. We had uh 52 new members. It's worth noting uh in the last 19 months that number is 104 new members. Um email contacts every time we we blast out it's 10 is is 1,27. That's up. Uh our membership growth is 13.6 overall. It's closer to 20 since uh since the change uh and and the rebranding. Uh our email open rate uh has gone to 44% which is uh just outstanding. We're we're getting a lot of communication back and forth. Got a state award this past year for our and you all get it the forge the newsletter that goes out. Um so kind of watch for those. We have 416 uh active members right now and last year in 25 we did 105 events. Uh when I talk about new membership uh I also want to point out our membership drive is just kicking off. So, you'll see the chamber ambassadors, uh, the young professionals and others out and about. Uh, we like to make sure all our members

get seen a couple times a year, but they also help us bring in in new members. Our next slide is about programs, and I want to turn that over to Sydney Pierce, uh, as she works more closely with the programs than I do. So, yeah.

Yeah. Thanks, Scott. Um, so our chamber programs, that's our biggest outreach into the community. So, we oversee, um, we're the chamber that serves Boyd and Greenup counties. So, all of these programs are available to everyone there in um our community leadership development program just wrapped up in October. Um we are the longest standing community leadership program in the state of Kentucky when it comes to chambers. So, we're really proud of that. Um and I know we have several City of Ashlin employees who have gone through that. So, we appreciate um your all support. Um this is open to any emerging leader in the community. So any business owner that um has anyone that they might see um like a spark of leadership in or they might want to um just develop those skills a little bit better, this is a great program for them. Uh the applications for that uh for this year's program open in June of 2026. There's going to be some more um information on our website about that. Um we also have our youth leadership of Boyd and Greenup counties. So that program is for high school juniors. Um, this program has been going on, I think, for 30some years now, and we are super proud of it. Um, the evolution that it's made just in the past few years has been excellent. Um, we're really taking into account what the kids need, what they get out of um, this experience and what it means um, to them. So we're trying to integrate more technology and we all know AI is coming to take over the world but um so we're we're expanding our program to make it make sense for the students and u make the skills that they learn there applicable um as they move forward in their career. um in any um high school junior or any uh current sophomore incoming junior um those applications will open in March of 2026 and there will be more information um on our website about that as well and then um we will be reaching out to the

schools directly um for more about that program. The Young Professionals Association um is our networking group of any young professional in the area who is 45 or under. Um, it's a great chance to connect with like-minded individuals who are kind of in the same. Um, we get together at least three times a month. Um, most of them are more laid-back, just getting together, building our professional network, um, and knowing who we can rely on when we need something community. Um, we also have two big, um, projects that we do every year. So, we have our, um, backpack program. So we work with the schools directly, the resource centers, we get names of students who are in need of school supplies for the next year. So the young professionals this past year um filled over 400 backpacks for students. So that's been our main focus. We also have a scholarship at ACTC that we fund every year. Um our biggest fundraiser for that is the YPA Winter Classic which is going to be on March 3rd of this year. So I invite all of you all to participate. Um that's going to be a really fun event. more um events for the YPA um can be found on our website as well. Um and I think there is a QR code to our website on the next slide. Yes. So

yeah. So I mean that's that's pretty much it. We're a block away. Uh I I love the fact that we can come down to the meetings more frequently now and things are kind of rolling well. Check out the website. Um lots of information. There's our event calendar. There's also a community calendar, so anything you need to put on it, just absolutely you you can you all have your own secure login. But that's pretty much it. We just want to say thank you for all the support. Thanks for being there for us and anything you need from the Northeast Chamber. We're just

Well, we we appreciate your uh your report and and actually what you can what you've done of increasing the membership and with economic development. I mean, this commission now we've got a lot of things out of the way. We'll be focusing this this year on a lot of uh our economic development efforts. Um so I'm sure we'll be reaching out and collaborating. Love to see you guys anytime. Do you have any questions? Anybody? Thank you again and your your team for coming and presenting to us. Oh, thank you so much. We just beat the blizzard and our ours. We're like 112 pages shorter than Anthony. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. Any other uh individuals would like to address the commission? If you'll state your name and your your address.

Mike Maynard, 1819 Eloise Street with Hillrest Bruce Mission. And so it seems fitting in January um to kind of uh kind of give you a roll up um kind of just like how Scott did. Um, and it's because we we receive a significant um amount of funding from you all through CBDG, through the opioid abatement funds and um and to know what that that investment in the mission does for the community. Um, we we just want you to know how appreciative we are and and the impact that it does make. And so, um, and when I was here last time, I know DJ had asked about our Christmas store and things like that. And so it was we had 1, 151 shoppers at our Christmas store for the three weeks in December. And we sold $16,755 items. Um most we've ever done. And it's uh the average shopper spent $7 on 11 items.

And so um that that makes a huge difference in folks that can say that they bought Christmas for their kid. And so, um, so that that was a blessing. Um, we also do a, uh, a Christmas present program for kids in our service area, um, which is between 6th and 13th Street here in Ashlin. Um, and our and our senior citizens that we deliver food to. 198 children received presents and that was because of, uh, churches, businesses, and a lot of individuals um, uh, that that adopted these kids. and these senior citizens had 185 senior citizens uh that got Christmas presents uh this year. And so and you may think that you know well CBDG CBDG doesn't fund Christmas presents or things like that but the money that we get from CBDG that is directed toward whether it's operational expenses or for the food pantry it frees up other donor money that comes in then instead of having to be spent on that we can use it to do these things. So you you get credit for that because the money that we get from you enables us to do all these other things. Um and we we talk to the Kentucky Colonels about that all the time. They fund us for a food pantry, but it goes to so much more. Um our dental program, which will be expanding here shortly. Um we're in our 18th month now. Um it was a year and a half ago when we did the big event here at the transportation center and um we hit our 2,000th appointment three weeks ago out of the program and um it looks like we're averaging about two more patients per day already this year than what we did last year. Um and so we we remain the only only dentist in Boyd County taking Medicaid at this time. Um right now there's about 400 families that receive a monthly food box from us.

Uh we have 450 seniors that get a commodity box from USDA. So a total of about 750 food boxes that go out every single month. And out of those 350 of those boxes are delivered to homebound seniors that can't get to us or can't get out to get food. And so um that is probably about the biggest blessing for us to be able to do. uh Daniel and Casey and the other volunteers that do that are able to go out with folks and not just deliver food, but just to find out how they're doing and if there's other things that they need. Um and then the other the other other part I'll cover is the biggest part is our workplacement program, uh which is focused around folks who want to get ahead and want to succeed and they just need help getting over barriers. And so the goal of that program is to help make people self-sufficient so that they don't need assistance on a regular basis. And so last year we were able uh to help 12 people find stable housing that were homeless. Uh that brings us up to 40 people that we've helped get housing. Uh we had 12 people who passed their permit or their driver's license. Um sometimes if you don't have a vehicle or your family doesn't have a vehicle, it's just not important. And so that takes us to 43 people that we've helped get a permit or driver's license and and that does include three people who got their CDL who are working in jobs making really good money through that. Um here in the last two weeks we've we have gifted two vehicles to folks and uh the last one very special um a lady who had came into our workplacement program uh hit the ground running got into the paid internship part of our program started college had a vehicle when she came in the program broke down and uh she borrowed her son's car and um he got a job in Richmond was leaving at the end

of this month and so she didn't know what she was going to do about out a vehicle cuz she lives out in the county and she has to take care of her kid, get to school, get to get to the mission for work. And um a couple in the community donated a vehicle to Philip's body shop. They fixed it, gave it to us so that we could then gift it to her. And so that enabled her, she started back to school uh on this last Tuesday. And so without that vehicle, she would not have been able to continue college. Mike, would you like to recognize the other people who gave you vehicles to to give away?

Oh my gosh. Um, yes, absolutely. So, I know I'm over time. Um, but uh we have a partnership through United Way with Tri-State Auto Connection. Um, we have received uh three vehicles uh from them that has went to folks. Uh, King's Daughters has donated vehicles to us. Um, we have gotten uh vehicles from Fairview Baptist. Uh we have gotten uh so the vehicle registration office actually has had two people that had bought a car, didn't know what they were going to do with their old car. They told them to get a hold of us and so we were able to get vehicles from individuals that were getting other vehicles registered. Um it it is it is it is a network of of folks who the very first one called me and said, "Is there is there a way I can donate my car to you?" They weren't going to give me much for it. And I was like, we'll figure out how. And and that first vehicle, it was a van, went to a guy who lived at Debor Terrace, was walking to the mission to get his hours in, wanted to start college and couldn't because he didn't have a vehicle. And and that vehicle went to him so that he could start college. And so these aren't just vehicles that go to people just to make it more convenient or make it easier. These are vehicles that enable people to go to school or to get to work. And that impacts the community. Um, we had a we've had our 34th person that's earned their GED. Um, we have had 14 more people start college this year. Brings us to a total of 86. We had 11 more people that graduated from college this year. Our biggest year that takes us to 36 folks that uh or uh so that was uh wait a minute 86 uh 11 more 11 more graduated. Takes us to 31. And the biggest thing, 38 people out of our program went to work this year. And that took us to 203 people that have started work out of our program. And then here

just in the last month, our 12th person became a homeowner. And we had five homeowners just this last year. And that lady who became a homeowner, she was able to get her home because she could afford it, because she had a job because her brother gave her his car. That car her brother gave her was a car that we gifted to him when he was in our program and started ACTC. And so all of these good things are made possible by the support that we get from United Way, from Kentucky Colonels, from River Cities Harvest, from the city. Um, you know, it's um, you know, it the opioid settlement money that we got two years ago, um, which we're about out of. I'll probably asking for some more from that. Um, but it's went to to people who are able to walk along with these folks who want to be able to provide a better life for for their family and can't do it just because it's just too hard. And so the funding that we get, we're able to to to apply it and intervene to make it easier for them to succeed because they want to succeed. They want to do better. They just need somebody to walk along with them and to help them. And so, so thank you. Thank you for believing in us and providing in the funding that you do through CBDG and opioid and all the other ways that you do and appreciate your work and appreciate

the personal support, you know, that you drop off donations to us, you save up egg cartons and all that kind of stuff. But it's um but it's a blessing to be here in Ashlin in this community and the support that we get from this whole community. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank Thank you, Mike. Thanks, Mike. All right. Any others like to address the commission? Hearing none, we'll move on to our old business. Uh, Mr. Wiggler, item A.

Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, approving and adopting an amended cafeteria plan agreement between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, and McGregor and Associates, Inc., previously adopted by ordinance number 86 series of 2020 and authorizing and directing the mayor to execute any and all documents necessary for implementation of said amended plan. So move second discussion. All in favor say I. I. All opposed.

Item B, second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute an agreement with Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Inc. the subreient of $300,000 for roof replacement at the neighborhood located at 2516 Carter Avenue from the community development block grant fund. So moved. Second. Second discussion. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. I abstain.

Okay. Item C. Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute an agreement with Safe Harbor of Northeast Kentucky, Inc. the subreient of $60,000 for roof replacement on building number two from the community development block grant fund. So move second discussion. All in favor say I. All opposed. Item D,

second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract with Lights Enterprises, Inc. for the purchase of all labor, materials, equipment, and services for the demolition and removal of all debris at 42530th Street and 42930th Street in the amount of $12,450 for the Department of Community Economic Development to be paid from the general fund. Some move Second. Second. Discussion. All in favor say I. All oppose. All right. Uh item E.

Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract with Lights Enterprises, Inc. for the purchase of all labor, materials, equipment, and services for the demolition and removal of all debris at 924 Prospect Avenue and 934 Prospect Avenue in the amount of $42,898 for the Department of Community Economic Development to be paid from the community development block grant funds. So move second discussion. Seems like a lot of these properties we're getting now that are um right next to each other.

Yeah, these needed to go for a long time. The neighbors are ecstatic. How many the will this be for us to have completed? They've done 25 so far in in 2025. I think the grand total I don't know the grand total. Probably close to 100, if not more. Wow. over time, but in 2025, we're at 25. Okay. Are these two properties quite a bit bigger than what we normally take down? No, it's it's the they're on the hill there on Prospect. That's a real tough place to They're on the hillside out of Yeah. That's what causes them.

All right. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Item F, second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, repealing ordinance 152 2025, which authorize a contract between the city of Ashlin and Cosby Construction LLC for the sidewalk replacement project phase 3 in the amount of $280,716 for the Department of Engineering. So first and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. All opposed. Item G.

Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing directing the mayor to execute a contract a construction contract between the city of Ashland and Lighty Contracting LLC for the sidewalk replacement project phase three in the amount of $327,512.60 for the department of engineering. Some move. Second. discussion.

Yeah. Um, last meeting we said this was basically uh to take up the contract that was cancelled. But when I I read the summary, it says um existing sidewalk, curb cuts, driveway, entrances, various streets, all areas of the city. Is there more work in this than just what was being covered by Cosby? Um, no. This is the exact same uh bid that was bid out. Okay. AI's the second lowest bidder. That's all I have. Thank you.

Hey, I got one quick question. Let's say a water line breaks and we have to tear up a sidewalk to fix it. What fund does that come out of? Does that come out of this fund? Does that come out of the utility fund? I believe it comes out of the utility fund through our patch contract. That's correct. Yeah. Utility fund. Thank you. All right. Uh, all in favor say I. I. All opposed. Item H. Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky adopting by reference updated procurement regulations for the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, January 2026 and repealing ordinance number 49 series of 2023. So move. Second.

Discussion. All in favor say I. All opposed. Item I second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, amending section two of ordinance number 93 series of 2025 which is commonly known and referred to as the FY2025 2026 budget ordinance of the city of Ashland. So move second discussion. All in favor say I. I all opposed. Our consent agenda,

a resolution of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, adopting, authorizing, and approving the course of action presented by the city manager on the items appearing on the consent agenda for the regular meeting of the board of city commissioners of January 22nd, 2026. So move second. First and a second discussion. Thank you for all the detail on here. Absolutely.

Makes a big difference. Chief Ally, on the um this air system, will that actually be on rescue one? I mean, is that how they do that or mayor and commissioners? Yes, it will actually be a piece of equipment that is installed on that unit by the factory that manufactured the unit. Oh, okay. So, it'll be out of service for a while. Uh approximately we're looking at about a week. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Did Chief, while you're up, did we have an update on engine 3, the one the tree fell on?

It returned to service this past Friday and is back in service at South Ashlin. Good deal. Thank you. I think that's all I had. All right. Any other um discussion?

Yeah, just quick with Mr. Hop. How's the uh reservoir going? Mayor and commissioners, obviously, um they're running into some issues with the weather right now. how they've had their equipment freeze up on them and stuff, but um they are removing solids right now. Um I'm I need to get up there today to get a a um a total as to how much has been removed. So so far, but I think earlier in the um week had a spreadsheet. I think it's about 300 cubic yards that's been removed so far. Uh, but I I want to confirm that for sure and I can let you all know the amounts.

Where are the solids going that are removed? We have a uh what's called a beneficial use permit that we're permitted to store it up there at the reservoir. Um it's it's spelled out within the permit the area, but we have we're storing it at the reservoir and then we'll be able to use it for back fill or those types of things. And depending on how much is there um we can make it available to third parties, right? Yes. Yes. Certainly a whole lot easier this time.

Uh it is and and we we think we have some some good ideas going forward from doing this. maybe some possible um modifications to the how we drain the the reservoir and possibly even drain it into the sewer. We've been talking to sewer collection about doing that. We think that it's something we can do to be even even more of a cost savings in the future to where we can possibly do this all without the help of a contractor. But that's we're this is just really preliminary and water cooler talk at this point. But we think it's possible. Anything else? Thank you. Any other? All right. All in favor say I.

I. All opposed. All right. We'll move into our new business. Item A. First reading and approval of an ordinance entitle an ordinance to the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and approving change order number two between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky and Judy Construction Company for the Roberts Drive screen replacement project increasing the contract in the amount of $9,467 for the Department of Engineering. So move second. Second discussion. All in favor say I. I.

All opposed. Item B, first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky and Tri-State Construction and Enterprises LLC for the Ashlin Fire Department shower installation project in the amount of $53,860. So move second discussion item, Mr. City Manager, it's pending a budget adjustment. pending a budget adjustment. Yes. All right. All in favor say I. All opposed.

Item C. First reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a service agreement between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, and United Diagnostic Services LLC to provide on-site screening services for employees. Some move. Second discussion. Um, is this only for the fire department or or is it available for other city employees? It's citywide. Good. Is that correct, Samantha? That's correct. Good. Thank you. All employees. Excellent. All right. Any other discussion? Very good program. Yes, we're excited about this

and uh Miss Sers did a great job of going out and finding the best uh rate situation solution and I believe we're going to do this at the fire department. Is that right? So, thank you, Chief Ally, for accommodating annual deal. Thank you, Sam. Good job. All right. All in favor say I. I. All opposed.

Item D. First reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract between the city of Ashland and LC United Painting Company, Inc. in the amount of $367,500 for the high knob water storage tank rehabilitation project for the Department of Utilities. So move second discussion. I know this seems like an awful lot of work, you know, to that um that water storage tank. Should be almost brand new. All right. Um all in favor say I. I. All opposed.

Item E, first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and approving change order number one between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, and Everett J. Prescott, Inc. for the 13th Street underground tank project increasing the contract in the amount of $2,2360 for the Department of Engineering. So move second discussion. All in favor say I. All opposed. Item F,

reading and adoption of a municipal order entitled a municipal order of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute an application for the Kentucky Fire Commission personal protective equipment grant in the amount of $7,000 for the Ashlin Fire Department. So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Item G, reading and adoption of a municipal order entitled a municipal order of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a temporary construction easement between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky and Mad Ventures LLC regarding the Spring Park sanitary sewer project.

So move. Second discussion. All in favor say I. All opposed. Item H, reading an adoption of a municipal order entitled a municipal order of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing proving acceptance of safety grant funds in the amount not to exceed $2,500 and authorizing directing the mayor to execute any and all documents related to said grant acceptance from Kentucky Employers Mutual Insurance. [Applause] Motion first and second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. All right, we'll move into the executive.

Actually, mayor, we have one add-on uh carry up item. Uh it's a uh request from Ashlin, Boyd County, Calixburg, Office of Emergency Management, Tim England, uh declaring a local state of emergency for this weekend's upcoming forecast. After spoke with Chief Ally last or Chief Kelly last night, we thought maybe we'd uh try to do this preemptively instead of retroactively this time. So good idea. Simply a resolution of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky declaring a local state of emergency effective January 24th, 2026. So move. Second discussion. That's I think that's good thinking ahead. Really good. All in favor say I. I. All oppose.

Mayor, one other thing. U we talked about u um maybe uh coming up with a proposed u um ordinance amendment on data centers. Yes. And um I hope that um maybe we're we're going along those lines for maybe a conditional use so that we have some control if a developer wants to put one of those in and in the in the city. Well, you want to make that in form of a motion to let them

I I will if that's if it's appropriate. I as long as I don't think we need I'm I'm just expressing what I think we all agree is that we need to address that and address it now as opposed to later. Would you want to put that in our work session? Sure.

Also, I'd like to bring something up. Um you know, our Boy County Fiscal Court, they do a great job uh with economic development and Mr. void there. And um to that they have two large events each year, uh two large concerts uh each year. And the city, we're going to be having potentially four buses that would be uh declared surplus at some point uh in the very near future. And I would like us to consider uh donating those buses or working out some type of agreement with the fiscal court if they would be interested in those buses uh for them to acquire the buses for you know what whatever purpose they may have. I know there've been some expressed uh that they may be interested in using those for those concerts and other events that they may have.

They have been declared surplus. I have spoke with Justin Puit about um the donation of one. uh he's interested in even purchasing the other and we have a surplus sale. But they only they also use them and we've the city has let them borrow them for their events when we were actually using them. They use them for the little league events. They actually transport parents and grandparents out to the field because there's park parking problems on opening day. They've used them for u events. They have um events in the fall where they have um hay rides. They they do it with parking and other events, but they have expressed interest in the buses.

Well, by transferring them, we would uh transfer the maintenance cost and all over to them if and it would also they're there. It's theirs. They're theirs. It would also get them um off our insurance and and it would be insurance that they would be assuming and all that. I and by by state law we can transfer from government unit to government unit without compensation. So I think we ought to go forward with it. you know, I think we ought to do it and and this is this is a way for us to, you know, uh continue to build on our collaboration working working with the county, right?

And there's been some things that that I've had discussion with uh Judge Cheney and and some of the commissioners and even Michelle Ve about in the future maybe a a work session topic of collaborating to purchase bulk salt vehicle equipment. We ought to look toward having a joint meeting sometime. I think that is going to be my suggestion. I'm all for it if they throw in some Leonard Skinner tickets. Who's Leonard Skinner? I knew that was coming up. Okay, I'm going to get control here. Um Aaron's probably you can bring that material to us and what

Yeah, that you have already declared him a surplus. I would have to ask Mr. Wheeler how would we which I guess it' be a lease agreement we have right now. That's surplus. We have four. That's all of them. We need u uh Mr. Wheeler a motion authorizing the mayor to execute any documentation necessary to make that transfer. I think it sounds good. That sounds good. That's a motion. That's a motion. I'll second that motion. Okay. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. I get that, Madam Clerk. Yes. Got it. Good job. All right. Very good. Any other um need to come before the board before we go into executive session?

I want to tell Sunny working for the MCA is a good song to start out with with Skannard. Oh, okay. So, when we come back, we probably will um just do a recess for our uh work session which is on the 28th at noon. Is that right? Yes, sir. I think it's noon. Yes. Yes, the 28th at noon. So, we'll do that. All right. Well, the motion to go move to go to discuss litigation, personnel, individual personnel matters. I think it's uh potential litigation and property acquisition. Okay. So, move

second. All in favor?

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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] We're back in session from our executive session with no action taken. Uh so we're going to recess to uh the 28th at noon and I think we're going to take a ride.

Magic done. Well, us or we there's How many are going for four? Is there more than three? Yeah, I'd say we recess after we get back from the Paramount. That's a good idea. Very good. We'll do that.

All right. something else. [Music] [Music]