City Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat.

Hey, hey, hey. call meeting to order for the Ashen Board of City Commissioners. If you all will rise, we'll ask Commissioner Reg to do our invocation. Mr. W if you'll lead us in our pledge.

Lord, we thank you for our city and how you bless us in recent days. We ask and invite your Holy Spirit into our chambers to preside over our meeting this evening. We ask for your wisdom and guidance over this board of mayor commissioners as we strive to make the right decisions for our city and in the best interest of our citizens. bless our city manager, our staff and employees, and those in attendance this evening. We pray always in Jesus name. 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. [snorts]

Thank you, gentlemen. [clears throat] Motion to uh receive and file the agenda presented. So move second. Any discussion changes? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion to receive and file the minutes. We should have the regular meeting from January 22nd. Second. Any corrections, additions? All in favor say I. All opposed. All right. our hearings and we'll move into our mayor and commissioners comments. So we'll Mr. Goo, we'll just start with you.

I just want to welcome everybody this evening. I just have a few announcements. I was honored to give a proclamation mayor that you signed for this is FBLA week in the city of Ashlin. I was out at school this afternoon and there are 94 FBLA members under the direction of Miss uh Belaloo out there who's been a sponsor there for many years and I was honored to do that. I just want to give a shout out and thanks to uh a lot of our department heads out there during this storm. uh Sean Murray and uh Steve Alli and Chief Kelly and in the emergencies and and Sean for you and streets and and Mark Hall for all the water leaks. I just appreciate your efforts and your crews and uh that's all I have. Mayor,

Commissioner, I would reiterate the thanks for our our employees working through some really bad uh weather conditions. Um um and I want to echo the the sentiments of the Commissioner Martin and Commissioner Good about our public works, our police and our fire and our utilities departments um responding in all types of weather as they do year round, especially this tough the last few weeks with the uh snow and ice that has uh kind of pinned us in and froze us in basically and made it feel like we're we're in Alaska but we're in Ashland. So um that's all I have today.

All right, just a couple of things. Um, uh, I told him I would mention this about our our gravy bowl. Actually, uh, Mr. Rhymer has, uh, one of the posters for this, uh, that's coming up on the the 21st at the transportation center from 10 to 2. Um, also our ground break groundbreaking for our wastewater treatment plant. We're excited about that. Um, and that is scheduled now for um, February the 18th at 9:00 am at the transportation center. So, if anybody would like to attend that that event. Uh, and that's basically all I have. And Commissioner Renfro,

thank you. I I want to echo every all the rest of the commissioners on the uh great job our uh departments did during this snowstorm and ice. Uh, I'd like to use the balance of my time though to talk about ordinance number 123 of 2022. And that was the ordinance that uh that commission uh restricted $2 million general fund money going to the economic development. And uh when we left the work session the other day, I thought I was pretty clear on it until I got home and started getting phone calls and messages and I was trying to explain to them, no, there isn't a a $2 million, you know, fund over at the bank drawn interest. [clears throat] So, and the people I talked to were were pretty knowledgeable people, but they were still a little bit confused. So, I'd like for Michelle to come up and and talk a little bit about it, maybe clear up any misunderstandings on um on this $2 million. Well, actually, it's it's not $2 million now. We we used $12,255 on it for to entice the business here. So the the the fund now sits at 1,987,745. And if Michelle wants to talk about a little bit,

in 22 um the commission then allocated $2 million of our net worth. So when you take the city's cash and taxes receivable and uh other receivables that people owe us money minus our li liabilities is our fund balance. So we set aside $2 million of our fund balance and we restricted it only the board of commissioners can use any money out of that. The only money we have used is what we used for uh parking, an incentive for parking for someone to bring their corporate headquarters back here. It's it's not cash. It's $2 million of our net worth that is restricted. So, when we did it, I went back to 22 and looked to see how much cash was in our general fund in 22, and it was $1.1 million at the end of June. Um, in the end of June that year, we had 2.7 million owed to us in property tax and we had 10.3 million owed from other funds. Um, we had um inventories of supplies about 880,000. At the time when they committed this 2 million, we had a 2.5 million unassigned fine fund balance. that that was a fund balance that we could do anything that was budgeted in our budget with. So, it's it's not cash. It was never cash. We were not instructed to set aside cash and we didn't have the cash to do it. Some of the economic development incentives that we've done in the past um was Walmart. We when they did developed Melody Mountain, when they did that, we actually borrowed the money to do it and

um we set aside the additional revenues that we got kind of like the tiff district to actually pay for that debt that we had. Another incentive we've done is you know the hotel with the tiff. So, and that was also borrowed money. So, this was just setting aside 2 million of our net worth. Does that make makes sense to me? That clarifies it.

It's a little bit confusing because the ordinance reads uh board of commissioners restricts and the money general fund monies. It doesn't talk about you know the U account balance. It talks about monies. Our fund balance would be monies. I guess any anything in the general fund fund balance would be anything that you could convert to cash which would be our cash any anything we could convert to well like within property tax receivables or other receivables for people as they come in.

Yes. Yes. But there's no $2 million sitting up. There is no $2 million. There was never $2 million. and our financials at the time were um very more scarce than they are now with our fund balance. Along those lines, we talked a little bit the other day about the line of credit. Where are we today on the line of credit? I did not check today, but I do believe we are at zero because my staff usually tells me when we have we have no money owed on the line of credit. I do I have not checked myself today as far as you know. As far as I know. Yes. My understanding was it's been that way since September. Yes.

Well, I when we were talking about it the other day, it was a little vague and I I don't know if we tapped it during the snow because the banks were closed. Sounded like we I I have not asked Kina. I've not I've not checked the financials. We've not done the financials for that set of period. So, because it was we had money to deposit, but we obviously couldn't get to the bank. The bank closed. and it was a payroll week. Can we create an economic development fund, an actual fund line item in the budget? You all can do anything within the budget that you want within, you know, the revenues. You would just have to fund it.

Well, you know, the the uh city manager was talking about creating a reserve. Mhm. Um and he has. We have actually um we've not the paperwork's been created. Well, we haven't actually created it yet. I We We've not created the fund, but we do have an account that he is intending on uh setting aside money yet. He has not spending on board action. Correct. Yeah. Well, it' be right now it'd be like we would just take our money and put it there. You are the only people that can limit what it's spent on. That was my point. Yes. [laughter] So, it would basically be a rainy day fund. Yeah. Yes.

But then could we create a separate economic development fund? maybe look at that around uh budget work session times. You know, moving forward, we can put a certain amount of money in it, maybe a year or or as money comes in uh to to restrict it and use it only for economic development purposes. You all as a board can do anything you want like that. Okay. Thank you, Mr. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, M. All right. Uh, any other comments? Um, move to our city [clears throat] manager. I comments, Mr. Wheeler. No comments or report at this time. If you'd like to move on to public participation.

All right. Public participation. If there's any um there's an opportunity if anyone like to address the commission. It's not on the agenda. If you can come and to the podium and state your name and your address.

Okay. Okay, sorry. Just Okay. Hi, I'm Caroline Yates from Paul Gblazer High School Bridge Builders chapter and I'm a senior there and this club was started by the United Way if you weren't familiar with it. So, let me start off by saying that thank you for all the support you've provided to organizations in our area within our area so that us high schoolers can be better involved in our community. I've witnessed firsthand and I strong strongly believe that volunteering and service initiatives are important parts of a well-rounded education and builds character. I just wanted to share to come in and share some of the work we've done recently. So at Blazer we have 35 active members and our club has an hour requirement of at least 15 service hours per year and that means our club spends over 525 hours using our collective skills to help those in need. And here are just some of the examples of the work we've done recently. So we've raised over 57 bags of shoes collected in the past 50 80 sorry we've raised over 57 bags of shoes collected in the past two years. 87 new jackets for homeschool groups. Over 7,000 pounds of food collected for food drives and $38,000 raised for food in the past month. Over $10,000 for the 5K in Ashland. I was a race director for that and that was a really good experience that really helped me get out into the community and talk to business leaders. So that was that really built a lot of that character I mentioned earlier um for me and my friends. And then we also established a similar 5K and greenup our a lot of elementary schools in the who also have bridge builders chapters made thank you cards for senior citizens, construction workers, janitors and teachers. Um, and we also did food bags for shop with a

cop and we gave out 450 turkeys and eight scholarships given out just in the last year. Um, Bridgeuilders is also being recognized at both the state and national level level soon and we are just really excited for upcoming projects and the new strong leadership that's coming in the fall. So, thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you, Carol. Excellent job. Great job. I think that the community sure appreciates what you do and it it doesn't go unnoticed and we appreciate you coming here and and um and highlighting what you all have done. Thank you.

Great job. All right. Any others would like to u address the commission? Hearing none, we'll move into our old business of Mr. Will item A. Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of 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. Any discussion? All in favor say 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 a contract between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky and Tri-State Construction and Enterprise LLC for the Ashlin Fire Department Shower Installation Project in the amount of $53,860. So moved. Second

discussion. Uh what do what do we mean when we say pending uh budget adjustment? This I assume this wasn't budgeted and where so where is the money coming from? We couldn't go ahead and do the ordinance for it when it was on last time because we already had a budget ordinance on there. So we we couldn't like amend both at the same time. The chief has done a budget adjustment. It was not budgeted. It was they found the damage during the year. So when we did the budget last year, the damage was not planned. And we have money with uh he's had a shortage in his payroll and other items in his his budget. And we've also had some uh income that come in that will allow us to do the budget adjustment. So, you've got money actually in the fire department that you can re

Yes. Yes. Adjust. Yes. Uh, let me ask uh the chief. You got one bid on this work. Is that right? How do you feel about the bidder? We received two bids, but one bid did not have a bond bond with actual bid. Yes, sir.

How do you feel about the bidder? Uh I've met [snorts] with the contractor. Um they assure us that it can be completed uh for the budgeted amount. Um originally we were looking at a substantial larger amount to complete the project and it come in under the projections that we thought. Well, I mean you've got you've got what? Five showers here? Nine. Nine. Yes. $53,000. That seems like it might be a little light. Um, what we see often happens is they bid low and then submit a change order. That's been discussed with the contractor.

Okay. Chief, I think it's a a good proactive plan to tackle all three stations like you got like like your team is doing. So, uh especially since the the damage has been found, uh that it's I think it's really key to go ahead and get on that as soon as they can to get that corrected. I might question the 30-year estimate that's there, but well, these units are going to be tiled, tile bottom, tile walls. If we get 20 years or 15 years, it' be great. Good. So, thank you. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. All opposed. 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 a service agreement between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky and United Diagnostic Services [clears throat] LLC to provide on-site screening services for employees. So move second discussion. All in favor say I. All opposed. Um, and mayor, just a big thank you to Samantha Sers for heading that up and and getting that done in a cost-effective way. Thank you, Samantha. Noted. Well done.

Uh, item D, second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance to the city of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing 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 second discussion.

Yeah. What? What? We've got a comment here that there's no completion date. [clears throat] What's that, man? Mayor and commissioners, we're still working out um some kinks with the way that we're uploading the data to make its way onto the agenda. Um, we thought that we had this on here. Um, the anticipated completion date is around summer 2026. We anticipate. Is there anything in the contract in terms of time to complete?

Yes, sir. Yes. Um, as uh part of the contract, there's a substantial completion and ready for final completion uh calendar days. Substantial completion is set for 60 days and final completion is set for 90 days. And right now we're holding off um not awarding the project but issuing the notice to proceed due to weather. Um the temperatures need to be higher because we have paint application going to the maybe we could have put in the in the description that you know just what you said 90 days to complete once the work began. Yes sir. Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I all opposed. Item E.

Second reading and final adoption 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 $2,23.60 for the Department of Engineering. So move. Second. Discussion. All in favor say I. All opposed. Move into 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 February 12th, 2026. So move. Second. Second. Second.

Any discussion? Yeah. A couple things. Um throughout these uh um Barry, you've got anticipated completion date. Could we get uh when you instead of saying anticipated completion date, could we get contract completed date or I mean I'm not real sure what anticipated completion date means. Yes, absolutely. Um any of the projects that we have that are currently underway, the notice of receipt has been issued. Yeah, absolutely. We can add um what the contracted anticipated or what the contracted completion date is.

Item B has gone on to eight years. Eight years. Let's see. Uh yes, sir. That's correct. Um that's for GRW's services for design and construction admin for um the Polar Mills job. So I believe the 2018 date um that's back whenever the city entered into the agreement initially with GRW for initial design for phase one. It's a long time.

Uh, Chief, when you've got uh energy weapons, those are tasers. Okay. I had a question with that one, too. Um, what are the value of those that we'll be donating to the We can try to find out. How old is the ammunition? And so, um, the ammunition side of it is current because we were still using those and replacing them. So, the other uh the other item as far as the the cost or what the thing is valued I have I'll have to get that for you, but it's um it's nowhere near the original cost of the

Oh, no. But I was just curious of what the value would be. We'll be donating to We find somewhere to trade in. I don't know if we can get, you know, a certain amount, but uh we we can try to get that if it's needed. Okay, that's that's fine. With those being 10 years old, once we give those to the jail, does that release us from any liability for those weapons? I think it makes sense to get a release to them.

We can obtain a release. That's not a problem. I think it's a good thing to um you know to offer these to a different agency that that may not have the budget to purchase. I think that's a that's a good call on your part chief. One other item Barry on item E. Are these the [clears throat] forever chemicals? Yes, sir. We're trying to determine whether we have any of those in our system. Is that basically it? Yes. Yeah. The the amount, the level, and anything that we can do

and the level if it is in there. Yes, sir. I guess and any treatment. Yeah, there is in there.

That's all I have. Oh, there is one more. Um, on item L, that that's taken three years. Any any reason for that? That's a safety plan, the traffic safety plan. Let's see here. Okay. Yeah. 12 125 2023. Um, I picked up on this project a little over a year ago. Um, the 2023 date is whenever the city actually entered into an agreement with FHWA, but in terms of my knowledge, um, work actually was started on it in

last year. Yeah. Or so the contract laid dormant for a while before it work began, I believe. So, yes, sir. Thank you. All right. Any other questions, discussion? All in favor say I. I. All opposed.

So, two followup items on that. Mayor, one, Chief Kelly will provide you all an estimated cost of the energy weapons being donated. And we'll also uh pursuant to Commissioner Renfro's suggestion, have Boyd County Detention Center provide us a release. And all we'll also add in some language about indignification and hold harmless uh before we deliver those items. Excellent. Thank you. Oh, okay. All in favor say I. All opposed.

All right. We'll move into our new business. Item A, first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute task order number 26-01 between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, and Strand Associates, Inc. for preparation of the annual 2025 combined sewer overflow reports for the Department of Utilities in an amount not to exceed 22,500. So move second discussion.

Was there any local engineering firms or um businesses that could have could have done this? Mark asked me to speak on this one. Um Strand is probably the most familiar with it because they're the one actually doing our water treatment, our sewer treatment plant. They've uh they've done this report. It's in the seption of our agreed order and they do it every year and they're familiar with what work's being done. It's probably easier for them to complete because of that. They've been involved in the work since 2011, I think. 2011 first started the work. Yes.

Thank you for that information. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. All opposed. Item B, first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance to the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, repealing ordinance number 117 series of 2025, which authorized an agreement with First United Methodist Church as a subreient of $5,000 from the community development block grant. So move second discussion. All in favor say I. I all opposed. [clears throat] And item E or I see C.

First reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing, directing the mayor to execute an agreement with the Salvation Army of Ashlin, the subreient of $5,000 for operating cost from the community development block grant. So move second. Discussion. All in favor say I. I.

Abstain. All opposed. Item D, reading and adoption of a municipal order entitled the municipal order of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute and submit a grant application to the foundation for the tri-state community in the amount of $5,725 for an America 250 commemorative mural to be painted on the flood wall. So move second.

Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. [clears throat] Item E, reading and an and adoption of a municipal order entitled a municipal order of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute the US Department of Housing and Urban Development certification of consistency with the consolidated plan regarding the continuum of care program for the Kentucky Housing Corporation. Some move. Second discussion. All in favor say I. All opposed. Item F,

sign ordinance appeal. Sign appeal by Young Signs and Good Morning Breakfast for a wall-mounted sign at 100 I'm sorry 1001 Winchester Avenue. It looks like the summary that um staff has provided indicates that the staff is u satisfied with the additional material that Mr. Young provided. Is that correct? I move that the appeal be granted. I'll second that. We have a uh a first and a second appeal. All in favor say I. I. All opposed.

Hey, when will that restaurant What's the projected time of it opening after we get that sign up? He probably doesn't. He doesn't know. Okay. What do you think? There's They're still doing some uh engineering work. They're talking about putting on Every time I drive by there, I'm hungry. [laughter] Very good. All right, Mr. Wheeler, I believe you have an additional item.

Yeah. Uh we've got one uh carry-on item and this is something that uh we've talked a little bit about in previous meetings, but uh an additional item of new business. an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, imposing uh and this is first reading, I should state an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, imposing a temporary moratorium on the acceptance, processing, and approval of applications related to data centers for a period of 180 days to allow for study and review by the planning commission. So move second that. Any discussion? All in favor say I. All opposed.

Thank you. Uh I guess we have an executive item. Uh a couple items to brief you on very very short. Um we'd request an executive session for potential litigation and property acquisition. Move. And when we do when we will return, we will uh adjourn in the the memory of Billy Cornet from the city of of Kixburg. Need a motion and a second for executive session. Motion. Second. Second. All in favor say I. All opposed. All right. Thanks for coming. Great job. Thank you guys. [clears throat]

Yeah. Yeah. What

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Heat. Heat. Here we are. Hey,

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Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey.

We're back in session from our executive session and no action was uh taken. Uh with no further business, we will adjourn in the memory of Billy Cornet from Kixburg. Great guy. Thank you.