City Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Call a meeting in order for the Ashland Board of City Commissioners. If you all will rise, we'll ask Commissioner Gute to do our invocation. Mr. Wurst, would you lead us in our pledge?

Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for our city and the opportunity we have today to make decisions that will benefit our citizens in the best interest of our community. We humbly ask for your Holy Spirit to preside over our meeting and guide our steps as we strive to do city business of the city. Bless our city manager, our staff and employees, Bless our country as we celebrate 250 years in this United States of America. May we always be thankful for the freedoms we enjoy. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Commissioner DeGute and Mr. Wirtz. All right. Motion to receive and file the agenda as presented. So moved.

Second.

Any corrections? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion to receive and file the amendments to the regular meeting of May 28, 2026. So moved.

Second.

Any corrections, additions? All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? We'll move into our mayor and commissioner's comments. Commissioner Martin, we'll start with you today.

All right. Two things that I wanted to mention. First of all, we had, I thought, just a wonderful evening last Friday, the Juneteenth celebration. I think we owe a special thanks to Daryl Smith with the Black History Museum and Audra Thomas. Ashland for Change and all the volunteers. It was a really nice event. And everybody was down there at one time or another, and I thought it went very well. Second thing, we're experiencing a... Our community in lesser degrees from time to time, but Commissioner Goode received a complaint from mall management about some trash and stuff around the flood wall as you go underneath, not the flood wall, the viaduct wall. as you go underneath 23 and the commissioners were down there. And I wanted to thank Commissioner Goode for referring it on to Chief Kelly and Chief Kelly's prompt response and streets, Dave Travis and Sean Murray, Public Works, got in there the next day with machines to clean the mess up. We got to recognize that it's a double-edged sword. These folks, nobody's saying that any of this is going to go away and homelessness is going to continue. But we also have to be concerned about the appearance of our community and the effect it has on some of the properties that people have in town and how they get trashed and vandalized. Our police officers and our public works folks, when they're out in the community, look for these things so that we can deal with them as they exist. And it's not a pleasant thing to deal with. But it's our community. And it's not going to go away. And we really need to deal with it. And I thank you, Commissioner Gute, for your prompt response. Appreciate that. Recognizing that.

Yeah, I've actually noticed that it's already starting to come back.

You know, it calms down, then it seems to flare up. But we've got a number of vacant buildings and stuff that obviously are being abused, and we need to be aware. I mean, nobody wants to criminalize anything, but folks that are dealing with this stuff, it needs to stop.

Let's just switch over here. We're going to do it. Commissioner Ramer.

Well, I want to welcome everybody for attending today. I want to echo the sentiments of Commissioner Martin. Commissioner Martin and I actually showed up down there to take a look at the side of the dumping and the debris. And it was fairly vast, you know, the information, the stuff that was there. And we appreciate Commissioner Gook sharing that and passing it along and our staff for getting that cleaned up. and moved out of there. I think I mentioned last meeting about the attendance at our Dawson pool. It is it's it's been great attendance this year. I would like to bring up to this board maybe a new business about potentially offering free swimming or free entry on July 4. As part of the fourth of July celebration, that's something that we may be able to do or to look at doing. But that's all I have today.

Thank you. All right, Commissioner Reimer.

My points have already been taken, so I'll save some time for later on. Sure.

I might mention, well, kudos to Barry Adkins and the street crew and water distribution for the work they're doing out on Oak View Road. That's a pretty complicated set of infrastructure there just by the pictures that they're working around water lines, storm lines, gas lines, electric. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that they're having to deal with. And we appreciate their efforts and particularly very overseeing this.

Thank you.

Yeah, well done.

Commissioner Goode, I just want to welcome everybody to this noon meeting. This this deal that we had with under over there at the mall, it was a team effort. It just wasn't. I just took the call and just referred it and it was definitely a team effort with with Todd and APD and there was 12 streets street workers that work from 730 that morning till three three o'clock that day. And sanitation was also involved. There was six dump truck loads of trash underneath that viaduct. And they removed several needles and they put their shovels in and rats came out of there like the size of footballs. And so they- Pretty hard to describe. Pretty hard to describe, but I just wanna thank our city crews and it was definitely a team effort. I just wanna say that visit the Summer Motion. Summer Motion's coming up. I'm real excited about this American 250 and all the festivities that are gonna go on. I've been going to Summer Motion since I was, since its inception, since Billy Ray wore a mullet. I've been going to Summer Motion down there where the stage was sideways going down toward the river. We didn't have that nice setup like we do now, but go and visit the Summer Motion festivities. I appreciate you. That's all I got.

A couple things. I do want to congratulate Pete Fraley again for being named as the Elk Sports Day honoree for 2026. It was an Nice event, and congratulations to him. You all mentioned several of the things that were going on. And the 250, just a little plug, I guess. We're selling the t-shirts the committee has for American 250. And actually, they are for $20, I think. And they are at the Visit Ashland office, if anyone likes to do that. Gentlemen, I have placed on your table in front of you a couple of different things. One is some event schedules, not necessarily what the committee has planned, but there are several items in there. The Bluegrass Wind Ensemble, and you have a flyer for that. That is June the 30th. and then the All-American Pancake Breakfast, which is the morning of July 4th, and then the parade at 1 o'clock. But you should have a copy of that somewhere in there. If not, I'll make sure that you do. One of the projects, and I'm going to ask... Mr. Suman to come up he is the CEO for members choice about a project that I pitched to him and and if you want to come up and if you can put up the information

Good afternoon. Thanks for allowing us to be here. What the mayor is putting up there is a little project. This is Madison Gleam. She is our marketing guru over at Member's Choice. And I think she's got a copy for each of you. But we had run across a coloring book for kids that some various cities had used over the country with the history of their city. And the mayor thought it might be a very good idea to have something like this for the city of Ashland. And when we met, we just basically said, is there anything that Members Choice can help with? And this was one of the things that he wanted us to do for the city and his children and everyone. So we partnered with the Hollins Museum and got all of the detail. and actually took all of the old pictures of Ashland and then Madison created a coloring book and then there's a storyline as you can see up there of each one of the major impacts to the city of Ashland and kind of the direction that it took. So it was a really fun project. I think Madison did a fabulous job. We appreciate the opportunity to help. I certainly learned a lot more about Ashland. I knew that they were called, I always thought the Indian Mounds, but it's the Adena Mounds. So something that you learn new as you go through this. But it touches basically every major piece of Ashland, including our Highlands Museum there and and much more. So we hope that you all enjoy it and appreciate that opportunity.

And so how are you going to distribute this?

So our first run, and you can notice that those are numbered on the back. So you guys, I'm sure you know where number one and two went. But the rest of those are numbered as well. So the first 2,500 we're going to be giving out on the 4th of July at the parade. And also, we have a financial literacy program for the children in the school systems. And we'll be handing those out as part of that going forward once school starts back. And the Highlands Museum, I think, is going to have a display up as well. So if anybody needs any of these books, certainly let us know.

Well, I've always been an advocate for teaching civics to our young kids because I think we have missed that. And this is, I think, is really going to help that because they can go through and hopefully start getting interested in local history. And this is a good start. Thank you all. Thank you.

Jason, thank you for always being a champion in our community and always willing to help out when you're called upon. Thank you so much. We appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Before we go on, Mayor, I looked at this coloring book, and I looked there in the First Presbyterian Church. It's like the third page right here. And I'd like to close our meeting today in memory of the Reverend Bill Pollack, who passed away, the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church over there. It's Ike Nicholson's father-in-law. And so I'd like to close our meeting in his memory.

We can do that. I know he's always been a big supporter, especially during the Martin Luther King March to have lunch afterwards and inviting the community there always. All right, move to the city managers.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have a presenter today is city attorney Andrew Wheeler and HR Samantha Syers. Is that correct?

Yeah, I'll defer the majority of my time, I believe, to Ms. Salyers, our HR manager, that's going to give us a little presentation about the full body scans that we recently did in health fair, I believe.

Yes. Good afternoon, Mayor and commissioners. Just it's a brief. I'm not going to keep much of your time, but I just wanted to kind of give you an update. We had our annual employee health fair on May 28th, and we had approximately had a good turnout. We had approximately 70 ish employees in attendance. But on that day, we have the local UK King's Daughters staff, their mobile units. We have local Banking so we have members choice was set up the credit unions were set up the YMCA was set up Kentucky deferred comp we have just Walmart came and they were set up to check your vision so they they do all this for free every year we set this up in May for the employees to come and participate and spouses anyone on the city plan. We had Dr. Carraway with UK King's Daughters. He was doing screen checks for cancer. We had 18 participate in that. Like I mentioned, the mobile units, we had the mammography unit on site all day for the employees and the public. And I believe they had 10 appointments scheduled. We also had the Healthy Heart unit set up, and we had 27 employees participate in that. So that's a free EKG. So all this is free, and it's great for them to take advantage of, and we appreciate that. The more important thing that I wanted to touch on is thank you, as this commission, earlier this year, you approved for us to move forward with collaborating with United Diagnostics and bringing in the full body scan. And that is just, in my opinion, personally dealing with the health insurance, that's just a blessing for all involved. And you chose to do that free, no cost to the employee. And we had a great turnout back in April. We had a two month span or I'm sorry, a two week span that we set up at the fire department. And this all stems from the fire department using United Diagnostics last year. So they kind of introduced us and then with your blessing we moved forward we had 103 employees go through the full body scan and then we had 16 spouses take advantage of the discounted rate we were able to negotiate for the spouses to take advantage as well to me that just speaks volumes and i greatly appreciate this commission allowing that to move forward for us to do and offer that to the employees so i i commend you and again thank you for your in tune with making sure the employees are taking care of helpers. 310. Now, that includes SROs. That includes you. We consider that the authorized positions list. That's our full-time list, 310. And then we have 63 seasonal. And that's throughout the different departments.

How many SROs are there?

Seven. I think one is considered part-time, but on the list, it's seven.

was 310. How does that compare to years past?

We're down, probably, my guess would be about 20. And we used to run 323 330, somewhere around in there. So just just throwing those numbers out, we're probably down around around 20. But there are some available positions, obviously, that, you know, fire police, you know, there's what was consolidation and stuff that taken effect.

Okay.

But yes, I think everything's running smoothly from my standpoint from HR. But are there any questions? that you can think of for me. There's numbers. I threw numbers at you.

Thanks for all your work, Sam.

You're doing a great job, Samantha. Thank you.

The one thing that really found out was some of the supervisors who were thought not to have hearts was actually found that that was just a rumor.

You know what? And they will check your heart. I'm a testament to that because I had the full body scan, and it's still pumping.

So I'm good.

I wasn't necessarily talking about you.

Thank you. Appreciate you.

Appreciate Samantha's taking that on and Mandy Evans' help with that too, getting those set up. Appreciate UK King's Daughters coming over for the health fair and participating in that. And really appreciate the fire union bringing up the full body scans to us in the negotiation process of the last union contract. That's the origination of that. I won't go into specifics, obviously, but it's a really, really good way for early detection of degenerative conditions, especially for our firefighters and first responders that deal with hazardous material at times. Health fair, same thing. So these are really, really good programs that I would strongly recommend we consider continuing, because that early detection can not only help the employee, but it also helps with costs later on when you're dealing with a self-insured employee base like what we've got. And other than that, that's all I've got to share right now. Happy to take any questions about legal or HR that you may have.

Anything else? I'm good, thank you.

All right, we'll move on to our public participation. This is an opportunity for anyone would like to address loud five minutes and you're good to go with the green got 30 seconds with yellow light and done when you're in the red field stand and come to the podium put your state your name and your address.

Cheryl Spriggs, 2816 Cumberland Avenue. And I'm the director at the Ashland Senior Center. First of all, I want to thank you all for your support with an increase in CDBG operating funds this year and also for a new roof that we'll be getting. um you know we've been there since 1971 i think we're the oldest senior center in both counties that building really needs some love and attention and things are falling down upstairs i can hear them every day so the roof is really necessary but i came to talk to you about something else do i have a picture i want you to meet bobby Bobby's our June queen. Every month, the Senior Center votes for senior royal. Elected that sometimes we have a king and sometimes we have a queen, but they get special things like extra birthday cake, getting to go to lunch first and things like that. Bobby's 89 years old. Been coming to the Senior Center for a long time. Two weeks ago, she was trying to get to her car, and she fell on Carter Avenue. And thankfully, the folks at City National Bank found her sitting on the curb. We didn't know this had happened to Bobby. But now Bobby's not at the senior center. because Bobby's getting some help. She was sitting there with her head in her hands. Our seniors, as you all know probably, falling is the number one issue with senior mortality and injury. It's always the women who fall. The men at the senior center never fall. But this situation needs to be addressed. I've talked to each one of you about this in passing. So I want to talk to you today about some possibilities. I need you all to put your brain power together and help my seniors. These folks have worked hard all their life, been productive members of the community. And this is their place to come. There's only social contact they have. And for some, it's the only hot meal, healthy meal they have. When I came in this morning, there's 11 parking places on both sides of the street from the alley to Carter Avenue. Every one of them were empty this morning. Every one of them were empty when I left. We never had a problem before this new parking situation. Now they can't find places to park. Some don't even bother to come anymore. but we can't have our senior, some of them can't, they have back issues, knee issues, and so they cannot walk, they can't use the parking garage. Somebody suggested that, that's a joke. They cannot use the parking garage. So I wanted to talk to you about some possibilities. One is just exempt that part of 15th Street on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. for senior center parking only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9 to 2. Second, somebody said that we counterfeited these, and that can't be true. They were made in 2017. But this allowed them to use these to park. Some people now just come for two hours and leave. They don't stay the whole day. They time it so they come and eat and then leave. So they don't play to have any kind of interaction with their fellow senior citizens there. I don't understand. You've all been really, really good to the senior center. This seems to me to be a simple solution. And I hope that you will do something to fix this. I can't have, you don't want it on your conscience that another one falls and is hurt more seriously than Bobby was. I thank you for your consideration.

cheryl thanks for bringing that to our attention i know that you and i spoke in the past about some things that we may be able to do to address this i think there's some issues overall with the parking ordinances that need to be addressed um i know miss bobby you know i've been a volunteer at the senior center she's a sweetheart she really is and uh you know this it's always been an issue down there uh with parking and and getting folks in and out safely. I know off the alley there was parking in the back that some of our... Well, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, it's jammed.

It only holds nine cars. So it's pretty much a mess, which, by the way, I wanted to ask, why is that alley between 16th Street and 15th Street the only one way going the other way? Anybody know why that is? Well, I think you'll look at fixing that, too. It's much easier to come in the other way and park in that thing because there are people that park across the way.

Well, we will address this.

Okay. Appreciate it. Let me know if you need any more information from me. I don't want – I mean, I'm there. I care for these people. You get to know them. That lady didn't deserve that, and I don't want anybody else to get hurt. I know you don't either, so thank you.

All right. Thank you. Anyone else like to address the commission?

I was looking over Cheryl's shoulder, and I remember making that placard. If they look at my computer, I remember when we made those back in 2017. Mayor and commissioners, hello, my name is Mark McDowell. I'm at 3909 Ferguson Drive here in Ashland. And I'm practicing what I preached over a 28-year law enforcement career here with the city of Ashland. And I always told people if they wanted to get action with the city is to always go to a commission meeting. And so that's why I'm here today. And I want to start off by clearly stating that I do have a quick ending point with my questions that I'm wanting to ask today. And I want to clearly state that I'm not casting any stones at our finance department. I worked very closely as division commander with Tony. In fact, Tony and I, I believe, started in January of 89 together. And with my role before my retirement, I worked very closely with them. And I'm here just to bring up a concern that I have. And again, quickly, the Kentucky Public Pension Authority handles retirees and current employees across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. They have 444,000 members that they take care of. And I went to the KPPA in July of 2017 to apply for my retirement, which was effective August 1st of 2017. And at that time, I received my initial calculations for a monthly benefit that was provided to me at that time. And as each of you well know, each retirement account undergoes a post-retirement audit to ensure that the calculation that was provided to me by the KPPA is accurate. And my first post-retirement audit was completed by the KPPA on December 7th of 2017, and it had an increase of $77.32 in my benefit per month. And the KPPA legal department had no issue with any sick leave payments in excess of 120 days, and I think that's the root of the issue here. My account underwent a second post-retirement audit by the KPPA and that was completed on July 9th of 2018. The second post-retirement audit resulted in an increase of $4.68. to my monthly benefit. And again, at this second audit, it was, uh, evident by the KPPA legal department that there was no issue with any sick, sick leave payments, uh, to my account. And, uh, my account underwent a third KPP audit in a, uh, that was completed on April 1st of this year, uh, a full eight and a half years after I retired from the city of Ashland. This third post retirement audit resulted in a reduction of my monthly benefit of $78.78, which I might add is almost to the penny of what the increase was on my initial post retirement audit. And furthermore, KPPA notified me that I owed them for the overage that they had paid over this eight and a half years. So unbeknownst to me, there was sitting in my KPPA online account an email that I did not see because I don't check this every day. And they said that I owed them $8,129 in change. And beginning with the June benefit, that they would take out the $1,016 in change over the next eight months until I paid them back on this overage, starting with this month. And that's when I noticed and started looking closely of the discrepancy. And the problem here is for this email, and it's my fault, I have 30 days to file a grievance with the KPPA to challenge their findings. And, of course, that has since expired. So very quickly, inside this letter that I got from the KPPA, they cite a KRS, and it's KRS 61.685. and so i pulled up krs 61.685 and certainly as taxpayers of this state we want to make sure that we give our retirees an accurate benefit i am not looking to get anything more or anything less than what i have earned during my career one thing that was noted in this statute was the ability of the kppa to conduct the post-retirement audit to make sure that it's accurate. And I want to note that in this statute, 61.685, subsection 3, subsection B, it states a person shall be liable under this subsection if he or she knowingly, and it goes into four situations where a person can be charged for that, and I'm hurrying very quickly, can be charged or have to pay back that money. And it deals with fraud or misrepresent, uh, misrepresentation of your funds or any material false statements. And that's not the case on the, on the part of the city finance department. Uh, but there's a legal head in Frankfurt saying that the, uh, that we owe them that money, the back money, which I think is an exorbitant amount. And my concerns that I wanted to share with this commission today was I understand that there's other city employees. So I'm not up here just for myself. I understand there's quite a few number of Ashland retirees that are affected by this same ruling and are in the same boat as I am.

One happens to be sitting up here.

Yes. So to better understand the magnitude of this, I believe it would be very beneficial for this Board of Commissioners to know clearly how many Ashland retirees are affected by this, and furthermore, how much money these retirees collectively are going to have to back pay the KPPA. So you can write my name on the list as the first one, and mine is $8,129.

Thank you.

My hope is that perhaps our legal department can perhaps look at this statute specifically, since that's the one that they put inside my letter. And I read it as that if there is criminal fraud or misrepresentation or a blatant disregard for who is eligible for these funds, that the KPPA can come back and ask for those funds to be reimbursed. And that's not the case here. There is no criminal intent. either parties and I think it would be better served and I think the city could have good stand for an argument to say you know what I see what you're saying but from this point forward we will ensure that it does not happen again and almost right off the oversights because I have undergone three post retirement audits over the past eight and a half years and surely someone down there would have caught that a lot sooner so it would not have the financial impact

I'm happy to look at it. I'm sorry I haven't been aware of it or had a chance to talk to you about it before. If there's any way on your way out, if you're not staying for the meeting, if you could go to the mayor's office. or HR and ask them to make a copy of the letter that you had, I'd really like to have that letter and review it. I did pull up the statute while we were sitting here and have already started looking at that information. I'd very much like to look at all that. But it's very helpful to me to have the actual letter. I understand.

And we may be spinning our wheels, but certainly I think it's worth looking at. I can recover that, but I'm looking at perhaps other city employees that may have retired in the same time frame that I did Perhaps there's widows that may be affected. And that type of a payback would certainly put a pinch on some families. And I think if we have a standing, if we, the city, has a standing to maybe get back at their inquire with KPPA to say, hey, let's look at this again. And again, I failed to do my 30-day rebuttal. But perhaps if we hit the pause button and allow them to look at this, I really think we have standing to maybe help some retirees.

If, as often happens when folks come in public participation and speak, if you do have someone contact you, would you please send them to us as soon as possible? Oh, absolutely. Yes. OK. Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark.

Thanks, Mark.

Can I have a representative from finance maybe come up and shed a little bit of light on what's going on?

Kentucky Retirement has determined that the sick leave wages above 120 days are not applicable to retirement wages. So they caught this in a pension spiking case where they were questioning employees' wages and pension spiking. that they determined that then they went back to i think it was the first year we did it and they refunded all the retirement contributions to the employees and the retirement money back to the city We tried on numerous occasions, Michelle Daniels, because when we first initiated the program, they said that it was retirement eligible, but they have since changed their determination on that.

You're talking about the 120 days, correct?

Yes. Um, also there is a big difference. There may be 20 or 30 that retired. The majority of them are active. There's a big difference in the amount of money between a hazardous employee and a non hazardous. I talked to a non hazardous employee yesterday. His is $20 a month that they changed his retirement. But they are making them pay it back in a, I think, six-month period.

This is on accumulated sick leave at retirement?

It is accumulated sick leave. It's the program that we did over 120 days. We'll pay you for a certain percentage of your sick leave to encourage. I think we've saved a lot of money and encouraged people to actually come to work with it, and we've reduced sick leave usage, which we've reduced overtime pay. That program is what they said is not attributable to retirement.

When was that program started?

I'm thinking 1987.

No, it's about 2015 maybe.

Yeah, it's been recent.

I vaguely remember something about it, but I couldn't remember the time.

So on the buyback, you're saying that the payment of the additional hours over 120 days, over the 960 hours, is a non-pensionable wage?

Yes, yes. And they... They have refunded money, which we have refunded, but they've not refunded them to all employees yet. I think they've hit about 50% of them. Okay. I've talked to maybe five retirees.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Any other who would like to address the commission? Yes, sir. If you'll state your name and your address.

Jeremy Wright. Oh, sorry. Didn't expect that.

2642. Do you have your hat, sir? I'm sorry.

Thank you. 2642 Seminole Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky. First off, I didn't expect to speak today. I'm just here in support mainly for the Paramount. But I thought I'd go ahead and chat about a couple concerns I had. I appreciate you giving me the time to do so. And I would love to, at a different time, maybe be able to sit down and discuss some concerns and ideas for the city of Ashland that I have. So I'm the CEO and partner owner of Ashland Investment Group. As far as the entities downtown, Fat Patty is 1-800-POINT-ROAD-PLUS there and our home office is on Carter Avenue. So we have obviously a large stake in the city of Ashland and we all, I hope, want to see the success of our city. I just want to bring a couple of concerns in regards to the parking situation. I completely support parking enforcement. All cities have parking enforcement. It is a necessary evil. And I understand that there's no way to satisfy everybody. And there's no perfect solution. What I would like for you guys to consider, though, moving the two-hour cumulative limit to three hours. I think that's a great compromise and a great starting point. I think, you know, keep in mind, not everyone works They're off on Monday, they're off on Tuesday, and to drive over to my restaurant and eat lunch, and drive down. Those things do happen. People do spend more than two hours at a time from 8 to 4 in the city. And I can honestly tell you right now, it has affected my sales and business. People do mention, I didn't go to Fat Patty's. I'm afraid to get a parking ticket. You know, remember, guys, we're in eastern Kentucky, okay? We're in a slow environment. When people come downtown and they see, you know, a marked car that looks like a mini police car, they're not. I lived in northern Kentucky around Cincinnati for 15 years. I understand what makes a big city successful, okay? My dad's from New York. I spend a lot of time in big cities. I've traveled a lot. I would love to chat with you guys with some ideas, but right now what we have as far as parking, it needs change, guys. It just does. It's not an argument. It's not a pick. I'm not trying to come at you guys in any certain way. I wish you all would... maybe conversate with some of the downtown business owners a little more before large decisions are taken. My group has 17 restaurants across Kentucky, four grocery stores, and a plumbing company. I think we understand what it takes to make a business successful. And I think we can add to the downtown city environment if you guys would open up your ear and and allow all of us business owners to speak and take those to speak and take those those things into consideration like i said this is 100 impromptu i had no plan to speak i would love to sit down with you guys and have a structured meeting at some point if you guys would grant me that i would greatly appreciate that because i think we can all come together and bring the city um to where it needs to be i think we've seen a lot of progress i think we're seeing a lot of progress i'm very excited for that You know, negativity doesn't get us anywhere, so let's work together and see what we can come up with. So I appreciate y'all's time. Thank you.

That's right. I appreciate you speaking today. My phone number is out there in the universe for any and everybody. I'd love to sit down and meet with you. Yeah, absolutely. Anytime you'd like to, I can come to your business and we can have lunch or we can come here in the city building and talk about concerns you may have.

I frequent your business. Hey, I appreciate that. I'd love to have a conversation with you.

OK, great, great. Gentlemen, take care. Have a good afternoon.

Anyone else like to address the commission?

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for having us today. My name is Sydney Pierce. I'm at 1117 Shelby Avenue. I'm Colby Ross.

I'm at 5133 Carter Caves Road in Olive Hill, but I preside at Paramount most of the time.

So we're here to talk about a concept that Colby has started getting the downtown businesses together at one table and meeting pretty frequently. So I'll let Colby begin.

So when I took the position as marketing director at the Paramount, one thing that I constantly heard was they needed all of our businesses downtown. They needed to know what was coming up. They need to know how to staff. And so Eden McKenzie worked with me to get all these business owners, their managers at a table at the Paramount a few months ago. When I sat down, I realized these people have great ideas. They want to see downtown thrive. And they all have ideas for all of our business people to kind of bounce off of each other and work together. And so I took that and ran. So every month, we meet the last Wednesday of the month. We sit down. They have representation. The chamber is there. Visit AKY. We're all there. Eden pops in. And so we started coming up with ideas of how we can all work together and grow downtown and make it a fun environment. And so this was one of our first initiatives that we've kind of came up with what we can do to bring people downtown.

So the project is called Winchester Nights. And the idea is that all downtown businesses work together to bring a live music experience to participants. So we have set the date for July 24. And the idea is that you start on either side of Winchester and kind of work your way down. There's going to be live music at different businesses and establishments. And then all of the businesses have come up with different deals and promotions and special things just to drive traffic downtown and make it a fun evening. So it's going to be from six to nine. And we we did want to emphasize that parking is free during those times just so we can drive people. They're not going to worry that they might get a ticket if they're not downtown. So I'll let I'll let Colby kind of take it from here.

This idea is kind of once we talked about this idea yesterday in our meeting, we've had a few other people like Identity Salon. They have some boutiques that they want to also bring up to Winchester Avenue. And so we're reaching out to all these businesses, each one will have live music. So we're bouncing different genres. So it'll start at the Paramount and the Highlands at 6 p.m. And then you can slowly move on down Winchester Avenue and hop in all of our businesses. And then I'll let Sydney take over kind of the social strategy about how we're going to promote downtown Ashland.

So I'm also with the Chamber of Commerce, and a big idea of ours is just to collaborate with our social strategies. So Fat Patties will post about it, Tuscan Prime, all these businesses who are involved. And then, of course, the Chamber is going to blast out some things to you. And one of our exciting ideas is we want to kind of create a sense of FOMO, fear of missing out, right? So we're going to be taking an active part during the event, going live from these different locations on our Facebook accounts, and just have a unified front when it comes to our social media strategy. That way we can bring more attention and hopefully make this a staple event in the future.

if you guys were at First Friday last, well this month, the atmosphere was insane. There was people everywhere, it was fun, it was encouraging for all of our businesses. So we just wanna keep that going month to month and be able to lead on past First Friday. And so with this, we're gonna have a passport experience Each business will have a stack of these passports we'll have on printed out and you go around and every business you visit and you spend time at you'll get a stamp and then they will be able to put it in a box. We'll do some drawings and all of our businesses will be donating gift cards, gift baskets and things like that to just get these people out in downtown. But we are putting in to open the EDC. So we sent some information in today. We're wanting to open it up from 13th all the way down to 17th. So it would go from the Paramount down to Highlands. And we were thinking about doing chalk art. So we'll have local artists the day of be able to go out and draw with chalk to kind of make past to make sure everybody knows what businesses are participating. So we know we need approval for that. But we also were told that there are fees opening up the EDC and that you guys could maybe waive some of those for us since it's a downtown event. Thank you guys.

I think it could be an exciting event. This is the first that I've heard. I know that other commissioners and mayor have been approached about it. Have you guys spoken with our special events committee? About this? We will there'll be any road blockage or anything like that?

You're leaving all the roads open. Eden did have me send all that information to her so she can go to that committee and kind of pitch it for us.

I think it's a great idea.

Why don't you specifically identify the fees you're asking to be waived?

We do know that there is a fee to open the EDC, but we were told that there is a fee for having police officers and some security, and so we were wondering if those fees could be waived.

I don't know how much security we would need if we were going to keep the roads open.

Well, I think the ordinance with the EDC stated that any time the EDC is activated that there's, what, two officers on duty for that.

There's a there's a decent amount of coordination that goes on from the different departments. That's usually where the the special events committee comes in and they they would be able to to give an estimate of what those fees were a little bit more precise.

We don't know what we're waving. Yeah. They can probably get this thing. Mr. Martin. I'm sorry, Commissioner.

I hate to interrupt.

No, you're good.

probably can help you out if you got a couple minutes and we can do commission with your permissions get the information together get you the recommendation specifically so you can make absolutely okay yes sir thank you I think it's a wonderful idea thank you guys thank you all so much thanks thank you all right anyone else like to address the commission all right hearing none let's move into our old business Mr Wheeler item A

An ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract between the city of Ashland and Morton Salt Inc. for the purchase of up to 2,200 tons of treated rock salt at $115.50 per ton for the Department of Public Services Division of Streets.

So moved.

Second.

Discussion?

I like the idea that we're working with the county on this. Oh, yeah. I know.

I talked to them the other day. They're excited about this.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed?

Item B. Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky authorizing directing the mayor to execute a trust participation agreement for the Kentucky League of Cities Insurance Services General Insurance Trust for FY 2026-2027 payment of property and casualty premiums in the amount of $957,261.42.

I move. Second. Discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye. All opposed? Actually, I had a question on that one. All right. Was that the insurance? No, never mind. We good? Yep, we're good.

OK, item C. Second reading and final adoption 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 Centos Corporation for the rental of work uniforms for a period of two years for the departments of public services, utilities, parks, and recreation and code enforcement in the city of Ashland pursuant to bid documents open on June 4, 2026.

So moved.

Second. Discussion?

All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Item D. Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled An Ordinance of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, amending Ordinance Number 101, Series of 1986, as previously amended by amending Article 13, Conditional Uses, Article 14, District Regulations, and Article 15, Definitions to Incorporate Definitions and Land Use Regulations Related to Recreational Vehicles, and amending the table with permitted and conditional uses.

Motion. So moved. Second.

I will second it just to get some discussion on it.

All right. Discussion.

I know this went back to the committee, and I'm... there was a motion made on the floor to increase this to 12 months instead of six months, and then it was voted down. So, Catherine, if you wanna give your side there.

So what you mentioned there about the motion to extend it to 12 months, that motion was to extend it for a 12 month period and then also allow them to go to the BZA for additional extensions, which would essentially allow an RV to stay in a park. almost permanently. And what it really boils down to is the fact that RVs are not considered to be suitable for permanent dwelling. They are motor vehicles. They are regulated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as motor vehicles. HUD specifically states that they are not considered to be suitable for full-time use, unlike manufactured homes. And the RV Industry Association even states that RVs are not designated for permanent or residential dwelling. So that is ultimately why the Planning Commission made that recommendation. There was one board member that opposed that, that was in favor of longer limits. But again, what it really boils down to is RVs are not designated for permanent full-time dwelling. By the recommendation that was made for a six-month limit with a six-month extension, That gives an RV an opportunity to stay in one park for an entire year, and then they can move to another park. If there is another mobile home park that is willing to accept RVs, they can move to another park. So there is still an opportunity for people to stay in their RVs for an extended period of time.

So they can pull up routes after six months and just go to another location in the city for six months. If there was another park. Another location in the city for six months.

If there was another park that allowed RVs.

Virtually, they could stay in the city for an in.

They essentially could, yes. But they would not be able to remain in one park permanently.

And neither could the vehicle or the home. I mean, it has to move too.

Right, right. That's exactly what we're talking about is the recreational vehicle.

And I saw your research that you had for Bardstown, Bowling Green, Cave City, and all that. Much less than what recommended. Right.

Most other cities have a much shorter time period that they allow RVs to stay in one location. So really, the staff and the planning commission felt that this was a good compromise to still allow an extended period of time, because we do recognize that there are travel nurses, there are travel contractors. So there are people that come to communities with their RVs that may need to stay somewhere for an extended period of time. And we felt that six months with a six-month extension, so essentially allowing them to stay for a year in one location, was a good compromise rather than limiting it to 30 days or 90 days like other communities do.

How could we verify that that individual or the occupant of the camper, that they are only there for 12 months? Or is this the six months plus the six months?

12 months. 12 months.

How can we verify?

So they will have to get an occupancy permit from our building division. So when they go into a park, they would come into our department and get an occupancy permit. And so code enforcement would be checking on that.

What brought this up to begin with?

Well, this began when we started receiving complaints about some RVs that were placed at a mobile home park on Roberts Drive. And so then in doing research, I found that there's really nowhere in the city that we currently allow RVs to locate for recreational, you know, dwelling. And like I mentioned, we know there are a lot of people that do travel with RVs for jobs and just for recreation. They want to come and enjoy our community right here by the river, but there's nowhere for them to stay. So planning staff recognize that there is a need to allow RVs within the city. But again, we just do not believe it's appropriate for them to be able to stay permanently.

Were there folks that showed up at Planning Commission and raised any issues about the time frame that was recommended?

No.

I'm not real sure. Staff has recommended this. Planning Commission has recommended this. I don't have any reason to go against staff and the Planning Commission. I don't know what really the issue is.

I think 12 months is pretty generous. I mean...

In the words of the two great American poets, Daryl Hall and John Oates, I can't go for this, no can do. And I'll tell you why. Commissioner Martin talked about the appearance in Ashland, the appearance of our city. Eric, if you could put up, I went by this place the day before yesterday. I don't think this is what we want within the city limits of Ashland.

Well you're against it totally. Yes. Not not the six month period. If you can look at Where is this?

Is this Robert's Drive? Is this what we're wanting? Right near Breesland.

Yeah, right next to Breesland. If you'd have seen it before that, there was no HECAC before that, and they look like tin cans out there.

I mean, to your point, Commissioner Renfrow, is that we're not allowing these throughout the city. That right now, or what was proposed in the amendment, is they would only be allowed in existing mobile home parks. So this was a mobile home park. It had been, I wouldn't say vacant. There were still people living there. But it certainly, in recent years, was not to the level that it had been. There were quite a few.

put up here. We've got a travel trailer there that's been there. I mean, it's got weeds growing around. There was a motor home I saw there with flat tires all over it. I just don't think this is what we want.

But by setting the occupancy limits, the time limits on that, that would take care of that problem.

Well, they'd have to get McGuire's to come in and haul those out. I just don't. And I read where the owner said he wants a tiny community. Well, jerk all those out and build tiny homes. I just, I cannot support this.

I appreciate your work. We just have different opinions.

I understand.

And of course, I mean, one of our biggest employers is a RV place out there on 60. Right. I mean, uh, James Bradley's been there for years, and what this used to look like was terrible. It looked like rosebud on steroids.

I think about five years ago, there were only two trailers in that court, in that trailer park.

Right. Like I said, in recent years, there have not been very many trailers or mobile homes left in the park, but it is still considered an active mobile home park.

I know that the owners have done a lot of work there. They've done a lot of sewer and electrical and a lot of work.

Are there any other locations in this city that this would be allowed?

Any of the other previously approved mobile home parks. So there's one on Boyd Street. There's one on South 29th.

I'm trying to think where the other one is, because when we were going up the board hill, right? Yes.

Yes. And that would be subject to if the owners wanted to allow RVs in their park and also comply with the health department regulations. So mobile home parks and RV parks are regulated by the health department. And they have certain criteria they have to meet as far as spacing, utility hookups, and things of that nature. So they would have to get approval from the health to be able to have RVs within their park.

Did the owner of this park request that the city adopt regulations relating to this deal?

Not really.

I'm just asking.

I'm trying to wrap my head around what this is all about. They did not submit a request asking for this. They had received code enforcement violations for placing RVs in the city where it was currently not allowed.

And then just our staff in. So it was code enforcement that cited some folks and that kind of.

Got the ball rolling, exactly.

Got you.

Now, certainly, you as the board, you can accept the recommendations as they've been presented to you. You can change it, or you can deny it altogether. So that is now up to you to decide how you want to proceed. But that was the recommendation of the Planning Commission and has been presented to you.

Okay, I'll make a motion we receive it just like it is.

And we've already there's a motion and a motion for the vote. Why don't you do a roll call? So we're sure what the vote is.

All right, we can do a roll call on the city clerk. Yes.

Mr. Martin?

Yes.

Commissioner Romer?

No.

Commissioner Renfro?

No.

Mayor Charles?

Yes.

Motion passes.

All right. Well, I thank you, Catherine, for your due diligence. I really do. Thanks for the work.

It was good work. I mean, a lot of work went into that. All right, that moves us into our consent agenda.

A resolution of the city of Ashland, 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 June 25, 2026.

So moved.

Second? Second. Discussion? All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? All right. New business, item A.

First reading and approval of an ordinance entitled An Ordinance of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute an agreement with Ashland Community Kitchen, Inc., the subrecipient of $12,000 for operating costs for the Community Development Block Grant, CDBG.

So moved.

Second. Discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Item B. First reading and approval of an ordinance entitled, an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute an agreement with Community Assistance Referral Service, Inc., CARES, the subrecipient of $12,000 for operating costs from the Community Development Block Grant.

So moved.

Second. Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Item C. First reading and approval of an ordinance entitled, An Ordinance of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, Authorized in Directing the Mayor to Execute an Agreement with Hillcrest Bruce Mission, the Subrecipient of $12,000 for Operating Costs from the Community Development Block Grant.

So moved.

First and a second. Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye.

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 an agreement with Safe Harbor of Northeast Kentucky, Yank, the subrecipient of $12,000 for operating costs from the Community Development Block Grant.

So moved.

Second.

Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Item E, first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled An Ordinance of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute the revised web service sales agreement between the City of Ashland and Revised LLC in the initial amount of $4,350 for the first year and annual payment for a period of four years beginning April 1, 2027, for website redesign, hosting, maintenance, and content migration for the City of Ashland.

So moved.

Second.

Second.

Discussion? Is this the same company we've used before? Okay. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Item F, first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled An Ordinance of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a memorandum of agreement between the City of Ashland, Kentucky, Ashland Fire Department, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky Department of Military Affairs Division of Emergency Management regarding the Kentucky Urban Search and Rescue Program.

So moved. Second.

Second. First and a second. Discussion? All in favor say aye.

Item G. First reading and approval of an ordinance entitled An Ordinance of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute an agreement with the Boyd County Council of Aging, Inc., DBA, Ashland Senior Center, for the subrecipient of $17,000 from the Community Development Block Grant.

Second. First and a second to discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

All right, item H. 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 with Tri-State Construction for the purchase of all labor, materials, equipment, and services for the demolition and removal of all debris at 2918 Central Avenue in the amount of $6,400 for the Department of Community Economic Development to be paid from the general fund.

So moved. Second.

Discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye. How many of these demolitions now are we up to, Mr. Pullen?

I think nine. I think nine, sir. Oh, okay.

All right, sir. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Autumn, aye. 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 with Tri-State Construction for the purchase of all labor materials, equipment, and services for the demolition and removal of all debris at 2749 Winchester Avenue in the amount of $10,900 for the Department of Community Economic Development to be paid from the general fund.

So moved.

Second. Is this the one beside Dr. Vincent? Yeah. Okay.

All in favor say aye. All opposed. I'm Jay reading an adoption of a municipal order entitled the municipal order of the city of Ashland, Kentucky designating a voting delegate and alternate for the Kentucky Rural Water Association's annual business meeting.

Some second discussion. All in favor say aye.

All opposed. Item K, reading and adoption of a municipal order entitled, a municipal order authorizing and directing the mayor to execute and submit a Kentucky brownfield program liability relief eligibility application and related documents for property located at 1540 Carter Avenue, Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky, formerly known as Gene Jackson's Tire Sales, in connection with the Ashland Farmers Market Project.

So moved.

Second. Discussion? All in favor say aye. All opposed? All right. Any other business we need to come before executive? So entertain a motion to... Let me ask something.

Have we received any updates, any financial statement updates from the Paramount?

Yes, we did receive some financial information. Thank you. Earlier this week from the city's designated contact, Howard Harrison.

They provided us a financial statement, basically a summary of their revenues and a summary of their expenses. We are still waiting on a general ledger to show what we actually purchased.

Is it hard for them to provide that?

Should not be.

They would have to do the general ledger before they could get to the statements.

A general ledger is basically your posting of any, like, checks or revenues that you received.

Thank you.

Michelle? And we need to do the budget. We're going to do that later. All right. Any other? One carry-on item.

An ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky amending section 2 of the ordinance number 93 series of 2025 previously amended by ordinance number 9 series of 2026, which is commonly known and referred to as the FY 2025-2026 budget ordinance of the city of Ashland.

So moved. Second.

So that's where my question arose. The largest adjustment was the Paramounts. adjustment. And I think I sent an email late last night, and you all responded really great to that. But could you explain that? They are seeking an additional budget $750,000? Is that correct?

The $750,000 is cumulative since January. Okay. We were kind of waiting for GL where we could actually put it in the proper category. But since the budget is adopted as a whole, we have to have those expenditures adopted by June 30th. They show like $184,000 in revenue, and the rest, they're $451,000 of expenses, plus the city's been paying the utilities, insurance, and other expenses. So all those, and we anticipate them spending $125,000 in June. That's what makes the $750,000.

Can we request that they provide us the general ledger? If they don't, we can hold payment.

They have not asked for payment for this month or for this quarter. They told Mr. Wheeler that they had adequate cash funds, but he has requested that from them.

In the operating agreement for the Paramount, it's designated in there how they are to request money, when they're to request money for payments. any revenue that they get as their monthly operating cost or for costs for the Paramount. And there has been nothing received to date that has made any such request for any funding. And I will reiterate the request from the commission and finance for a general ledger. Because they're contractually obligated to provide us that, correct?

They're contractually obligated to provide us financials. And they will need the general ledger for our accounting firm to actually audit what the expenses were. Because that's how they'll choose what they audit.

Yeah, I think that's a priority. It should be a priority for us to get that. Obviously, I know these are conversations that you and I have had about, you know, we're spending taxpayer dollars down there. So we need to get those properly audited to see where the expenditures are.

That's part of the audit plan. Yes. Auditors will be on site July 13th. Okay.

All right.

Any other questions on any of the budget adjustments?

I also have a first and a second, so all in favor say aye. Aye.

All opposed? All right. I just had an unrelated question before we go to executive session. Can I get Andrew to, and maybe Todd, I've been approached about scooters and e-bikes, if there's any, you know, what we could do is research that to see what other cities do. You know, I've been approached by citizens that have had a problem

with uh with those things you know just whether they go by the laws of the of the regular streets you know they're all over my neighborhood kids on them and right i believe we had recently requested uh been requested to provide some information uh about that i can't remember what department or or a group that might have been within the city but Essentially, looking at KRS, which is where we started because you're dealing with essentially motorized or non-motorized vehicles to start with, there is a very detailed definition of scooters about it being a plank and motorized potentially versus non-motorized, and that's been in effect for some time. APD is aware of that. They understand and their officers receive training about scooters. With respect to what other cities do differently than how the KRS treats them, I'd be happy to look at that and report back to you. I don't know the answer to that question. I just know what generally KRS says. And KRS, by and large, does permit them. There are some limitations. But by and large, they are permitted. with bicycles or e-bikes, they're treated no differently. Based on both Chief Kelly and my review, they're treated no differently than bicycles, which, by the way, I don't necessarily agree with. But You know, under the state of Kentucky's laws, that's generally how they're treated. And I understand that with new technologies and development of e-bikes, they're even treated differently than gasoline powered. And Chief Kelly can maybe detail more.

I didn't bring it with me today. Mr. Wheeler's correct. The e-bike is exactly that. It's just an electric bicycle. Under revised statutes, they're still a bicycle. And it is a vehicle which bicycles are needed to be ridden in the roadway. City of Ashland has ordinances that prohibit areas not to be ridden on the sidewalk. That is extremely difficult with small children. But that being said, in the research that I did under what other cities are doing in Kentucky, they're not. The problem is, is Kentucky's law is a bit antiquated and has not been updated. There is a classification system to bicycles, whether or not they're e-bikes or pedal-driven muscle power. Those have not been put into the law yet. Some states have. Some have. Lexington has put that into place, but it still does not restrict the bicycle portion of the state law. What it does, it restricts, uh, the speeds, but where you can ride them on trails, designated locations, um, and so forth. So right now Kentucky's caught in a in a rough spot and outlawing them uh from the information that I've received uh is negative because this is now being accepted across our country as an alternative vehicle or transportation at the risk of just simply reading what a statute says.

I think it may be helpful to speak with some level of specificity. So um We looked at a couple of statutes on scooters. KRS 189.010 generally describes a scooter as a device weighing less than 100 pounds equipped with handlebars and a floorboard designed for a standing rider powered by an electric motor and capable of maximum speed of 20 miles per hour on a paved level surface. Operators must be at least 16 years of age to operate a scooter on a highway, bicycle lane, or bicycle path. Scooter operators are subject to applicable traffic regulations. Scooters operated during hours of darkness or reduced visibility must be equipped with a headlamp or rear red light. Scooters must be parked on sidewalks provided they do not obstruct pedestrian travel. And a lot of this was geared towards the rental scooters, which we do have and a lot of municipalities have. But on electric bicycles, they're basically just treated the same as.

So those rental scooters, are they to be ridden on sidewalk?

No. No. They're supposed to be instructions from the vendor. They're to be ridden in the roadway. At one point, I do not know if it's intact now, but They had set up a geofence where those things could not go. now they're in several sections of the city some are available for rental in south ashland and have been and of course downtown but the continue transportation cabinet basically uh was mr moore before mr wheeler when we researched that for the scooters um it was a it was a special inclusion into the krs what you're talking about for the inclusion of scooters They had to be ridden on the highway, safety devices, things of that nature. So we couldn't get out of putting restrictions on that based on the law that they had put in place. And again, we know that this is becoming a major issue. It's just not national. It's across the country. And we encourage every rider, every parent that is buying these things for their children or young adults, they need to really look at it as a safety issue. and safety equipment, make sure it's got equipment on it that is designated to be ridden on a highway. I was behind one the other day going up 29th Street, and the individual, even though it didn't have the markings or the equipment or signals on it, he was using the proper hand signals. There's a lot of people who probably still don't. remember that there are hand signals you have with the hands and the arms that you indicate while riding a bicycle.

I'd be afraid to take one of my hands off.

But yeah, it's a problem. And we're not the only ones experiencing it. And we can just get into an education process on it, in my opinion, at the beginning. But it is alternative transportation. It is green transportation, so to speak. And that's that's the challenges that we're faced with.

We can do some training or education on social media.

Oh, absolutely. We you know, we we've been preparing for that. We've been kind of working on it off and on amongst our other activities. many that we got going on but it you know at least we can get the information out there maybe our transportation cabinet or highway safety partners or even other cities that are maybe experiencing larger volumes of this maybe in our metropolitan areas can push for some legislation to change our law because again, when you review the information, it is seemingly that Kentucky is behind in the thing. So even though Lexington was one of the first cities to do this, they really didn't put any restrictions. All they did was take the classifications of what a bicycle is and put it in play.

We'll still review it, and if there's something that we can do locally to give you all some options to consider, we'll certainly bring that to your attention. I just can't make any promises.

I'm not against e-bikes or scooters. I'm going on record saying that. But, you know, Central Park is a jewel of our city. And you can't hear them coming. And they're riding the sidewalks, you know, and they're very silent.

There's one right down the middle of that paved part.

Right. But, you know, I've seen them going around and people kind of dodging them. You can't hear if they're in dark clothing at night. And so I just wanted a clarification. So I appreciate you.

I believe Central Park already has designated signage.

Right, and we're coming upon more and more a share of the road with bike enthusiasts and more of a thing that maybe they can get involved on a more broad basis to educate the public on those.

And just to be clear, we're talking about motorized scooters, right? We're not talking about the stuff that young kids toddle around on, that they stand and have a, you know, that you see. I mean, my kids have those. We're talking about the motorized devices. That's what this discussion is about. So if anybody watching or reviewing, don't misconstrue it. That's what we're talking about.

Absolutely.

Very good. Thanks, Chief. All right.

Motion to go on to closed session to discuss individual personnel and possible property acquisition.

And potential litigation.

Potential litigation. Second. Three items. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

All right.

Okay, we're back in session. Actually, we took no action there, but we will recess today's meeting until tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. We want to do that in the memory of Reverend Bill Pollack, the first Presbyterian.