City Council - Regular Meeting

for the safety of others. Bless them and their families with strength and peace. During this election season remind us all that although we may have different opinions, we remain neighbors and members of one community. Help us to listen with respect, seek understanding over division, and always work toward the common good. Father, as you taught us to pray, may your will be done. Give us this day the wisdom we need. Forgive us when we fall short and help us to forgive one another. Lead us away from anger and division and toward kindness, humility, and service. Guide our city employees and this council with the work before us. May our words be thoughtful, our decisions be responsible, and our service always be centered on the people we are entrusted to serve. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Amen. If you would join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. Madam Clerk, when you're ready, if you would please call roll.

Yes, sir. Council Member Isaacs.

Present.

Jones.

Present.

Springsteen? Present. Tyler? Present. Mayor, you do have a quorum.

Thank you, ma'am. And I want to remind everyone that has come in, if you do wish to speak during the public comment section of our meeting, if you would go over to the desk where Mr. Pope is and sign in. We need your name and address. And then when you approach the podium, if you do not wish to give your address, if you will just state your name and whether or not you are a current resident of the city, we would appreciate that. With that, I will ask for a motion and a second approval of minutes for August 17th, 2026. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Seeing none, motion carries. Thank you. Employee recognition, some of my favorite things that we do in these meetings. We're going to start off with a group that has gotten CDL certifications, and I'm going to let Don Hill, our public works superintendent, tell the council and the audience a little bit about their accomplishments.

Mayor, City Council, good afternoon. It is a pleasure here tonight to recognize our teammates that have obtained a commercial driver's license. And there's different classes, and I can tell you how important it is to the operations of your city, because without commercial driver's license teammates, you wouldn't have brush collection, you wouldn't have leaves collected, you wouldn't have potholes repaired, you wouldn't have... some of the equipment that is necessary out on construction sites. You wouldn't have spoil material removed, you would not have fill material delivered. So, as you can see, it's very important, and the department's represented here tonight, to be able to have people that are qualified to drive a single axle dump truck or above, larger, also to be able to pull trailers and do some of the necessary services that we provide in the city limits. like talk a little bit about our program so we couple years ago there were some changes in the requirements and so uh... we talked about it and then in public works takes the lead on it and so we've implemented a cdl program and roger i'd like to thank roger anders he has been with us since the inception and implementation of it and then also doug frederick because he helps on the class c cdl's and so i'll explain a little bit about the different classes and then the requirements and then we'll get to the presentation of the certificates and so First off, what we do is people that are hired within the city, some of the jobs require CDLs. And so if they have them, they're a good candidate, but they do not have their CDL, we ask, do you have the ability to obtain this? And most everyone will say yes. And so it is on the teammate to obtain their permit. And so once they get that permit, then they are into the program. And so that program consists of 30 days with Roger Anders, And so there's three components of that, and one is theory, which is classroom and test, which focuses on safety. Then you have what they call behind the wheel, which is a hands-on, we're driving, we're doing the necessary duties to see if they are ready to obtain their driver's license. then you have it's an inspection they call that range and so if you've ever if anybody ever tries to take a CDL exam and you're going for your test then the most important thing is to get off with a good start and that is the walk-around inspection and so if you do not make it through that you do not get to advance and take your test they pretty much say okay that's a failure and so we have to reschedule it you have to revisit it and retrain it and certainly Roger And then Doug on the Class C, which is that is a passenger endorsement. So without the Class C, then you've got two vans sitting down at Pritchard and you can't haul kids and you can't haul people in those vans. And so that's very important, obviously, to our day program during the summer and then any other time that we need to use the vans. So if you have a Class A, so you get a Class A, that means that you're driving a large truck, single axle dump or larger, and you're pulling a trailer. And so that gets into your leaf or your brush collection, hauling equipment, and anything that requires a trailer with the weight limits. If you get a Class B, which we use on our jetters for public works, you can use driving a dump truck, a single axle, and then those in different departments. So it'd be public works, gas department, parks and recreation, and then your Class C, obviously, is your passenger endorsement. So one, I'd like to thank Roger and Doug for investing themselves in this program because it certainly is important because when you interview people and you find good candidates sometimes they don't have those qualifications right and they don't have that license so we certainly try to get them into the program get their license and so then we can uh get them out on the road and doing what we need to do to conduct city business so without that uh further ado i'd like to recognize uh 10 people have went through the program this year. And so six of them are here tonight. No, I'm sorry, seven of them are here tonight. We'd like to present them with certificates. So Mayor, if you would, we'll come down and we'll give them to you. I'll call your names.

House cross you are.

So everybody knows this. When I first got elected, I asked to go and get my CDL certification, and I was swiftly and promptly told no. Our city administrator and our director, of course, I don't know if they thought I was going to tear up a truck or what to do, but I still haven't been allowed to do what I tried. So somebody has to be there. Yeah, I don't appreciate it.

I'm now going to invite Chief Malone up, if he would, and introduce our new fireman.

So we had our third recruit school in the last few months. Before that, we were sending them to the state and it just did not meet our specifications. We didn't think we were doing a good enough job for the new firefighters. So we've developed our own program and this is the third class to graduate from that program. I also want to mention that it's a testament to the city that two of this group and probably seven total of the fire department are either siblings of other members in the city, other departments, or they are children of people that had worked for the city. So it says a lot about the leadership here. I wasn't going to mention the police department, but that's okay. So first up, Logan Bowling, coming up.

Logan, you should have just stayed up here.

Yeah, I thought about just telling you to stay up. Spencer Aji, Carlos Ruiz, and Glenn Portman. Congratulations to all of them.

And then finally, Seth Breitner, who is the Director of our Parks and Rec Department, is gonna talk to you all about Certified Playground Safety Inspectors.

All right, we have two individuals in our department that got the CPSI, Certified Playground Safety Inspector certification. And basically what that is, is that is a national certification where we have 10 playgrounds within our Parks and Recreation Department We routinely inspect those weekly and we go through various audits and things that we have to do from a safety standpoint. When you get that certification, that is a national certification through the National Park System. One of the things that that helps do is reduce the liability that the city has when it comes to any of our insurance claims and things along that nature. So it is a very challenging certification, you could say. Most of the time, people that will go through that will have to retest just due to the challenges. It's a hundred question test. It's considered one of the most challenging tests in the parks and recreation industry. And we had two individuals that passed. One of the things that we were able to host the CPSI course this year in Elizabethtown. So that was a first for us. And we look forward to doing it again in the future. But two individuals are Brandon Frederick and Natalie Miller that both passed this time.

Natalie, if you would give us a little speech.

Congratulations to everyone. We really appreciate it.

So we like to introduce to the council, but most importantly introduce to our community and our citizens what our teammates are doing in city government. And so the certifications and the qualifications and the new hires are very important. for us to highlight so everyone understands who we have working for our great city and what they do for our great city and I wouldn't trade anybody that we have on our team for anybody and I appreciate those that have been on our team for a long time continuing to improve themselves by getting certifications and trying to move up and get better at their craft and we have a 10 different departments that are doing that constantly so I just want to tell you all how much we appreciate you and how lucky we are to have you and let's keep it working hard together for our city so thanks a lot for coming in and letting us make this day special for you guys I hope all right up next we're going to start a little business judge if you're ready to read with ordinance first reading by motion number 14 2026 setting tax rate for motor vehicle and watercraft If I can get a motion and a second to read, please. So moved.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Judge Howard.

This is a first reading of ordinance number 14 of 2026, be it ordained by the city of Elizabethtown that from and after passage, approval and publication of this ordinance as follows, that an ad valorem tax of 11.6 cents on each $100 of assessed value of all motor vehicles, watercrafts, taxable for municipal purposes in the city, be in the same as hereby levied as of January 1, 2026. for the purpose of raising revenue to pay salaries of officers and employees of the city, to pay for repairs and maintenance of streets and public ways, the public and other property of said city, to pay for lighting the streets, the maintenance and operation of the fire and police departments, and all other proper and legal demands against the city. Said tax shall be collected by the Hardin County Clerk. This ordinance shall be effective on or after its adoption, publication, and posting as provided by law. Be it further ordained that the mayor of the city and or his designee is authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this ordinance. This is a first reading.

Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to ordinance number 15-2026, setting franchise tax rate, if I can get a motion and a second to read.

Motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Judge Howard.

This is ordinance number 15 of 2026, a first reading. Be it ordained by the city that from and after the passage, approval, and publication of this ordinance as follows. One, that there is hereby imposed on all financial institutions, as defined in KRS Chapter 136, located within the city, for the 2026 tax year, a franchise tax at the rate of 0.025%, on all eligible deposits as defined in k s chapter one thirty six maintained by such financial institutions that all taxes hereby levied shall become due and payable as provided by law together with all special levies heretofore made for street improvements if any tax bill is not paid on or before january one twenty twenty seven said tax bill shall be declared delinquent and shall bear interest at the rate of six per cent per annum or one half of one per cent per month or fraction thereof until paid In addition, a penalty of 10% of the amount of tax for general purposes and special assessments shall be added to said bill and collected, being the penalty for non-payment when due. Be it further ordained that in the event such tax bill shall be paid during the month of October of 2026 or November of 2026, a 2% discount shall be allowed by the Elizabethtown Director of Finance. Be it further ordered, the mayor of the city and or his designee is authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this ordinance. This is a first reading.

Any discussion? Motion and a second. I'm sorry. That's first reading. All right. Ordinance number 16, 2026, setting tax rate for real and personal property. Need a motion and a second to read, please.

Motion.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Judge Howard.

Again, this is a first reading of ordinance 16 of 2026. Be it ordained by the city that from an after passage approval and publication of this ordinance as follows. One, that an ad valorem tax of 10.5 cents on each $100 assessed value for all real estate and tangible personal property taxable for municipal purposes in the city of Elizabethtown be be in the same as hereby levied for the purpose of raising revenue to pay salaries of officers and employees of the city to pay for repairs and maintenance of streets and public ways and public and other property of said city to pay for lighting of the streets the maintenance and operation of the fire and police departments and all other proper and legal demands against the city number two that all taxes hereby levied shall become due and payable on December 1, 2026, as provided by law, and if any tax bill is not paid by December 31, 2026, the said tax bill be declared delinquent and shall owe a penalty of 5% if paid by January 31, 2027. In addition, a penalty of 21% of the amount of tax will be owed for bills paid after January 31st of 2027. Additional penalties and interest will accrue once the Hardin County Sheriff's Office transfers delinquent tax bill 2. The Hardin County Clerk, as required by KRS 134.122. General purposes and special assessments shall be added to said bill and collected, being the penalty for non-payment when due. 3. That a discount of 2% shall be allowed on that portion of the tax bill for general purposes, if paid by November 30th of 2026. 4. that the ad valorem tax bill will be mailed by first class to the property owner as of January 1st, 2026, as provided by the Hardin County Property Valuation Administrator. Five, that the payment of the ad valorem tax bill can be received by mail at the Hardin County Sheriff's Office, which is 150 North Provident Way, Suite 101, Lispdown, Kentucky, or in person, at the Hardin County Government Building at that same address. This ordinance shall be effective on or after its adoption, publication, and posting as provided by law, be it further ordained that the mayor and or his designee is authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this ordinance. Again, this is a first reading.

Any discussion? I will point out the first two tax rates that he read remain the same and have remained the same since I've been here at least. And this last one that he just read is lowered from 10.7 to 10.5. So when you have people tell you all the time that we're raising their taxes, we have actually lowered their real and personal property this year. And I think we did last year too. So it is not true if they tell you that. Okay, ordinance number 17-2026, amending the official zoning map for property located at 1010 and 1020 Prospect Point Drive from neighborhood commercial C2 to regional commercial C3. If I can get a motion and a second to read, please.

Motion.

Second. Opposed? Judge Howard.

This again is a first reading by summary. This ordinance amends the official zoning classification for the property located at 1010 and 1020 Prospect Point Drive from Neighborhood Commercial or C2 to Regional Commercial or C3 to allow for uses such as a hotel. The change was approved by the Elizabethtown City Council as it was found to be in agreement with the city's comprehensive plan. The full text of this ordinance can be found by contacting the city clerk's office. This is a first reading.

Any discussion? Seeing none, we will move to municipal orders. Municipal order number 66-2026, accepting bid for Yale Drive sanitary sewer improvements. If I can get a motion and a second to read, please.

Motion.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Judge Harris.

At a special meeting of the city council held on the date set out below, after first being read, a motion to adopt the following municipal order was duly made, seconded, and approved, whereas the city prepared bid documents and publicly advertised the project and received bids that were publicly opened on September 9th of 2026 for the Yale Drive Sanitary Sewer Project. now be it ordered by the city council to accept the bid from schroeder construction for yale drive sanitary sewer project in an amount not to exceed a hundred and thirty nine thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars be it for the order that the mayor and or his designee is authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this order, including but not limited to signing all contracts, documents, obtaining the necessary permits, and approving change orders with the aggregate amount not to exceed $20,958. Reddit adopted and approved this 14th day of September.

Any discussion? Need a motion and a second to adopt, please.

Motion. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Seeing none, motion carries. Thank you. Municipal Order No. 67-2026. Last one, Judge. Revising contract scope with Congolin Hacker Company for Steel Grove Amphitheater. If I can get a motion and a second to read, please. Motion.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Judge Howard.

At a special meeting of the City Council, held on the date set out below, after first being read, a motion to adopt the following municipal order was duly made, seconded, and approved. Whereas the City and the Elizabethtown Tourism and Convention Bureau have entered into a partnership to develop Steel Grove Amphitheater to provide opportunities for local organizations to utilize and promote entertainment events and activities to attract local and national visitors to the area and whereas to ensure project costs are controlled and the project is completed in a timely schedule the city and tourism determined it would be the best practice to hire a construction management firm and entered into a contract with congress and hacker for construction services for the project. And whereas after evaluation, the city and the contractor desire to revise the scope of construction services and not the council authorized guaranteed maximum price provided to include the paving of all parking areas and construction of a maintenance slash storage facility. Now be it ordered that the city approves the contract amendment with Cognitant Hacker for additional construction services to include the paving of all parking lots and the constructions of a maintenance storage facility. This amendment is for a change in scope of project construction. All other aspects of the contract are reaffirmed, including the council-authorized guaranteed maximum price, which remains at $41,082,281. Be it for the order that the mayor and or his designee is authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this order, including signing all addendums, agreements, contracts, documents, and forms. Ready to adopt and approve this 14th day of September.

Any discussion?

So on that, where we're remaining the same from that dollar amount, this just was not included in their scope of initial work. Is that right?

That's correct. And I don't mind to address that. We got a donation from somebody that doesn't want to take credit for it for a million dollars to the city of Elizabethtown. to go towards that project and so what we planned on doing with that donation was to go ahead and finish paving those parking lots and then erecting a building a storage building that they desperately needed that we had cut out of the first design when we agreed with Congleton Hacker on the price of the amphitheater that's how we came up with it and make clear that donation was for the amphitheater not for other things in the city designated donation i'm assuming well it wasn't it wasn't it was i mean that wasn't a formality but it was in support you got it okay i mean it wasn't listed that way but that was where it was in support of the empathy it wasn't necessarily paving but it supports the amphitheater thank you thank you anybody else need a motion and a second to adopt please motion all in favor

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. You're done, Judge. You did well. Chief Thompson, I'm going to ask you to come up real quick, if you don't mind, and talk a little bit about an opportunity that our police department has with IACP and what you all have been going through the last week or so.

I got the microphone last time. So just very briefly to echo what Chief Malone said, we've had some failures and we've lost some guys from the police department families to the fire department. Some young ones in the back. We've got some veterans that you have too. So it's just, look, we got a lieutenant in the back of the room. There's a pile of failures over there.

You got Ryan Kelly sitting out there too.

I know. I'll own it though. I'll own it. We joke a lot, but honestly, from traveling around the state, there's just not a better city that has resources available like the citizens of Etown, whether it's the parks department we talked about, public works, and we work with all of them, and we work well with all of them. It's really a good place if you're a citizen, if you're an employee, it's just there's not a better place that I've experienced in 30 plus years of doing this across the state. But we had a unique opportunity that presented itself to us a couple months ago. IACP, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, reached out to me and just wanted to know if we would be interested in being featured at the annual conference this year. And the first question was kind of, what's the catch? Did you throw a dart at a wall and hit E-town? And how did that occur? Because really not interested just to be artwork or, you know, a sideshow. And ultimately, they started to quote several of the initiatives that we've adopted at EPD and started telling me more about the department than maybe some of our local folks might even know about. And in doing so, we started to progress into where we are as of last week. And we ended up shooting a video. It's going to be six to seven minute video. They brought a production team in. And we will be featured, one of five departments nationally, featured at the conference this year in Florida. And then for the next year on all of the IECP platforms, we will be one of those departments that's featured. And really it's just, I think, a great testament to not only what we have going correctly at the department, but what we have going as a city. Our community policing initiatives was one of the focus groups that we highlighted. We did an event at Helmwood Heights the other day. They came over and did a video of that. They talked about our embracement of technology. In addition to traditional policing, just making sure we hold people responsible in our area. And then our victim services that we've brought up a number of times and actually the expansion of that program that we're moving into. So it really kind of featured a lot of the good things we have going on. And it was a big lift last Thursday, kind of had all hands on deck, but... I'll take that over the reason that a lot of departments are being put on front and center of the news right now. So when people reach out to you for the right reasons, I think the best philosophy is to embrace it, even if it's a little bit uncomfortable on a schedule for a day. And hopefully the end product will be done in the next two to three weeks. We get a chance for everybody to see it. We'll distribute that out. But another great opportunity just showing not only locally but nationally the good things that we're doing here in E-Town.

Thank you, sir, we look forward to seeing it. I will open the floor up for public comments. Seeing none, we'll move on to city council information items. Next city council meeting is September 21st, 2026. I also want to address two weeks ago when we had severe heat, and I understand that we're probably going to get some more tomorrow. We did open Pritchard Community Center on a Wednesday because Warm Blessings is open Tuesday and Thursday and wasn't open on that Wednesday. So we needed to make sure that we had a cooling shelter in place and we did do that. So thank you to Natalie and to Seth and Dennis and Brandon and everybody down at the community center. I understand there were 15 people at room at the end that day. And we only saw three at the community center, but that's beside the point. We want to make sure everybody has the opportunity to get in out of the weather if they can't by other means. The events, Beth, you want to come up real quick and talk about lawn party success and then even the Louisville Orchestra? Nothing like getting put on the spot, is it?

We finished our season of lawn parties last week. We had a fantastic turnout all summer. The weather was not our friend for most of the dates, but we persevered and we got through it and I think it's a great event, a great series that we offer to our community. Just something a little fun to do on Wednesday nights during the summer. But coming up this week, we have the Louisville Orchestra will be in our Freeman Lake Park on Thursday. Their performance starts at 730, but we'll open the gates around six o'clock. We invite everyone to come out. It should be a fantastic show. We got rained out in June and working with the folks at the orchestra, they were so adamant that they had to come back to Elizabethtown. So we're so excited that we were able to find a day to make it happen. We'll open parking around 6, 630, bring a lawn chair. We'll have plenty of food trucks there so you can get something to eat. We just ask that you do not bring coolers. You can bring some bottles of water. Your cups will have plenty of refreshments there that you can purchase. So we're excited for that and really want to thank the orchestra for thinking of Elizabethtown. Our venue is beautiful. The park staff does a great job. But coming up on the 26th, we have our Heartland Harvest Festival. That is a day-long community event here in Elizabethtown. We will kick off the morning at 10 o'clock downtown with around 100 vendors, crafts, commercial, anything that you can think of, bring your pocketbook. We'll have lots and lots of food vendors. We'll have a free petting zoo for anyone that wants to come out and a free kid zone in the parking lot of the Sicilian Bank and the State Theater. We'll have inflatables, games. And we've got some local churches with Unleash to Serve that will be manning that kid zone, so we appreciate all of the support that they offer to us. We'll also have some activities on South Main. Those will start to trickle in around noon-ish. We'll have food trucks, and we will have a free concert starting about 2 o'clock. We'll open the gates. Kevin Jaggers will take the stage at 3. Then at 5 o'clock, we'll have the Louisville Crashers, and they always bring a big crowd, so get down there early. And then wrapping up the night, we'll have country artist Little Texas from the 90s. So those of you that were around then, they have some really great songs and will put on a great show. But we also have a lot of events around the community in conjunction with that. We'll have a fishing derby and a fishing tournament coordinated with Elizabeth Town Fire Department and the Central Hardin Bass Fishing Team. That starts, you can go down there around 8 o'clock, register, it kicks off at 9. There is prizes involved and free lunch for everybody. The fishing derby is for kids, doesn't cost you anything. There is a little bit of a registration fee for the tournament, but you get a t-shirt and it's for a great cause. We also have the Women's Club is having their Heartland Breakfast at Pritchard. go down there and get some good breakfast. We have a 5K that Adam and his staff at the Parks and Rec Department is putting on at the Nature Park. We'll also have the Corvette Club of this area is having a cruise in at Southeast Christian Church, and that is from 10 to 2. All of this information can be found at etownevents.com. So anything you need to register for, you can go and find that there if you just want information. And, of course, always follow us on social media at the City of Elizabethtown Events and on our website. That's it. It's going to be a busy day. The weather looks perfect. So come on out.

Great job. But why do I get the feeling that you were prepared for me to call you up blind like that?

I have known you long enough, so I brought my handy-dandy cheat sheet. So how's that?

Hey, fun fact, Timmy Puckett can karaoke any Little Texas song that they ever did.

Well, we will have a little VIP area, so if you'd like to come up there, we might be able to get him up on stage. Or maybe we don't want him up on stage. All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Beth. And then finally our planning department has asked me to pass along because we have a lot of followers on Facebook to all of our political candidates to make sure that they are putting their signs on private property and not right away because they've had to go around and pick up several signs throughout the town and they would rather not do that. So I'm putting it out there and hoping that we get some results from that. We haven't had a ton of offenders but we've had a few. Anybody have anything else? Very good. We will go close meeting pursuant to KRS 61.810, section one to discuss personnel, which might lead to the appointment, discipline, or dismissal of an individual employee, member, or student, if I can get a motion and a second, please.

Motion. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Seeing none, motion carries, and we do not expect to have any action coming out.