Board of Commissioners Meetings - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Welcome to the regularly scheduled City Commission meeting for Tuesday, July 28, 2026. If you would, please stand with me for 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.

Thank you. Can we have a call for attendance, please?

Commissioner Pruitt.

Here.

Commissioner Hargis. Present. Commissioner Thomas. Here. Mayor Staten.

Here. First off, I just wanted to say you might recognize a new face on the commission, and I wanted to call him out because he never gets embarrassed. This is Chief Josh Dixon. He is our acting city manager at the moment. Our city manager is out of town. Our assistant city manager is on Zoom, and Josh will be sitting in as the acting city manager for the remainder of the meeting. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Thanks, John. First up, if we could have members of Christian Community Outreach and anybody who is here to support them come up to the podium, please.

We are proud to recognize Henderson Christian Community Outreach for their outstanding partnership with the City of Henderson through the Utility Assistance Fund and for their unwavering commitment to serving our community. For many years, Henderson Christian Community Outreach has been a trusted resource for local families facing hardships. Through their compassionate staff and dedicated volunteers, they provide assistance that helps individuals and families navigate difficult times with dignity and hope. One of the many ways they serve our community is by administering the city's utility assistance fund. Through this partnership with the city of Henderson and Henderson Water Utility, Henderson Christian Community Outreach works directly with eligible residents to provide financial assistance with their water utility bills, helping families maintain access to an essential service while offering guidance toward long-term stability. Their team handles each application with professionalism, care, and respect, ensuring that assistance reaches those who need it most. This partnership allows the city to extend its support to residents through an organization that has earned the trust of our community. Beyond the Utility Assistance Fund, Henderson Christian Community Outreach provides emergency financial assistance, food resources, and connections to additional services that strengthen families throughout Henderson County. Their mission is rooted in compassion, collaboration, and a genuine desire to improve the lives of others.

All right, and I just wanted to say, on behalf of the city of Henderson, that we appreciate everything that Christian Community Outreach does. And I did want to provide just a little story. So last month, I think it was last month, called Susan, and we talked about... there's some money that the city and the water department had set aside about a year and a half ago for water bills to help people who needed assistance, basically. And the commission decided that, hey, we've got $25,000, $30,000 left in that fund. We'd like to loosen the requirements, and we up the level from poverty level to 200% of the poverty level, and then reset the clock so everybody would be eligible. And Susan was all about it. like as soon as i called her she said oh my gosh this is great we love doing this stuff and uh and so we just like your spirit and every time we get a chance to partner with you guys and your organization it has worked out wonderfully you do so much for the community and on behalf of the city of henderson i just wanted to present you with this community spotlight award and you have a podium if you'd like to use it you are welcome to say a few words and i'll get to see you maybe we'll take a picture after you get done talking

Well, it's going to be quick. Thank you. Thank you all. This community is huge with support. We are 40 years this year, and that is huge. That's a long-standing relationship with the city, with families of Henderson County, and so it's an honor to still be here and to be in a role that we can still meet the need with the rising cost of groceries and everything that's going on in this world. Hopefully we're a little bit of a bright light to do with groceries and what we have on hand for staple items now and the partnerships that we develop with you and other agency partners. So thank you for the honor and the trust that you have with us as an organization. It means a lot.

Thank you.

Thank you, guys.

Can you join me in a few seconds?

Go ahead and raise your hand, sir. I'm Mr. Bandon.

all right here we go perfect thank you thank you for your service thank you thank you

All right. Next up, I'm going to turn it over to our acting city commissioner and current fire chief, Josh Dixon, and he's going to recognize a few new employees.

Yeah, so we have a couple of new employees we want to recognize. If I could get our public works director, Brian Williams, and Mr. Landon Buckman to come up.

Okay, we're here. What do you want us to do?

Introducing.

Okay. This is Landon Buckman. He's in PWI. Landon has been with us for one week. So far, everything is great. So fire away at him.

Landis, so this has been the best week of your life?

Something like that. He said he applied in April, and it took until now to get on, and he couldn't hardly wait.

Okay. So just out of curiosity, a serious question, what brought you to the city of Henderson for employment?

I heard it was a good place to work and had great benefits.

Oh good. Good deal. Awesome. We certainly thank you for coming on board. We appreciate it. Brian's a really good boss to have. So I think you're in good hands. Thank you, sir.

Welcome. Wow, I like that. It's a good place.

All right, next can I get Chief Boland and Mr. Cade Hicks to come to the podium.

Good afternoon. So Cade is about our favorite type of hire we could possibly get. So typically we hire people, send them off to the academy and all their training. Well, he comes to us already trained, and it's rare that we get somebody from a bigger city. So he's an officer in Lexington that is coming back home to Henderson. So we're thrilled to have him.

All right. And same thing for you. So what brought you to Henderson specifically?

Well, I grew up here in Henderson my whole life. I graduated high school here. Yep. I did the job in Lexington for a year, and then me and my wife decided we needed to be closer to friends and family, and I wanted to serve here in my hometown.

Awesome. Welcome back. I love it. Before you go back, tell them our connection.

Oh, yeah. He was my basketball coach.

Oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah.

I hear that. Tell them.

That was good.

That was good.

Yeah.

Welcome back. We appreciate having you. And hopefully it's for a long time. So you guys looking to get settled back in town too? Yes, sir. Good deal.

Welcome back home. Yes, sir. Yes. There you go.

All right. Next up, we've got a presentation from Miss Evanderpool and Henderson Economic Development.

Hello, I'm going to come up and bring some reports for you all. Thank you.

Oh, that's OK. Thank you.

So thank you all for allowing me to come present to you all. If you all remember, been over a year ago we talked about KPDI the Kentucky product development initiative and the site that you all own with the Henderson water utility on 425 we are affectionately calling that triangle point it looks like a triangle so triangle point is located on 425 bypass we applied for the KPDI grant and were awarded that a grant and so the grant was for due diligence reports and The first step in marketing a site, the first thing any potential industrial client is going to ask for is the due diligence reports. So we have to start there to know where we can go with the site. And so those reports came back and are completed and I wanted to share that with you all. Also to talk about what's next with that site. And so the reports came back really good. The environmental, there were no concerns with environmental. Geotech, all the things that we needed to do. We had an ALTA survey done. The site sits positioned really well for development. There was utility infrastructure put in for Pratt Industries, and so that infrastructure is there and ready to serve on this site. Again, it's 56 acres. One of the things that won't come to a surprise to most of you all is there will be some soil stabilization needed on that site. We've seen that on many developments in Henderson. Pretty much anything we've developed is part of our geological makeup with our soil. So some soil stabilization would be needed on the site. A couple other things that we learned through this process, and I should have said QK4 did this work with some partners, but QK4 is who we had do the due diligence work. They did a lot of the work on the 425 bypass site where Pratt is now located. And just as a reminder, this is adjacent just to the west of the Pratt property. So one of the things that was recommended from QK4 for next steps would be a grading plan for that site. We would be able to balance that with the dirt, but there's about 260 cubic yards of dirt work that's needed to be done. some soil stabilization and some entrance, egress ingress on that site. So we're fortunate that there are two access points from 425, but we need to look at some improvements that would be needed to get those access sites through KYTC and so just wanted to give you that quick report on that we've completed the KPDI the total cost of that initial assessment or due diligence reports was about a hundred and sixty thousand dollars in all total the grant was for about a hundred and forty thousand so total out-of-pocket has been about twenty thousand dollars we split that we haven't seen those invoices come through yet but as it anticipated we would split that between the city and the water utility when we first did this purchase of that land that was something we discussed. So I wanted to talk just a little bit about next steps. KPDI is open for the next round. I personally think that this may be the last round of KPDI as it exists now. This is approved every year through the legislator. And so I think that what we'll see in the future is some different form of product development. But in the way it sits now, I think this will be the last round for that. And so I anticipate that this would be the last round. We are now what's designated as a heritage county. Legislator made some changes last year to Kentucky incentives. And so the map, they designated us as a heritage county. And so with that being said, we are now allowed up to $2.5 million of grant money through Kentucky Product Development Initiative for projects. And with that also, in our population, there's a formula they use. We are required to have a 20% match on any KPDI project. 2.5 million dollar project we're looking at five hundred thousand dollars would have to be local match so not saying that we would spend 2.5 million on the next project but just for those numbers for reference so I think next steps what was recommended from QK for is would be raising the house that sits on that site. I talked to you all about that before. But the house being there limits what type of development can be in there. And I should have said, if you see the picture on the front of this, this made me very excited. I was really concerned about what size building could fit on that site. And this is realistically, it's over a million square feet. what qk4 says can fit on that site with having parking and all the access that they would need for truck traffic and things like that so that's really exciting that that size of a manufacturing facility could fit on that site so next steps again would be raising that house the dirt work to grade that to be truly shovel or build ready and potentially some work for the access points off 425 So the letter of intent for KPDI is just a letter that I would need to submit that says, hey, we're looking at submitting for a project, and this is what the scope of the project could be, is Friday. I anticipate submitting that letter. There's no commitment, financial commitment at that point. When we get to submitting the request for information in September, that's when we will need to discuss what the matching, what the total scope of the project would be. and how the matching funds would come into play. But I just kind of wanted to give you this intro to where we've been, where we are, and where we think the next steps for that site is. We have just really started marketing that site and have already seen some interest. I've talked with the mayor about this. We have submitted that site already for an industrial-type project. That's very preliminary. I don't want anyone to think that tomorrow we're going to have a big announcement. That's just the first step of saying, hey, this site is here and available in Henderson, Kentucky. Any questions?

So you don't need any formal action from us today? No. But it sounds like sometime maybe later on in August you're going to come back and at that time we need to authorize.

Yeah, we'll do some planning on what the project looks like. I anticipate in the letter that we'll put that we are looking at a grading plan, that raising of the house, the things we talked about, and that total, those things total from the estimates that QK4 gave us is over $3 million. Not saying that we have to do all those, but this is the whole step so that if there is another round of KPDI in the next year or some other form, they know what our long-term plan is. Because we know that economic development is the long game. It's not the short game. And so we may be able to only do this portion of the project this year, but moving it out forward to what could be next.

Anybody have any questions or concerns or suggestions, anything like that? No, thank you for looking at it.

Yeah, I appreciate the partnership. It's so fortunate if you go through this book, all the partnerships are listed. So I appreciate the partnership and the work on the future development of that site.

Thank you. Thanks, Lisa. Good job, Lisa.

And I will say, economic development, sometimes like planting a plum tree, where you plant a seed now, but it may take five or six years before bears fruit. And, and so I admire what you're doing now and what we're doing now. Because it's these things are necessary for the future growth and future industrial buildings.

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. And just want to just one little thing that I wanted to mention also in 2019, We were awarded a KPDI, we were a pilot program for this KPDI. We were one of three in the state that received funding that first year, and that is where Pratt sits now. So just a reminder that KPDI works, it is an investment, and it's the long game as you just mentioned. So thank you all.

Good deal, thank you Missy, appreciate it. All right, with that we have a consent agenda.

The consent agenda contains the minutes of the July 21, 2026 called meeting, resolution number 52-26, resolution accepting human resources report dated July 28, 2026, approving all actions contained within and authorizing the mayor to execute any necessary contracts for employment. Resolution number 53-26, resolution approving the city manager to execute funding agreements with certain nonprofit organizations for fiscal year 2027, consistent with the city of Henderson fiscal year 2027 budget. And municipal order number 64-26, approving NSAFE Incorporated's consulting contract for consultation services at the city of Henderson's landfills permitting and regulatory compliance, including closure activities and authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement.

All right. Do we have any item any commissioner would like to pull for further discussion? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve, please. We have a second? Second. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Pruitt? Aye. Commissioner Harkis? Aye. Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Mayor Staten?

Aye. Next up, we have the second reading of an ordinance amending Chapter 13, nuisance relating to clutter.

Ordinance number 17-26, ordinance amending Chapter 15, nuisances. An ordinance amending Chapter 15, nuisances, Article 1, and General Section 15-1, prohibition of the code ordinances of the City of Henderson.

All right. Do we have a motion to approve, please? Salute. Do we have a second?

Second.

All right. Before we have any other discussion, we did have one person sign up who would like to speak to us. I think about this. Dean, is this where you wanted to speak, sir? Yeah. All right. Dean Spooner, if you would, if you'd come up to the podium and repeat your name, tell us your address, and tell us what's on your mind, sir.

All right. Hi. Hi. I'm Dean Spooner, Reverend Spooner, 212 Barker Road. I work a day job, so I had to take time off, and if it was in Henderson, I would have had to anyway, but my day job's in Owensboro, so that I'm here, it's no small thing from my perspective, and I know you guys are very respectful and appreciate things like that. When I look at the proposed ordinance 17-26, the nuisance clutter, I know, I have a good idea what you guys are dealing with and what you're trying to do for the good, but you know there's always going to be exceptions among us. There are, in my opinion, probably yours and everyone, there are lazy people and slob people and there are neat people and all this, right? And the law can kind of reduce and eliminate clutter and nuisance, but you're never going to get away with it. Someone's always going to be a knob. And you guys know this, and this is the challenge, I think, of this. But when I come to Section 15-1B and under Point 1, I think it goes a little too far here. An accumulation of any item, even if in good condition and orderly, constitutes a nuisance. if it exceeds what is reasonably necessary for ordinary residential use. As a citizen, you, the city government, are gonna define what is ordinary residential use and how are items stored on a personal property, private property, in good condition and in an orderly manner constituting a nuisance. How? Or inconsistent appearance on private, and I'm emphasizing private, property. Some people have more means than others. Some have more wealth and options than others do. And I just see this as, if you pass this as an intrusion on private property and on the citizen, and I think when you deal with this issue, it's the same with our peace officers, our police, and our courts. They could be much more efficient and effective if they weren't hamstringed by those Bill of Rights, those first five particularly, right? And so I'm also concerned about this, that as you go on this, you need, as government, you need to tread very, very lightly on people's private property. I know that's a concern. I pretty think that's a concern of each and every one of you. I'm thinking that this is going too far, and when I go to section five, two point B, and then it's like the presence of more than 10 substantially similar items of the same general type, and then there's arbitrary list, arbitrary number. I mean, does this include orderly, stacked, stored, in good condition firewood to point C that's under tarp or plastic? And so this is Pandora's box here, and it's intruding, and then this is going to change or grow. And the very fact in Section 2 there, a property owner may rebut this presumption by requesting a hearing before the Code Enforcement Board. To me that is a self-admission that this ordinance is already admitting that it is overreaching on the private property. I would have you rebut this presumption from this proposed ordinance. Why put the burden on me suddenly because someone complains against me and then I have to appear before a board of people I didn't even vote for and defend my property and go pay out for legal expenses myself? For what? So I just see there's room for grave error here, and I oppose the adoption of this as it stands. And you're welcome to come by 212 Barker Road right now, later this week. I think my property is in good order, reasonably stored and stacked. You won't find anything under a tarp or piece of plastic. But you know what? If I so choose on my personal property to want to do that for a while, my wife and I, I don't think it's any of your, as a city government officials, business. I understand the alleyways, the sidewalks, and public safety aspect of things here. You've got a good thing. But I think some of these points that I just raised, I think, are just too wide open, too problematic. And I just wanted to share that with all of you. So thank you respectfully.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. And I have, before you take off, I was just going to vouch for you. I've had a conversation with you at your house before. And I never have I didn't notice then that you kept in an orderly house.

I thought it was So yeah, well, and you know, you know, we all can be I think this is more at the neighborly level Yeah, I could do this better at the neighborly level and if my neighbor has their lawn, you know I'll say I generally start with something else you can be a horse's butt to your neighbor, but just be kind sometimes just Ask them to mow their lawn for them. If we can just help out one another and leave that, maybe encourage that. But the more you ratchet down on what I just highlighted, I think it's going too far and opening up too much into an intrusive area that's going to have to change or be worked. And then you put the citizen like me, now suddenly we're all put under the... you know, I mean, under the burden of defending ourselves by some board or whatever. So, anyway, thank you.

Thank you for coming. Appreciate it. Don, I think you and Steve might have had some things to talk about about this ordinance.

Well, First, I'm going to say that I appreciate you coming. Whenever you write a ordinance on these things, you're really trying to balance the rights of a property owner to enjoy their property and use their property with the rights of the neighbors to be able to enjoy their neighborhood that are safe, that are clear from clutter, that don't negatively affect their value. And so what has happened for us and the last few years is we continue to get complaints about clutter. And the way that our clutter ordinance was written, there were many complaints that we could not do. And I showed you photographs on two different occasions, brought these to the commission to get instructions from you all as to how we would like to do this. One of the issues became, how do we know what's accessible? numerous and so and we had received repeated complaints about that property and I know that several of the commissioners here had received numerous complaints so we wanted to make it clear as to say the property owners understand when you say what's reasonable and necessary set a standard that they can measure 10 But if 10, if you don't believe in your home or your yard that 10 is the appropriate number, you have the right to come and report. You don't need an attorney. I don't think we've ever had, no, we've had one demolition where we had a person represented by an attorney at 530. on the fourth Monday of the month and just come and explain. They have always been very open about it. But at some point, we had to set a more defined standard so that we could go out and address the issues that we kept having. The other issues that we just kept having over and over not only is not items in disrepair but an excessive amount was the items that are in driveway, and hard forks, front forks, back forks, where you can see them from reasonable view. And so we also showed you photographs of those. And so in this situation, we have expanded the clutter ordinance in this sense, but we've really clarified it so that our co-enforcement officials, when they go out to see complaint-driven at this point. We are complaint-driven, so we do not have co-enforcement officers out looking. They go out to respond to complaints if they have the right to file a notice of violation and recognize that the way that co-enforcement works is we get a notice of violation. That gives you X amount of days to remedy it with no problem. If it's not repeated in that amount of time, then there's a citation. At that point, you have the right to come to the Code of Enforcement Board and say, well, you actually have two rights. You can clear it up before Code of Enforcement, if it's withdrawn and we don't do anything, or you can come to the Code of Enforcement Board and explain why you believe that this does not fall law and I wish we could write the perfect ordinance. There are always, and I believe when we presented it to you last time, we knew that we may have to come back again. But it's always about balancing the city's police powers, property rights, because people have the rights. I do also want to

No, thank you. This has been a discussion. Oh, Steve, please come up. I saw you heading up here. This has been a part of an ordinary discussion, a part of a discussion that we've had at meetings now for a few months. And we've talked about a lot so far. But, Steve, go ahead.

I mean, it would be great if in the ordinance we could put treat your neighbor as you want to be treated. But that's just not enforceable. And really what we're doing is we're trying to address those places where it's in someone's backyard. You know, it's not a problem if it's not in your backyard. But we're getting calls from people who have trash, their neighbor is is throwing all their trash bags in the backyard, you know, or and mice are coming and bugs and there's mosquito infestations, you know, pools left unattended, you know, things like this. These are the things we have to deal with, but we can't really, some of the things are really hard to enforce. And so we're trying to address those things that are difficult. This is difficult.

It is.

I don't care any way you spend it, whoever you are, this is very difficult. We want the balance of power in the hands of the people, but we also don't want the people to wreck each other. So we have that balancing act of when does this become destructive to my property value? That's a good question. If I'm trying to sell my house and I've got somebody next door with all kinds of stuff in the back of a trailer that's been there for three months, and everybody that's coming to my house sees that, and I can't sell my house, when does that become the issue? So we have that balance. We don't want to take all the power away from citizens, but we also don't want citizens to control each other at the same point. So we're trying to create something that is actually enforceable. that is fair, then that ain't easy. That is a hard thing to do. So we haven't really changed a lot. What we did change is the number, yes. We changed the number of items someone could have. We did put a number on that because really, you can have 100 bicycles in your basement, not a problem. When you have 20 bicycles in the front yard of your house and that's impacting my property value, that's kind of a problem. You can have as many trash bags inside your house lining up the hallway. I don't care as long as no one else sees it, and it's not impacting your neighbors. It's about treating your neighbor the way you want to be treated, and we can't enforce that. But there is a balance in there we're trying to find, and that's really what's before you. How are we going to create the balance that's needed here as a commission? You guys are the ones that get to decide what goes in our ordinances, and I don't envy you guys that decision. We've brought this before you to try to help. We're really here to help you, however we can. So ultimately the decision is in your guys' hands. And we've developed this to try to help you in any way we can. And again, this isn't easy. But we want to do what's right. At the end of the day, let's do the best thing. That's where we are, okay?

Thank you.

Bless you guys.

Steve, stay up. I read the ordinance, me and the mayor. We were talking before the meeting, and that's the one kind of thing that jumped out on the agenda today was, to me, we know the balance. Just like in my house, I don't want somebody over there, hey, if I'm selling my house, you got a whole bunch of junk over there. Hey, I'm going to get him. I get that. But it looked like to me it went a little further than it should, especially on some stuff about tarping, you know, having tarps. If somebody goes to the extent to try to cover it up, I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt.

That's a good question. I mean, the only reason we brought that is because it was a very popular complaint. We're not bringing you complaints that are not, like, out there and we're making them up. These are complaints that come in our office all the time. So people complain about a pile of junk in someone's yard, and all they do is they cover it up with a tarp, and then it's not there anymore. But the pile of junk is still there. There's still rodents. There's still stuff happening. It's just covering it.

And, Commissioner, if you remember, we came both times to present this. We presented in September, and then we presented again. That was the question there.

So just for me, when I read it, it was a lot of what do I think is clutter, you know. And something about that, it doesn't hit me just right. But here's what I really truthfully think I want to do at this point. For us to have something like an open meeting with the public, have them speak, tell them what we're thinking, what we're trying to get to, and see can we come to the middle. I just think that would be better on certain, this clutter thing. Because... Are the ones that are doing this clutter, are they going to attend that meeting? Well, at least we gave them a shot. That's just me. I think because the gentleman that spoke, Mr. Dean, I think he hit some great points. When I did read it, I told the mayor, I said, hey, there's some stuff in here. I don't know if...

I know.

It's not easy, guys. I'll tell you where, so Commissioner Pruitt and I did talk, and I think we're coming at it from two different viewpoints, which is healthy, which is what you want on a commission. You want different people to represent different viewpoints, right? I think Reverend Spooner made a good point about firewood especially, right? If you've got firewood, and you're living outside of your house, and people can see it, and you've got a couple stacks of it, then that technically violates what's on paper here. But I also think that one of the number one complaints that I've gotten over the years are codes related. And it's hardly ever because of the performance of the codes department. You all are operating within the laws that we provide to you to operate within. And so if something says that somebody hasn't cut their grass and you go out and issue a citation and then they have three weeks to cut their grass, a lot of times they wait those three weeks, they cut their grass, and then you have to start the process all over again. If they're habitual offenders, there's very little to do there. And so what I'm seeing on paper here is there is some room for open interpretation for the Coast Department, which I don't think is necessarily unhealthy. Okay. Because I believe that in order to get to the things that are of concern to people, for example, the bicycles. Early on, I was reading some stuff on the internet where Adam Blythe said something about bicycles on his Henderson Live page, where he said, if all the neighbors came over and parked their bikes there, you're going to be in violation of it. I would think that we would be able to have the discretion of a neighborhood get together and a difference between having that and junk bicycles piled up for six months that somebody's been complaining about three or four times and you don't have anything to enforce by. For me, by clarifying the clutter, it gives you a little bit more teeth when you need it, but not more teeth when it's not needed. And so that's kind of the way that I'm taking it, is that we would create a framework for our codes department to have a little bit more teeth whenever it's needed, whenever we get these types of complaints. Because one of the most frustrating things for me over the years, anytime we're in a situation where we can't fix it, is frustrating for me. If somebody's got a complaint and we can't fix it, it's frustrating. And so if this allows you more teeth to fix certain situations or to address certain situations, then it actually is helping to prop up the freedom of people who want to live their life happily without these types of things next door to them. And so there's all different kinds of angles to look at from it. I'm positive this wasn't some evil person trying to put her spin on it or his spin on it from an elite standpoint and all this other crap that people say online, which I found a little frustrating. uh... this is this is a this is an exercise based on the the number complaints that we get and and uh... the sheer amount of the complaints that deal with codes that you guys do not have and the ability to address we're trying to make it so that you can address them uh... and i did see some stuff in here that It's not perfect but I do think it's at a point where it does provide for you the intent of what it's supposed to provide and that's just giving you a little bit more teeth where you get an honest complaint, you apply your discretion and you're able to address it versus getting a complaint, going out and looking at it and not being able to address it because we don't have it written into our local laws. And so there is a balance. It's very difficult.

If a person has an open carport and you ride by and you see something, you say, hey, y'all got to do something with that, and they tarp it, are they in violation?

No, currently no.

I'm talking, no, I'm saying if we were to pass this, a person has a carport, say they got 15 bicycles, and they tarp them, But you can't see it from the street. But it's under their carport.

Yeah.

Are they in violation? It would be with this. With this. If you see it from the street.

That's what I'm saying. If you see it from ordinary people. So if you can't, where the, you know, in the carport.

that's where anybody can see see that's what my problem is but they could also tarp trash well I know but I know I know what we're trying to get to hey I know what we're trying to get to but yeah I

If you call and complain on your neighbor, the worst thing we can do is say, we can't do anything about it, sorry.

Which is what's happening now, because we don't have the rights or the means to do this. Now, if we put some teeth into it, we can address these complaints. And I can guarantee you, Steve's not going out looking for clutter. He's got too much other stuff on his plate. At least we can address complaints that we get now. Now, if something happens like in the tarp issue, we can come back and address that again. doing that. We got an ordinance now. We're addressing it now. We're changing something in it. Two months down the road, we can go right back and rebuild some of this stuff and do whatever we want. If we screwed up on something, fine, let's go fix it. You know, a month down the road.

And the other thing is, every month, as to what the complaints were that they wrote up. The citations were, he does it every month. So, I'm not suggesting that this could be to address your issue, is that Steve can forward you all the report that he forwarded to the court every single month, and that way you would see, are there any clutter ordinances or violations So that report's already in existence. All it would be is you would forward it not just to our code enforcement board, but they would forward it on to the commissioner. So that would be a great way of you all being able to monitor where we are.

And I think it's good to get that report, you know, how many people are reporting different things. But I know you're not out there doing that, and I know the calls that you get, and we get them for real.

Yeah.

But when I read that whole ordinance, that's just too much to me. That's just too much of what I think is clutter. How many can you just, you can only have 10? Posties are brand new bicycles. Is that clutter? I don't know. That's where I'm at.

I would not be in agreement the way it is.

We're getting hung up on something like bicycles, too, and that is really not what we're talking about. We are talking about those extreme examples that we keep seeing, those extreme examples that you keep getting calls on, we keep getting calls on, and that is what it's intended to help. And we have to give them something to help in that way, and it's hard, and I hate it. It is difficult. but the the situations that we are seeing they are they're extreme and it's unfortunate because I don't I don't want to overstep either but people are taking advantage I know what you are not out there looking for wood piles we are talking about the pictures that we're seeing because we have to help those people. We know the pictures. We really do.

Just like the one call I keep getting about the guy who keeps parking his trailer.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, so I get all that. But if we're going to have an ordinance and we're going to make it work, we've got to make sure that it's right. Absolutely. If piles of wood, like Ms. Dean was talking about, if that's going to get cluttered, And we passed this. We need to fix it before we pass it. You know, I don't think it needs to be in there and then say, okay, well, if somebody gets cited for clutter and cut firewood, we'll bring it back and do it a month later. I don't think that's the right thing to do. If you're going to put it in, put it in right, put it in the first time right, and let's just do it. It's no hurry to get to that. We can pass this in two weeks. We could go say, hey, let's, if we got firewood and they cover it up or whatever, how do we get to this? Let's don't say, well, let's, we have to cite him because it was in there and make him go to a board, make him go through all, jump through all the hoops.

Well, it's what's reasonably necessary for a residential use law, but imagine that a pile of firewood is what's reasonably necessary.

Okay, now how much is not reasonably? Give me that answer. Who can determine how much is not reasonably? Well, that's taking citizens through something that we should define. If he walks up there and I've got a bunch of firewood, he may say, wow, he's keeping a lot of heat.

Yeah, I was going to say, firewood, again, is not what we're talking about.

Well, but it's in there. It's in there. I'm not worried about what we're talking about. When you make laws that can be used against someone, you ought to make sure that it's right. We weren't talking about you, but since I'm here, I can still cite you. That's not how you do it. You do it right. When I read a law, when we read a law, if a police officer stops me, he said, we didn't write the law up for that personally. We're doing, well, let me speak personally. If a police officer stops me, he said, the law really wasn't written for this, but it's in here, and I'm going to cite you. You're talking about abuse of power? That's right.

There you go. We don't want abuse of power anywhere.

That's right. All I want you to do, if a guy's got firewood and we can cite him, let's just say if it's firewood and it's neatly stacked or whatever, that's okay. Let's just do it. Let's just say it.

Well, I mean, there's always checks and balances with law, typically, so that we don't have abuse of power. So, I mean, whatever you guys want to do, like I said, this is your decision. Quick questions.

Whatever you guys want to do.

I mean, is it hairy to pass it today? Why don't we amend it and pass it in two weeks?

Well, I'm going to be quiet because I know Josh is going to talk to us.

Just a quick question. So say somebody does call for a complaint and you go address it. Do they get an opportunity to correct before it's cited and taken to the Comfort Board?

So there's always a notice of violation, and there's a certain period of days they have to correct that. If it doesn't get corrected, then it goes to citation. They have more days to correct it. If it doesn't get corrected, then we correct it.

we set that so good example I remember when we did a fine schedule for fire code violations one of the one of the one of the big questions was that you all asked me was are you gonna go looking for it no we're not gonna go looking for it but it also again it gives us a point where we can we do set a standard that we can go by and most of the time I can tell you I I may be wrong but I don't think we've ever find anybody yet No, not yet. But it's also having that standard saying, hey, this is what's got to be corrected, and we're going to give you X amount of days to do that. We've always operated that way.

And two, so there are probably thousands of exceptions that we could think of that we could add, and it could be a 200-page ordinance. And I don't think we want to end up there. No, I just think we should add in...

Especially, like when I'm out in country view, I see people who got stuff in their carports, and they got it tarped. But you can see it, you know, country roads up there. I can see it from the street. Is that clutter? I just don't know if I'm going to tell them what you got tarped up under there because I can see it from the street, you're breaking the law. I just don't know if I'm there. And I don't want to come back and amend something if we can wait two weeks and fix it and then pass it like that. That's just me.

We remember that was a question we had for the commission. And we asked for your all's direction on tarping and the direction that was given was to include tarp.

okay well it might have been mistaken if we we added that talking I think I think they need to look at I think the spirit of the Tarpon rule has to do more so with rodent control and things like that and and so so I think that that when our coach department goes so first of all he known said we're not doing proactive things we're doing reactive things so when we receive complaint Yeah, complaint driven. Thank you. So whenever they receive a complaint, they go out and investigate. They don't go out with a piece of paper in their hand in a citation. They go out and investigate to see if it is in violation. And I think there's some leeway there for them to use their reasoning capabilities when they go out.

And Steve, I think you're right on time. Steve does a great job. He's not bullying anybody. But I do think when I read a law, If it says, if you got something tarped under your carport and I can see it from the street, it's breaking the law. I think our citizens deserve to know the law and know when they're breaking the law. If they're not breaking the law, then don't put it in there. That's just me.

The ones who are abusing the tarp situation, how do we help them? How do we get to that? That's the whole thing. That's right. I get that. Because that's who it's intended for, and how do we help them?

Well, I think this discussion is a good representation that there's a lot of different opinions, and we're obviously not going to agree on it. However, I think we've got all the information that we need if there are no additional questions or concerns or suggestions or anything. I think we've had a really healthy discussion about it, and I think we're at a point to where we should probably know which way we're going to vote on the issue. So if there's no objections, then we've got a motion and a second. Let me say this for you. Yes, sir.

If we find out something is wrong. One thing about this council, we will come back and fix it.

We will. Absolutely. A thousand percent. Absolutely. Absolutely. But I think, well, we haven't done anything yet. And we've had a discussion, so let's vote. And however the vote turns out, you were exactly right. Whatever we do, if we get out there and we learn that it's a mistake, we will go back and correct it. But if it's not, then we'll keep it in place if we vote to do that. So I'd like to ask for a roll call, please.

Commissioner Pruitt?

No.

Commissioner Hargis? Aye. Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Mayor Staten?

Aye. All right, thank you. And Reverend Spinner, thank you for coming. I really appreciate hearing from you. Thank you. And thank you for being so respectful. I really appreciate it. Next up, we have a municipal order authorizing the purchase of a custom-built barge.

Municipal order number 65-26, municipal order authorizing the purchase of a custom-built barge, gangway, and accessory handrail from Maritime Preservation and Training Foundation, LTD, for the future display and birthing of the PTF-26 gunboat, authorizing non-competitive negotiation pursuant to KRS-45A-380, subsection 6, and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents necessary to complete the purchase.

Motion to approve, please. We have a second? Second. And Buzzy, are you on the line? Can you hear me? I can. I can. I don't know that there will be any questions because we've talked about this now three or four times. But before we vote, does anybody have any questions for Buzzy about the barge purchase? I think we're good. I think we got all the information that we're going to need. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Pruitt?

Aye.

Commissioner Hargis? Aye. Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Mayor Staten?

Aye. Thank you. And then last, before we go into executive session, we've got a resolution approving the submittal and acceptance of a grant application for a new ATRV.

Resolution number 54-26, resolution and probate submission of and acceptance if awarded of a grant under the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security, State Homeland Security Grant Program for an armored tactical response vehicle in the estimated total project amount of $371,950. Thank you.

Can we have a motion to approve, please? So moved. We have a second? Second. I'll have Chief come up. Yeah, absolutely. Chief, do you mind coming to the table, please?

And Commissioner Pruitt has a question for you. Real quick, the price that we could get this grant and the price, it seems affordable. But I just want to relay this to you so that everybody watching would understand. Evansville is one beast. When it comes to crime, Henderson is a different beast. I don't want to see this vehicle pull up every time we see policemen in the neighborhood. One reason why. I don't want our people to be intimidated by military-style stuff.

So one thing I could say is I was the chief in Evansville when we bought theirs, and we did a very conscious rollout of it. And we took it to community events everywhere. Like a couple weeks ago, we went to the summer sizzler, and the fire department had the fire truck out shooting water. I would foresee us taking this to events like that, letting kids get in it, letting them see the inside of it, see what it is. These are not like where there's guns mounted. You went and toured the one with me, so you've seen them. They're a defensive tool. They're not an offensive tool. They're to keep our officers safe and protect them. And furthermore, if, God forbid, we have a citizen get shot or they're down somewhere, we have an active shooter, a bank robbery, any kind of community event, if they're down and there's still shooting going on, we don't have a way today to get to them and get them out of there. With a vehicle like this, we could pull up, protect our officers, our first responders, and get somebody out of harm's way. So it's a defensive tool, and we would educate the community on it by taking it out, let them be in it. One of the things Henderson's been involved with for years is the 911 Gives Hope for the Holidays toy drive. A lot of time we get bicycles and stuff that we can't give out, like in a hospital. We would take the Bearcat, fill it up with bicycles, and we'd get a Santa Claus and we'd go around and just randomly find kids and just have a Santa Claus hop out and give them bicycles out of the back of the Bearcat. So things like that that we could do to build trust and for the community to see that it's not a tool that they need to be afraid of, but something that's going to help them.

And I think all that's great, but what I was trying to get across was... We're not going to be using it for every run.

It would be only if we have high-risk warrants or things. I mean, you may once a month see us using it, something like that, but it's not going to be all the time. But we do have needs for it in Henderson, and I think our number one priority should be keeping our first responders safe so they can help our people, and this would do that.

Okay. Any other questions? Does anybody else have any questions for Chief Bowman? We had this discussion a while ago, you know, and the first time this came to us, it was costly, and we said if you find a way to make it less costly and more affordable, then we could find a way to support it, and you found a way.

We don't have the grant yet. I'm not overly optimistic we get it, but we're going to try.

Potentially found a way. There we go, yeah. And so what we're doing here is we would just be voting on you to be able to apply for a grant that would pay for half of it. And if we apply for the grant that pays for half of it, we're basically committing that we'll pay for the other half if we get the grant. And so for a $370,000 vehicle, it'll pay $185,000-ish. I'm rounding. And then we would owe the other $185,000. So everybody good? Anybody have any other questions, concerns? Thank you, Chief.

Roll call, please. Mr. Pruitt. Aye. Mr. Hargis. Aye. Mr. Thomas. Aye. Mayor Staten. Aye.

Do we have any? Mayor. Yes, sir. I'm sorry, what? Oh, I... Anytime, yeah, please. You are welcome to come up and speak. Yes, ma'am.

Back to the clutter. I'm Susan Bickmer. I'm in the county, but this is my city. I grew up in the city. The clutter, it's far beyond bicycles and covered up firewood. My gosh, it's cars that are parked that haven't been working for years, porches that you can't even get to the front door. I have one in Frontier behind where I used to live that is unbelievable. It's so much more than that petty little things you are talking about. It's the major things. I don't understand why the codes department can't make time two days a week to go to different areas in the city to find places to not necessarily cite them but call attention to it. Ask if they need help. They may be so overwhelmed by it, it may have been left by a family member They've become ill. It's their funds to help people like that to get rid of the mess. But it's these cars and boats and things that take up so much room. It's not firewood and bicycles that are so bad. It's yards that are growing up over top of cars, grass, I mean, stuff like that in my eyes. And I see it. But another thing is, what bothers me is we really have the nerve to say anything about private properties when Look at Henderson City when you come in across the bridge. I can't talk. I get so nervous. I'm sorry.

You're okay.

But the curbs that are grown over, drains that are covered up with grass and stuff like that. I had friends that we met at the Frog Follies came to town. They were amazed how they said nasty. And it is. I mean, you're worried about downtown Henderson. And they're trying to help different areas. East End, I was raised in East End. Yes, ma'am. But I mean, look at the curves. The yellow on the curves aren't marked in most places. Roads are tore up, like behind Thornton's by Applebee's. And that's private property, I imagine, but there's these deep holes right there. Make those people responsible. Make companies responsible, like by Palmer's, the bank next to Palmer's. And then that building that used to be a store, and then it They still got a billboard going across the thing. Weeds are this tall growing out there. People that own that property should be responsible and have that stuff taken care of. We had just been to Jasper recently, and I don't know if it's an ordinance that they make people that own a business that their curbs are taken care of or what. I'm sorry, I can't talk. I'm getting so upset. But you understand where I'm coming from? Yes, ma'am. It is so much more than this petty little stuff about firewood. Anyway, I just had to say my piece.

Can you stay up there for a second? So I wanted to address a couple of things that you said. So first of all, thank you for coming and speaking, and you're not wrong about a lot of things you said. When you come into town, it's a state road, and then it's the county until you get to the city limits. And along the state road, the state maintenance schedule changed in our last governor administration where they don't mow but half the time that they used to. And so I totally agree with you. I think it looks bad when you go up and down the roads like that. On private property, it's a little bit difficult. One of the things that we've talked about lately, that I've talked about lately, I don't use the word I very often, but I don't want to corner the rest of the commission, with the codes department, is I'd like to see us add an extra code inspector. We've operated a certain way for years, and I personally feel like that department is understaffed. And so if we can get out of this within the next couple of months by posting another code inspector position and having that there, I think that we'll be able to do some of the things that you're talking about.

I mean, we drive around town all the time, and I could write down a list, just go five blocks and find several.

Sure, sure.

But it's not just the county road or the state roads or things. Like the pine room, the old pine room is still standing. Things that are just old and need to be torn down and things revived. I would be more worried about all that than the rest.

I'm sorry. Well, thank you so much for coming and talking to us. We appreciate it. All right. And we've got an executive session. Before we do that, I want to see if any commissioners have any comments before we go. Commissioner Thomas, do you have anything today?

Songwriters Festival this week.

It is. And Bloodgrass Festival next week. Yeah, back to back. Songwriters Festival starts tomorrow, right?

Correct.

There we go. Commissioner Pritt.

I just want to thank the lady for coming up speaking. This is your house. Like I tell everybody, taxpayers, this is your government. We work for you. If something's wrong, you see cars all over the place, come tell us. That way we can get it fixed for you. We work for you.

That's all. That's a good point, and it's accurate. Commissioner Argus.

I'm hoping this will help some of that. A little bit at a time.

I do, too. This and maybe a little bit of restructuring of the department. But we hear you. There are always things that we can do better, and we want to do better also. So thank you guys for coming and talking to us.

I want to make one more comment. Steve, I've never heard one bad complaint about our Coast Department as being overly aggressive or anything. So kudos to you.

Good deal. And we have need for executive session. And just to remind everybody, we're going to go into executive session. And then once we do, this is where we're going to have the discussion on who we are going to appoint to replace the commissioner who left us. And so we're going to executive session to do that, and we will be coming back with action. Yes, sir.

Could I state just one thing real quick, Mr. Mayor?

If you would like, yes.

Very quick. Tom Davis. First of all, I appreciate the approval of the resolution earlier this evening for the barge and dock for the PT boat. It's going to be such an important part of our veterans park down on the riverfront. But I also want to commend city staff. And folks, if you haven't seen it, there is a video out that the city has put together for our parks program. for the coming that's in progress right now that the commission just approved and a large part of that is our veterans memorial park and i just want to thank the staff that put that together because it is a it's an a1 job and thank you very much for that uh helping us get another step forward on this parks project thank you you are welcome happy happy to do it yes sir yes sir

All right. Thank you, guys. And with that, we'll entertain a motion to go into executive session.

We have a second? Second. All in favor, aye? Aye. We are going to stay here for the executive session.

Thank you, guys.