City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone here this morning. Uh it's time to call the city of Franklin City Commission to order. And uh it'll be a regular meeting. And at this time, I will ask Commissioner Bush if he would to lead us in a word of prayer. Let's pray. Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us for our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Thank you, Commissioner Bush. uh we will move on and uh the first thing that we're going to take care of this morning is under general government and that will be discussion and a possible action regarding a recommendation received from the Franklin planning and zoning uh relating to data tech center and and energy production facilities. And I'm going to ask Scott Creary if he will speak to that.

Yes, mayor. Uh, as you all saw in the packet, we received a written recommendation signed by the planning and zoning chairperson who I think happens to be here. Uh, last Wednesday. I received it from the planning and zoning attorney. Uh, the recommendation was as cited in their motion, which was to deny the uh, text amendments for the reasons stated in the letter. At this point, it's up to the commission uh to accept or deny their recommendation. Mayor, I'll make a motion we accept their recommendation. I'll second.

Okay. We have you you've you've heard the comments. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell to accept the recommendation of the PNC. Uh do I have a second? Second. We have a second by Commissioner Bush. Is there any further discussion to be Are we still planning on doing the uh committee that we formed last session? That will be decided at a later date whenever we have uh whenever we have a new uh industrial board director. I mean that could be months.

It could be. Yeah. Can we just resend the motion and make a new motion that we appoint somebody else? That way we can at least get it started. That's a point of order. We're in this topic. Let's bring that. It's a regular meeting, so you can bring it up later. But if we can get this one done first. Sure. Okay. And any further further comment? If not, I'll call for a vote. And Kathy, would you do a roll call vote on that? Yes, sir. Commissioner Pal. Yes, Commissioner Bush. Yes, Mayor Dixon. Yes, Commissioner McCra. Yes, Commissioner Stewart.

Yes. And that motion passes unanimously. Okay. We will move on then to hear the public. Mayor, please just clarify for the public that means that the text amendments are done. Barely. So, sorry.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We will move on to uh hear the public and I don't believe we have anyone signed up to hear the public today. Anyone? Okay. We will move on from there to approval of minutes. And that'll be approval of minutes of the November 10th, 2025 regular meeting. And I'm sure everyone's had an opportunity to look over those. Uh do I have a motion to accept them? Make that motion. Mayor, we have a motion by Commissioner McQuary. Second, mayor. Second by Commissioner Stewart. Uh, any further discussion? All in favor of the minutes stated as they are written. Uh, I

I Any opposition? I'm going to oppose this time just because I haven't had a chance to read the minutes yet. Okay, we have we have all eyes except Commissioner Bush is a no. Okay. Thank you. Okay, we will move on to recognitions and uh under recognitions will be uh uh we have uh uh we have Johnny Skipworth here. Johnny, if you will come up and uh that'll be achieving the drinking water uh treatment class doubleA certification. And

yes, we'll turn it over to Mayor. Thanks, commissioners. I am so happy to be here today to recognize Logan. Um yes, he's becoming a repeat offender. He's uh won his second or has been awarded his second um drinking water class 2 certification. So just a certification that is required to make drinking water for the state of Kentucky. It's through the division of water and um he is just blazing a trail towards getting his class fours which would make him eligible to run our drinking water plant all by himself. No pressure at all. Um in his own words, he's he's all right. He's very humble. He's more than all right. He really amazes us each and every day. and he um pushes through all the difficult tasks I ask of him, even outside of just lab um sampling and operating the plant, but maybe a little bit of motor work and some plumbing and hanging some signs. I mean, just about anything I need help with, he's there. And I'm just so very proud of you. And so, thank you very much for your dedication and your perseverance. And um we're very happy for you. Congratulations. And I believe there's a proposed motion uh to uh recognize Logan. So u

do I there? No, you don't have to have a motion. No, we don't have a motion. Okay. All right. We'll move on. Okay. Uh we have uh I believe Chief Solomon here to uh recognize a new officer that we have uh up here. I

want to introduce our newest officer, Max Mueller. He just started today. Max comes to us from BGPD where he spent five years. Um, Max actually resides here. Um, back when he was working for BGPD, had reached out a few times and inquired when he got done with his contract to maybe come and work with us. So, uh, we're looking forward to it. I think he's going to be a great asset to our police department. Want to welcome him and get him sworn in with Scott Krappy. Okay. Well, you don't look like you've been five years anyway.

All right, Max, if you would please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of this Commonwealth? That you will be faithful and true to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, that you possess the required qualifications to hold this office, and that you will faithfully execute to the best of your ability, the office of police officer for the city of Franklin, Kentucky, according to law. And do you further solemnly swear that since the adoption of this present constitution, you have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within this state. nor out of it. Nor have you accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have you acted as a second in carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person thus offending. So help you God. And do you finally and further solemnly swear or affirm that you will endeavor to the best of your ability to detect and prosecute all gamblers and others violating the laws against Gabby? If so, please say I do or I swear.

I do. Welcome aboard, Max, SIR. THANK YOU. WELCOME BACK. OKAY. OKAY. We'll move on to ordinances and uh uh Miss Kathy Dillard will bring that to us. And uh thank you, Mayor. And that'll be page 19.

We'll have second summary reading today. Ordinance number 2025 027. an ordinance amending the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 by estimating revenues and appropriations. And today I will just read the uh amended numbers. Total revenue general fund amended to 13,898,329. No change to storm water. No change to utility fund. No change to sanitation fund. Municipal aid. No changes. Cemetery fund amended to 559,000. No changes to in total revenues for perpetual care or the debt service fund. Total appropriations general fund amended to 12,659,945. Storm water fund total appropriations amended to 64,919. Utility fund amended to 11,386,077. No change to the sanitation fund on total appropriations. Municipal aid fund amended to $861,000. Total appropriation amended on cemetery fund is 467,895 and no changes on total appropriations for perpetual care for the debt service fund. I will need a first and second motion for approval.

So moved. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell. Second, mayor. Second by Commissioner Stewart. Question mayor. Can does this include this amendment the total amount does it include uh any HR hiring or assistant city manager hiring? Uh no it does not. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead, mayor. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any further comments? We'll have a roll call vote. Kathy, thank you. Commissioner Pal, yes. Commissioner Bush, no. Mayor Dixon, yes. Commissioner McCra. Yes. Commissioner Stewart, yes.

And that ordinance passes. This concludes second summary reading of this ordinance. It will become effective upon passage and publication and will be posted on the city's website. A full copy of the ordinance is available upon request by contacting the city clerk at city hall during normal business hours. Thank you very much, Kathy. Okay, we'll move on to community services and that will be discussion and a possible action regarding a proposed playground at the Franklin Police Department and I think Chief Solomon wants to speak to that for us. Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh before we get into the what, I just want to kind of go back in time a little bit and talk about the wise. All right. So, if anybody's ever listened to any articles that I put out on a paper, read any articles or listen to me talk, you you'll hear me talk about community policing. It's been a central focus of mine all the way back when I took over as chief in 2014. I had actually, excuse me, I actually found an article the other day that Brian Hancock, I don't know if y'all remember him, but he worked for the Franklin favorite back then, found an article the other day when I got introduced as chief. We were talking about my vision, the mission for the police department, how I wanted to run the police department, the direction, all that. And in that article, you know, 11 years ago going on 12, we were talking about community policing back then and what those goals and objectives were going to be. So, um, if you look back in 2014, it was a very pivotal time for policing. Um, there was a lot of contentiousness going on in the nation with law enforcement, stuff like that. So it was a very pivotal time for us to foster relationships, collaborate with partnerships and stuff in the community. Um, so we did that early on. If you remember, we were the first ones in 2015 in this region to fully implement our police department with body cams. The reason why we did that was because of transparency and letting the public know that what we say we're going to do, we're actually going to do it and we're going to follow up with that. So everything that we've done since then, you know, we're we're active in our community. We hold it. We host events. We've had thousands of people, you know, up here for different things. It, you know, since we've moved in this police department. So in 2016, I started talking to Kenton about the need for a new police department. Obviously, we had far outgrown our police department. Uh the size we had, you know, double the officers that we had back then. Then in

201819 we got into um talking to Brandsteader and Carroll about um you know the design plans and all that is at that time I started going around went to 10 different police departments in the Commonwealth of Kentucky that had been built uh police departments have been built in the last 5 years at that time. One thing that I noticed is they were all standalone facilities. There was nothing unique about them. They were just they were just a building which served the purpose for the police department but it did absolutely nothing for the community right so when we acquired this land up here I think what Ken is it 6.8 8 acres. Yes. Acquired this land up here. We looked at what could we do with that land?

Well, that's where the vision started taking off. That's where everything started coming into play. We're like, how can officers like that are young and they're small, how can they grow up and want to be police officers for the Franklin Police Department? Well, you do that by fostering those relationships. You do that by having them up here, getting comfortable with police officers, and becoming one with your department. Right. There's been hundreds of them came in here for tours and stuff like that in the last year and a half. So, we looked at that and we said we don't want just a standalone building up here that does nothing. So, we started looking, what can we do out here that allows people to be safe and come up here, children, come up here and walk with their parents on the walking trail. That's where the the playground was born mentally. That's where the walking trail comes into place. That's where this pavilion comes into play. ball courts eventually, right? So, what we were basically saying at that time is we're going to invest in our community. So, that that's the why. Here's the what. So, back in July, Carol, Mo, and myself met with Josh Wagner from Miracle, Kentucky and Tennessee. If you're not familiar with Josh and his company, they've done a lot of work for playgrounds at the park, um, at the uh, housing authority and many other places all over the Commonwealth of Kentucky. They're also a state contract vendor, which is very, very important. Um, so we met back with Josh. He did a whole presentation up here. Um, obviously you got the playground design in your packet. Um, so we we ended up coming up trying to figure out exactly what we wanted. And we what we also wanted is like not just something that's built for now, but to to have the foundation to be able to add on to it as time goes on. So, um, so we ended up, uh, we come up with some pricing. He gave us a quote. So, I'll

get to the what now. So, the total cost for this project is $243,941, which includes the playground, the equipment, the installation, surfacing, fencing, an entire shaded area, seating, and tables, and then also like like I said, the the Wheeler has the fencing around the playground itself. So, before I get into like making a motion, do y'all have any questions for me?

Roger, I want to tell you something. Um, in the last 10 years, the it's really coming around and more so since you've been in charge. Um, last two weeks I've seen two uh times I've been in town where children were taking pictures with police officers. Uh, back when I was a kid, you only you didn't talk to police officers cuz they were only there to get you. But, uh, I agree with the program you're doing and it's paying off because I see it all the time. Absolutely. kids are really approaching the officers with uh I think you'll see more as we as we finish this out in the next several years like I think you'll see a lot more of that interaction and it's it it was what I envisioned like you know eight nine years ago. So it's all coming to fruition now. All right.

Uh, Chief, I'd just like to say I have seen how many children, especially children and families are really uh coming around here and using the facilities and I I think it's a great I think you're doing a great job. And uh and I think uh the more the more that we can uh uh get children here and make them feel comfortable, make them feel safe, uh the better our community will be. And uh so I think it's I think it's a great opportunity for our community. Thank you, sir. There's there's it's hard to tell. Yeah. But there's there's one swing for a disabled child. Is there anything else for disabled children?

Yeah, the uh piece of equipment over show you. I think it's on the next page. This one here. Yeah. As well. And then that's the whole the surfacing will be, you know, ADA compliantvious. The fencingvious obvious was around there for that reason and then there's room obviously to build as we go. So cool. We wanted to stay within the budget. Yeah. Sure. So we need to So So the the urgency is So So we had like 220 left overish from the building. Correct. That was supposed to be 22 project last year. 229 I believe. Yeah. So it pretty much two it covers the majority of it.

Yeah. and then the the amendment that y'all just read today and covered the other 14,000 that was included in the amendment. So So the urgency is because of the the price increase for Yeah. December 1st there'll be a 5% price increase which will bring it up another 12,200 which we do not want to do so to keep it within the budget. So all you have to do there is we'd have to submit a purchase order and actually order the PO. Yep. So before December the 1st. That is right. Yeah. And then that's just that's just scheduling like you know if we wanted to actually get the equipment in and start doing install in March you know we're not locked into any specific time. It's just ordering the stuff. So

So ready I'll make the motion. I would I would make that motion that we approve the playground quotation for $226,7 by Miracle of Kentucky and Tennessee as well as the quote for $17,934 and to place that order or to send a PO prior to December 1st uh to the playground equipment manufacturer and then allow the mayor to sign any and all documents related to the project. I'll second it, Mayor. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Bush and a second by Commissioner Powell. Uh, is there any further discussion?

If not, Kathy, would you mind doing a roll call vote? Sure. Commissioner Powell, yes. Commissioner Bush, yes. Mayor Dixon, yes. Commissioner McCra, yes. Commissioner Stewart, yes. And that motion passes unanimously. Good to go. Right. All right. Thank you all. Thank you, Chief.

Okay. We will move on to general government and that'll be discussion and a possible action regarding a letter of support for project gong. And uh I believe we have uh our industrial authority uh executive director here today to Jim Deessor. Thank you, Jim, for coming and discussing that for us. Um, so mayor and members of the commission, project gong is a new project that is looking to take over the existing toyo building that has been empty at least for a year and a half, maybe around two years. Uh, this company is in the construction materials business. They actually make the metal support system for uh pre-fabricated concrete structures like uh uh pre-cast walls, uh the boxes they use for storm sewers and things like that. And so they will be uh making the metal reinforcements that go into those products at this facility. Uh it's a $31.5 million investment. There's two phases to this project. a holding company is going to buy the building. That is the parent company of the the company that'll be operating. And then the operating company will lease the building from the holding company. They'll have 55 new jobs. Uh $24 an hour average hourly wage before benefits. And uh we have a letter of they're going for KBI incentives on December 11th, which will be the last uh KDEA meeting, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority meeting for the year, and asking for their incentive package. And this letter of support is asking that the uh city of Franklin give up uh that 0.25% occupational tax for a 10-year period uh as part of the incentive package with the state. Uh for those that have questions about why we have

code names for different projects, that is required by the state. Uh they prefer that uh no no company name be released until their incentives are approved by KEDF. That's why we use the code names. Uh once the KEDF board approves the preliminary incentives, that's what what happens first. They do not get their incentives until they actually create the jobs and do all the things that they say they're going to do and then they come back and ask for final approval on their incentive package through the KEFA board. But until when when on December 11th when they approve the incentive package, the company name becomes public. So that's why we do it that way. It's not something we do arbitrarily. It's because it's required by the state. And so mayor, I would ask the commission to uh approve the letter of support for project gong. uh and their incentive package.

Okay. And this is not anything new that we have done for former companies. I mean most most I mean what Jim's presenting is what we have done over the years for uh all all most all companies coming in. We we seldom ever have one that doesn't want any incentives but most of them do. And this is just a process that we do for Mayor, if I may, not only do you need to approve the letter, but the commission needs to authorize you decide it. Okay. So, uh you've heard the uh uh you've heard the uh presentation. Do I have a motion to that effect? I have a question first.

Scott, does when they apply for Go ahead. We need to do a We need to do a motion. Have a motion. I I'm I move that we we go through this letter and we have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. We have a second by Commissioner Pat. Now KBI when they apply for to the state we we automatically have to follow. Is that correct?

We have to have a local match of 1%. Now through an existing interlocal agreement because the city of Franklin paid the the total of 1% for so many years without county participation. When Jim Henderson was still county judge, we did an interlocal agreement to split it three quarters and one quarter so we could equalize the total dollar contribution over time between the city and county. That's why we are only required to pay a quarter percentage. The county will pay 3/4%. Any idea what that would cost over 10 years not receiving that?

Have no idea until we know the total number of jobs and total payroll. I mean, you you could do quick math based on what he said. Uh, but there's no way for me to know until I know those numbers. I didn't hear a question. He asked what the total investment or the total of what we would be paying would cost over 10 years.

Yeah. Don't have those. I can once they submit their KBI application, we could get that information. But um I should note that the uh fiscal court approved the uh incentive letter last Tuesday for this project for their 75% that that Mr. Crabtree just mentioned. And then uh it is 55 new jobs at 24 an hour average. So you can kind of figure that out. You know, 40 plus hours a week times 52 and you get you can come up with sort of a roundabout number on that. That's before incentives as well or before you know benefits, right? And and like I said, we're required if the state kicks in, we're required to give a local match of 1%

total from either or both bodies. Yeah. Thank you. That answer for me. And we're filling an empty building, right? Yes. That desperately needs to be filled. So, we have a motion and a second. Any further comments? Kathy, we'll do a roll call vote, please. Commissioner Pal. Yes, Commissioner Bush. Yes, Mayor Dixon. Yes, Commissioner McCra. Yes, Commissioner Stewart. Yes. And that motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Mayor. Jim, thank you. Thank you, Jim.

Okay, moving on. We will have discussion and a possible action regarding proposal for AED in police cruisers. And I think Commissioner McQuary uh wanted to speak to that. Uh yes sir. So we already have some AEDs in the police cars now. How many do we have total? Four.

Four. And I ran across the article last week where a lot of bigger seat cities already they're funding all the police cars and we didn't do that at the beginning but u I talked to Tom Scott director this last week. Their run their run volume has increased dramatically over the last two years. They had over 4,000 runs a year. So I spoke to kitten about it earlier. It just makes sense that I think the commission should uh look into putting AEDs in all the police cars because EMS is getting busier and Roger will tell you they're they're out and about. They can run upon it quicker. Uh not that our EMS don't do a good job or anything. Uh they do, but the people that know about CPR, early defibrillation, CPR is what saves lives. For every minute that passes without defibrillation, you you lose 10% chance of recovering from that event. So four minutes could make well I like 40 I don't want 40% coming off the people's chances but I take Roger would be good with this. So I'm asking the commission to let Roger look into getting over what that amount is and maybe we can look at it next commission meeting if we will approve that.

I guess I would like to ask a question. Uh we do have four cruisers with them. Correct. No sir. How how often are they used? We we have one at city hall, one in PD that passes around. So yeah. So how how how often I mean is that

I'm sorry.

Uh unless the mayor mayor has more questions. I assume wait till then. But it's it's become pretty standard everywhere that all cruisers have these. And uh you you can't predict when. I can kind of answer that question. But yeah, I think his question was have we used it yet? Yeah, that's that was my question. Or I mean h how often have we had to use the one that we have? We're using them like couple times at least. So one life it's worth it. They're not 100%. Like we're not having to use them as much, but it's one of those things like if you need them, you need them. Yeah.

You don't want to not have available. But right now, we do have all sign off. I'm not sure exactly if we're talking about police cars or just keeping enough for How much are they? Yeah, that's good. They're about $1,100. How many cars do we have? We would need for about $2,000. We're not We're not budgeted for that, are we, Carol? There's not

I mean, it's something I think we can look into. What's the life of these equipment? Oh, years. Years. Depend on how often you use them. No.

When I say police officers about,000 about 1200 years pass. Okay. I was curious to know the life of them because if we did if we you know in my my vote if we talked about voting it would it wouldn't be one for every cruiser but it'd be one for every officer on each ship. What's the maximum number of officers that's on a ship at a time? Overlap. So I would say seven max.

So then we really only need about five more. Replacing these batteries. You might as well Yeah, we're going to do that. So, you'd recommend eight and they're 1100 a piece is. Okay.

Let let me if I if I can jump in for one second. When you start buying something like this, it it's kind of like the liability of somebody during a snowstorm. If you start scraping off the snow on your sidewalk and you do a half job or don't finish it and somebody falls, you're liable. If you left it alone, you're not. If you get three or four of these and you don't have it at the right time on a shift, then somebody could potentially sue us and say, "Well, you had them available. Why didn't you have them available then?" So, my recommendation if you're going to buy them is buy more than you think you need to make sure everybody that could potentially need one has one. So, what would you recommend? Why would you not spend the money? If it saves one life, it's worth it. So, what would you recommend? 12.

Exactly. I think I think you need to have I mean, I just I think the recommendation is come back with December 8th and give a recommendation cost and how many that the police idea because I don't I mean, I think you need to have more than what you think you might need just so we're 100% covered. So, is that are are you responsible for that? Yeah, I can come back. Okay. But I save one life. It's worth Yeah, it's worth it. So, can we So, if we're not budgeting for it from the PD budget, can we move the money from the general fund to pay for it? Well, we'll do a budget a bit before we get them in. Yeah,

wouldn't you think? Yeah, that's what she did generally does. We're good with that. Okay, moving on. Uh shifted. Under general government will be uh discussion or possible action regarding proposed ordinance reszoning property located on 31W South owned by Siri Invest Safari Savari Investments LLC. And Scott, you want to speak to

Yes. This was uh this this came up. This is a property owned by you know him as Raj uh out near I65. Uh he has asked for this property to be annexed. If you find it so appropriate, we'll need two sponsors for the ordinance. Commissioner Pal is one sponsor. Okay. We have we have Commissioner Pal, Commissioner Stewart. So we'll have first reading here. Thank you.

Okay, moving on. will be discussion and a possible action regarding the release of a maintenance bond for the Franklin 49 LLC and Carol will speak to that. I think that pertains to Grace Road.

It does. It does, mayor. So, back in November of 24, the city required Franklin 49 LLC to give us a maintenance bond for one year for just over $21,000 just to ensure that they completed their work out on Grace Road at Arrington Down subdivision. Um there was a final inspection done on November 7th of 2025 and the work has been satisfactory completed and so I am requesting that the commission approved that we release the maintenance bond um and the last the attached release form in your packet would need to be signed by the mayor. I'll make that motion. Okay, we have a motion uh uh by Commissioner Bush. Second.

Second by Commissioner Powell. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? I I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Okay. And moving on, uh we'll have discussion and a possible action regarding renewal of an EAT service contract. And Carol will speak to us on that also, please.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. Um we are required to keep a fax line for open records requests and we have two of those fax lines. one at the PD and one at city hall. Um so three years ago we we had a fax line through Windstream and they really didn't want to continue it. So they jacked the price up astronomically and so at that point we found an uh this new for an eax line. It's essentially like a getting just a an email but it it counts as secure as a fax. Um, so we our first contract was three years. It just ended. We need to do a renewal on that. Um, right now we're on a month-to-month contract at the same price. Um, the new three-year contract, the quoted price is $18.95 per line per month, which is the same as what the last one was. And the total contract price is $1,3640. So I'm asking that the commission approved to accept the quote from Nuso for the EAC service and authorize the mayor to sign any and all documents related to the service.

So this be three years 1,300 for three years. Okay, mayor. I'll make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second by Mayor. Second by Commissioner McQuary. Uh any further discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thank you, Carol. And uh let's see. Believe you have the next one, too. That's discussion of possible action regarding amendment to the Walmart credit card account. And if you'll speak to that one also. Adam's good. Oh, Adam. Sorry, Adam. I had Carol down. I'm sorry.

It's all good. Thank you, mayor and commissioners. So, we had a Walmart community card program that we've been using for a long time for, you know, emergency purchases and stuff like that. Um, that program actually just ended uh without any kind of notice. So, um we are needing to apply for new cards so the department heads will have a card if they need to go to Walmart to get anything. Um it's called Trevy Pay. So, we would just go online, apply for it, and that way we can get the cards to the department heads so we can get that for them. Um, so if the commission agrees, um, allow us to apply for the new pay by invoice with Trevy Pay with a credit limit of 5,000 and authorize the mayor to sign any and all documentation related to this program.

And all we're doing here is just applying for a new car. Yes, the other program just ended. So that that line's gone. So we need 5,000 access to that. Okay. Do I have a motion? So madam, we have a motion by Commissioner Powell. Second, mayor. Second by Commissioner McQuary. Uh question, mayor. Sure. I'm just curious. Um and and I think it'd be just good to, you know, for it to be known when we're spending money like that, you know, it's a community card. What what what do we use it for? Uh uniforms. Um, I know Johnny likes to use it a lot for, you know, stuff at the plant. Same with all of them. Okay. You know, just quick needs basically. We don't use it a whole lot, right?

It's just it's there in case we need to run out there and get something really fast. I didn't see anything about how exactly that was used. I just No, I think it's good to know. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And Commissioner Stewart, it's just really replacing this a line of credit that was Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's all in there. Yeah, I was just curious to know what it was. Period. Okay. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I

Any opposition? And that motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Adam. Okay. Uh moving on, we'll have discussion and a possible action regarding a resolution authorizing amendments to the historic preservation guidelines. and Lee Ross is here to bring that to us. He's the uh chairman of our historic preservation committee. So, Lee Ross, take off.

Yes, sir. Uh we formed the historic uh preservation committee years ago to obviously save our historic buildings. Our first focus was the uh downtown core, the central business district. Uh we've expanded since then to historic neighborhoods in the adjacent like West Cedar, South College. Um and we've realized we have a really um secondary goal there that's become a primary goal to preserve our historic homes for people who invest in those neighborhoods. Um and then what we've sort of set to expand on with this motion is to u tackle our accessory structures. So to protect accessory structures in the especially in the neighborhoods and to um limit or at least require a review of new accessory structures. So, if if you live in a historic home on South College Street, you can have faith that your neighbor doesn't come in and build a warehouse in their backyard, right? There there's some ways to navigate the zoning ordinances uh that may be acceptable but may not be aesthetically pleasing. And so, all we want to do is slow down the destruction of the accessories structures, you know, require review first and then um as you can see in your memo, accessory structures that complement the main the main structure. So, if you have a um a Victorian home, ideally your accessory structure is something that would have been built back then in a Victorian style. Um and then also as a as a major note that accessory structures um should be uh secondary in size and scale, so in height and and footprint. So, ideally don't have a a 1500 square foot house with a 15,000 square foot shed in the backyard in the historic district. Those those things happen in the county, no problem, but ideally not in the historic district. So, what's it? So, is this is this whole thing new or is it changing something?

Just the accessory structure. I'm not uh we have a you have I think you have a two-page document that says accessory structure guidelines. So, this is adding to our current Yeah.

So, what does it do to So, so what are we talking about accessory structures that are already there that are not historic though? So, if if you already have one, you're you're fine. It's grandfathered in essentially. Um, if you have a let's say you live in a a house from the 1880s and you have an accessory structure from the 1990s, that's fine. If you go to remodel it, we would we would try to, you know, uh move in the direction of being a little more historic looking, but um there aren't there aren't many instances of of uh overly sized accessory structures in the downtown area. We're just trying to get ahead of it a bit. Um, and then with where we work in Nashville, Franklin, Tennessee, and in Bowling Green a lot, the big thing is to build a second house in the backyard, and you can actually have a second family living on the same same parcel. Um, again, fine in parts of town, but ideally not in the historic district.

Does PNZ have current regulations preventing that large of a structure? Um, there are height and building uh area limitations, but they are not related to the main building that I know of. Th this is more from an aesthetic standpoint. Yes, there are accessory structure regulations in the planning and zoning regulation book, but he's talking about keeping the historical significance consistency in the area.

And it's mostly to protect the investments of people who have already bought or invested significantly in a in a historic home that um their their investments protected. So, if they want to demolish an out building and and they're in the zone, they're going to have to go through a like a plan.

So, if if you want to demolish um with with these with these guidelines aside, currently, you would have to pro provide a demolition permit to Carter and that would come to the historic uh district committee who would review its uh appropriateness. So if if the building is uh I think it says in there half over half decayed um or if you have an engineer saying this building is going to fall um you can get your permit from the historic committee and then get your demo permit from Carter. U in this case we're just saying that you should take all effort to preserve historic buildings and that's that's in the accessory structure before 1900. So, what happens if you don't What happens if you don't What?

What happens if you don't do this? If we put these in and you don't do it,

arguably, you know, they could they could try to get the commission to enforce it and and they very well may. My inclination is though, if somebody's just trying to raise the structure, probably they're not going to give you much fit on that. In all honesty, I doubt with the exception of where my office is. I had an old historic accessory structure that I tore down years ago because of the lamination. But I can't imagine there are that many accessory structures even out there that are historic. So, this probably won't be applicable hardly at all. That's why when I reviewed it, I thought, well, this is kind of a no harm, no foul. It's more if they want to build one to make sure it looks consistent with the neighborhood because as you all know, particularly on West Cedar Street, the people up there have spent a lot of money to try to, you know, keep the integrity of that area and make it look historical and nice as an entryway into our town. and they don't generally want, you know, somebody to put up a metal building in the back that has sliding doors that maybe you got from Lowe's. Not saying there's anything wrong with those, but you know what I'm saying. It may not look like the rest of the neighborhood. So, I don't think that's going to be a big issue, Commissioner Bush, but again, I I don't know. And and uh to that point, for the most part, in most of the parcels downtown, the base zoning won't allow an extravagantly sized building because you simply don't have the green space.

Yeah. And the lot sizes aren't there, right? We're we're just saying it should be shorter than the house and it should be complimentary to the house just so that we can keep our historic homes attracting um you know, people who take care of the homes. Trying to be clear on this. So let's say now let's take Scots for example. Could you build with this proposal? Could you build just a standard double car garage? Absolutely. As long as is there going to be strict guidelines like metal, it's got to be this, it's got to be that. I mean I don't want to restrict somebody from building a nice looking garage that

Right. Same and we went we went round and round for a couple of hours about materials and so we we we asked that it's a guideline first of all. So, the material should be complimentary, which gives you a broad range of options. And again, it's a guideline. So, if you can prove that your metal building is complimentary to the house and it and it looks great and you can't really see it from the street, we're probably behind you. But it don't have to be tons of money spent on matching a Victorian style build. Right. Right. Okay. Right. And and um we argue the same thing. We're the designer on it. Um accessory structures then were secondary in nature. They lacked the detail of the house. So, as long as you're complimentary, you know, we're not we're not asking you to replicate any kind of custom

gingerbread work or or something like that, right? Um, we also wouldn't want that garage to be two stories with your house being one story and suddenly your neighbor doesn't have any sunlight in their backyard. Well, and and keep in mind that, you know, going to enforcement, Commissioner Bush's question that if somebody went to the historic preservation committee and didn't like the answer the historic preservation committee gave, they're going to come to you guys anyway. you guys would ultimately get the final decision about whether they've overstepped their authority or not and whether to enforce it or not. So, as as Lee Ross pointed out adequately, these are just guidelines. That's it.

We're seeing a lot of um especially out of town buyers pay, you know, big big money for South College, West Cedar Street. We want to we want to keep it going that way. They want to keep those houses up and we wouldn't want to open the door for those houses to be on the decline because it's it stopped feeling like a historic neighborhood. Yeah. So, if you all find it appropriate, we would need a motion to approve resolution K2025. Do we have a motion? I'll make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell. Second. I second. Okay. We have a second by Commissioner Stewart. Is there any further comments or questions?

Yeah. I mean, I just Can you come back at the first of the year and maybe like have a talk about the whole historic preservation committee itself? Sure. Because like not not for any other I'm going to vote no. Not for any other reason, but I just don't understand enough about the historic preservation society. Yep. Um, we we were, like I said, formed to slow down the demolition of historic buildings. wasn't any kind of check.

You could you could uh put in a demo permit to tear down city hall and no one could stop you before. And so now we just say, "Wait a minute, that building's in the store district. Let's analyze and um and and then, you know, as as we've um expanded a bit, we're taking care of uh boarded up windows and non-accessible entrances and things like that." So we'd be happy to talk about everything we do. So this I mean, so it's not really an emergent issue. uh this for today this this item. Um I mean I know we've got a motion in a second to vote on it, but I mean I would just like to wait until after we have heard more to to better understand it. But that's just me. Sure.

I'd be happy to talk about what we do and and um and our concerns. Our concerns are based on proposals we get and what we see in other cities. And it's extremely popular in Nashville to buy a beautiful home and build a second house in the backyard and have an accessory structure that then houses another family. Yeah. like Green Hills. Yeah. And and the and the neighbors don't like that. Yeah. And so then we get we get we have an exodus of people living in historic homes. Okay. So we have a motion and a second and we'll go ahead and take a roll call vote. Kathy, please. Commissioner Powell? Yes. Yes. Commissioner Bush. No. Mayor Dixon? Yes. Commissioner McCra? Yes.

Commissioner Stewart? Yes. And that motion passes. Thank you, Kathy. Thank you, Ross. Mayor, I do think it's probably a good idea to have them come and reexplain in January or February. Oh, yeah. He said he would be willing to come back and and the ones of you who were on here then realized that when we formed this committee, everybody kind of went round and round about it then about how far how much power we want to give them and all that because it is a sore subject to tell people how to use their property. So, I think Lee Ross, you'd be a great candidate to come back. I'm I'm going to draft you to come back and explain all that to the commission. Thank you. Thank you, Le Ross.

Okay, moving on. We'll have discussion and a possible action regarding Kentucky League of Cities safety audit and uh Chief Solomon, you want to you want to speak speak to that? Mayor, mayor, as he walks up there, uh, we had from the KC, we had an audit back last summer and and we got a before and after and and I just thought it would be good because at the PD and the policies, the procedures that you can have and what they're constantly updating. So, I had asked Chief Solomon to kind of come back and say, "What can you do to help us?" Because they have a lot of these things that's already implied with the PD. So, uh, I kind of drafted him in to to improving our scores. So, Chief, you want to go ahead and go forward? Okay.

Thank you.

So, included in your packet are the four different audits of from the initial one and then the two updated audits. So, we did our initial audit September 3rd of this year where Ben Cook from the Kentucky League of Cities came in and met with myself, Kenton, uh Jeremy Pering, Trent, Daryl, and Johnny. And then after we met in person for I think it was about an hour, hour and a half u I took Ben around and we went around to each public works water department wastewater and we did on-site inspections and assessments there as well. And what they do is they come back with the information from there to make changes whether it be uh OSHA changes or safety changes or you know recommended things that would improve your audit. So took some notes, compiled some information, went back uh made some initial changes, sent some policies over to Scott, some uh um loss of continuous uh service thing, went to utility department to utilize for new service, things like that. So um coming November 14th, we did a new and improved audit. Um, so you can kind of see where um, just initially from the business auto we went from a 20% up to a 87.5%. Um, and then general liability um, that one went from uh, 53% up to I believe 81%. um our uh public official audit. That one actually um it says 80% here, but I was talking to Scott on the phone this morning. Um there was actually a couple policies that we did have that are not reflected here. So, we actually would be at a 95% not 80%. Um and then in the the last one was the

sewer. Um, and we passed everything in the sewer except for the um, documented inspections part, which basically I talked to Trent about that. So, every five years you b you have to go through a full um, inspection of the sewer system. It would be over $100,000 to do that. So, um, 70% outside of doing that is is exceptionally well. most cities are not going to go to that extreme or that money to spend to do, you know, to to try to get above an 80% in that category. So, as long as we stay above a 80% and all these categories, our insurance premiums are uh exponentially low lower, but not to the point to try to offset that with $100,000 worth of uh service to uh do inspections on sewer lines. So, Tren, do you have anything to add on that? I know he said he would like to do it, but at that that money it's it's, you know, so you have to contract that out. So, um, but yeah. So, do y'all have any questions on this audit?

Okay. And this is something we got constantly have to, you know, and I've asked Roger to kind of keep watching and making sure we're doing policies and procedures and keeping this in check because it asks for kind of have a safety committee and we got to meet, we got to do minutes and we got to report. So, uh, and obviously it's a good, uh, like a audit from KC. It's a free audit. Uh, I think it's a good snapshot for us. And, uh, so we're getting ready for the next fiscal year and and we'll have these good numbers to show.

Yeah. So, a lot of the things we have to implement, I mean, you see a lot of it on here where we went from zero points to, you know, whatever the maximum points were. One of those things like Trent's talking about is a safety committee. Um that's myself, Trent, Daryl, uh Dan, and John and Johnny. Uh so we're all on that safety committee. So we'll meet every quarter. And then there needs to be on-site inspections uh twice a year, which I've already conducted one with all the departments, and I'll go back here in about six months and do another one. But as long as these things and we're going to a conference in March which will uh increase our score a little bit more in one category. So most of these things will be up in the 90 95 percentile by the time we get around to the insurance premium portion of it in March. So but um been a lot of diligence, a lot of work put into this, but I think like uh we should be proud of the scores that we're at right now. So and there's no motion today. I just wanted to bring this to y'all's attention. So,

thank you chief. All right. Thank you, Roger. All right. Thank you all. Thank you, chief. Okay. We will move on to public safety and I don't think we have anything under public. Uh from there, we'll move on to utilities and uh under utilities will be discussion or possible action regarding award of bid for the hydrant replacement. And Trent's going to speak to us on that.

Thank you, mayor. Uh the city published an invitation to bid uh 2026-06 hydrant replacement bid. Uh the bid opening was Wednesday, November 4th, uh at 10:00 a.m. They were two sealed bids submitted as follows. Progressive Escavating LLC put in a bid for $29,80 and Slagger Escavating was $44,377. Uh I don't know if you all have the bid packets, but this is kind of just for labor. The city would be providing the hydrants for the excavator and the labor. And uh based on our bid valuation, we recommend the city award the bid to of the hydrant replacement to Progressive Escavating. Uh we have used Progressive Escavating in the past for uh for other jobs and they they do good work. I don't know if y'all know Mark Roberts or not, but Mark does good work. So proposed action um the commission agrees uh with the recommendation award bid 2026-06 in the amount of $29,80 to progressive excavating and authorize the mayor to sign any and all documents related to this project.

Okay, you've heard the proposed motion. I'll make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Kush. Second. Second by Commissioner Powell. Is there any further discussion or comments or questions? All in favor? I I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thank you, Trent. And uh next will be discussion and a possible action regarding the award of bid for the uh backwash pump. And Johnny Skipworth is going to bring that to us. Thank you, Johnny.

Oh, you're welcome. Thank you very much. Um appreciate it. So, the city published an invitation to bid number 2026-05, new backwash pump. The bid opening was Wednesday, November the 5th, and at 10:00 a.m. There were five sealed bids submitted, and I can read through those as follows. There's American Pump Repair and Service Incorporated, $194,000. Brooks Motor and Electric, $134,71.91. Industrial Power Solutions, $265,850. John Bashard and Suns Company, $256,443.80. Wascon Incorporated is $161,663. Based on our bid evaluation, we recommend the city award the bid to the for the new backwash pump to Brooks Motor and Electric. They have done work at the water treatment plant before with small pumps and um I think they do a great job and I enjoy working with them. So um our proposed action would be if the commission agrees with the recommendation to award the bid number 2026-05 new backwash pump in the amount of $134,71.91 to Brooks Motor and Electric and authorize the mayor to sign any and all documents related to the project. And that was our best bid out of five. So that's okay.

Uh you've heard the proposed motion. Do I have a motion to that? Okay. It doesn't matter. I think he sounds like Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Bush and a second by Commissioner St. I believe I heard that correctly. One qu one question mayor. Sure. Johnny, when when do they plan on installing this? So the lead time is about 16 weeks. 16 weeks. Yes. What's the what's the expected life? Expectancy. Our original uh the one that we have now is original. It's 40 years old. And with the use, I believe that we'll get another 40 years with our new one. Yeah. We'll be good to if we do. Yes. I think

we'll be doing good if we do. We'll be okay with that. Yes. Long pass me. Any further questions, comments? All in favor? I. I any opposition and that motion carries and thank you very much Johnny. You're welcome. Thank you very much. Okay, we will move on to ordinance and uh we have Kathy uh you will

have one more ordinance today. We'll have first summary reading of ordinance number 2025028, an ordinance reszoning approximately 20 acres located on Nashville Road from B5 Interstate Interchange Business to B4 Highway Business District as requested by Zuari Investments LLC. This concludes first summary reading of this ordinance. It will become effective upon passage and publication. A full copy is available at the office of city hall or in the office of the city clerk at city hall during normal business hours. Okay. Thank you very much, K. You're welcome.

Okay. Uh from here we will move on to uh executive session and under executive session will be personnel and that's discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment discipline or dismissal of an individual employee or member and that's under KRS618101F and I will need a motion to go into executive session. I'll make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Bush. Second. Second by Commissioner McQuary. All in favor? I.

And we now move into executive session. And anyone's welcome to stay outside if they'd like. It's going to be probably a lengthy ex session. So, uh, it's up to you as to whether you would like break before we

Okay. I will need a motion to come out of executive session. I'll make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Bush. Second. Second, mayor. Second by Commissioner McCquiry. Uh, all in favor? I And we now move back into regular session. And I believe we do have a motion to come before the floor. Uh, we do, mayor. We have one motion. The motion is to hire Austin Bishop for the position of collection servicemaintenance worker uh, effective December 29th. You've heard the proposed motion. I'll make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Bush.

Second. Second by Commissioner Powell. Uh, any further comment, question? All in favor? I I. Any opposition. And that motion carries. And u from there we will move on to uh city attorney reports. I have none, mayor. Okay. How about city manager report? No, sir. Uh, city commissioner. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Stewart. Commissioner McQuary? No, sir. I have no report. Commissioner Bush. So, do we need to resend the motion that we made in the last meeting for the committee to study the data center and then make a new motion since Jim has stepped down. I mean that's

well the motion that was made was for the industrial authority to form this com this committee and he has resigned and until we get a new uh until we get a new industrial board member I'm not sure that's the exact motion but I would I would recommend put him on it make sure Commissioner Bush

that and I do recall the motion that it wasn't conditioned upon the industrial board doing it But here's I would recommend though that the industrial board director be on this board for obvious reasons because that industrial board director is going to have the inside track and the knowledge to to be able to help with this process plus knows all of what's going on. I mean that's that's the only thing I would wait for and I don't think it's going to be months and months. But that's my recommendation. Y'all can do what you want to as far as reformation of the con of the committee or whatever. So,

you'll have to direct it to the chair. Uh I am not going to recognize any motions at this point. Oh, I'm just asking question. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, my question is whether or not Jim could get the committee started and then hand it over to whoever is he I I've already inquired about that. He did not want to do that. He's he because he wasn't sure how long he would actually be here. Miss Wilson, I think it needs to come through the industrial authority because that it's an industry uh it's an industry related situation

and that's the only reason for it. I just think it needs to it needs to be uh and if y'all if you have somebody better or you got some other idea, I don't care. But I just I think that's an integral piece of this committee is to have the industrial board involved. And to do that, I think you'd want the the de director who's day to date. You have to go through the mayor. Sorry. Jim said that his last day I think was February 14th. Are they planning earlier than that? There's overlap like what's the there it just depends.

There's already they're already in the pro the industrial authority is already in the process of trying to hire a director. So they're in that process as we speak. My understanding is from talking to him and from you guys is that's the end date is February the whatever they get somebody before then he's ready to go. Yes. I mean I think it'll be great to have the committee but I think it'll be I think it needs to be through the industry too. I'm not trying to put it off. I just think that's I think that's a piece you want in there is to for the guy who knows what's coming to be on this committee. So, but I'll turn it back over to you, Commissioner Voice, since you open the discussion. If you want to reform the motion, you're certainly certainly can.

I'll give it two more weeks. And I I suspect they'll probably be hired sooner rather than later. I'm not on the industrial board, but I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, no, no, no, no, no. I was just asking mayor something for commissioner's report. Would you like? No. No. Nothing about this. Okay. No. Okay. I think that's all I got. Anything further? No. Okay. Commissioner Pal. I just like to wish everybody a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Eat a lot of turkey. That I make a motion. We journ. We have a motion on the floor to all in favor. I

And we commissioner Bush. Oh, we now stand adjourned.