City Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order from our recess meeting. This is September of the 8th, 2026. Entertain a motion to receive and file the agenda as presented.

So moved. Second.

Any discussion? Changes? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Old business, Mr. Wheeler. Item A.

Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, amending the zoning map to the official zoning ordinance of the City of Ashland number 101 series of 1986 as previously amended by changing the zoning classification of property located at 501 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from R4 multi-single family residential high density to B2 general business.

Discussion? All in favor say aye. I oppose.

I'd be second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing directing the mayor to execute a ticket reseller and location related services agreement between the city of Ashland, Kentucky and Flix North America Inc. Designating the city of Ashland as its non exclusive ticket reseller, allowing the city of Ashland to sell bus tickets at the Ashland Transportation Center.

Discussion. All in favor say aye.

Aye. All opposed? Item C. Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky authorizing and directing the mayor to execute amendment number one to the public transportation grant agreement between the city of Ashland, Ashland bus system and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet accepting additional funding in the amount of $108,416. So moved. First and a second.

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

Item D. Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled An Ordinance of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a public transportation grant agreement between the City of Ashland, Ashland Bus System, and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for the SFY 2027 Capital Estate Match Grant in the amount of $39,466. So moved.

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

Item E. Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky authorizing and directing the mayor to execute and submit a grant application to the Center for Rural Development for the U.S. Department of Justice Law Enforcement Technology Assistance Program, LET 2.0. on behalf of the Ashland Police Department for the purchase of mobile and handheld police radios and infrastructure equipment and accessories and if awarded authorizing and directing the mayor to execute any and all other documents related to acceptance of said grant.

So moved. Second. Okay.

Discussion. Chief, what is the amount being sought by the city of the The note says that the project will exceed the cost of $2 million. What are we asking for in the grant?

We'll be asking for approximately 70 portable handheld radios. No, I mean what's the price that we're asking for? We're estimating around $2.1 million.

How much are we asking the federal government for, Chief?

2.1 million. 2.1. It's 100%. Okay. This is the first time we've been a part of Al Rogers' LAT program, where Boyd County was just accepted in his congressional district. And everything earmarked with those funds of law enforcement mostly go through the Center for Rural Development. They've become the great team.

The ordinance just says a grant application. The note says the project will exceed $2 million, so it doesn't say exactly what you're applying, the amount that you're applying for.

That's correct, and because right now I think that's a process, kind of a moving target on a little bit of scale between a state contract and volume. I think they're kind of working together. So the Center for Rural Development will purchase the equipment and then issue it.

So they're actually buying $20 million worth and then spreading it out over the district. That's correct.

And then there's another earmark for $20 million in the next budget, federal budget. So he's really trying to move law enforcement communications.

Funny how funds come available in election time. It seems to be that way.

Well, and I know that the representative for Hal Rogers will be at the next commission meeting. You may want to touch base with him.

Oh, we've already met. OK, yeah, we've already met Adam and we've already worked with him and we were arrivals down there a little over a week and a half ago with the meeting at Somerset. So we were part of the initial grant application. Gotcha.

Chief, thank you for looking out for grants and all opportunities that you can find to save our taxpayer dollars.

Anything we can find on law enforcement, it's seems to be a lot more scarce on equipment versus programs.

Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Item F. Mayor and commissioners, before I read this one, I believe there's a request for staff that we allow this one to die and it'll come back at you later. Item F, second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitling ordinance of the City of Ashland, Kentucky amending section 2 of ordinance number 59 series of 2026 which is commonly known and referred to as the FY2026-2027 budget ordinance of the City of Ashley.

No motion, so it dies. Item G.

Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky, accepting the proposal and authorizing and directing the mayor to enter into an agreement between the city of Ashland, Kentucky and Motorola Solutions Inc. in the amount of $479,990 for the Brink MSI takeoff drone as first responder DFR program for the Ashland Police Department.

Second. Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Move into our consent agenda.

A resolution of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, adopting, authorizing, and approving the course of action as presented on the consent agenda for the special called meeting of the City of Ashland Board of Commission Tuesday, September 8, 2026 at 1 p.m. I move. Second.

Discussion? Yeah, so two things. First thing, I want to congratulate Michelle Veach being appointed as our chief financial officer for the city of Ashland today. She will be the first female ever appointed in that position. Also, Mr. Tony Grubb, our city manager now, held that position for 35 years. So it's a changing of the guard, as you would say. We're excited for Michelle, the work that she's done for our community to help us save millions of tax dollars. Under her leadership, as well as the leadership of this board and the city manager, we went from a $3.5 million line of credit paying the bills to now having over $2.3 million in a rainy day fund. So we're excited for your continued leadership in this new opportunity for you, Michelle. So congratulations. Also, I would like to make a motion that we remove item F from the agenda.

Is that because we're going to vote for it separately?

I would like to have executive session to discuss that and then bring it back up.

Well, I have a motion on the floor to remove item F. Do I have a second? Second.

Tim, second.

Second.

Okay.

All right. All in favor of removing item F, answer I will. Aye. Okay.

All right. And then I would like to make a motion that we

approve the amended consent agenda without item f first and the second all in favor say aye aye all opposed all right now for the consent agenda as it was um amended uh we just voted on that yeah yeah i mean that to remove it all right

all right let's move into our new business item a first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of ashland kentucky amending section 2 of ordinance number 59 series of 2026 which is commonly known and referred to as the fy 2026 2027 budget ordinance of the city of action

Second discussion replacement. Yes.

All right. All in favor say aye.

Aye. Opposed. But before we go into work session, I'd like to make a motion to go in executive session to discuss a personnel matter.

So we can go back here.

Yeah. Yeah, we can go back there. Okay. So a motion. Do I need to have a second?

Second.

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

Stand by. We'll be back.

Make a motion that we come back from executive session and then revisit item F on the consent agenda to approve that appointment as mass transit superintendent at the minimum of grade for the position. Have a motion on the floor.

Second discussion. All favors say aye. All opposed. All right. So now we'll move on, um, into our work session. And as usual, we'll just kind of bounce around on some of these. And if you've got, um, a pressing issues, speak up and we'll, we'll move to that. Um, Let's start with some exciting news. Let's start with the Gene Jackson building update. And maybe that ties into F, that's E and F with the farmer's market.

Yes, sir, I think Mr. Corbett's coming up to speak on the farmer's market and Gene Jackson.

Step into the light.

Okay. Team deck. You all know it is under process right now. We might want three phases going through. First phase right now. A bunch of things have already happened. We moved the fans to material. We used safety to select the demolition. Secure weather for the new building and explore the structure for the main rehabilitation. The next phase is on September 14th. There will be abatement and roofing and selected demolition. They will all overlap. On September 30th, there will be window installations. On October 14th, four new garage doors will be installed.

Mr. Corbett, what windows are being replaced? Could you elaborate a little bit more on the detail?

So are all the windows being replaced? Yes, everything. Okay, now we've got some other stuff going on. In the current scope, we want to complete the logistics in that abatement, including the removal, monitoring, and material handling and disposal, demolishing the building sections along Bay of Plata. That's the one where we can leave a six-foot wall on the west side.

That last section of the garage is being removed, is that right? Yeah, that would be the south building. Where the roof and gate ends back.

That whole thing is going, our plan, that whole thing is going except for six foot of the wall on the back side. Also, Removal and replacing of the rubber roofing and on the roof sections. Repairing the metal roofing mounds associated with the existing fan. And removing the existing barrage doors, the solar forging barrage doors. The current cost of what we've done so far Do you know those numbers again? Sir? Could you repeat those numbers? Okay, but they told 119,000.

119,854.

Okay, that's good. Okay, and then phase three is the general deep cleaning and abatement of the whole building. Installation of the two-inch asphalt. The trailer.

If nothing else, they come up with some smaller monitoring system.

Or install it on the roof.

Yeah. Even more reason to come and get it. What does that trailer, what does it do? It is supposed to be pulling up the groundwater and separating the oil and gasoline and water from the groundwater. And they have barrels out there. But I asked them, they have barrels out there that claim that they're non-hazardous, that they're not drunk. I thought, well, where do they put this stuff? That's why I thought it had been used for a while.

So is he saying they haven't emptied those barrels in a while?

Okay. After the installation of the asphalt concrete floor lift, we have a list of modifications that we need to do for future use. And then there's painting, brickwork, and other aesthetics. And the final completion date on this project will be established after phase one is complete. Staff will evaluate the buildings, expose, condition, and finalize phase two. What kind of date would that be?

Mr. Corbett, you mean ideas as in design?

Ideas, well, direction of admission on whatever you want to do with the building. I have my own ideas, but as soon as some other people... We've had an approach that taking the next building, the next southern building, we're going to have to have some kind of... But there's all kinds of considerations. We still... We still need to meet with the accountant and the agent up there at the terminal. We had a couple of meetings with the head manager to get a good idea of what she requires.

To make it a farmer's market.

Yeah, make it a farmer's market.

That's the original plan.

that's the direction we're heading and i've heard other comments it should be an open-air market not necessarily a farmer's market or i mean it's it's an open driveway let me step in here i think the original concept was a farmer's market but internally and i guess with this board we've talked about doing in addition to just a farmer's market in the summer we could do

For example, in the fall, maybe sell fodder shocks and gourds and that kind of stuff. And in Christmas, you'd sell Christmas trees or whatever. I think it's a combination of both, just not a farmer's market.

Seasonal use.

And I was wondering where we're at on the timeline with that, because I know we've been using some of the ARPA funds, and those have to be expended, if I'm correct, by December 31st of 2026 to have those funds out the door. Do you think we could?

Getting ready to find out. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Commissioner Renfro and I, we met with Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Schell, and that was something that we discussed with his office. We would look to potentially seek grant funding, but that was early on in the project.

Commissioner, could you give me the name? I know that we're in the process of looking at talking to the tri-state ag offices here in the three-state area. as well as i think uh mr corbett may be talking about touching bases with king daughters if they would help promote the farmers market eat healthy eat organic or something like that but there we go i think this will all work out well so thank you it is funded with arpa interest which i intend to spend my 1231 2026

Because I don't want the feds to come back and say he didn't come by the due date. But we purchased it with it. This $120,000 will be with the ARPA interest and whatever else that... We have POs, Purchase Order Signs, for everything that he is seeking out right now.

Okay. Using ARPA interest is totally different than using ARPA money, right?

Yes. The original guidance from the United States Treasury is that the city could use the ARPA interest on anything that they wanted. Okay.

Now, there's also a discussion about changing the traffic pattern out in front to give us more pavement space.

You know, that's maybe... But first of all, you don't need a... A big roadway, that's got a 100-foot right-of-way, which from what you tell me, Marty, the 100-foot right-of-way is the only right-of-way in the city. It's a 100-foot. And that's because they needed that much room in the current state. So the rest of the right-of-way are all much smaller. But the intent is... The closed road down is basically one or two lanes, one way. And it is now. So we have diagonal parking on both sides. There's not room for diagonal parking on both sides, whether it's a single lane or not. Then we still have, we talked about talking to people in the other parking lots about the possible use. and one of the records is missing. We are going to do this actually later. We'll move everything.

Okay.

Good deal.

Back to the earlier question, what you outlined, do you have a date that that would be finished by? Yes, I do.

I don't know. Yes, sir. Just as I talked about, we're saying 10th, 14th.

October 14th. October 14th.

Mr. City Manager, could we maybe get the outline that he just gave us in writing that we could send out?

Yes, sir. I'll send it to you today.

Thank you, Mr. Corbin.

By doing the traffic modification design, do we need to take action to do that?

Excellent.

That'll have to go in front of the Traffic Task Force, I believe.

I've tossed it around. I thought about putting it under finance or the transportation center.

I know all these guys out here are sufficiently challenged now.

I agree, sir. uh so we hit gene jackson farmer's market how about i think you were on mayo plaza oh geez that's not what you're supposed to say is a little different we have actually met with the state so that project is more And they're in the process now of a consultant school. We had to spend this money to get the grant.

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Do you have any idea when that study is going to be completed? Yes, I do.

Marks, you go first, one second. It is one of the associated notices received for design and acceptance of the contract for not facing the funding. Well,

I would hope that we are involved throughout that concept development phase, not just at the end and say you have to pick from X, Y, and Z. I think we should be involved if there's a way to keep us involved throughout that process. I mean, I'm excited for this Mayo Plaza Redevelopment, I mean, the sidewalks down there now are non-ADA compliant. The lights don't work half the time. It's a rough road to travel on. It's unsafe. With potential new developments, it'll be safe for transportation, travel, and walking pedestrians.

So how do we insert ourselves to be more proactive about it?

I hope not. I said I hope it's not going to be another Winchester Avenue. Right.

What I would probably encourage is that you get with director Agnes between now and the end of the year and maybe give ideas of what you'd like to see included on an individual basis even if you'd like elements and then as they're as they're working through that evaluation and design hopefully those will be incorporated. I know right now one of the items that he's actively working on is trying to see if we can include storm sewer into that those figuring mainly because if you have to if we kind of while the hoods up so to speak if you can factor replacement storm or even repairs and storm issues that's major later I had to rip stuff up so very practical consideration by director at the doing that and I'm sure he'd be receptive to any ideas that you guys want to include.

There's a lengthy report I have here that we can send all you guys. They don't sue. A lot more people than I just sent. They're probably talking about it in the sewer. The place is from 12th Street, 17th. And it needs it. You know?

I don't think so. Thank you, Mr. Corbett. Thank you.

I have one more.

Okay, sure. That would be item C on your Orchards and Agenda. Around about 14th Street. Yes, sir. Go ahead.

The main thing here is we're looking to see direction to the city. I'm sure we asked the Kentucky Infrastructure Cabinet to...

I brought that up because two weeks ago I was in town. Traffic was backed up all the way on Winchester, all the way to 15th Street. 14th Street was backed up all the way to Greenup. Greenup Turn Lane was backed up, and it wasn't a rush area. And I just think I would like for the state to come up and look at it

and give us some thoughts on it i just don't think it's flowing the way it needs to well especially with the conference center going right there is that going to are there other alternatives you know we'd like to explore

Well, as Mr. Wheeler has told us on several occasions, in between sidewalks is safe.

That's correct. Long term, the conference center would be served a lot better with doing away with the angled parking on that side of the street, removing the impediments. So buses and larger buses and stuff can get into that area. And I think they're also going to be running into difficulties with the construction, the heavy equipment and trucks that are getting in there and dealing with that roundabout. The sooner we can get that out of the deal, the better off the construction area would be, it seems to me.

They almost have to make the circle to go in through Carter to get to the construction site.

You know, when the thing was originally planned, there was not the knowledge that that was where the conference center was going to be. Now we know, and we've watched large trucks go over the roundabout. I mean, it's a pretty common occurrence. But we've also seen the effects of the roundabouts at 14th on the bridge traffic, and that's significant. mean there are several considerations the construction the bridge traffic and the long-term use well i think we could get the backing from sam howard probably

So could you contact the state and then report back to us?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Corbett.

All right. Moving on. Anyone want to raise up what they would like to discuss next? We'll just go right down to manhole risers. Identify priority locations and coordinate corrective work.

That's just something I brought up. I know there's a few in town. Well, more than a few, but if there's any way possible, Mark, can we get Rogers on those, kind of smooth them out some?

We try to stay on top of those. We always coordinate with tagging. where we're going to be paying through the engineering office that we raise those manholes and valve lids during that process. There's always ones that pop up from time to time that are concerns that we weren't aware of, but typically we don't get that many We're not aware of new ones like that, I guess is what I'm saying. We're aware of ones that are problematic that we can go and address. If you have any specific ones that you want us to look at...

I'll get you a list. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Anything else?

Well, no, I mean, you get that list and then...

I would also like to include, if we include storm inlets. I know Mr. Murray and the Public Services Department, you send them a list and they jump right on it, so we appreciate that work. I'm sure we'll have some more coming to you.

Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Okay, AK Steel Sports Park improvements.

Yeah, I just want to say. AK Steel Sports Park, yeah. We're looking at doing some possibly, or it was talked about at one point in time. Some of these are just on my list of things that we talked about in previous meetings. But AK Steel Sports Park lighting for the softball fields. Is there any interest in that? You know, I studied that.

when I built the park, and I believe the wiring is there for those lights, if I'm not mistaken. The biggest complaint that we had was from neighborhood.

And also you got the question, how much is it being used? I mean, you can, in Kalisburg, they spent half a million dollars on those lights up there. and i mean it it's you're talking about a consequential expenditure and it depends on how much that area is being used i think it's not being used because of the lights

I think it hampers because games have to end before dark.

That's what I have on my notes, that we could utilize those fields more in the evening time. I see you're looking at an approximate cost of $750 to $1 million. possibly uh i don't see i can't see anybody really uh sean uh maybe sean could speak on it some i thought uh and maybe my information was wrong but i've got the neighbors were positive last time we surveyed yes and on lighting is that yes okay um and again i don't know if i said this but the city can't apply for a water and conservation grant to help offset some of the funding but

Yeah, I'm having a hard time. Pull that mic out and hold it up.

There you go.

the toad, the walking track, we put in a new skate park, the bathrooms, everything's kind of renovated. One of the last things that we're looking at that hasn't been addressed is the lighting. Obviously, I think to Mr. Martin's point, we're seeing around a half a million dollars as well for the installation of something to that degree. We have had engineering partners in there over the years take a look at it.

what's the same issue about central park diamond one i mean that that makes it you know 98 of the time and i is that the best use of that space i mean i'm not advocating that we do away with the cp1 but i mean i don't know that we continue to have the vents and the lighting up that limits that space use. You know, we did have a portable fencing that we used, and we may have even at one time rolled out lots. It seems like we did.

Mr. Martin, yes, there have been situations where we pulled out the stanchions or we've rented them to make sure that we could have those games.

I remember we had men's softball leagues and women's softball leagues, but then they said, we're going to Ironton because they have lights.

And again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there were lights down for the softball field on Central Avenue, and then they were moved to Southside to provide lights for that area, and I think that's where those were, I think. Right.

Michelle, do you know how much that we can apply for estimation on the grant?

You say 50%?

Yeah.

And let me ask you a question, Michelle, and it also ties in. Item B on here on our work session is I know that there's been several several members of this board that have expressed interest in potentially a splash pad or splash park tied in with a with a playground. I know that we can apply for a land and water conservation grant for that. Could we potentially apply if we did both? Or would we be only eligible to do one project?

If you don't care, can we tie this into the flashback? Yeah, yeah.

I know there was some previous talk about a sparse path. You're looking at an estimated cost of $215,000 to $485,000. And we're looking, we're asking for proposed location, if anybody's got any. The proposed funding, $175,000, legally has recovered from the Land and Water Conservation Grant. So we do have some money that we could go towards that. And what's driving the cost, the difference between 215 and 485 is if you're using the same water recirculating and using it versus fresh. If you're using recirculating, which I would recommend, because it's the cheapest, it is filled very clean. It's not just recirculating dirty water.

Well, you know, I'm a bald guy, but I would rather do the splash pad. If it was between one, between the lights at AK and the splash pad. The splash pad brings more people to town. I've been to Raceland's, I've been to Ironton's, and it brings people, it brings people.

If there's any, I mean, if I got any input on this, if I would, I would. I would try to get the grant money for the lighting and internally. I think just a delta between 215 and 175. The city could probably.

I'm sure we could pick that up because we're still earning our interest will earn it up to December 31st. We still have money left in it.

Yeah, I mean, I'd love to see a splash park. I say splash pad, but a splash park. Tie it with some playground equipment because you may have kids that don't want to get in the water, and then you may have kids that do want to get in the water. Obviously, I know that these other communities, not to dog any of them, but some of the other communities you mentioned don't really have much at all to offer for anything else. And if we provide a splash pad, for our folks in a park, I think that would be exciting. But also, I want to look at it as a devil's advocate. Our park staff now are stretched very thin. Two of the employees in the parks really don't even work for the parks much. They are our maintenance crew for other city facilities and city buildings in different places. So are we going to have to, if we do move forward with the Splash Park and even with the farmer's market, are we going to have to hire another parks employee to help maintain all of these assets that we have. You know, we have about 13 city parks right now that they already maintain, plus right of ways and other projects throughout the city. So I think that we need to keep that in mind is that we have the adequate manpower to operate.

It would be my opinion, unless maybe Sean could correct me, but I would think that we'd probably need to hire at least one person if we're taking on these other projects. Especially in the collage of the farmer's market.

If two of your parks employees have spent a majority of their time, they've saved us where we had the parks employees have very talented. They're doing wiring and save $280,000 with the parks employees and they do projects like that consistently.

It seems to me the major issue with the splash pad is the location. I mean, that's critical to what it's going to cost to put it in in terms of the water lines and all that. So, I mean, that's the first decision that probably has to be made is where is a feasible place to put the splash pad.

I think to your point, sir, back in 2022 and before that, when we looked at it, we would all, with the staff, would always get to this point, and then it always came down to location. And then we could kind of plan once the location was decided upon, and then we could look at what the funding's going to look like or what the costs are going to look like associated with it. But we haven't been able to get to that marker yet.

Come on. I might replace those sports parks. Putting in the wiring. I would think that would be good. It wouldn't be a bad location.

If you want to use the ground funding, it would be better to do it outside of Central Park somewhere. Because you have the Indian Mounds. Sorry.

Yeah, just pull it out. Pull it out.

If you want to use the grant funding, it would be better to use it on any project outside of Central Park because you have the Indian mounds and you have to do an environmental review and they will kick it back. They won't allow you to use the grant money. That's why you had problems with El Verrio Park. That's why that playground got moved there was because the money could not be used. In Central Park. So just FYI.

That's good to know. Because there was some guys using a splash pad the other day from the middle school to get pulled off. They had a phys ed class over there from the middle school playing pickleball. They all went over there to the splash pad and used it to pull off. There's about 20 of them.

Should there be an age limit?

Yes. Should be an age limit. I would think.

I don't know. That was a question, not a statement. At a splash park, I think he is. 10-year-old or something like 10, 12-year-old. I think AK Park would be a great location. Same, same, same.

Commissioner, you sent me a picture.

DJ, you sent me a picture one time of underneath the bridge where the recycling place was. I thought that was also a good location.

Yeah, so that was just an AI doodle of a potential, what a, I just kind of did an aerial measurement on, a GPS measurement on Google Maps and said, what would a splash pad, splash park look like in this location? Looked really good. really aesthetically pleasing. Now, practically, I'm not sure if that would work because we'd also have to think about moving the dumpsters. Where would we move those? But yeah, I mean, I think that, and I can disseminate that image to the group and let everybody see it, but it was very aesthetically pleasing.

Because when you come across the bridge, that's been your pet peeve for years, Michelle. You don't like to see those dumpsters when you come across the bridge. Yes. So what would be your plan? Let's go into, let's just segue into this. What would be your plan for the dumpsters?

I think if we continue recycling, which, you know, it'd be, find a convenient location for people to go to for it.

yeah okay i know what would what would be an alternate plan if we did that an alternate location i would have to city garage city garage garage would be perfect um i'd have to look at locations people driving around okay well i know it's been on your mind for since they've been there yes

I didn't like the first view from the bridge-themed dumpsters. That was Michelle's personal opinion.

But, you know, tacking on to the recycling, also electronic recycling, I get calls all the time to ask if we do any electronic recycling, you know, TVs, computers, that kind of thing. Can we add that to it, I guess?

I guess I'm not sure who all does that or something.

Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, that could be.

I mean, I don't think it needs to be all the time, but you know, somebody maybe in the spring and the fall when we do a cleanup.

We can find a vendor to take them and let the citizens bring them to us.

Yeah, that ties into item Q, biannual residential cleanup for larger items or hazardous materials. The goal is to clean up the city and offer residents the opportunity to clean up the property and make it convenient by offering dumpsters in neighborhoods during cleanup or one location. be clean up time for larger items, disposable hazards, waste. I just think that'd be convenient because sometimes you don't know what to do with this stuff.

And I think the large portion, I like the idea of putting it in neighborhoods because the biggest thing is transportation. You know, you've got a couch. Well, how are you going to get it there if you don't have a truck, you know?

Well, let me piggyback on that. Not only that, years ago, the city, they used to have a cleanup. I think it was a biannual cleanup at the city garage. Folks brought the trash to the city garage. It was then separated, and certain items were sent to man's back. Certain items were sent to the landfill. Now, and speaking, I guess, from firsthand, I did some work at my house this past cleanup, and we took it to the landfill. And we were three and a half hours in the line waiting to get the items dropped off because it was a countywide dump day. So, folks, 48,000 residents could have taken stuff there. Whereas, you know, if we do something here twice a year, you know, we can incentivize our neighborhoods to clean up.

I like it.

One of the other problems, and I've harped on this for years, and I don't know if we've ever come up with a resolution, is we don't take tires. And what happens is people throw them over into the creeks, and we have a cleanup on the creeks, and we've got to dispose of them anyway. So I think we're almost defeating ourselves but not accepting tires. But I don't know how we do that by putting stipulations.

The question is how do you dispose of them after you collect them, I think is the answer.

Yes, yes, right, right, right.

I think they bring them to DTR. That's what we do with our tires in the garage. And they charge us a small fee to dispose of them.

So this recycling is kind of branched out to not only with locations, the dumpsters, large items, electronic, you know, tires. I mean, it's a huge problem. But I like your cleanup idea of putting them in various neighborhoods so they don't, you know.

And we used to do annual or semi-annual cleanup days. I mean, that's what we've done in the past.

And we brought the, I think, tires and hazardous waste to the garage.

Oh, okay.

And then we disposed of it from there.

If you don't have any objections, we'll try to move forward.

That's right. Let's do it. Do you have one you want to bring up?

Well, since Lorraine's here, did we find $7,500 to deal with the feral cat issue?

Yes, we have $7,500 that we can take from our fuel savings, or we can take it from our ARPA interest.

You're the finance director.

I'll take it from the ARPA interest. That way, it's a one-time funding. that we can help them do that way.

I make a motion. We do that. I'll second that. Yep.

We have a motion on the floor for a 7500. Um, we're are, I guess, are for the, um, neutering the cat neutering. So all in favor say aye. All opposed while you're up there, might as well just go There's two items here that the economic stabilization accounts report and the water loss. It would be too easy for you there.

I'll start with the economic stabilization fund because Mark and I both have parts in the water loss. The economic stabilization fund, where we started, When you all took office in January, we experienced a cash flow deficit, which required us immediately to have a correction action plan to meet our short-term obligations of payroll and accounts payable. To make continued operations, a line of credit was established at a liquidity backstop. While program is a temporary measure, continued reliance on this debt financing for operating these miniatures wasn't sustainable. So we immediately financed and the city manager, we looked at areas to cut. How we got here was we added 30 plus positions and as they were vacant and through attrition, we trimmed down payroll as miniatures. This addition of payroll was $2.6 million. The acquisition of the parking garage, we lived with operations of it. The previous year we lost $600,000. We got that down, cutting it to about $70,000. IT, we created a small IT team, and the small IT team saved us. Approximately, going forward, not including their catwalks, I said it was a million dollars with all the improvements we did. I think annually going forward, I think it was about $380,000 of stuff we were spending. So they were amazing. Our parks team has helped them do that. And Ron will speak later on We've not only done, we've took this to telephones, we've took this to security and cameras, and we've just made our infrastructure so much better. We looked at fence systems upgrades. We've saved money there. Everywhere we look, the latest that we did is we saved money on fuel. We have an environment now that everybody looks at it How can we do better? One of the things like tonight is on the budget ordinance. By us doing a new one and you all tabling that one, they saved $1,000 in publication costs. So we're continually looking at what we can do to improve operations, change things that do it on a more economically smaller scale. How can we save money? And that's the way we're going to continue to run. So one of our things we initiated to you at budget time was to be able to create economic stabilization funds. We've created it in our two primary funds. Our general fund right now is $2.3 million. And our utility fund is $2.6 million. We went from fully maxed out in the line of credit of $3.5 million to we have 4.9 million in the two major funds for decreased liquidity for a rainy day to make ourselves financially stable. And you all, your leadership up here has allowed us to do this by looking at payroll expenditures, changing the way we did IT, looking at every expenditure from a new lens to make it better. So we went from where we were worried we couldn't make payroll, to in both primary funds, we have $4.9 million. And we have a budget that you all pass that we'll continue to put that aside because we've budgeted money. We've budgeted less expenditures than we have revenues. So we're being financially responsible and we're going to leave the city in better shape than we were in January.

That's excellent. Can we maybe get quarterly a list of all of our investment accounts?

We have money put into CDs. It's the cash equivalent.

Just the funds, I mean.

Just the different funds, yes. We looked at the other day. I think we're going to be like the state did. We worked with Chris, and we have a million dollars sitting right now, so we're going to move it over to CD, where we can get about 4.5% interest on it.

Smart financial planning. Come a long way.

Well, one of the ways that we we got there to were still you all done well.

on the water loss?

Yes. I'm going to let Mark talk about we have a program that we're starting with the meters in addition to line replacement. He's actually with . OK.

First, I would just talk about, you know that we have been working on the top 20 commercial meters, the largest consumption that we have, the different meters with the largest consumption. We have worked through that list, although there are still two remaining meters, two outstanding meters that are going to require significant Let's just say we're going to have to coordinate when we do those because there will not be a significant amount of people out of water for a period of time. So that's something that media services needs to coordinate with distribution. When I say significant, one of them is the prison. So we need to coordinate with the prison on one of their meters and then one of them wants on lakes and canary for the hospital. So both of those obviously are critical and how we do that to make sure that no one's out of service when this happens.

And Mark, other than other water departments like Cairnsburg, Russell Hill, who is our biggest guest?

Um, probably, uh, it's still American or is it?

The top 10, whether it was actually the city of Asheville, we have Cattlesburg, we have Marathon, we have Air Products, the prison.

Cattlesburg.

One other thing that Michelle touched on is something that we met with an official last week about those canstrap meters. They're supposed to be extremely efficient. measuring down to a very small amount and also they have built-in leak detection. As you install these customer meters they can listen back to the main itself and pinpoint leaks. So one of the things that we wanted to do is do a small pilot of those and pick out a specific area and we want to install 100 meters. And what we're going to do is, obviously, we're going to go back and look at those 100 meters, those 100 meters prior to, say, a six-month or one-year consumption to get a baseline on what those meters were doing in the past. We have them ordered right now. We're waiting for them to come in. There's also some technical stuff with the...

There's already a lot in the training probably. You have to get away with it a lot. Yeah.

So it will transmit the readings?

Yes.

So to allow all that to work, they said that's typically about eight weeks. But the meters have been ordered, but long story short, what we hope to do with those is implement these meters. The ones we want to be replacing, let's just say they're roughly 15 years old, and this with the... Newer technology is supposedly more accurate. It'll read down to a much smaller level. We'll be able to compare those bills prior to, consumption levels prior to, and with the new meters to see if there's a significant change. Obviously, we know that people can use less water on a given month. They could, you know, this month in 2026 versus what they used in 2025. But as a whole, I think if we look at 100 meters, we'll have a trend that we'll be able to look at to see, you know, was there a 5% increase in revenue? Was there a loss, which we don't expect it to be?

Years ago, we thought they were water leaks. So I think now with this committee, we're focusing on getting accurate readings that You know, the water was being used, but we were not tracking it or billing properly.

We're just looking at other areas, too, and we're becoming more focused in here.

The thing about this metering issue is, whatever you find there, you know, if we can save it, 4% of our water loss was directly related to meters. And maybe it's more, I don't know. But that is, that's direct, that turns directly into revenue. You know, it's not like the water that's spilling out of the main drain to be paid to make that water and clean that water. But when it's not being billed, that's money that we're just leaving on the table. So we're kind of focusing other areas too at this point.

We created a sub-team to look specifically for unbilled water. In addition to his guys working out the field and trying to make sure the meters are registering properly. They're, you know, capturing 100% of the water that goes through there and that's what these canisterns will do. In addition, it will listen for leaks and tell his guys where they hear a leak at.

We have some other technology, too, that we're using. We have some listening devices that we've deployed throughout the city. For instance, you know, we repaired a sinkhole there by the roundhouse. Was that the 22nd Street? Is that the 22nd Street? And there was water access in that storm sewer. And we actually had our leak determination devices out there. Our leak detection devices were in that general area. And we pinpointed a leak up there at the corner of Hilton Avenue and went up there and we dug it up. It was spot on. That's not always the case, but they're extremely accurate when they're not getting confused by other noises. Sometimes a large access pipe, you're traveling down somewhere, you'll say there's a leak right here, but it's actually, you know, half a block away or something. We've used it to the point where you don't put your foot on the spot and dig it up and there'll actually be a leak there.

So we're actually we've hired Neptune to do a utility audit as our commercial chemical customer. They're going to look to make sure you have the right number of dials in the computer versus the meter and they're going to look at our top 150 customers and do an audit to make sure that they're being billed correctly.

And the dollars ends up being, you know, if you can read a certain number of dollars, that means times 10, you know, let's say it reads 300, and it's times 10, it means I use 3,000 gallons per month. We want to make sure that it's being billed as 3,000 gallons and not 300 gallons those times of the month. Another thing, we do have another list of the next 20 high consumption meters. So we have that list. So it would be, I mean, it's 21 through 40. And we're working through that. We have a meter list of what we need to change those out. And we're in the process. I actually have the same added for it already, what we'll require to change out those meters.

i would just point out when we're talking about water loss for the people that's watching what we're talking about is at the water plant how much water is produced versus what we feel and that delta or that amount percent is what we're trying to squeeze down

mark can you give us an update on the um the the water bond that we took out the 10 million dollars for for water projects

another crew out there. We also got another vehicle from the police department for our crews. We actually have a gun truck that we've had Numerous problems with the small dump truck. We've had numerous problems with the bed. Actually, none. And we decided to convert it to like a flatbed truck for the whole piping and crews and all that. Now that we have two big dumps, it's really not. It's much more practical for us to just convert to that small flatbed truck versus trying to use that dump. It was going to be expensive.

So when we start our work in Kalisberg and other parts of the community, are we notifying the residents there as well as the emergency services in those communities?

And then put online. And Mayor Duddy's also agreed that as long as we give her the information, she'll share it on her Facebook and all of that. So we plan to do routine. Like for instance, in that project, if we're on the spring, we're gonna move to 35th Street, we plan to get just routine updates. Because it'll be obviously more work in that area. People are gonna have to drive through, you know, Could we potentially put a mailer in the bills for that part of the community and give them an update on the project?

uh maybe like a map that shows what the project's going to be uh and kind of a rough timetable when the project's going to start and maybe include in there that we're going to be adding new hydrants to increase uh fire safety prevention and things like that

Can you guys isolate the... We can isolate the cycle file.

There's some people that didn't live in Califord. Some people might live in Califord.

Okay. All the equipment in for the... Everything in the trailer.

Okay. And we're expecting it in October, but we've been told. I mean, we've been told never to say anything, so we're hoping October.

okay thank you all appreciate it thank you mr mayor if you don't care i'd like to bring uh chief kelly up he'd like to do a big presentation on uh peer support and mental health please all right item d yes sir excuse me

Attorney General Russell Coleman who presented up eight grants in their initial award for mental health and mental wellness for law enforcement. And I want to give a shout out to Major Taylor who applied for this grant because of his thoroughness in the grant application. The general let me know personally that based on our parameters and some of the things that we put in our grant will become standard looks into the other grants for future application. Some things they never thought of, some things they had not seen, and some of the requirements they want as a peer team for this grant. We were, again, one of eight agencies that were initially given $5,000 to start up our peer team. I talked with Lucas Cooper, who's the chief of police in Alexandria, a friend of mine, who basically they're the corner of the state that has probably the best pure team program around. So we'll be looking to... to have him for some information on how they got started, because they do it in multi-agencies over three counties. So we'll be using it normally within the police department, but available for the city. in other departments, things that we were going to run into. But at the same time, being the largest department in this end of the state, the general said that we're kind of recognized as a leader in other things as it goes now. Being the largest department, we would definitely appreciate that comment that the major put in there about being available for other smaller departments who just cannot meet those needs and would be more or less a traveling peer support group. be something like what we had years ago in Flatwoods when they had a tragedy down in Allen, Crescentburg, which we had the training in. We did very minimal knowledge or just awareness of things.

This will put us as having peer support specialists within the department.

And basically, once that money runs out for training, travel, things of that nature, he said we were definitely being eligible to try to find some more funds to to make our program grow and set it in motion to be a model that'd be great yeah good deal good report thank you thanks chief can i can i request that the fire chief give us an update on our new aerial truck sure chief

We had the final inspection last week on the new barrier unit. There were a few items, mostly cosmetic, that needed to be addressed, very minor. Probably looking at a week or two of getting those addressed and then being able to move to another shop in the Columbus area where they will mount equipment. Things of that nature lay out in apartments. We're probably looking at the 30 to 60 day time period before the truck is delivered. One thing that will be different about this truck when it comes in, it will be ready to go into service. We had to sideline and build stuff for it. That was all through the contract with the truck.

Is that the truck you sent us pictures of?

Yes, the area truck. Very impressive unit. It has a lot better turning radius, a lot less overhang. It's almost four feet shorter than the current area that we have. It has a larger water tank capacity. Same area height, 100 foot. And all, it takes, the biggest takeaway I can say from inspecting it, of course, again, we've got to be honest, the person's 25 years old. Setting this unit up was about 30 seconds. That's what it took to get the same bottles out in the very last couple of years. They've come a long way with technology since we've had it. old variable and reducing steps and combining the stabilizing systems to where you can operate it more squarely.

So where that angles out, if somebody's hanging out on the window and we're using the area device to get to them, that's how much work we're going to be able to do.

That's exciting news. I think it's a great piece of equipment that will last our department for 25-plus years and provide additional safety measures for our firefighters and respond to emergencies in our community. So we appreciate that.

Thank you. Thank you all for your support and being able to keep us equipped. Great. Thank you, Chief. Thank you.

Okay, let's talk about employees for a little bit. Let's do the employee benefit review.

Sure. Item L on your agenda. And the first thing I have is YMCA membership. Currently, the city pays $214 for a family membership. I'm proposing that the city pay an additional $176, and that gives them a full membership, and that would be applied to all city employees that would like to join. It's $176 per employee. I don't have the data or the metrics. Maybe, Samantha, do you know how many people are participating in the while? 87. 87. So it would be 87 times 176. Mm-hmm. And the other thing I had was free pool admission for the employees and families, a Dawson pool, as well as a discount to the cemetery for the employees and the ability to do payroll deduct.

Do we do any pre-planning for the employees on the cemetery? They could pay, you know? up front for?

No, that's what, well, I mean, we would certainly entertain that, but if employees don't have the money, they can at least make installments. We do allow people to make installments. Yeah. Yes, sir.

What kind of discount did you have in mind?

Well, the actual Y worked with us. We bollied some numbers around And we got it down to $390 per employee. But currently, right now, the city pays $214. And there's 87 employees that take advantage of that. So it's really just $176 additional per employee times 87.

What's the cemetery discount? How much?

That's something we'd have to look at, Commissioner. I don't have a firmed up number on it. At first blush, I would say 10% possibly.

Yeah, that was a number that was in my head. You could go higher than that, but I think 10% is a good number.

Well, I think it would be another way for a benefit of the employee. It's for all of this?

Currently with the Y, if we have 87 people that's participating, it would be $15,000.

We need a motion to do that.

I'd make a motion that we go ahead and accept all three proposals, the membership, the full admission, and the cemetery discount, and we'll make that discount of 10%. And payroll deducted. So I'll make that motion. Seconded.

All right. I think that's a great idea.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm sure all in favor say aye. All right.

All opposed. All right. Uh, let's try item P here with cameras, security and general security. You know, it's being hyped up on the mayor calls. They're always talking about, um,

security on our computers and our systems and all that kind of sure we we've been very proactive on on this maybe a little bit out front but i would correctly request excuse me uh chief connor come up and give us a brief presentation we're talking about security cameras and facility security sure so uh we're happy to report with all the help we've had made the parks

In our small team, we have over 20 buildings that are covered now with multiple cameras. We are currently working with parks for the three main parks because some of their equipment has gone bad, like the servers. A lot of it's probably just heat and moisture and stuff, but I don't know. What we come up with is a plan to replace just the gateway hardware and the storage drives and reuse the cameras. They did all the hard work, running the wire, getting the cameras all posted. So I think we can just reuse all those cameras. And it's just where the cameras plug into. So that way, what we've done is made it so they can now remote in and be able to see that from anywhere. And we'll put our gateways on there. So we pretty much have a wall of cameras

What about security with the wastewater new system that we're having, the new wastewater treatment plant?

Yeah, we met with him and Mark. It's part of their plan. So they'll install that as part of the redetermined and worked out. We put a system over there to help monitor the construction area. And that's all mobile. We did that kind of on purpose because as the construction grows, we move the cameras around to see different areas of the construction zone. But as far as the facility itself, it's already built into their plan originally.

Do we additionally patrol the area of all power? Yep.

And that's one of the reasons that tech helps us do is we can get alerts for that in all power with the cameras that we have set up. So, you know, the construction zone I just want to make a quick comment and give you more information about this ICANN. Basically, when the SCADA system is implemented at the new sewer plant, there's an error back.

to where it's not tied into the internet and make it speak to the security about that more. Specifically, it'll be disconnected from the internet and the operations will be intro facility, basically. I don't know how to say it better than that.

Very good. Thank you, Mark.

We have security cameras on the conference center.

yeah so we uh we have all of the ground covered right now and what we've done is we've scaled that out so that same thing we're going to grow as the conference center goes up we've got a scale so we'll grow around it so that's yeah we're pretty well covered on this so we've got it tied in it's even here from the paramount so luckily you know we use the same internet online so we're just saving by just speaking up from this building is there anything from us that that you need that we can help with

Don't laugh. I think that is a no. No, you guys have been great.

I mean, honestly, everything we've been able to do in a really short time, we lean on all the other people in the city. It just made me a lot happier.

Well, the team that you all have come up with now, I mean, is so much better than what we've had. It's incredible. And you all do a great job.

Well, it's because of the support, right, that we have. And you all supported it. And we spent a little money in front, the money that we were, you know, we didn't save all that money because we reinvested some of it. But as this week said, now we're really going to start seeing it. So it's really great. We're going to have a little bit of money we're going to need for the parks. And of course wherever else you want air. But I think once it's all up and you all see it, you know, we want that input to see, well, what helps you do your job, right? That's a great part about this technology. You want to count how many people are in a park. You want to set parameters on when you have a big event. You know, it doesn't, I'm not saying it doesn't take pictures of people, but it counts like people. Like how many people can walk past yourself. It's not taking a picture, it's just the front level.

Brian, how many people have, how many employees have access to these cameras?

Currently, it's mostly directors. I'd have to ask Mitch because he's been given the access. And that can be limited to any or all of them. So, you know, the first pay could just have an access to this camera in the front level. Or they could have access to the whole building.

But we restrict it somewhat of who can get on there and see. Oh, it's pretty tight.

We require them to tell us if they want the employee to have access.

So how, I don't want you to go into too much specifics here, but how are we about protecting our community.

We're in good shape. We've been very fortunate. And again, this is one of the things that I give Ms. Meach the most credit for, because she just said, what do you need? And we met with, gosh, dozens and dozens of vendors, plus what we already knew, to put the safeguards in place that we had. We've had some issues in the past. So of course, those were the things we packed first. And what we've been able to do is Thank you. That might be a segue into Q, if you want to talk about Q. Yes.

Chief Compton talking about GPS for city rolling assets. Yeah. Can you talk about some of our larger equipment?

I know that's been addressed a few times, and I talked to Rod about it. One of the things I think that I would propose you all to consider is do you want it on the iron equipment, so like your backhoes and dozers and more of that and the cars. The absolute bottom line on the least expensive I've found is about $1,395 per month for that measure. So it's just a matter of how many of which vehicles you want that on.

I think you definitely want it on the excavators. I mean, we leave it at East Park and go out there the next weekend and it's done.

Yeah. We've actually had a backhoe stolen previously, but yeah, that's more what I was talking along the line, because there certainly are major pieces of equipment there.

And how many would that be? I mean, roughly, I mean, any idea?

Roughly, if you're just talking about iron, it's about 66 pieces. Some of the newer equipment has that already.

Already on it? Was part of the same system? I mean, if we... No.

No, it's something that I know.

Oh, okay. Can you go into detail when you say iron? I know you mentioned a backhoe and a dozer. Will that include a pickup truck or a garbage truck or a dump truck?

Maybe like generators too?

Yeah. Yeah.

Sean, would that new tractor have that on it? So all our staff, we've got to do the equipment, especially when it comes to events, snow events, weather events, we can track where events have been. For instance, if a mission is going to fall, saying, hey, my screen has a problem, we can say, can we just plow it? Not that we can come back and plow it, but we can go back and say, Jackson, here we go right now.

Exactly.

So that would be a dump truck, yeah.

Yeah.

just don't want it to be used to say well maybe the water guys are sitting on the side of the road for a little extra longer than they probably should be but they're taking a break in between work and not to use that and say well you were sitting at this parking lot or you were sitting here you know there's a lot of times there's a reason for that it's not just no i was thinking just major pieces of equipment

I mean, if any combination or something, whatever you want to call it.

It's great to know the sum of it. Yeah.

I know you all get a lot of questions about that, but you can actually see that it's the work of a lot of people.

Well, I think definitely we've got to protect our big assets like that. So what would be the cost of initially what he's talking about?

It's about $168,000 a year for me.

and so you haven't decided i think we definitely need to protect that what we've got and we can act on it uh make up a list uh that you recommend

Well, I was going to ask Mark. The new excavator, you said, has that built in. Do we have to pay for that after a certain amount of years, or how does that work? Would it be worth going to our own?

I'm not sure I can check in on that. When that happened, when we had the back up stumbling, that's when it was brought to my attention that some of the new ones had that. I think it's just something... I don't think it's something you can pay for. I think it's something they have the capability. But let me check on that and get back to you. Okay. When I say it, I think it's just something that's built into the equipment. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you.

Rapid response emergency team and you got code enforcement.

Yeah, and then the commissioner info brought up a concern about the dust from the blowers in the park.

Sure. Let me hit the rapid response emergency team real quick. It's just another small team that I'd like to create. But it's just to quickly assess the scope and severity of the situation. Could be water outages. I know we had a major house fires. any type of major police response, identify immediate threats to live property and infrastructure would be coordinating personnel, equipment, contractors and any outside agencies. But the goal of this would be, uh, simply when a significant event occurs, the right people are immediately connected. Duties are clear. Decisions are made quickly and the city speaks and respond with one voice. I just wanted to update you. Okay.

All right. The dust, I guess. That's Adam R. Yes, sir.

I think it was Mr. Winfield.

Yeah, I had a phone call from two separate people talking about they were having to wear masks as they walked the park because of a blower creating big dust clouds.

You know, I don't think it's really the blower. I think it's the lawnmowers that they're using. As I drive by the park, you see them cutting grass in real dusty areas and it creates a lot of dust when they do that. I really think that's what they're talking about.

Well, he told me it was a blower. He saw somebody and they were using it near a bunch of gravels and

I think Sean's coming up. I think the city did purchase, am I correct, a blower?

Yeah. So the dust has been a problem that passed from the mowers. So even just this past year, we started cutting quite a bit higher to try to alleviate it on that end. The blower we do use, especially when we are cutting or trimming or niggling out the sidewalks in the morning, the only time we use it is very, very early in the morning. This is the first concern that we've received on something like this. And I can tell you, we adapt daily on that. So we know how much foot traffic is out there, we see it, and we try to minimize any impact that's going to happen. I think that's tough. It's got to be pretty early in the morning to to have an effect. I apologize to our best.

Yeah, very much.

Okay. Um, with the code enforcement, I think all we might be a another chance for discussion with some of the departments. But I think all of us have been getting A LOT OF COMPLAINTS WITH IT AND I JUST WANTED TO REVIEW. YOU KNOW MAYBE OUR CODE OR SOMETHING WE CAN DO TO HELP LEVIATE THAT TO MAKE THEIR JOB EASIER. MAYBE JUST. GET THE CITY MANAGER TO KIND OF REVIEW IT A LITTLE BIT AND MAKE SOME RECOMMENDATIONS TO US.

I think some of the concerns that I get is it's hard to work in the city. The code enforcement nitpicks on people and that folks don't want to develop in the city because there's too many hoops to jump through. I think that folks don't realize though that we are a city and we have planning and we have zoning and we have code enforcement rules and regulations that are adopted by ordinance. Whereas they develop in other small communities and county, there are no rules and regulation ordinances. So I think that's where a lot of the issue lies is the folks don't know, the folks may misunderstand some of the rules and regulations. And I know Chris's team does a pretty good job with communicating with those folks.

if they make contact early on but if they don't make contact early on complaints that i've received is if they don't make contact early on it's hard for them to work and finish projects and do projects well it may be going along what you just said maybe we can come up with a marketing plan to you know did you know that you're not allowed to have vines going up your house did you know you have to move your trash can so many hours after the

uh i mean maybe we i think that's important one commissioner about other cities and maybe it's just a messaging that we can do with a better messaging or put more stuff out perhaps if i could just unfortunately it's a tough job we don't get too many letters from citizens saying hey thanks for writing me up for that violation it's we're delivering bad news to Basically, anytime you go out and send a notice of violation, nobody wants to get that. We certainly don't want to get it. We just want compliance. If you look across the board, 80% of the folks that we send a notice of violation, they correct that violation before we do that. The first letter is a notice of warning. Is that correct? It's a notice of warning. And the message I would like to get out to our citizens is that if you get one of those, the best thing you can do is pick up the phone and call the inspector on that letter and start a line of communication with them. And if you're having an issue, you can't get it corrected in that timeline. You know, we'll work with you. We'll work with you on an extension if we have to. We can do that up to two times before we have to push it on to a citation. And then, you know, if you write a citation, that's on the end of the road. If you get a citation, you can contact us or request a hearing from the Code of Enforcement Board, who has been very generous with the citizens.

Is there any type of an informal appeal process that the person has when they receive that notice that they might disagree with the contents of the letter?

Absolutely. They can call our inspector or our inspector if they request the inspector to come back out.

Beyond the inspector that would allow for a second-party examination of the situation.

yeah i think something else that i want to talk about is there are properties in ashland that have code enforcement liens twice as high as the value of the property and the lean or more or more and their liens are continued to be poured on how can we I mean, at some point, common sense should play a role in the fact that if I, let's say I own a house that's worth $25,000 and there's $60,000 in liens, I mean, at what point are we going to realize, well, hell, I may not take the vines off my house because, you know, if there's $60,000 worth of liens on it, I'll never be able to pay those liens off. So, you know, I mean, obviously I know the liens are there. And for a compliance aspect of it, you didn't follow through, you got a fine, or you got a notice of violation, you didn't ask for an appeal, you didn't go to the code enforcement board, the code enforcement board then is there to hear your case, you don't show up, they then place the lien.

Right.

At some point, they also, you know, if it's abandoned or blighted or condemned property, then we multiply the tax on the property. Quadruple. Yeah, quadruple. But at what point do we say enough's enough with sending these violations or putting liens on properties?

So from a code of enforcement perspective, we don't really have an avenue to... or a lane to get off and just say, we're not doing this anymore. Our property management folks have a strict guideline that they have to follow by the code. Where we get into reducing fines, I think if we have, you know, we don't want to be puny we want compliance that's all we've ever wanted so if we have a property owner that has some code enforcement significant code enforcement five they have a clear plan on how they intend to bring the property back up to code or up to compliance or out of condemnation we would love to talk to them we would encourage them to sit down with our legal team to determine how we can maybe reduce some of that load For us in code enforcement, once the code enforcement board banks the gavel, we really don't have the authority to do anything with those fines and liens, which is why it's so important. If you're a citizen, get a code enforcement notice of violation and reach out to your inspector and start that dialogue right away. And that's really the best way to handle it, is that we can work with them. I will say, to take a little backwater from my department, something we're looking at right now is we're going off our schedule is that we We see those violations emailing out. Typically, most of those response times are seven days. What we've noticed is with the mail now going to Charleston, it might be six days before someone finally gets that violation. Yeah, and that's what we're looking at is taking some of the code enforcement more to extend that time out from seven. It's usually 7, 10, and 30 days. Those are our windows for compliance. So something that takes into account how the conditions have changed locally for our residents. is sort of how we're trying to turn the ship there.

I think folks that maybe are watching this should know that members of the Code Enforcement Board are average citizens appointed by this board. There are folks that want to serve, and they serve with no ties to code enforcement. You know, they're just members of the community.

You know this, Andrew and Commissioner Martin also serve at times as legal counsel for Code Enforcement Board. You know, Code Enforcement Board wants to help out as much as they can. If you can just show up and talk to them and update them once in a while, they're going to work with them. But when there's, you know, silence or a general response, you know, they really don't have a choice but to let you know.

Mm-hmm. To your credit, I agree with Commissioner Martin. This is one of the toughest jobs in the city. The majority of our phone calls and messages are code enforcement related. And to your credit, I think they do a great job.

Thank you. we walk a thin line our authority is on property violations that we can see from a lawful hearing distance from a problem right away we cannot write violations for behavior for instance i mean if someone's sophisticated in their property that's not anything that we can solve you know our advice is to be able to move out that way if there's a certain behavior from individuals on the property And that's sort of where we always have to remind ourselves that it's just a structure for us.

Is there a way that we can look at potentially in the building aspect side of it? Is there a way that we can look at cutting some red tape? Is there a way that we can make... an individual that wants to come into the community and develop in the community to make a way for them to be able to do so in an efficient way, in an efficient manner, and try to remove as safely, try to remove as many roadblocks as they may have in any bureaucracy in the government.

I think it's all to reassess our program and how we handle things.

Mr. Kenzie actually just recently came up with a brochure, kind of with a checklist,

yeah maybe we need to to market that a little bit more you know here's this checklist you just need to check it off to do business or you know people don't like being told no and a lot of the negativity that we receive especially from people trying to invest and build businesses in our communities You can't do that. You're going to have to build up the code or you're not in the right zone. And those aren't things that we really have the wiggle room to work with them on. And that's what we hear most of the time. When we have investors coming from outside Ashland, we only hear how easy it is to work with them. Um, and it's because they need to work with other communities to push back a lot more than we do. But I understand we need to always be reassessing our processes when we build.

Getting back to property violations, people have to know that code enforcement is probably not driving around looking for a vine growing up a gutter. That was your neighbor that reported you because you parked too close to his driveway. Right, right.

Most of our violations, especially these days, are complaint-driven. Of course, when we go check out a complaint, we're also checking out the whole neighborhood. So I can't tell you how many times the person who called a complaint on the issue ends up getting a violation on their own property for something else, but you're correct.

I think of a way that we can do some common sense code enforcement. Obviously, if you've got a 75-year-old lady who has a vine growing up the side of her house, she may not be physically able to remove that. And she may not be financially able to hire somebody. As you know, and everybody on this board knows, right now it's hard to hire a contractor. I have a friend of mine that's wanting to open a business in the community, and he's been told by several contractors that they're six to eight months out. to be able to build. So a little lady or a little gentleman that may have a vine, by the time they get somebody there to actually do the work, it may be two months down the road. It may be two and a half months down the road, even though it's something simple. I mean, I think that we need to look at it in a common sense approach.

So on that note, we do have cases like that. And we'll have that elderly person call up and say, I physically can't do it. I'm disabled. Will you extend me out? We'll extend them out two times. After that, if the call inspector is still having problems with the contractor, Our inspector will actually let the code force so they don't have to come down and defend their case. A lot of times the code enforcement inspector in those certain cases.

So bottom line, it seems like a lot of the issues is communication or lack thereof.

That is the biggest issue. Okay. Thank you, Chris.

Along this same line, and this is probably not, this may be a more of a Mr. Hall question i get calls from some of the contractors that when they call for 8-1-1 uh to dig that we are the last one to ever respond and it slows their process down or um

is that they were talking about contractors and i do get calls on those yeah i think there's a lot of confusion on eight one one often i talked to someone this past week they were upset about us not coming out and locating their lines or locating their property because they're wanting we don't locate we don't locate product lines we only locate seatbacks right right so there's a confusion there that someone thinks when they're digging on their property that we can come and locate their land and that's a lot of confusion oh okay and that could be one of my calls too i don't know but i wouldn't be surprised if people weren't still complaining about that because i mean that's just the nature of business We're locating. We're doing 811 locates every day.

Oh, okay. I know that the state of Ohio just passed something in July, June or July, where it was 48 hours call before you dig 811. It's now two business days. So for instance, I just had a training over there, an employer. If on Friday, if I would have called something in, Monday yesterday was a business day, so I wouldn't be able to actually start digging until, depending on when you call, Wednesday afternoon or Thursday of this week, if I called on Friday of last week. Right, right.

Also, real quickly, Commissioner Renfrew, just to give you a little update about the track. devices that we have on our equipment that's on our newer caterpillar excavators and back up and it's a free service that it's like a daily thing that's what it is so it will locate that device every day at any given time but it locates the device it takes a snapshot of the computer it'll report back any type of codes or anything like that also fuel consumption so it gives them a lot of information the main thing is it's free and it just lets them know the main thing we would want for obviously on a regular basis like you're talking about is it'll give us a location device So any event that the commission desires we do something more than that, we're not paying for anything. So we could either, you know, we could look into what the pay, there is a paid version of this where they give you more, you know, real-time tracking, that type of stuff, or just getting back it on our other services.

And one more thing. I'm not sure which commissioner brought this up. I don't know if it was Commissioner Info or Commissioner Gute. There was a complaint. An individual sent a picture about a pump station on Roberts Drive. Okay. I really like the idea, you know, if we're going to write somebody up for a loose gutter or a piece of soffit, we better damn sure we make sure that our city facilities are tip-top shape too.

It's being demolished.

Okay.

Very good. Any other projects you'd like to discuss?

I want to backtrack just a minute. We have Mr. Murray maybe investigate and research what the riverfront would look like with the splash park.

I think you already have that on your list, don't you?

I've got a lot on my list, but I don't have that one, but I'm going to have it right now.

Between the bridges?

Yeah, over on the river front where there's parking over there with three ballparks over there.

We talked about the property there with the dumpsters.

If we move them. I'm talking about the riverfront on the other side.

Yeah.

The riverfront passive restaurants.

Okay. All right. With no other projects to do, it's been a good work session. Appreciate y'all. And that two hours was not bad. And we stand adjourned.

We do meet next Thursday.

And I think we already have an agenda that's already out.