City Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting in order for the Ashton Board of City Commission. If you will stand, we'll ask Commissioner to do her invocation. And Mr. Wurst, would you lead us in our pledge?

Let us pray. Lord, we are thankful for our city and how you have blessed us in recent days. We ask and invite your Holy Spirit to enter our chambers today and preside over our meeting. We ask for your wisdom and guidance over this Board of Mayor and Commissioners as we deal with health and safety issues, as well as quality of life projects. Help us to make the right decisions for our city and in the best interest of our citizens. Bless those in attendance today, as well as our staff and employees. We pray always in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you commissioner good and thank you Mister works motion to receive and file the agenda presented second discussion of additions all in favor say aye aye all opposed. All right the motion to receive the and file the regular meeting minutes for July twenty third two thousand twenty six. Any additions or corrections. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. And for the recess meeting held on July 24, 2026. So moved. Second. Any corrections there? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. All right. We'll move into our mayor and commissioners comments. We'll start with Mr. Renfrow. I don't have anything. Okay.

I just want to welcome everybody here today. We've got a big crowd. We've got a promotional pending today. We're excited for that. We have first Friday in the month of September. I think it's Fire Friday, I think is what it's going to be called. There's going to be some activities for kids, some rope rescue drills and things that folks can enjoy watching that training. Also, there might be a commissioner in a dunk booth. So if you want to Dr. Commissioner come out and then bring him in.

I'll be there. Anytime you get to Duncan Sonny.

Commissioner Martin.

Welcome to our meeting. It's good to see the crowd. There's some information that's come to this board's attention that I think we should share with the public. As most are aware, in March 2020, the Cleveland Cliffs, a Midwestern steel manufacturer, purchased the former Armco AKA properties, including the Westworks and the Koch plant. It's been widely publicized that for the Westworks property, located in Russell and partly in Ashland, it's under contract for purchase by a data center developer. The city for many years has expressed interest in acquiring the coal plant property from the current owner in hopes of luring industrial project that could produce long term, good paying jobs for our area. The city is particularly interested in our water intake line from the Ohio River that runs through the property to our water plant. A recent break in that line caused the city to direct serious attention to replacing the line and maybe re-securing the ownership of the property where the line is located. There have been ongoing negotiations between city staff and Cleveland Cliffs that apparently stalled. Then data centers began to show interest in our area. The board recently adopted an amendment to its zoning ordinance establishing strict regulatory standards to be applied as a conditional use for a data center in the I-2 heavy industrial zone should an attempt be made to locate in Ashland. According to recent representations made by a third party investor developer, it appears that Cleveland cliffs may have entered into a possible sale of the coke property in this to this third party for express development of a data center on that property. In the last few weeks, initial contacts have been made with city staff by the third party. No application, and I want to make that clear, no application has been received by the city. Considering the city's option, the city attorney has notified Cleveland Cliffs that the city may go forward with exercise of its eminent domain authority to obtain the property of the waterline infrastructure. If in fact an application is received by the city for a data center, consideration of approval will go before the Board of Zoning Adjustment, which will apply the strict restrictions written into the city's ordinance. Absent an agreement that the city acquire the water line and related property, I believe the current intention of this board is that the city go forward with its pursuit of an eminent domain action.

Thank you.

Very good. But all right, Mr. Good.

I just want to welcome everybody to this noon meeting. Just to echo DJ's first Friday is September 4. And poke landing days is coming up on September 18 through 20. On Winchester and football Friday night has started. So welcome to this new meeting today.

Can I say one more thing? We've got a former commissioner in the audience. I want to welcome him Commissioner Larry Brown.

Yeah, glad to have you here. Just a couple of things taking off what everybody else said. We do have a business after hours. this evening at the uh... paramount love to have you all uh... attend that uh... and congratulations to safe harbor they had a very successful uh... uh... lobster fest and uh... course you know this for the city uh... you know supports the efforts of that uh... entity uh... also uh... uh... congratulations to the ashland cross-country team that had a very successful uh... enter in uh... invitational meet in the park we had over 700 runners, probably about 2,000 people in the park, and want to compliment our parks department on the efforts that they had to make that a seamless event, and it was. I went around to a lot of the tents from all the different counties and Morgan County and all over, you know, West Virginia and Kentucky, and they were very complimentary on our park, and that's why they love that, but congratulations to them. I would encourage you to actually tomorrow from 5.30 to 7, the African-Americans in the Revolutionary War is going on at the Highlands Museum, the Dew Museum. So I would encourage you all to go there. Also, I would like to do a proclamation today on 988, and we do have some individuals today from Pathways. If you all would like to come up, I'll proceed and read this proclamation. Glad to have you all here and very proud to be able to do this proclamation. Whereas mental health challenges, substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, stress affect individuals and families in the city of Ashland and throughout our region. And whereas the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline provides free, confidential 24-hour support from trained crisis counselors, and anyone can call or text 988 for any mental health concern or emotional crisis. And whereas, during the past year, approximately 2,058 crisis calls were received across the 10 county regions, that includes Ashland. And through crisis intervention and de-escalation of the 65 individuals identified as intimate risk, 100% of those individuals were successfully diverted from high levels of emergency intervention. reducing the need for responses, including involving 911, law enforcement, emergency medical services, and the hospital emergency departments. And whereas the city of Ashland is committed to promoting mental health and wellness, reducing the stigma surrounding mental health, and ensuring every resident knows the hope, health and healing are only three digits away. Now therefore our Mayor Chuck D. Charles and the City of Ashland Commission do hereby proclaim September the 8th, 2026 as 9-8-8-8 in the City of Ashland, Kentucky and encourage all residents to learn about 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Share this visual resource with our others and support efforts to build a community where everyone feels empowered to seek help without fear or stigma. But congratulations on what you all do with 988 and I understand that you all have an event coming up on September 8th to help celebrate the successes of this effort.

We do. It is from 4 to 7 p.m. at 1300 Central Avenue. We're going to have some food vendors and lots of information, fun games for children, people of all ages. So we encourage you to come out and have a good time and learn about the resources that Ashland has in addition to the campground.

Great.

Thank you pathways, you're very valuable asset to our community. We recognize.

All right. Okay, moving on. Let's see. We go to our city managers report. Mr. Grubb.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have a departmental head report today from utility director Mark Hall should be a brief presentation. And while he's coming up, I would have respectfully asked you all to recess this meeting to September the 8th at 1pm for a work session at the Paramount Arts Center. Okay.

Thank you, sir.

We can recess that meeting. I was wondering if we really wanted to do that because two days later we got our regular scheduled meeting.

But it'll be easier to recess and then with no vacation or at the 8th at the p at the pair all right, yes.

I do have a few slides to show you guys but before we get started I just want to brag on a couple of our divisions and utilities. This is a an award for operational excellence at our wastewater treatment plant as you see they've gotten up here for a few years. Honestly, there's a few years that were missed and was probably because they weren't applied for many years ago. So I just want to point out that this is regardless or still having to deal with aging infrastructure, they're still able to be recognized as, you know, for operational excellence at the plant.

And in a similar award,

for distribution system. And this is for the state of Kentucky for medium sized distribution system. So recognizes as a it's an award of excellence for for a medium system category.

So I just wanted to brag on those guys.

Obviously, all of our divisions do amazing work. But this year, these these two divisions got these awards. So I wanted to bring them to your all's attention. But today, I'm just going to provide a brief update on the wastewater plant, which is effectively called now the Water Resource Recovery Facility. It's basically a branding thing. But just to touch on a few things, and we've talked about some of these before, we just want to give a progress update. The construction cost was just a little bit over $99 million. The contractor performing the work is Judy Construction. Engineering, the consulting engineer is Strand, and the cost, the engineering cost for the project's $5.3 million. So far we've paid a little over $14 million to date for the actual construction that's taken place. Project's about 13% complete. And it's still on track, still on schedule and still on budget. And it's expected to be completed. June 8 of 2029. We just got a few slides here. Yeah, go ahead. First way. I didn't put the music to the video.

That's part of the existing right there, wasn't it? Yes. How far down was that they had to go dig down?

Deep. Over 15, probably 18 foot deep. Just an abrupt stop. So one of the things that's neat about this, the contractor, they do this monthly. They fly drones. Sometimes it's just photos. But at least every two to three months, we get an updated video, which shows a lot of pretty interesting stuff. But the first slide here, I'm just going to talk about some of the structures down there quickly and just give a quick overview. This is the blower building. The probably the most significant thing about this is is this will house the turbo compressors, which are actually They're just blowers. They blow air into one of the tanks that you saw that they were emptying out. That'll be converted into a new type of aeration tank. And instead of having vertical mixers, which actually come into contact with the wastewater, This will be mixed, and oxygen will be added to it through diffused air. So that's what the turbo compressors will do, and they'll be housed in that building. You guys will see that on the consent agenda today, too, about the turbo compressors. Excuse me. This is the admin building. If you see that little portion of the front there where it's kind of kicked out, this side of that building is going to house the lab, offices, operator control stations for the SCADA system. And then on the backside of the backside of the building there, the back half of the building is actually like a garage area storage area. And then over to the right side towards the middle of the building there will be the actual maintenance shop. They'll also be storage on top of that maintenance shop to will the existing building still be used? No, it will be taken. This is a dewatering building. This is the first building that they actually started working on. The reason this is of some, this is key to the project. This building has to be completed and functional with the equipment operating to be able to process our sludge. Because once this building is complete, we'll actually go ahead and demolish the current solids building and that will allow them to start on the head works which is usually Most of these contractors will tell you it's usually the biggest hassle to construct. It's got a lot of things going on there. So it'll take the longest for them to construct, but also, like I said, get that out of the way, and then we can get that new headworks.

So once that's completed, then will there be any downtime when you stop the old construction? procedure and go to the new, it should be just almost a seamless, almost seamless.

Yes, stop for long.

No, we can't go somewhere. Yeah. Now, you know, we will be able to hold solids for a few days, you know, but it's a fairly seamless transition.

Okay.

This is, you can see the concrete bottom, that's actually number three clarifier on the far left there. The one in the middle, you can see the V-looking structure is actually the underdrains, that's piping that's used to drain the clarifier and to also pump sludge out of it. the small rectangular smaller rectangular area right there is actually the the razz wazz station it's actually return activated sludge or waste activated sludge what that does is it'll actually pump solids out of those three tanks return it back to the portion of it to the head of the plant but also get rid of a portion of it through the dewatering building so we can landfill it but those each one of those clarifiers are 117 foot in diameter And they will process a little over 1.2 million gallons. Each will hold about 1.2 million gallons of water. And collectively, they can handle the flow of about 22 million gallons a day. The math doesn't really, math for us, but engineering wise, those 1.2 million gallon tanks collectively can handle 22 million gallons of flow in a 24 hour period. Next one. Oh, that's it. No. Just really just want to give a brief overview that one of the other things I did have the large tank that you could see the guy that was down in earlier. That's one of the things that there we have actually accelerated that to take it out of service. to give the contractor work to do when as they're waiting on certain materials to come in. And they're currently removing sludge out of that tank, and then it'll be completely cleaned out. All the all the concrete joints will be re grouted, they'll do it. They'll inspect the concrete, do any repairs that needs to be done. And ultimately, it will be refitted with those diffusers for the blown in air, basically.

Any questions now I want to make a comment mark on Friday of last week, it was probably 3.33 o'clock I received a call from a neighboring city that asked the said they're having an issue with turbidity in their water and what that is is just the molecules in the water. I believe and I immediately picked up the phone call mark mark answered the phone and I told him what was going on and and he said they would they would get on it to help out this neighboring city. The city was working on this issue for probably 24 hours prior to me receiving a call and then passing along to Mark. When Mark's notified his team, his team after work went over there and helped that city correct the issue in a very short period of time. So an issue that was persisting with their system, our operators were able to go over there and take care of that. So we appreciate that. And there's also another city that they helped out in the same time frame. So I appreciate the work that you guys do, the professionalism. Well-trained staff, so we appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.

And also send our condolences, or condolences, our congratulations to all the staff that, you know, the awards they received. I mean, that's outstanding.

Absolutely. And our other divisions, they've received awards too in the past, but they just continue to quietly do their jobs every day. Whatever is asked of them, they just put their heads down and work. And if anybody's been out in the city, Driving through, you see our crews constantly working throughout the city.

I want to commend your department. You're always there. I mean, you're always transparent. You let us know right on time so we can relay that to the citizens. I'm thankful for y'all.

Thank you.

Good job.

Thank you, Mark.

Thanks, Mark. That's all I have.

All right, well, we have an exciting time right now. We have a Ashland Police Department pinning. Officer, would you like to come up here and bring your family? There's gonna be something else here in just a few minutes. Marcus Golly is being promoted to sergeant. I'm gonna get up here, I'm gonna give you another. All right. Do you, Marcus Golly, do you solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth of Kentucky and be faithful and true so long as you continue as a citizen thereof? Do you further solemnly swear that you will faithfully execute to the best of your ability the office of Sergeant for the Ashland Police Department without favor, affection, or malice? That you will uphold the laws and ordinances of the City of Ashland and the Commonwealth of Kentucky? And that you will truthfully discharge the duties of your rank and office Supervising with integrity, leading by example, and protecting the rights and safety of all citizens, so help you God. Congratulations. All right So we're moving we have a another exciting update I guess On our conference center and Monica Sumner and Jake and you all come up and and we'll prepare for that presentation and

thank you mayor and thank you commissioners for having us today um we don't have a pretty presentation we were just going to give everybody an update on what's going on and i thought it would be best if monica gave that she she's much more flowery in her language so i'm gonna let her run with it and go with what's going on over there thank you Sorry. You just put something in your mouth.

I just put a mint in my mouth. I thought he would talk longer, as usual. We are excited to report the work that has been done and a look ahead as to what you can expect to see, say, in the next month or two. The drilled piers that are going to support the conference center, almost all of them are in place. As of today, at the end of the day, 75 of 77 drilled piers will be in place. So that has been quite an effort. The drill rig should be off of the property here in a few days and then you will not have as much noise and dust as has been occurring with the drilling of those piers. The foundation work actually has begun by way of pouring concrete grade beams and some other things. About 70% of those have been poured along the Paramount side of the building and the other along Winchester. About 70% of those foundations have been poured. So that work will continue around, say, the back Carter Avenue side and the 14th Street side once the drill rig is moved and so on. That's not something that anyone really sees, you know, what's going on beneath the ground, but I assure you that work has been rigorous and continuous over the past couple of months. What you will begin seeing is steel is about to arrive on the site. It is scheduled to arrive on or about September 10th, which is a Thursday. And then crews will begin getting organized to erect that steel. And once you start seeing those steel members go up into the air, you're going to get a sense of the size and the location exactly of the building. And I'm sure that will bring some excitement to the citizens being able to actually see something than a bunch of ground clutter. So we're excited when that's going to start happening. Along the 14th Street side, the next work there will be the excavation for those foundations. So you'll see that going on. The sanitary and storm work that's going on along Carter Avenue. Some of that is outside of our project, but that's where we're bringing our lines in from. That work is commencing. uh shortly and um the last thing to report is that the uh coordination with columbia gas has been ongoing but that is wrapped up and that relocation of a necessary gas line is going to be happening next week so a lot of work has been happening not all of it is visible to you because it's been underground but as soon as we get those foundations in place you'll be seeing that steel Now the steel erecting is going to occur in seven phases. And so you'll see as the steel progresses, the concrete work will complete and so on. And that's just the tremendous organization by our contractor, by Trach Creek Construction, keeping things flowing as materials arrive on site. You can't store all of the building materials on the site at once, so they have to come in in phases as the building is staged. So I think that the next quarter is going to be very exciting for you all, as it is for us. We're glad to entertain questions, but that, for the meantime, is an update anyway.

On the gas lines, now that's going to, that takes care of the conference center and the Paramount, correct?

Yes, sir. Correct.

Right, okay, okay. Did we ever work out the staging areas for you? Because I know at one point we were looking for another location to stage.

yeah we've been working with that um and actually uh appreciate the efforts that coordinate with director adkins their engineering and our utility department when we had carter closed for the issue at the intersection of 14th Trace Creek reorganized a couple things and took care of some utility work that needed to be done in the roadway that will help reduce future closures. So there's been pretty consistent coordination between engineering, streets, utilities, and Trace Creek at the ground level on pretty much a daily basis here the last little bit. So we really appreciate that effort.

Monica, have you all ran into any issues or concerns during the construction phase so far? Has it been a pretty smooth process?

It's been pretty ordinary. Any issue that's come up has been very typical things. Remarkably, we haven't had trouble drilling those caissons. It's gone very smoothly and on schedule. uh so nothing um is for the public the caissons because of the type of soil correct is there sand i guess it has to sit on those yes yes so they are it's a it's a very it's like a column beneath the ground creating a deep foundation so that the building is resting on um good soil as opposed to the sandy river soil And I'm sure this isn't the first project in this area that you've had to do that for, so very typical.

How would you describe the timeline? Are you about on schedule as far as you're concerned?

We are up against a very tight timeline. With the concerns about having the Paramount operate correctly right now, we're okay. So barring no challenges with delivery of some material or something that might be unforeseen at this point, we're feeling okay.

Thanks. Great. Any other questions?

Thank you for all right.

Thank you guys for making that presentation.

Okay.

Thank you all. I think I mentioned this before. Are we on track for the advertisement of the naming rights?

Yeah, actually, I spoke with HR cook about that last week. And we had a couple ideas about how to roll that out. And, and also with coordination with maybe some different elements of the theater. So that'll be coming up shortly. Pretty sure.

Thank you all very much.

Yep. Thank you, guys. All right this is a will move into our public participation allowing people that to speak to the commission of things that are not on the agenda if you would like to come up you're allowed to 5 minutes to to speak will run a timer that green is your good yellow you got 30 seconds and read your out of time would anyone like to address the commission. If you say your name and your address.

Hello, my name is Lorraine Woolery. I live at 2941 Hackworth Street here in Ashland. Thank you for letting me come and speak to you today. I'm here to ask for support for a new spay and neuter program through Ashland. Sorry, Ashland Animal Rescue Fund, which is a 501 C three agency. I've provided a folder that's on your desk. There is beneficial information that I'm going to cover I want to say before I start there is a list and pictures of my cats in there That is not just for fluff I wanted to show you all where I've found my cats which a lot of them have been rescues I have two that were found outside of the city limits. They were found at the Russell Lowe's and I have two that I've pulled from the our facility because there was no interest in them The rest had been found in abandoned homes on the streets People have not been able to take care of them. And currently I have 15 cats in my home. I am cut off And our it's the running joke. I'm the crazy cat lady now. So I Please bear with me because I'm not great at public speaking, so here I go. If you love cats, I'm with you. But if you loathe cats and think they're a nuisance, please keep listening because this information is very valuable. One unspayed or unneutered cat may not seem like a big deal until you multiply it by thousands. Cats can have up to three litters a year with four to six kittens per litter, potentially hundreds of kittens within the year. Kittens may become pregnant at four months old. By six months old, they can have their first litter and then become pregnant almost immediately. Two cats within seven years can produce 420,000 cats exponentially. The cat overpopulation is comp sorry complex, but it is important to understand this is a communal and health issue. And these are some of the obstacles nationally. There is a shortage of veterinarians. The cost of medical care supplies technology and not enough people want to adopt cats. Surprisingly, even covid affected cats when medical services and supplies were impacted by covid. The number of cats increased. Rescue cats often have histories of abuse, neglect or poor socialization, which can result in fear, aggression, hiding or destructive behaviors. Health issues from untreated conditions or overcrowding can also affect their adoptability. These animals cannot be adopted out until resolved. I have three feral cats in my basement. There is a lack of access to affordable veterinarian care and economic barriers. There are 2 veterinarians within Ashland the average cost of a cat neutered is over $250. Our residents cannot afford the cost are conducted a survey of the vets and all of Ashland in Boyd County and the average cost was slightly lower than what is what it is in Ashland. In 2024, when the new Boyd County Animal Shelter opened, they did not plan to take in social cats. This was done purposely without considering the consequences for the community. The reasons given to residents have been contradictory, from there was not enough need to no one would look at the cats to adopt. The vouchers that were once given out for a cat to be neutered upon adoption vanished as well. Inadvertently, since there was no public animal shelter, the city of Ashland has been crippled because there is nowhere to take the cats. ARF accepts Ashland cats as we are the only resource within Boyd County. When there is space available, Green at Paws steps in to help ARF with the overflow. Both rescues are at capacity. All foster homes are at capacity. and we have a waiting list for cats and dogs that need to come into the shelter. There is a misconception the cat population doesn't impact me. The cat population problem doesn't impact you until it does. It isn't a problem until the kitten ends up in the engine of your car, a pregnant cat has kittens in your yard, or a cat mysteriously shows up on your porch, or in my case, the garage. When the cat shows up and it is not your cat, you don't want a cat, you can't afford a cat, you do not want the responsibility of cat, the call is made to the local shelter who does not take cats. And then they refer you to the local rescue who is at capacity. ARF averages 10 to 15 phone calls per day of cats and kittens that they are trying to get rid of. Last weekend, I was at the vet with my dog, and they took a call while I was standing there because someone was trying to get rid of kittens. They referred them to ARF and Green Up Paws, knowing that we were at capacity. Now what? A plea is put on Facebook for someone to take the cat. And if the plea isn't heard, what are you to do? In this area, many can't afford to spay and neuter one cat, let alone a litter. Citizens do not have crates and rooms to keep males and females separated. Most don't know how to bottle feed a kitten when the mom abandons them. Even if the person wants to do the right thing, their responsibility is great. I'm lucky to have great friends who help me with cat food and litter when I'm running low. The cost of spay and neuter financial isn't viable for most. So the cats are put out on the street to fend for themselves and populate. Dumping happens every day. A person called ARF with a kitten that they couldn't keep. After verbally abusing our staff, he then drove to our facility and threw the kitten out onto the gravel towards the building. The kitten was injured and was taken to the vet. And as a rescue, we absorbed the cost even though we were already overwhelmed. ARF was never intended to take cats straight off the streets. We were supposed to be a rescue in order to lessen euthanasia, which they do in the shelter. Our rescue cannot take responsibility in what the community currently expects us to do. We are not a county shelter or a cat sanctuary, which is different from a rescue. Our mission is to provide the best care to the animals that we have and work towards adopting, transferring healthy and social animals to families who will give them great lives. We vet each adopter before the cat goes out the door. I've also listed, I know I've got the red light, I've listed all the health benefits of spay and neuter, the behavioral benefits, cost savings, We also have to look at the community cat population, which is really important. In 2021, animal advocates requested the City of Ashland include section 90.32. This is also included in your folder. Community cat population, management of community cat population. This was requested to allow trap-neuter-release program and release the liability of those who were working with cat colonies. This allowed for sterilization, vaccination, and ear tipping for easy identification in any necessary medical care in cat colonies. Sterilization can work to stabilize the numbers of cats in colonies and even decrease the numbers in the colony over time. Caregivers were allowed to provide basic necessities, food, water, medical care, allowing the cats to remain healthy. While this section reduced the liability, it turned in place all the responsibility onto nonprofits and caregivers. So why am I here? ARF, in coordination with River Cities Kitties and Green Up Paws, is working towards a spay and neuter program for cats in Boyd County and Green Up County. Over the next two months, ARF will submit multiple grants. Previously, we were denied grant programs because they did not understand the number of residents and communities affected by the population. We are including letters of needed support, provide stories from the community, and a collection of pleas of need from Facebook. These grants would allow a program to tackle the overpopulation of cats through multiple means, ensuring all participating rescues are able to provide neutering before or upon adoption of cats, kittens without increasing strain on operational expenses, providing low-cost options to residents, making neutering available to a larger population, Safeguarding communal cat colonies by slowing and reducing overpopulation and providing cats with the best outcomes of good health and survival. Increasing community outreach and education, reducing cat populations over time without the spiking occurring previously. We need to change the cat culture. Removing barriers to access transportation as available to the neutering site. Many of your residents do not have vehicles or cannot drive 30 minutes to get affordable care. ARF is requesting a letter of need or support for this program within city limits and or support for this venture. Without your help, these grant funds have no chances of being obtained. Previously, funding was denied by grant programs because they did not understand the number of residents, communities affected by the overpopulation. We are also requesting $7,500 in city funds allocated for this program. In your binders, it also explains on how the program would be run financially. Once the program is up and running, including public education component, a public donation campaign will be created. Communities cannot rescue our way out of overpopulation. We cannot transport our way out of it. We cannot adopt our way out of it. Spay and neuter is the only way out of the crisis.

Okay, let me let me ask you this question that then. So basically, you're asking the city to support the program through to ARF. And ARF is supporting what you're doing. Correct.

I am a volunteer with ARF. I'm on the board.

Okay.

I am. So.

All right. Let us we'll let our staff look at this and make a recommendation, you know, to the commission. And we'll get back to you and see what we can we can do.

Okay. And may I make two quick statements? You're really quick. Okay. And someone had asked why we're not doing dogs, which I think is important. We flip there. This program is grassroots. It started with me hearing people needing help. I'm the one that drives cats about twice a month. I drive my carload full of cats. I have a Ford Escape. I can't fit dog carriers. That's why we started with cats. Eventually, if it expands, we have people that are excited and would like to help with dogs. But at this point, I'm taking the responsibility. We also vet every person that will be transporting these animals. So it's that we can't functionally do dogs based on size or experience. don't know how to handle a dog I can handle a cat we are also on September 4th doing pets on parade at first Friday we are welcoming everybody to participate it's a free event we're gonna have our rescues there so you all can learn more about what we do if you have questions about spay and neuter if about trap and release and and we are very thankful that parks and recreation is working with us to provide free face painting and peanuts the clown and we plan on having a parade with all the children with their face painted going down the street with our animals so please join us thank you thank you 5 years ago I was sitting out there in the audience at a commission meeting I thought we took care of that problem 5 years ago what happened You did well. That section ways to per provide protections for liability reasons. So the trap and neuter people could go on properties trapped the animals get them fixed and then release them back. The amount of cats you have is outnumbered. Even if you go into a cat colony and you take care you have so many people dumping cats right now that There's cats constantly going in. it's out of control. And you're talking about volunteers that are doing it. All the liability goes on the people that are trying to take care of those cats. You also have a large percentage of citizens that are doing their very best that are finding cats out in the neighborhoods and they're trying to take care of themselves. Ashland has a lot of very caring citizens who are doing their best to help the community as a whole. So and they should be commended for that as well. Lorraine with this project be strictly for the city of Ashland said yes, yes city money stays within the city we have tracking mechanisms of where the cats will be brought in from and then we will be submitting it's a reimbursable program the way we've set it up and we will also be giving you reports back so you know what exactly we're doing it will be hard to determine how many were actually saving in the long run, but I can come back with numbers of exactly how many I'm transporting and where they came from.

Let me ask you, there was a fellow out here that had that thought about a spay neutering program. And this was, I think, when you were in that commission meeting. What happened?

That's the communal program. And they do some to a point, but you only have so many volunteers.

I don't know if you know anything about this. What happened to the old dog shelter up there that they aren't using up there? What happened to that?

I believe Tri-State Spay and Neuter does use that, but I don't know to what capacity.

Because I used to get cats up there. I got a cat up there probably five years ago.

That's before the shelter moved, and they no longer have cats.

So they don't use it, they just use it for spay-neuter?

I'm not sure. I don't believe that the county is using that as their facility. I think there might be a nonprofit that is, they take some cats, and there is one veterinarian in Boyd County that on the first Tuesday of the month, they will spay, or sorry, they will only neuter male cats for $55.

Because I've taken all mine to help for animals up there in Barbersville. Correct. That's where I've been transporting. Under 50 bucks. Under 50 bucks. I got four cats.

It's 77 now. Well, 77. I know.

And...

know you go up there you you eat at a restaurant and you come back and you pick up your animal you know yeah and they're very good they um in your packets there's a letter of support from them and they're going to talk to me about making more room or appointments so arf doesn't lose our appointments for our rescue but we will have enough appointments for this program as well they've been very open and willing to help

Well, clearly this is a very great community problem. It's gone on for years and gotten worse because Boyd County is close to shelter to cats. I certainly think we can provide the letter of support and I would encourage finance to examine our books in our budget to see where we can come up with the $7500 that that they're asking for it's a very small amount to address this problem.

I also have information for the public here on the front table just explain what we're going through which is like.

Thank you for any other like to address the commission. Okay hearing then let's move into our old business.

Mister Wheeler out of a second reading and final adoption ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland Kentucky amending part 5 compensation plan be work we can see hours of work. of the Policies and Procedures Compensation Plan and Classification Plan as adopted by Order No. 51, Series of 2017, as previously amended.

So moved.

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

All opposed? Item B.

Let me throw a discussion item in there. This is not going to be a mandatory change, correct? These are going to be changes that the department themselves see necessary?

That is correct.

All right, I did do it again. All in favor say aye. Aye.

That's all right. Item B. Second reading and final adoption of the ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland Kentucky authorizing directing the mayor to execute a contract with lights enterprises Inc for the purchase of all labor materials, equipment and services for the demolition and removal of all debris at 5142 Blackburn Avenue in the amount of $5,200 for the Department of Community and Economic Development to be paid from the general fund.

I move. Second discussion.

All in favor say aye.

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 a contract with lights Enterprises Inc. For the purchase of all labor, materials, equipment and services for the demolition and removal of all debris at 5201 Blackburn Avenue in the amount of $7,750 for the Department of Community and Economic Development to be paid from the general fund.

So moved. Second.

Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. 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, Tony D. Grubb, City Manager, or Michelle Beach, Assistant Chief Financial Officer, to renew a line of credit on behalf of the City of Ashland in order to borrow sufficient funds for operational expenses for the period July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027.

some discussion yes Sir I couldn't be here last meeting this was first brought up so talk about a little bit now when I first heard about this I was thinking it was a negative thing and I was thinking I thought we're doing pretty good what we need a lot of credit And so my wife, who's in the banking business, kind of set me down and explained things to me that a four-year-old could understand. And then my son, who works for a law firm in the area, said they had a line of credit. And so they straightened me out on that. But what I'd really like to say is on December the 24th, 2024, the finance department met here on Christmas Eve trying to figure out how they were going to make the next payroll, where they were going to get the money from. So a year and eight months and three days later, we've got $2.3 million in a in a fund, economic stabilization fund, if you will. So I just want to congratulate the finance department and all the city departments that work together to bring where we're at now, I think is remarkable. And I just want to thank you all.

Thank you, sir. It's been a team effort from all departments and your all's leadership. You all let us look at the city expenditures and reduce them. You all also let us do a revenue restructure and these small teams that we've created that have come together and we've just saved all kinds of money and we've actually improved city services and city operational services. while building for our future and the economic stabilization fund.

Did anything I say everything I said was correct?

It was absolutely correct. It was it was very nerve wracking those last few months without a lot of credit or some kind of fallback. It was just we were at the mercy of when the revenues hit because the expenses they hit every two weeks with payroll. and we're currently not on the line of credit we are currently not on a lot of credit have not been on a lot of credit since march and as we get extra funds we've put some aside into the economic stabilization fund and we will continue to do that we got a check in the mail today from a pfast settlement so we're going to hit that in the economic stabilization fund of the utility fund so we are um We'll have a rainy day fund for the future. Something happens. We'll have money and we're building equity.

We need to continue to grow that too.

We will.

And we also give you an amen on that.

We also continue to look where we can reduce cost and, you know, keep services the same.

Well, we need to keep on it. I mean, ever since our first meetings with Mr. Grubb you know, that directive, you know, you all have accomplished that. And we're proud of that. And we've, you know, but we can't sit back and rest on that. We've got to resume. Yes, our efforts. But congratulations on that.

Yes, it's been a great team to work with.

Thank you, Michelle.

All right. Any other comments? All in favor, say aye.

Adam II second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland Kentucky repealing ordinance number 17 series of 1978 and redefining the areas where parking is prohibited generally within the city of Ashland and fixing a penalty for the violation thereof.

So second discussion.

All in favor say aye.

Opposed?

consent agenda, a resolution of the city of Ashland, Kentucky adopting authorizing and approving the course of action presented by the city manager on the items appearing on the consent agenda for the regular meeting of the Board of City Commissioners of August 27 2026.

So move.

Second, second. Any discussions?

All right, all the favor. Yeah. Oh, oh, oh, I'm sorry.

On item G, we're adding five positions. Is that correct? Said it is G. Yep. And it looks like about $356,000 to the payroll. Are these are Is this part of the $10 million?

Yes, sir, it is. Yes, sir, it is.

So that's where the money's coming from? Yes. It's not going to come, I mean, their continuing payroll won't come from that, will it?

In part, it will to get us started out.

Eventually that $10 million will be gone and they'll still have the payroll to maintain. Can you give us an idea of what our current number of city employees are that we're adding to with these five? Do we know?

So in total, how much?

Yeah, what are current?

Obviously, about 305 to 310? Something possibly?

What was it when we came on? It was 340 or something like that? Yes, yes, sir.

And I and I believe during discussion with director Hall you know once these. Mark these are these are going to be positions more dedicated to fill in the water lines with the 10 million dollar bond correct. And then after that, after that money is expended, and those projects have ceased, we think we'll be able to fill, you may have less vacancies you need to fill through attrition as retirements and different things happen. So over the next several years. Is that correct?

So it should wash out?

Yes. Yes, sir.

In terms of the $10 million, have we put that down and then kind of estimated the budget of that $10 million over what period of time it'll be utilized? Is it a five-year period? Is that what we're?

It's approximately five years. I hope that we'll be able, through attrition we have other places, not have to take from the $10 million. We want to make the water line replacement go as far as we can and actually use that out of operating revenues if at all possible. But this will give us a start on that. And something else you see on the agenda, Erica has applied for grant funds for $10 million to do Oak View and to do the 29th Street. So we plan to continue to go full force with this.

so we're going to make the 10 million last as long as we can you've got item i that program that started in 2022 on the lining of the sewer lines as opposed to replacing the lines do we have any idea what cost has been saved in in that project um mr atkins it's probably

But that's why we focus the ARPA money on the sewer lining is that we were doing the water replacement.

Commissioner in terms of the savings that you have of lining versus in kind replacement. I don't know exactly what we had saved from lining these sections rather than replacing them but it has to be hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.

The thing is how much what did you estimate.

At least hundreds of thousands, if not a million dollars, just from lining these. And the thing is, a lot of these lines that are on this list, they're lines that we cannot replace easily. They go underneath houses or they go underneath garages or swimming pools or whatever the case is.

I got you. It might be a good idea when we're doing these projects, if we estimated what the cost would be, to replace the line as opposed to what the cost is when we line them. Yes, sir. So we would have an ongoing cost savings estimate.

Absolutely.

Michelle, that grant that Eric is applying for is that a federal grant?

Yeah, it's through the ARC.

Can we reach out to Congressman Rogers office?

Yes, I think she's been in touch. Maybe get a letter from them. That would take care of our main two lines that we need to seek with outside contractors and would be amazing to get this program started with.

Are those projects contingent on getting the grant or we're doing them anyway.

We will eventually have to do them anyway. But when we did the plan of the 10 million for our staff to replace the lines, the ones that they're too deep and too large for our staff to do because we don't have enough crew and they're they're farther down with their larger lines. We tend to apply for grant funding simultaneously as we fix the smaller.

We got a new excavator.

Yeah, we do. Brand new one. Yes. So thank you, Michelle.

Thank you.

All right. Any other questions? All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Moving to new business item a first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of ashland kentucky amending the zoning map of the official zoning ordinance of the city of ashland number 101 series is 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

So move.

Second.

Discussion?

Do we know what's planned for that area?

I think Mr. Paul might. Because there's a house on that location now, isn't there? Yeah.

I assume it's going to be something commercial since we changed it from residential to business.

Yeah, when the Planning Commission met, they heard a proposal from a company called A Plus Contractors, right now based out of Greenup. Every bit of surrounding property to that property, contiguous properties, all zone B2 already. general business. So they recommended really without much discussion that we...

I think it's a good idea. I mean, everything along there is commercial. We don't know what their plans are at this point.

I don't think it's going to be a teardown. I think they're just going to do an adaptive reuse to that house.

Thank you.

Sure.

All right.

All in favor say aye. Opposed? I'm the first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland Kentucky authorizing directing the mayor to execute a ticket reseller and location related service agreement between the city of Ashland Kentucky and flicks North America Inc designated the city of Ashland as its non exclusive ticket reseller, allowing the city of Ashland to sell bus tickets at the Ashland Transportation Center.

So my second discussion All in favor say aye.

Oh, I don't see first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky authorizing 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. Second, discussion. All in favor say aye.

Aye. Opposed?

I'm the first reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky authorized and directing the mayor to execute a public transportation grant agreement between the city of Ashland, Ashland bus system and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. The s f y 2027 capital state match grant in the amount of $39,466. So my second discussion

All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Item E. First reading and approval of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky authorized 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, authorized and directed the mayor to execute any and all other documents related to the acceptance of said grant.

discussion, you know I I assume that the purchase of these would be contingent upon being awarded that grant.

One other question said that the project will exceed the cost to me we have any idea how much more. The fiscal note here says is estimated that the project will exceed the cost of 2 million dollars We give the grants for two million. Do we have any idea how much more? This is just the first round of purchases.

The temporary development will make the purchases for us based on our needs and our request. This basically put us in line to get us off our legacy system and the new system statewide. But what it's supposed to do is go on a master agreement for Kentucky, and that's what we're estimating right now as far as the first round to purchase the radios and infrastructure to get us moving forward. And there's a possibility of further money earmarked by the Congress. Now, will PSC see have to do some upgrades and infrastructure to Okay, but you have to understand to there's another network being built called servers out of technology is building it west to east segments. So that is going to be processed. We have to get connected to that. So will that help everybody knows there's dead spots everywhere will that help This is going to be digital. This is going to be voice. This is a whole new modern network. And the state of Kentucky has created it first for the state police and their infrastructure and the local municipalities and counties.

Thanks. You know, the discussion. All in favor say aye.

Opposed? Item F

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 Ashland.

Second discussion.

Yeah as I read this note and I just want clarification. The total amendments are $4,576,803. All of this is ARPA money is that correct?

Yes.

The lawn mower, the tractor is ARPA interest and the rest is ARPA grant money on the utility projects.

So it's not

city tax dollars yeah thank you michelle we have to expand that by december 31st correct yes by when december 31st um barry is aware and we don't seem to anticipate any problems and the arpa interest we are also going to make sure we spend by december 31st because there's really no statute or anything on that, so I don't want someone coming back later. But we've earned like $1.5 million so far in ARPA interest that we've been able to do various projects in the community with. The latest being the lawnmower for public right-of-way, $300,000. Instead of using city general fund money, we were able to do that out of ARPA interest.

That's great.

Good job.

Thank you. Okay, all in favor say aye.

Opposed? G first reading and approval 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 a matter of $479,990 for the brink MSI takeoff drone as first responder DFR program for the Ashland Police Department.

So move.

Second. Discussion?

Yeah, I've got a couple of questions.

Yeah.

Quite a few. Is this a budgeted item or is this something that is developed after we adopted our budget?

We were looking at it as a capital project before the budget, but this is something that came about

I mean, at this point, it is not in our budget. So where's the money coming from to pay for it?

of the money will come from the opioid money that we have so we're going to to to to to clarify there's been there's going to be probably coming before you a future budget adjustment regarding uses in opioid funds due to some research we found one potential use for the opioid money because it has to be directly related to opioid interdiction. And one potential use of that is to help with the DARE officer's salary. You know, we've got one officer who's dedicated to DARE functions, stationed, I believe, at the middle school, Mr. Chief Kelly. And so nine, so we kind of swapping things. Well, we can't there's the opioid money has to be spent towards opioid addiction. So that's going to free up some space in in Chief Kelly's budget. And this is a yearly payment. It's not an upfront single cost.

Your yearly budget of 95 $96,000.

So money's being freed up in his budget due to use of opioid funds, and then he'll be able to, you know, offset the cost of this using that money that's free up.

Well, we'll have a budget adjustment for you all on the next meeting and we also have a $67,000 savings where we implemented the new to gas card program that will help fund this. So the 60,000 for the officer salary will go to opioids. So the general fund and then we'll have savings from gasoline citywide.

Oh, is this a sole source? As opposed to going out for bed, this is the

the 95,000 value that you spoke of that we chose to do one year free in five years we've asked for another option which created the ability to spread that over six years and with a reduction in a

$15,000 Thank you chief I've seen something on social media the other day about this and this is not this drone will not be 24 7 hovering the city So it will only be launched by not get the call. On an incident basis. On an incident basis.

There will be a detailed set of regulations, general order on how to use it, when it is to be dispatched, where it's to be housed, where it's to be stationed, where it's to be located and what calls it can and cannot go to. And it has a limited flight time. It doesn't fly everywhere at all times. It takes off, it flies to a location, it provides information as a first responder, it goes back to its base to recharge. It's got limited flight time, we're not talking hours.

When we develop the policy, we need to make that public so that the public is aware of how it's going to be used.

There will be a portal that the public will be able to see, it's called their transparency portal, that they will be able to see every time where it flew, how long it was in the air, the route to and it will house the policy.

I like that the policies out there and available it still needs to be discussed.

And so the people that don't aren't technology, you know, savvy, still get the information that that was something that when when it was first presented to me as an option I was very concerned about and in speaking with brings representatives they work directly with the ACLU to develop those policies. We'll get some model policies from them researching on our own and we'll develop a very, very specific measured policy based upon those guidelines.

Good. Thank you.

Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Opposed?

I'm H reading an adoption of the municipal order entitled the municipal order of the city of Ashland, Kentucky authorizing directing the mayor to execute and submit a pre application to the Appalachian Regional Commission's area development program for the replacement of existing water lines along Oak View Road and 29th Street for the Department of Utilities.

Some discussion.

Yeah, this is what we were talking about earlier. It's about $12 million. If the grant isn't obtained, this isn't all going to be done at one time, obviously. Correct. I mean, it would be budgeted more on an as needed basis rather than replacement at this level.

There would need to be budgets likely be bid out the normal process with contracting all all coming back to your whereas if we get the grant we can go forward and do the whole lines.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Item aye.

Reading and adoption of this board are entitled a municipal order of the city of Ashland, Kentucky authorizing and directing the mayor to submit the annual housing choice program section eight management assessment program see map certification for the city of Ashland division of assisted housing to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

So my second question. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Did we skip one?

And I apologize. I read item J in the location of item I. If I could go back, Mayor, and read item I. Please do. Reading an adoption of a municipal order entitled A Municipal Order of the City of Ashland, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a release of liability to the Delta Hotel for the use of its property located at 1441 Winchester Avenue for rope rescue demonstration by the Ashland Fire Department. Thank you, Miss Maddox for keeping me straight.

So move.

Discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. All right, we'll move to J. And we've had first and second on it. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

All right, entertain a motion to move into executive discussion to discuss what would this would request one for property acquisition updates and a potential litigation matter.

Okay.

So move.

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

All right.

We're back in the section with no action taken on the property acquisition, but entertain a motion.

I'd like to make a motion to allow the city attorney to enter into agreement to purchase a piece of property at 1013 Carter Avenue.

We have a motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

All right. Motion to recess till the 8th at the Fairmount Arts Center.

Granted.

Second.

1 p.m. All right.

We are recessed.