City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge algiance 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 very much for your attention to that. Next up on our agenda this evening will be the mayor's report. And man, it's a good report. These are fun ones. Uh we've got a lot of great things happening right now in the city of Dayton, Kentucky. Uh first of all uh I think member Kelly already mentioned we had a very successful fall festival uh right there in Memorial Park. It was it last Saturday Sunday? Two weeks. Yeah. Saturday. Yeah.

And it it was packed like lots of music, lots of crafts, lots of fun. Kids were having good times. Uh so just a big thanks to the volunteers that made those things happen and I can't wait to see what next year does. Uh this week is going to be a very exciting week. Starting off first with uh Wednesday at 1 p.m. right over here at Gillan Park at 1 p.m. we're going to have a ribbon cutting. And that ribbon cutting is going to be a uh a a celebration of a lot of successes that we've had this this year in Gillan Park, including the resurfacing of the basketball courts. Uh we of course the Gaga ball pit. Who could ever forget that? Uh we also have uh uh a brand new play set for for the children down there coming out of uh Lincoln Elementary and and the pickle ball courts which I believe Mr. Horton, how how are those being used already?

Uh we've had people there uh beating the fence down actually to play. Good. So uh yeah, so tomorrow is the official opening for that. I'm glad everybody got to use it a little bit early. Yes, the soft opening has been very successful. Excellent. So, we've got a lot to celebrate tomorrow at 100 pm. If you're not uh busy, come by and celebrate with us. And then, but we ain't done yet. Uh Thursday at 4 o'clock, we have the groundbreaking for phase three of two and three

two and I'm sorry, J two and three of Riverfront Commons. Uh so we have riverfront comments is going to be uh breaking ground down there on the riverfront and uh putting down the biking hiking trail path that's going to connect uh the the last piece for Dayton's connection. And last but certainly not least, don't forget if you are of age and we don't we don't encourage anybody, uh the senior lunchon will be Monday at noon at the VFW 11.

Thank you ma'am. And that's why I have a great team. And uh so come on by, let us serve you lunch and have some food and fun. So like I said, this was a fun mayor's report. So uh happy to give it to you. That's all I got. So next up is the approval of minutes. So if uh anybody like to make a motion to approve the minutes for September 9th and 30th, 2025. So moved. Member Ner's made a movement. I'll second. Member Horton's made a second. All in favor? I.

Any nays? Any abstensions? The eyes have it. Next up on the docket would be the presentation. First, we have a presentation by the Dayton Senior High School class, Mr. Wolf. Sir, good evening everybody. Um, I just want to thank you for allowing uh our seniors to be here. I I'm greatly appreciative of um Mr. Faucet, Mr. Baker, uh Miss Klene, and Mr. Burks. I got that correct, Jared. Mr. Burks. Yes.

Um just of our partnership over the last year and a half. It's uh it's been wonderful to meet with them every other month. I know a couple weeks ago we had our joint meeting last February, March, we had um our LE student council meet with Jay and Ben and um they approached me two maybe a month or two ago and just said, "Hey, what if we had some seniors give a presentation to the city council just about um what they would like to see in the city?" And so any opportunity that I can find, that's one of the things that I I really want to do is look for opportunities and experiences for our kids. And so for them to be able to stand in front of you and share their ideas and suggestions, I just want to thank you for that. They're a little nervous, understandably so. Um, but I'm super proud of this group. So we do have a small Last year we had 70 students graduate uh from Dayton High School. This year we're only at 41 42. Just works out in the numbers. There's only 13 boys. The rest are girls. So when I went to all the seniors and asked who could present, we actually had eight girls that were really interested. Turns out one of those young ladies is happens to be out of town. She practiced and worked with us, but she's out of town with her family for fall break getting home this evening. And one of those ladies plays volleyball and Dayton High School has a volleyball game this evening. So, I've got six wonderful young ladies, all who will graduate with uh a minimum 24 college credit hours from Gateway um and are just absolutely phenomenal individuals. So, I thank you so much for allowing them to bend your ear for a minute and I encourage you, they're not going to like this, but I encourage you to ask questions uh to them. And I told them I wouldn't let them hang and I'll help them out if they need help, but I encourage you to ask questions. So, thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Wolf. This is the class of 2026's presentation to the city council. I'm Haley McVey. And I'm Brooklyn.

Here are the questions we were chosen to answer. What kind of city do we as seniors want to live in? Things we want to see happen in the city and how can the city make changes so people want to continue living in Dayton? Here is what we already love. One of the things we appreciate about Dayton is how walkable the city is. Everything is within a short distance like the schools, parks, local shops, and restaurants. This makes it easy for students and families to stay active, connect, and enjoy what the community has to offer. Another thing we love is the flood wall. It's not only a beautiful place, but is also peaceful, and it's a great way to spend time. It provides access to nearby restaurant stores and this area attracts people from from surrounding cities like Belleview and Newport. This helps bring more people into Dayton. Some things we also love is how close-knit our community is and the memories that it holds. Our community is super close as everyone knows everybody and we each help each other out when we can. With this, as everybody knows everyone, it's much more common to see people having more closer friends in the city and being able to hang out more. Some of with these memories, there's more held in restaurants and parks and different events held around in the city. Some events would be light up Dayton, seeing all the Christmas lights go on, Fall Fest, which helps the little kids get their face painted and pumpkin or even going around and helping little small businesses with their vendors. Memorial Day parade is a huge one that's been a very big tradition for as long as I could remember. Yoga, which helps out with the older people or some young adults. And finally, final Friday, you will have the bands or anything else playing at

the monument park. Speaking of parks, a main park, Gillan Park, holds many memories to me and some of my classmates here. As we go to Lincoln and now at the high school, we had recess or even fun time to go play at Gillan Park with our friends or family or just hanging out outside of school. I'm glad to see it being renovated and being put still to good use so that these new kids could have more memories to hold. Me and my classmates divided these recommendations that we now have into four categories. Local activities, improved safety, park and public areas, and stuff we would like to see in 15 to 20 years. I'm Faith Kelly. Right now, most of our money is spent outside of Dayton, but we have some ideas on how to change that. Some local activities people want to see. Pools, water fountains, more fast food restaurants, small movie theaters or walkers, stage, open mic night, which could be for band and school choirs, and a local garden. These could help improve our community living in Dayton. I'm Jaden Sumler and I I'm here to talk about improved safety. I think safety is one of the most important things that people look for when they're looking for somewhere to live. I think more street lights and lights in parking lots would be very useful. It's really scary at night and lights and alleyways would be very helpful. I also think dog parks and pet friendly zones are a huge thing for safety so they're not running around causing trouble.

I also think less of a focus on alcohol will make a huge difference. For example, as soon as you walk into Dayton, you see a huge liquor store and the said the said liquor store says huge varieties varities and we serves cold liquors in quotation marks. I don't think it's a good representation of who we are as a community. I also think we should put a fence around the playground area and not the whole park. It looks really open and it makes us look more inclusive. We are.

If you keep it just around the playground area, it still keeps kids safe and protected. I'm Nikki Hower. And I'm Natalie Stidum. And we're going to be talking about our parks and our public areas. We love our parks and our public spaces, but there are just some minor changes that could be fixed or added, such as adding free Wi-Fi to these parks and our public spaces. Students can use this opportunity to help them with cha with their homework if their space is chaotic or they can't focus. If there's something going at home, they can use this opportunity to help them. um if they are at a cafe or these restaurants, they're more likely to spend their money there instead of driving somewhere else like Chick-fil-A or Starbucks and then drive back just to focus on their homework. We would also like to implement guidelines for playground equipment. Most of us know how much energy kids have. What other what better way to spend that energy than go to Gilden Park? Currently, the equipment is being renovated and I me everyone else believes guidelines for the playground equipment would better help for kids who don't know how to use it or kids who are reckless and the equipment inappropriately. Another thing we could add is a sand volleyball court. When I get out of school or if I'm walking around Dayton, I usually see a lot of littleer kids at the park and very rarely do I see teenagers and normally they're playing basketball and that could be very intimidating for some other kids to go play and or try to make friends. So, I think adding this volleyball court along with the already added pickle ball court will bring in teenagers and young adults and it could help strengthen this community and make more friendships.

We would also like to open the restrooms at Gillan Park. Having nowhere to go can be a struggle for many, especially kids who are still body trained or others with bladder or bowel issues. When I go to Gillan, I usually go to the bathroom, but it turns out to be closed. Having it open would make it accessible and easy for everyone around us. In 20 years, we would like to see more grocery stores. A recent one turned into a liquor store. And for people with mobility issues, they would usually have to pay for an Uber or order online to get stuff like fresh produce or hygiene products. Having more grocery stores around Dayton would mean more people would stay close and spend here. We would also like more ramps. As the city of Dayton expands, people with disabilities need access to get from here and there. With more ramps, we would see more diversity within the community. Lastly, adding public art. Right now, we don't have that much public art. We have a mural where the bridge is for the seniors and that represents us like as a senior class. But I think if we think if we add more it would make us look more alive and less dull such as maybe a mural on an exposed wall of handsman's or painting the alleyways to look less scary. I walk home a lot and I normally walk through alleyways and it is very scary to walk through sometimes. So, I think painting them, you would distract you from the thought of it being scary. Um, and when other schools drive through Dayton to play our team, like our on our football field or our gym, they would be able to see these murals and see how we can come

together to create art. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. Do you have any questions? Oh, boy, do I. First of all, that's amazing.

Good job. Now the the courage you guys have to stand up in front of city council and talk to us is just great. You guys are awesome. Thank you for doing that. Uh a lot of these questions I had the same question and council don't don't let me uh uh bogart the time here but public art is one of the things that that's why the reason I'm up here. I got into an argument about murals and uh the mural that we had that says Dayton on it over on 6th Avenue next to the municipal lot. That was that that's because I got mad there was no public art. So that's why I ran for city council. That's why, you know, a lot of us got really upset and and excited at the same time to to run for city council. I know Miss Neman was in the same same way back in the day. Uh so yeah, let's continue that. Let's do more. Let's do bigger things. Uh I really like that a lot. Uh Wi-Fi and parks. That's That's

We do have a little bit. We were trying to get Wi-Fi in the monument park, but Jared, I don't know that did that happen or not. Monument park. So, there is some there, but we could do other parks as well. We just need to work with um Alta Fiber to get get that space. We could actually do it in Sergeant Park. We have an ultra fiber access there. So that's an easy one. We can make that available. So that's a good idea. We'll work on that. So So you Let's go. You said questions. So where else in the city because you see a lot of stuff that I probably don't. Uh where else in the city would you think would be good for public art? I would say on like handsman's that one exposed wall.

The gray one. Yeah. Yes. That right there would be a good idea. Or like on the side of Wayfair Tavern like that and like open wall that would also be a really good spot. All right. I think Hansman's is probably going to be receptive to that idea. I think they'd be cool with that.

I want to address the restroom situation. Um we we're aware of that and I'm sure you guys are aware that people vandalize the bathroom. Do you guys have any suggestions of what we can do as a council to make sure that the restaurant restrooms are accessible for you guys in a way that we can keep kids from vandalizing it? So, because it cost the taxpayers money. So, I mean, I'm sure you guys can understand like the more money we have to put into repairing the bathrooms, that's why they're unaccessible for you guys. But, we want to keep them open. I'm sure as a I think we want to keep them open, but is can you guys come up with some kind of ideas that we can implement to make sure that the bathroom can stay open for you guys at more times?

I think maybe more security so you know the last person to be in there and then they can handle the consequences of what they chose to do so it doesn't affect everyone. So, we actually have security cameras there and we caught the the two young people who did the vandalism. So, um they are now going through the court system because of that. So, so I think that those cameras will help us cut down the vandalism a little bit. So, are you comfortable reopening it then now that you've they're open now? Okay. And keeping them open? They were only closed when we were cleaning them up or when they were damaged. And we do close them in the winter time, but most of the time we try to keep them open. They do shut them off at night. They come back and open them up in the morning. Please

could we have them on a regular schedule so that they know she said she goes to the bathroom before she goes to, you know, I mean, generally they close. They were shut down when the when the park closed at dark and they reopened in the morning. So generally they're open. So that's that's the everyday schedule. Yeah. Coming from now. Yeah. Okay.

So we're trying on that. It makes it makes sense. If you have to use a restroom and you're down there, the closest one is going to be on the Avenue. So, yeah, we got to make sure that that's available. So, a couple things you talked about is local gardens. I don't know if you realize, we do have local garden that the city has over on 4th Avenue. Uh we just started, we had one on Third Avenue, we moved it to Fourth Avenue this year, so you and your families can grow vegetables there. It's no cost. We have water. You can water them. So, we just started that this year. So, that's good. So, we do have that. Um, we are there is going to be a fence. We took the fence down to build the new playground equipment. That old rusty fence is gone and we're going to put a brand new fence that matches what you have at the football field and that should be installed the next month. So, there is going to be a fence along Green Dairville Drive. So, that's that's a good thing. Um, there is some signage already at the playground. Look at it and let me know if you think it needs anything additional. So, when there are signs about not being on the outside of the of the slides and also there's a little sign that kind of has rules. If you think we need other additional signage, let us know that. We'll we'll look at that. Um, one thing I did want to say is that this is a great presentation and you all did a great job. So, every spring the city council has what they call a strategic planning session. They come in here and we spend a whole day on a Saturday talking about where we want to see the city go. So, I'm thinking this next spring, let's bring your presentation, show them that. So, when we're making our decisions and we base our budget, the taxpayer money comes in, what how do we spend that? They make priorities and we can look at these and see how those priorities fit into what they want to do. So, I think that's a great idea. We'll look at that spring. You think it's all the, you know, activating the alleys is something that has come up in Yeah. in our strategic planning. It just wasn't anything that had gotten towards the top of the list.

But now that we have your information, it lets us know that that is something that's more important to the community. I painted a mural on the side of my garage. Is a dolphin. I don't know if you ever seen it. No. You're welcome to stop by. Every now and then I catch some kids taking pictures outside of I'm like, "Yeah." But, uh, I I love art in the alleys. I think they're a lively space. I can understand the scariness of it. That's why I painted a dolphinorn there. But, I think that's great. I love your art ideas. I really love that. And nothing good happens after midnight, so you should be home and not in any alleys.

And you're going to be in the next couple years. I mean, you're seniors. Uh, some of you may be going to other places. uh whether to college or moving to another town or whatever. Uh carry that Dayton pride with you. It's really a great place to grow up um and to live as you go to these other places and come back to visit or uh even stay here. Keep your eyes open to what other places are doing that we could apply here. Uh the bumpouts is a good example uh that we did on the avenue uh for traffic calming and pedestrian safety. If you see something in another city, even don't wait till you graduate. Bring it bring it to anybody on council or administration that hey this would be cool here. Could we do it here? And why? Uh there are financial limitations obviously, but bring back those those ideas. We want we want people like you staying here or moving back here when you're done with college.

And to piggyback what um Joe's saying, we want you guys to sit where we're sitting now. So, we want you guys to make the decisions to go off, use the 24 credit hours that you have, expand your education, um travel the world, and come back to Dayton because Dayton is a great city and we're making it for you guys. We're building the next generation for you guys to have it have something even better than what we're having now. Um, I want to thank you for coming because I know most adults in this town are terrified to come up to that podium where their throats close and I um, hardly anybody ever comes here and we get very little feedback usually through emails or um, anybody attending. This is an amazing turnout right here, you know. So no matter where you end up, I think you should always feel like you have every right, education, whatever, to run for city council, to demand answers from city council, from the administration, in politics. No matter where you end up living, it's yours. And it's very easy to get that feeling that you're um you don't have a right to speak, you're not educated enough, you didn't do the blah blah blah. It's all it's all yours all the time, your whole life. So, please feel free to come here at any time or any anywhere that you end up. Go to those meetings. They're yours.

Okay.

Yeah. And I'll echo all the thoughts and comments that the council and the mayor and administration has said so far. Um, I love all the things you said about what you enjoy about the city, all the different recommendations on how to improve the city. Um, one thing I want to double click into is the you mentioned the sand volleyball court. So, we have a lot of sports options already. adding a set volleyball court I think is a another great addition to that. So that's a great idea. Um but I wanted to pick your brains on what are your thoughts on organized sports versus just having an open park open setting type thing. Would you would you would people your age be interested at all in either helping to organize, helping to run, or helping to participate in any organized sports outside of what you're doing for your your schools?

I know a lot of people in especially in our grade that actually suggested suggested the uh volleyball court and they're really interested in like putting in the work to make it happen. So sand volleyball is the number one choice is what I'm hearing. Yeah. Okay, good deal. So in doing so, doing organized sand volleyball or just having it open for the public? I'd say open to the public because it's not just like, you know, it's all age groups that I feel like would enjoy it.

Okay. All right. And my second question, uh, marketing So, how well do you think the the city is doing over well overall with marketing the events that they have going on in the city? Marketing themselves, marketing to outside of the city, those types of things. Any thoughts on overall marketing of the city itself? Or does that cross your mind? I don't really see any marketing like because I feel like it's such a small town. Everyone in Dayton already like knows everything somehow, so it gets to us one way or another. Do you go on Facebook?

Yeah. Okay. Do you check the city page on Facebook? Um, I check the high school one. Okay. Awesome. But the last thing I'll say is, wow, you guys did a fantastic job. I didn't know what to expect coming into this. So, thank you for all that you did. It's obvious that you guys prepared, so thank you for that. I hope you can come back, please. and sort of uh you know maybe every couple months or something give us a rundown of like how we responded to what they brought what more things they've heard or thought of would you I understand government does move slow accordingly so your request for a sandball volleyball may not happen next week but

like Mr. Faucet said we'll talk about it in the spring. Maybe we could do it in the the summer or whatever.

So the c this council approves a budget every year. So our budget starts in July one. So they've already approved all the major capital expenditures like what's gone on in the park. We we spent over half a million dollars on the improvements in the park this year which is amazing. We have a we are lucky we have a park tax here in this city. Not many cities have that and people pay money into that to improve our parks. So we've been really lucky. We've had some additional developments. We're having a little bit more money we've had in the past to do the kind of improvements we're making. So, but it takes a year basically. So, once they approve a budget, then we have a year to accomplish the things that they approve. Next year, you have a big idea you want, come back and talk to them about it. So, they put that in the budget.

And I'll echo e echo uh Miss Neman's comments. This is your city. This isn't I mean, this is our city, too, but this is your city. So, if you have any problems, any questions, any concerns, any ideas and wants, we want to hear them. We want to hear all those, the good and the bad and the ugly. So, please don't be afraid of us. We're just your neighbors. You'll see us at Hansman's. You'll see us at hometown. You'll see us poking around town. Talk to us and uh let's hear your problems and in your wants. You guys are great. [Applause] Now you can breathe.

I saw I was driving down uh uh Dang it. Uh six. No, no, no. Fairfield. It's the street right next to my house. It goes up the hill. It's not a founder.

Thank you so much. I was at a loss for words there the other day and I saw that they were doing the uh the tangled mural uh underneath the uh the river trestle or the the river t. That's amazing. That's such a great tradition you guys do. So, thanks for keeping that up. Anything else regarding Dayton High School senior class? All right. Next up on the docket, keeping with the educational idea in Dayton, we are very welcomed to have the presentation by Educate NKY regarding our Read Ready Dayton program. Good evening, Mayor Baker, members of the city council. My name is Shai Cavo. the president and CEO of Educate Ky, which is a regional nonprofit focused on educ, you know, elevating outcomes for students and families in our region with a focus on the river cities. And on the night that you are uh hearing from your high school seniors, it's exciting to come in and honor you and support your efforts to support your youngest youngest learners. I'm joined by Chuck Sess, our um board vice chair, and Jenny Watson, who's the vice president of early learning and family power for educating KY. And we are here tonight because your leadership um with Reed Ready Dayton uh in part, you know, the fact that you are leaning in to your youngest learners to help in partnership with the school board and superintendent Rick Wolf elevate your kindergarten readiness. You're already above the state average. like you're 51 to a state average of 48. But you know, you know, we can't accept that only half of our 5year-olds make it to kindergarten ready. And so we are here to honor you

with a presentation for a planning grant of uh $12,000 to the city of Dayton uh for and this is like I said is a planning grant which means we are putting resources behind the launch of Read Ready Dayton in conjunction with your neighboring municipalities. But our hope is that you all, you know, are able to put together a robust plan in partnership with your schools and your nonprofits and the libraries and all the community activities. And from that plan, many great ideas can come and we can help direct and come back with bigger checks with for the resources to actually make Dayton a place where every kid is learning and growing and and and thriving and is ready to take their seat um at Lincoln Elementary School when they arrive at the age of five. And so with that, we're just excited to be here. We'd love to get a photo with the big check. The whole point of a big check is a good photo. So, if we can get the mayor and the city council to sort of join us in one quick photo and then we're out of your hair.

I'll do the photo. Never in her hair.

Especially when you bring big chil. I love the idea. [Music] [Applause] And that money is going to be applied how? Just as a clarification.

I guess that's a question for city administration. Yeah. So right now we don't know. So we're getting we're very early stages of this program. So, we're putting together our our local team and once we get together, they're basically saying it's up to us to kind of decide how you want to use that. But in Cington, they used it or they had these um signs around town that had a picture of a truck and it said truck and it had it in Spanish and it had it in English. Uh so I don't know what we're going to do, but right now we don't know and until we get our team together and figure that out. Uh right, come up here and you know more about this program than anybody, so why don't you talk about it?

Hello again. Yes, that's a great question. And I think now we're at a stage where we we organize with a local team. I actually emailed the leadership uh here today just to kind of talk about who is it from the city that should be kind of the liaison, the representatives. It could be many, many people. We'll do the same. team. I know Superintendent Wolf has some ideas with his team he wants to put on the committee as well as any influential or kind of maybe leaders, parent leaders and the community leaders. So we'll just form that that committee and then we kind of do an asset map and figure out what's kind of already what are we already have in place and then we'll look at okay what can we elevate you know so I think last time I talked about the footsteps to brilliance app that Jay mentioned um we have alignment with partner imagination library so that has moved forward now where every baby born in Edgewood hospital now get it it's enrolled before they leave the hospital so that's been kind of a coordinated effort between our local libraries, Boonket and Campbell, who are contributing financially to that as well as the partnership with St. Elizabeth nurses uh in the postpartum unit. So, that's one, but there's many, many others. So, that's where that power of the local uh sense of place comes in because we want to use the assets here in Dayton and elevate those. So, to be determined,

to Okay, thank you. So, the next step, the next the next point of action is to organize Yes. Okay. Okay. Yep. And the emails are gone have gone out on that. We're going to get that team in place and we could start organizing virtually as early as within the next week or so. Yeah. And I encourage that team, whoever that is, to uh use best practices from all the other places around the area, but also to do better than all the other cities in the area. We want to be better than all the all the rest of them. And and and think big, too. So, it's we just heard from the students hearing that they want to hear more see more art, more murals in the area. Is there a way we can combine those things?

So, um I encourage people to think outside the box on that. Maybe I nominate you to be on the team. Yes. So, but that's the idea, right? Taking what you hear in the community and then saying, how can we apply that? And this grant money will help do that, right? Thank you all so much. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you so much for what you guys do for the region. Not just Dayton, but the region. Although I'm with you beta everybody.

Thank you Shai team. Uh next on our docket for the evening, we are going to open up the podium for anybody from the public who has comments regarding legislative items on tonight's agenda. So again, this is just tonight's agenda. So if you want to talk about tonight's agenda, podium's yours. All right. I don't see anybody rushing the stage, so we're go ahead and close that. Uh, next on the docket would be any ordinances we have it coming up. Um, Miss CL, do we have any ordinances tonight? Not tonight, sir. Who's disappointed? Not me.

Not you. All right. So, there are no ordinances for this evening. However, order resolutions, we might have one of those. uh including but not limited to order resolution 2025-29 Romeo. Miss Klein, please. An order resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a cost share agreement with sanitation district number one for storm water system improvements on Riverpoint Drive to address storm water pooling and runoff issues on that street.

So, we've been working with the homeowners association at Riverpoint for year, maybe two years now. They have an area where the water pools and freezes and becomes really dangerous. uh especially in the winter time. Um so we've been working with them and SD1 about a solution to that. So similar to what we did on Grand Park, we reached out to SD1. They have this call share program, public private call share and like we did with Graham Park. Uh in that case was individual residents contributed some of the money because it's improvements on the private property. In this case, the HOA is going to contribute some money, $5,000 uh of the total cost and um the total cost is around 15,000. I think it's 15 can't remember. Let's see here. So, we are going to pay about 7500. Um and ST1 share is going to be about 1212,500. So, it's a 24 $25,000 project. So, they're going to go uh give us 5,000. We're going to contribute 7,500 and SD1's going to contribute the rest. So, that will uh improve that pro problem they have there and hopefully will. I think it will and um and we'll be able to move on to our next SD1 project. The good thing about these projects now, SD1's changed the dynamics. It used to be that it was 50% from them and only and we would have to pay 50%. Now they've changed it and if the project is really severe, they're agreeing to pay more than 50%. So I think we have a project coming up next month. They're going to pay 75% of all the costs down on Walnut third and fourth where we've had some flooding issues. So that's um that's a good thing for us. They're putting more and we're paying that. We pay a storm water fee. So that fee money that we send to SD1 now comes back to us to deal with these issues. So that's what this is about.

Thank you, Mr. Faucet. So, this is really a bad design issue. The initial design on this was incorrect.

Interestingly, for some reason, this street instead of it's it's crowned in the middle. Um, and the cost of the water to go there. Um, oh, no, I'm sorry. It's not. It's not crowned in the middle. It is actually just the opposite. Most streets are crowned in the middle. It goes to the middle. But for some reason, the way it was designed and the way they lay the concrete, it it just pulls right right there on the edge of the curb. So, what we're going to do is take it down over the hill and put it um into the storm water street stream that's going down to Dayton Pipe. So, that should solve the problem.

And I know this is what the development was put in 15 20 years ago, if not longer. And we didn't have a city engineer at that time to go over these kind of things. No. So he's the one that designed this. So it should should address the issue. I think it was interesting. I think it was a cost was done for value engineered. You have to you have fewer sewer inlets when you're doing it like in the middle instead of on the side. So I think it's more a value and engineered decision and that's why we have the issue. Do we have a motion to accept order resolution 2025-29 Romeo? I'll make that motion.

Member Nim's made Neman's made that motion. I have a second. I'll second. Kelly's made a second. Any other questions, comments, or concerns to administration regarding this?

Roll call, please. Member Kelly. I. Member Jud. I. Member Leven. I. Member Horton. I. Member Ner. I. Member Neman I and the eyes have it. That that concludes the order resolutions for the evening. Uh council meeting is moving on swinningly I believe which brings up our department heads reports and then tonight I believe uh the chief of the fire department is on PTO. So uh in order to make sure these guys are ready to run the truck if they need so like to welcome Mr. Knight to the stand, sir.

All right. Uh, thanks for having us. Uh, so yes, Chief Schaefer is out of town and we're going to present his monthly meeting. Um, as most of you know me and for those who don't, I'm Lieutenant Knight. Uh, here with Captain Scott. So, getting right into this. So, we responded to 186 responses this month of September. Uh, we had 57 fire calls and we had 129 EMS runs. Uh for training, we have a total of uh 1,983 hours for the year and that's an average of 107 hours per member at the department. Um you have I guess everybody was emailed this or has a copy of this. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. Um but I will always refer to Chief Schaefer um when he gets back.

Gary, this is the time of year when we have a lot of people wanting to do bonfires. What are the rules again so people know? Uh our bonfires, so you have to have a commercialrade uh fire pit with a screen around it. You know, something you get from Lowe's with a screen that encapsulates it and a fire retarder, a spark retarder that's goes on the top. So, it's pretty much completely encapsulated. Um we do not normally allow um you know your your your rocks, you know, bonfire type unless you get a burn permit and we'll come out to the site and inspect it and uh the fire department issues them for one day for a 24-hour time limit.

So if I have my uh my screen thing I buy at Lowe's, any night's fine. If I have my rocks, I have to have a burn permit. All right. I have neither. Say what?

I have neither. So I'm good. So, um, so yeah, so when you when you come and get a burn permit, you sign a piece of paper and it has all the rules and it has, you know, everything that you're allowed and what you're not allowed to do. Um, the weather has to be right. You know, you have to be outside of, I think it's May to October. Um, is the EPA has a no burn. So even if you come get a burn permit, we don't issue them during that time. So, And we posted something on the website. I mean on the website I think and also on the Facebook page too.

Yeah. And we we carry copies in the truck. So if we do make a call, you know, we'll we'll tell them to put it out and then we'll also hand them that like hey for future reference like this is this is what you're allowed because some some people aren't happy as you can imagine. What's the retardant on the top? Is it you mean like something to lid? What? The lid. Oh the lid. Oh, okay. the the the technical term is called a spark retarder. Okay. Now, what about what about a solo stove? Very popular those solo stoves. Um I I because it's a manufactured way, but it doesn't have a lid. Typically, they're smokeless.

So So you if you buy it from Lowe's, it has to be as you have to use it as manufactured specifications. So we we allow those. What about Home Depot? Uh, we do not do special favors for anybody. I'm sorry. Appreciate that about you. Yeah. Yeah. Safety check. Safety drivebys. Yeah. No, I'm just checking the laws because it's it's a public forum. We'll we'll get his address and we'll kindly uh place flyers in his mailbox. I expect those tomorrow. Yes. So there's no burning throughout October.

Um I believe it's uh it opens up October 1st. Okay. Yeah. So we say May to October. That's an EPA thing. State paid EPA. It's a pollution not really a fire danger issue. It's more a pollution issue that why it's prohibited. Yeah. Okay. And then sometimes depending on especially this fall so far it's been pretty dry. So sometimes the EPA will extend that as well. So, you know, sometimes they're like, "Oh, well, you know, October 1st I'm allowed to burn." We're like, "Well, EPA says no." So, we get a little push back, but everybody usually understands. You got questions?

Lieutenant, thank you for your time tonight. I appreciate your time tonight, gentlemen. Uh, enjoy your evening. Fire department done. We're gonna go right to to uh code enforcement lady's second tonight.

He's got nothing to do.

Um you have a copy of my report. Kind of the same old same old. But um tonight I wanted to talk about um the inspections. Cycle two is is started. Um and so far we he has inspected 273 units. Um typically what happens is um I'll have a day that you know I'm doing some things in the office and then I'll say hey you have inspections today. So I try to get with him and do threeish a month just to kind of see where we see where we're going. Um but it seems like this this um cycle Joe's car is on fire.

Seems like this. Give him 30 seconds. What is it? Oh, getting the truck out. All right, cool.

Oh. Um, I just wanted to say I feel like this cycle the residents kind of know what to expect. The landlords know what to expect. So, it's it seems to be a smoother transition into cycle two. Um, they're real receptive. Um, I mean, Bill's doing a great job. He kind of makes his own hours. He does, um, a couple evenings a month after five, so people that are working. Um, he doesn't, we don't want anybody to take off work or anything like that. So, um, he does a couple evenings a a month and then he does, um, late afternoons, lunchtime. Um, so yeah, it's it's working out really well so far. Don't we?

Yep. Don't we have uh Kentucky League of Cities, the KC? They're they're they're going to look into us on a program like this. So, in November, we are going to be speaking uh about what we've done here in the city with rental inspections, uh code enforcement, and how we've improved the housing and stock in our community. As a result, their their focuses will be on affordable or attainable housing and homelessness. And so they wanted us to talk about some of the innovative things we're doing here uh with the cities around the we there about five cities that are talking about things they're doing innovatively to improve the housing stock and the housing conditions.

That's awesome. Once again, as goes Dayton goes to Nton. So question as an auditor, I'm very curious on what these inspections are all about. Would it be an issue if I tagged along at some point for one of these inspections to see how this goes? I don't I mean I don't have a problem with it. I don't think be a problem. I don't I mean Yeah, I don't think it' be a problem. Get with Bill on his uh on his schedule. Make sure it works with your work schedule or whatever.

I'll tell you too. I mean, I don't know if you're interested, but like um he has some um larger apartment complexes coming up. Um and those are over like three, four days. So maybe you could pop in one time, you know, during that. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Any questions? No. All right. Thanks. Thank you, M. Patterson. Alex. Alex says there might be concern about doing that with someone who's not performing it as a staff member. So, Alex, it's a it's a issue. It's a privacy issue. The people that are in their homes or rental property be a concern.

There's a big difference between a legislative and executive function. when you cross that line and turn into on that particular issue most of the time would have nothing to do with it but it's a person's home and I would have some concerns if someone had a problem I mean if someone voluntarily says no problem how do you feel about like a vacant unit with nobody as long as the property owner consents it's the issue the person that would be living have a concern so if you find the property owner and they say you have at it sure just I think there's more there's more problems with it than benefits unless you have permission. Makes sense. Okay. Lawyers.

Sorry. Thanks, Alex. What's What's three lawyers at the bottom of the lake? Start. Good start, right? Start. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I love lawyers. Sorry. Yeah, especially you guys. You guys are my boys. Uh, thank you, Miss Patterson. Anybody have any questions for her? Oh, look at him. He's very presumptuous. I can call public works. Chief Hell, your report for the month.

Yes. So, uh, you all have my numbers. Uh, I try to do, uh, what council member Jud tried to suggested add a couple months to it to see how we are progressing or regressing, I guess. Uh so it it just it's a three-month period. So you can see things are kind of the same. Uh a little bit up from the month is traffic stops and that's due to uh I'm allowing the guys to work some overtime just to do traffic only which is like three-hour periods. Uh they'll come in work like uh the periods we're having problems with. Uh it's kind of a weird time 10 to one and then like a 4 to 4 to 7. So stuff like that when people are coming home from work and uh the complaints that come in, we kind of narrow down the time frame when this is happening. So we've been uh doing some traffic details plus we also got awarded a traffic grant through the state of Kentucky, the department of highway safety. So we'll be doing that uh starting I believe in November. Um so guys will be working that. That's why you see a little bit increase on the traffic stops for the month. Uh, I want to give kudos to uh, Lieutenant Colonel Baldwin. Um, we've been able to get a lot of, uh, grants through the state. Uh, some of the grants that we were able to get was, uh, body armor. Uh, we we have a body vest grant that we get. Uh, but this is additional plating. It's like called trauma plates that you can just throw on top of what you have underneath. additional for uh depending on the situation, high power, high powered rifles, uh stuff that the regular body armor might not be able to stop. Uh we were able to get that. Uh we able to get helmets, uh ballistic helmets, and we were just awarded shields. So, I don't know how many ballistic shields we're going to get. It was something I've been wanting to get.

They're very expensive. Somewhere between three and $5,000 a piece. It would be something that would uh help us tremendously. If we have to go into the schools and you're by yourself, it's a good tool to have as being the first one going into school shooting. Hopefully, we don't have anything like that or a shooting inside of a house. We have to get into the house. We have uh shields to help us out. So, we'll see how many we get with the grant and I think we're going to apply for it again to try to get. So, uh, kudos to him and trying to get that done.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. He's he's very proud of. I'm proud of him for getting it done. Uh, it's something that uh kind of we need it and it's stuff that we we need to have, but it's so expensive. These things are well over a couple thousand dollars a piece. So getting these uh items has been pretty significant for for the department. And then the other thing was the boat crews that came through uh went by very well. I just heard that he was very happy with uh kind of how things happened with the noise and making sure that they weren't loud and the you know hours of the night. Uh, so that's something we'll I guess next year try to keep an eye on the schedule and when they have that because sometimes we don't know what schedule they have for Queen City Riverboats so we can't really enforce it till we find out the next day that something happened. So we were ready for this one uh and talking with uh the company, you know, they had everything under control and lot of happy residents. They weren't woken o'clock in the morning. So that is it. I have

I had a question. Sure. Um what's the grant that you just got for traffic? Uh it's a highway safety grant. Okay. Uh and it's strictly u if you see if you've been seeing a lot of departments on the interstate lately. Uh Newport's got it, Highland Heights has it. you get awarded a certain amount each department depending on the size of your department. Uh so 471 uh doublea 27 you name it everybody's going to be out doing it and we we haven't been partaking uh over the last couple years because sometimes it was hard to fill.

A lot of people didn't have it. We didn't have like I discussed before we're not we weren't really a big traffic area. you know, we only had the the avenue and you know, we didn't have the developments uh back behind the flood wall that we had before. So, we reapplied for the grant uh given the traffic issues that we're starting to have. So, we were awarded uh I want to misspe, but I want to say three to $5,000. So, and what is the goal? Why would they all be on the highway? Uh, it's for seat belts, uh, people not paying attention, using their phones, speeding,

reckless driving, stop signs, you name it. Any traffic offense you can think of, uh, those officers are going to be looking and you will get cited and there's no warning. Okay. How's it going on um, Fairfield and six with speeding or uh, gunning it or ignoring pedestrians trying to cross? I see a lot of complaining on Facebook. Knock on wood. I think um I mean we haven't heard complaints in a long time. Okay.

Uh I do think with the purchase of the speed sign I mean I I was having to change the batteries twice a week and it was getting to be tedious. Uh, so we were able to buy a permanent, you know, using the solar and I think having that there has been slowing people down coming into the city because they're realizing their speed flashing or saying too fast, slow down, slow down, you know, and we really, knock on wood. Getting better. Yeah. Okay. Lot I've seen people out there having fun with it and trying to run past it and I mean that's just kind of cool. just people notices it and yeah, some like to see how fast I can get it up to and some 10.

My golf cart tops out at 16. I've done it a couple of times. You need a new golf cart, sir. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's sometimes it's a tool to to check your uh mile per hour on your vehicle. I mean, give or take a mile. Mine's pretty accurate. It got me once or twice. I'm not going to lie. Crap. That's 20. They're about one or two off, but yeah, they're usually Well, everybody's speedometer goes up to 160. So, you know, between 20 and 30 is just a small and nobody looks down at their speedometer anymore. How much did that sign cost? I I agree that's really effective. Uh, it was roughly about 3,000. Can we get another one for down on Manhattan Boulevard? Um, that is something I've been talking with Rick about. I do have the old one, right, that I can

It's battery powered. It's battery powered. Uh, but we need a pole. There's a certain pole that goes We had a pole down there, right? But when they put this gray building in right here, that's where the pole was, right? It vanished. At this pier, we looked, we looked, tried to find it. I couldn't find it. We thought it was in a mound of dirt somewhere and we couldn't find it because it takes a certain bracket. We only had four, we only have like three of them, I think. So, we need to establish another pole down there and another pole I want to put on date pipe uh to monitor the speed on both areas. That's something I'm kind of working towards, but good. I think they're very effective. Yeah, I said like you said, it's like a, "Oh my god, I'm going 27." Somebody's watching.

Some people just don't look at their speedometer when they're driving. Every time you stop somebody, they're like, "Oh, I didn't realize how fast I was." Right. And then with the new cars now, electric and stuff like that, it's like

you're flying without even knowing you're flying. Um, I want to um address this past weekend the in the whole week the park Gillan Park has been extremely busy and I don't want to know if you guys have anything in plan for late nights Gillan Park after dark because I mean I noticed last night um I know it's fall break but after 11 o'clock there's people out there and I'm not you know I don't want to impede on anyone's fun because it's a great hangout for the neighborhood but I don't know if you guys have anything in in place for be uh enhanced patrol because I know that if the if you guys are patrolling more, it's going to be a deterrent for people to to be mischievous. So, um I know it's going to get even busier and busier if with all the new improvements and I don't know if you guys have anything in plan for that.

Uh we try to get down there at dusk to make sure everything's locked up, the bathroom. So, everybody's supposed to be out of the park at that time, but we do have events at the school. Um just I remember the my kids when we had volleyball or basketball when we came out after the games there were kids in the park. I'm like you know looking at my watch I'm like they should all be at home or stuff like that but it's just run off from the basketball and stuff like that. Uh we do check the area and try to you know push them home and let them know the park closes at dust because it's it's an ongoing thing just constant thing. And now it's fall break. We just we just try to get down there a little bit more. Is there a non-emergency number that we can maybe post down there if we see something like instead of calling 911 with like a non-emergency number and then would you guys be willing to work with the students that were just came here that had addressed an issue with the bathroom like maybe doing a you know a small PSA to say okay the students recognize that they want to keep the park clean

and working along with conjunction with the police officers saying hey we will prosecute you and then like maybe put that out there as a PSA to say we're all working together to make sure this park works good. Well, the last I guess group we had because it's this year has been pretty rough on the bathrooms as far as vandalism and stuff like that. It's I mean five six times and it's every year it's about that amount. It's just uh we have to make an example of some. Um there are good kids down there but a lot of people don't want to say anything and we can't be down there all the time uh to monitor it. But um we do have the non-emergency dispatch number. I don't know if that's on our city website. It's on the police department's website. Um,

are the cameras helping? Yeah. Oh, yeah. The new cameras are much better than the old They can't be in the bathrooms, obviously. We don't know what they're doing in We can't see what they're doing in there, but we can figure out we can figure out coming in and out. Yeah. But we don't know that till after something has happened. Yes. But your staff blocks the bathroom at dusk at night. Well, giving the uh if we have time to do it at that time, if we're not on a call or anything like that, we'll try to get to it, you know, when we clear or have that time to run down there and get it done between calls.

And currently in our ordinances, u are the are all of the parks dusk to dawn closed? I have to check that. I'm not sure. Uh that's the way it's kind of been. I mean, yeah, there's a sign on Gil Lens that's closed at dark. Yeah. I didn't know if it applied to all the parks like Sergeant said, but we have lights down there for basketball. That's the difference. And you also have baseball games that go late, too. So, I think Gil Gilden may be different than the other parks. I think just a like a cruiser going around every once in a while like I'm sure you guys are doing that. I'm saying like

we constantly go around and sometimes I guess you know we do drive up into the park and stuff like that but we've been we've been told not to do that. So it's something the guys are going to have to get out and walk. We had to park outside and walk in. Uh usually I mean when I was working uh sometimes on night I'd just have my spotlight and shine the whole park. Just light it up. That'll do it. Yeah. Huh. That'll do it. Usually does. We see that spotlight. It's Well, we we have the fence down right now, too, because of the construction. So, when the new fence goes up, I think that will probably help a little bit. They can close that gate at night. Yeah. And uh that should keep some people out.

I screamed a few times. Yeah, the number is 859 29236 292 292 3622. So you don't have to call 911. And we rely on neighbors and you know like Jessica and some other people like you live right here too to call us and let us know you know because we can't be there all the time. might be assisting Belleview on something or you know sometimes some calls take hours could take a while or we can get somebody else to come down.

Talking about um people living close so that they should call. I wasn't going to nar on these people but our porch looks at that um stop sign on the levey and um people blow through that stop sign. I mean we were laughing. We were recording it like oh we're in like the one on Barry the flasher on Manhattan Boulevard. Manhattan Boulevard. Yeah. And it um Yeah. I mean I don't know. I don't know if that's high priority but wow. If you want to like rake in some cash it's like maybe 70 out of 100. 70 out of 100. We try and this is something we try to be there. See them. We're sitting there with the coffee like this.

If it ain't sixth and Barry it's sixth and you know six in Manhattan. If it ain't sixth man at it's fifth foul it's not fifth foul it's fourth so we're trying to do the best we can we can't be there all the time as you see this month I think sixth and berry the stop sign they had 14 and then uh officer Spears was pretty on fifth and no fallen he had 28 stops that one so he likes that area so but as you see those people you know people run that all the time too that's no foul pretty bad.

People are always saying, "Why aren't they not out looking for stop sign runners?" And then all of a sudden, I'm driving around town like come to a full stop. There's a cop right there or I'm walking down the street and I see one of our guys and I poke my head in their window and ask them how they're doing. So, I know they're out there doing doing good work. And sometimes people know when we're busy

and they know we're tied up. Sometimes they take advantage. So, a couple things that were said that might be able to tie together here. So, the students mentioned uh like rules of the park and we mentioned posting phone numbers, non-emergency phone numbers uh around there. What's the plan for signage at the park? Are we going to include stuff like rules of how to use the equipment? Are we going to include non-emergency line phone number posted anywhere? I had not thought about putting the non-emergency line up there, but yes, there were going to be rules of, you know, no beverages, no uh there there are rules at the playground. There already are rules. We're going to get some new signage, though. Yes.

Yeah, we had signage addressing that, but since we take we took the fencing fencing down, there's that that signage has gone away, but it's usually common knowledge like no driving into the park, no alcoholic beverages. We want a new entrance sign, too. The old one is kind of old. needs to be replaced. So, we're working on that.

Yeah, that's what I try to encourage. So, it's just But we just can't be everywhere as we only have 11 10 to 11 people and two two to three on a shift. It's just kind of hard to cover the whole city. Thank you.

Any other comments, questions, concerns for Mr. I'm sorry, Chief Hil? I got one last one if anybody doesn't just uh I know that Sergeant Lin Cougall had a you got what? He got married this week. Yeah. He's got married on Friday. Wife, Jessica, right? Jessica. Yeah. Yep. He's on his honeymoon right now. Good. Where' they go? Well, he they did a family trip to Hawking Hills. He's waiting. Yeah. But he's supposed to go to Seattle in the next coming. Excellent. Seattle's awesome. So, kind of like a family trip and then they're going to Seattle. Good for him. Well, congratulations to him and welcome to the family, Jessica. Thank you, sir, for your evening. All right. Thank you.

This is why you go last because there's so many questions except for uh Rick snuck out a little bit. So uh next on the docket for uh director's report, Rick Lucas, public works, please.

Well, everybody knows we got a lot going on. Uh D he's been keeping us real busy. He'll do that to you. Yep. And uh but I'll let him talk about all the different things that is going on. We'll talk about now. I mean, guys, the pickle ball courts, seating ground, you know, you all the old equipment, all the fencing and you did the um new playground equipment and you leveled it out and you seated that. Now you've been down on the river, putting the red bikes in. Now you've been on the river getting it all ready for the big um And we did get a few curbs. Yeah. And you painted some curbs. So, you guys have been really busy.

We're we're we're busy, but um tomorrow morning um they brought in the piece of equipment this today about where they're going to start grinding the trees and a pathway through down there on the on the trail, right? So, um I got to be down there every morning, I guess, around 7 7:30. I got to fill out a paper or something, let them let them know that they were there and what time they showed up and all that. Mike Jaggers that um other than that I mean well the good thing is Rick got a new hire uh yesterday so we have a new person on staff and started and we put him right to work didn't we? Oh yeah he's a good heard

and uh well we got another one maybe coming. Yeah. So, we have we have one of the st one of our current staff members is going to be leaving the city at the end of this year and so we need to replace him and but we are getting ready to make an offer to one other person too. No, everything's going okay. Um guess that we're busy and real busy. Now you got to try to get your alleys, right? What the alley? Alleys. We got two of them today. I sent two guys or sent three guys up to do alleys and I think they said they got two done, I think. And hopefully we can get the curbs finished and all the striping done in the parking lots and Sergeant Park and all that.

Right. That's great. I have a question. How's the railing that you were fabricating for the steps? How's that coming? Well, we lost our welder, but I think Jay's got one. I got somebody we're talking to. So, um, yeah, we're we're trying to find somebody. We had somebody at, uh, Metal Solutions, but he's no longer there. He was our contact and our our person. So, that's gone. So, we are trying to find somebody else. So, I'm working on an angle. Okay. And then, um, one of those black iron city garbage cans for um, when uh, that car took it out in front of the lodge. I think they were ones damaged from Yeah, there's Yeah, one of our um the older ones.

Do we have We have an extra one around, don't we? Uh I don't think we have one of them. We may, but I'd have to We got a couple garbage. Did it get hit by a car? Yeah, they took out What did they take? Light right there. That's when they took light pole out. They damaged garbage can, but it was one of the pretty ones with a steamboat on it. Yeah. Do you have any of those? I don't know. I'd have to check. I don't think we do. Yeah, we had one nice place. Do you have anything nice? We could get a black one. We got those green ones and black ones. I wouldn't do a green one. We went black as our our theme downtown. Black ones with the railings coming up the side. Like I mean, they're nice. They won't match what we got.

Okay. Metal Solutions designed the garbage cans with the Maybe we should go back to them and talk about what it would Oh, they said they'd be willing to make it more, you know, 10 more, 12 more, whatever we need. We'll have to decide. We'll talk with Jared. We have to make sure they're consistent what we have in our downtown, too. So, kind of gotten away from that. So, we'll we'll talk about that. Okay. But we did definitely get some more. And we did get that put in down on the trail today. Yeah. So, they not the uh garbage cans. We ran out of time on that. two two benches have been installed on the on the first section of the trail down on the river and as well as three garbage cans and they're nice rod iron um we got four benches down there the the first two cutouts each

yeah four benches but only three garbage cans right now they're waiting for one more to come in partners has paid for that city didn't pay for that good I think so yeah I mean the guy the guys you know they're they're coming up with the plans and they're doing most of the work Yeah, they've put a lot of money in her. My only suggestion is to the left and right of the benches, can I put some tulips? Put some what? Tulips. Tulips. I think flowers would be nice. Oh, yeah. All right. He said yes. Jewelry watching it. That one year Mr. Yoder when he was here, he had us plant these flowers and all those cutouts. River came up, washed them all away. Right.

Well, let's give me one year. Okay. But, uh, so wait, what do you want? Where are the tools? Now, Julie was going to do some, uh, gorilla gardening. Yeah. Uh, down there. She bought all these, uh, toilet bulbs for our yard and we had way too many. And she's like, I'm going to go down there and put them down there on those those those cutouts. Okay. And then today we saw the the benches there, and she's like, they put benches where I was going to put my tulips. And I was like, it's okay, honey. You can still put your tulips there. I'll get it cool with Rick. I think the landscaping those areas will be something in the future. Once we get the whole trail done, let's focus on that. But right now, the benches are a great addition. You'll see them garden

down there down there on Thursday. You'll see they look great. Yeah, everything's going. We got a lot cleaned up. Really? It looks great. I mean, you can see the river bank, which you couldn't see before. It's really, really looks good right now. Hopefully, you get a chance come down Thursday for the groundbreaking. They'll get to see what it looks like. It looks really good. Yep. It's uh It looks pretty good down there. Other than that, that's really all I have.

Well, I want to thank administration and public works. I know I've been a pain in the to about the curbs being painted. And uh it's like anything, put a fresh coat of paint on it, it looks a lot nicer. So, I appreciate the ones you've gotten done. It looks so much better. and we get them done, then we get started and all of a sudden Jay comes around. I need this, I need that. I see where we also actually picked up some parking spots, two or three possibly on the avenue just by painting over, you know, what had been there for 30 years. So, thank you for getting that done. We probably picked up two on Main Street right before you get to Fifth Street, too. That was all yellow for some reason.

Well, the bumpouts are really, really helped us. The reason they had such long yellow spots was because you had the sight distance. You had to have those they were blocking the park blocking the views. But now with the bumpouts, you're out there. You can see it. So we were able to get more parking because we were able to take away the some of those yellow lines that were there because giving you the sight sight views. So yeah, and we're we got Sixth Avenue done. Now we're going to be working on the side streets. Get some of those finished as well, including up here by the school. We got to repaint the fire lane and get rid of some other ones there as well. Yeah, we need it in front of Lincoln school. I I always see cars just pulled over there in front of Lincoln. Yeah. Uh that whole block of Fifth Street

where they lined up to pick the kids. Yeah, but there should be no parking. Well, I've never seen anybody out of the car. Oh, yeah. I haven't. I mean, but I don't go down there very much. through the line. Yeah, but I'm saying I have seen even after hours people parked on that north side of Fifth Street there. Just the other night when they had an event down there at school, there was two or three cars parked there. Car and Yeah. Wow. Probably probably instead of yellow, we probably just put signage says school drop off pickup only. No, no, no. No long-term parking or something like that. The other spot is people might be confused. Can I park here waiting picking on my kid or not? So, we might have to figure that out a little bit.

The other spot that needs to be done, especially before basketball season starts, is on Green Devil Lane from Third Street North up against the school there because I think that should be at least a fire zone. You know, no parking there. It is in front in front in front of the school. It is a fire zone. Just needs to be repainted. The whole thing is a fire zone. Not on not not on the west side, but on the east side. Correct. The school is going to get painted all the way around until you get to the ad building. Ad building up the third is going to be gray. Okay. It don't have to be yellow. That's on that's on the west side of the over where the board of education building is.

Yeah. We'll have some there over by there's a small little area that comes from the alley behind the school and it needs to be yellow because it's not not tight enough for fire trucks and buses to get through. But once you get down there, it opens up much larger. We're gonna paint some of that yellow gray. So give additional park people work there anyway. So yeah, we that's that's the next painting we're gonna Yeah. When we can do that by hand and then are they paving they're paving third street here, right? I think so. Yeah. And when they do that, we'll put in crosswalks unless they're going to do it.

Put a crosswalk and then we also have no parking by the by the new wall and the Green Devil Lane pedestrian area. So we'll figure that out. I mean, we're we're loaded. We got plenty to do. I hope you get the painting is going to have to come here pretty soon or it's going to be too wet or too cold. Leaves coming up. We got leaves coming up. Yeah. Sorry to damper. Pick up two loads. We just got to make sure the one house I'm not going to mention

that doesn't call every other day to pick up a pile. So, so, uh, earlier last late last week, Rick and I went to the Covington public works building with our architect that's working with us on the design for the new public works building. And Rick was salivating all the equipment there, the leaf picker uppers, the front loaders. We had a leaf picker upper. They they don't work in date. We don't have enough room, right, to get around. But there was a lot of other stuff that he looked at that he was like, "Oh my god, make it a lot easier to get things done. Go to Cincinnati." Right. They have a reason. Hey, I tell you Coington, you know, they got a lot of stuff there, right? They have a tax specifically to fund fun. Oh, yeah. I mean, five times our

Well, they got 75 employees and uh at least, right? I got four. Getting ready to have five, but I'm going to lose one. Can we get him a razor? No, I think the beard's looking good on Rick. I ain't had time to shave. That's right. He's working too hard, Joe. Yep. I notice you're retired and nicely clean shaven. Yeah, couple times. And you know, and guess what? Like I was telling Jay today, I'm the third tallest in our department. Oh boy, he's only got four guys. That's right. I've always been the shortest. I got two guys shorter than me. Congratulations, sir. All right. Any other questions for Rick? Mr. Lucas, thank you for your work, sir.

That closes our department heads for the evening. Brings it up to the city administrator's report. Mr. Faucet, sir. Yeah. So, you hit the big things we have coming up, the pickle ball and the Yeah. and the uh equipment dedication and the groundbreaking

for um phase two and three on the riverw walk, which is Long River. But the other big news this week is that OKI approved our grant for improvements to the levy trail, which is the trail we've had around for 25 years, which is kind of narrow and and kind of old and run down. Uh so we have been awarded a grant uh $1.1 million, almost $1.2 million. Uh we have to pay a 20% match, but we've already budgeted that. We've in fact we've budgeted for three years because we've been trying to get this thing approved for three years. The really nice thing about this project is that no longer we have to go to the end of the trail uh the east end and turn around and walk back because we're going to be able to go down uh off the trail now and connect to Mary Engles and also create a loop with the new river walk. Uh so we'll have a three-mile loop in the city now. Uh 1.5 miles on the river and 1.5 miles on the levy. It will be awesome. Is that I'm sorry. Is that going to be on the inside or the outside of the flood wall?

It's on top of the flood wall. No, no, no, no. The access coming on the east end to get down to street. You will be on the northern side of it. So that's the outside. What do you call inside to the northern side going towards the river? You'll be going on the northern side. Well, technically the east between Manhattan Boulevard and the flood wall. Gotcha. And it will will that be a ramp or a set of steps? It'll be an ADA accessible ramp. Sweet. And then we're also going our plans are we'll do this in house is to create a sidewalk off those steps that's going to go down and then connect to the sidewalks on is that Main Street right there at the back end of uh the Jamestown Apartments. Oh, good.

So, we'll be have a second access. you'll be able to use those steps and we want to get some railings. Um when I talk to our welding person about doing railings there up that up there. So people are using that more and more I see. Oh yeah. And I think once we do the loop you're going to have more people using it. And that allows people from the apartments to come down into the businesses

apartments as well as uh Kenton Boon folks that live in that area as well. So that the great news is is that that project we've been working on for three years is finally going to happen. The big question is hopefully that money will actually get here to the Kentucky Department of Transportation. Uh there was a story New York Times about three weeks ago that the current administration is looking at focusing more on motor vehicle type of funding and not the other type of funding. So I'm hopeful that you know I mean it creates jobs. I'm hoping that it's going to go through. So we'll just have to wait and see. The big hurdle was getting approval and now we need to get the funds from the federal government into the state coffers. So that's a big deal. That's all I really have. That's all I got. Any questions for Mr. Faucet for tonight's uh administrator report?

All right. Thank you for your report, sir. Uh coming up to the end here, but we got a few more things. Uh the audience comments. Anybody like to address council administration on anything that crosses your mind? Uh just state your name and address, please.

Christian Neighbor house. Um lived down at 439 Manhattan Boulevard. Just moved in with my wife a couple uh months ago in April. Uh a couple things. First, I want to just let you guys know that from the back at least, it's very difficult to hear a lot of the discourse going back and forth. I think especially from this mic, I missed a lot of the presentations. Uh tonight I didn't really hear anyone that spoke from this uh podium here through this microphone uh very clearly back there. Merrick, your uh voice is typically pretty clear, but I noticed that you're you're speaking almost routinely directly into the mic. A lot of other times maybe people are wavering back and forth and it's really difficult to hear. And I asked uh Jerry Huntley who was sitting next to me. He agreed. Okay. So I just that's just FYI. Keep that in mind. And I just kind of went back, you know, here like here that you're probably going to always get that. You might want to turn this mic up. Several of the other mics I think the would benefit if we turn that up.

We'll talk to Jerry about that. He's our he's our expert. And I do try to keep it like like right here. Yeah, cuz Well, it's good cuz I' I've never not heard you. So that's good. So Ben was a Ben was a TV and radio. Um I used to work on the radio WRFL. There you go. Yeah. Well, maybe you can get Can we buy these from Jerry Hley? And isn't he the one who's kind of You could buy the biggest microphone in the world if you sit back here and talk about Correct. Okay. So, it's not the mics, it's that we are using them wrong. Yes. Yeah. Like I'm speaking really close into this right now and and I'm surprised at how loud it's not. So, at the very least, I think this might, you know, that microphone could be turned up. Yeah. Okay. Because this is also then on the video, right? Like, yeah. Do you ever watch the videos?

No. Okay. I don't know. It's hard to say. I'll watch it tonight. But a lot of times like hello with the with the podium and I'm not sure we've gone on about this for I think three years now about this like the bane of my existence. Like how do we right now make this better to where we're speaking to the microphone hold?

No. that we know that the people there we know what their face should look like that we can be very confident that they're being heard by the audience and also being on the video because this just kind of comes on and on like you I can always hear you can't hear Jay like and then a lot now that you mention it it is hard when somebody comes up there and I think are they not is it not on but it's too late and you can't hear like I actually want to watch it tonight and see what those girls said because I had to be late today and I'm hoping that it was captured on video, but I never can be 100% sure that it is. I mean, if we don't have somebody sitting here with a parabellic mic standing right next to the girls that are sitting back there, unless you're clearly speaking into the microphone, it's not going to be caught up.

And unfortunately, a lot of people don't speak into that microphone. They're too far away from it. And we need to probably ask them to speak closer to it. Yeah. Maybe we should make that microphone because I mean, it's not it's not even close to your your face right now. It's I I wonder how you're coming across. I'm closer than I think a lot of you are very frequently. You know, I I I was watching this, you know, tonight and I and at times sometimes some of you are here because you're looking to talk to each other and that's fine. You can hear each other across, but it's not getting picked up in the microphone when when right wavering back and forth.

Okay. I have I have a cheap solution, Alex, because I was told one time that I'm not supposed to touch my phone during a city council meeting because now you have to enter it into whatever, right? But would it be okay if I just asked my husband to sit there in the kitchen and watch that TV and he could text me and go, "You can't hear can't hear the podium. Can't hear." I mean, would that be okay so I could have live feedback on whether that video was working or not? It' probably be better to have him text Jared cuz he's got controls. Okay, Jared. Nine times out of 10, it's user error.

Whatever. I find I Let me finish, please. I have the floor. Go ahead. I agree with you. At the podium, people are usually nervous. They're not used to speaking into it or being able to hear themselves while they're speaking. Uh, and maybe a handheld mic might be a solution to that. I don't know. But maybe just reminding people that if we can't hear that speaker to tell them to speak up into the microphone, right? uh whether it's us up here or someone at the podium just to remind them that you can hear that speak. I can't hear that speaker now. Right. Right.

But I can hear that speaker now. So just remind people if you can't hear it just say can you speak into your microphone? No offense taken. Okay. I would like real time feedback on whether that is being heard by the public when they're watching it on the video and it is also being captured on the video for later because it's very easy to think that I can hear everything but they can't and I don't know that until later when I watch the video and it's too late. So I think we need a real What about lavalier mics? H lavalier mics whatever it should work put like a that way you don't you can't escape it.

Yeah. I mean, different microphones have different pickup patterns and and and they're, you know, you have a figure eight pattern or you have um there's lots of different So, and Jerry's probably your guy to talk to about that. Jerry, we've already done that. Yeah. It's really frustrating. We've gone round and round about this. Okay. Um I I don't know. I'm What do you say right now about Doug watches it every week, every second Tuesday, and he calls Jared or whatever? And that's real time feedback. Can you hear it or not? instead of what we feel or that we think it sounds good. It's hard to tell when we're up here what you know for real like how can we fix this because we've gone around with Jerry for two years now.

How do we fix user error? We fix at least we know that we are not heard and then we go from there instead of being uh feeling like it's fine until it's not. said to council many many many times, please speak into your microphones. And a lot of times people sit back like this and they don't talk in their microphone. Okay. And yet and yet nobody told them to. I'll put I'll strap a microphone. We'll do Gar Brook style microphone. And then then we could all I mean, are we really going to do that? I mean, we are people really not going to follow the rules in because obviously we don't. Obviously, we don't. I don't think it's intentional, but obviously if we can't hear somebody's doing, is that what you came to discuss or

uh I have another comment, but I I mean I recognize that the difficulty. So, uh but the other thing I wanted to mention if if you want me to go on um I do. So, I Yeah. So, I I think it's great that um the grant went through or sounds like it might go through for the levy improvements and I heard you talk about um access from the north side. I didn't quite get where that is. So currently on on top of the levy when you walk down the levey to the east it dead ends at at the at the flood wall. Yeah. So yeah. And you have to turn around come back cuz there's otherwise you go go down the grass. There's going to be a ramp that goes down onto Mary Engel's highway. Okay. Okay. So you'll be able to basically cross the street and then come down on the trail along the river.

Okay. And make a loop. I think it would be great from at least my perspective and I think a lot of the people that that walk up and down if there was access more access points by way of either a ramp or stairs um from the north side. So right now there's one set of stairs. It looks like they're legacy stairs have been there, you know, for for a long time that's uh you know east of Barry. um at least one other set closer, you know, down uh down this way or maybe a little further or even more. I would love to see that be part of that project. I don't know what it takes. I don't know how much the core

probably Mckenni would we talked about this council member Ner talked about maybe stairs at McKenna as well. So it would be probably the same equidistant stairs as you would have on the Yeah. on the west side of Yeah. And we're going to have a ramp uh plan is having a ramp that goes down to the river walk right at Barry too. So there will be access right in the middle of the of the trail going down.

So what you see now are people you know hoofing it over the the grass. Um which you know it can be done certainly uh no you know no problem but it sure would be nice to you know have uh have better ingress by way of stairs or or a ramp elsewhere besides the one set. Um, I'm talking about from the north side, south side maybe as well, but you know, particularly the north side. I mean, we're if we get this grant uh funded, that would probably be the perfect time to do that additional steps. So, and and that wouldn't be that expensive. So, we could look at, you know, the budget, whether the budget would allow something like that. Yeah. Because that wasn't included, I don't think, in in the grant. Um, it was just mainly for the top and getting down the other end. So, but I think it's a good idea. Thank you.

Thanks for coming in. Uh, how how long you been in Dayton? Uh, April. Awesome. Welcome. He's got that beautiful modern more modern house on Manhattan Boulevard. Oh, is that yours? That's that's a beauty, man. Yeah, real big fan of that one. Uh, anybody else from the audience can make comments? All right. Any new business? Council, remind everyone about Halloween.

Oh, that's a great point. Halloween is going to be on October 31st, oddly enough between the hours of 6 and 8 and uh the Dayton Green Devils are going to take the field on Saturday instead of Friday this this this month uh so that we can get everybody out trick-or-treating. So, uh come on out both nights. An excellent point. Uh couple comments and calls to action for me as well. Uh, one was the the heritage museum soft opening was successful. I saw member Neri there as well. 40 40 people came. That's awesome. Yeah, for a soft Yeah, it's great. The official opening would be next month.

Yep. And member Ner really does uh care about paint because he apparently painted the walls in there too and the city building and this building the other the other item is uh we just had the Riverroots festival in Cincinnati area. Uh just like to call out for next time around to see how we can get more engaged as a city in that going forward especially being we have a steamboat on our um logo. So, uh, especially with the riverfront commons stretch that's going to happen along the walkways there. Try to figure out a way whenever if and when they do that. So,

I actually talked to Julie Kpatrick, uh, and Northern Kentucky meet NKY. They they Covington wasn't even didn't even have anything. So, they were just focused mainly on Newport and Cincinnati. So, that was really the only two places that they had. Coington had nothing as well. So, hopefully they expanded. I think they had some hiccups this time, some marketing issues. So, uh, but sure, I think that would be great if we could get involved.

Good deal. And then my last comment is, uh, again feedback from the students today about the sand volleyball. Uh, I know, um, it was brought up that the budget needs to be set for that. Um, I would be open to adjusting the budget if needed be to get that going so that they have it used for next summer. So, just something to consider. Okay. If you want to do a little preliminary uh, figure out what that costs, that'd be helpful. Sure. and where I think there's a space I think we could do by the park session because we're we're not adding anything else where the big park is like that's all we're putting in. So right there on the back side of the concession would be perfect.

That's what I was thinking too. Yeah, that's kind of an although we planted some trees there. We meant to transplant a tree or two but I think that's the logical place for that would be I just want I just want that's our biggest concern. We should at least listen. Exactly. I want to see that action as quickly as possible if we can. So, because that would encourage them to bring more ideas forward. So, compared to pickle ball court, it'll be relatively cheap. Yes. Sand and a net. Yep. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Any other new business? Yeah, I'll I'll apologize in advance, sir. I have three things that I'd like to bring up. Two of them are transportation related.

Good point. It was announced recently that tank is tanking some of its routes. Uh I've always felt that the number 12 route here into Dayton is one of our biggest assets. Um in fact, back in the horse and buggy days, it was the number 12 trolley. So that's been around for over hundred years. Um, I would like to see our our citizens made more aware that they're they're open for comment right now. There is a public meeting. Uh, I forget the date on that. Uh but they do have a survey on their um page the announcing this and I would like administration or if you want me to do it push it out to all the citizens please take this survey because every person that's on that bus is one less vehicle on Fairfield Avenue and Route 8. Um the second thing is also related to transportation and Route 8. Um, in the Belleview community news, it was interesting that someone wrote Alina Stanbury wrote an article about, you know, being stuck on traffic on Fairfield. And I was waiting for them to blame it on Dayton. But, um, that's the the traffic situation pretty much from Ward Avenue West all the way into Newport, in fact, uh, is getting worse and worse, and I don't see any relief on it. I would like to see the cities of Dayton and Belleview and Newport hold KYTC's feet to the fire to redesign the intersections at Riviera and at 471. Uh the the light adjustment that they've done isn't working. Um maybe they can make some more adjustments, but there has to be some long-term plan. people

are not giving up their cars and we are getting more people moving in and uh now we have households with three and four cars. It's the number of cars. I I'd like to see all three city administrations get together with some proposals, whether it be roundabouts or whatever, and get KYTC's attention on this because it's really impacting our quality of life. It's impacting our property values. It's costing them commuters time. Um, and if you want, I I'll be involved in that because I sat in that for 35 years. Uh, the last thing is as a reminder for council and the mayor and anybody else interested in doing this gig, uh, filing for the November 26 election for council, mayor, PVA, county clerk, etc., opens on November the 5th and closes on January the 9th of 2026. So, the forms are all online. Um, I encourage anybody that thinks they can do this to put their name in the hat. That's all I have, sir. That's my three things.

Um, before we leave, I want to thank the city administration, Jay, Jared, uh, Ben, for the job well done on the pickle ball courts. I'm going to reserve a lot of my comments for the next meeting because just overwhelmed with with joy and all the emotions that you get whenever you see something for the community coming into fruition. So, the ribbon cutting tomorrow is going to be a great thing and we have the best pickle ball courts in Northern Kentucky. Um I play pickle ball every day and um pretty proud to to say that we have the best pickle ball courts and to bring people down here. Like I said, I'm going to reserve a lot of my comments for next meeting because just overwhelmed with having a soft opening and already have people coming and playing and then having another soft opening today and just having all four of the courts already um filled before we've even done a ribbon cutting. It's just going to be great for our city and I appreciate your hard work.

Thank you, sir. I really mean thank you. That's awesome. Uh, anybody else new business? I was just over here checking uh member Ner I think uh brings up a great point about tank. Uh the next there's two more public forums that are going to be available tomorrow between 2 and there's one in Florence but we all ain't going to Florence, right? So the one two and four at the Covington Transit Center and between 4 and 6:30 at the Campbell County Public Library, the Newport branches, which is really close to Dayton. go and say your words. The next one will be Thursday, so just two days away. Same thing, same uh uh it's 4:30 to 6:30 at Kinton County Public Library, which is over on Scott Street. It's a beautiful library. My grandmother worked there. Uh I got two quick things to talk about before I will uh go forward with Jeremy. The first one again is to remind everybody that the senior lunchon is going to be on Monday the 20th. Please, if you're of age, come and join. If you are not of age, come and volunteer. We'd love to have you serve food. And lastly is the greatest band in the world, My Morning Jacket, will be playing at Mega Corp on Monday the 20th. Drinks and refreshments and free food are at my house beforehand. Come see radiate the gold.

Do I have a motion for adjournment? I'll make that motion. Motion made by member Nean. Do I have a second? A second. Second by member Horton. All in favor? I I. Any abstain? Any nays? Gradiate the board.