City Commission - Regular Meeting

Commissioner Henderson?

Present.

Commissioner Smith?

Here.

Commissioner Thomas?

Here.

Commissioner Wilson? Present. Mayor Bray?

Present. I would ask Commissioner Wilson to do the invocation and then we'll remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please join me in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you on behalf of all of us who are gathered for the many blessings that we have. Thank you for the ability to be involved in useful work. We ask today for your guidance and support as we make decisions on behalf of our city and our community. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic City Manager, are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? Mayor, none this evening. Okay, we have one person making public comments, and that would be Marshall Davis.

Thank you, Mayor and Commission. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I've got a little summary of my, or actually my... Okay. I'm Marshall Davis, a local resident and business owner, and I'm here to urge again the City Commission to reconsider the city's regressive business license tax policy. Specifically, I'm asking you to review, scrap, and replace our current tax on gross receipts. A gross receipts tax completely ignores the actual health of a business. It overlooks a company's specific profit structure, its unique business model, and its ability to reinvest in our community. The reality of running business is that financial stability ebbs and flows. A business can experience a year with high sales volume but incredibly low profitability due to rising costs. Yet by taxing gross receipts, the city ignores this economic reality. You tax businesses heavily, even when they're struggling to keep their doors open. Currently, the city attempts to solve this inequality by creating a varied category structure for different industries. I contend that this system is inherently flawed. Some businesses naturally operate on razor thin profit margins while others enjoy high margins. A flat tax on gross sales fails to capture that nuance, placing an unfair burden on low margin, high volume businesses. Furthermore, this tax structure actively stalls local economic growth. When businesses have money available, they want to reinvest it. They buy new equipment, they remodel their storefronts, and they reward their staff with better wages and safer work environments. By taxing gross sales instead of net profit, the city directly robs local businesses of the capital needed for those improvements. You are penalizing growth and draining the funds that would otherwise flow directly back into our local workforce and neighborhood infrastructure. Let's make our taxing system equitable. We must urgently reform Paducah's business tax structure to evaluate companies on their actual net income rather than their gross revenues. Currently, our local tax system operates in reverse. It imposes a crushing burden on small businesses while granting substantial tax advantages to large established corporate entities. Taxing small businesses without regard for low profit margins, soaring inventory costs, or high operating expenses is economically unsustainable. It's time for governing entities to stop penalizing the foundational storefronts of our community and implement a fair-tiered system based on true take-home earnings. The simplest solution is to implement a net profit tax as structured in McCracken County. I implore this commission to adopt a fair tax based on net profit. I appreciate your time.

Thank you, Marshall. Okay, I do have an announcement to make tonight. The city is restructuring two of our departments. And I'll try to walk everybody through it. But we are establishing a Department of Community Development. And we're going to combine our code enforcement and building and electrical inspection departments under the heading of Department of Community Development. This new department will be under the leadership of Carol Galt. It's designed to lean into the... community growth and development that we anticipate in the months and years to come and making approvals and interactions more user-friendly to developers and contractors. No employees will be added or taken away. and our deputy fire chief slash fire marshal and his staff will remain part of the fire department. And I just wanna point out while we're talking here that under deputy chief Cherry's leadership over the last couple of years, there's been tremendous progress made We've gotten a lot of positive comments from the community, and I really think that seeing how things can improve and work better really helped lead the Commission to this decision to make things even more user-friendly in the future. Obviously, going forward, collaboration with those who remain in the fire department, who are working on all kinds of things in the community, and we'll need to interface with our new department. You know, that collaboration is going to be key. But we'll be getting a press release out on it as well, but I just wanted to make that announcement to the community. And so now we'll move to the consent agenda. And those items are considered to be routine by our board of commissioners and will be enacted by one motion and one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a board member so requests, in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. The city clerk will read the items recommended for approval unless any commissioner would like an item removed for separate discussion We do have one item. Yes.

City Manager? Remove item D, the approval of the permanent easement for the Joint Sewer Agency. Okay. For separate discussion. That will move to be the first item under municipal orders tonight.

Okay. So I'll ask the city clerk then to read the items recommended for approval.

Approve minutes for the August 11th, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting. Receive and file documents, personnel actions. A municipal order approving a contract with Building Conservation Associates in the amount of $75,750 to prepare a historical structure report for the Hotel Metropolitan and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with the Paducah Area Transit System in the amount of $215,000 for public transportation services. A municipal order authorizing the purchase of Microsoft licensing from Insight Public Sector in the amount not to exceed $108,000 through the Kentucky NASPO Cooperative Purchasing Contract and authorizing the finance director to expend funds for said purchase. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a 2027 Kentucky Litter Abatement Grant application through the Kentucky Division of Waste Management, for the Public Works Department Street Litter Abatement Program, accepting all awarded grant funds and authorizing the mayor to execute all award documents. A municipal order accepting the bid of Linwood Motors for the sale to the city of Paducah, four patrol SUVs in the amount of $57,166 each, and one detective SUV in the amount of $52,745, for a total amount of $281,409. are used by the Paducah Police Department in authorizing the mayor to execute the contract for same.

So moved. Second. Call roll, please.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. Okay, the first municipal order is the one we pulled off the consent agenda, and I'll ask the city clerk to please read it.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled a municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a sanitary sewer easement between the city of Paducah and the Paducah-McFargan County Joint Sewer Agency for approximately 1.09 acres of city-owned property located in Noble Park.

So moved. Second. Hey, John. Welcome. Tell us about this easement and why it's a good thing.

If you look at one of your TV screens, you're going to see a not-so-great picture. But that is the outfall over there at Noble Park. You can see the Greenway Trail. Just to the lower portion of the picture is the dog park area, I think. And then you can see the two kind of... blacked-in structures. What we're proposing to build over there is very similar to what we've done over by our treatment plant. The JSA, we've been in a consent agreement with the state and the feds related to combined sewers and work related to that. This is another project in the iteration of work we've been doing for many, many years. This project is related to the 15 million gallon tank that we built. At the treatment plant, the 80 million gallon a day pumping station and diversion station there and the screening. If you remember last year, we cut through the flood wall over there. The sanitary sewer separation in Wallace Park, the sanitary sewer separation at Bridge Street. So now we're here at Noble Park. The project, the The goal of the project with our long-term control plan, which is our plan that we submitted to the state for combined sewers, is to actually pump and treat 40 million gallons a day of water that will flow through that outfall. The drawing that we have here is an early iteration of what we were proposing. Right now we've got the capability to do 60 million gallons a day instead of 40. And what we're going to do, it's a little bit, I'm going to spend some time talking about it, but I'm not going to do that. If you go out to that outfall, you have a City of Paducah flood wall pumping station out there right now. And that station is designed to kick on right around, and this is all river elevation, river elevation 42. Okay. It's kind of strange that station is actually higher than the invert, which is the flow line of your regular gravity drainage pipes. So in other words today, there are five or six 60-inch pipes through the flood wall right there that are going to drain Paducah. Those are seven feet lower than the pump station that would pump all that flow out during a high river. In other words, you're... Floodwaters get up on that flood wall. You close those gravity drainage pipes, and you want that pump station to pump. That pump station won't kick on until there's seven feet of water in that area. That's not optimum. for drainage flow. That was designed that way because in 1940 that is pre the bomb plant and all of that area was farmland. So that current city of Paducah flood wall pump station, and when I talked with Rick, the numbers, I think that current pump station can only pump about 20% of what can be drained out during a gravity situation. which is not the greatest, but it'd be very, very difficult to modify that pump station, especially under a core spec. Core spec would blow that number out of the water. So what we're doing is we're going to build a pump station that actually is lower than the current gravity pipes out. So we'll kind of suck all the first flush of the water into a screened area, screen it all out, take leaves, bottles, whatever is in that flow, and then pump it over the flood wall. And so that's the two black things that you see on your picture. One is by your outfall. That is where we're going to have two 54-inch pipes delivering to a pump station that's closer to the city's pump station, where we'll screen it with two screens, a coarse and a fine, and then pump it over the flood wall. That's the first phase. The next phase, many, many years from now, will be to actually put in a disinfection system there, possibly some sort of filtration system to enhance that. But what we're trying to do in the early parts of what we're doing is to get these pump stations in because the benefit there will be that 60 MGD is actually bigger than what that current flood wall pump station can do. So we're going to more than double our flood wall pumping capability with this station. That's really what's important for the city to know. The treatment stuff is what we've got to do and enhance that. But what we're trying to do in some of these projects, the feds in the state are concerned about water quality on the Ohio River. That's all great, but if we have to do this work for them, we're trying to do as much as we can to benefit the folks that are actually paying for the work, which are the people of Paducah and McCracken County. So project's going to be about $15.2 million. I've got a KIA loan for this job. That KIA loan is going to be at 1.75% interest with a 0.2% fee, so it's 1.95%. And I'm going to get 22% principal forgiveness. So we're going to get about 3.3% off that 15.2%. It's third in the row for me. We're on a roll right now. This is a same type of project that we just finished up at the plant. It's going to be a little bit cheaper. We did that job in really two to three phases because we don't have as far for the piping to go. And this is not going to be as intrusive out there. You know, we had to shut that greenway tree down for three or four months. because we did a big cut and we installed a 72-inch drainage pipe. These are going to be a series of 30-inch force mains that will travel up the flood wall and down, so the excavation and the cut and the time period that the Greenway Trail would have to be shut down. It's going to be a lot more minimum. So that's really in a nutshell. With the KIA loan, even though JSA and the city are good partners, I do need a legal easement in order to qualify for the funding and to get a certificate. So if I could just interject.

Ask away. In layman's terms, when this is finished, You know, the thing that the city wrestles with from time to time, and, you know, when I was first elected, Rick Murphy took me over and showed me, you know, all the problem areas of Paducah. And Noble Park was, you know, he explained it all. You know, the way when the water levels get up, you know, it becomes an issue. So in layman's terms, you know, once this is installed... How is it going to help us?

Well, all the piping in the world in the inner part of the city can't do anything if you can't pump it out during a high river. You can put all the pipes you want to get it there, but in a high river is the issue that you're going to have. This supplements that in a high river. And when does it normally rain? All at one time in the spring when the river's up. And so that should help. Like I said, you're doubling your pumping capacity there. And in addition to that, you're taking that water that might stay. So when you put your floodgates in, when you, and I don't talk about, you guys talk about the gates you see, the gates that matter are the ones actually on the pipes. And so when you put your gates in on the pipes, that's where you're at your highest risk of flooding because pumping flow never can match what can go out by gravity. You just can't. That's just how it is. So you're going to be able to double kind of what you're doing now. And then in addition to that, that seven foot of water that sits in there can back up into the city a pretty good way. The city's pretty flat. That's one of the problems that we're never going to solve is the city's pretty flat. We'll have all that pumped out. So you're going to start on a rain event on a better keel than you're starting right now.

So remind us of the rain event that occurred in... 2015. Tell us about that. I mean, just remind us.

Well, that rain event was not a fun day. That rain event, the problem with that rain event is you had that rain event during a high river to some point. Not a total high river, but during a high river, and you had five inches in an hour and a half. I don't know where you can go in the continental United States and have five inches an hour and a half and do well. I mean, I don't know that you can. People will come and ask me all the time, how can you fix stormwater? You cannot fix stormwater. Can't do it. You can work on stormwater. You can try to improve stormwater. There's always going to be a rain of it that's going to beat you. Like Indiana, you guys have seen all the Indiana stuff. How are you supposed to combat that? There's not a pipe big enough when it takes a road to be the ditch for the water to go. All you can do is just try to work on it.

So that rain event in 2015, five inches in an hour and a half, and the fact that the water had nowhere to go because the water was up very high on the flood wall.

The water hadn't... That rain, it would not have mattered. You would have had substantial damage at a 15-foot river, which is where we're at right now, or a 50-foot river. That rain event was massive. And people will say, oh, and that's what they talk about. People say, well, the 100-year flood's wrong because we've seen it more than 100 years. That's not what that means. A 100-year flood means that you have a 1% chance of getting it every year. And so every year you reset that clock. And, you know, it doesn't take you guys know what's going on in the world right now. Rain events are changing substantially. We used to get all kinds of quarter inch rains and half inch rains. You know, you know, you're getting old when you talk like, well, I remember back in the day. Yeah. Every day. Now it doesn't seem like that's how that works. We get two inches in a day, two inches in four hours, and all of that. So all you can do is just do the best you can to work. And what we want to do is we're cognizant of the fact that, you know, city government's concerned about the stormwater stuff. All of the work that we want to do, if we can complement that, that's what we want to do. And that means that the folks that are paying us and the folks that are paying for the project are getting the very best bang for the buck that they can get.

Okay. Keep it simple and understand this is going to help with stormwater.

It should help somewhat. Now, if you want to visually see what 60 million gallons can pump out, if you took the entire area that's down there at Southside Walmart, Southside Walmart and the old Trees and Trends area and all that parking lot and the Wendy's and is it CVS on the corner or Walgreens? Walgreens on the corner. If you circle that entire area, including the asphalt behind Walmart and all that, And you filled it up with about five feet of water. We could pump that out in a day. That's a decent amount of water. But then, you know, Paducah is bigger than that. But you're not going to have six feet there. So it's going to help. But like I said, you're always going to have a rain event that's going to beat you. I hate to tell you that, but that's the truth.

I should know this being on the sewer board, but how many gallons of water are in that seven feet that we're going to be able to?

Not much, really. That won't take long at all for us to take care of. We have a 72-inch pipe, discharge pipe, that we built to process 80 million gallons. And so, you know, one of those box coverts is about one of those things. And you don't have to go very few feet. I mean, when I say very few feet, a couple thousand feet back before you're You know, everything has to be built by gravity that will get that out. But you're already pumping and you're already draining against the stack deck against you when you have that. So that was, you see all that stuff. And that's the problem with the EPA and the folks like that. They all want you to do this stuff super quick, and you'll see why I wanted to do it over a longer period of time. It can cost you more money because the price of your business gets higher, but it takes so long to really figure out what's the best way to handle and do stuff. And if you just go too fast, you can't learn from other stuff that you work on. So that's it.

Any other questions? For John, appreciate you being here. Yes, sir. Coming in, I mean, we could have approved it on the consent agenda, but I thought it was worth a little more education. And to hear, you know, you go on and on.

Layman's terms are harder for better engineers than me, but I'll try to break it down as good as I can. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Okay, call roll.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith? Aye. Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. Okay, I would ask our city clerk to please read the first municipal order up.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled, a municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a contract for services with the Greater Paducah Economic Development Council in an amount of $250,000 for specific services.

So moved.

Second.

Bruce. Good evening, everyone.

Tell us why we should write you this check.

It's a great investment. One of the best you'll ever make. I'm going to share with you why. Thank you for the opportunity to share some information with you about GPED's results for fiscal year ending 2026. But before I do that, I would be remiss without thanking you all for your continued partnership with us. Without your partnership and your investment with us, we would not be able to accomplish our mission. So if you don't remember anything else tonight, please do remember that. Fiscal year ending June 30, 2026 was one for the record books. We announced four different projects with a collective capital investment of $3.4 billion, 432 anticipated direct jobs, an additional 503 expected indirect and induced jobs, bringing the total job count to a total of 935. The average rate of pay for these projects was $47.21 per hour, or just over $98,000 per year, plus benefits and insurance. The anticipated recurring annual impact to Paducah-McCracken County on these four projects is estimated to be $202 million recurring annually each year. The first project we announced was General Matter. It should be no surprise to everyone at the time it was the single largest project ever announced in Western Kentucky. The $1.5 billion project with the 313 direct, indirect, and induced jobs had an average rate of pay of about $104,000 per year. We continue to work with General Matter, and we anticipate additional growth in the forthcoming time. So we look forward to continue working with them and doing expansion with them. They are currently doing site work and site prep out at the site, and they've already hired about 20 people. So we're really excited about how that project is progressing. The second project we announced was AES Energy. AES Energy is in the process of constructing a solar project out in West Paducah. This $130 million project is anticipated to generate 60 megawatts of electricity and employ three people at an average rate of pay of about $90,000 per year and have a $597,000 recurring annual economic impact to the local community. The third project we announced was an expansion by Heinz Furlong. That's a marine company here in Paducah. Heinz Furlong is in the process of developing an additional administrative office and training space for their employees on the south side of Paducah. The project's anticipated to be $10.7 million, have 50 direct jobs and an additional 42 indirect and induced jobs for a total job count of 92. at an average rate of pay of about $71,000 per year. The anticipated recurring economic impact on it is $16.5 million per year on the local community. The fourth project we announced was global laser enrichment. GLE at the time was the largest single capital investment in western Kentucky after only second to General Matter. GLE's anticipated $1.8 billion capital investment is projected to employ 240 direct jobs, an additional 287 indirect and induced jobs for a total job count of 527 at an average rate of pay of just over $100,000 per year. The anticipated recurring annual economic impact on this project is $114 million per year to the local community. GLE applied for their NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, license in June of last year and anticipates receiving that formal approval in Q1 of 2027. GLE started clearing land, but really no other site development beyond that at this time. To put these projects into perspective, today, the estimated total assessed value of real and tangible property in McCracken County is about $7 billion. Collectively, these projects represent almost a 50% increase in the capital investment or property value in Paducah-McCracken County. That's going to enable our school systems to better invest in our children and provide our elected officials with enhanced revenue streams to manage growth and municipal operations. These are truly, truly transformational projects for our families, for our schools, and our community. I'd also be remiss without footnoting all of this, even though it's going to be a fiscal year 27. When I come back a year from now, we're off to an even more robust start with the $100 billion announcement of the Paducah Energy Hub with NextEra Energy, Brookfield Asset, Big Rivers Electric, Jackson Purchase Energy, and Paducah Power. So I'll be happy to entertain any questions specific to that at the end if you'd like. We also have several other projects in our pipeline, some of which we anticipate significant announcements very soon. We'll be sharing more on that in the coming weeks, maybe a couple of months, so stay tuned on that. That will be forthcoming very, very soon. During this past fiscal year, we also had robust activity in pursuing other new projects. We completed direct lead generation recruiting trips to Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Canada, Calgary, Canada, Montreal, Canada, and SelectUSA in Maryland. SelectUSA is the largest gathering of foreign direct investment in the United States annually. We attended eight different site selector events during the year, and we participated in several Department of Energy and Energy Community Alliance meetings. We also participated in numerous small group community presentations, and one of those even being the Citizens Advisory Board. We also co-hosted the Next Stop Generation Veterans hiring event back in the summer. We track several metrics each month. Mayor Bray, you're familiar with these, one of which is site visits, calls, and project follow activity on our projects. During this past year, we had 950 touches in this area, representing a 30% increase in project activity over the previous year. All in, on all of the metrics that we measure, we had approximately 2,800 specific touches specific to our mission, which was an 11% increase over the previous year. We only have a staff of three people, so I think you can see we're exceptionally efficient and we manage our time and our efforts pretty well. During the fiscal year, we were formally awarded the $2 million Kentucky Product Development Initiative, of which you all are aware, in constructing the 100,000 square foot spec building. We're very thankful for the city's partnership with the IDA in helping bring that project to reality. The new access road to the triple rail site has begun, and construction is anticipated to be completed on it in the summer of 2027. Most of all of you know me, you know my career, and you know how I've always been one to put a value on return on investment, whether it's return on investment to business owners or to shareholders. With the increase in AI, I recently took the opportunity to put GPEDS results into artificial intelligence to be able to compare ourselves against nationally other ED organizations. And what I found out is that on average, economic development organizations across the country produce a return on investment of typically $10 to $30 for every $1 invested into the organization. Strong organizations generate over $30 return on investment. When you look at the recurring annual economic benefit on our portfolio of projects through June 30th of 2026, you'll find that our projects are anticipated to generate $55 of economic benefit for every $1 invested into our organization, essentially double that of a typical economic development organization. When you look at the capital investment relative to the portfolio of projects in comparison to our budget, our results are off the charts. I think it's important to measure this success because we've been able to achieve these types of results largely by growing our private investor base. During this past year, we increased our private investors by nine. That's a total of 30 since my tenure at GPED. When looking at only the city and the county portions of our investment revenue portfolio, you'll find that the city and the county contributions to the operation of GPED have been static for the past 12 years. While during that same time, inflation has increased 36%. We've been able to generate these types of returns on investment, typically by growing our private investor base. you'll find that when you look at the municipal funding, the city and the county, we're generating about $100 for every $1 that you all put into greater Paducah economic development. So I share this with you to thank you once again for your continued support, and I hope you find that we're being good stewards. of your investment with our organization, and I hope you see value in what we're doing and what you're doing to partner with the organization. So we look forward to continued growth and continued partnership with you in the years to come. So I'm happy to entertain any questions or comments that you all might have at this time.

Congratulations. Thank you. My comment. Thank you.

Anybody?

Thank you for your partnership.

Well, I just say that, you know, I meet with Bruce regularly and the entire GPED board. You know, it's one of the things that I've focused on, and the city has been, you know, I think a really good partner, demonstrated by stepping out, you know, on the spec building. And so... We're looking forward to all the growth. A lot of that growth is going to occur outside the city limits, but we're still going to benefit. But some of that growth is going to occur inside the city limits as well. It will. We've got a nice one coming. Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Call roll, please.

Commissioner Henderson.

Aye.

Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas. Aye. Commissioner Wilson. Aye. Mayor Bray.

Aye. So I would ask our city clerk to read the next municipal order.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled a municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with Barclay Regional Airport in the amount of $120,000 for general aviation and air carrier services.

So moved.

Okay. This is, I'll just, I'll invite a couple people up here, but this is our annual contribution to Barclay Regional Airport, the city and county share in the responsibility for the airport together. And we've got Dennis, Dennis Rouleau, and Jason, our

our uh... chairman of the of the board and uh... so we have asked them to come forward and just give us an update on what's going on at the airport first off thank you all for your consideration uh... we uh... really appreciate the funding i was going to say that it's a great investment the best you ever make but bruce took that uh... from But nonetheless, the airport is in the economic development business. We understand that there's a lot of economic development going on in the county and in the city right now. We are equal to that task. We've made a lot of improvements out there, as you know. In the last seven to eight years, the terminal project, which is, by all accounts, been very well received. Everyone loves what we've done with that. We have increased our, we built a new, well, we didn't build a new one, we remodeled the FBO building. If anyone had ever been there for events in the past, I believe it was painted in 1994, but that paint is all gone. It's absolutely beautiful now. Those are just some of the investments and enhancements that we're making to welcome the public and the aviation public back to the airport. And Dennis has some numbers for us about how our new partnership with SkyWest is going. I believe that we've seen a lot of more dependability than we've seen in the past, and we've seen a lot of growth in the numbers of travelers as well.

Okay, I remember the last time I was here, I fell off this dais here in my chair. It wasn't a fun moment. So just to give you a couple of points, last year about this time we had formed the Air Service Development Committee. Two of the members of that committee are here, Mayor Bray and Commissioner Wilson, and that resulted in us getting SkyWest, SkyWest Airlines. It's a much better performing airline than the previous one. And out of that, we got a newer CRJ 550, a tri-class aircraft, 14 round trips instead of 12, to two hubs, O'Hare and Houston, for the same amount of money that SkyWest bid for just going to O'Hare. So that was a partnership that is proving very well today. We have a co-chair now. We have the United app. I can't stress the importance of that app in helping people out in difficult times when there's cancellations or adjustments or just plain booking a flight. And the investment that SkyWest made on the airport, they provided mostly all new ground support equipment. Nothing like not being able to de-ice an airplane with two de-icers that don't work with the previous airline. United support has been amazing through this. I'll give you a little stats about this month and the previous month with SkyWest. Our busiest days are Fridays, Thursdays, Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays, in that order, being Fridays the busiest. O'Hare's performing better than Houston, but not by much. We flew 4,203 passengers in July. and 2,972 this month. O'Hare, Paducah O'Hare in July, the Paducah to O'Hare flight at 5 a.m. generated 11,036 passengers. In August it was 802. O'Hare to Paducah was 1,156 passengers and in August 804. Paducah to Houston in July was 928 and August was 690. Houston to Paducah was 983 in July and 676. We had no cancellations of flights in July and August. We've had some delays due to weather in both O'Hare and Houston. SkyWest is doing a tremendous job accommodating passengers during those difficult times. And it's nice to hear positive comments once in a while versus not hearing it. And I've been hearing them a lot from folks who fly in and say, you know, Dennis, we just love the Houston flight. It's just amazing. O'Hara, it's been great. The aircraft is amazing. And so... And one important figure is we've already reached 10,000 passengers a year, and that's a benchmark that the FAA uses to give us $1.3 million of entitlement money. So once we reach that, that's entitlement money that goes to the airport for projects. And we've already reached that. And with the previous airline, it didn't happen until around November or December. So it's already performing well, and it's only been

since february dennis what was the biggest year that we ever had uh in terms of passenger volume i remember looking at those numbers 2010 11 12 13 14 i don't have those numbers offhand but um it was pre-pandemic for sure yeah and uh I was curious as to how we're performing against some of those best numbers ever.

What I do recall is on those trips with SkyWest, they showed us where we used to be and where we were. We were one of the top three EAS airports in the nation at one point in time, but we had dropped down to— further away from that. And so our goal is to try to get back on top again. So on that, we engaged Luke Schmidt again. Luke Schmidt was during the first time around when we were looking for an airline for the new AES contract. And so we decided to put out a survey to the community and just give you some numbers. The survey ended on Monday, and I had it somewhere here, the numbers. Okay, thank you. So the last count that I saw, we had 7,385 people respond to the survey. And 60% of those people were from our Facebook webpage. So we were very, very appreciative of that to all the community. And through that effort, we generated another 1,700 people that took the Barclay pledge. If you haven't taken the Barclay pledge, go to flybarclay.com and take the pledge, please. So... As part of this new engagement with Luke, we're trying to search for a ultra-low-cost carrier. An example of an ultra-low-cost carrier is, well, it used to be Southwest, but it'd be Frontier, Allegiant, those kind of airlines, to a destination in Florida. We think the timing is right to... take advantage of the new terminal, the new service, and then now we're not sleeping, we're moving, and we're trying to attract an ultra-low-cost carrier. And out of that survey, we looked at many destinations, and that data is still being looked at. But it's also going to depend upon where, you know, on an airline that will work with us and where they go. So we'll have to pair those two and try to find the best alternative for us. And so we haven't started direct engagement with them. We're still compiling data from the survey and a leakage study that Luke is doing. But to move on from that, to tell you about some projects, Jason mentioned the renovation of the FBO. That is $3 million from the state of Kentucky legislatures. So that was all State of Kentucky money. No local money was used for the renovation of that. And if you haven't been there, it is very, very nice. You know, we had the, what I call a maternity ward, pink colors that were in that terminal. Now all those colors are gone, and it's a very inviting atmosphere. All new furniture. We didn't renovate the entire facility. We just renovated the the public-facing facilities. We have a canopy going out for passenger convenience, new furniture. It's what we deserve to have here as our our second place, our second front door to the community. So the terminal building that we just completed open three years ago is the public facing front door to the community. The FBO building is the general aviation side that is anywhere from small piston pilots to the many visitors that come in to visit your community to put money into it. So it is our second front door. We're also building or about to complete a $2 million fuel farm upgrade or replacement. The old fuel farm was about 40 years old and could barely pump fuel. And a new fuel farm, I'm hearing today that will probably be just after the end of September, beginning of October to be open. We just completed a $3.749 million interior perimeter road. We just completed a 5.5 runway 523 phase 3 runway rehab project. And both those projects were a mixture of federal, 90 or 95 percent. I think there were 95 percent, and 5 percent of that was additional state money that we had. So zero dollars from... from the airport going in to support those projects. And I just want to give you a number. So in the last seven years, our fixed assets increased from $20 million to now 73, almost $74 million. And a big part of that was the terminal, but all this investment that we've been making in the last few years from getting federal projects, and we continue to to work with both the city, county, and the Chamber of Commerce has been helpful. But we've got to thank Senator McConnell, especially Congressman Comer and all of our state legislature, and, of course, the city council for your support. And that's all I have.

So tell us about the fire station.

We need one. Our fire station is beyond its useful life. We are planning to purchase a new roughly $1.3 million crash truck with federal dollars and state money. But that truck will not fit into the new fire station. I'm sorry, the old fire, yeah, I'm sorry, yeah. The old fire station. So we have two, our fire index is index A. It's the lowest index fire index for a commercial service airport. And with the old SkyWest airplane, we were meeting the minimum standards for that. And between the both trucks that we have, we are short by 250 gallons to meet index B. For whatever reason, we had one truck that was 750 gallons, and we had another truck that was 500 gallons. And those trucks are beyond their useful life of more than 15 years. So we just got approval from the FAA for them to consider us going to Index B. And that is a huge hurdle. Lots of people in FAA, there was probably a page and a half of signatures throughout the FAA organization approving us going to an Index B truck. So the current SkyWest aircraft technically is in the Index B because of its size, but because we don't have that many operations per day, we still can operate in the Index A. But we are also, since the new terminal, we've also been experiencing a lot of private charters, sports charters and casino charters, with Murray State, UT Martin, and Caesars. And so that type of equipment is definitely an index B. If it had regular service, you know, if you were to operate one of those aircraft for regular service, you'd be an index C. But the minimum requirement is for us to be an index B. And the only way we are able to To become an Index B is with the help of West McCracken Fire Department by providing extra gallons to meet that index. So we've been relying upon mutual aid to work with all these special charters that we have. So the new fire station and SRE building is scheduled to be around $8.27 million. We already have, well, we're hoping to get $1 million in. I think that's a congressional directive spending, but we'll see how the budget works out, whether it still stays in or not. And we're trying to raise the money for that.

So one other comment, this pursuit of this new airline, you know, to fly to Florida or wherever, I wonder if it might be a good idea to reengage with the Air Service Development Committee and maybe involve them in maybe a visit. somewhere to one of these airlines. I mean, as I recall, you know, as we all recall, you know, we made a big impression, you know, by taking a whole lot of our leaders in the community and executives out. And so that really might make an impression, you know, if we want to talk to an Allegiant. So that would be my recommendation to consider that. I believe it does help.

You know, I'm the hired help, so I have to be there. But having community leaders backing us up says a lot. And so I think it made a big difference, especially with SkyWest and others that we met with.

It's hard. We're all busy, and it's hard to coordinate schedules and whatnot. But we made it happen and made it work.

Are you willing to share where people wanted to go in Florida?

I have not.

Luke told me not to. So, I mean, we looked at, you know, we looked at all the typical places. And so, no, I can't tell you which one is. But any one would be better than no one. So, I mean, going, you know, we're going to go somewhere.

May all have to find new places that we like to go visit him.

Well, I'm confident we'll fill the airplane up. So our catchment area is – That's the key.

New plane is great.

Yeah. So our catchment area is not just Paducah. It's 31 counties. So around – in the four-state region. So if we can get an ultra-low-cost carrier, you know, traveling to the other airport just down I-12 –

I really appreciate the way the airport and United has taken care of passengers on delays. You know, that was something that was missing before. And so, you know, when passengers who are delayed or inconvenienced, if they feel like somebody cares about them, it makes a huge difference. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, call roll, City Clerk.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Dennis, for being here. Okay, I'll ask the City Clerk to please read the next municipal order.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled, A Municipal Order Authorizing the Mayor to Execute a Memorandum of Understanding. between the city of Paducah and the Commonwealth of Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Department of Highways in the amount of $151,324.20 for the Coleman Road Sidewalk Design Project.

Is that made? Second.

Greg? Evening, Mayor, Commissioners. Good to see you. City Manager, City Clerk. This MOA is for federal carbon reduction funds received through the MPO. administered by the highway department the goal is to have a full set of design plans at the end of this that we can use to pursue construction funding for the project is as you can see on the screen is to connect the hotels along coleman road out towards restaurants and other available options out on hinkleville This project would look at extending a multi-use path along that section and a potential pedestrian bridge as an option. That's what would all be looked at through the design phase of what this project would look like to meet those goals.

That's leading from the hotels all the way to the interstate?

So we're looking at from the railroad, The idea would be from the railroad here, maybe out to Hinkleville. Wow, that's really needed. So this project would look at what kind of challenges we face to make something like that happen, but that would be the goal is to look at what's needed to do a multi-use path to connect that, allow everybody to be able to connect the hotels to the various businesses out on Hinkleville.

This money is just to do just design design.

Yes, not you're not building it No, this is just a go through the design phase.

What comes after that? Did then do we put our name in the pot or funding for that or not?

There would be Different opportunities to explore to figure out where we can find funding for the construction So I was just looking at back some of my messages and I get messages from

mostly positive from all over. And I've gotten a couple of messages from people, they're pretty random, but started suggesting that we need the sidewalks out there because of the hotels and the restaurants so that people could. And so when these funds became available, as I recall, Help me through this. We had a choice of using the funding for this or for something else, as I recall.

Yes. Through the MPO, there's options available to make use of these funds, and this was the project that the MPO selected would be the best use of the funds.

Okay. At any rate, you know, people advocate for certain things. I mean, the city of Paducah needs more sidewalks. I mean, we'd all agree with that. And we're limited, you know, by funds. But, you know, this is kind of a good story, I think. You know, the fact that we got those funds and that we're able to, I mean, especially with, you know, the growing number of tourists that are going to be coming and making accessible the restaurants and other places, you know. Absolutely.

Any questions from anyone else?

Okay. Thank you for being here, Greg. Thank you. City Clerk, call roll.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. And we have one more municipal order to approve tonight.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled, a municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Healthy Homes Grant in the amount of $1,500,000, accepting all awarded grant funds, and authorizing the mayor to execute all award documents.

So moved. Second.

All right. Good evening, everyone. um this is the planning department's reviewed and we would like to apply for a healthy home grant opportunity and what this boils down to it's another tool in our toolbox to help with that south side area it's through the housing of urban development and the goal really is to reduce housing related health and safety hazards through a comprehensive approach, and Hope has worked diligently on this, and we have partnered with her, but what it helps us do is it gives us a tool toward rental properties. It gives us something to use in owner occupied, where if they're operating below 80% of the median income, 80% of the median income, they're eligible, and it gives us something to be able to go in and help those areas. And it's defined by census track, and we've been able to match that up with the Southside Phase 1 area.

And how competitive is this grant? Do we know?

Pretty competitive. I would say it's pretty competitive. You know, the award floor is $1.5 million up to $4 million, and we're applying for $1.5. It's a 42-month-long project. I mean, it's quite extensive that we have to, make sure all the times measured, all the resources. We have partners through CFSB. We have partners through the Senior Center. The school system is going to partner with us as well. But it's a quite extensive grant, but Nancy and Palmer are very committed to it, and Hope has helped us with a lot of the research, and it's something that we really feel like, if awarded, it would be fantastic for the area. It's something we don't have. It's a really good supplemental resource. Funding source.

And the decision-making process on the grant award, do you know how long?

I'm going to pitch that to Hope because she's more familiar with the way they're going to decide that than I.

Thought you were going to get out of talking.

I did. So it doesn't really say exactly when it will be awarded. I don't think it will be with the fiscal year of October 1 just because it's come out so late. And it's a 42, so it's a three-and-a-half year instead of four years. So I'm expecting probably in the spring that it would become effective.

Do you get so much every year?

Well, it's a reimbursement grant. So as we spend the money, we would get it reimbursed to us. They allow $15,000 to $20,000 per home to do renovations on. So we're looking at maybe 65 homes for $130,000. Then we can use the rest of that funding. It actually allows funding, like if you have to relocate somebody to do the renovations on their home, you can house them while that is being done. Funds can be used for education and outreach to help the community understand what it is that we're offering and promoting the program itself. So it doesn't really set to get so much fun in year one or year two or year three.

As long as people are applying and we have that, we can do it. It would be to help them with repairs in their house.

Each home would go through, we would have to create a checklist, a healthy homes checklist to look for things that could cause health or safety conditions. And in partnering with like Paducah Alliance of Neighbors and the Senior Center who have similar programs already. We can just build upon that and coordinate that. And then, yeah, as homes are introduced, we would evaluate them. There would be an application process and then move forward with making the renovations to the home that are needed.

And again, this is for rental or owned homes as well?

It can be both.

Yeah, it's available for either.

I was going to ask, what would be the responsibility of the resident Will they have to spend the money up front? We will spend the money. How would that work?

So with this being income-based, no, they would not have to spend any money up front. This would be totally funded through the grant itself. So for those individuals that maybe don't have the money to be reimbursed, it fills in a gap there for those families.

So you all will put the criteria together, or is the criteria already together for this?

No, we would put the criteria together as part of the initial phases of the grant award.

The residents would have to qualify based upon income?

Yes. 80% of median income.

And the decision is going to be totally made on the grant application? I mean, just, well, you're right.

Yes. That's exactly it. No pressure at all. There will be 25 awards total. It's competitive. Nationwide. Nationwide, but

I'm just wondering if we knew somebody at HUD.

And then also speak to the matching component of that.

So there's not technically a matching component. They have a component in there where you are to leverage 10% of what the total amount of that is. We can meet that through funding that we are already doing with the south side and the renovations that we're doing there. We can leverage if, like, if we had a partner that donated supplies or volunteer hours, we could utilize that. So there's a lot of different ways we can make up that leverage. So it's a little bit different than a typical match, but we still have to put some skin in the game, either through cash or any kind.

Sounds great. Sounds even better if we get it, but good luck. Thank you. Thanks for finding it.

Yes. We're going to think positive. You're right. That's right. We're going to think very positive. We've got a great foundation.

And what's the deadline?

August 31st. Okay.

All right. We better get on to voting.

Thank you all. It'll be August 31st by the time we get out of here.

All right. I'd ask the city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. All right, we have four ordinances to adopt. This is the second reading on all of them. There's no changes. And I would ask the city clerk to read the first one.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled, an ordinance authorizing and approving a contract for services with Lifeline Recovery Center Incorporated, and the amount not to exceed $200,000 for the purchase of four passenger vans, authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement and amending the fiscal year 2027 budget to provide for the expenditure. This ordinance is summarized as follows. The ordinance authorizes a contract for services with Lifeline Recovery Center Incorporated, providing a one-time payment of up to $200,000 for the purchase of four passenger vans, to support authorized recovery-related transportation. Funding will be provided from the Opioid Settlement Fund. The ordinance also amends the fiscal year 2027 budget to increase expenditures in the Opioid Settlement Fund by $200,000. So moved.

Second.

Okay, we talked about this. Steve Palast is with us, but he did a big presentation two weeks ago. I don't think we have any questions. I think we're ready to go. We've got the money. We think you're doing a great job in the community. Lifeline is, Steve. So I don't think we have any questions. You know, they say in sales, you know, I mean, just be quiet, you know. Okay, I would ask the city clerk to call roll.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. Congratulations. Thank you. Okay, I'll ask the city clerk to read the next ordinance.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt an ordinance entitled, an ordinance providing for the closing of an 8,129 square foot alley parallel to Kentucky Avenue and Washington Street between South 9th Street and Walter De Tom Boulevard, and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents relating to same. This ordinance is summarized as follows. The city of Paducah does hereby authorize the closure of an 8,129 square foot alley alley parallel to Kentucky Avenue and Washington Street between South 9th Street and Walter Chaton Boulevard authorizes, empowers, and directs the mayor to execute the quitclaim deeds from the city of Paducah to the property owners, inter-abutting the public way to be closed and all other necessary documents to effectuate the closure.

So moved. Second.

Okay, so this is the alley that we're closing to accommodate the construction of the new health department. which I'm very excited about it. All of us are very excited about it. And does anybody have any questions on that? About in general? Maybe at a future meeting come back and give us more information, you know, once the plans are complete. Yeah, I think everybody would be, I think it's a great community-wide project. I think we'd all be interested in more, so. Thank you for being here. Okay, call roll please.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. And so we have a budget amendment. I'd ask the city clerk to read.

I propose motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt an ordinance entitled an ordinance amending ordinance number 2025-06-8847 entitled an ordinance adopting the City of Paducah, Kentucky annual operating budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 by estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the operation of city government. This ordinance is summarized as follows that the annual budget for fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 As adopted by ordinance number 2025-06-8847, be amended by the following reappropriations. Increased revenues and expenditures for the general fund by $20,000 and $118,000. $118,100 respectively, increased expenditures for the investment fund by $49,573, increased revenue and expenditures for the room tax fund by $158,871, increased revenue and expenditures for the capital projects fund by $820,449, increased revenue and expenditures for the grant fund by $2,913, Increase expenditures for the debt service fund by $7,127. Increase revenue for the fleet lease trust fund by $98,100. Increase revenue and expenditures for the health insurance fund by $421,154. So moved. Second.

Questions? Call roll, please.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. And the final ordinance to adopt is to start retiring life insurance, and Stephanie was here two weeks ago to explain it.

I propose a motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt an ordinance entitled, an ordinance amending Chapter 78, Personnel, Section 40, Group Life and Medical Insurance of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah, Kentucky. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance amends Section 78-40 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah to reflect that retiree life insurance will no longer be offered effective September 1, 2026. Any retiree taking coverage prior to that date will be grandfathered in according to the terms of the plan.

So moved. Second.

Questions? Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. Okay, that's the bulk of the work. Comments? City Manager, any comments?

Mayor and Commission, just want to remind the public of an event we have coming up on September the 4th at Cobb Park. For the dedication and ribbon-cutting of the new playground equipment That we have going on there also to mark calendars for September the 18th is when we plan to do the Grand opening of the new riverfront development project the Cobb Park will be at 2 p.m. And then 4 p.m. On the 18th for the riverfront development and we've got a lot of exciting stuff happening in our parks Albert Jones Park just got refresh on the walking trail, a new pavilion that's gone in there, and we'll have a future ribbon cutting for that coming up as well.

And I think it makes sense. We also have the sports park coming up on September 10th. So, you know, that's a lot of grand openings coming up and a couple of really big ones. I'm sorry? Okay. Any comments? Sandra? Sandra?

I think so.

DeJuan? No comment. Commissioner Smith? Commissioner Henderson?

I think I have a comment.

Yes, sir.

I think I want, not I think, I want to take this opportunity to thank our city manager as well as our chief of police for quickly making footage available from the 8th of August activities. And I think after watching all of that, I think we all got perhaps the rest of the stories. Obviously, there was more to everything that everyone said. But at the same time, you asked me on a podcast together, you and Commissioner Thomas and myself, and you asked me to put together a group of people who could help map out a plan for moving forward, how we can improve the relationships, if you will, between our city and between the community and And I'm looking forward to doing that, having got all the information that I need. I'm excited to do that and excited to bring some folk together to sit down and talk about how we can move forward in all of this.

I think that's great. I appreciate your leadership on it, Commissioner. And I do think it is important that we open up the lines of communication a little bit pre-event. Pre-2027 event, so we've got to just figure out what that looks like. I'm happy to work with you and support your efforts any way that I can.

And I think we want to do more than just prepare for 2027. We want whatever we do to be something that is done every day, all the time, in the city of Purdue. So it won't be that we're preparing for an event, but we're preparing for every day.

Okay. Okay.

I think we've all seen them. I think everybody at this point spent quite a bit of time actually at police headquarters watching those. It's very informative.

Okie dokie. Thank you for those comments. We do not have an executive session, and I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Second.

Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye.