Metro Council - Regular Meeting

4:55 – 5:57•BABrent Ackerson

Metro TV will start in 30 seconds. The regular meeting of the Little Metro Council of September 24th, 2026 will please come to order. The time is currently 6 p.m. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This meeting is to be held pursuant to CARES 61.826 and Council Rule 5A. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

6:59•BABrent Ackerson

Let the record reflect that Council Member Reno-Weber and Council Member McCraney both have excused absences. Council Member Shanklin, I believe you have a page you would like to introduce.

7:11 – 7:40•BSBarbara Shanklin

Yes, I do. You want to stand up? Stand up. Her name is Rio Harris, she's seven years old, she's in the second grade, and she goes to, what's the name of your school, because I forgot. Willard? All right, thank you. So please give her a lot of work to do, because she's a very active little girl. Thank you. Get out, get out.

7:43•BABrent Ackerson

Councilman Piacentini, I believe you've got a guest.

7:56 – 8:51•APAnthony Piagentini

Good evening, everybody. Thanks for indulging me for a minute. I want to introduce, for those that don't know, I work in an industry where we provide services to people, rehabilitation services to people who have suffered from brain and spinal injuries. And I was at a recent conference, and if this isn't a government acronym for you, it was the NASHEA Conference, the National Association of State Head Injury Administrators. And these are essentially all of the administrators from each state who run their brain injury programs, helping people who have suffered from a brain injury, traumatic or

10:47 – 11:29•APAnthony Piagentini

That's right. I'm gonna just say that Jamie gave an incredible presentation about her foundation, and what was crazy was she said, and we've got this amazing partnership coming up with Danny Wimmer Presents, and I'm gonna be in Louisville, Kentucky at Louder Than Life and Bourbon and Beyond, and I'm like, time out, we need to meet, we need to talk, we need to get you here at Council and talk about what you're doing. It's an incredible story. I want Jamie to come up here and tell about her story and tell about her foundation, her partnership with Danny Wimmer Presents. to support people who hav

15:22 – 17:18•APAnthony Piagentini

So we have this proclamation for Jamie. It's incredibly important. And I mean, I go back to when Brandon Cohen was on council, he was the first one that brought it up and we unanimously sponsored the Committee for People with Disabilities. I know Councilman Reid has served on it for a long time. I know others have served on it in order to incorporate and to make accessible the whole gamut of life experiences. And when Jamie told me what she was doing with Danny Weber Presents, I'm like, the community needs to hear more about this. And I hope, Jamie, that not only are you successful in getting

17:58 – 18:16•BABrent Ackerson

Madam Clerk, are there any addresses to the council? Yes, sir, there are. Okay, let's go ahead and call them forward. Paul Schroeder. To the left, to the left.

33:07 – 33:22•BABrent Ackerson

Ma'am, please. Ma'am, ma'am, Ms. Beckett, you're being disruptive to the meeting, ma'am. Please be quiet. Thank you all.

48:39•BABrent Ackerson

Okay, and Madam Clerk, I'm going to be tendering the chair to the present pro temp for the rest of the meeting.

1:00:17 – 1:00:46•SRScott Reed

Thank you, Madam President Pro Tem, and This was an ordinance revising the detailed development district plan for 8803, 8805, and 8807 Old Barstown Road containing seven acres. It is in Councilman Bratcher's district, and we had a very robust conversation about this in committee. My understanding is that there were binding elements that were removed, and after speaking to the developer, these were put back in, so perhaps Councilman Bratcher would like to speak to this.

Yes, sir, that's exactly what happened. What we agreed to the first time around in Metro Council went to Planning Commission after the developer wanted a slight change. Looks like the Planning Commission put in a whole lot more than slight changes, and we're coming back and putting it back in what we originally had, except without the slight change from the developer. So everybody's happy. Let's just vote yes on this.

1:02:04 – 1:02:22•SRScott Reed

Yes, ma'am. And this was a changed, an ordinance actually that would amend the Land Development Code by establishing a minimum road width of 20 feet which we also had a very robust conversation about. And I know that Councilman Piagentini would just love to speak to this.

1:02:26 – 1:05:24•APAnthony Piagentini

You have the floor. Thank you, Vice Chair Reed, and thank you, Madam President Pro Tem. All I want to say about this, first of all, I want to thank Councilman Benson for bringing this, getting this started and getting us to where we are. I know Councilman Cramer worked with him on an amendment, which ultimately is what we're seeing here. What I want to bring up is that this change to the Land Development Code really only impacts the street width on new developments. So what happens to the roads inside the actual development that's being built new? that this will make the roads minimum 20 foot

1:06:10 – 1:06:35•CBCrystal Bast

All right, so the request was for the company, was requesting final approval for the Kentucky Business Investment Incentive, which is 1% of the wage assessment to local metro. There were seven yes votes, one abstention, Councilman Ben Reno-Weber, and it looks like the primary sponsor on this was Councilwoman Josie Raymond, if she would like to speak to this.

Yes, thank you, I'll always highlight Cornbread. This has been a rapidly growing company in District 10 and across the country, and you've seen them really involved in this debate in Washington about the future of hemp and CBD that our senators are split on. And they recently opened a retail piece, bringing retail to a really industrial part of the district, and we're happy to see them keep growing. They've almost doubled their workforce, and the average wage is something like $26, so we wanna see that momentum continue. And he has an excused absence, but it was Councilman Reno-Weber who absta

1:08:17 – 1:08:29•CBCrystal Bast

All right, the primary sponsor on this one was Councilman Dan Sime. There was no opposition. We just had one abstention from Councilman Winkler, and it was due to his wife's employment.

1:09:32 – 1:09:44•CBCrystal Bast

All right, so the primary on this one was Councilman Ken Herndon. There was no opposition. It just got pulled to openness for an amendment. If he would like to speak with that.

1:13:36 – 1:13:47•JJJonathan Joseph

Thank you. Yes, this is dealing with the Fern Creek Fire Protection District. We had two main sponsors, Councilman Bratcher and Councilwoman Mulvey-Woolridge. Councilman Bratcher, would you like to speak to this? Thank you, Chairman Joseph.

We're asking for $40,000 for hazardous material equipment, and we're at $29,000 and hoping to get it up to $40,000. So if anybody could could offer some help, we'd really appreciate it. It covers six districts. This Fern Creek Fire Department is a huge district, and airplane crashes or factory spills, factory fires, it's a tough, tough job, and we wanna make sure we have the equipment to save lives.

District 10 has already committed $3,500. We would like to add an additional $1,500 to get to $5,000. Thank you.

1:18:07 – 1:18:20•JJJonathan Joseph

Yes, this is only on old business because there was a name change in the title where if you look at the title, it says Juice Bowl Parade and Community Event, and we have taken out parade and where it would just read Juice Bowl Community Event.

1:19:26•JJJonathan Joseph

Yes, thank you. This is dealing with the Americana Community Center looking for more funding and the primary sponsor being Councilwoman Ruby. Turn it over.

1:21:25•BSBarbara Shanklin

I'm sorry. I don't see my name on there. That's okay. You have the floor. $500.

1:21:36•SRScott Reed

No problem. District 16, $250. Councilman Bratcher? $522. Anybody else?

1:23:31•JJJonathan Joseph

Thank you very much. This is a piece that we are looking to seek more funding from, and Councilwoman Mulvey-Woolridge was the main sponsor for this.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair Pro Tem. So we are asking the Collider Program for around $12,000. As mentioned earlier in the address of council, they connect local artists and residents through free hands-on programming at the South Central Library right now. They provide a month-long residency for those artists with gallery space with the library and multiple free public programs during each residency. They serve residents of all ages and across all of Louisville, not only in District 24. They are looking to continue this program and eventually broaden it to other libraries. So I a