Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone to the Orangeboro Board of Commissioners regular meeting May 19th. At this time, I'll ask the city clerk, Beth Davis, to please call the roll.

Commissioner Jeff Sanford.

Here.

Commissioner Sharon Neesmith. Here. Mayor Tom Watson.

Here.

Commissioner Curtis Maglinger.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Bob Glenn.

Here. Thank you. At this time, if you're able to stand, please remove your caps. And Mayor Pro Tem Bob Glenn will lead us in the pledge.

Bow with me or engage in silent meditation, whichever your preference is. Dear Heavenly and Gracious Father, we thank you for all the blessings you provide to our community, our region, and our state. We thank you for the gift of freedom, the ability to vote today for our elected officials and for issues of concern across the Commonwealth. Lord, we thank you so much for all the blessings you've bestowed on this community. But we also want to extend condolences to those who lost a loved one in the shooting in San Diego at the Islamic school yesterday. The miracle that you wreaked with the two Air Force pilots in the crash at Mountain Home, Idaho during an air show. The beautiful weather that we've experienced. And Lord, we'd ask you to protect us from any storms that may come our way, both literal and meteorological. Finally, we want to thank you for the blessings of living in this wonderful community, and particularly for our city employees. Please bless and protect them, our police, our fire, our public works, everyone who does the great work to move our community forward. And finally, as we meet tonight, help us to make decisions that are pleasing unto you and that move our city forward in a positive direction. In Jesus' name, amen. And now the pledge. 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.

The first item on the agenda is like to do a proclamation. Uh, is Rhonda here? Okay. I thought you were Bergstrom, senior director of nursing and various EMS professionals. Y'all are welcome. Come up. All right. How are you? I got to stay in the middle, so y'all might have to get on this side some of you.

Good luck.

It's a proclamation from the city of Owensboro, all our employees and all our retirees. Whereas emergency medical services professionals provide a critical life-saving care to residents and visitors throughout Owensboro community each and every day. And whereas paramedics, emergency medical technicians, dispatchers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, Nurses, physicians, and other emergency responders work together around the clock to protect the health, safety, and well-being of our citizens. Whereas these highly trained professionals are often the first to respond in time of crisis, delivering skilled medical care, reassurance, and compassion during emergencies and disasters alike. And whereas emergency medical service providers dedicate countless hours to specialized training and continuing education to ensure the highest level of care for those experiencing sudden illness or injury. And whereas the strength of our community depends in part on the dedication, the professionalism, and the selfless service of the emergency medical personnel who stand ready to respond at a moment's notice. whereas Emergency Medical Services Week provides an opportunity to recognize and thank the men and women who serve on the front lines of emergency care and who play a vital role in safeguarding our community. Therefore, I, Thomas Hart Watson, Mayor of the City of Orangeboro, do proclaim May 17th through the 23rd, 2026 as Emergency Medical Services Week, In Orangeboro, I encourage all citizens to join in recognizing the dedication, courage, the invaluable contributions of our EMS professionals and first responders. Signed and sealed this 19th day of May, 2026. Clap. Okay, we're going to take a picture.

Mayor Watson, city commissioners, and members of the community. On behalf of Owensboro Health and the EMS professionals who serve the city every day, thank you for this proclamation recognizing EMS week. We are honored to accept it on behalf of the paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, first responders, and healthcare teams who answer the call at every hour in every circumstance. EMS providers are often there on someone's worst day, bringing skill, compassion, and calm when it matters most. Their work does not stop at transportation. They are a critical part of the healthcare system and an essential partner in improving outcomes together. We are grateful for their dedication, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment to this community. Thank you for recognizing and honoring this team throughout the week and throughout the year.

You're very welcome. Next item on the agenda is the fire department hazmat update, Captain Clayton Tuma. Is that how you say it?

That's correct.

Good.

Oh, it's already up there. Good afternoon. My name is Clayton Tuma, captain with the city of Owensboro fire department on first crew. Um, today we're just gonna go over some of our emergency planning and response for hazardous material and given update on our program. So first off, um, we'll cover a few different topics. Um, starting with what is the basic hazmat response, some of our common hazards, um, some accomplishments we've made as personnel in our training, um, and then resources and equipment along with preparedness throughout the city. Uh, so what is a hazmat for us? Uh, keep it simple. It's release of a hazardous substance or what someone may think is a hazardous substance. Um, the incident response is going to require three things for us. Identification, mitigation and evacuation. So when we are called to a scene, you know, typically we may not know what's going on. We may have some reference, so we have to identify what the problem may be. after that, um, is to mitigate it, stop a leak, um, stop whatever the problem is causing the problem. Um, and in conjunction with both of those, we are going to start evacuation and isolation. So commonly if you see us on a scene and we have roads blocked, um, if we're evacuating homes, it's typically because we are trying to create a safe area, um, for the community, for the residents. Everything that we do is based around what we call our three incident priorities. So number one is being life safety. What can we do to protect the lives in the immediate area? After that, we work into incident stabilization, and then finally we'll do our property conservation. A lot of these things we're able to do all at once, but those will proceed in order if we have to. So common hazards, tried to break this down really for the public as well. Natural gas, carbon monoxide alarms and leaking fluids. So natural gas, most people know you have the meter on your house. If you do have a combustible gas meter in your home and it goes off or you smell natural gas leaking, the initial response is for us to send a company out there to investigate what is going on. We get there, we'll get off with our meters, and if we can locate the problem again, we try to isolate it. We do encourage not to try to intervene with what the problem is until we can get there. And after that, we're going to call in our resources, one for natural gas is Atmos Energy. Carbon monoxide, I can't stress this one enough, colorless, odorless. The biggest thing is everybody should have a carbon monoxide alarm. And we do run on quite frequently make these runs. So if your alarm is going off, we'll come, we can investigate it. And if we do find high levels of CO, which is the byproduct of combustion, we will ventilate and we will figure out what the source is coming from. Finally, leaking fluids. A lot of times hazmat gets misconstrued with. It's a bunch of guys out in fancy suits, but these simple things are all considered hazardous responses as well. Car wrecks, for example, we get a car wreck. It has leaking fluid going into storm drain. We are going to mitigate that and isolate that substance from further contaminating the roadways in the storm drains. Moving on to our hazmat readiness in 2025, the Owensboro responded to Owensboro Fire Department responded to 236 hazmat related incidents. Now keep in mind that is. incidents that come out as hazardous chemical spills and not necessarily a simple car wreck or even stretching it out to a typical structure fire for us still has hazardous chemicals. So we encounter these runs all the time. fortunately we have all personnel are trained to a minimum of hazmat operations we do strive to take that further with a majority of our personnel being trained to the technician level the difference between the operations and technicians are technicians can just go go into a scene and mitigate that scene a little bit further than the operations however we use all of our personnel for every scene Um, our agency also maintains a 30 person technical rescue team, which all persons are, um, hazmat technicians on that team, and we will utilize them for, um, larger hazmat responses. As long as mutual aid responses to our neighboring communities. So our training, I pulled our records from last year. Most of our pictures that you're gonna see I have up here is from our previous HAZMAT technician class that we had held in later in 2025. For the year we had documented 1,086 hours of training. We also had, fortunately had 15 personnel attend and were certified as HAZMAT technicians. And then finally, the Owensboro Fire Department participates and trains with the local spill group. The local spill group is a huge benefit for the community. It is local organizations, local businesses, uh, response agencies and government agencies that all, um, collaborate together, uh, to be prepared for a large scale event in the area. Um, a lot of these industries in the community have high stakes within the, within the city, within the county, and they all come together. So we are able to mitigate any possible spills to the river or other large scale incidents that may that may happen. So as far as our resources go, these will kind of be in order. Our first is going to be our frontline engines, what we call them. So a typical CO response or a gas leak outside will come with one engine coming down the road to figure out what our problem is. Equipped with air monitoring, basic mitigation, and decontamination equipment. Basically, they're there to figure out what the problem is and get the ball rolling. Our rescue truck is equipped with everything the frontline engines are, and then they're also outfitted for a full-scale, to begin a full-scale incident. To back all those up, we also have our hazmat response trailer, which has enough equipment on it that we can perform a full-scale hazmat response. So in this slide, the upper right picture, That's our common personal protective equipment for our hazmat level A. This would be the largest scale event we would have. And we have what we call level A, level B suits. This is the highest protection that we can possibly have. They're fully encapsulating. In order to use that equipment, we also have to have a decontamination line set up as well. So with our PPE, all of our mitigation tools to stop a leak, to slow a leak, to prevent further damage, and then our decontamination takes up most of our equipment. So afterwards, the decontamination may not be just for us, but also the public, whoever was affected as well, and we are equipped to do a mass decontamination of the public. Um, also with this comes our research materials, anything that we encounter, we have to back it up with three sources, um, to identify what that, uh, particular, um, what that particular hazardous material is. And then, of course, our frontline is our metering devices. We carry them on all of our engines, all of our frontline apparatus. Our common ones are carbon monoxide, um, H two S, which is sewer gas and then oxygen combustible gases. Um, combustible gases, everything from gasoline to propane, um, ammonia and then also chlorine. So in wrapping all that up, our response preparedness, we have our common hazards that we go on every day, but we also have several target hazards that we always have to keep in mind. The first one being the Ohio River. If we do have a substance that leaks out there, we have to stop it from flowing downstream and contaminating other areas, along with aquatic life and anybody else that may be on that river. um also railroads traffic incidents and then we're also prepared for all of our mutual aid agreements whereas if any neighboring communities need help we will respond to help them If you have any questions, you can contact our emergency number, which is stated on the board. Don't hesitate. If you do smell gas or if your CO alarms are going off, always call 911 if you have an emergency.

Thank you.

Any questions from the dais?

I just have one here on the line. Is it okay to ask one, Mayor? So we've had, in Evansville in particular, they've had several home explosions. And I'm wondering, I know you inspect all kinds of businesses and structures for fire safety. Do we do the same for hazmat? Because it seems like there have been an awful lot of whole homes exploding. And I'm wondering if that could be prevented through inspections and things.

So a lot of those are, um, so natural gas companies put in something into the gas to make it smell. Um, the information that we have received from, um, at Miss energy and other people are it may not be the actual residents or business that were to explode that is having the issue where is sometimes that stuff can seep underground so Just by going in and inspecting one, we may not be able to tell if an incident may occur right then. However, that's where your carbon, your CO detectors and your combustible gas meters in your home are gonna be your largest line of defense. So you can purchase those at any hardware store or anything like that. If you are not able to afford one, we do a lot of smoke alarms, and there are a lot of different community fundraisers that can help you get those. Awesome.

Thank you so much, and thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you, sir. Item 4C, city projects list, city manager may pay them.

Yes, sir. Mayor, thank you for that. Mayor, Commissioner, I know the project report has been distributed for you to review. It provides updates on some of the key ongoing projects and issues that the city has at this time. This one, uh, update I'll provide in particular, unfortunately, it's not a good update. Uh, we were notified by our contractor for the indoor sports facility, uh, bluegrass field house. And within the last two weeks that our estimated completion date has been pushed back by two months. Uh, and frankly, we're concerned it'll be pushed back furthermore. So that is a disappointing update that I have to deliver. Uh, but that is what we were told by our contractor. Other than that, may are happy to answer questions. Did you have them?

Okay. Any questions from the project list?

Yeah, Commissioner Sanford.

Thank you, Mayor. City Manager is with that being said, is there any like clawback on the situation if they are late on completing?

That's a good question. I believe that contract does have what's called liquidated damages that if it's not complete by a certain date, then the contractor would owe payments as a liquidated damage or a penalty for that. So this contract does have liquidated damages. I believe that our current estimated completion date is passed. that point of liquidated damages. That's something that we'll be dealing with in the future.

Okay.

Thank you. Okay. Next item on the agenda, consider the approval of minutes, uh, dated May 5th, 2026. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second place? Any further discussion, additions or deletions hearing none all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed motion cares. Thank you. It's time. I asked you to consider these board appointments. Wesleyan Neighborhood Alliance appoint Austin McDaniel to a two-year term effective May the 19th, 2026. Northwest Neighborhood Alliance appoint Deanna Darns to a two-year term effective May 19th, 2026. Orangeboro Historic Preservation Board appoint Janet Johnston Crowe to a three-year term effective May 19, 2026. And the Regional Water Resource Agency Board appoint Phil Harry to a four-year term effective July the 1st, 2026. I'll make a motion to approve these appointments. Could I have a second?

Second.

Thank you. Any further discussion? additions or deletions hearing none all in favor indicate by saying aye aye all opposed motion carries okay item six this is the first reading of uh an ordinance there will be no vote

Ordinance 10-2026, an ordinance adopting and approving the annual budget of the City of Owensboro, Kentucky for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027, and appropriating the revenues to the various departments of the city as set forth herein. Introduced and publicly read on first reading this 19th day of May, 2026.

Thank you. City manager, please. Yes, mayor. This is first reading of the ordinance adopting the city's 2026, 2027 fiscal year budget. So that is our next fiscal year, which starts on July one. There are no changes to the draft general fund budget that was provided. It was discussed in the video sent for your review. And that was presented in detail to both you as the board of commissioners and to the public at our work session in late April. So as such, the budget includes no changes to the city tax rates. The general fund, which is our primary operating fund, is balanced. And the budget includes investments in areas prioritized by you as the Board of Commissioners, such as public safety, infrastructure, and economic development. In addition, the budget provides the resources necessary for our city departments to continue providing high-level professional services and facilities to the community as they expect and deserve. I'd like to thank our finance staff, department heads, and managers for their many hours of work over the last several months to get us to this point.

Thank you. Any discussion from the dais? Hearing none. Item 6B, please.

Ordinance 11 dash 2026 and ordinance establishing the compensation of city employees and non-elected city officers in accordance with a personnel and pay classification plan as required by KRS 83, a 0.07 0 introduced and publicly read on first reading this 19th day of May, 2026.

Thank you. City manager, please. State law requires that we adopt our pay charts by ordinance annually. So this is first reading of an ordinance, adopting our pay charts for the 2026, 2027 fiscal year. I think of it as a companion piece to the budget. We just discussed, uh, the pay charts are being adjusted by the cost of living increase, which was funded in the budget, which is 3%. Uh, so again, basically just the salaries that are included in the budget are approved in this document.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Thank you. Item 6C, please.

Ordinance 12-2026, an ordinance amending the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026, and amending ordinance 6-2025 to appropriate funds for Bluegrass Fieldhouse Operations and Developer Incentive various funds and general fund departments as needed receive and appropriate grant funds for transit and tax revenues associated with the gateway TIF and to transfer appropriations from sports center to convention center introduced and publicly read on first reading this 19th day of May, 2026.

Thank you. City Manager, please. This is first reading of an ordinance approving a budget amendment for the current fiscal year, which is 25-26. So the last few things we talked about were for next year, which starts on July 1. This is a budget amendment in the current year, which ends on June 30th. It's a typical end of year budget amendment that we consider every year at this time. The amendment includes primarily items that we've previously discussed and have been approved, such as equipment for Bluegrass Fieldhouse and accounting for the receipt and expenditures of various grant applications you've already approved. I will say of note, we received several transit grants, which have saved the city approximately $530,000. So that's a great amendment there. Also included are incentives for projects you've already approved and additional funds for fire department overtime. Overall, again, a fairly typical end of year amendment to clean up items and process grants and funds we've received.

Thank you. Any discussion from the dais?

Hearing none, thank you. City Manager? Mayor, first, if you would acknowledge Angela Waninger to present the April financial report. Thank you. Ms. Waninger?

Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome.

So I'm going to present the financial report for the general fund of the city, and we'll go through over and review five slides. So for the presentation, the actual revenues for the month of April are $9 million, which were more than budgeted revenues of $7.6 million, resulting in a variance of $1.4 million. This is primarily due to higher net profits and partially due to timing and transfers from the Gateway TIF and the recreational fund. The next slide is for the 10 months ended April for revenues. Total actual revenues were 69.3 million, which was more than budgeted revenues of 66.4 million for a positive variance of $2,979,000. This variance is primarily due to higher net profits, timing of property tax receipts, higher occupational withholding, and it's offset primarily by lower municipal road aid. The next slide is going to be expenditures for the month of April. We had expenditures of $5.6 million, which was less than budgeted expenditures of $6.2 million for a variance of $519,000. This variance is primarily due to the transfer to transit and timing in other areas. The next slide represents 10 months ended April of actual expenditures, totaling $65.5 million, which was less than budgeted expenditures of $71.6 million for a variance of $6.1 million. This variance is primarily due to timing and transfer to transit and maintenance, and also due to savings in personnel services. For the last slide, this slide demonstrates the cyclical nature of the city's monthly revenues and expenditures and I like to include this just to show how the revenues go up and down as well as the expenses. The expenses are depicted by the red bar and the revenues by the green bar. The monthly budget is generated to reflect this cyclical nature. The month of April, as you can see, reflects higher revenues, and this is due to the collection of net profits. And just as an added note, for the month of April, we collected $3.3 million of net profits, whereas the year to date is $6.3 million for the year to date. So we collected almost half of the year to date in the one month of April. It's also a very busy month for occupational withholding because it's a quarterly and monthly collection month. So our tax department's been super busy. And so the net profits are doing really well for the city this year. So with that, that concludes my report.

Thank you. Any other questions? I'll just add one for Ms. So the question is, we see the red line pretty much flat as far as expenditures. So do the expenditure cycle tend to kick up in May, or does it kick up in June? Because I know like with road work and all that, we're obviously going to do more outdoor projects as the weather gets better.

Right, the expenditures will spike in the months where we have three pay periods, and that happens twice in each fiscal year, and it also, in the warmer months, you'll see it spike up some due to the increase in outdoor activities as well as road work.

Thank you, Angela, appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Mayor. Any other questions or comments? Okay, I'll make a motion to file a report for audit. Could I have a second, please?

Second. Any other discussion?

Hearing none, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, motion carries. Item 7B, consider personnel appointments.

Just one personnel appointment this evening for your consideration in the probationary full-time non-civil service appointment of Brian Seville, Jr., bus driver with the transit department effective May 31st.

Okay, I'll make a motion to approve it. Could I have a second? Second. Any further discussion, deletions, or additions? Hearing none, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, motion carries.

City manager comment a couple of things tonight mayor first of all since we last met the Barbecue barrels event took place. It was a great event with perfect weather that event is a huge task on our public employees on city employees from a public safety perspective and from Public works in particular from sanitation's perspective, street department putting out all the street closures that went, of course, late into the night on Saturday night. I went downtown about 930 or 10 o'clock on Sunday morning. And if you didn't know that the event had taken place, you would not have known it looked great. So I just wanted to acknowledge our public work staff in particular sanitation for street department for getting that work done, uh, relatedly this week is actually public works week. So wanting to acknowledge those, uh, five men and women of the public works department.

I agree. I usually go down there too. And it's clean.

Thank you, Steven. There you go. There's a picture that was taken today of them. Every couple of years, try to do a team picture. So that was probably two-thirds of our Public Works employees that were able to make it for the photo earlier today. So we want to acknowledge them for their efforts. Mayor, second question or second comment for tonight is just a quick update on the courtesy dock. As most of you know, we have a small courtesy dock at the boat ramp in English Park, which allows people to tie off their boat while they can move their truck. Unfortunately, that dock was damaged over the winter. We have ordered an emergency replacement back several months ago. We were hoping to have that now. Unfortunately, it's still being fabricated. So we continue to wait for the full doc. Uh, in the meantime, we have repaired one section of the old doc. So the old doc was, was three sections. Two of them are no longer usable and not salvageable. One of them were making an emergency repair to that doc to at least have something in the short term while we wait for the full doc to be fabricated later in the summer, we realize it's an inconvenience. We've been working on it for months to try to get it rectified. It's kind of specialized work and a lot of vendors that do this type of work. So we'll have something out as quickly as we can in the meantime until we can get to the middle of the summer when we get the full three section dock in place. So apologize for the inconvenience, but just wanted to pass that along to the public.

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Item eight, communication from elected officials. Mayor Pro Tem.

I would just echo what our city manager said about barbecue and barrels. I wandered down and smelled all the wonderful aroma and saw all the different groups and it was really, as it always is, a great public event and part of our heritage. So that was exciting. Of course, we celebrated the opening of Station 3, which was also exciting. I did not go down the pole, maybe someday. but there is an actual poll. But it looks like a beautiful station. It'll serve us for decades to come and congrats to the crew at Station 3 that you'll have modern, a brand new modern facility to work out of. The other item, I did a proclamation for LEAP, which is a mental health services group. We couldn't do it on Saturday because of the threat of bad weather, because it was gonna be outdoors, so I did it Monday. Teresa Thomas is their director. I think that was well received. I would just say that We have a mental health crisis in this country, and programs and groups like them do amazing work to work with families and individuals who are in need of care. And then finally, I would just say just a general comment. When people talk to me, they know my name. When people talk to me, they know I'm a commissioner. And but I'm also your neighbor. And I live in this community. And if you have a complaint or concern, that is fine. That is fine. That's what we're here for. But please give us your name and tell us who you are. Do not be anonymous. Do not hide behind your keyboard. Tell us who you are. It makes it so much easier to carry on any conversation. And it isn't rude. It wouldn't be rude if I did that to you. Don't do it to me. Okay, and don't do it to my fellow colleagues up here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Echo, thank you very much for Public Works and our special events and fire department, police, for two great events the past week and the past couple weekends. And then I also want to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day. Thanks to all of our veterans, active soldiers, far and near fallen, and allowing us to have those freedoms every day. And then last, Kentucky Wesleyan College's baseball team, I want to congratulate them on winning the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball Championship in Ohio. That's amazing. So thank you very much, Mayor.

You're welcome.

Commissioner Sanford? Thank you, Mayor, just a few things. A few of us, I think most of us were there for Friday After Five, and I think it's a wonderful event that's gone on for years and years, and McConnell Plaza is like a great place for the event. I just think it's bigger. It's got more room for kids. It's a great family event. That brings me to my second thought. I'm in real estate, so I work with a lot of people that move around and stuff. I've noticed a lot of people moving to Owensboro from outside of Owensboro just had a Michigan, a Rhode Island, and a Bowling Green. coming to our community and you know it's because I think we have a really really great community with a lot of stuff going on and there's a big thanks to you guys in the audience that let us do the things we need to do up here to make it a great community. The services we have to offer, the park systems, everything that we have. It sounds like our businesses are doing well from what she said earlier, but it's a big thank you to the taxpayer, a big thank you to the staff and the leadership and the other commissioners. I'm just a little bitty small part of all this, but all of you guys are what make it happen every day. So I just wanted to say thank you for making this a great community.

That's all mission Eastman being a part of the barbecue and barrels, uh, and that whole festival for a really long time. Uh, someone did win the half pot. I'm not allowed to say their name yet, but, uh, so that was good. Uh, and one of the benefits of the half pot is obviously. funding what happens with the festival, but part of that money also goes to support our Owensboro Museum of Science and History. And I just wanted to bring up the fact that all of the church teams and the people that are out there volunteering their time and every cup of burgoo or sandwich that you bought and things that helps them put money back into their parishes and into their areas to help people in the community. And that is really what we're really all about. So it was great. The Lord blessed us with wonderful weather and Actually, I'm afraid I'm going to jinx this for next year because we actually didn't have any rain and it was a barbecue festival. I don't know what happened. But just want to say thank you to all those that support things. And I'm going to address the elephant in the room right now and just say that I know a lot of y'all are here and we know why you're here about issues. And I just want you to know that you are respected for your opinions and for your information, because none of us know everything about everything. And we are going to listen. And I've talked with my fellow commissioners here and you know, we live here too. I have kids, I have grandkids, I have family, I have people I love. So we're never going to do anything that we feel like would be the wrong thing to, uh, to heart our community. So just want to let you know that, uh, we appreciate input because how do you know, um, I'm not even going to begin to tell you that I know everything about everything. So it's always good to see both sides. But I will tell you that you do have a commitment for me and I'm sure my fellow commissioners that we are going to look at everything from a serious and a scientific database. So I just want to say thank you all. And I'm excited to see people that actually show up for the meetings and are listening to us and checking to see what's going on. So I like to see this crowd all the time instead of just when everybody's upset over an issue. but thank you all so very much.

Thanks commissioner. Uh, I have one of my best days I have every year. I get to go to East view elementary school and talk to fifth graders about government. And it's amazing what you can learn from a fifth grader. Uh, they're bright, uh, Now, the teacher gave them some questions. She wrote them out on a piece of paper so they could ask them. But the follow-ups and the things that they were asking were very mature and adult-like. So it is one of my favorite days of the year. And I enjoy going out there. And they are very respectful. So I love doing that. OK. Item 9, open public forum. Members of the audience may address the Board of Commissioners on any matter of public concern that was not on the agenda. Comments are limited to issues within the scope and responsibility of the commission. Commission meetings are held to conduct city business for the benefit of Orangeboro citizens and taxpayers. This time, anyone who wishes to address the city commission, please make their way to the podium to be recognized. Speakers must state their name and their address for the clerk's record. You want to talk first? Okay. The limit their remarks to three minutes or less. All right. Since the item is not on the agenda, no response is required from staff or the board of commissioners. Yes, sir. Name and address for the record.

Oh, my name is Michael boards and 14 Dixie. And that's where I live. And, uh, I just got one thing really clear. I'm a child of God, and I don't know what Owensboro have did better than Egypt or better than California, but he has came down to me, and this is not new, so this is not something that you would understand. So God is in me, not just a biblical term like we're going to study. This is literally God has got in me, and I'm very sound-minded. I'm very okay. I'm in college. I'm just on account right now. That's why I treat me, you know what I'm saying, and I just want you to know that this is not a day. I don't need a approval from anyone. I just want to tell you that Owensboro has been blessed and you need to take a fact that Owensboro has been a blessed. So it's not that I need your approval because the God needs no approval. He needs no approval. He needs no yes man or nothing, but just know I'm the man that he has brought for down here, but it's a light that he's gave me and I'm through the Holy Spirit and it's through Jesus Christ's name. I have no fear for nothing, but I just want to tell y'all, this is a blessing. This is a great blessing. Take it the right way. And that's all I need to say.

Amen. Who's next?

All y'all know my face and my name and my address by now.

So I'll do my little piece since I'm here every single time. And I am just like you. I'm so happy to see so many not familiar faces, but I hope they become familiar because there's a lot of issues that could be discussed every single meeting. And I would encourage everyone to get proactive if they have issues in the city and start doing what at least I and others have been doing, which is taking our three minutes. Even if you don't get a response, it goes in the record, which is why I take my three minutes every single time, because I want it in the record. There's going to be a lot of people that are going to be here to talk about data centers. Y'all already know where I stand. I don't want them. I would like to quickly mention that the Davis County Fiscal Court obviously is looking at a moratorium. That's something that you all could do as well. And I encourage you all to do exactly what those people are doing, which is taking at least one year to do the research. And I think that's what's appropriate is a moratorium for a placeholder. The other thing is, is I know you all have heard about the planning and zoning meeting. I'm sure that didn't go according to plan. Mr. Mayor Tom Watson, I see your eyes are averted and you never give me your eyes. It reminds me of the men that used to turn their chairs when the KKK was in power. So that's really cute. But normally I don't say anything, but I've noticed that people have come up to me and actually brought that to my attention. And I didn't even pay attention. I was like, does he really not do that? And they're like, no, just watch him once. So that's me watching. So I really appreciate the ones that brought that to my attention. But I just think this body says a lot of words and you all don't follow through. That's all I care about. I don't think you're gonna follow through. I think you're gonna keep on saying the pretty words that everybody wants to hear because it's some election season. So I encourage all of us in this room to stop listening to what they have to say. There are almost 4,000 signatures. You don't need any more research. Your people have spoken. We don't want a data center. You all are paid to do what we want, not what you all think is best. I'm just as educated, if not more educated, than everybody sitting on that board. So the thing is, is we don't want the data center. What other research do y'all need? We're the research. That's all y'all need. So I find it very interesting that you all keep saying we're going to look more into it, we're going to look more into it, like all of us are just what, just bodies here? We haven't formed our own opinion. So I'll let other people speak. They had some really good things to say at the zoning meeting. The last thing I want to mention is I'm able to make every single meeting, which is a privilege. Sometimes I'm not able to when I'm on the road, which is why I'm not here. But I really do think that what people are saying is valid. You all should consider an after hours meeting for those that are not working traditional hours or don't own three businesses and can come here whenever they want. I think that's what's appropriate. I think 4 p.m. is whatever. I mean, y'all got to work in your own little time frame as well. I used to work government 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., an hour lunch. Cool, I get that. But also, whenever you work for the people, you have to meet the people where they're at. And a lot of our people, my people, who aren't normally like me, they work a lot. So they can't always come. There should be a lot of other avenues, which I put on y'all's Facebook, to where people can actually voice their opinions. So I think that's a big reason why this crowd is not always here as well. So I think that's important to mention. And that's all I have. Thank you. Wait a minute.

You didn't state your name and address. Oh, I'm sorry.

I do this all the time. I forget. Glenda Wright, 711 Jed Place. Thank you. Thank you.

You're up first, sir. Go ahead.

Oh, I'm sorry. It's all right. I don't think we need a data center anyway. My name's Gary Rayleigh. I live in Owensboro here on the west side, and that's not the reason I'm here. Mr. I forget your name, sir. He mentioned the barbecue festival a while back. I went to that barbecue festival on a bicycle, and I was told by a police officer that Owensboro had recently did a new ordinance saying that you cannot ride a bicycle on a sidewalk. Since that time, I have spoken to four different members of the police department and got four different answers because I was confused as to what you're supposed to do. One of those four that I talked to, I called the police department on the telephone and talked to the front desk officer and he said, Ride your bike on the green belt. Well, I've ridden my bike on the green belt before, and I've almost been run over by mopeds, four-wheelers, and other devices. So the green belt is not a safe place to ride a bicycle. I ride a bicycle for my health, for exercise. Obviously, there's a lot of confusion, even amongst the police department, about what's the law. I don't know what it is. I ride a bicycle. Again, that gives it for my exercise. One officer I talked with says, well, that just pertains to a motorized bicycle. Yeah, my mother's got a motor. They're called legs. And I'm not trying to be funny, that's true. I'm confused as to what is legal. That officer that day at the barbecue festival told me, you can't ride a bicycle on the sidewalk, period. You can ride it in the streets. If I ride on the sidewalk, I stay out of the traffic and all those people that are playing on their cell phones and not paying no attention to what they're doing. I've already been hit by a car at least twice. I'm confused. I don't want to do. I would suggest that you folks do something to eliminate this confusion because there's a lot of confusion myself and again apparently amongst police department also because they all tell me something different. I just want to know what's legal. That's all I want to do. I don't want to break the law. If you decide that it's against the law to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk, well, Ain't nothing to do about it. That's all I want to say.

Thank you for your service.

You're welcome.

Yes, sir, name and address for the record, please.

Yes, it's Paul Payne, 2343 Secretariat Drive. Thank you. I'm an IT guy. I've been in IT for 30 years, so I'm not anti-technology, but I am anti-data center. They are not a producer. They are nothing more than a taking device. They take away our air and give us unclean air. They take away our electricity that we need, and they take away our water. now I kind of just want to give a little bit of a rundown first of all mr. mayor you've made a comment the other day that I greatly appreciated you when you was opening up the fire station and you said that public safety is y'all's job number one and our safety isn't just I got hit by a car I got I got a cut our safety is also breathing so I When you drive across the street, across Parish, down Airport Road, one of the first things that you run into is the fire department. I don't think they need that kind of pollutants. I think they take enough.

My dad used to be on the fire department.

They don't need any extra soot coming down the road or not being able to sleep because the machinery's running 24-7. Then you go a little further down past that, you run into the airport. People who get off the airplanes, that would be one of the first things they see about Davis County. in the city of Williamsboro. Is this the kind of stuff that they like here? Is this loud and noisy device? Then if you go down Biddle, which is just to the left before you get to the fire department, the next thing you come across is a church. And then you come across a building that does tennis and pickleball. I think there are probably a few people in the community that do that. And one of the fields is outside. You go past the pickleball courts and you come to a brand new, just finished this year, ballpark for Owensboro City Schools. How do you think it's gonna look when an out-of-town team comes in and they're sitting over there coughing the whole time? Or they're like, I can't even hear the announcements from the machinery. It's not gonna look real good. It's gonna be kind of a black eye. We're trying to look good to people, not give them a bad appearance. And then those kids that go there every day to practice, they're gonna practice in that environment every day. And they're gonna play games. And then, I don't know if y'all have seen that court, but it's beautiful. Don't even like sports. I'm an IT guy. I mean, you show me some Star Trek, I'm all over it. But the whole thing is, is when it comes to sports, if there's somebody who loves sports, let them enjoy it. And that field is beautiful. Try up out there if y'all haven't been by. I mean, the city, the city schools did a wonderful job of that. I mean, it really looks good and I don't want to see that kind of, I don't want to see a data center black R I when we're doing what we can and we just expect y'all to do the same. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

My name is Larray Jackson. I live and pay taxes at 2517 West 10th street, McAdamsville, the Duke and best area. I just want to say we had an absolute wonderful, um, neighborhood cleanup for our area. And I think the city for that, I think the city for that program, cause he's showing that you care about our community and you want to help keep that community clean. Secondly, I do agree with everybody. I'm not interested in the data center. I live roughly three, maybe four miles from that location. So the noise pollution would be very hostile on me. Not on me, but only for our community as well. My community is an older community. It was once young when I grew up in it, but now it's an older community and there is a lot of vets there that couldn't do with that noise pollution. And you've done a traffic survey, but you haven't done an environment survey. So I think you need to really stop and think and do that environment survey. Because we're already sitting on an environment, pollution as it is. The Mechanicsville neighborhood was built on on a damaged property anyway. So we already have that that we're dealing with with cancer and going on through the neighborhood. So we don't need that anymore. So just think on it when you think about it. We don't want the data center. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

My name is Miranda mate, Daniel. I live on 672 Greenbrier street, Owensboro, Kentucky 4, 2, 3 0 1. and I am your petition starter against the AI Data Center. I'm not used to going in front of a mic and talking through a group of people. I like staying at home, cooking meals, and doing my homework and going to work. So we have done research with our group that people experience increased utility rates when data centers are implemented in their cities, environmental damage, and also pollution. Also, there's several states, if you look it up, that is suffering with water loss and waste of water resources whenever AI data centers are being put into their town. There is a total of 3,830 signatures on the petition. There is a total of 2,647 signatures who reside here in Owensboro, Kentucky. As the petition continues to stay open for whoever is against AI data centers, the numbers will continue to grow. As you can see, there is many people here in Owensboro, Kentucky who are against AI data centers and would like something else to be considered when it comes to developing Owensboro, Kentucky for the future. I ask, will you please protect Owensboro, the people of Owensboro community and find better solutions for our future? If not, we will continue to show up to these meetings and we will continue protesting against AI data centers and possible construction of them. I do have the petition and website. May I present this to you, Mr. Mayor? Sure. But as you can see, as a mother, as a full-time student at WKU going into social work, I want to make sure that my community is protected also. Not just for myself and my child's future, but for everyone else around me. And you know, that's really selfless to say when it's for myself, but I want to see the barbecue fest. continue to thrive as we talked about earlier i want to see the porch fest continue to thrive i know that's something we didn't talk about but also i want to see other community events continue to thrive and people want to come to owensboro instead of looking and saying ooh they got an ai data center so thank you for your time okay

Y'all care if I make a statement? No one has contacted us about a data center. We have not contacted anybody about a data center. As far as I'm concerned, it's dead as far as I'm concerned. We will not have a data center while I'm sitting in this chair. And I certainly am not an IT guy, I can tell you that.

What'd you say?

What's that? I got great grandkids, man. I'm starting all over again. So if anybody else wants to say anything about no data center, can we just possibly?

I did a lot of research, so I'm still going to say what I want to say, but she can go first because she was up there.

Okay, two more people.

Yes, ma'am.

my name is kaylee speaks and i live at 1032 holly avenue um i know you just said that as long as you're mayor there won't be a data center but this does seem to contradict what we read in the messenger inquire about you being in discussions and my thing is this i'm not trying to put you on the spot but i would like some clarity sure and we would all like some clarity and because this is such a intense issue for our community When things like this arise, we would really like it if maybe the city could be a little more transparent about what's going on. But I know that you're not obligated to respond today because it's not on the agenda. And if the city wants to release another social media statement, that would be fine. But we really would like some clarity as to what is going on juxtaposing what you've just said tonight and what the city released on may 11th on social media and what we read in the messenger inquire. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Serena O'Brien. I'm at 5423 Redusa Loop. I'm a born and raised Owensboro native. This is my first time ever attending a city hall meeting, and I come here today to speak about the devastating effects of an AI data center on our community. I know a 12-month moratorium was introduced at last week's fiscal court meeting, but I know this board of commissioners has the ability to overturn that ruling. and come before you imploring you all to stand by your constituents in the cancellation of the heavy industrial rezoning and formally request an extension to a 36-month moratorium as our state and country takes the time to catch up on regulation of these AI data centers at both state and federal levels. Many statistics and facts have been presented to our city's elected officials in recent weeks, but I want to delve into an example including figures specifically from our city's population of 60,300 people. The CDC and American Lung Association estimate approximately 11.7% of Kentuckians total currently suffer from asthma. Using those figures to calculate the number of Owensboro residents with asthma, the total is approximately 7,000 or 11.6% of our city's population, including myself. No matter which power system an AI data center uses, whether electrical or water, each type uses massive amounts of electrical energy, both directly and indirectly causing air pollution from fossil fuels burned in the process. With a population of 60,300 in Owensboro, we emit approximately 960,000 metric tons of CO2 in the atmosphere annually at maximum as a city. A 100 megawatt AI data center in the city limits would increase emissions by upwards of 463,000 metric tons of CO2, which is approximately a 50% increase in emissions from one singular data center. Those figures do not even include the levels of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that can be released from these AI data centers, all of which highly affect the air quality index and can affect asthmatic individuals causing severe asthma attacks and inducing asthma in healthy individuals. I've only presented numbers on asthma, but it puts a burden on the entire community. Individuals who already face respiratory illness, cardiovascular health issues, cognitive or neurological impairments can see increase in flare-ups, asthma attacks, heart attacks, heart disease, anxiety, and depression. It can also cause cognitive development issues in children and lead to poor concentration because they cannot sleep at night due to the light pollution and the constant hum they emit. Overall, we'd see an increased burden on our environment, electrical grid and water supply, and on families whose health would be negatively impacted. There are many alternative initiatives we can take to increase job creation and the inflow of money in the city without creating a greater burden on Owensboro families who are already struggling to get by. Thank you.

hello my name is tatum helm and i live at 11 22 booth avenue so um i know that we are all coming up here and uh discussing data centers data centers but i want to specifically talk about the zoning itself and its proximity to a lot of things within that area because Mr. Watson, you can say that you're not going to put a data center there, but you can still allow heavy industrial. And by no means should an I-2 zone be permitted there. One with its proximity to Jack C. Fisher Park, less than 3.5 miles up the road, you have the brand new senior center that is being built currently right by botanical gardens. The pollution, the smell, the noise from heavy industrial that could go there is insane. Currently, a business like that can be put on an I-1 zoning. At the moment, Owensboro's Unilever or Unifer, sorry, employs 520 people. According to the zoning map thing that was shown with the different buildings at last week's meeting, I believe there is a 500,000 square foot building projected, a 160,000 square foot building projected, and 120,000 square foot building projected. Pre their extension over at universe, they're in like a 460,000 foot building, 520 employees. My personal opinion and many of the opinions of people in here is that the current rezoning you guys are requesting for an I-2 can easily be an I-1 rezone and plenty of job opportunities can come, plenty of industries can come. I know you've discussed that no data centers have come to you yet, but if there was a chance under an I-1, there's a lot more regulations and things that would protect us as citizens, like people have spoke about in the planning and zoning as well. There are homes that are more than three miles, I mean closer than three miles. There are homes that are extremely close to the area that you are requesting for an I-2 area, or industrial zoning and heavy industrial. And I'm just asking that you think about those people. If you wouldn't want it in your backyard, please do not put it in their backyard at the end of the day. And there are not only that, like I said, Jack C. Fisher Park, Joe Ford Nature Center is right there. According to the traffic report, traffic is already really bad right there. And putting an I-2 industrial park right there is not going to make that any better. So I just ask you guys, please consider the economic potential of an I-1 is still there. If you guys are needing to do the rezoning from agriculture to something else to bring in employment in Owensboro, to bring in more opportunity, please, please, please stay away from I-2 within that area. It is way too close to people. You guys really need to consider. And like you said, you guys serve us. So please, please, please just keep that in mind. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Is there time for one more? One more.

This is Chris . I live at 900 East 3rd Street. I want to say thank you for letting our voices be heard. I also am just briefly touching on the AI data center issue. And I'd emailed you, Mr. Mayor, yesterday. You're a busy guy, I understand that you couldn't get back to me. But what I'm proposing is a change to the zoning ordinance to make AI data center just a non-permissible zoning that way we would have some sort of final conclusion to not have one in Owensboro right the folks are asking for it it's a pretty hot topic right now and the promise that you made it means a lot but a zoning change would mean more and so I've drafted a zoning ordinance and by the way I'm not a lawyer so you know take it with a grain of salt But you guys have a city attorney who can make his changes to it. And this is based on the research out of a couple of different communities and different states that have done similar things because of the issue that is ongoing and people not wanting it in their area, right? So if you would, I have a copy of it, if I could leave it with either yourself or Mr. Mark here. Is that okay? And I appreciate you guys hearing us out. This is the beautiful part about civic engagement is this is why you guys are elected, right? Is to serve us and we try to serve you when we can, right? I appreciate your time and I appreciate the focus on economic development. We do want more jobs. We do want more opportunities. But we do prefer that it's something a little better for the environment, something a little better for our children, grandchildren, et cetera. Thanks for your time.

Thank you for being here. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Diana Friend, 316 Hale Avenue. So in listening to everyone I hear everyone's concern is protection. And we know that is yours too. That's your main concern is our personal safety our safety of our assets. Protection in this case of a data center includes the fact the facts of water electricity both of which have to do with us. We are made mostly of water. Our body runs with electricity and it has cells. All of those things that that data center emits affect our cells. This is not just about headaches, not just about, you know, the outward things that we can feel. This changes you from the inside out like many things do like all of our experiences actually change us from the inside out. Data center does it in not so nice way. We really need to be careful and we trust your word and we would like to continue to trust your word. But we need that word to go to everybody else as well and come out of their mouth not just yours because you're not there forever. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, my name is Vicki Mills and I am at 602 Maple Avenue here in Owensboro. And I apologize to the young man that was on the sidewalk because that's unfortunately why I'm here. I've got eight grandchildren and a lot of little friends that I love dearly and these electric bikes and scooters. I've done a little homework. I see that Brad Youngman had done his homework. There was an article in the Messenger on May 4th that he addressed this issue. Apparently there is no state law regarding the electric bikes. What I'm seeing, you're not supposed to ride bicycles on sidewalks. And I'll tell you why. Because I work at Bowen Tire Company. and I park on the street and like a lot of our buildings downtown, when you come out of a building, you come right out on the sidewalk and you're not expecting an electric bike or electric scooter, 68 years old to knock you down because you didn't look at the edge of the building before you walked out onto the sidewalk. And maybe I should have, but, um, it's very, these kids are riding these bicycles that go 30. My son sells them. Um, not to kids, but they're, they go 32 miles per hour and they don't wear helmets. They don't have a driver's license. If we don't do something, we're going to lose. We're not even gonna have to worry about a data center because we're losing these children. And I know it's peer pressure. Mama, so-and-so's not their kids have one. And, and I know a lot of people that driver's license had been taken. I know it's an issue for them. but I think you're supposed to have a license to drive those is what I'm understanding. So I don't know much about law, but I think we need to look into this because it's very scary. And on a second note, my name is on that petition, so I'm with everyone here, so thank you all.

Hello, my name is Joe Donoto. I live at 2413 Davis. And as other gentlemen said, lots of people coming into Owensboro. I want to share my perspective as one of those people. I just moved here in March from Huntsville, Alabama. And I chose Owensboro for a lot of reasons, personal reasons. The love of my life is here, so very looking forward to that. Beyond that, though, things which you all have control over, do this in a compliment sandwich kind of way. I visited Owensboro multiple times over the past year or two to visit this woman and I've really enjoyed it. The river walk is beautiful. it's a very clean place respect here at public works i love the neighborhoods you can walk outside there's trees there's pathways i don't ride my bike just yet haven't got that all set up um and it's just a really nice place you've got the convention center so you got interesting things happening bluegrass hall of fame is fascinating like owensboro is a wonderful place and I would've moved here, I would've moved wherever she went, but I'm very glad that she's here. You understand? Owensboro is nice. So without beating the dead horse here, I think there's a lot of ways that you all can use the power that has been given to you, except I wasn't here to vote for you last time, I wasn't living here, but there's a lot of ways that y'all can use your power to continue that and to continue to make Owensboro what it is. There's also ways that you can use your power to do the opposite of that, and I really hope and pray that y'all choose to develop Owensboro in a way that benefits myself personally, all the folks here, and all the children that are gonna grow up and live in Owensboro. So that's all, thank you for your time.

Kathy Weathington, I live at 424 East 21st Street. I came here to talk about the data center, but I want to add my two cents to the people talking about these motorized bikes. As someone who almost got run over by a kid on the green belt on a motorized bike, he didn't look like it was 14 years old yet. I have called the police on these kids because it happens every summer about this time of year when the kids start getting out more. and somebody's going to get killed. We have people with children on their tricycles out there sometimes. We have people on regular bicycles, and they will say, hey, on your left, on your right. These kids do not, and they're riding up and down there like 25, 35 miles an hour. If they hit a dog, they're dead. If they hit a person, they and the person is dead. Something needs to be done.

Okay.

Well, I'm not sure they're going to allow us to speak on that. We're not allowed to speak on that anymore, are we? They've shut that down?

Go. Go.

Okay. Okay. All right. I didn't think I was allowed to speak on this. I was going to speak on something completely different. So we've already talked about everything. We've talked about the noise. So we know that you just said this wasn't going to happen as long as you were in a seat.

Yes, sir. Can I have your name and address? Oh, yes.

It's Kelly Schroeder. And you guys know my address. It's 107 East 23rd. And that's another thing I want to discuss. A member of the Owensboro Board, I think he's the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, was on my sidewalk Saturday. I come out, I don't know who he is, I see him, and he bolts. He takes off running like Forrest Gump. He was not on a casual stroll. So he made me think he was up to something outside of my house, which leads me to my Facebook page, which has had all kinds of changes made to it that I most certainly have not made. I would like for my Facebook to be restored back to where it was. so that I can share everything that I need to, so I still have the features of the colors to pop up. But as a town, if this does happen, if it's not gonna happen while you're here, is that allowed to change guard? You said it won't happen while you're in seat. Is someone else allowed to take your place and make decisions for you? Okay, I just want to make sure, because I don't want anyone else to...

They can make their own decisions.

I'm just telling you. Okay, okay. I just want to make sure it doesn't change anywhere else. So with that, the reason all this has happened is because we know the risks and we know the promises. And if this does happen, right... We're all in danger and it's just that simple. So if it does happen outside of yours, if we could just make sure that any increases in utilities are only made by the people who made the decisions to have it here. Do not pass that on to people who did not ask or want or barter with anyone for it, please. Okay? And then, I mean, because right now, if you think about it, this is like the gold rush of the wild, wild west. Everybody's just dying and clamoring to get in as fast as they can, right? So, what happens when these tech communities and developers go unchecked, they negotiate strict community benefits and sustainability mandates. That's what needs to happen with us. So, I really don't know what to speak of other than I do want my Facebook page put back to its original Position we could probably do it before the end of my minutes up.

Who's ever doing guy right there?

Who's my I know he's not I'm not talking about him. He's not trying to censor me That's the big difference. I need to be uncensored immediately, please Cuz it almost feels like with more than one two, three four people it happening. It feels like a conspiracy I read that cities can have that control if they think that a political storm is coming. I

I don't think so.

You don't think so?

No, ma'am.

Okay. All right. Okay. Well, I know because last time I came to the city about something else, it also happened again. But that was actually not you guys. That was Bevan, the teacher's fund. So I guess since I can't speak on anything that I spent over a week preparing and spending $100 of mine to make a map, I guess I'll be silenced then.

Thank you all for coming tonight.

No, I'm going to exercise my time, Mayor.

Pardon me?

I'm going to exercise my time, Mayor.

You will if I recognize you.

No, sir.

You're going to recognize me.

I don't want to be confrontational, but I do expect to be recognized.

Okay, you have three minutes.

My name is Josh Flespolar. I live on 1918 South Griffith Avenue, Owensboro, Kentucky, obviously. I do agree with a lot of what you all have said about the great things that... are going on in Owensboro, how you all run the city generally. I think y'all do a good job. This is the first time that I've attended a meeting where I think maybe a decision might be made contrary to that. And part of why I'm here is because I really haven't dealt with local politicians, but national politicians lie. And tonight, you all opened with a prayer. How many of you are open Christians? Raise your hand. Okay, so when you all lie, if you all lie to us on this, you're lying with Jesus over you because you started this with his name, with his prayer. And I want you all to remember that. And so I don't want to belabor that point and I just want to remind you all of that. Thank you.

Okay.

Mr. Pfeiffer, you might appreciate this. Cliff Carlock, 9140 State Route 405, Maceo, Kentucky. There's a quote that I'm sure all of you know from high school. If you've heard in history class, it's something to, um, I believe all we have done was waking a sleeping giant and filled him with terrible resolve. That's error. Soku Yamamoto, after they attacked Pearl Harbor, these are your sleeping giants. Y'all are broken now. I think they said 4,000 people had signed a petition, and it's all over Facebook. So when there's an issue that you want to hurry up and rush through and get it approved, but these people here, they pay attention to the news. Just because we're online and on Facebook, don't think we ain't paying attention to our city. And you made a comment that before about this AI data center would probably wouldn't hire a lot of people, but higher pay. So what's the benefit of orange profits? You're going to bring a massive facility here that only hires just a few higher paying job. And I'm sure the city will give them all kind of tax benefits, TIFs. abatements, deferrals, and in my opinion, it's going to come, hopefully not here. You know, Owensboro's just too small. You ain't got the infrastructure for it. At the location that it's proposed to be, it's like a square. what, square peg fitting in a round hole. It's not good for the location of Orangeboro. You see the restaurants and the shopping center, then you see a big AI data center. It's just not a good picture. If it did come, what needs to be done is it needs to be self-sustained, produces its own power, sources its own water so it can filter its own water. It does not need to be hooked up to the Orangeboro electrical or even water infrastructure. Don't make the citizens pay for it. I think I did a little research and said that this facility at this size could cost up to a couple billion dollars. Now the gaming facility out there on 60 was 100 million. I think that Smothers Park, after all said and done, was like up to 150 million. This is a couple billion dollars. This is like Toyota size, you know, investment. And so we shouldn't give them anything. You know, if they're gonna, I'm sure they'll say, oh, well, this is a great community, the drivers are the best in the world. Right, you know, that's a joke, you can laugh about that. But would they say the same thing about Warrensboro if you did not give them all these tax incentives? No, they probably wouldn't. The only reason they're coming to Orangeboro and this area is because of the low real estate, and I'm sure everything that you would probably give them. They wouldn't do this in California, New York, Florida, or anything like this.

Okay, thank you.

Hello, my name is Victoria. I live on the west side of town. I'm clearly here against the AI Center today. I think regardless of where you put it, who pays for it, either way, all everything that we know about the environmental aspect of it i would even argue that using ai is unethical but that we can save that conversation for a different day so i won't say anything else there's been a lot of people here that have said some really great things about research and about the facts behind ai data centers i'm actually here because today is my first like in-person meeting that i've been able to attend i've seen the live streams on facebook There's been a lot of comments made about like, oh, it's so nice to see so many people here today. Well, I want to ask, how often do you guys have these meetings? Once a month, twice a month. So this is you only guys you only have to do this twice a month out of your your full time jobs. How hard would it be to have this meeting at six o'clock at night? only having to do that twice a month. I don't think that's a big ask. And then you would see people coming out here because I had to, I had to literally get off work early. I had to request off work early to be here today. And then I don't want to, and then a couple of other concerns about how we're conducting these meetings, asking for our names, our full government names and our address to me is a huge safety concern. I think there's got to be a better way. Like, here's my name. I'm Victoria. I live on the west side. But, like, you guys are elected public officials. It's clear that you guys are putting your names and information out there. I'm just a citizen. I still think my voice should be heard, and I don't think I should have to give out my full, like, identity and address for that. This is also a public... meeting so i do want to question as much as i respect all of the christians in here why are we opening a public meeting with a prayer because i am not christian but i am very much still a constituent of yours And just because I'm not Christian doesn't mean I'm not a good person. It doesn't mean that I don't make great decisions and I'm a sister, I'm an aunt. I think opening with a prayer is a little disrespectful because you don't know other denominations of people who have other faiths in this room as much as I respect the Christians here. We live in a country that expresses freedom of religion. So I think we need to have a non-secular space for all of our constituents to show up. so those are just the concerns that i had with this being my first experience coming to a meeting and i hope that you guys will see my face more because i love my community and i'm very much so involved but when you make it at 4 p.m working people cannot be here so it's kind of a slap in the face to hear you guys complain about people not showing up more often but then you don't make it accessible for working people anyway thank you very much for your time

I agree with everything that Tori just said, but I wanted to say, yeah, we came in here and one of the first things that Bob Glenn said, you need to identify yourself by name. And OK, yes, that's what I'm here to talk about. You said not to hide ourselves. We are in. a time where last week Donald Trump said that if you are an activist, if you are against fascism or if you are trans, that you are a terrorist and you should be hunted down. And then a week ago, a trans girl, 19, was stabbed over 40 times. You think those aren't related? They are related. So when you demand for my government name and my address publicly on something that is live stream. That is a risk for my life or my loved ones lives. And especially when you want me to after I state that to give my opinion about. the state of things to give you my opinion on standing against something that you guys are for. So it's threatening. And yes, yours has to be public. You are public officials. You were elected. And if I have to list my home address, why does the mayor get to list his business address? as his address if you look it up that's his business address why are you asking me for my home address where i can be followed and and it's worse who knows what could happen to me so what i that's what i want to say and when i came in here bob you looked right at us and you said that we need to not hide our faces and whatnot That's just freaking rude. That's just freaking ruin. You're putting your constituents in danger and you're also suppressing our voices by making us not feel comfortable to come up here and speak when you demand our name and addresses when it's not safe to do so. and we live in a society where it is not safe to do so. People have children, and we are a group of people that are under attack for having feelings. My face was, or not my face, but my body was just posted on the internet from one of our news locations, and all I got was hate, and if they knew my address, how am I supposed to feel safe? Those are people who hated me just from what I look like. Okay? So that's what you're dealing with. So if I give you my name and my address, how are you going to assure my safety after that?

May I respond? May I respond? Is that valid? I want to give you a quick 10 seconds. I'm not arguing with you. We make a lot of valid points. Thank you. I am saying when you email me, you are pejorative. Anybody in this group, you're welcome to communicate. I had somebody yesterday call me for 13 seconds and use profanity and threaten my life on the phone. I don't think that's appropriate. I think, of course, they never left their name, and that's fine. I'm not going to follow up on who they are. The city's policy about address is a city policy. It is not me. You never have to tell me where you live.

You and I are neighbors, and we should be able to talk over the phone, email, whatever.

I'm just saying, I want to know who I'm talking to, me personally. Exactly.

You should have been more specific then, because it felt threatening. And then every time I come up here, Mr. Mayor, you demand our name and our addresses when you don't even list yours.

Thomas H. Watson, 3622 Bridgepoint.

And that is not what is listed on the website.

I've been there about 27 years, I think.

I know that is your home, sir, but that is not what is listed under mayor on our city's website. It is your business, which actually brings into content, but maybe are you using your business in order? Like, are you benefiting?

That's it. Anybody want to make a motion to adjourn? I'll make a motion to adjourn. Could I have a second, please?

Second.

Thank you. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, welcome to stay.