City Commission - Regular Meeting

I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order on June 23rd, 2026, and ask the city clerk to call roll.

Commissioner Henderson. Commissioner Smith.

Here.

Commissioner Thomas.

Here.

Commissioner Wilson. Present. Mayor Bray.

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

Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you on behalf of all of us who are gathered here for the many blessings that we have. Thank you for the ability to be involved in useful work on behalf of our city, and thank you for your loving kindness that you show us every day. Please grant us wisdom as we make decisions on behalf of our citizens. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. City Manager, are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? Mayor, none this evening. Okay, we've got a couple of new employee introductions. Greg Cherry is going to introduce a couple of people. And Chief Steve Kopp.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager. We have two new code enforcement officers with us. First of all, we've got Nick Smith. Nick started with us in February. He's originally from Graves County. You may recognize him. He spent 16 years on the radio, Willie and whatever other stations he was with, WKYQ.

He's got that radio voice.

Then he spent several years in car sales, and he's working on the north side doing code enforcement this time. Next, we have Sean Bell. He's a Paducah native, went to St. Mary's. He started with us in April. He spent several years working in construction. Then he also spent 10 years working with the railroad. So we're glad to have both of them, and we enjoyed meeting them tonight.

Yeah, welcome. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

Good to have you. Thank you, sir. Good to have you, Nick. Thank you. I'm glad we all go to St. Barbara.

Thank you guys for being here. Good luck.

Code enforcement is very important. It's a tough role, you know, for those of you out there doing it, working it. But it's very important. You know, we have to walk a fine line, slippery slope, trying to keep people in line out there, but also recognize, you know, some of the issues that people have. So we appreciate your dedication to the job. Thank you. Okay, I want to recognize we have a candidate here for mayor in the Benton, Kentucky mayoral race, Stephen Platt. And I ran into Stephen. Stephen, welcome. And he asked me whether he could attend a meeting, and I wouldn't deny anybody really would want to attend, but... I thought it was a really good idea, you know, you think about the towns around us, Benton, Mayfield, I actually had coffee this morning with a mayoral candidate over in Mayfield. These cities and towns around us are very important to Paducah and McCracken County. They have their own initiatives and things that they're working on, but Paducah being the larger county and city, it's good to have a good relationship with And so, Stephen, I hope you learned something tonight and wish you the best of luck in the election in November. Yes, sir. Okay, we'll move to the consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the 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 would be removed from the consent agenda, considered separately. The city clerk will read the items recommended for approval unless a commissioner would like something removed. And if not, I'll ask the city clerk to read the items recommended for approval.

Approve minutes for the June 9th, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting. Receive and file documents. Reappointment of Dr. Simone Perron to the Paducah-McCracken County Senior Citizens Board. This term shall expire June 30th, 2029. Reappointment of Stacey Drake and Mary Catherine Dossett. An appointment of Marcia Harbison to replace Ronna Ward, whose term has expired, and Parker Jaco to replace Kathleen McHaney. who resigned to the Civic Beautification Board. Said term should expire July 1, 2030 and July 1, 2027, respectively. Appointment of Danny Evitz to the Paducah-McFargan County Joint Sewer Agency to replace Susan Phelps Carr, whose term will expire July 1, 2026. This term shall run from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2030. Reappointment of Thomas Whitmore and appointment of Herbert Gregory to replace Laura Grumley, whose term will expire July 1, 2026, to the Paducah Transit Authority Board. Said term shall run July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2030. Reappointment to the Paducah-McCracken County Convention Center Corporation Board of Cheryl Chino and joint appointment of Anthony Andrews to replace Kimberly Davis, whose term expired June 30, 2030. Said term shall expire June 30, 2029. Personnel actions, a municipal order declaring certain real property generally located at 1301, 1303, and 1305 North 6th Street, Paducah, Kentucky as surplus property. Approving a real estate purchase agreement between the City of Paducah, Kentucky and the Paducah-McCracken County Joint Sewer Agency. And authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement and all documents necessary to complete the sale. A municipal order approving an employment agreement between the City of Paducah and Police Officer Matthew Wentworth and authorizing the mayor to execute same. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a grant application and all documents necessary to apply to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for local assistance road program LARP funds and authorizing the acceptance of any and all funds awarded. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a grant application and all documents necessary to apply to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for the HB 501 grant pool funds and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same. A municipal order authorizing the finance director to pay Kentucky League of Cities for workers' compensation, liability insurance, and property insurance coverage in a total amount of $1,362,381 for the City of Paducah and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same. A municipal order adopting the Title VI program plan for the City of Paducah for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute an amendment to the subaward agreement with Andrew McLennan EEM Enterprises to revise their scope of work. A municipal order declaring the real property located at 1411 Burnett Street, Paducah, Kentucky to be surplus property, accepting the bid of Jeremy Serena of Kentucky Modern Housing Development, LLC, in the amount of $1 and authorizing the mayor to execute the deed and all documents related to the same. A municipal order authorizing the sole source purchase of candidate physical agility test CPAT equipment from CPAT Distribution Incorporated in the amount of $74,895.80 in accordance with KRS 45A.380 and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to SANE. So moved.

Second.

Call roll.

Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

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

Okay, we have three municipal orders to approve tonight, and I'll ask the city clerk to please read the first one.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled, a municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a second addendum to the development agreement between the City of Paducah, Kentucky, Circle Properties, LLC, and 314 Condominiums Association Corporation for the property located at 318 Broadway Street.

So moved. Second. Second.

Blake, welcome. Good evening. Good evening. It's great to have you here. Please feel free to tell us what's going on.

Yeah, so just a quick update. We got started a little bit behind on this project than we were wanting to, so that's why we're here tonight is just to kind of move that timeline a little bit. But it's moving along really well. It's kind of hard to take pictures of the stage that it's in, but we should be ready for rough-in inspection at the end of this week. I think the plumbers are already scheduled, and this is going to be for the restrooms for the park that we're building at the old Kresge lot. So the restrooms are rough and ready almost. I'd say one more day. Electrical's moving right along. I don't know. So we started cutting some holes in the outside. That's gonna be like a service window for food and then a door. And then the door to the right is gonna be where you enter to go into the restrooms. And that's where all the patrons will use for the park. I think that's all we got there. We're gonna be starting work outside in the main park. either tomorrow or Thursday. So everything's moving along good on my schedule, but not quite on the regular schedule. So we're just trying to push that a little bit further down the road. We anticipate being ready to get open next spring. I think we put June 1st just to give us a little extra wiggle room, but we should have no problem hitting those timelines for sure.

Well, I can say that, first of all, we appreciate you being here. And, you know, the project has gone a little slower than what we had anticipated. But you guys have been great partners for the city, you know, for us downtown. So we've, you know, really sought to work with you to help you make your timelines. But I have to tell you that You know, what you're trying to do, it's important to the city, and it's important to downtown. I mean, we really like your vision. Obviously, we wouldn't have entered into an agreement with you, but we're very pleased that you're moving along, and we want to continue to partner with you.

I appreciate it. It's an ambitious project, but I think it'll be great for the community once we can get it open and in use.

Thank you for your investment downtown.

Sir, thank you. Yeah, I think it turned out to be a little more complex than what we envisioned. And that's what happens with projects. I mean, I just thought, well, we'll go in there and tear down a couple of walls and sow some grass. But it was a lot more complicated than that.

It was, and that building was not in great shape, and so we had to do some stabilization there. We ended up tearing out the entire concrete floor because it was only about a half inch thick. Oh, wow. So, yeah, a lot more money, a lot more time than we anticipate, but that's what happens with these old buildings, and you know we have a lot of experience with them, and so we try to do them the right way so that they'll last for years.

Like, will you talk a little bit about what will be on the empty lot? I know it's like a large area that will be serving drinks, and are you going to be serving food out of over-under as well?

Yeah, so over-under will operate the bar out there. There will be a bar kind of in the middle, middle front third towards Broadway, and It'll all be gated front and back. It'll be open, kind of dawn to dusk sort of timeline. On a Tuesday like this, the park would be open for people to use. The bar would probably not be open. You could go in there and have lunch or bring your family, whatever. There's going to be a stage for live music and plays and things like that. Hopefully a little playground area for kids. We're going to try to incorporate a dog park for pet relief. And then just a bunch of tables, chairs, maybe some areas for pop-up shops. So we just envision it being a great place for the community to gather. And then on the weekends, hopefully Friday, Saturday, on a nice day, we can make a little money. And the goal of that is just really to help maintain it and keep it beautiful and get people downtown to shop and eat local.

Not to make it more difficult, but I would really love to see it. And you may have, and I haven't walked by it, like a sign that would say coming soon.

Yeah, so absolutely. Our first step outside is going to be the brick columns for the fence. And then there'll be like, you know, wrought iron metal between those columns. So once we get those columns done, which should be hopefully next week, we'll start putting some signage out there. And I've got a website and a Facebook page ready to go to kind of start sharing our vision with everybody.

Great. Thanks.

Yeah. Perfect. Any other?

Do you have a name for it? Not yet. Okay.

I'm calling it the Kresge lot right now, so working title.

Okie dokie. Well, thanks for being here. Thank you. Thank you.

It's exciting. Thank you.

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

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

Aye. I'd ask the 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 approving a contract with Youngblood Excavating and Contracting LLC in an amount not to exceed $205,000 for the Clement Street Farley Place Sidewalk Project and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to Seng.

So moved. Second.

Greg, you want to tell us about the sidewalk project?

Yeah. Evening, Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Clerk. As you said, this is the sidewalk project that we are approving contract with Youngblood to do some work on Clement Street over on the south side. This project involves removing and replacing sidewalk that is in need of it and preparing us for future rehabilitation work in the area.

Yeah, I thought this project was interesting. If you guys have been over on Clemens Street lately, I mean, that's an area, you know, I've been over there and, you know, these sidewalks need replacing. And so we were able to, you know, capture some funds, some CDBG funds, and that was kind of unique. So I thought it was, you know, it fit right into our Southside initiative. Sidewalks are, you know, an often discussed issue for residents. In Paducah, you know those who have them and they're maybe not in great shape and those who don't have them want them and They're very expensive. And so we're always focused on trying to you know trying to improve or find You know a place to install sidewalks where we can and it it requires a lot It would require a lot of money to to do that But whenever we can you know find an opportunity, you know, we want to take advantage of it. So I Questions from commissioners? Okay. Thank you for being here. You're welcome. I'd ask the city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

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

Aye. And you can read the next municipal order, please.

I propose motion that the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled a municipal order authorizing and approving an agreement between the City of Paducah and Paducah Downtown Development Incorporated for Barbecue on the River 2026 in the amount of $65,000 and authorizing the Mayor to execute the agreement.

So moved.

Second. Ms. Galt.

And Paducah Downtown Development Organization is Paducah Main Street, for those that may not recognize. So Main Street, according to their contract, is going to take on Barbecue on the River. And this is essentially the contract that helps to just subsidize that festival. And Blaine and Carly are here, and they have been working with Tyler Parker, I believe. And they've got a good festival planned and underway.

Well, maybe you could, I'm not sure all the commissioners understand, but maybe you could explain how Main Street is going to put that on this year because we've hired Tyler. Yes. So how's that going to work?

So in years previous, essentially a promotion and events coordinator has stepped up to do that. And in years past, most recently, it was Whitney Ravalette. Or Whitney Wallace, as some of you may know her as. And of course, Whitney just welcomed a new baby. And she and her husband kind of transitioned out of the festival business. And so according to Main Street's contract, Main Street would take that on and have that purview. And given all the things that Blaine and Carly have on their plate, they subcontracted that out. And Tyler Parker had a lot of festival experience. He had participated in barbecue for years, and they subcontracted with him, and essentially he is serving as the festival director with the support of the Main Street Board and Blaine and Carly and some other admin. Is that a fair description?

Yes, ma'am. And good. Maybe city manager, could you reflect on the outlay of cash this year versus previous years, the $65,000?

That is, correct me if I'm wrong, but that is the same amount that we paid last year for beautiful Paducah to do the same service. Okay.

And in this contract, you'll also notice an assignment. There are some things that came from Whitney, and there's some equipment, the naming rights, those kind of things. The city now owns the actual festival name, so all that is kind of couched on this one tight little package. But at the end of the day, the cash outlay is the same, and we just have control of the assets and the name, and that will lie with the city. It'll stay with the city.

So my hope has always been for that festival, and you and I have had these discussions, Carol, before, but my hope has always been for that festival to, you know, work toward cash flowing itself or getting close anyway in terms of working for sponsorships. We have a lot of people that are down here, a lot of people that want to get visibility when all those people are here. So we need to utilize that to our advantage because it is Paducah's biggest festival.

There was a time, actually, that it somewhat did sustain itself, other than the in-kind donation from the city. And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, when we first started giving cash to them, it was right during COVID, right after COVID. And I believe it was at $95,000. And so it is slowly declining. And I think that you can expect to see that in future years. But it's just going to take some time to get there.

Let me just... on my soapbox, not really, but just, you know, this is a $65,000 cash outlay, which is great. Everyone loves the barbecue on the river, but also there's a lot more money the city pays toward this.

The in-kind services, yes.

All the cash, all the overtime and all that. So I think people that, some people say, where did my tax money go toward? Well, you know, It goes for things like this, for the festivals and the fun part of living here in the community. So I just want people to realize that that's something that the city does for not just city residents but for the entire community.

Absolutely, absolutely. And we do track that in-kind, don't we? We track that.

And actually, they have to claim it on their 990s. You know, it's all there. You can see the cash flow. You can see the in-kind outlay. It's all there, and it's reflected in the 990s.

Cool. Well, thank you for being here. Thank you guys for being here. Keep up the great work. Let us know how we can support you. Okay? Other than giving you more money.

All right.

City Clerk, please call roll.

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

Aye. We have one ordinance to adopt. We read this two weeks ago, and I'll ask the city clerk to read it again. We'll see if anybody has any questions.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled An Ordinance Authorizing the Mayor to Execute a Memorandum of Understanding Between the City of Paducah and the McCracken County Property Valuation Administrator. for services related to the city's 911 parcel fee program. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance authorizes the mayor to execute a memorandum of understanding between the City of Paducah and the McCracken County Property Valuation Administrator for services related to the administration of the city's 911 parcel fee program. The McCracken County Property Valuation Administrator will assist the city with assessment, classification, calculation, and administration of the 911 parcel fee, including the preparation and transmission of a database eligible parcels for inclusion on the city's annual property tax bills the city shall compensate McCracken County property valuation administrator at the rate of four cents per parcel located within the city of Paducah regardless of whether the parcel is assessed a 9-1-1 parcel fee so moved second discussion I Think you can call roll Commissioner Smith aye Commissioner Thomas Commissioner Wilson aye mayor Bray aye aye

Okay, we have quite a few ordinances to introduce. The first, I'm not going to take Josh's thunder away from him, but I know that the first four, the first three are to align us with some changes in state code that were passed by the legislature. So just giving everybody a heads up on that. So I'll ask the city clerk to read the first one, please. Or I'll... Ask Josh to tell us about him first.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, Madam City Clerk. The first two that we're going to look at tonight is the text amendment to section 126.69, which is mobile home parks and 79 qualified manufactured homes. There was a new bill passed, which is House Bill 160, that requires that all qualified manufactured homes have to be allowed in every single residential zone. We can't pick and choose those anymore. Right now what we have on the books is they're not allowed in the R1 low-density zone. So we had to come up with performance standards across the board. That way a qualified manufactured home isn't treated any differently than a stick-built home. Also at this time, we are changing land lease communities. That's the more socially acceptable name for mobile home parks, which has been called that since the inception of the zoning ordinance. And this is more of a language update. You will notice in land lease communities, number nine is stricken. It talks about the plan and that it talks about the planning commission in there. Once upon a time, conditional uses were made from the Planning Commission to the Board of Adjustment. Several years have passed since we've changed that, and this is simply cleanup language to that part. 126.79, Qualified Manufactured Homes, is really the meat and potatoes that is going to bring us in line with the state law. Just the high-level things that I'd like to mention is that new homes shall not exceed a date five years prior. when before they're installed. So they have to be a brand new home. And the other main thing is on a corner lot, any new home has to face the street of which a majority of the other homes face. That way you're not driving down the street, have one long side of a manufactured home having their main door when everybody else faces the opposite street. It's gonna keep the character the same on the street. The compatibility standards, They have to be the same as the R1 through R4 zones, specifically for size, which in the R1 zone, the minimum square footage is 1,200. The R2 is 1,000. And by state law, the other two zones, R3 and R4, have to be 900. But there is a caveat to that that I'll talk about in just a moment. The other main thing is they are not allowed in any pending or existing historic district. And the reason that specific verbiage is in there is to protect the south side. As it's being looked at to potentially go on the National Register of Historic Districts, we didn't want to introduce a lot of qualified manufactured homes, which would be non-conforming structures to that neighborhood. Now, the other major change is that if a home cannot meet the standards by setback or size, they still have to be allowed on the lot, if they can, to be considered qualified manufactured. We already have a law on the books that up to a minimum of a 10% of a lot has to be constructed upon for it to be considered qualified. What that boils down to is if there's a nonconforming lot of 5,000 square feet, a 500 square foot qualified manufactured home could be allowed under the new state law. So with that, I'll be glad to answer any questions that anybody may have.

Yeah, I want to ask about the south side. So when you say it's limited in the south side, are you speaking of Zone 1 or all the south side?

All the south side is being considered for the National Register, the store district.

And how much of the south side is that?

That I'm not exactly sure. To be honest with you, Mayor, I know that a lot of the... Residential parts are more so than the industrial. So the gist of that is to make sure that wherever houses are going to go for sure that they'll be in line with what's there now and not.

So it sounds like what you're really saying is qualified manufacturing homes are not going to be in the south side.

not not necessarily so so kind of to tell you how that works to be on the National Register and to be a historic district there has to be a inventory done we're in the process of having that done around the call Park area you clearly can see there's historic fabric there there we were concerned about the phase one area because there had been so much density lost if there would still be enough historic fabric there for that to qualify. Those areas are being inventoried, and if there's enough historic fabric there, they will be nominated to be essentially a historic neighborhood. Past that, there's probably not enough fabric. When I say fabric, I mean historic fabric, homes that have that kind of history, 50 years or older, those kind of things, and they have to have the architecture, and they have to meet the provenance, so to speak.

Yeah, I'm just trying to get straight in my mind. You know, when you say the whole south side is potentially an historic district, it's really only pockets.

It's only pockets, correct. I mean, they're surveying the whole area, but at the end of the day, we know the whole area is not going to qualify. But the only way to get through that and create the boundaries is to do the inventory and then look at it accordingly. because we have to have so much of that historic fabric. That's a long explanation, but at the end of the day, it won't be. I mean, you've got to think about it in terms of Fountain Avenue is a historic neighborhood. Wallace Park is a historic neighborhood. Lower Town is a historic neighborhood. Do you get what I'm...

So when would we get that survey back?

We should have it back in the... CLG is paying for a portion of that, and we're contracting through that. So I'm going to say that it'll probably be mid-fall. Takes a long time. They have to inventory every structure and they have to write a description of every structure They have to research provenance. I mean, it's a lot of work.

And so while they're doing that we didn't want to introduce any new Non-conforming structures, whatever we've got should be the baseline to determine if that historical fabric is being met so once those

Districts are are determined. Yes, then we would come back and change this so that

No, that's why it says any historic district or pending historic district. Oh, okay.

So it will be set.

Because it will take some time.

So then qualified manufactured homes will be allowed outside of that? Correct. Okay.

All right. I got it now. And if a pocket is not nominated, then yes, qualified manufactured could certainly go there.

Okay. All right. I have a question. What is your opinion of this? I mean, in that, you know, there's... People think of a mobile home. Now they think of these are more of a modular home. I mean, are they made with two-by-fours? Is it not quite the quality level there that a stick-built house?

Actually, in some aspects, Commissioner, they are actually better than stick-built homes simply because they have to meet the federal HUD standard. And as far as an opinion on it, I'm going right by what KRS 100 tells me, to be honest with you, on what we can and can't do. So when they say, hey, you're going to put – Come on, Josh.

Jump out there. Come on.

Make a statement. Whenever they say you're going to do this, we're making a way to do it.

They're not writing your paycheck, though.

They are not. They are not.

So Josh, in relationship to that, and Commissioner brings up a good point, I think for the public's education, Talk a little bit about that state law, about what the requirement is, is that it can't just be a mobile home or what people might consider a mobile home being pulled in and still staying where they could just back up and haul it off.

Sure. So what that specific, the new language, what it specifically says is a new home has to be a qualified manufactured home. And it's listed out in four different areas in the new KRS, which is reflected in the text amendment as far as roof pitch and square footage, porches, the way they face. A qualified manufactured home has to meet those standards in order to be allowed. They do have to apply for it through our online platform. That way we can take a look, make sure everything is being met before we issue a zoning permit basically to say, yes, you can move it in or no, you can't. But they have to be permanently attached.

No access.

Yeah, talking about no axles, that aspect. I'm sorry I wasn't clear about my question. The definition of qualified manufactured also includes that any wheels, axles, anything that's used for transport has to be removed, and it has to be on a permanent foundation.

Thank you.

And the skirting and all of that and hooked up to utilities and all of that.

Yeah, it has to be treated just like a single-family home. Okay, so what you talked about, I just want to make sure, you talked in general about all three text amendments, right?

I want to touch on the R1 and R2 here in a moment in more detail. It all does tie together. We had to change all three at one time to effectuate the qualified manufactured homes, but I'll touch on those here in a moment.

Okay, so I'll ask the city clerk to read the first one.

I repose motion that the Board of Commissioners introduce an ordinance entitled An Ordinance Amending Chapter 126-69 Mobile Home Parks and 126-79 Qualified Manufactured Homes of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah, Kentucky. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance amends the Paducah Zoning Ordinance to replace references to mobile home parks with land lease communities, update applicable development standards, and revise regulations for qualified manufactured homes. to comply with KRS 100.348, effective July 1, 2026. The amendment allows qualified manufactured homes in residential zones where single-family homes are permitted, subject to applicable performance and compatibility standards. The Planning Commission held a hearing on June 1, 2026, and forwarded a favorable recommendation to the Board of Commissioners. So moved. Second.

Okay. You want to talk about the next one, Josh? Sure. Thank you, Mayor. The next one I'm going to talk about is Section 126-102, which is the low-density residential zone. The performance standard that we are proposing to implement is a roof pitch of at least 512 and foundations shall be permanent. The reason we're looking at a 512 is to make sure that the steepness of the roof is compatible across qualified manufactured and stick built homes. That's really the main change in this one because state law doesn't allow us to pick and choose, it says you can regulate this, this, and this, and roof pitch is one of them. We did work with the Fire Prevention Division to come up with that 512 roof pitch.

Questions? Okay, would you like to read that one?

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners introduce an ordinance entitled an Ordinance Amending Chapter 126-102, Low Density Residential Zone, R1, of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah, Kentucky, and this ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance amends the Paducah Zoning Ordinance to update the R1 low-density residential zone by requiring all new single-story homes to have a roof pitch of at least 5 12ths and an permanent foundation. The amendment is intended to maintain neighborhood character and ensure compatibility of qualified manufactured homes as permitted under KRS 100.348. The Paducah Planning Commission held a public hearing on June 1st, 2026 and subsequently forwarded a favorable recommendation that the City Commission approve the proposed text amendment.

So moved.

Second. Questions for Josh on this one? Okay, I'm going to trick you this time. I'm going to let her read it first.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners introduce an ordinance entitled in Ordinance Amending Chapter 126-103, Low and Medium Density Residential Zone, R2 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah, Kentucky. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance amends the Paducah Zoning Ordinance to update the R2 Low and Medium Density Residential Zone by requiring all new single-story homes. to have a roof pitch of at least 512 and permanent foundation. The amendment is intended to maintain neighborhood character and ensure compatibility of qualified manufactured homes as permitted under KRS 100.348. The Paducah Planning Commission held a public hearing on June 1st, 2026 and subsequently forwarded a favorable recommendation that the City Commission approve the proposed text amendment. So moved.

Second. And this one's exactly the same as the R1 with the 512 roof pitch permanent foundation.

No questions here?

Nope.

Okay. Thank you, Josh. We'll move to the next D, the next...

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners introduce an ordinance entitled an ordinance extending the boundary of the City of Paducah, Kentucky by annexing certain property lying adjacent to the corporate limits of the City of Paducah and accurately defining the boundary of said property to be included within the said corporate limits. This ordinance is summarized as follows. The City of Paducah hereby approves the consensual annexation of certain tracts of property contiguous to the present city limits located at 435 and 485 Burger Road containing approximately 30.78 acres. So moved.

Second.

Questions? Thank you, Mayor. This is for the Merriman House and Mountain Comprehensive. Both property owners have requested consensual annexation into the city of Paducah. You will notice that there are some right-of-ways being annexed as well. specifically Oak Street, Grundy Street, and Emmett Street, to get us to the city limits where Paxton Park is. We are also annexing Burger Road. That way we touch the city limits at the end of Stonebrook Drive.

Cool. Okay, thank you, Josh. And I would ask the city clerk to read the next ordinance.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to introduce an ordinance entitled, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement between the City of Paducah and professional firefighters of Paducah Local 168, International Association of Firefighters. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance authorizes the mayor to execute an agreement with the professional firefighters of Paducah Local 168, International Association of Firefighters. This agreement will become effective July 1, 2026 and expire on June 30, 2029. So moved. Second.

Ms. Wilcox.

Good evening, Mayor, City Commissioners, City Manager, City Clerk. I am pleased to bring you a contract with the Paducah Firefighters. Just have a few of the highlighted changes. There is updated language to clarify management rights and the disciplinary action article. We've ended the retiree life insurance effective July 1, grandfathering current participants. Revising the acting pay for captains to follow acting pay for other positions. Decreasing the labor management meetings, modifying the grievance procedure language, increasing specialty team pay from $40 to $50, and a new wage table with one-time adjustments in 2026, 2% increase in 27 and 28, and future COLAs tied to the Kentucky DLG language. Are there any questions?

No, we'll have to read it, you know, in two weeks again. But I know, you know, our friends in the media are here tonight. You know, they're wanting to know more and more of the background information because it took a while to get here because we approved the first two contracts, you know, before we finally worked it out with the, you know, with our brothers and sisters at the firefighters. Uh, so, but if we eventually did, um, but if I, as I've indicated to the media, you know, as far as getting into the, you know, the details of that, I want to wait until we actually, you know, get it approved and have firefighters here and sign, sign the agreement while we're all together.

Sounds good.

So that's kind of questions from commissioners. Okay. We'll move on. We got one more, uh, To approve tonight.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to introduce an ordinance entitled, an ordinance amending Chapter 2, Administration, Article 8, Finance and Procurement, Division 3, Procurement of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance amends Division 3, Procurement of Article 8 of Chapter 2 of the Paducah Code of Ordinances to update and clarify the City's procurement procedures. This amendment is intended to align the City's procurement code with recent changes enacted by the Kentucky General Assembly relating to local public agency transactions, including changes to small purchase and bid advertising thresholds. To avoid future inconsistencies as state law changes, the ordinance replaces fixed dollar references where appropriate with references to applicable statutory threshold. The amendment also clarifies the distinction between small purchase procedures and administrative award authority. Small purchase procedures will continue to govern the method of procurement for purchases within the statutory small purchase threshold. Separately, the ordinance authorizes the city manager to approve and award contracts of up to $75,000 subject to compliance with all applicable procurement requirements and verification of available appropriations. Contracts exceeding $75,000 will continue to require approval by the Board of Commissioners.

So moved. Second.

Questions? Any overall comment, City Manager?

No, I appreciate the staff's work on this. As the clerk read, this brings us in alignment with the new state law on procurement. That threshold several years ago was just at 20. Then it moved to 40 in state law. Now it moves to 50 with a qualifier every couple years that increases. And so part of the language in this is that we don't have to keep coming back before we just follow the state law on that. In relationship to the change, so at $50,000 it requires to go, most times it would require to go out for a competitive RFP process for that, and so that still follows state law. However, looking for expedient and efficiencies, it would not require to come back to this commission at $50,000. It would only require to come back to this commission at a $75,000 threshold. For example, if we had something that required the RFP to say it was $55,000, we would go through that process and say that tonight it came in and the due date was today and we got that and it came in as $55,000. Currently, we would have to wait for the next commission meeting or have a special call commission meeting to act. With this change up to 75, we could go ahead and act, and so we're getting that project underway in a more timely fashion.

Okay. Clear as mud. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Okay, that's all we've got for tonight. City Manager, any comments?

Just one, I want to remind the public of the upcoming July 4th holiday, which also means that we will have offices closed on July 3rd, the Friday before. We've got a big event planned. downtown on the 4th with a Ferris wheel and some music and all kinds of exciting things to happen, but also remind the public, and we heard a comment from a resident, there are rules and regulations about setting off fireworks. And so please make sure that you're aware of when you can do those and what the requirements or prohibitions against doing so are. And our police force will be responding to the calls as they come in to address those issues.

Can you expand on that?

So basically, if it goes boom, it's not allowed in the city. And not within X number of feet of an occupied structure. So basically, while the cells can occur within the city limits if they are permitted, the actual shooting off, if you look at the ordinance, does not allow most of those activities.

It seems very inconsistent that we allow the cells, but we don't allow... Something you might want to look at.

That's true. That is consistent. But, you know, I live on Long Oak Road, and, you know, they've already started. So I'm hearing fireworks all around me, and I'll hear them all through the 4th and afterwards. And so I think... I think the issue becomes, you know, not that the city doesn't want to enforce that. We do. But I think when it becomes a real nuisance, you know, for neighbors, you know, that's when we're, you know, forced to provide the resources, you know, in order to try to enforce it. So I'll leave it at that. But back to 4th of July, this is our country's 250th anniversary, and that's why the city is ramping up the celebration with bands all day. It begins at 1 o'clock, bands all day. Of course, the fireworks shooting off at 9 that night, but a Ferris wheel, you know, at no charge, right? So, you know, bring the kids down, you know. It'll be safe. It'll be inspected. So we would welcome all comers downtown. Comments from commissioners? We're all good? Okay. We will have an executive session. We do not anticipate taking action afterwards. And I entertain a motion to go into executive session.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to go into closed session for discussion of matters pertaining to the following topics. Proposed or pending litigation as permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection 1C and a specific proposal by a business entity where the public discussion of a subject matter would jeopardize the location, retention, expansion, or upgrading of a business entity as permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection 1G. So moved. Second.

Call roll.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bright?

Aye.