City Commission - Regular Meeting

Call this meeting to order. Good afternoon, everybody. I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order on July 14th, 2026 and ask our city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson. Present. Commissioner Smith. Here. Commissioner Thomas. Present. Commissioner Wilson.

Present.

Mayor Bray.

Here. I would ask Commissioner Ronaldo Henderson to do the invocation and will remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Father, we do love you and we do honor your name You're such a great God, and you're greatly to be praised. And so now, God, we thank you for the privilege of being able to call upon your name. As we share today, Lord God, we pray that you'll be in the midst of this meeting. We pray that you will guide our thoughts, that you will guide our understanding. We pray now, God, that you will cover this commission, cover those who are employed here, cover our city. In Jesus' name, amen.

City Manager, are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? Mayor, none this evening. Okay, we have no public comments tonight. I'll move right to the consent agenda. The consent 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 will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. The City Clerk will go ahead and read those items unless any Commissioner would like something pulled. City Clerk?

Approved minutes for the June 23rd, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting. Receive and file documents. Appointment of Carolyn Roof to the Tree Advisory Board to replace Jenny McCormick, who has resigned. This term shall expire July 26th, 2027. Personnel actions. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a lease agreement between the City of Paducah and the Commonwealth of Kentucky Department of Corrections for lease of the facility located at 400 South 6th Street. A municipal order authorizing the finance director to pay Clean Earth Incorporated in an amount of $58,031.76 for the disposal of household hazardous waste and electronic waste collected during the city-county 2026 cleanup day. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a memorandum of understanding between the city of Paducah and the Commonwealth of Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Department of Highways in the amount of $101,000 for the Levin Avenue resurfacing project. A municipal order authorizing the execution of a renewal application and agreement for the Commonwealth of Kentucky Department of Housing, Building and Construction for local expanded jurisdiction and for HVAC plan review permitting an inspection responsibility for the fire prevention division and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same.

So moved.

Second.

Paul Rowe.

Commissioner Henderson. Aye. Commissioner Smith. Aye. Commissioner Thomas. Aye. Commissioner Wilson.

Aye.

Mayor Bray.

Aye. We actually have five ordinances to enact tonight, to vote on and enact. Many of them, several of them are related, but I'll let the city clerk read the first one. We We read both of them the first time a couple of weeks ago, and we'll see if there's any questions.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt 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.

Are there any questions on this? The first three ordinances that we are enacting tonight are all related. We talked about it a couple weeks ago, so if there's no questions, I'll ask the city clerk to call roll.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

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

Aye. Go ahead and read the second one, city clerk.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt 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. 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 512 and a 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 1, 2026, and subsequently forwarded a favorable recommendation that the City Commission approve the proposed text amendment.

So moved.

Second.

Comments ready to vote Call roll, please.

Commissioner Henderson. Aye. Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

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

Aye. Read the next one please.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt an ordinance entitled, an 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 1, 2026, and subsequently forwarded a favorable recommendation that the City Commission approve the proposed text amendment. So moved.

Second.

I believe we're ready to vote on this one as well.

Mr. Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

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

Aye. So the next ordinance has to do, we also talked about this a couple of weeks ago, it has to do with an article, state law related to procurement. So I'll ask the city clerk to read it.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt an ordinance entitled an Ordinance Amending Chapter 2 Administration Article... Eight, 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, Article 8 of Chapter 2 of the Paducah Code of Ordinances to update and clarify the city's procurement procedures. The amendment is intended to align the city's procurement code with recent changes enacted by the Kentucky General Assembly related 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 the 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? We good? Call roll, please.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. The last ordinance we're going to approve tonight is our agreement with the professional firefighters, Local 168. And we have a group of them here tonight. Thank you very much for being here. And I'll ask the city clerk to please read the ordinance.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt 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 30th 2029 so move second Discussion I'm glad that we're doing this tonight and appreciate you all being here I think we all appreciate the service of the fire department and what they mean to our community and

And we know we can trust them. We know that they have the best interest of our city at heart and at mind, at hand, and we appreciate that very much. So thank you all for your service.

Absolutely. I tell any of them that will listen to me, you know, how damn proud I am, you know, as mayor, to have all of you all outrepresenting me. So I've said it before, and that's how I feel. So call roll, please.

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

Aye.

And so you and Matt would come forward here. We'll do the official signing. There should be two copies there, one for you to sign. And then once we have that, we'll invite the rest of the fire department to come up behind them and we can get a group photo. Then what Invite any of the department to come up and so behind if you'd like to stand behind the commission also if you want to join behind the mayor and Matt for the photo and then we'll have a group photo there.

Let's go over there too. Come on Lindsay. Big picture. Kind of curtain.

All right, thank you.

Okay, we have one ordinance to introduce tonight, and I'll let the city clerk read it and explain it.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to introduce an ordinance entitled an ordinance granting a non-exclusive franchise for a term of 10 years for a telecommunications system within the confines of the City of Paducah, Kentucky, to Windstream KDL LLC, a Unity Company, pursuant to the terms and provisions of Chapter 108, Telecommunications, of the Code of Ordinances, and approving and authorizing the Mayor to execute the franchise agreement and all other documents related to same. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance accepts Windstream KDL LLC, a Unity Company's bid, and grants a non-exclusive 10-year telecommunications franchise in accordance with Chapter 108 of the Code of Ordinances. Authorizing windstream unity to construct operate and maintain telecommunications facilities within the public rights of way subject to the city's regulatory standards fees and oversight requirements second Okay. So this is, we have had several different telecommunications franchises come before the city commission over the past few years. This one, they are currently operating within the city of Paducah. They are built out. This used to be Windstream is how you all will probably know it. But they have merged with a company called Unity. And so this is a telecommunications franchise with unity to bring them in line with our current telecommunications franchise Ordinance they do not have any plans for additional build-out right now in the area they primarily service entirely service commercial businesses and hospitals and they currently aren't serving any residential and they don't have plans to the future so tonight we have here with us James Galvin he is the construction manager for unity and if you all have any questions he's happy to answer those for you let you off tonight all right she's she's spoken so I guess some questions

No, thank you very much for coming in compliance with the city's ordinance. We appreciate it very much. And let us know if you plan to build out because competition makes the world go round. So if you plan to build out more, let us know. Well, I got a call this week, actually, from somebody who was not happy with their provider, and they're not on a list to be built out, so there's probably some pockets of opportunity out there. But thank you very much for being here and supporting your company. Okay, we move here to a discussion item. Greg Gubert. Okay. Melanie actually is going to give us an update on the bill grants. Very exciting. The Riverfront Development Project.

Thank you, Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Clerk. I'm back. We are going to have one more. Update. We are at the end of the road, believe it or not. It's so exciting. So we're going to look at where we were the last time I was up here, which was in April. Believe it or not, it's been three months. And see where we're at now. So this is what we saw in April down at the foot of Broadway, the Christmas tree opening. You can see they had started some of the concrete work. that area and as of last week now these change from day to day now but this was last week you can see how much work they've done they've gotten a lot of the concrete in to finish the path out toward the foot of Broadway opening they will have they've got seat walls in and they've started putting in the landscaping so they'll finish out the pavers And this area is almost finished. So as we moved down, we saw the grand staircase coming down out of the Christmas tree opening. We saw where they were going to put up the letters. And so there they are, the Porta Paducah letters. So we were really excited to see those, and I thought they turned out. great um so we're right there christmas tree opening once again coming down the staircase with the port of paducah letters and they will be backed by greenery so you'll be able to really see them they're going to really pop there as as the plants mature and fill in you spell paducah wrong never trust what he says

Never.

I've looked at them so many times, surely not. I just wanted to kind of showcase how the design for the top of the staircase is going to mimic the design that's within the current city block pavilion area. So we've really tried to coordinate and bring all of this together so that when people come down to enjoy our riverfront, that we're pulling them into downtown Paducah and they're seeing that continuity. So this is kind of, this is our goal. This is what it's going to look like. And I hope you can really see it coming together through the pictures now. I mean, you can really tell. We've got the seat walls in. There's the Porta Paducah ladders, the staircase going down to the pier. So it's really, it's starting to look like these beautiful pictures that we've had so far. So in April, this was where the pier was at. You can see they were driving the last 48-inch piling down there on the end at that time. They had all of the pier sections in except for the very last one in this picture. But now, as you can see looking from... Jules Park up the pier. We've got all the pilings in. We've got the fenders. We've got the cones on the top. They've done all their closure pours and they're starting to do the pours for setting the handrail posts. So we are getting there. It's going to be very nice and it is going to really to be something. We had the HDR brown water engineer was in last week and we were asking him about it and he's like he had never designed, I don't know if this is a good thing to say, he had never designed exactly this type of structure. So he was like, you know, they were really excited and they put a lot of effort into this. We may end up everybody coming to Baduka and wanting what we have. So he was very pleased with the construction of the pier. So we were glad to hear that. So moving along, this is Schultz Park. Now I know this rain that we've had has caused people a lot of problems and I recognize that, but it makes this look so good with this green grass. So you kind of see how it all is gonna flow together. You're looking back toward the foot of Broadway, the pier coming out through Schultz Park. then you can turn and you can see this would be like from the river you're looking at the revetment that steps up to the seating area that steps up to the amphitheater so I just I'm really pleased how this is all coming together and all of these elements are really going to look good and really display Paducah well to people that are visiting So in April, we looked at the amphitheater that they had put the sod in the amphitheater. So it was looking really good. They were still working on the pavers down here. But now, they've got all the pavers done. They've got all the trees. You can see how the trees are starting to fill in. It's really starting to look nice out there. And then the back of the amphitheater area toward the flood wall. Yeah, it's kind of a weird angle. Second Street, Harrison Street here. So you're seeing all this area where they're starting to work. And if you go down there right now and you walk in the Harrison Street exit or entrance and you turn right, this is what you're going to see. So they've got sawed down. They've got this really nice stepping stone type path, some seating areas with trees. So you're going to have shade, be able to go back there and sit and have lunch or read a book or whatever. Any number of things. So we're just real excited about how it's looking. And we looked at this in April. So this is the Compass Rose. This is really the centerpiece of the whole Commons area. It's really very detailed, very tedious and time-consuming work on the sub's behalf of doing all this concrete work. But that's what it looks like now. It's completely finished. All the pavers are in. This is base asphalt, so it'll have another coat of the final asphalt once everything's finished. They're working back here in this area right now with sod and getting all the different furnishings and things that are going to be there, and one of those is picnic tables. So we've got picnic tables out there. I've already seen somebody down there using them when we were down there. This is the transient boat dock. So if you get off the transient boat dock and you walk up and you're looking, there's going to be picnic tables right there for you to use. And so as it all fills in, it'll be nice. But like I said, I have seen someone down there already using it. So as we move on toward the convention center, up to the top screen, this was in April. You can see they've got all the dirt work and a lot of concrete work and a lot of really twiggy trees. So now, thanks to all the rain, we have a lot of... Volunteer grass. But all that volunteer grass is going away. We are putting down sod. We have put in an irrigation system. You can kind of see the lines where they've run the irrigation system. And so to help keep this up, I mean, just this amount of space trying to keep you watered on really dry summers would be impossible. And you can see up toward the top, coming out of the Executive Boulevard opening, you can walk straight out, and that's another set of picnic tables right out there. And we've got our two Greenway Trail shelters for riders or walkers on the Greenway Trail if they need to take a break and get out of the sun. But it's going to be nice. If you'll notice there in the middle where the crane is, they're setting the pedestal in the circle here. They're setting a pedestal, a limestone pedestal for our monument display. This was the historic chain that was given to or was donated to the city by the DeSmooks family that was used on one of his ships. And there's the marker that they had. We're going to have it cleaned now that it's been set and all, but it's right there beside the marker and under the light so you can really see it nicely. So that's our goal. And I really feel like we're getting there. I really think it's going to really look nice, and it's going to be a definite asset for Paducah going forward.

It looks beautiful.

It sure does.

Absolutely.

And so right now, everything's on track. The commons area, which is kind of the, I call it, it's the park area. We call it the commons area. End of July, they should be putting those last finishing touches on it. The excursion pier and plaza, we're looking at the end of August, and then grand opening in September.

When do you think the first cruise ship would be able to use the pier?

As soon as it's finished, it'll be, I mean, the last thing will be the railings. I'm here to look, and I don't remember what the next, the first scheduled one was. I want to say October.

That's what I was thinking just right off.

Because I know I had looked at it at one time.

It would be good for all of us to know when the first ship comes in and using the pier for the first time.

That would be exciting. We might want to greet him down there.

Yeah jump on Questions any No, it looks you all looks great. Thank you for the update. You're welcome Thanks looks great Okay, that's all that's on the regular agenda we do have an executive executive session We do not expect to take any action coming out of the executive session so I'll ask the city clerk to please read.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to go.

I had a comment. Oh, sorry about that. I failed to ask our Board of Commissioners for comments. So I'll start down here. Does anybody have a comment? I have no comment tonight, sir.

Oh, I have a comment. I know we voted to, we're getting ready. We voted to extend the lease on the probation and parole building. I think it would be, with the talk of a police station and all that, it probably would be good to really look at that from a P&L standpoint to see how profitable it is to make sure it could be an asset that we don't need that could be used to support proceeds, could be used to support a police station. I'd like to see a P&L on the operation of that. Okay.

And I just had a quick comment. I spoke with the city manager about this this week, but I wanted to put it on y'all's radar as well. When it comes to illegal dumping, I know I'm sure some of y'all have been reached out about it, and I did speak with D.C. Cherry about it as well, but I had an idea about some kind of partnership with the police force because some of these individuals, they have locations that they regularly dump in. I had a 92 year old resident that reached out to me about it and says this happens often there. So just wanted to try to throw that out there that maybe we can start finding a way to get some partnership with the code enforcement and police force to have some kind of sting operation on these illegal dumpers because they're really preying on

you know the elderly i even had my aunt who's a widow she had stuff dumped in her back alley as well so just wanted to put that out there that you know maybe that's something we need to start looking into you know i know a lot of people you know commissioner thomas might not be able to afford this but you know cameras are really inexpensive you know and uh so it would be good if people i don't know if we could recommend to people that they get you know they get a camera you know if it's been happening regularly

DC Charity has shared that they're trying to get some kind of list of local organizations that may be able to help out individuals like that, so that's a great step forward with it. But I was just brainstorming and thinking on it, especially for a 92 year old, he's not going to know how to set up a camera and utilize it, so. So they dumped it in his yard? In the alleyway, so. Okay. It was right in the alleyway behind his home.

Okay.

We could even, we could have, the staff could have a supply of these cameras, they could set them up to catch them too.

And that's kind of, I just want to spark the conversation with everybody so we can all be aware of it.

Okay, thank you very much. Sorry I missed you earlier. You're all right. Okay.

I propose motion of the Board of Commissioners to go into closed session for discussion of matters pertaining to the following topics. Future sale or acquisition of a specific parcel of real estate. As permitted by KRS 61.810, subsection 1B, a specific proposal by a business entity where public discussion of the subject matter would jeopardize the location, retention, expansion, or upgrading of the business entity as permitted by KRS 61.810, subsection 1G, and conduct a performance review of the city manager as permitted by KRS 83A.150, subsection 4D. So moved.

Second. Carl Rowe.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

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

Aye.