Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. All right. I'd like to call to order the Rackliff City Council work session for Monday, February 5th, 2026 at 5:00 pm. Uh meeting held here at Rackliff City Hall and being streamed live on Facebook. If you could please rise for an invocation. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and we thank you for your loving blessings. Father, we are blessed that the snow is finally leaving and we ask that you bless those who were affected far more than we were during this. Father, we ask that you bless our mayor and our city council and all those that are serving our nation both here and abroad. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Since this is a work session, we don't do roll call but council for all being here tonight. Uh we have just a few items on the discussions. First one is going to be the policies and procedures. Mr. Chief cross may may have left.

Let's go back here. Chief was back there. You may have turned just got a domestic violence a chance to look at it. Have any questions? It's a I know it's quite long. This is probably one of our longest policies that we have.

It's a little soon for me. I've scanned it, but I haven't really had a chance to thoroughly read it. Um, are there ch changes that you would like to point out in particular? Well, there's you you can see that the strikethroughs that are being uh done away with and all the underlines is where the new stuff is being placed in. Okay.

Uh we even changed the number on it. Um just to give you a little history on that. um Kentucky League of Cities. Um when these policies are put out by them, um they're also related to KACP and and the chief's association because some of those chiefs sit on the board there on these policy boards. So that that number that they normally assign, we kind of got to where we were um put them in a chapter that we thought they might belong in. get a little better on our on our end. Sure.

But they have a chapter that they put them in and the training program that we have, the PMA training program, it's associated with KACP. So we plug them in that computer kind of throws them off a little bit. We have to do some enagment to get to work inhouse for us to pull them up and look at them and do what we what Tim does with them. So, we've decided to go back whatever number, chapter number that KACP assigns to them, we're just going to go with that. So, it doesn't valid. That's why you're seeing change on some more consistency that way.

Yes. Chief and I when I looked over this I didn't see it but or even if it it makes a relation to it the 988 calls that we have kind of like the 9 911 the 988 when someone has like a mental breakdown if that's included in the domestic violence or violence against a partner does that cover the kind of the preassessment before we detain them? Well, th yeah, this is um when we have a u uh a person that's in mental distress, we we do follow the policy for that and and it falls along with this.

Thank you. And one of those chapters, um the KRS is there that apply to that. Okay. Thank you. So, what about this policy? Is it something that the officers are just supposed to read on that read by themselves or do you actually have class and discuss everything and let them ask questions? How's this presented to the officer?

Yeah. Um the PMA training program that I just mentioned is a computerized program that we have and all our policies are placed in there and when this polic put out new, they have to go into that module and they read through it themselves and there's a a sign off sheet that they sign off on a computerized digital signature that says that they they review it, they understand it. Not only do they do that though the periodically the supervisors will have roll call training on it and question have go through roll call at different times and then annually um KACP there's certain high-risk policies that they require that you train on annually. So every year this one gets hidden. There may be some policies that aren't critical throughout the year like vehicle vehicle cleanliness and things like those are policy that might not be critical policy and we'll just pick and choose when we review those and send you know have train up on those. But there are some policies which this is what they require. Yeah, it's particularly sensitive, I would say, for most. How many female officers do we have? Just out of curiosity.

Two. Two. Right along officers. Well, we got one that's in detective section and one that's in patrol.

Sit here second. We got surplus items next on agend. Um you'll have time to look over those. Um 15 X batteries, plastic baggies, 48 old used batteries, 55 smart cartridges with plastic, 66 new 25 smart cartridges, no plastic, 83 blue training cartridges, 42 holsters, and then it goes through the five ters in the serial numbers. Yes. And that that is, you know, we those were the old I think the old X2 tasers

and we now carry the X7s. So that stuff I meant to get that to you and I don't couldn't remember if I had done that before or not. So I went ahead and put it on. Um those they're no value to us. We can't get anything out of by selling them or trade. They won't take a trade in on them. So, if there's any agencies out there that still utilize the X2, um, and I think maybe Kenny said that maybe someone from Fort Knox had contacted them who would be interested to. So, the plans are to turn over to an agency that can utilize those that are still using the X2 and that was part of our update that we did is you know last year. Are these available to be seen online?

No. Well, they're not right now. No. They're not something that can put out there that anybody could get, you know, just somebody involved. Okay. It's not You can't control it. Anybody else? Thank you. Appreciate it.

Timmy, do you have some?

Yeah. You want to come up? I'm sorry. Because I was looking. That's what I was asking Ashley. Chief was talking about policy. I thought we had something. I didn't see it in my notes. What you're looking at is called the posit check. It's for flow testing SCBA or septine breathing apparatus. Uh we upgraded our SCBA three years ago which is the new addition G1 model and we currently don't have anybody trained to work on the G1s. This equipment is 20 plus years old. It cost $1,400 a year to keep it calibrated and uh we're just uh looking at getting rid of some clutter since we don't use it. fire department service supply or MSAC SCBA vendor. They they have a guy that comes around and does maintenance and flow test checks our test our air packs SCBA annually. So, we were just uh I was just wanting to get approval to surplus this and get it out of our way so we can utilize that space a little better.

Do you know anybody else that could use that as agencies or Is there value to it that you know it's not worth much? I say it would take 1400 to calibrate it. I don't know how much it would be worth right now. I know I know a new one if we had to buy one to go that route later on is probably ballpark about $20,000. So I think it's it's better to put that liability on fire department service supply because they do it every day. We would do it once a year. So that's when we ser agency a smaller agency that may need one or a we try to sell you something. It's a special question.

Uh the mannequin head that's on there. We put our face mask on that and we hook a air pack to it and the machine is hooked to a computer and it actually breathes air through the uh the SCBA. It makes sure that there's adequate air flow for the firefighter. So, and then it breathes down the air so that the low pressure alarm will actually le it's just to to breathe air to make sure everything's functioning properly. We upgraded all every so many years on council you'll see us go through a phase where we update the tanks cylinders for air packs and we try to do that every so many years to keep about I think it's 15 years So we went through a whole version. We updated everything.

You gave me the impression that it's mouthtomouth. Close. Almost. I think most people don't think about it when you have your teams out fighting fires and you know set their alarms for the time where they're going to be in as groups and breathing. Most people just see the air pack and the clear facial um equipment and not thinking about positive pressure, how long it can be there. Same thing, right?

All right. Next is the bid for the building at 987 North Dixie. That is the city listed what we call FFO building. Um that was the bid that was submitted. You should have three sheets with that. one is going to be the bid opening sheet. That's everybody that attended the signin sheets and then the uh company or the bid amount that was submitted and then you should have a copy of my summary of that and then you should have the copy that was written just as a attached to that summary and that bid that sealed bid and just so everybody understands what we mean by a sealed bid. Um the bids, we put this out December. Um we allowed the uh bids or people that wanted to come look at the building. We had several day before. We was hoping to have at least two, possibly three. And u so February 5th, I believe it was, the sealed bids are delivered. When we say sealed bid, it is a sealed envelope. that is not open until the clerk uh calls for the time which at that point was 10:00 a.m. and then they're opened with the public just like you all would be sitting here. It is ripped open. That bid is pulled out and that is what we say when we say sealed bid. Um and so we don't we have no determination of what that number is going to be or what the bids are going to be. Um but in this case the bid amount for the building was 5008 $58,500. right?

We did have a reserve of 500,000. So, it did meet the reserve of that. And the 10% earnest money was also included in that which was 50,850. Um and so any discussion with the council mayor, I've been on council three years now and from the first the first time I entered the council chamber executive sessions, we were talking about the building. I remember is it okay to talk about this now, Mr. Pike? the early just some of the early history of the building and what we've been trying to do with it and some of the offers. You want to do that, mayor, because we've I mean over the last three years this has been discussed and talked about and we've just had so many things happen to this property. I I think the public needs to publicly enjoy hearing about just what happened another talking about the Wasn't a company from Arizona that wanted wanted a teaching boy Mr. came in and made presentation. So this is this is ongoing and we've been talking about this property for a very long time.

Yeah. Sir, and finally, finally, this is, you know, tickle the deck from the that we've got a local local representative, I mean, a gentleman of great integrity and great honor who is going to take this property and uh fly with it. You know,

I'll do a I'll do a quick recap for everybody, but initially, this property was donated to the city with no strings attached. There's been speculation that this was donated to the city. Strange, but we had a building. A recent idea came up from us discussing that potentially um by looking at the building. We received the building. We had December 21, early 22 time frame. Um the building was donated to us by the gentleman that owned the building for 44 years when it was at furniture liquidators. Um the building sat empty for several years. Prior to that, it was listed by Hogan Realy and several other realy companies. I believe before that could not they just had no offers on the building. I think the high number was in the 700s. Low numbers were in the fours. I think you saw 220 one time. So, long story short, um what Jerry said, there were several different companies that looked at the building. When we go into executive session, folks, we go back there to discuss potential opportunities that are coming to Rackcliffe that we can't talk publicly because what that does is could cause and we're not the only city in Kentucky that does this. Many cities can do this executive sessions to have discussions and it's because of the potential impact that it could be to the person wanting to come to the community. The property that we're discussing where if people in the community here that you know big companies getting ready to come in, they make a try to buy the property before them. There's just a lot of different scenarios that could play out in that. So when we go into executive session, it is to talk about these potential projects that are coming in the community and the impact they may have in economic development and incentives. That's not always the case. Sometimes it's litigation. Sometimes it's it's other links. Um but in this case is what Mr. Brown's talking about. We had several presentations that were made to us. At the end we looked at the FFL for the Boys and Girls Club that

ended up being about three and a half to four million that it would cost us. And this Friday in a part yeah to renovate the building um this Friday um they're actually going to be doing their ribbon cutting at Stipen Baptist Church. They are still coming to the community. It's just that scenario didn't play out. And then we had another opportunity that we worked with fire department and of course uh previous chief and current chief was fully aware of tried to go through some property swaps. That didn't happen. And so in the meantime, we were there uh working through some of those details. And we did have a person that was paying us monthly rent for the lease of the building. And so for the last year and so we've actually had the building for about two years, but the last year was really pushing to see some development or something possibly come there. And none of those scenarios played out in the way that we was hoping they would play out. And so that's why the council determined uh to sell the property. We believe we've got a very competitive uh number that was offered for the building, met the reserve. And so that's where we're at and how we got to where we're at. And I know a lot of people say, "Why not this, why not that?" But I I assure you that we can look at many different scenarios and the cost of renovation. There is no running water in the building. There is no bathrooms in the building. Uh utilities is on just for some lighting. Um it's not horrible shape, but it does need updates. And so, um, you know, someone could come in and put another five, six, $700,000 into it, have a million dollars into it. And with that amount of money, you have to have a pretty good amount of rent coming in. And so, um, you know, we're not in the business of doing that. And so, that's why the building went up for sale.

And just a reminder to the council real quickly, your options on this bid, we've got one bid to qualify. You can accept the bid or you can reject that bid. You're under no obligation to take the bid. your bid specification has stated that you can reject any and all bids. So if you don't like the bid, think it's inadequate for whatever reason, you can reject it or you can accept them. So those are your legal options on I realize this is just a work session with the

I did want to make a statement and that is that sealed bid was we're not paying anybody for the sale of that property. So there's no commissions, no es that we're going to be as of that sale. So whatever we get is the bottom line and I'd like to add to that too but basically echo what everyone's saying. This is a win for for the community. Um, we're still getting our Boys and Girls Club and the building was a gift and now we have the income from the building as a gift and that income can be used for several other opportunities for the citizens and for the city. So, um, it's a positive, it's a win-win. And I being in real estate, um I did do some research and one of the uh tools that we have is called a real property resource and that property the value they had it at was 224,000. Could we sit on it for two or three more years, let it deteriorate, maybe list it again, maybe put out another bid? We could probably do all those things. I a lot of times in real estate, your first offer is your best offer. Anybody that's been in whole state has heard that statement. Um this is our first offer and personally for me I think it's our best offer and uh I'm happy for the city and for the bidder if um we approve it and we go that route. I think it's a win. So, uh what will happen then is at the council meeting next Tuesday, we will have a thing on there for acceptance of

that bid. If has any questions between now and then they can uh if the buyer accepts it, the buyer has I think Mr. up to about 30 days. Generally about 30 days typically to close on it and if they need a little more time that's fine but it needs to be a reasonable period of time around and that would be from the date of the 20th when you will approve that. So be the date of the 21st not from the 5th. Correct. Be from bid approval.

Sir would the payment be all in one or prrated over period of time? I'm assuming the bid's going to be um all that would be the earnest money would go towards the purchase and then the bidder would have to make balance would be due to closing on this be glad to get this one offad it's over.

All right. I don't know if I want to start on Kim's end or not. He's just smiling. You're almost a little too happy from your vacation. You got anything going on?

Did you make it back for the the ice storm or Yeah, I came back right before. Okay.

What? This It's been in a lot of driveways, sir. I passed you down the street. But I think our neighbors are safer as we do what we do about clearing whatot. So, it's good investment to make sure people in out of their homes and not worry about slipping or laying next to a vehicle or something because they slip. So, I had Jones Landscaping. They became my sons and we were out helping to dig people out. to them.

I want to thank our police department, our fire department, our emergency services, everyone that donated to help feed our park, our road crew, our uh public works, and of course, our famous um skid steer driver, our mayor, and our weather reporter. Um that was another tough uh situation that we were in. It's another one that we're all happy to get behind us. But uh a lot of accolades for our road for our people for Rackcliff and for how well our city was cleared and made safe as quick as possible. Um I do believe trash is being picked back up again. And I know it's very frustrating, but um the more we stay positive and the more we work together, the faster those things will uh pass and everybody can get back to having their trash picked up and getting in and out of their driveway. So, I thank everyone for that. A couple notes for um what's happening in the city. Calvin is taking applications now for lifeguards. So, you can call them at 270351-479. I know that we're talking about winter storm and now we're talking about swimming, but uh if you want to be a lifeguard at Calvin, you need to get your application in. And also March 27th, Parks and Rick is doing the neon Easter Bunny party. Uh that's from 6:00 to 8 March 27th. That information and a lot of other information is can be found on the parks and recck Facebook and the call the community center Facebook where you can stop in there uh in person and get all the information of what's going on in the city.

I just want to ditto what councilwoman said about our firefighters and our police officers and everybody that was involved in trying to take care of people. I would suggest that we check in on some of our seniors. I know too just most recently that had the appearance of going down in in their physical state and it may be more than just the snow and that type of stuff. Uh folks have not been able to get out of their homes and be able to uh you know be more active. So some of them may fall ill. So, if you know somebody that needs a visit, please check in on some of our seniors and make sure they're okay because I've had two that were in discussion just today and same symptoms, lethargic uh you know, some just uh had the appearance is starting to deteriorate. So, let's make sure we watch out for each other, take care of your neighbors, and Councilwoman uh Merl is wearing a red heart today, so it is Valentine's weekend. So, take care of your sleeping and everybody uh have a great rest of the week.

These remarks are mainly directed at the mayor. Good. Well, you know, you you get what you get, mayor.

I've been on council before this uh these last three years. I' I've been on council before and um Mr. Dval and I work together very closely as as council members. Seeing him as mayor has been a real experience. You know, Greg writes these stories and sometimes they'll get horrific headlines talking about how terrible the city is, what we're not doing, what we could be doing, and they just really tear us down. That happens on occasion, more often more often than not. But you know what's really going on behind the scenes is this mayor has been working every day, week by week, month by month, year by year to put this city in its best position ever. I think you know you don't get headlines for just doing things well, for keeping track of things going on day by day, attracting businesses, trying to clean the city up, making sure the police officers are well paid to get what they deserve. the f the firemen getting what they deserve. We've we've raised salaries. We've gotten the best people that we could possibly get so that we're competitive. We're providing good services. We have Boys and Girls Club now, which is one of the things that we've been trying to get for such a long time. This is under a particular person's leadership who brings those qualities to the table. We don't see the we don't see the work that goes into that day after day after day. We just hear about them somebody with a an old opinion of Ragcliffe trying to tear us down. And I'm telling you the truth, we've got one of the best. I wouldn't choose to live anywhere else. I love this city. I love the people in it. You guys know you're the greatest. You really are. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. You don't do I don't do well with athletes.

I'm I'm sorry. That's That's all of them. All I have to say is that whoever believe doesn't believe me when I say spring is around the corner, there it is a corner in every corner. As far as the seniors, council woman didn't change in busy feeding people. The last one did was yesterday. A person on Wilma Avenue could not go out. A lady from the neighborhood called us. Me and my brother jumped. He has a four by four track. My car up to this day is still in the house of the parking lot. and we fed people thanks to I would say I'm not advertising but it started with room in the in Laura called me and said we have so many donations from different uh restaurants and food from Elizabeth Town will you handle it all and that was the first step the second step was I shouldn't say this the schools When they were closed, they unloaded in my store, in the Jane store 150 crates of milk, apples. Yes. And we were track, we couldn't take the van out, the snow, so we used the truck. It was easily. We went all over um up to West Point and we were giving crates of milk to people and and it was also the first responders in the city about the warming places that people felt that they could go somewhere and feel warm. And then the chief and the

other chief and all these people including the mayor and the bankro mayor putting people in motel and animals council woman were help with dogs and cats in motel. It was the best time of my life seeing these people being helped. It is amazing. It's amazing to see these people when when they get this pair and somebody shows up with a couple bags of chicken, fried chicken. It's amazing. So, I want to thank everybody because a lot of people helped. Wasn't just me. A lot of people helped and spring is around the corner.

All right. Thank you. Uh, real quick want to mention next meeting we'll probably have a little bit better handle hopefully and I'll do an update on the snow removal as far as numbers uh over time. Uh, but I will say we did have a lot of people. We had all of our public works guys. I had I brought in some other crews to help like I even teased Tim, but you know Tim was out working with us. Uh, even Ashley, you know, we came in at 11 o'clock at night and Ashley's got all McDonald's food you know sitting in there. she had went out and bought herself to feed everybody. So, um we'll have better handle on the numbers just because we're still getting that around. But I will say that our guys did do a phenomenal job. This if if you shoveled your own driveway, you knew what we were dealing with. Plows do not move snow or ice, excuse me. And so, um you know, we put out all of our skid steers. We leased some skid steers. Our back hose were breaking down. We our computers were going down in them and we just had to fix them. The guys were doing a great job. Um, but we did I think the best compliment I remember seeing or reading was that I went to bed and I woke up and my street was cleared because we were working like all night long. It was a 24-hour and then I think by Friday morning we had almost every uh road cleared. Um, and so I was sharing and Ashley had called me last night and uh school bus drivers, we had a couple school bus drivers in our community that lived within the city limits and I was showing Mr. like some of the pictures, but they could not get out because they were still kind of blocked in by snow. And um so we had I think we went out this morning and tried to clear a little bit more back so they could get out so the buses could leave this morning. And so, you know, it's really a team effort um from everybody working together to try to ensure some way that this mess is is done away with. And hopefully we won't have to deal with this. But I think we're going to see some of this ice and snow around for a few more weeks. Unfortunately, I don't know if it's going to get warm enough to melt these piles of snow, but uh we'll

hopefully have some more updates and I'll give y'all some better numbers just how much salt we used and of course how much overtime. And I also have to thank Mr. Pike because I spoke to him almost every day that the past few few weeks that you can see and so when we say it's a team effort, all the supervisors, council members, everybody. So, it it was a lot, but uh half this 500,000 is probably going to be gone in salt and overtime. So, don't get too excited about how much we there's a cost associated with clearing clearing roads in in four days, but we'll we'll have you all an update that way y'all can understand those numbers what that's going to look like. Also, Ashley, what was the other thing I told you? Mayor's breakfast. We have not picked a date yet just because everybody the coffin community center almost every Saturday in February and in March is almost booked out and so we just don't know what that looks like yet. But we're going to get to that. Um tomorrow at 3:30 uh fiscal court is going to be recognizing um our police department for their uh part in what they played being instrumental in the uh dog case. Um that was and I know some of the council members told she was involved in that. um as far as the details and knowledge. Um but I know that that case was one and so they're going to be recognized by the u humane society down at 3:30 down in fiscal court. So to the chief and our guys, the detectives that worked that case, we appreciate them and their hard work and and seeing that case through. Uh largest I believe one of the largest animal cruelty cases in the state of Kentucky if I'm not mistaken.

It's not necessarily the largest. It is the Harden County set for prior to Ethan's law for felony convictions, 31 felony convictions. Um, this is talked about throughout the state. It's going to be a case that's going to be used everywhere in Kentucky to um I mean, we didn't have Ethan's law with this. This is why our Rack Police Department is getting the award they're getting because this is prior to a law that made torture a felony. Our Harden County Attorneys, judge, police department, uh they saw that to the end to so that the conviction was felony charges. It's it's it's a it's a big thing. It's a good thing to be proud of um for our for our officers that were involved. Um, and it hopefully it's going to spread throughout the state and we can try to get a handle on animal abuse and torture.

And uh, also wanted to mention too with when you were speaking I saw Chief Cross back there. You know, obviously our police department does fal job, but during that ice or weather it was I don't remember the degrees out there, Timmy. It was probably I mean it was cold that morning when that fire happened. Um, and it was live on my Facebook, which I thought I'd shut off, but chief told me, I said, "I think I shut it off." And he said, "No, you're you're still live." But I think people really saw some of what our our firefighters have to deal with. And uh it was I mean, it was cold. I I can't remember. It's probably what, nine degrees, five degrees that morning. So, water was freezing center and it hit the house. And um Dol had showed up to pull one of the meters off the side of the houses for the fire. That's typically what happens in a fire situation. The electric company up will show up. They'll pull the meter and I don't think our guys saw those Nolan guys that were on the corner of the house when they soaked the side of that house down. You never saw grown men jump a fence those two no linking guys. But no, we appreciate their hard work that day except it's cold that day. So all right with that uh next meeting is going to be scheduled uh next Tuesday night 5:30 here at Rack City Hall. If there's nothing else, we don't need a motion. Anything else? We don't need We don't need one today.

Yep. All right, we're done. Thank you all for coming. Appreciate it. invited you guys.

So