Woodford County Fiscal Court - Regular Meeting

I don't want to stand by you either.

Good afternoon. We'll call this meeting of the Ordinance Committee to order.

Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Yes, ma'am. So we are continuing our working discussion of the nuisance code and code enforcement ordinance discussions. So I would ask if members of the committee have any updates or recommendations to open our discussion this afternoon. Square Hill, you're recognized.

Thank you. I think what we need to decide is if we want to pursue a civil process for enforcement of our ordinances. I got copies of what the city uses, City Over Sales uses, to their ordinance establishing a code enforcement for their ordinance. allowing the code enforcement officer to make citations, a list of all of their ordinances, and let's see. And I will say that in talking to the enforcement bodies that we have right now, the sheriff and planning and zoning, they think this is a good idea. So I guess it's, you know, there's really no sense in talking about a board or property maintenance code or any of that until we decide which direction we want to go.

That being the opening discussion, I would open the floor for discussion of that topic.

Yes, Judge, and I've talked to the city and have some of their codes and provisions of code enforcement, and I think that we can do a lot, piggyback on some of theirs already written, as we do civil for the civil way of of enforcing these and uh also we're gonna add some things you know more out in the county but they'd be separate from the city a little different but uh what i think we use a whole lot of enforcement having to do with sidewalks having to do with uh animals brushes and those kind of things so i think we need to live look in that direction also thank you squire blackford um

So being that I've styled this discussion around nuisance code and code enforcement as more of a working committee, would Squire Gill and Blackford be willing to come together to work on a proposal to prepare a draft or series of potential provisions of language to be reviewed for a possible ordinance. So if you all, I will go ahead and task you all with that. And if you could work together in the interim between now and our next meeting to put together some tenets of a possible ordinance. Clearly, I think you can avail yourself both to the county attorney, the other government bodies that have these civil penalties that you can talk to. And also Steve Hunter is also, Director Hunter is a resource as well. So does that give you enough charge to proceed?

Just one question. We have been given a couple of draft ordinances. One is from Warren County, and that's a county ordinance, and one from the city of Versailles. Do you think we need to look at the midway ordinance as well, or just fashion it after these? I don't have midways, but I can get it.

My thought process would be that the more approaches that you review, the better your ultimate view of it is. So I think that would be good. And also to impact Squire Taylor's district with a potential ordinance, we definitely want to make sure that the Midway ordinance, at least we don't see anything that could be You know, if we did something in the Versailles area that had a difference and could impact the Midway area in a different way, it would be good to know that. So I think that's a good idea. Squire Taylor, you're recognized.

If I could, I appreciate that because of, as we've talked, Squire Gill, in the past, that some of the areas that are of concern for some folks in my district are just outside the city limits, but, I mean, literally just outside the city limits in the county, so they would be particularly impacted and would probably be relevant. So if we could have some kind of consistency, that would be really probably helpful for folks in the area.

Thank you, Squire Taylor. Other questions or comments? So if there is no objection from members of the ordinance committee, then we will request that Squires Gill and Blackford work together on a beginning document or tenets or even a draft ordinance for the court's review at our next ordinance committee meeting. That sound like a good plan to everyone? Any other questions or comments related to that discussion? Seeing none, and there being no other business to come before the Ordinance Committee, I will deem us adjourned. And I will call to order the Committee of the Whole. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

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Let the record reflect that all members of the fiscal court are present. That Squire Downey said here, but he is there. And we have him via Zoom. So let me begin. And I mentioned to Mr. Tony Harden that they would be first, and they were already first. So I would like for you, Mr. Harden, and your guests and folks you have with us today, and we also have Rich Pictor, Director of Parks and Recreation, to talk about a proposal for a new model airfield that we have been working on for some time. Thank you.

Yeah, you guys know me. I'm here on occasion to offer the invocation for your meetings. And first I wanted to say I really thank you. I really appreciate living in a community that invites us to do that. And we take that very seriously, and I consider it a privilege. And so thank you all for doing that. And so I have another passion, and it's arrow modeling. I have a handful of guys here from our clubs called the Woodford County Arrow Modelers. You know, some people don't know that that field exists on the county park land, but we've been there since 1995. And just to give you a little history about how that came about, we had two citizens of Woodford County back before that time who petitioned the fiscal court then and the park board to construct a model airport for the purpose of flying remote control airplanes. And so they granted that request and the county forces graded the runway that we see now and we've been flying there ever since. I was a resident of Jessamine County at the time back in the 90s and my wife made the biggest mistake of her life and she bought me a model airplane kit. And so I built that thing and sure enough it flew. And I was acquainted with Mr. Greathouse, who was one of the original men who had petitioned the county for the airport. And he trained me and I think within five weeks I was flying by myself and it's been downhill ever since. And so my airplanes have grown in number and in size and I just get kind of the eye roll and the shake of the head from my wife when a new box shows up. But nonetheless, it's a hobby and a passion that I haven't been able to shake. And so, like I said, we've been there since 1995. I started flying in 1998, and actually it was the Woodford Countians that I met during that process that encouraged me to move to Versailles. And so we moved here in the year 2000, raised our son here. He moved away to Lexington to be a police officer, but luckily he's here now and serves as a sergeant in the Versailles Police Department. And so we love Woodford County, and I think it's airplanes that brought us here, believe it or not. And so we've enjoyed flight operations there for, like I said, quite a long time. And when that started out, we were pretty much alone. We were kind of out in the middle of the field. I think the tennis courts might have been there when I came, but Falling Springs hadn't been built. The dog park wasn't there. The disc golf course wasn't there. And so we really weren't really bothering anybody being out there kind of in the middle of the field. So as time kind of developed, we started to feel a little bit more crowded. And so when the lake started moving in and the trees started going up, it kind of prompted me to say, you know, maybe we need to talk about the future of the airfield as it exists today. And so I contacted Judge Kay and we had some discussions and it became kind of obvious that if we could, we needed to find another field within the park to make that happen. And so we set out on that that journey and I had discussions with the judge, but also with Rich. Rich actually recommended the site that we're looking at right now. When I saw it, it became pretty evident that it was pretty perfect for our operation. It's on the map there, up on the screen. What's circled in red would be the proposed field. Do we have a circle around the existing field for orientation there? You can see the lake. You see that little grass strip right there by the lake? That's our current field. And so the site that we're looking at is wide open. Right now we take care not to fly over people, but we fly over the dog park, sometimes the tennis courts, and then we have the disc golf course hole on one end, and so it's kind of hard to avoid that. This new site basically would be wide open. We'd be flying over open fields and soybeans. That'd be about it. And so it does look like to be the perfect site. It also has direct access off of Tyrone, which would keep us from driving across fields in the park, which I know nobody really wants to see. And so once we decided that site was amenable to what we needed, I was directed to talk to the park board first and to seek their approval for the relocation, of course subject to the acceptance of of the fiscal court and so I think I met at least I attended at least three park board meetings and they developed an airfield committee and we met with them and hashed out a memorandum of understanding that you have in your packet I believe today and honestly that memorandum kind of codifies the gentleman's agreement that we've had for for 30 years. But it established a few things, I think, that answered the park board's concerns. And so once we met with them, hashed those out, the park board actually did approve that memorandum of understanding by a unanimous vote at their last meeting and, of course, subject to your approval. So just to highlight a couple of things in the understanding. First and foremost, it sets aside the location that you saw on the map. as a new location for our model airport. By the way, we call our airport Cool Meadow. And so it would set up that as a new location. It would allow us to continue to fly at our current location until a time when that field's operational. It also, just as we have done for forever, the Woodford County Air Models are tasked with operating the site and making sure that all the safety requirements are complied with. And the memorandum states that membership is open to all AMA and FAA registered pilots. Now, the AMA is not the American Medical Association. It is the Academy of Model Aeronautics. And they establish safety protocol. It's a community-based organization that's been around since the 1930s. And they promote aviation but also promote safe aviation. And so we are an AMA chartered field right now. All of our members are required to be members of the AMA. And the FAA in the last, I think, eight or 10 years has gotten involved with the advent of the quadcopters and the drones that are showing up over football stadiums and close to airplanes. And so they rightfully felt the need to regulate that industry. But for inexplicable reasons, they kind of lumped the recreational pilots in with that. Don't really agree with it, but it's federal law. And so we have to comply with FAA regulations. And so... With that information, with all of this, with the court approval, what I'm here tonight is to request approval from the fiscal courts for the relocation of the site. But I wanted to explain that AMA a little bit and the FAA, what those requirements are. The AMA is important because they have a safety code that we're bound to comply with in flying model airplanes. We have model airplanes that can weigh as little as 250 grams up to 25 or 30 pounds. and the AMA has strict guidelines and rules, a code that we comply with. But it's more than just the code. The AMA provides protection, provides insurance. For the individual pilots, it provides a pass-through policy that basically means that if I create any damage, it first is going to go through my homeowner's insurance and be supplemented by their carriers. But more importantly, it provides direct coverage to the landowner, in which this case would be the county, which provides up to $250 million, or I'm sorry, $2.5 million of liability coverage. And so that's why it's important that our members are AMA certified and have an FAA registration number on file as well. And so, see if I missed anything in the memorandum that I wanted to tell you about. Oh yes, it does. Part of the request is, the memorandum states that we would, it would be our responsibility, the Woodford County Air Modelers, to work with the county to have the county workforces prepare a new runway at the new site. It's slightly sloping, so it will be some grading work to make that available. Also, the improvements to the access road to the site, which I think is probably going to be necessary with the BMX track that's coming in at some point. But that would be up to us to negotiate that with the court. And so, let's see, anything else? Oh, yes. The Memorandum of Understanding states that we wouldn't take control of the field for the improvements until March of 2027. And we voluntarily did that because I believe that's when the current lease that the county has with Mr. Lane expires. And so we didn't want to have to disrupt him to modify the lease with just a little bit left on the term. But I am requesting that at least that the court would approve the relocation. And if we need to come back and continue to discuss the workforce to get it done, that would be That would be fine because there's a lot of work for us to do until we get to that point. Right now we are chartered by the AMA. Every year we pay a charter, but the AMA has reviewed our site and they find it to be safe. And so we are chartered and certified by the AMA. When we move the site, I'm going to have to do that again. I'm going to have to have them review it. But more importantly, also the FAA, we are what's called a FRIA site that stands for Federal Aviation administration identification area. I think that's what it stands for. And I don't want to get into the technical part of that. There's a whole host of that. But basically, the FAA is going to review the site to deem it safe so that we can fly there without a lot of onerous restrictions that keep us from flying at all. And so that's a federal administration and a community-based organization. So that'll take a little bit of time. And so if we were to be approved, it'll take that long for me to make that happen. by March of 2027. So I think I covered all the bases. With that, I would be glad to take any questions that you might have.

I want to say, Mr. Hardin, that your thoroughness is much appreciated and your patience with the process because as the court knows, the farm land has not been annexed into the park, but We always work through the parks board with anything that is connected with the park and it will ultimately be park. So let me ask, does anybody have any questions for Mr. Hardin? Ms. Park Gill, you're recognized.

Thank you. Will this be closed to the public?

It will be open to the public. We did work that out with the Parks Board. They were concerned about us being considered a private club. We will be open to people that are non-members of the Woodford County Air Modelers, but they'll be subject to the same restrictions, the requirements for the AMA licensing the FAA registration. And so if that answers your question.

Yeah, I think so. I'm just, I'm a little concerned because like we have the disc golf course and People walk out there and run out there on that course. Then we've got the BMX course that they said anybody that wants to can come in and ride their bikes. They don't have to be part of the BMX club. Another question I have, it looks like this is probably four or five times bigger than the old one.

four or five times bigger if this little strip right if this little green strip is the current that's just that's just the strip oh okay what what you need to understand is that's the strip but the overfly area is much bigger than that okay it takes quite a bit of distance to fly how big is that area

You're talking about the red area.

I didn't measure by acres, but if you can look at that kind of octagonal type shape up at the top.

Yeah.

Basically, all of that would be the overfly of the existing site. Okay. And the overfly area of the new site would actually, most of it wouldn't be on the park property. It would be over an open field.

And how many acres did you say?

I'm not sure how many acres that is. Rich, do you have any clue? I didn't measure that.

Let's get here.

The actual strip that we take off and land from will be probably about 250 feet to 300 feet longer than what we have right now. I think right now it's about 400 feet. We'll be about 600 or 700 feet if we're able to put a strip that large in there. And it's a sloping grade. We'll have to bench in to create the runway. And I will tell you, our desire, our goal, because this would allow us to do it whereas now we're kind of right in the midst of the middle of the park we would like to have events community events fly-ins flight training i've talked to rich about maybe we can have a fly day for for camp kids we would love to partner because one thing about air monitors they love to show off and so we would be we have a lot of retired guys that would love nothing more than to than to do community-based events like that i know back in the day I think it was through the chamber we did planes, trains, and automobiles at the park. And so we were the planes. We flew planes during that day. They had a car show and a model train show under the pavilion. We would love to start doing stuff like that again. That would be awesome.

And just a couple more questions. Can you show where the access road is going to be on here?

If you look at the map, you can see that yellow line?

Yes.

That's currently a road. Okay. where you can access from Tyrone. It would only need to be improved. It's rutted out and just a dirt road at this point, but that's where we would access it off of Tyrone.

Right. Okay. in building the BMX, we would have to add in the rest of that yellow line coming from where it leaves the current park into that park, which we just talked about being a gravel road through the BMX and then connecting to the straight line and tie road.

Okay. And have you looked at the cost to repair the road and the grading? Has anybody looked at cost estimates for that?

No, we have not. That road was proposed That road was proposed several months ago by Kenneth Johns and Director Wade as a reason to need to Better identify for insurance purposes, everything at the park. Currently, everything in the existing park from the front of the park, the ball fields to Falling Springs is listed as 275 Beasley Drive, which it gets very confusing when it goes to insurance. And we say that there was damage to the green barn. Insurance doesn't really recognize the green barn. So we need everything to have its own address. So putting this recreation way in or whatever the road's name would be, which would be the yellow line, everything in that path would have its own address. So community stadium would have its own address. The pickleball courts would have its own address. For example, now if you put in 275 Beasley Drive, it takes you to the jail. And the number of people that come to a baseball game and end up at the jail, I can't tell you how many that is. But I stand out there during the triathlon at that point, And everybody drives right past the ball fields with the kids on the fields and everything else, and they look at me and they go, where are the baseball fields? I say, right behind you. But that's because they're just following their GPS and not looking around. So this would give us the ability to do that. And so that's when the road was proposed. And so knowing that road was proposed, that's why I recommended the blue – square as the bmx and then subsequently tony came to me and i was like well the red area as you see on the map would be the best location in my opinion to meet their needs which would be flying over farmland not people but yet still be accessible to the road so that's why those two things were identified as the locations that would be best suited for those two things and why i'm here i do want to point out two important things that the parks board was very um important and it is in the agreement it's on the last page it's section h hours of operation does to dawn but more importantly that flight operations we suspended whenever the executive director or whoever would be in my position determined that it would interfere with another event at the park so they couldn't just say hey well it's our field we'll do what we want they still have to come by if we have a fair going on if we have other events going on large events they would clear any events through the Parks Department, just like we do with other events out there. And then item four, it clearly states, and this was something the Parks Board wanted, that agrees that a minimum of 30 days notice and that field can be moved at any time. So it's not that if any point the Parks Board or the Fiscal Court came and said, we think there's a better use for this land, we want to move UX to another location, or we want to remove you completely off the park that's up to the parks board and or the fiscal court to do so because there's no permanent structures there short of a possible pavilion or something down the road so that does give flexibility that we're not saying that once we do this it can never be anything but that we do have flexibility to move it should be rise you know beyond my time or anybody else's time in 30 years down the road there's a better use for that land it is that is in the memo and i just want to make sure i pointed that out to everybody

Thanks, Rich. That was my next question. You read my mind. That's all I have.

Thanks. That has been our practice for 30 years. When the fairs end, we shut down the field. We're not there on the 4th of July. Whenever there's a cross-country match or there's a lot of kids running on the parks, we always shut down operations. I send out that text, no flying today. These things weren't

They were never written down.

They just were never written down, but it's kind of the gentleman's agreement. But none of those were a real problem for any of us. We know we're on public land. If you want to use it for something else, you're free to do that. And so we totally understand that, and it's not a problem at all. Those clauses didn't cause us any heartburn at all. Yeah, Rich.

Ever since that property was acquired, it's been dedicated to farming until decisions were made as to what should be done, what the expansion should be. So this would be apparently the first such expansion into that.

The second. We have disc golf holes out there. Yeah. Which fall under the same thing. There's a couple baskets and some tee pads, but they're removable if need be. But technically when we took the back portion for the back nine is the first time we did that on that property.

Would this limit the property available to change the entire scope of the current farm lease?

I don't think so. Just like we do with the disc golf where we created nine holes that are back there. There are areas that are mowed for the disc golf, and the area outside of that is still available to be farmed for hay. It would eliminate probably cattle in those areas, but it wouldn't eliminate the farming of hay in those areas.

And the reason I'm asking this, and I'm going to ask about the lease, and I appreciate that the decision was to time this with the expiration and then the reinitiation of that lease, that'll be a successor fiscal quarter. It may be all of you here except Squire Brown, who like myself isn't running in, maybe a different court. And don't know what that court's position may be with all of this. But as far as that road goes, is there going to be a request of the fiscal court to improve it? To what extent? If so, has that been discussed?

it has not been discussed by the parks board now i know it was discussed as it brought up by the director wade for the need to address those um and there's been as we know a lot of discussion when there's past large events whether it be graduation fourth of july is needing another exit out of the park both for emergency reasons and for just large events and creation of the the yellow line

while it does send you back to tyrone it does get you another access out of the park which was another reason i think that it was being considered so for purposes of this fiscal court you've addressed you need to get going get a start it's going to take some time to get certain things accomplished what if the court votes to go forward with this plan between now and the end of this term at the end of december what will be happening or

does or can it wait until the first of 2027 do you need to get on that now or so so how does that shape out well i guess it's it's kind of whether this is a proper request or not i think the request is is is basically a a commitment that we would relocate the land and if we need to negotiate the actual physical work or how that happens we could do that at another time we could do that maybe with a new court But that commitment allows me to go ahead and work with these organizations. If I take that, if we take our field offline, then we're not flying. And so I don't want to do that. I don't want to keep our guys from flying. And so that would give me time to work through those two administrations and get that approved.

So basically, you would be able to report to them that there's been a commitment by this current fiscal court for you to look into that, but still the work to be done would all be done after the lease expires in March, again, when we have a successor fiscal court. Okay. Okay.

Thanks, Judge. Thank you, Mr. County Attorney. Mr. Bart Taylor.

And to that point, I think the 30-day severability clause is plenty of time if a new court comes in and feels like before you lose full opportunity in March, there would be enough time in there, but we wouldn't keep you from getting the ball rolling now. I've known about the existence for some time. I don't know when I first became aware, but I was aware of your passion when we had the NPR story on the WKU interview. And I really enjoyed that, and I thought that raised some great awareness of the interest around not just Woodford County, but the tourism opportunities for folks from all over wanting to come and utilize. So I think this is a great opportunity. We don't know what the future may hold for the park, and I appreciate your all's willingness to incorporate that in this agreement. I do think following the... The rules for AMA rules are really important because those objects flying overhead can be dangerous, but I really appreciate your all's willingness to be open to everybody, and I'm glad to have a bigger and badder home for you all going forward.

And I forgot to mention, we have suffered no great damage there except for our pride. Some of our airplanes are wrecked, but we've had a wonderful safety record for 30 years. Square curl.

Yes, and Rich, you answered my other question, but I just wanted to tell you that Squirrel and I walked out there since the late, I hate to even say, it's been the late 80s all the way through, and we watched that, your field now come be built, and the passion that you all have, we've watched you fly out there, and it's a pleasure to have you out there and watch it, so it's great that you're expanding. Awesome.

Well, we love spectators. Like I said, we like to show up.

We love to watch you all.

We love listening to the peanut gallery. All of our landings are judged and all that. So it's a lot of fun. Thank you all for those comments.

Thank you, Mr. Hardin. Thank you, Director Pictor. Members of the court, so our goal would be to take this up in our next fiscal court and put that on the agenda. Thank you to our air modelers for being here and supporting. And if that sounds good with you, Mr. Hardin, that's how we'll proceed. Yes, sir. Thank you. And you're more than welcome to be excused. I do want to now move on to the run-walk event request. This is the bourbon chase request. We have Ragnar, right? Ragnar Group. And we have Mr. Daniel Irvin, I believe. Thank you for joining us, sir. And I would welcome you to open up comments to discuss this request with members of the fiscal court.

Can you hear me okay?

We'll turn you up. We can't hear you. We're going to turn up the volume so that it can be heard a little louder.

Awesome. I just didn't want to blast everyone's ears out there, so I appreciate that.

There you are. We can hear you very well. Thank you, sir.

Good. Well, I appreciate the time for letting me come here today. My voice is extremely hoarse, no pun intended for Kentucky folks there. You know, Bourbon Chase has been coming through Central Kentucky. This is our 18th year, right? And Woodford County has been a huge part of that, not just for a place to pass through, but, you know, brings a lot of heritage to the course, which... SOME OF OUR BIGGEST COMMENTS THAT WE GET ARE HOW BEAUTIFUL AND STUNNING YOU KNOW THESE AREAS THAT THEY RUN THROUGH ARE YOU KNOW SEEING THE HORSES AND THE FIELDS AND EVERYTHING ELSE YOU KNOW IT'S ALSO WE ALSO KNOW IT'S A VERY GOOD ECONOMIC IMPACT FOR FOR COMMUNITIES LIKE MIDWAY AND VERSALES YOU KNOW WE ACTUALLY STOP RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE ONE OF OUR STOPS IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE COURTHOUSE SO THAT'S PRETTY COOL TOO IT'S A THAT REALLY SOMETHING WE EXPERIENCE YOU KNOW VERY MUCH ON OUR OTHER OTHER EVENTS And, you know, we, you know, our folks, they spend some time there, spend some money there, gas stations, lodging, other businesses and whatnot. But we also understand that, you know, events of this size can also be a headache for community members as well. So we're trying to be as considerate as possible when those things are, you know, when we come to town. One example was brought to my attention. LUCKY I HAD A CHANCE TO SPEAK WITH SOMEONE THAT HAS SOME CONCERNS ABOUT ONE OF THE LEGS THAT RUNS THROUGH WOODFORD COUNTY. I HEARD THOSE CONCERNS OUT AND CLEAR AND WE HAD A REALLY PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATION. BASED ON THAT CONVERSATION WE'RE GOING TO MAKE SOME We're going to make some new rules for some of our runners when they're coming through the sections, certain sections of Woodford County. That would be for Woodlake Road and also for Spring Station Road. We're going to put some ordinances in place. We're not going to let any vans there. We'll make sure that we have the right assets on course, whether it be police officers, official flaggers or whatnot, not just some young volunteer out there trying to stop vans from going down sections of road I just mentioned there. So, you know, the reason why I called is I want to make sure that, you know, that every person gets gets heard in the community. Right. Because we don't get a chance as race directors to to talk to people like that. So I really appreciate the fact that she was willing to step forward and discuss that with me. And again, I think we make good headway on that, you know, and we'll get that information out to using our resources. channels that we use with our runner packet, which is basically the runner's Bible, right? They go to this packet for all things bourbon chase, and it's like 50 something pages long. But all of our updates are right front and center within the first few pages. So it's really hard to miss unless you're just breezing through for something else. We also have, you know, like I mentioned, we'll have our safety measures out there. We work with a professional safety company that actually drive the entire course with me. They'll probably be doing that with me again here in a few weeks. We go through all the entire course, not just Woodford County, but everywhere to make sure that we make the run as safe as possible. And with that, we do hold our runners accountable because they're, you know, with the bourbon chase of those who may not be familiar with it, it's a relay, right? And though we might have 3,000 runners, you're never going to have 3,000 people on course because it's a relay, right? One If you have 250 teams, you're not going to have more than 250 people running at a time. So it's not like your regular race where you have mobs of people running for hours and hours.

It'll be a trickle-down effect, and some people say they didn't realize the race was even happening.

But they have to follow all of the local safety laws that are in place for each area, and we're pretty good sticklers on that. We definitely have given some good warnings and actually disqualified teams in the past for not following those rules. With that, that's all we have to say. We'd love the opportunity to run through Woodford County again and just keep this streak of 18 years going to 19 and so on and so forth. And I really appreciate the time to chat with you folks here.

Thank you. Thank you, David. I'd ask any members of the court that have questions. Squire Taylor, sir.

I won't... I guess beat a dead horse on this, but I'm glad to hear that you're considering some adjustments in that leg 31 because I do have some concerns about the safety of runners on Wood Lake. It's a very narrow road and there's a lot of difficulty for folks to see at different points and there's big drop-offs on either side of the road, not just safety for the runners, but even safety for the drivers that they may meet. I look forward to hearing what you bring to us on that. I appreciate your willingness.

No problem.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Irwin. I believe I called you David, and it's Daniel Irwin. I apologize.

No worries. I've been called worse. It's fine.

Thank you. Thank you. I do believe we have someone here that wants to address the court in relationship to some of the issues along with the race. Ms. Michelle Lyons is with us. I'm doing well. Thank you. Thank you for, if you don't mind to turn on the mic there, please.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah, we got you. We good?

Okay. Thank you, Daniel, also for being here. I had a question. Who is the gentleman to the left on the screen in the pink?

Oh, that's Magistrate William Downey. Okay. He's zooming in for this meeting.

Okay. Thank you. Let's see here. Did you receive letters and other items from some of my neighbors as well regarding this issue? Just curious.

I have spoken to Charlie Knuckles and some of the other Knuckles family. Okay. Prior today, but today I spoke with Charlie Knuckles directly.

Okay. Okay. I think you might be getting some letters also. I just wanted to say that. But I have a statement to read if that's okay with everyone.

Please.

My name is Michelle Lyons. I am here to oppose the running of leg 31 of the Ragnar Bourbon Chase on Spring Station and Woodlake Roads. I stand in solidarity with my neighbors, many of whom could not be here this evening as they are actively engaged in agricultural activities as we speak. I have been actively communicating and working with our county attorney, James Kay, for several months. to have our collective concerns heard they are as follows the first concern is are the road conditions and traffic patterns have changed spring station road desperately needs paving Woodlake Road was paved last fiscal year, but was improperly milled. Therefore, there are massive drop-offs on the shoulders, which Mr. Taylor mentioned. Very large tree stumps from recent storm damages, and I'm talking large, taller than I am. Rock walls, one switchback bridge, which is generally trapped in a cycle of repair and disrepair, and areas where these roads are one lane. We have seen an uptick in traffic due to massive construction all around us. Woodlake Road is a main cut through for people wishing to avoid Leestown Road and I-64 construction and also further down more construction as we head to Lexington. uh these roads may seem small and lightly traveled but they are deceptively busy with motorists and farmers moving very large equipment huge hay wagons livestock from very early in the morning until after the sun sets and that's not even counting if there's an emergency myself and many of my neighbors own property on both sides of the road and therefore it is imperative that we be able to reach our stock so we may need to cross road just to feed. These unsafe road conditions lead into safety concerns for the people actively running in the Bourbon Chase. Some of the participants in this race aren't courteous and they don't adhere to or possibly care about the safety regulations laid out by Ragnar Racing Group. This creates an area of exposure for all of us all of us, if someone were to be injured, I'm talking about Reagan, our race group, Woodford County, possibly the for sales police department, and certainly private property owners, individuals, et cetera, along this route, some defecate and urinate on our properties. They ditch clothing. When they get too hot, they discard water bottles, trash, et cetera. Property owners are left to deal with this aftermath. These are working farms. We have valuable thoroughbred assets for whom we are responsible. These are our livelihoods. We pay lots and lots of taxes that support this county. This wouldn't be the most desirable and most expensive place to live in Kentucky without our contributions. And just to give you all an idea in case you're not horse people, we are commercial thoroughbred breeders. That means that we own mares. Those are the females. We have to take that mare to a commercial stallion. That means that at a minimum, we have $25,000 in our mare. We have at minimum $25,000 in our stallion. We have fed that mare all year. We've given her hay. We've given her feed. We have ensured that she had all the proper veterinary care in order to become pregnant and stay pregnant. We have given all vaccines, medications. Those are all taxed. Those are not tax exempt. So the fact that we have about 40 horses, that adds up to a lot of dollars. These are very, very valuable assets. We have two shots, two, all year to make almost all of our income in the year, and that time is now. Right now, we are actively prepping our horses for sale. Thoroughbreds are very high-strung creatures. Normal race activities, and I mean human race activities, can cause them to become very agitated and get injured. Things like people cheering for your teammate, Maybe you have a megaphone, maybe a van, you know, you're cheering. Yeah, come on, girl. Come on, let's go. You know, that's all normal stuff. But around these particular types of animals, they can become very agitated. They could get injured. And if that happens, we lose our income. Also, for those of us who board horses for others, we are responsible to that horse's owner in that case. And we have to carry insurance for our own horses and for theirs. I would argue that most of the people who run in this race aren't familiar with or used to being around large thoroughbred horses. When they stop on our property, hang over our fences, take pictures with, and touch these valuable assets, it creates a huge area of exposure for us. If someone were to be bitten by one of our horses, we would absolutely be sued. This thought is one that keeps myself and my neighbors up at night. There's also a legal term called attractive nuisance, which I'm sure the lawyers in the room know exactly what I'm talking about. It usually applies to children, but it's kind of a thing where if you have something very attractive, so alluring that someone could not resist it, in fact, that you're supposed to welcome them onto your property, well, that applies to children. That doesn't apply to adults. But sometimes it does seem that that does apply to adults in the sense that they seem to not be able to resist themselves. We do have signs posted, no trespassing. We do have the ag signs posted, like the warning of the according to the statute that this can cause injury and possible death. Who pays for all this? We do. The farm owners will. If our horse is injured, who loses? Again, we do. This is a huge liability that none of us are willing to risk for an out-of-state race entity that employs a handful of people, makes one stop in Woodford County at Blue Grass Distillery, collects approximately $120 to $212 per runner, and quite literally runs out of our county. I did speak with Daniel earlier, and he agreed that they make one stop in our county at Blue Grass Distillery. In this election year, I beg you, please, please consider first and foremost your constituents and the tax dollars we contribute in our county. Please do not grant your approval for leg 31 of the Ragnar Bourbon Chase to be run on Spring Station and Wood Lake Roads. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Lyons. I do want to share that I did speak with Mr. Charlie Knuckles and some concerns that he expressed that aligned with much of what Ms. Lyons said. The noise and the impact on horses, folks approaching horses that she mentioned. He also had concerns about the races blocking roads, whether that blocked the roads for work and operations of horse farms or emergencies. the trespassing concern on properties, safety concerns with the roads and the runners and also his employees, trash and debris that is left from the races, proprietary concerns from the interruptions of operations, and that was just to name a few. Mr. Knuckles is currently bailing hay and was not able to make it and asked that I share those on his behalf, which I have.

May I just add two things? Please do. To Daniel's point, I didn't realize that there would actually be potentially 250 people on Spring Station and Woodlake Roads at any given time. That's a lot of people. for those roads and just to his point that uh many people aren't even aware that uh they're there uh the residents on woodlake road and spring station roads are acutely aware that there is a race being run there and that's why we're upset but that's why we're here thank you guys thank you i want to also say that the state highway department district 7 has not yet approved the bourbon chase they're waiting on a traffic control plan

which I have asked to review as well. So this will not be taken up for a decision tonight. But once we have that traffic control plan and we have more information, Mr. Irwin, we will take that up for a final review. Thank you, Ms. Lyons. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you so much.

Can I say one or two more things possibly? Yes, please.

You're welcome to.

Just for clarity, obviously those 250 runners won't be on those streets at one time, right? We start our runners from 5 a.m. to about 1 p.m. throughout the day on Friday in Claremont. So when I said that, I might not have been clear about the expectations. You will not see 250 people on that road at one time. And also, we do stop in several places. We stop in Versailles. We also stopped at Woodford County, right in front of the Woodford County Courthouse. Sorry if I didn't explain that to you earlier on the phone, Michelle.

just wanted to add those two things and just for clarity for for the council thank you sir thank you any anybody else have any other questions or comments seeing none all right um if there are any additional questions i'm sure mr irwin will avail himself to questions from the ragnar group and we will proceed from there and we will await the letters and communications miss lyons and i'll Remain in communication with you. Thank you so much. I did have one other item. Mr. County Attorney, I think you wanted to give a brief update.

Judge, on the lawsuit? Yes, sir. Just for the court's information and the public's information, Barry Stills, the CACO attorney defending the fiscal court in this action, filed his answer. in a timely fashion, so that component of the lawsuit has been satisfied. I'm not going to go into detail on the answer. It's a pretty general answer with a couple of exceptions, though. In the complaint, you may recall there were text and Instagram references. So what Mr. Stiltz did in his answer and I think rather astutely did, he chose to respond to that averment by attaching the pages upon pages of those posts and messages. So the entirety of that is there now of public record. And that is of record as part of the county's defense to this lawsuit. He also attached as an exhibit in his answer a memorandum memorializing the meeting that the plaintiff had, which is referenced in the complaint, because again, it too speaks for itself. So I think those both now are of record in the case file in the clerk's office. As always, attorneys have to preach patience in these lawsuits. Everybody expects things to move very quickly and happen quickly. they don't particularly when you're defending a civil action it takes a while for your side to come out i think though the answer at least begins that process i wanted to make sure that that the court was aware of that there was one other action mr stiltz undertook he filed a motion to dismiss judge k in his official capacity as a party defendant You may recall the lawsuit named Judge Kaye in his official capacity as Judge Executive and the Woodford County Fiscal Court. Well, the Woodford County Fiscal Court is the entity, the defendant being named, sued in this lawsuit. Serving and naming and serving Judge Kaye in his official capacity can be viewed as duplicious, superfluous, and redundant. And there's case law, as Mr. Stiltz points out in his motion, that says that it's unnecessary to have both the Woodford County Fiscal Court and the Woodford County Judge Executive named as defendants in the lawsuit. So he has filed that motion to dismiss Judge Kaye in his official capacity where the lawsuit, if that motion is successful, would simply be styled the plaintiff versus the Woodford County Fiscal Court. That motion is scheduled to be heard by Judge Gabbhart at her regular civil docket on September 9th, I believe. So I don't know if she'll make a decision from the bench or take it under advisement and later issue a ruling in that matter. But those are the two developments, Judge, since we last met.

Thank you, Mr. County Attorney. Seeing nothing else to come before this Committee of the Whole, I will deem us adjourned. We will reconvene in full fiscal court at 5.30. Thank you.