Good afternoon and welcome everyone to Elizabethtown City Council Work Session for February 9th, 2026, and I'd like to ask Councilmember Tony Bishop if he lead us in the invocation, please.

Father, we thank you for another wonderful day.

We thank you for the sunshine and and the and the warmth.

We just thank you for watching over our community as a whole, and we especially want to thank you for our employees and the dedication that they they do each and every day.

We ask that you be with us this day, watch over us, lead us, guide us, and direct us in the way that you would help us to go.

In your son's name we pray.

Amen.

If you would please join us in the pledge.

Yes, sir.

Councilmember Bishop.

Here, Folkerson.

Here.

Isaacs.

Here.

Jones.

Here.

Springsteen.

Here.

You have a quorum mayor.

Thank you, ma'am.

And at this time, we are going to do something that we have not done before that I am proud to say that we're going to start doing throughout the year and the many years that I've been here and the years that uh will follow.

We have plenty of our teammates in multiple different departments that often during the year get certifications to improve their abilities to do their job.

And so we're going to recognize some of those folks today.

And uh I'm gonna ask uh Mrs.

Graham, who is our city clerk and also our alcohol beverage control officer, or director or manager, or whatever title she likes the best, administrator, if she would explain a little bit about who we're gonna recognize today.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I'd like to thank you for these additional appointments to ABC.

Um, this is really uh supplemental for our department, especially to our dedicated officer Jones back here, who does a phenomenal job with investigations and with um reporting um case reports.

So really we wanted this to be um just supplemental and another tool in the toolbox is what I'd like to say for them.

And we want to be good partners with our businesses and continue to keep our citizens safe, and we feel this is another way to do this.

Very good.

So do we want to go around front?

Yes, yes.

So we're in alphabetical order because there are several.

If you'd please come up.

Mrs.

Graham's gonna give you your certificate, and if you would stay up here and line up because Mrs.

Emman wants to take a picture.

Lieutenant Pete Chitla.

Major Matt Kugel.

Sergeant Dietrich Cooper.

Sergeant Andrew Eckert.

Sergeant Andrea Hare.

You did right, Andrew.

Officer Jared Hatfield, Officer Cooper Jones, Officer Richard Jones, Lieutenant Madison Kaklinski, Sergeant Gary Mark, Sergeant Chase McCown, Sergeant Michael Mertz.

Sergeant Gary Mark.

Sergeant Chase McCown.

Sergeant Michael Mertz.

Detective Eric Ryman.

Officer Steve Richards.

Sergeant James Rogers.

Lieutenant Alex Ruiz.

Sergeant Spencer Singer.

And Lieutenant Austin Smith.

Apparently Chief Thompson didn't get certified.

He failed the test.

I think Miss Edman wants to get a picture.

I'm not certified either.

Thank you all very much.

We appreciate it.

We're proud of you.

From our parks and recreation department, I would like to introduce the director, Seth Breitner, if he would come up and talk about certified playground safety inspectors.

Good afternoon, everybody.

And in the parks and recreation industry, this is one of the most challenging certifications that you can get.

And one of the things about that makes this very challenging is this test is basically a test on all the safety standards, the different things that go along with the playgrounds and things to make sure, like surfacing, the spacing between objects, the fall zones, everything like that falls within the guidelines that are set forth.

And it makes it very challenging on this uh test because it's a hundred uh questi the question test.

Um, less than 70% of the first time test takers actually pass this.

I think within the last uh round, the two inspectors that gave this, um, they've had given this test for 30 years, they've taken it, they've never gotten a perfect score.

And one of the things that makes this challenging is that by memory and by study, you have to go through all your measurements, all your distances, all your fall zones and everything, and remember that as you go through the test without any type of reference material.

And why this matters within the person recreations agency is that over 200,000 injuries happen each year, and by having uh individuals that have this inspection, this helps the city's liability drastically.

Um as part of our routine maintenance, our playgrounds continue to expand within the city.

We have two very large playgrounds now in the Oasis and Funtopia, and we inspect those routinely every month.

So there are two individuals, Sean Pope and Colin Miller that got the certification this past year.

Colin was unfortunately not able to join us today, but Sean is here.

Congratulations, Sean.

We appreciate it, and apparently your studio is like you're dead.

Thank you.

Now I also want to recognize those that have been recognized here today.

Many of them are not on duty or their work day has ended, and I don't know what instructions Chief Thompson gave you all, but if you all are off or would like to leave, we will not hold it against you because we have some things that we're gonna talk about, and I hate to make you sit through all of it, unless you just would like to stay with us.

None of them turned to look at him, did they?

Thank you all very much.

We appreciate it.

Up next is our stormwater department update with Mrs.

Rita Davis, our stormwater director.

You guys couldn't hear me.

We also completed a project um on two failing corrugated metal pipes um in the West uh one under Westport and one under Michelle Drive um in that area.

So we've uh doing what we can to try to update our our infrastructure.

Um we also want to study some area some problem areas that we seem to have um with uh some extreme events, especially with last year getting all the rain that we got.

Um so we uh uh have drainage studies underway at Hawkins Drive and Freeman Freeman Creek Estates.

Uh those those areas were probably the worst hit with some of the flooding that we observed last year with the the extreme events, rain events that we had.

Um we I also want to mention we are we have worked with FEMA.

Uh they are remapping all the floodplains within the upper green river and uh Elizabeth Town, the bulk of Elizabeth Town Falls within that watershed.

Uh so we will have new FEMA flood maps um here in the I'm I'm guessing the next couple of years.

So that's another kind of study that's going on behind the scenes.

Um we also had another project that we uh completed um our Keeneland Drive Ditch stabilization project.

Um we have planned a spring survivability survey uh for the live stakes that were planted.

Those are basically cuttings off of uh live plants or live trees that you can then put in the ground and they will propagate and grow.

Um and so we do have a goal uh from this project.

We want to harvest live stakes to utilize in other areas of the city.

Um where we're observing some erosion on drainage ways.

Um we are also recognized we want to try to uh uh get some grants where we can to help uh reduce stress on the city's uh general fund.

Uh so we we're working currently on a very involved grant application for our Peterson Drive Bridge project.

Um and then we also have recycling and composting grant application in progress with the state, and um we're hoping that maybe that recycling grant would support the purchase of a chipper for our public works department.

Um some statistics uh for our stormwater department.

Uh we had 153 new erosion control permits issued, uh 25 private water quality units were inspected.

We had 12 illicit discharge um investigations in 2025 and 38 plan reviews.

We have 176 stormwater requests.

That's probably a lot of those are from all the rain we had last year.

And we uh completed an audit with the Kentucky Division of Water for our MS4 program, and we got 100%.

So we are really proud of that.

That's apparently pretty atypical.

So we're pretty um pretty excited that we um received that.

We try to get out in the community as much as we can.

So we've uh conducted several education sessions with city summer and fall camps.

Um the macro invertebrates.

Um that is a huge hit with the kids.

They love to flip the rocks over and see the the critters that live underneath the rocks and uh in our creeks.

Um so special thanks to Adam for coordinating all that.

Um so special thanks to Adam for coordinating all that, and um we've been active with our floodplain simulator and also partnered with some of the local schools, New Highland and um Miss Mills over uh with her engineering class at Etown High School.

So public engagement and events.

We uh have our uh big East Storm Squatch.

He's our big blue mascot that you know, most we're trying to get him out there a little bit more, but uh this was his third year in the Christmas parade.

And um, you know, we we want to get the word out.

We'd like to get him more in some of the local schools.

So he's he's fun.

The kids love him, they just don't know who he is.

Jessica looks like she's a little tired of it.

It's hard to deal with.

Yeah, yeah, he can be a little extra sometimes.

Um so uh something that's kind of put us on the map in our in the MS4 community, uh, our pet waste program.

So we've distributed a thousand leash clip pet waste dispensers uh through vets and local groomers.

Um we've installed several uh pet waste stations and we've kind of uh partnered with HOAs and private um homeowners if they have a piece of property where a lot of uh pets are utilizing or people are walking high traffic areas for pets to use those spaces.

Um and so we've had a 70% increase in bags distributed since we kind of launched this program in 2023, and uh 54,000 pet waste bags distributed this year alone.

So we're hoping that that's that those efforts are kind of helping um get some of that fecal coliform out of our our creeks uh with our pet waste.

Um so we've kind of been partnered with um parks and rec to uh head off this uh Arbor Day and Tree City USA.

Um so we've kind of set a date here recently of March 28th to do a Arbor Day celebration.

Um we're gonna call it Tree Town.

Um hopefully I can announce that.

Kind of came up that's kind of new.

We came up with that recently.

Um so yeah, and that and we'll also uh potentially partner with the Kentucky Division of Forestry.

We're gonna give away uh saplings as part of that effort.

So that will be a Saturday where we'll have um kind of a dedication to uh trees.

Um basin maintenance and adaptive management.

So yeah, so strawberry basin we had planted probably about three years ago in wildflowers.

Um those are those come up pretty strong in the spring, but as the uh growing season progresses, it starts to look a little unruly.

So we're kind of gonna do a little different uh management of that basin to try to get the fall bloomers to come up.

So um, and then um hoping to make that more of a monarch and pollinator habitat as well.

But just so you know, it will not be like a manicured garden.

It's gonna look a little weedy, but hopefully a little bit better than what it has in the uh later growing season months uh here the last couple seasons.

Um just kind of to reiterate, you know, we've had some crazy um rain events here in the past year.

Um uh we're expecting higher intensities just with the way kind of the climate trajectory is.

Um, and we're also having challenges with design constraints due to geology and topography.

Um now we have implemented our rain gauge system.

Um we have three rain gauges here in the in the city.

Um, and that has really helped us to try to figure out like what kind of frequency our storms are that we're receiving.

Um, but our focus remains on resilience, risk reduction, and adaptive management.

So some upcoming projects that you guys will probably be seeing here in this upcoming budget season.

Um Valley Creek Lake and Trooper Lake Restorations.

Um, those will be going into construction.

Um that picture is actually Valley Creek Lake uh emergency spillway during the April storms.

Um Henry Street phase two.

We're hoping that that we we're in the easement acquisition phase of that, and we're hoping that that will be ready by fall for uh construction.

Um Peterson Drive.

If we we possibly will get some grant funding, but if we don't, we'll probably be asking for funding.

Uh Clifford Drive Basin, uh currently 90% to dry design, so it will be ready for construction.

And then some studies and designs that we're um hoping to incorporate in the budget.

Deepwood Drive, uh St.

John Estates, and French Street.

For staffing, we have six total staff in the stormwater department.

Um kind of in the stormwater management section.

We have an inspector, an environmental scientist, and an assistant engineer, in addition to myself.

Um, we have in our construction maintenance guys, one foreman, one heavy equipment operator, and a maintenance position.

Um so we are looking to add uh an additional inspector to kind of replace James when he moved up to environmental scientist, but uh in that budget, and then an additional vehicle plus replacement of the vehicle we so lovingly referred to as Kevin, um, which you can see pictured.

I think he's one of the oldest vehicles in the fleet, and he's starting to have some transmission issues.

So uh we're probably gonna be looking to replace Kevin soon.

So James.

Yeah, yes.

All right, so our long-term strategy when we want to um explore acquisitions of additional properties within floodplains.

Uh, we want to do some ordinance revisions, which we're currently um working on.

Uh, we'd like to incorporate more green infrastructure and nature-based solutions to uh stormwater management.

Um of course, we're gonna continue to identify aging infrastructure and areas for improvement.

Um, one big program, well, maybe a couple programs that we're uh hoping to kick off will be our water quality program, which will help us to determine if our education outreach and uh pet waste programs are being effective, and also soil sampling program.

And of course, our goal is to, you know, we want to improve our response time compliance and infrastructure oversight.

So that's the stormwater update.

So any questions.

And this is our team, our team, uh the stormwater, the management team in our office.

So questions, comments.

Do you care to quickly elaborate on James's position and what he's gone through to get there?

Oh, yeah.

So James has been working really hard the past couple of years to uh obtain a degree in environmental science.

Um he's doing that through an online program with uh Southern New Hampshire University.

Um he is on the tail end of his uh education.

Uh so I I think he told me that he was gonna have his degree in August.

So he's and he's getting really good grades too.

So I uh definitely anticip don't anticipate any hiccups with that.

I was gonna say I have not seen a report card.

He usually keeps me informed of all his uh his grades, and I've I've maybe helped him a little bit with some of his homework.

So do you think he expects us to refer to him as a scientist?

Doctor.

Yeah, doctor.

So, but yeah, so that's that's the update.

Very good.

We appreciate you.

We appreciate your department.

I know a lot of folks understand what you do, but I don't think that they understand the hard work that you all put in.

And it doesn't matter what time of day or if it's night, if we get a bad storm event, you all are out checking things and looking to see what we can improve and do better.

And most of all, you're fielding emails and phone calls that aren't always kind or from people that are happy at the time because they've got water in their house or water somewhere in their yard that they don't like, and so uh we appreciate it.

We know the job's hard, and we think you all do excellent.

Yeah, they uh usually are mad by the time they they've contacted us, but we have great great people on staff, and uh yeah, we have an awesome team, so everybody's uh helpful and passionate about what we're doing.

So thank you, guys.

Thank you, Rita.

Okay, we will open it up for public comments now.

If you would state your name and your address.

I'm not really comfortable with that.

Well, I mean, we need to know where you live to know what you're talking about.

It may not matter depending on what you're gonna say, but no, that's fine.

We can get it later.

Um my name is Caitlin, and I live near the Etown Community College.

I recently moved there.

I've been there for almost a year, and um there's I live like near the train tracks, and just on the other side of the train tracks is some sort of building.

I don't know what they do besides make a lot of noise.

And um during the snowstorm, it was super quiet.

It was great.

And then once the snowstorm like was done and they started working again, it was obnoxiously loud, and they had this like buzzing noise that was 24 hours for a good two weeks.

Um I could hear it over my TV, and I am not deaf.

So I don't have my TV up too terribly loud.

My husband, on the other hand, he is not the greatest at hearing things.

So he was even like, hey, we have to turn the TV up because I can't hear it because of this buzzing noise.

That's with blinds closed, windows closed, so on and so forth.

Um, and then earlier in the year, last year, I guess towards the end, um, I was very pregnant, and they use I think it's like a recycling center is what I'm complaining about.

I really don't know what it is.

Um, they use something, some sort of chemical that sets off a smell that is very obnoxious.

And I was like eight months pregnant and I was struggling to breathe when I walked outside.

Um my son is now five months old, and as he gets older, I really don't want him smelling that, or I don't know if it will affect him or not, but it's obnoxious.

Like we thought there was a meth lab nearby, so we almost called dispatch.

Um I don't like to call dispatch because I don't like to bother them, so I have yet to do so.

Um, because I don't want to interrupt the police officers doing their normal day-to-day jobs.

I feel like that's interrupting them as a former public safety person.

So I don't know what the thing is on those other side of the train tracks, but it is obnoxious.

And then they now do some sort of work on the weekends on Saturdays, they start early in the morning.

I understand everybody's gotta work.

Like I said, I do public safety, so my job is 24 or 7.

So I understand that, but it is kinda important that they like understand that there's people nearby trying to sleep.

I know that I'm not necessarily the only one that has the issue.

Um, I know it's taken me a while to get here just because like I said, I was very pregnant and I'm still learning the ropes of the town while I still am because I haven't been here a year yet.

So I don't know if we can look into that issue, but it is concerning because like I said, I don't know what the smell is.

I don't know what effect it would have on me or my child.

First of all, congratulations on the new child.

Thank you.

That's a great gift.

I hope you're enjoying.

I know you probably don't have a lot of uh great sleep if you have one that that that's that young.

It's the newborn trenches.

I understand.

And I think I know what business that you're talking about, and I will be glad or we will be glad to get in contact with them to see if they can explain what's putting out the odor that you're talking about.

But this is the first report we've gotten on any of this as far as an odor or any problems.

So uh we'll check into it, see what they say.

I'm sure it's something that is regulated, but I can't promise that until we find out.

So give us a little time.

And if you don't mind, Mrs.

Enman there in the pink, if you would give her your name and phone number and your address.

Okay, uh, we'll check on it and get back with you.

Yeah, I have been told from neighbors that I'm not the only one to complain.

Um, they were I've actually asked them because they'd live there longer, so I've asked them what's going on, and they told me that they've come here multiple times and said something about it.

Um, I will let that individual step up if they want to.

I don't know.

I've like I said, I'm fairly new here, and I was way too pregnant to worry about any of that.

So um well, that's the first I've heard of it.

I don't know if any of y'all have talked to anybody about it, but let us check on it.

Awesome.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Hi good.

Uh Stuts and Smith, Sandy Circle over by the uh, you know, the college, uh, same thing.

Uh last time I came, uh you guys had a plea, uh big police thing and whatnot, so I didn't want to interrupt, kind of drag on the meeting.

I was trying to be somewhat cordial about that.

I talked to you uh specifically about these problems after I talked to him about these problems with the off-gassing, uh, the noise, the shaking of my house from the Maltulsa 2 plant, which is the same thing that she's talking about now.

So this is not the first time the city's heard about this.

This is not the first time I've spoken to people in the city about it.

And last time you looked me in the eye and told me to bring up neighbors because I'm the only one who cares about it.

Um this is not the first time I've brought up the subject.

So it is the first time that I've heard anything about any kind of gas gaseous odor.

Uh what you brought up to me was a train track issue that you wanted the horn stopped.

And you said that's rate of metals was too loud.

I asked for a quiet zone to be put in at that one because the horn was loud, but that was not the only issue that I brought up.

It was far from the one issue that I brought up, and as a matter of fact, I know that the Maltulsa metal metalsa too.

Sorry, I'm a little bit unfamiliar with the name.

Uh, they also were required to put up a sound wall.

And I know that that was in the building permit because again, I've had discussions about this building.

And uh that has also not been erected at any point.

So uh I I have brought up this point to the city before.

I have talked about it.

This is not the first time this issue's been raised.

I've spoken to people in the government about this.

This is not there.

And it's funny, you know.

I come in here and they they're talking about uh waste, environmental stuff and whatnot on the particular day that my neighbor wants to come up here.

Not planned.

This was literally she just finally got tired of it and asked if she could if she could come with me two one because she didn't know where it was and all that stuff.

So like what you've done with the place.

Uh have a good day.

Appreciate it.

And I will tell you we will check on it like I told your wife, and we'll we'll get back with you.

Neighbor?

Okay.

Sorry, I she didn't tell me your last name, so I don't I don't know.

Y'all came in together.

Anybody else?

Okay, city council information items.

Our next meeting will be February 17th, 2026.

And that's all I have.

You all have anything you want to announce or talk about?

Okay.

I just like to uh thank everyone.

My fellow city councilman, the mayor, Jessica.

All the same boys just called me when I was out last week in the hospital.

Uh we live in a great community.

I've been contacted by text and phone calls and letters and cards, and I'm blessed to live in this community.

And I just thankful I can serve this great community and uh great great community we live in.

A tight-neck community, and I just love it.

So thank y'all.

Well, we're glad you're feeling better and on the men for sure.

We're glad to have you back.

We missed you.

Anyone else?

We will not go close meeting pursuant to KRS 61.810 section one.

And we can adjourn now if I can get a motion and a second.

Second.

All in favor?

Opposed?

Seeing none, motion carries.

We are adjourned.