Elizabethtown City Council Work Session – August 10, 2026
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Elizabethtown City Council Work Session – August 10, 2026
The Elizabethtown City Council held a work session on August 10, 2026, to receive updates on capital projects, discuss the Wawa fuel spill response, and consider revisions to the public comment policy. No formal votes were taken, but council provided guidance on several items.
Henry Street Stormwater Project
Rita Davis, Stormwater Director, reported on the Henry Street capital project. The 90% plans are underway, and the city requires 54 easements for the stormwater pipe installation in backyards; 23 have been secured. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is being developed to address property-specific concerns, such as fence removal and pet containment. Council discussed lawn restoration options: paying homeowners a fee per square foot versus city-conducted restoration. Rick Walters, a resident whose property is affected, expressed a preference for city-led restoration. Council indicated support for using sod (rather than seed and straw) and likely separating landscaping as a separate contract, acknowledging that this could increase project costs and require council action on the budget.
Wawa Fuel Spill Incident
James Gray and Rita Davis provided details on a July 20, 2026, fuel spill at the Wawa site. Approximately 1,500 gallons of fuel entered a private catch basin and the site’s underground detention system; no release to public infrastructure occurred. The Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection is overseeing remediation, which will require excavation of the detention basin. The city’s fire department and stormwater staff responded. The mayor explained the city did not issue a press release initially because the spill was contained on private property and posed no public safety threat; an inquiry from the Courier Journal was later addressed. OJ Torres, in public comments, criticized the 20-day delay in public communication, urging the mayor to provide a brief initial statement to maintain public trust.
Project Updates
Jason Pope provided a comprehensive project update via slides. Key highlights:
- American Legion Park: New pavilion with restrooms has replaced port-a-johns; shade structure built by pickleball courts; food court performing well.
- Commerce Drive Extension: Base asphalt laid; entrances and multi-use path ongoing; shared access helped businesses during construction. City will likely request council acceptance of the street into the maintenance system in September, with a recommended speed limit of 35 mph.
- Steel Grove Amphitheater: Parking lots taking shape; main stage erection underway.
- Freeman Lake Park North End: New parking lot and restroom facility (over $1M, mostly grant-funded) will accommodate 85–90 cars.
- Veterans Way Roundabout: Completed; landscaped center island; multi-use path connects to mall and Ring Road.
- Sidewalk improvements: Railroad Avenue project ($500K federal funds), Skyline Drive sidewalks in Glendale Hills, North Main Street sidewalks underway. Future target: Clifford Drive for Helmwood Heights School.
- Traffic Calming: Delineators installed at Meadow Lane and Poplar Drive to narrow travel lanes and improve safety for school children crossing.
Public Comment Policy Revision
Councilman Isaacs raised a concern prompted by a citizen request regarding privacy during public comment. City Attorney Judge Howard presented recommended revisions to the city’s 2020 policy. Changes include:
- Clarifying that signing the attendance sheet is requested for accurate minutes.
- Adding that the presiding officer has discretion over requiring name and address during public comment, especially given live streaming; speakers uneasy with providing an address publicly may submit it in writing to staff.
- Updating language to reflect viewpoint-neutral basis for comments. Council discussed the need to announce live streaming before public comment and to post signs at entrances. The policy will apply to council meetings and other boards/commissions, except where different legal standards apply (e.g., map amendment hearings). Councilmember Jones emphasized that speakers should state their name and residency status. No formal adoption occurred; further refinement is expected.
Public Comments & Testimony
- OJ Torres (city resident): Thanked council for considering the public comment policy revision. However, he expressed strong disappointment that the city took 20 days to publicly address the Wawa fuel spill, arguing that an initial statement from the mayor would have built trust. He also raised concerns about the lack of a cooling shelter for homeless individuals during extreme heat and the broader housing affordability crisis, urging the council to allocate more attention to those needs.
Key Outcomes
- Council directed staff to pursue sod restoration and a separate contract for lawn work on the Henry Street project, with awareness of potential budget impacts.
- The Commerce Drive extension is expected to be presented for acceptance into the city street system in September, with a recommended 35 mph speed limit.
- The public comment policy will be revised based on Judge Howard’s recommendations; council requested further discussion on specifics before final adoption.
- No formal action was taken on any item; all decisions were advisory.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome everyone to Lisbethtown City Council work session for August 10th, 2026. And I would like to ask Councilman Tim Isaacs if he'd lead us an invitation, please. Pray with me. Dear Lord, we thank you for your many blessings as we come together on this beautiful day. We pray for your guidance that we consider the business on the agenda. Help us to focus on what is in the best interest of the city as a whole and not any one individual or small group, including ourselves. Help us to never forget that the opportunity to serve is a gift we should never take for granted. Thank you for respectful discourse and for those who have taken the time from their day to be here in this meeting, both in person and online. Help us to never forget how blessed we are to live in a nation where opinions can be shared openly even when we don't agree with one another. Finally, Lord, protect those that dedicate themselves to protecting us. Keep our first responders safe as they do their work. Be with our educators, Lord, as we begin a new school year. Guide them as they work to help our children grow and mature and see the potential that you have instilled in each one of them. In your name we ask it. Amen. And if you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, please. Yes, sir. Council Member Bishop. President. Here. Isaac's here. Jones. Here. Springsteen. Here. Tyler. Here. Mayor, you have a quorum. Thank you, ma'am, and good afternoon to everyone. We are glad that you are here. We have a few updates that we want to make you aware of. We're gonna start with Rita Davis, who is our stormwater director and does a great job of it. And she's gonna give us a stormwater update on Henry Street. Yeah, so we've been working hard on our Henry Street Capitol project. Uh the project runs from uh West Dixie, thereby back home up to Beach Street. And a lot of this is in the uh backyards of the homes that front North Miles and Henry Street. Um so our consultants, uh engineering consultant, OHM advisors, they are currently working on the 90% plans. So we've gone through the sixty percent review uh process, and we've also done a walkthrough on July 14th. We did a walkthrough to help them um develop the 90% plans. Um we also have a pretty extensive um easement acquisition process that we're going through. Uh we need 54 easements because this is an older part of town. It wasn't platted with the easements in the back, uh, like our current um standards would require. Um so we currently have received about 23 of those 54 easements. Um and we have about five additional property owners that we've made contact with, and um it sounds like they are amenable to uh granting easement if we um work through some uh specific details to their properties. Um to help us um address specific details uh with regards to as many properties as we've got. We've put together a memorandum of understanding uh to kind of accompany the easement document. Um and those that would be um different types of uh property specific accommodations, like um a pet that needs to uh that requires being contained uh you know, in the interim where the fences are removed for the project, um, and and those kind of things. Um so one thing with the MOU uh that we maybe are uh requesting some input on the council from lawn restoration has historically with some of these projects been a difficult um thing to achieve for specific property owners. Um so uh we've we bounced around ideas as far as um having the that can be part of the contractor's responsibility to get that lawn restored to the end or potentially doing a separate contract for a lawn restoration for specific landscaping company to come in and take care of that. Um so yeah, so we are kind of bouncing around some ideas as far as how to handle um we we've there are some pros and cons to both, but bouncing around some ideas as far as how to handle since this is entirely in the back yards of uh uh several homes that uh trying to figure out how best to restore yards, um, especially whenever you've got fences that are being um put back up and that kind of thing, where it would make it difficult to access through yards that have already been restored.
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