Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
This meeting, held on October 5, 2026, at 5:45 PM, featured presentations on the Metro Louisville Landmarks Commission, restaurant health inspection grading, and building permit procedures. Althea Jackson, director of Louisville Metro's boards and commissions, introduced the session.
No formal votes or decisions were recorded. The meeting served as an informational overview.
Hi, I'm Althea Jackson, the director of Louisville Metro's boards and commissions. Today we're gonna learn about one of our many boards and commissions. Hi, my name is Morgan Ward, and I'm chair of the Metro Louisville Landmarks Commission. I'm here with Savannah Darr. Tell us what you do. I'm the historic preservation officer for Louisville Metro, and I am staff to the landmarks commission. It was established in 1973 and of course retweaked in 2003 with merger. It's a 13-member commission with various specialties that focus on historic preservation and preservation of our city's history. Our meetings are open to the public, and we certainly encourage everyone to come and join us and learn more about preservation and history. By ordinance, we have an attorney, that's me. We have an architect, we have a landscape architect, we have a real estate broker, we have business people and other experts from the community, an archaeologist, for example, and we come together and do the best job we can to identify and preserve and protect historic buildings and districts in Metro Louisville. That means they have one or more priority violations. They could have a 98 and still have a C. We do check the boxes of what the violation was. So they could just have one priority violation and still get a C, and they failed their inspection. Food not at safe temperature or cook properly, sanitizing of dishes, hygienic practices, people are not washing their hands or waste disposal sewage toxic items labeled, not demonstrate knowledge of the inspections or food safety, no hot and cold water, insects or rodents. A facility can get a C if they have a score below 85, and they may not have priority violations, but they just have so many of the non-priority violations their score did get below the 85. Now, also a facility might get a C if we had to close them because of an imminent health hazard, such as no electricity, no water, um infestation of insects and rodents, so facilities might have to close and they will get a C placard posted because of that closure. So if they come in and you see a C, um that means the facility does have some problems and we are working with that facility to make the necessary corrections, but they do have to post that C. If they have corrected the violations that we saw on the routine inspection, then they could be eligible to get an A. Now, a facility that fails two routine inspections. Um of course, each of those inspections gives them a C placard. But if they do fail two routine inspections, then we have another placard, which would be the B placard. If you're curious about any restaurant's scores, there is a link on our website available to find that information. Yes, a professional such as an architect or engineer or a property owner can apply for the permit without selecting a contractor. However, the permit won't be issued by our department until a licensed contractor is selected and verified. We can only issue permits to contractors who are licensed or verified property owners. So it's a good idea to have some research before applying for a permit and