Good evening, everyone, and welcome.

Uh, it's always great to see uh kind of a crowded audience out there.

We welcome people to come.

I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order on August 26, 2025, and ask the city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson, please.

Commissioner Smith.

Here.

Commissioner Thomas.

Present.

Commissioner Wilson, present.

Mayor Bray.

Present.

I will ask uh Commissioner Wilson, please, to do the invocation tonight.

We'll remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you on behalf of all of us who are gathered here for the many blessings that we have.

Please be with the family of Steve De Little, who we've lost this week, who is a beloved employee of the city and the county, and who will be missed.

And please continue to be with the family of uh Sergeant Ryan Hudson, who we lost with our Paducah Police Department and with our members of our police department, and look over for the same safety of all of those who uh lives are put in danger every day.

We ask for your guidance as we make decisions on behalf of the city tonight.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the divide of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under Godisable with liberty and justice for all.

Ritter's proposal included a detailed plan for service delivery, including channel lineups, technical specifications, and financial capability.

A map of the proposed service area included in their applications shows that Ritter intends to provide cable service across a broad footprint of the city covering neighborhoods set on the south side, midtown, west end, and downtown Paducah.

This broad service area demonstrates Ritter's commitment to serving a wide cross section of our residents and businesses.

The channel lineup Ritter has proposed includes a full range of broadcast sports, educational, family, and entertainment channels, along with public educational and government access channels that are required under city code.

Ritter is also demonstrated through audited consolidated financials that it has the financial resources to construct, operate, and maintain a cable system in Paducah.

Tonight's public hearing is part of the required process under Chapter 22.

City code requires that a hearing notice be noticed at least 20 days in advance, which has been done.

This purpose of this hearing is to allow members of the public and city commission to ask questions and provide input on the potential cable franchise with Ritter.

The actual ordinance approving the franchise will come before the commission at a future date.

We are shooting at this time for September the second.

If approved, this ordinance would authorize the city to enter into new cable franchise agreement with Ritter, moving them from their telecommunications franchise into a cable franchise framework that allows for expanded services to the community.

With that, I'd answer any questions that I can and open it up to comments.

Commissioners, I have a question.

So does that mean you know, on the existing Paducah power poles, they just add their equipment to it?

Or is there some sort of sharing agreement where uh they pay Comcast a fee for utilizing their infrastructure?

How does that work?

There will be a combination.

Um there will be some things that will um need to run cable underground, some will be attachment agreements.

Um so it it will vary.

Um their footprint is across the whole of the city pretty much, so it's gonna vary widely from part to part depending on what infrastructure is already there.

Um we do encourage people to use existing infrastructure whenever available.

Um but part of the uh reason we do these cable franchises is um so that there is um giving back to the city as far as um what is what they have to do in our right-of-ways.

Um so this would transition them from what they're currently doing under their telecommunications to a cable franchise.

The from my opinion, the competition's great.

The only concern I have is just that all of a sudden we got all these telephone poles in Paducah, which will become much more cluttered.

We've got you know, Paducah Power running fiber, we've got you know a couple other companies running fiber, which will I think for the most part be adding more strands on there, so our uh telephone poles could end up getting pretty crowded, so which is uh aesthetically that's not a good thing, but that is a conversation we had with them previously when they entered into their telecommunications franchise because it would be the same kind of issue.

We sat down with our engineering department and talked to them about that to how we can limit that to as much as possible.

Thank you.

I always I mean, I think that's an excellent excellent points that you made, Commissioner Smith.

And I always wonder how other communities are dealing with this issue.

Uh especially I mean, and I do agree with Commissioner Smith.

I mean, competition's wonderful, you know, and broadband is so important to everybody.

You know, no matter where you live.

I mean, access to broadband.

And a lot of people are dropping cable right now, and I don't I don't know what this means as far as them offering cable TV services, whether they're gonna offer them at a lower price, but it's all good.

It seems like uh, you know, we've gotten we met this company when they first came to town, and they seem to have you know plenty of financial resources you know to compete with Comcast and Paducah Power and other people.

So I think overall it's positive, but um they've had a significant presence here already for quite some time.

Yeah, if you're tonight if we're gonna question or anything that from the public where you've got questions, comments, concerns that we can help with.

Well, that'd be good at answering the question about the polls.

If you want to please come up to the podium, right?

Yeah.

Um, so as far as the poll goes, um, for the attachments that we have, I guess let's backtrack question one.

So we will run all of our own fiber optics, so anything that we are operating with will be our own.

We will, however, be like like Lindsay said, underground as well as aerial where we're going on the poll.

There are um poll loading requirements, so there can only be, like you said, so many providers on there.

Um we have worked really closely with Paducah Power to ensure that we're clear of all their regulations as well as with Jackson Poges and ATT since there is a mixture of polls throughout the city.

We know that we have clearance that we will be able to have the weight.

I can't tell you how many providers are on each poll, but we do know legally we have space to be there.

Okay.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Any other questions?

Sorry, we would have uh offered to have you come up earlier.

I know we were hiding in the back, and I was like, I'm gonna let them finish before I stand up, but I didn't want to interrupt.

Thank you for being here.

Yeah, we appreciate it.

We're excited to be here.

We're officially kicking construction.

We started, gosh, two weeks ago within the city, and so we're officially underway, we've broken ground.

We're looking to turn up services in September.

Um, so we're rapidly approaching our first residential customers.

We've already got business business services here.

That's gone really, really well.

Our initial build um went flawless from our perspective.

Um, due hugely to the credit of Paducah Power.

They've worked with us above and beyond what we could have asked for.

So we've been really fortunate for that partnership, as well as with you guys in McCracken County as well.

So, how are you?

How are you marketing your services as you roll out?

I mean, how are you doing mailers or what what are you a little bit of everything?

So I didn't I didn't even introduce myself, and I'm so sorry.

My name's Katie Hall.

I'm the construction communication manager for Middle Communications.

So my team has already sent out all of our mailers.

So we send out what we call a resident letter as well as a construction postcard.

So anywhere that's going to be touched by our construction footprint will get a mailer that says who we are, what we're doing, and what they can expect.

There's a QR code that links to our website that has a video that takes you step by step through the construction process, so there's not a ton of questions left after that, um, as well as leaves a hotline number, so we have a construction hotline number.

Any concerns, questions, comments, um, any of the above rolls into our hotline that is answered in Jonesboro or Little Rock.

So really close to you guys as well.

Um those go directly to my team.

We have 24 hours to respond to any questions or concerns to the residents directly, and then 10 days uh to resolve any concerns post-construction.

So those have already gone out, so they've at least gotten the name right fiber in front of them, so they kind of have an idea.

From there, as the construction process continues, they get hit with another round of mailers, so those will come directly to the doors as construction's wrapping up.

They also have online marketing as well as events that we attend.

Um we try to stay really plugged in in the communities.

So will you have employees here who can respond immediately and give customer support and not have to wait for how many days to absolutely.

So that's gonna be a multi-step plan.

Um we will have a heavier presence here the further along in the process we get, but as we have customers in service, our INR team, which is install and repair, they have a really impressive response time.

So we have people close enough that if there are any issues with our customers, we can be on site in a relatively quick time frame.

Um I actually have an auditor on my team that's from Mayfield, and he's working on this field in particular, so we do already have a footprint here locally.

Do you know how many people you will end up having being employed and living in Paducah?

I don't know that yet.

Um, like I said, as we continue to grow through this process, we do expect there to be an increasing number.

I don't have that number yet.

I have another question.

Just because I don't know, understand your business or industry really, but you know, for years it was um Comcas Rexfinity was like the only provider we had or pretty much the only provider.

Now when the market becomes more segmented with people cutting the cable, those kind of things, it seems like all of a sudden now we have a lot more competitors coming in with a smaller piece of the pie or smaller market.

So what what's the dynamic that's causing that?

Because for years it was there wasn't any competition, I guess.

Absolutely, and the need for competition is really what's driven it.

So, you know, if you only have one provider here, they can charge you what they're gonna charge you because you can't go without internet.

You have to have it.

And so we really take a look at the communities that we go into and see where the need is.

Um we've been working with Paducah and McCracken County for a while and knew that there was a need for competition here.

Um, and so once we come in, not only are our prices competitive and do we have the best service there is out there, it then will make those companies that are already here have to compete with us.

And so, all in all, whoever you choose is your provider, you're still going to benefit from our process regardless.

What are your prices?

What kind of plans do you have?

So we have several depending on what kind of services you're looking for.

So we have internet only packages.

Um we start at 250 meg, we go up to five gig residential speed.

Um so all of those will be options that will be offered in Paducah in McCracken County.

Um we also, like we mentioned, the whole process of this is for the franchise agreement for us to offer cable television services that can be packaged in with your internet as well, and then we also offer home phone services.

Um so all of those things will range in prices depending on what your package is.

Um, all of that's available on our website, Ratfiber.com has all the prices as soon as you get online.

Um you can plug your address in, it'll tell you how close to being able to get services you are.

Um drives the interest too.

So if it's an area that we don't cover yet, we are we have a large build plan for 2025.

We also have a plan for 2026 already.

Um, so separate areas that are gonna be covered.

The way that we figure out where the need is is people several ways, but one of the ways is people going to our website, plugging in an address, and if we haven't looked there before, but y'all tell us there's a need, we take that into consideration.

So for people who don't understand all of the the uh technical terms when you have something that says fast oh yeah, there's a little uh diagram that will show here, here, here yeah, it'll give you what you need.

We also have an incredible sales team.

That's great for me.

Yes, it gets even above my head.

So, yes, we have an incredible sales team.

Um, if you call in to order service or if you look online, our team will call and explain it in very layman's terms like hey, you got six kids at home and they're all gaming at once, and you just want to be able to watch TV at night.

Maybe five gig packages for you.

They're gonna walk you through what that would mean exactly what you need.

So, what's your lowest price internet package?

Do you know off hand?

I mean, what you start at?

So I don't want to say that out loud because we are across the board the our browsing is the same, but as soon as I say it out loud and it just changed, I don't want to tell you what I did.

Like I said, it is on our website.

Um, and we'll look it up.

Yeah, we have some brochures too that I can leave with you after.

Okay.

Thank you very much for being here.

It's very important.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

I'll make one other note that as part of the agreement that we would enter in with them.

Um, they have committed to provide the peg channels, the public educational and government channels that are currently being provided by the their competitor at the lowest cable package pricing.

Excellent.

Well, as I say, competition makes the world go around.

So okay.

Um Lindsay, do you need officially close the public hearing?

Um, yes, if there's no public comments, then we can officially close the public hearing.

I see them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll move move to the next item.

Uh we've got an update here from uh Alisa Ferrez, who's here um uh representing the convention and visitors bureau.

And um I don't want to say exactly how long Elisa's been in town.

I think it's uh it's it's over a year though, but she's uh you know, really uh taking hold and um driving a lot of new new things at the convention and visitors bureau, and we've all been anxious to hear how things are going and what what you're up to.

Thank you.

Um so hi everybody.

It's about uh a year and almost two months now.

So yeah.

Um, so thank you for letting me come and speak to you today.

I just wanted to give a um brief overall update on what I've been doing, but more specifically what our office has been doing for the last year.

Uh, I think it's important to share that with the community and with the commissioners, um, just to kind of give you a little inside look.

So since last summer, I've really been focusing a lot on um research, you know, finding out who's coming here, um, where they're coming from, what are they doing when they're here, and how can we get more visitors to our community here in Paducah.

Um, we have been fine-tuning our marketing strategy to really get it up to industry standards across all boards, so um, and all departments at the Paducah Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Um, we've also tightened up our messaging, changed it up a little bit as well.

Um, and so I'm really looking forward to seeing those campaigns through an entire year and seeing what a difference we can make here in the community.

So, there we go.

Alright, so first, kind of as a refresher or just um kind of reminder, basically, what the role of the Paducah Convention and Visitors Bureau is in the community.

We are here to market Paducah to visitors.

We are here to provide economic impact on the community.

We're also here to bring in groups and conferences, meetings, bus tour groups, and also to strengthen partnerships within the community across different industries, and then we're also here to promote our cultural heritage here in the community.

Our mission centers on those four key areas in one way or another.

Of course, you all know Paducah is one of only nine U.S.

cities that in the United States that are a UNESCO creative city.

This really elevates our standing.

We're up there amongst our counterparts in Santa Fe, Iowa City, San Antonio, Seattle, Kansas City, Tucson, Detroit, and Austin.

And so really just kind of elevates us to a higher level.

Why is that important?

It validates our national and global cultural relevance.

It also sets us apart from other smaller communities and river cities here, particularly in this part of the United States.

It also tends to drive a higher value of visitor here to Paducah.

So you know, people who are coming to UNESCO Creative Cities, they tend to stay longer, and they also tend to spend more local dollars in the community.

So impact of tourism in Paducah.

The state of Kentucky released their 2024 economic impact numbers in June of this year.

Here specifically, over 537,800 visitors spent the night.

That's not taking into account all of the visitors that are here for day trips.

So I want to make sure I point that number out.

That is just overnight visitors, not total visitors.

Visitor spending exceeded 300 million, specifically, it was 321 million dollars in economic impact in 2024.

Did those 537,000 visitors include Airbnb nights as well?

So these numbers are from the state of Kentucky, and they use tourism economics and they do source information from Air DNA.

And so, yes, it would include short-term rental numbers as well.

Of course, events like Quilt Week generate millions of dollars in economic impact here in the community, but we are looking at the bigger picture, not just at one, you know, one week out of the year.

This, of course, I really like this slide.

Um, it supports local jobs.

So in 2024, total tourism related employment here in McCracken County were over 2,400 jobs, and then 1,800 of those were directly employed in tourism related industry.

Of that, tourism related income.

So thinking of what people are bringing in throughout the year, it was over 71 million dollars.

And so that is earnings from workers that are employed in all of the tourism sectors.

For the sake of this study from the state of Kentucky, there are specific outlined like industry, and so it's hotels and restaurants and retail, and there are a couple of others.

So if you have questions about those specific industries, I would be more than happy to send those to you after here.

So where are people coming from?

This was one of my biggest questions when I first started here.

Where are is everyone coming to Paduca from?

Um, and so we have identified through a visitor profile study some key markets.

And so our visitors to Paducah are primarily coming from Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, and of course, here in the state of Kentucky.

One thing I learned moving here, it can take me seven hours to get somewhere just in my own state now.

So we have visitors that do come from all over the state of Kentucky.

I like to really pinpoint on what cities people are coming from.

And so Chicago, St.

Louis, Nashville, Louisville, and Memphis, also Evansville are very strong metro areas for us here in Paducah.

And so these are the markets that we you we are primarily marketing to leisure travel visitors through our office.

Another thing I really focused on is how are we speaking to our visitors?

And a way to make sure you are speaking to that person that might visit Paducah is to find out a little bit more about them.

And how do you do that?

Through audiences.

And so we have two sets of audiences.

For the purposes of being brief on this, I won't dive into all of the demographics and psychographics of each of them, but we have our opportunity audiences, which are our creative cravers, time travelers, and weekend escape artists.

These are the visitors that are coming to Paducah that are spending more time here, that are going to our attractions, that are going to our cultural assets we have here in the community and are spending more time and more money here.

So this is our opportunity audience.

This is the audience that we really want to speak to and get more of them to come here.

This is also the audience that maybe we've been primarily speaking to through our marketing for a long time.

When you see the next slide, you'll kind of understand why I'm pointing that out.

So we also have these three audiences.

These are our core audiences.

These are our pit stop pass throughs, our rural retail and restaurant goers, and our quick family trips.

These people are coming here, they're not gonna stop coming here, they're gonna keep coming here, but we want them to continue to do that, but maybe experience Paducah in a different way.

These are the people that are going to exit four, these are the people that are going to the mall, they're going to dine out there, they're going to shop out there.

How can I get them to not stop doing that, but maybe experience different parts of Paducah in the future?

And so we look at them in a different way and market to them in a different way.

So we have six different visitor segments.

That's a lot.

And so our job is to figure out how to best speak to these people and be very good stewards, stewards of our budget.

And I think we've done a really good job of that.

So in this last year, we did a big shift in our marketing and focused on digital marketing tactics.

So that includes Google, Google Performance Max, that includes Meta, so Facebook and Instagram.

We dove we have dove a little bit into organic presence on some other social media apps, but primarily our bread and butter is Google Performance Max and then Meta, Facebook, and Instagram.

We also did a couple of targeted billboards in some of those key markets.

One of them you see up here with, of course, Chef Sarah Bradley and the Tastes the Best of Paducah.

We did a really cool campaign in Memphis, Tennessee, during their Memphis in May event.

We have a wonderful culinary scene here, and one of the things we we know through our research is that people who love food also love arts and culture, usually.

And so we targeted Memphis during Memphis in May with a combination of Facebook, Instagram, Google, and a billboard.

Did you have any way of measuring those results?

Yeah, so we can measure those results through impressions, our website, you know, seeing traffic on our website as well.

And then the billboard company does give you an estimate on the numbers of times that your image was seen, and then an estimate on the foot traffic.

And I would be happy to share that with you if you all would like that after.

I can compile anything you want and send it to you, Lindsay, probably in an email.

Okay.

Thank you.

Because it's a lot of numbers and I don't want to make everybody fall asleep.

We did a couple of different campaigns, so Paducah your way.

Again, trying to reiterate that there are so many different ways to experience this community.

And so these are some images of our carousel ads that were on Facebook, and then also some of our static ads that were on Facebook or on Google Performance Maps.

So these really are targeting those specific visitor markets and segments.

We are speaking to them in a way that our research has shown how they receive information.

So images and demographics, what people look like, how old they are, all of that helps fuel some of the creative that we're pushing out.

And you'll see that on Facebook and on Instagram, making sure that we're sharing these events in a timely manner.

That's why it's so important if you have an event going on at your organization that you think would be something a visitor would like to attend.

Please let us know as soon as possible so that we can put that into our calendar and share those events so that people can go to them.

The biggest one you'll see there is I visited this Kentucky River Town.

That was a Midwest Living feature that they re like they would rework that headline to fit different types of stories.

And they kept sharing it and reposting it for about two months.

And so Midwest Living has a large readership online, and so we're really proud of that one.

We also have Eat This Not That Best American Weekender, Evansville Living, and then also Style Blueprint.

All of these were efforts that came from our office proactively pitching stories to these media companies to come get them to Paducah.

So these didn't just I like to make that specification.

They don't just happen.

We have to actively pitch them, and then we have to get them here, and then they write.

Yeah, that's really excellent because I think all of us have seen you know a story about Paducah on social media somewhere, and you wonder where the heck it comes from.

So it's it's good to know that we're out there trying to generate those.

So we attend a couple of media marketplaces a year.

Um I like to equate them to speed dating for media.

You have seven minutes to pitch your community and a story to a media outlet, and then you move on to the next one.

And it's honestly just a relationship building.

Amina does the same thing in group travel, Linda does the same thing with meetings and conferences.

It's all about that relationship that you build with that writer.

And the Midwest Living Writer, he has actually written stories for us for multiple publications.

Another part really big for me was supporting the business community, supporting the chamber, supporting economic development, supporting the city, trying to ingrain myself in tourism in the state of Kentucky and in this community, making sure we're talking about what our office does, like the breakfast, and just kind of making sure we're speaking and getting out there in the community and letting people know what our office does.

That's really important to me, and I think to my entire team.

Their primary role is for groups, meetings, conferences, reunions, weddings, all of that.

They each have their own roles within the department, but ideally their goal is to get groups to come here, spend the night, have meetings, visit our attractions, and experience Paducah.

They do it all through our office, coordinating logistics for transportation, hotels, meals, etc.

All of that comes from just two people in our office for a large number of events.

And then again, they're continuing to build those relationships.

Once you make friends with one tour operator, they might tell their friend that they had a great experience here in Paducah, and then you just keep booking business that way.

That's my background, and so very relatable to that in the office, and it's really important that we continue to do that work.

And then I would be remiss if I forgot our visitor services team.

So these are the people when you walk in and you come to our office and you see April or Karen at the front desk.

They are typically the first people outside of the ambassadors downtown that are welcoming our guests to the community.

Oftentimes they're the people that are welcoming future residents.

We just had a woman yesterday who came in, they met here.

She's from Chicago, her sister's from Tennessee, they met in Paducah, and the woman from Chicago said she was ready to move here.

And so I like to make that distinction because sometimes we don't connect those dots to visitors and then residents and then people owning businesses, and and it's kind of a cycle.

And so they help with personalized assistance on places to go, things to do.

They also just keep us functioning as an office as well.

And so if you do have family coming in town, you're not sure where to send them, send them to our office because we can help help them find an experience here in Paducah that they would enjoy.

We also produce a lot of collateral material from our office.

I honestly have a love-hate relationship with printed materials, but we um we have a lot of these materials in office tangible, printed, they're also available online.

And the reason I make that distinction is because if you are used to having something tangible, we've got it for you, or if you have someone who's tech savvy, we've also got something for them.

We have our creative city companions, outdoor guides, um, arts guides, and then a litany of other things.

So please let us know if there's something that you need for someone coming into the community.

Then we have our events hub.

I was just talking about this with a business owner yesterday.

Um this is our most visited page outside of our home page on our website by both visitors and locals alike.

And so this is where we have events.

We have a tool that feeds these events in.

But if you have an event going on in the community that you think is visitor related, please just send it to our team and they'll talk through it, see if it meets the criteria, and then put it up on our website.

This goes back to that sort of cycle that I talked about being the first, you know, maybe person that somebody sees.

It's that tourism creates a positive cycle within our community.

It's visitors can become workers, workers become residents, residents start businesses, and then businesses attract more visitors.

And so there's more to that quote.

It's very long.

I'm not gonna say it here, but it really resonated with me early on in my career and in thinking about where tourism fits into the past.

And I like that a lot.

Circle of life.

Yes, it is.

Uh so what are we doing to support Paducah's growth forward?

I really think that we are a place where creativity flows.

Community is clearly growing here.

I see story after story of positive things.

Of course, no community is going to always have everything, you know, at the same at one time, but I I see a very strong foundation here, and we continue to grow.

And I think that our office plays a really key role in that part.

We're gonna continue to make sure our visitors feel a part of the community when they're here and build on our UNESCO distinction and then also our economic vibrancy here.

So, how can you help?

Just spread the word.

If you have questions for what we're doing, please don't hesitate to ask me.

Um, together, we're just going to keep moving Paducah forward.

So that's it.

Any questions?

A few slides back, you talked about 2,000 some odd jobs and 1800 direct employment.

Yes.

Explain the is that are those all temporary jobs?

Or I mean, how does it knew somebody was gonna ask this question?

So I can give you some of that information.

What the state of Kentucky provides us is a very distilled look at jobs.

However, um, what my historical understanding of those numbers is that that 1800 number is like direct employment, and then the 2400 is indirect.

And how I think of that is hopefully I don't butcher this explanation, but you have a hotel um manager, right?

That's direct.

And then that hotel manager to in order to do their job, they need to dress a certain way, and so they take their clothes to the dry cleaner to get their clothes dry cleaned all the time.

It's not an exact, but that's kind of what it is.

It's there's direct employment and then there's indirect, and there's those jobs that are impacted by the people that are in direct hospitality roles.

Percentage of part-time seasonal versus full-time.

I don't have that number for you.

I can see if I can get that for you, though.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

Commissioners.

Anything else?

Thank you, Elisa.

I know you've been drinking from the fire hose ever since you came on here, but uh it's clear that you're making an impact and your team, uh, Mina, thank you for being here tonight.

It's great to uh to see your team up there, and it's we're dividing and conquering tonight.

There are a couple different events going on, and so um I yeah, this is the entire CVB team.

So it's myself, Fowler Black, Liz Hammonds, Linda Peter Jones Peters Jones, Haley Caronigan.

I cannot pronounce their last name, but um and Hannah.

Haley and Hannah are our sisters.

Um April Roper, Amina Watkins, and then Karen.

Um, and so I have a great team.

I'm so lucky.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

And thank you for being here.

Oh well, well, thank you, Alyssa.

Okay, the next presentation.

Um, a couple years ago, it's a human rights commission.

And uh we named um Robert Hernandez as chairman, and Robert's done a great job of getting out in the community and organizing events, and so we invited him tonight uh to give us an update on human rights commission, how things are going.

Welcome, Robert.

What else thought this?

Thank you for this time, uh Commissioners, Mayor, City Manager, appreciate it very much.

Yeah, um, I was thinking that myself, Mayor, that uh we're in our third year now, but in that time we've really been busy with events, participation and supportive events, and I'm really proud of the fact that we've been doing such a good job of getting out to the community, let them know that we're here, we're prepared to help, and uh we've got the the people to do the work that does need to be done.

So we have several commissioners present here, so please rise and be recognized.

Um this is Commissioner Durley next to me.

Um human rights uh the uh human resources coordinator, Daisha Johnson.

She's uh extremely helpful with us, um vital part of what we do, and Director Wilcox.

As a matter of fact, Director Wilcox was just um helpful in providing us direction in our strategic planning uh session, and you'll be getting a complete report on that as to what we're gonna be do for the next fiscal for this fiscal year.

Um but related to tonight, but before I do that, um I really wanted to commend the city leadership uh in light of um all that's happening in this community, your present, uh your vocal, you're uh attending, whether it's a parade or a town meeting or a funeral, you people are there, and uh, want to thank you.

Um but tonight uh I'm gonna turn it over to uh Commissioner Gurley who will explain the details of uh our video.

Good evening, everyone.

Um so the Paduca City Um Human Resource or Human Rights Commission determined that we have two main tenants.

We have education and visibility, and through those tenants, we were doing different activities such as our fairness and justice meeting that we host every year, also our um fair housing luncheon that we host every year.

However, we wanted to expand that.

So we worked this earlier this year and collaborated with Gorilla Marketing to create a digital video that we are going to be able to share not only on the city website, but we're going to work to share with other aspects of the community, and I'll get more into that in a moment.

Um but we feel that this is very important because as we want to educate the community on the human resources or the human rights um commission.

We are only a small group that can only do so many events, so this will really widen and expand our footprint, which is also important for the city when you're looking at other businesses coming in or residents, they look for places that have human rights.

So it's um also a very good thing for this community to have this.

Um so without further ado, we'll we'll bring up the video that has been created.

The Paducah Human Rights Commission's mission is simple.

Sorry, let me try that one more time.

Paducah Human Rights Commission's mission is simple to ensure that everyone in our community is treated fairly and with respect.

Whether you're a Paducah resident, a business owner, a landlord, or a city official, we're here to be a resource you can face various or believe your rights and then violated.

We're here to listen, provide support and point you to the resources that produce the resolution.

Let's work together to make the new place where everyone feels valued and respect.

So, with our work with Gorilla Marketing, our goal was to first educate the community through this video to let them know that we are here.

We did that through providing a a narrative of what we wanted to accomplish, and they produced this video and then we added some other ideas and collaborated with them to come up with the final product.

Um we have already um shared this with Kelly Chanel of CEO of the United Way, and she is extending that to all of the nonprofit agencies because we will expand our reach through through their presence in the community as they serve a large vast of our community.

We're also going to be working with um Cinemark, Maiden Alley, and other venues to have that posted on there as well and working on that collaboration.

So looking forward to having this continue to spread the word of human rights within Paducah.

And thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Charles.

Any questions or comments from commissioners?

Appreciate your service.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just want to say that I'm proud of the work that you guys have done, uh, guys and ladies.

Uh, and you've been you've taken your job very seriously, and I think the job that you've done uh and you continue to do on a day-to-day basis really defines us as a community, as a progressive community that you know values human rights, and uh and so you're a real uh real asset to our community.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay, uh we have one person here tonight that wants to make uh public comments and uh without reading the whole um the whole spiel here, Mr.

Davison.

Are you here?

So just give you three minutes and uh we appreciate you being here.

I didn't write anything.

Uh my name is CJ Davison.

I own uh two businesses here in Paducah.

I have uh several employees that live in the city of Paducah.

Uh on the agenda tonight.

You guys are going to be talking about limiting or curfewing the uh call sales.

I know that's part of understand why of some of the events that's happened.

Um I own Johnson Bar downtown and on KCs.

Um I'm very proud of both places.

We don't have a lot of issues.

We've never had a lot of issues.

Uh I think it's because we've put the right things in place.

Uh, we set the tone right up front of what needs to happen at those places.

Um that can't be an adult, you're not allowed there.

That's the uh that's my rule.

It's the only rule I got.

So um I think that before anything is put in place to limit the time that I can stay open and serve drinks, that there needs to be a lot, you know, maybe make some kind of commission or something that put together that go visit these places at two o'clock in the morning or one o'clock in the morning.

You guys go visit them.

I have I welcome you with open arms.

I'm busy.

You take that time away from me.

You're taking money out of not just my pocket but 24 other people's pocket that work for me at both places.

That's not fair to them.

They do their job.

I put everything I have in place.

I mean, I've got ID scanners, I've got anything and everything I can do to make sure that every place that I have is safe.

My employees are safe, the public is safe.

Um I realize that I may be the only one that does that, but maybe there needs to be something put in place that everyone should do that.

Um I'd be happy to help with that.

I'd be happy to do anything I can do to make sure that I'm allowed to stay open for the time that I'm allowed to stay open, and that my employees can make the money that they desperately need in the times that we're in.

Um I don't think it's fair to limit what I can do.

It's my money.

I'm the one that invested, you know.

I'm the one that's dead up to my boss just so I can provide a service to the community.

Um, you know, I was listening to the the visitors bureau.

You know, a big part of people coming here is the nightlife.

I think that is a I think that needs to be considered.

Uh people wanting to stay here that come from these bigger cities, they're used to having a nightlife that they can be out till one, two, three o'clock in the morning.

And you know, if you guys limit that, that could hurt people wanting to come here, that could hurt people wanting to stay here.

So I just ask that uh before anything is set in stone to where you guys decide to do that that you talk to some of us that are out here that are actually on the front lines.

I like to call them and get our opinions and see what we can do to help.

That's all I asked.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you very much for your comments.

Okay, we're gonna move to the consent agenda.

Uh items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the Board of Commissioners and will be enacted by one motion and one vote.

There'll be no separate discussion of these items unless the board members so request, in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately.

The city clerk will now read the items recommended for approval unless a commissioner has an item that they'd like removed.

So city clerk.

Approved minutes for the August 12th, 2025 Board of Commissioners meeting.

Receive and file documents, reappointment of Buzz Vontesmarn and Albert Parker, and appointment of Edward Healy to the municipal housing commission to replace to replace Edward Narozniak, who resigned.

These terms shall expire August 26, 2029 and July 22nd, 2027, respectively.

Appointment of Jody Cybers to the Paducah Markhaken County Riverport Authority to replace Jeff Holland.

This term shall commence on October 1st, 2025 and expire September 26, 2026.

Personnel actions.

A municipal order accepting the bid of MERTCO Incorporated in the amount of 88,225 for repairs to the pump outlines for the Transient Boat Dock and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to SAME.

A municipal order repealing and replacing the schedule of fees and charges for solid waste pickup pursuant to the solid waste ordinance, Chapter 94, Solid Waste, and Chapter 42 Environment of the Code of Ords of the City of Paducah, Kentucky.

I mean it's the order authorizing the engineering department to partner with the purchase area development district to submit an application for a community infrastructure fund grant and the amount of two million dollars from the Delta Regional Authority for the Branch Stormwater Project and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents relating to the application.

Resolution appointing Hope Reasons as the designee to administer the 2025 DRA award on behalf of the City of Paducah.

I municipal order approving and authorizing the mayor to execute a deed of conveyance, permanent right-of-way easement fee consideration, and all other documents necessary with Stephen and Dolores Savinski to acquire a portion of the permit right-of-the-asement at no cost to the city of municipal order approving and authorizing the mayor to execute a D of conveyance, permanent right-of-way easement fee consideration and all other documents necessary with wagon releasing LTD to acquire a portion of permanent right-of-year easement at no cost to the city.

The municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute contract modification number one with Tesco solutions for the rewire of data cabling in City Hall.

So moved.

Second.

Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson.

Aye.

Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas.

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson.

Aye.

Mayor Bray.

Aye.

We have one municipal order to approve tonight, and I'll ask the city clerk to read it.

And then we have a guest here.

We'll talk a little bit about it.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled, a municipal order approving a funding agreement with the Paducah McCracken County River Port and an amount of 150,000 to partially fund the match of small project ports grant through the Port Infrastructure Development Program for the Bulkyard Revalidization and Expansion Project and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to SAIN.

So move.

Second.

Jim, would you like to come up and tell us about your request?

Yeah.

So good evening.

I'm Jimmy Garrett.

I'm the executive director of Paducah McCracken County Riverport.

This evening we've got some board members with us as well.

We got four board members from Marquette.

We've got Ashley Johnson, Menez uh Hutchins, who's the chair of the board, and the outgoing Jeff Holland is here with us this evening as well.

So uh to give you an overview of the river port, and we'll just get started here and take a look.

Um, give you a little bit of uh overview for what goes on at the riverport.

So what I wanted to at least introduce the group to and make sure that everybody has a good feel for what's going on down at the riverport.

Sometimes I think it's a quiet part of what goes on within the city, but overall looking at the production for 2025, we we've moved nearly 500,000 tons of construction material, mainly construction material, sand and rock for the construction here in Paducah and McCracken County.

Also, we move fertilizer for the agricultural community and the surrounding counties, and we also move some other specialty products on a daily basis.

All that product is brought in by river, so we bring it off of barges, and then all of it is trucked out to the locations to give you a feel for what goes on at the bulkyard.

Taking a look at the cargo yard, how many of you know where the big blue crane is?

Um that's kind of an identifier for the rock for the river port is the big blue crane.

We do use the blue the big blue crane on a regular basis.

This year, uh we offloaded 10,000 three hundred and thirty-nine super sacks, we call them.

Uh that product in particular is brought in to support a plant down in Graves County that makes bricks for the steel industry.

So overall, it supports the U.S.

economy on a much broader perspective.

Uh but we bring in all the raw product to make those bricks to support the steel industry.

We also bring in carbon and graphite as well.

And then the last thing on this slide here that shows is TAM International.

Uh TAM International, as you know, is a three PL who move uh the radioactive materials, particularly from Honeywell, uh, really worldwide.

And so we do all the work preparing the cylinders to be shipped here either domestically or being shipped overseas.

So all that work is done at the riverport uh with that radioactive material.

So give you a look at the budget for 2026.

I know me and the mayor have had several conversations about the river port being financially supportive, self-supporting, and not needing to come to the city and county for additional funds.

And that's one of the things we worked on myself and the board for 2026 is making the board the Riverport self-sufficient.

And when you look at it, you look at the bottom line, it's not a profit center, but it's a break-even.

Is the way I look at it is we're looking at it from a balanced budget, and that balanced budget includes everything.

I think in the past, you know, one of the things is from a grant standpoint, and we're talking about a grant on the rev resolution that you all just approved, is we get grants and you say, okay, where's those matching funds come from?

So one of the things that we elected to do this year is the grants that we already know we have for 2026, those matching funds are built into this budget.

So not to have that need to come to the city and county in the future and say, hey, we got a grant, but we need this additional funding.

We've put the funds into this budget.

The other thing that we put into this budget is enough money to support the debt for the Riverport so that we're paying that debt ourselves with the revenue that we're bringing in.

So overall, when you look at this budget, it's a balanced budget.

It's basically a break-even, 4,500 isn't a lot of money, but the thing is it's a self-sufficient budget that doesn't require us to come back to you all or the county for financial support.

So taking a look a little bit at the customer base, I thought this was important that you all see the customer base to know what kind of customers come through the Riverport and that the city and county support by supporting the Riverport.

A pine bluff being the largest, that's being rock and gravel that supports the construction jobs in here.

I know there was a study done that the construction supports about 600 additional jobs in the McCracken County Paducah area related to the sand and gravel that we provide.

TAM International, as I just mentioned, moves the cylinders through Southern FS, a fertilizer company, we supply about 50,000 tons of fertilizer to really probably the surrounding three or four counties is as far out as that fertilizer goes.

And then PRCO is a company in Graves County that we move the super sacks for to make the bricks that I just mentioned.

So take a look at the grant funding.

So one of the things I think is important for both the city and county to see is what's been going on in Riverport over the last five years.

So over the last five years, there's been just around $6.6 million of grant money put into the infrastructure of the Riverport.

And so when you look at this chart overall, you can see where that grant funding came from, 5.6 million of it came from both federal and state grants.

So we've had two federal grants and two state grants.

So total about 765,000 was the matching funds required for the PIDP grant.

So I'll show you what's been going on.

So I thought I'd bring some pictures so you can see what's going on.

This is a warehouse that's on the corner.

To me, it's kind of the cornerstone of the riverport overall.

We completely refurbished that.

That was actually under a federal grant, DRA grant, refurbished that.

This is a fertile, this particular warehouse is one of two warehouses that we use to keep PRCO super sacks in.

So today this generates about 100,000 a year in revenue back to us at the Riverport.

Taking a look at the PIDP, so specifically the 150,000 that you voted on tonight is in relationship to this PIDP grant.

So originally this grant was about 3.8 million.

Overall, after all seven projects, which one of them are still underway at this point in time, we ended up coming in at $4,082,000.

So we ended up $264,000 over budget, which really only represents about 6.9%.

So when you look at it overall and compare it to other grants, I might compare it to the Kentucky Dam project that the other day was reported as 457% over budget at the Kentucky Lock and Dam project.

So one of the things is I personally I don't think 6.9 is bad when you compare it to what's going on at Kentucky Lock and Dam.

So I think overall, a Tim Cahill, who is my predecessor and myself have done a good job managing this PIDP grant to stay within the realm of where we need to hit for a target.

Here's a couple pictures from it.

Overall, these are two new radial stackers.

We actually got three new radio stackers.

I can tell you how well these have benefited us.

So you know, you always ask the question, you know, what's the useful life of anything?

You know, equipment that you all buy for the city, you know, what's that what's that useful life?

Well, I can tell you this when they took down the first radial stacker to replace it with a new one, it bent in half and collapsed to the ground.

So the way I look at it is we got every useful day possible out of that radial stacker.

Uh, and so we changed it out on the perfect day.

Um, and so we got three new radio stackers, which are very beneficial, and these will also help us maintain our cost.

The board will tell you that between myself and Tim Cahill, we were always reporting how much money we were spending on maintenance on conveyors.

So this makes up probably about 30 to 40 percent of all the conveyors that we have on the property, so they'll new, so we're hoping to see that maintenance cost go down.

So it's one of the benefits.

Um got new domes.

Some of you may remember the domes were destroyed in a in a storm event.

Uh we did get those replaced as part of this PIDP grant.

We do use them on a daily basis.

We move pet coke through them.

So both of these domes generally have between one and two barge loads of pet coke in them on a daily basis.

So another uh well-spent grant money.

Um taking a look, this is a new concrete pad.

So this is the next, this is really looking at the future of the riverport of what we can look at next.

One of the things is um some customers will look for what we call clean storage.

It's a product that can be stored outside, but you don't want it contaminated with rock or sand or anything else on the ground.

So this is an area that was developed as part of this PIDP grant as well.

It's about the size of a football field, just to give you a little bit of a perspective.

We can probably keep about 10,000 tons of material on this new uh concrete pad.

Looking at the future, so what's the future of the riverport?

So this is a future list of projects, um, some of which we already have funded.

When I look down this list, uh the marine sales were refurbing all the the uh river cells, there's nine of them.

We're doing that under a Kentucky State grant.

So we've gotten that money for the Kentucky State grant.

We're putting in new fertilizer conveyors, so it's another key for us.

Uh I can tell you those conveyors have really reached the end of their useful life as well.

Uh we've already secured the money to do that.

Uh is another one.

We've got a new mobile crane coming.

We opened a bid on that on Friday.

That's another Kentucky State grant.

So several of these projects down through here, we've already gotten funded, or we think we can get them funded in the next two fiscal years.

So just gives you a little bit of perspective on what we're doing to continue to grow and enhance the infrastructure at the Riverport.

Jim, where do you think the funding will come for for those you think that'll come federally?

I think a lot of this funding right here will come from the state.

From the state.

You know, we originally got 1.5 million in fiscal year 25 and 26.

Um there is some work being done to increase that asked for 27 and 28 up to 3 million.

So the projects that I submitted for that 3 million really would knock down the majority of this list right here.

Um, and I think the river port would be in pretty good shape by the end of 2028 if we were to secure those funds.

Okay.

So I wanted to give you a little view of Riverport West.

You know, you hear about Riverport West, it goes in conjunction with the triple rail site.

And so I thought I'd just take a minute and show you a little bit.

This is the latest design of the uh rail at Riverport West, and then this next picture is a depletion of what the dock itself would look like.

Uh so this is what the dock would look like, and then the rail would come in behind it, and it would also have a heavy haul road.

So we'll have all three modes of transportation, rail, river, and road, uh, to support whatever kind of industry may come in on the triple rail site or other opportunities.

One of the opportunities that we're looking at, myself and the Nesmet with TAMS International, um, they're very interested in shipping the cylinders by rail.

So they like this opportunity out at Riverport West that they could bring the cylinders in there, and instead of trucking them all over the United States, you could put them on rail and send it by rail, and it let in that way it's got less public uh risk by being out on the roads.

So right now, the Riverport West, just give you a little update on that budget.

Uh, you may remember originally it was $3.5 million allocated uh for the environmental study and the engineering.

As of this state, we've uh still got 2.1 of that left, so we've spent about 1.3 uh so far, and it's been done on the engineering and an environmental side.

Any questions on the Riverport West?

Well, I'm not sure.

Yeah, I was gonna say go ahead.

No, that's all.

So there is rail downtown, or is there?

Well, so there is.

So originally the Riverport was built with rail.

Um, some of you may remember there was a flood, I think over on Urban Cobb some years back that washed the rail rail out, the PL rail line that fed that, and that line was never re-established.

Okay, and uh I have met with Tom Green, you know, before and said, okay, what's that look like for the future?

I think it would take a significant customer at the current riverport to economically put that rail back in place.

Mayor, did you have a question?

Yeah, I was just gonna say I'm not sure all the commissioners really understand uh sort of the history behind Riverport West, and uh the grant is for design, right?

Yeah, it's for all the environmental assessment and 90 percent of the design completion.

Uh-huh.

And as you can correct me if I'm wrong on that, I think that's correct.

And then to build it, uh we'd be looking for another grant, or I mean there's significantly.

So, what's the timeline on finishing all the environmental and 90% design?

Really, we should be done this fall.

Um the environmental is almost done.

Um, really, right now they're looking at a couple things.

Uh wetland mitigation is one of them.

Uh, two is with the U.S.

Coast Guard and the Corps of Engineer on the navigation, uh, because you've got to navigate through the the uh CNN railroad bridge right there, so that's another key.

And then the last thing really the design is pretty close to finished.

Uh we have a regular uh meeting with BFW, usually every two weeks or every month, and most of all the design is done up to that 90 percent mark.

Any other questions on Riverport West?

So one thing I want to talk about is a foreign trade zone.

Mayor took the time, which I appreciate, uh, to come down.

So the foreign trade zone had been in place at the riverport for about 10 years.

It had been unused, and then uh President Trump did a lot of tariff work, and that was good for us.

Not everybody likes tariffs, but we like them at the riverport.

Uh it opened up a new door for us.

It opened up a new door at the Riverport.

Uh, we were a lot we were able to get our first customer into the FTZ this July, uh, started actually on July 1st.

Uh it's PRCO, those materials that we're bringing in for brick making down in Graves County.

Uh they come in from overseas, they come all the way to the riverport, uh, and no tariffs are paid on them.

No duties or tariffs are paid on those.

Currently, they're stored in the warehouse until they need that material to make a brick, they don't have to pay those duties.

Now, when they leave the warehouse and go to Graves County, the duties have to be paid before we'll release them from the warehouse.

But you know, just to give you an example, if you're not familiar with the FTZs, a barge load of material of that type is about a million dollars worth of duties, would be the example of what that would cost.

So if you're not using that material for 12 months, you can keep your million dollars in the bank for 12 months, gain interest on it.

And then two is when you do produce whatever product you're producing, when you sell it out the door, you're recovering that back.

So think about the advantage of that versus paying it day one at the port of LA, and it's setting over here in Paducah in the warehouse for 12 months, and you've already put your million dollars out.

So that's how the FTZ works.

And so one of the things is I included a list here.

There's a number of meetings that we've had in the last 60 days.

Um, Eddyville Port, they they're building a new warehouse out there, they want to make it an FTZ.

Um there's several companies on here in McCracken County, Graves County, Callaway County, and we've also had meetings with uh Crittenden County, Line County, uh Marshall County, and uh Caldwell County.

So we've got the right to grant others an FTZ, what's known as a subzone?

They become subzone operators, and so they have to come through the Riverport because we have the grantee license for Western Kentucky.

And so right now we're meeting with another a number of customers.

Matter of fact, I I've got an email to meet with uh Drake Lighting out here at the uh at the park here later this week, they want to talk about the FTZ.

So since it got started, since we broke the ice on July 1st, it's opened up a lot of doors.

Great news.

So any questions?

Yes.

So this 150,000 goes toward uh grant match.

And is it's the county providing that as well, or has that any other entities, the city, county, yeah.

Let's go back and just take a quick look at that.

I think I can so where that comes right here.

Um is so right now you guys will have 250 apiece.

So originally when the PID started, both the city and county put in 100.

And then some of our uh clients put in another 140,000, and then the river port itself put in 122,000.

Okay.

So the 150 that you all gave us for match as well as the county will help finish that out and get us up to that 765,000 uh for the match and the overish portion of the project I mentioned earlier at 264.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Any other questions.

So I just want to say um, you know, that as Jimmy mentioned, you know, he and I have had several conversations about uh financial support and and first of all, I want to say that how important uh we believe that the river port is to the community, the river city and county.

Uh it goes back uh a long time.

It's really an it's a recognized economic driver, you know, for our community, especially being a river town like we are.

Riverport West is a wonderful opportunity for us to help promote the triple rail side going forward.

So we've had the good fortune.

In fact, uh in my first election when I first decided I was gonna run.

I started meeting with people around the community, and one of the first places I went was to the river port, you know, just to try to understand the operations better.

And uh so we do recognize it as an economic driver.

And uh we've had the good fortune of you know, first Tim and now you uh you know, managing uh the river port, so the community is um you know we're fortunate uh to have your experience and management expertise out there, and also a strong board, which we really appreciate the board members being here tonight as well.

So we appreciate everything you're doing.

All right, well, mayor, we appreciate we appreciate the uh commission.

We appreciate everything you all do and the support, like I said, we we're using the money wisely.

We're putting it back into the infrastructure and benefiting the community overall.

And you know, just two weeks ago, just so you all know we used the blue crane with CJ Mayhan came up, all the piping they're using down on the riverfront.

Uh we were able to load that on barges for them.

So instrumental in helping on that project as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Okay, I would ask the city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson, aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson?

Aye.

Mayor Bray.

Aye.

Good to go.

Okay, we have five ordinances to adopt tonight.

Um so these are ordinances that have all been uh read uh two weeks ago.

And so we'll pause briefly to see if anybody has any questions, but we'll ask the city clerk to kick off with the first one.

A proposed motion that the board of commissioners adopt an ordinance entitled, an ordinance extending the boundary of the city of Paducah, Kentucky by annexing certain property lying adjacent to the corporate limits of the city of Paducah and accurately defining the boundary of said property to be included within the said corporate limits.

This ordinance is summarized as follows.

The City of Paducah hereby approves the consensual annexation of certain tracts of property contiguous to the present city limits, located at 1541 Olivet Church Road and 6615 Landville Road, containing approximately 2.57 acres.

So moved.

Second.

Any questions or comments?

I would ask the city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson?

Aye.

Mayor Bray.

Aye.

Go ahead and read read the second one, City Clerk.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled and ordinance amending ordinance number 2024-06-8815 entitled an ordinance adopting the city of Paducah, Kentucky Annual Operating Budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2024 through June 30th, 2025, but estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the operation of city government.

This ordinance is summarized as follows that the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2024 and ending June 30th, 2025 as adopted by the ordinance number 2024-06-8815 be amended by the following reappropriations.

Transfer $5,300 from the insurance fund balance to the fiscal year 2025 deductible accounts and transfer 200,000 dollars from the health insurance funds fund balance to the fiscal year 2025 health insurance claims account.

So moved.

Second.

Any questions on this one?

This was the increased insurance cost due to due to some experience.

So go ahead and call roll, please.

Commissioner Henderson.

Aye.

Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson?

Aye.

Mayor Bray.

Aye.

Okay.

Read the third one, please.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled and ordinance amending ordinance number 2025-06-8847 entitled and ordinance adopting the City of Paducah, Kentucky annual operating budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 by estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the operation of city government and authorizing the payment in the amount of $643,446.89 cents for the purchase of a sidearm and knuckle boom for the public works department.

This ordinance is summarized as follows that the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026 as adopted by ordinance number 2025-06-8847 be amended by the following reappropriations to transfer $643,446.89 cents from the Solid Waste Fund Fund Balance into Solid Waste Vehicles Account Number 5,000 2209, 5450.

Further, the city is authorized to make payment to Stringfellow for the purchase of one Pac-Mac Knuckle Boom at 229,337 and one DRAPAC sidearm at 414,109.89 cents from the Source Well Cooperative Purchasing Contract for use by the Public Works Refuse Division.

So move.

Second.

Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson.

Aye.

Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas.

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson.

Aye.

Mayor Bray.

Aye.

Okay, we have uh two ordinances to read about the changes that we've had in uh that we're that we're going to have in um in our solid waste pickup and recycling and yard waste, and we've talked about that uh a number of times.

So I'll invite the city clerk to read the first one.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled an ordinance amending chapter 42 environment section 49, solid waste of the code of ordinances of the city of Padook and Kentucky.

This ordinance is summarized as follows.

This ordinance amends chapter 42 of environment section 49 to reflect the service enhancements to the solid waste division related to recycling, brush pickup, and future bulk item changes.

So moved.

Second.

Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson.

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson?

Aye.

Mayor Bray.

Aye.

And read the final ordinance, please.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled and ordinance amending chapter 94, solid waste of the code of ordinances at the City of Paducah, Kentucky.

This ordinance is summarized as follows.

This ordinance amends chapter 94 to reflect the service enhancements to the solid waste division related to recycling, brush pickup, and future bulk item changes.

So move.

Second.

Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson.

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson?

Aye.

Mayor Bray.

Aye.

Okay, we have one ordinance to introduce tonight, and I'll ask the city clerk to read it and then ask Audra Kyle to tell us about it.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to introduce an ordinance entitled and ordinance amending chapter 106 taxation of the code of ordinances of the City of Paducah, Kentucky.

This ordinance is summarized as follows.

This ordinance amends section 106-101 of the City of Paducah Code of Ordinances by replacing the long-standing 3.5 million gross receipts threshold with a phased-in schedule that increases the threshold to $11.65 million over five years beginning January 1, 2026, starting in year six.

The threshold will be adjusted annually based on changes in the consumer price index, CPIU South, rounded to the nearest $10,000 with authority for the City Commission to forego adjustments in any year of its choosing.

In addition, this ordinance increases the minimum annual license tax from $35 to $50.

So moved.

Second.

Audra.

Good evening.

Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager, City Clerk.

Well, she pulls.

Oh well, she gets that pulled up.

I just wanted to thank you, Commissioner Wilson, for um remembering Mr.

Doolittle and Sergeant Hudson tonight invocations.

Been a rough couple of weeks around here, and I really appreciate you lifting up their families and co-workers in in prayer tonight.

We're really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Um the city's finance department has been charged with executing the commission's priority of revenue equity, and we've made some great strides in identifying and collecting on delinquent accounts and non-reporting business entities.

Those efforts continue to move forward, but tonight we want to address revenue equity from a different perspective, and that is the stagnant growth of the business license fee and how to bring this particular revenue into alignment with current the current day economic activity that it's generated from.

So there it goes.

The first slide uh here shows 30 years of history for the city's top four general fund revenue uh general fund revenues.

So payroll is shown in that dark payroll withholding is shown in that dark blue line that has had steady growth over this period, increasing from $7.27 million in 1995 to a projected 20.3 million in 2025.

Since both payroll tax and business license are directly tied to economic activity, one would expect the business license revenue to follow that same trend of growth.

However, business license on this chart is represented by the red line, and you can see that it's relatively flat in comparison to the payroll tax, and this disparity is what we're here to discuss tonight.

So before we get into the adjustments that we'd like to make, I want to explain the current fee schedule to make sure that everyone understands.

Business license fees are based on gross receipts.

Each business category is assigned a rate.

License fees are calculated by multiplying that rate times gross receipts.

Currently, all gross receipts up to $3.5 million are assessed at the category rate, and gross receipts above the $3.5 million across all business categories are assessed at a rate of 0.00005.

There is also a current fee assigned to each business category, which is 35 for for most businesses.

So also I thought it might help to go through an example of how a business gross receipts business license calculation works.

So here's an example.003, their rate's going to be calculated as follows.

So you can see there we've listed this $5 million in gross receipts.

So the first $3.5 million up to the threshold is assessed at 0.003, resulting in a fee amount of $10,500.

The excess gross receipts over that threshold is assessed at a rate that the excess rate of 0.00005, which is $75.

So the total business license due for this company business ABC is $10,575.

So tonight, our focus is going to be in the line that's highlighted in yellow.

And there's some terms I wanted to go over that I'm going to be using for the rest of the presentation.

I just wanted to make sure that I explained what those are.

In this case, in this example, the threshold of what our current threshold is $3.5 million, and I'll refer to excess as gross receipts over the $3.5 million.

So here lies the stagnancy in what we're experiencing here.

The current threshold of $3.5 million was established by ordinance 1986-11-2943 nearly 40 years ago.

$3.5 million adjusted for inflation is equal to $10.3 million in 2025.

And this lack of adjustment has caused an imbalance among our licensees.

So this next chart pretty much tells the story of what we're looking at tonight.

This chart, I broke down licensees into three groups.

Entities that gross less than 1 million annually, entities that gross between 1 million and 3.5 million annually, and entities that gross over 3.5 million annually.

So the three groups are represented on the left on the chart.

And the dark blue bar represent each group's share of gross receipts reported in the city.

Meaning, looking at those bars, businesses who gross more than 3.5 million in the city represent.

Sorry, I used a script.

So businesses gross more than 3.5 million in the city represent 70% of all gross receipts.

And businesses who gross between 1 million and 3.5 million represent 18% of gross receipts.

And then those that gross less than 1 million, they have 12% of the city gross receipts that are reported to the city.

Businesses who yield 70% of the city's gross receipts are only remitting 30% of total fees received.

While the two smaller groups who yield 30% of the city's total gross receipts are remitting 70% of the fees.

So this slide, this next slide uh demonstrates how the adjustment to the threshold to current day dollars would affect our original example of business ABC that we went over just a minute ago.

So the original example is in the first column.

If you'll remember this company's uh total business license fee was $10,575.

If the threshold were in current day dollars, the entire gross receipts of five million would be assessed at the category rate of 0.003, resulting in a business license fee of $15,000.

And the next chart shows what would happen across uh all of our licensees should we make this adjustment.

So we looked at a specific example, and this just shows how the distribution would change.

Should it be applied should we implement this?

So remember if you remember currently 70% of gross receipts paying 30 and 30 pay in 70, and this is a lot more evenly uh distributed among the uh licensee groups.

So the next question is how do we get there?

This is a significant jump, and it would not be prudent of us to make the full adjustment at once.

So we are proposing a five-year phase in with an assumption of 2.5% growth of each each year.

That would result in us having a full implementation threshold of 11.65 million in year five, and this would be achieved by an annual uh even increase of 1.63 million per year each year following year five, the year of implementation would be increased by CPI.

So this slide shows what the annual uh what the impact to revenue would be during the implementation period by the end of year five.

So what I've done in this chart face year uh year one, year two, each year it's showing uh to the left what the threshold would be, what the even uh increase the threshold each year, and on the right shows what the projected business license uh revenue would be from that increase.

So by year five, you're looking at nearly a two million dollar increase in annual uh revenue from where we started in the base year, going from just over five million dollars to nearly seven million within five years.

So uh it in review, I I want to reiterate who is affected by this increase and who is not affected by this increase.

So who is affected or uh licensees who generate gross receipts in excess of 3.5 million, which is about 4% uh of total licensees or uh just around 200 of our 5,000 licensees who are who is not affected are licensees who generate gross receipts of 3.5 million or less annually, which is about 96% of our licensees.

So we're really looking at a small group of businesses that will be impacted by this change.

There is, however, one chance uh change that will affect that could potentially affect uh these business owners.

Approximately 40% or around 2,000 licensees remit a $35 minimum fee.

And so those are businesses who remit uh zero receipts for the year, report zero receipts, or their fee calculates to less than the minimum.

And this fee we're proposing to increase to fifty dollars to maintain fairness and account for inflation within this group of filers.

And that is all.

Anybody have any questions?

Just a comment.

We have a lot of big box stores.

Yes.

This will affect yes, they will most definitely be affected by this change.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yeah, just I just want to point out the the the year the ordinance was enacted originally was 1986.

86.

86.

Yes.

So I think the the main point is here there has been no change.

None in any business license tax since 1986.

And we have there has been many, many changes inflation and uh you know, lots of changes within the you know, within the city and with the overall economy.

So this is really designed just to bring equity up to uh all of our businesses.

Yes, it it is part.

We definitely felt that it's a part of revenue equity, it's just looking at it.

Uh you you often think of it as uh enforcement, and this kind of flips it at it, looks at it from a different perspective, but a very important one.

Okay.

Any anything from anyone?

Thank you very much.

That presentation was excellent.

Oh, thank you.

It was really good.

If any of my commissioners didn't follow it, um I can give you a I know that this topic can be kind of complicated, and so I worked really hard to simplify as much as possible and wrote it all out so that I didn't leave uh leave the script.

So I did it.

Did a great job.

Thank you.

Okay.

We got a new trend.

A new trend we're starting here.

Oh, that's great.

Okay, the next item on the agenda is a discussion item, and before I turn it over to Lindsay, I'll just do a quick intro.

And uh we had uh uh somebody who came and spoke spoke on it tonight.

Of course, we had an incident um a couple of three weeks ago where um uh we had someone here uh late at night, early in the morning, uh die from a gunshot wound.

And uh so lots of questions began to be asked about uh a couple of things, you know.

What what time do people have to quit serving alcohol?

And and there was a lot of underage people there, and a lot of people started asking the question, you know.

Don't we have a curfew or do we have a curfew?

And so I think it's incumbent upon us as a commission, you know, to have this discussion.

And um, and so I've asked Darren and Lindsay to put something together, so I'll turn it over to you and then we can all discuss it as a group.

So tonight I'm gonna review two totally different ordinances in our code.

Um the first one has to do with alcohol sales and the hours.

Um I'll go over what is allowable in Paducah and kind of what uh how that compares to other similar sized cities, and then do the same thing with our curfew uh ordinance for minors.

So starting with alcohol sales, um currently what is allowable in the city of Paducah right now is we have two different types of alcohol sales.

One is package sales, so you're thinking about your convenience stores, your liquor stores, those kind of things, and they're able to sell from 6 a.m.

till midnight each day, um, including Sundays.

And then on premises consumption, that is our bars, our restaurants, those kind of things where people are getting um drinks, you know, by the drink and consuming them on the property, and you're allowed to do that from 6 a.m.

till 3 a.m.

the following day.

So realistically, there's about a three-hour period each day where you cannot sell alcohol on premises.

The state of Kentucky allows us um as a local government to set hours for alcohol sales.

Um the only thing that they do not let us go more strict than midnight for those sales.

Um, but um anything beyond midnight is up to local jurisdiction to determine.

So we compared um several peer cities um similar in in size.

My assistant city clerk Claudia Meeks put together some some research on this.

Um so bowling green, um you can uh this is only as it relates to on-premises sales.

This is not package sales.

So 6 a.m.

till 2 a.m.

Elizabethtown um allows until 1 a.m.

Um Frankfurt varies by the day, um, but it is as late as 2 a.m.

on some days.

And then Georgetown, everything must close by midnight.

Um their opening hours vary.

Sunday Sundays is a little bit later for for the time they can open.

Um and then Hopkinsville um is allowable until 2 a.m.

except no sales on Christmas, and then Owensboro for Monday through Saturday, it's 2 a.m.

and midnight on Sundays, except for holidays, they exempt out um New Year's Eve and St.

Patrick's Day, things like that.

If that falls on a Sunday, you could be open later.

So put together just some of our local business practices.

We have about 175 to 180 total businesses that do alcohol sales.

That's package sales and on-premises consumption.

About a hundred and five of those are on premises consumption, so restaurants or bars.

Um, of those, approximately five of them are open till 3 a.m.

at least some days of the week.

Three of those are open till 2 a.m.

at least some days of the week, and one um is open till 1 a.m.

some days of the week.

All others would close at midnight or earlier.

So that gives kind of an idea of where we are locally, and I'll stop there before moving on to curfew to see if you all have any questions specifically about the alcohol sales hours.

You know what five are open till 30.

I do, and I can provide that to you.

Um I have those prepared and I can I can pass this uh pass that down.

I didn't want to call those out specifically, but those are the ones that that we that we were able to find.

There is one newer location that I'm not sure what their hours will be quite yet.

Any other questions about alcohol sales right now?

No, I have a question.

One of these is listed close at 2 a.m.

However, they were open later for an event.

They can be open later.

Um they can be open until 3 a.m.

That's the requirement.

Nothing of that goes through city hall.

It's just however the owner.

So someone says my current practice is one o'clock if we decide or she is.

To stay open one night till three.

That's their business.

Okay, they can't stay open later than the local ordinance has established, but they can choose to vary up to that point themselves.

Is there a limit on the number of days a local business might decide to stay open?

And it does not have to come to the commission.

No, the only limit, uh, individuals don't have to come it's what you set by ordinance, and so uh again, similar to that a uh a business can decide to not go as long as the ordinance allows, same way we're doing seven days, they can decide they just want to be open, you know.

Then there's some businesses that close on Mondays, you know, some business Sunday close on Tuesdays, you know, or whatever and stay open or some on Sundays, so it's up to the business.

They just can't go beyond what the local ordinance establishes.

And even most of these, they don't stay open to these hours every single day of the week.

It's typically just weekends.

Okay.

I think you can go on.

So to give kind of an overview of our curfew ordinance.

Um, right now this is a curfew for minors, and we define minors as anyone under 18 years of age.

Um between the hours of 11 p.m.

till 5 a.m.

on Sunday through Thursday, and the hours of 1 a.m.

to 5 a.m.

Friday through Saturday.

It is illegal for minors to remain in public places during those times.

It's also illegal for owners, operators, and employees of businesses to allow minors to remain in a building or a public assembly place or a street that they are you know uh having an event at um during those times, and it is illegal for a parent or guardian to allow minors in public during these times.

And when you say illegal, is that by ordinance or by state law?

It is by ordinance.

Okay.

This is all um set by local ordinance, not every city has a local ordinance that sets it in.

There's nothing at state law level.

There are some exceptions to those hours and requirements.

So if the minor is accompanied by a parent or guardian, that would be an exception.

If it's an employment related activity activity, like they're traveling to or from work, um, if it's a school church, civic uh recreational activity that is supervised by adults today.

We were talking about promoting like that.

Um if there's emergencies, um, some interstate travel, if they are just on the sidewalk adjacent to their home or right next door at their neighbor's house, that would be an exception.

Um, and then if they are exercising their First Amendment rights with a parental note, then that would be acceptable as well.

Um so as far as enforcement, um, what the ordinance allows our officers to do is they can stop and question the minor, they can ask for their name, their age, the address and contact of their guardian.

They can issue a citation to their parent or guardian.

They can take the minor home.

They can take the minor to a safe facility if need be.

Um there are certain instances where they could take someone into custody if they had already failed to appear in court or if they are reasonably believed to be habitual runaways.

They could take them into custody in those conditions.

There are penalties set out in ordinance.

Um violations are a misdemeanor offense.

Um, each day or part of the day is a separate event uh offense.

Penalties can be fines up to 500.

And then when we talk about repeat offenders, so someone who's done uh had more than three violations or citations, um, they can be reported as without parental control to juvenile officers.

Um there is I wanted to make just a note that establishment owners and operators are not liable, and um if they immediately notify police when a minor refuses to leave their property.

On what other cities um do as far as curfews.

Um we are pretty much in line with a lot of our neighboring cities, Owensboro um 1 a.m.

to 5 a.m.

every day of the week.

Lexington midnight to 5 a.m.

every day.

Frankfurt, 11 to 5 Sunday through Thursday, and then 1 to 5 a.m.

on weekends.

Um Elizabeth Town midnight to 5 on weekdays, 1 to 5 on weekends, and independence um 11 to 6 a.m.

on weekdays, one to six a.m.

on weekends, and then Covington Hopkinsville and Bowling Green do not have a current um curfew set for minors on their books right now.

So do we currently enforce this now?

11 to 5?

We do, and I've actually asked um Chief Lair to be here to kind of talk a little bit more about what the enforcement looks like on day to day.

The short answer to that is yes, it is enforced.

Um had some numbers pulled for you just so you know how often that is.

Um 2024, there were 31 citations issued for people being out past curfew, and so far this year we're at 20.

So, Chief, um that's on patrols, if they just happen to, I mean, they're not necessarily out looking for uh curfew busters, but uh just no, it's typically what we see is you know we have uh thefts from vehicles quite a bit, people leave their cars unlocked, kids walk around town.

Um if the officers see somebody out that's suspicious looking during that one to six o'clock time period, one to five o'clock time period, yeah, they're gonna get out with that person and figure out what's going on with them.

So curfew is just 18 and under.

So 19 and 20 has no curfew.

Under 18.

Under 18.

So it's just really 17.

Correct.

Below 17.

So 18, 19, 20 have no curfew.

Correct.

They're adults.

Okay.

So you have any thoughts on curfew?

I don't have any thoughts on it.

If uh you do too, you just don't want to keep your kids at home, know where they're at.

Yeah.

That would be my guidance.

So you can tell by the numbers that that there's no warnings listed in that.

I don't have a way to capture that.

I'm sure there are some warnings that are given out of that as well.

Um, those are most likely folks that are repeat offenders that we've encountered on more than one occasion.

It's actually you've done more citations on that than I would have thought.

I mean, it's sounds like you're fairly active with that.

So we try to be um fairly aggressive with the with that because of the amount of vehicles that we were seeing that were you know, things were items are being stolen out of those vehicles.

Um and so we were seeing that quite a bit.

But you said 20 year to date.

Yes, ma'am.

24 all last year.

Um last year, one last year and 17 the year before that.

So Chief, would it be fair to consider the number of those citations happening during non-school time?

Like in the summer or holiday?

It's probably about 50-50 to guess.

It kind of varies.

Is it safe to say that the vast majority of those or a majority of those citations are in connection with sort of increased activity with car break-ins and that sort of thing?

Really increased activity with anything if officers get out, they see somebody that's suspicious that early in the morning, um, carrying a backpack, ducking behind buildings whenever they see the police car drive by, and they're gonna get out with them and identify them and find out what's going on.

A lot of times those are juveniles.

Okay.

Any other questions for the chief?

So do you do you would you suggest a change in our current curfew?

Do they need to be a little more stringent or I think it's adequate?

I think I mean obviously that that was set probably at Lindsay.

I don't know what the the number on that one is or when it was adjusted last, but uh it's been around it's been that for as long as uh I can remember.

So um, I mean I I think there's that would be up to the commission if they want to change it, but you know, they're on the weekends one o'clock in the morning to me, uh I don't think is necessarily unreasonable, depending on the age.

Obviously, if they're 12 or 13 years old, then they probably don't have the reason to be out that late, but if they're 17, maybe maybe they should be.

on that one is the one it was adjusted last but uh it's been around it's been that for as long as uh I can remember so um I mean I I think there's it would be up to the commission if they wanted to change it but you know they're on the weekends one o'clock in the morning to me I I don't think is necessarily unreasonable depending on the age obviously if they're twelve or thirteen years old then they probably don't have the reason to be out that late but if they're seventeen maybe maybe they should be but you shifting gears a little bit on the bar closing time between two and three I do you have more issues between two and three with uh bars being open drinking that sort of thing or do you have a way to really tell I don't think there's really a way to capture that um you could I really wouldn't take a position on that I think the the likelihood of that it's something occurring between 12 o'clock and three o'clock is uh just as great any hour whether it be 12 to 1 to 2 to 3 1997 was when the curfew ordinance was put in place.

I was surprised to see though that Hopkinsville Covington Bulling did not have a curfew.

Not that I could find that was that was uh surprising I'd say thank you for the review.

I don't really have any suggestions for any changes.

I don't see that it would make a significant or even make any difference for us right now.

But I think it's good to remind ourselves of this.

I bet you there are a lot of people that have no idea there is even a curfew in our in our city.

Yeah.

And I think that's one of the reasons why we should remind our citizens that we do have one.

There is a curfew.

Yeah there is a curfew so how does everybody feel about our alcohol closing time being greater than any of our pure cities I I think we're obviously an outlier.

I mean I I think two o'clock would be plenty I think we're staying open a little too late.

I kind of felt the same about it because I'm like nobody's waking up at 2 a.m saying oh let me get to the bar before three they're already out that late but then I understand what I think it's name was CJ mentioned people are going to be there till two or three and they're gonna be buying and buying and buying but you know I know when we've talked about this once before on a different topic but somewhat related a lot of workers that work late that's when they go so we're cutting off time from them if we moved it up they don't get there till 12 or 1 because they're working.

All right and I also think it's not every day that there's something happening at these bars or these locations um even though I don't go out so I'm not there to see it but from my understanding like the situation that arose this conversation was kind of a outlier situation.

Definitely very much so bars.

Definitely I don't think it had to do with our bar time no no no I don't think so here's um here's one of the things we might do is and I think CJ made a you know uh a good suggestion and that is you know talk to the owners three or two three or two I would agree because most sensible people are going home at an appropriate time and go back out our sensibly well I mean I can't remember the last time I was up at two o'clock but I mean I'm uh but I'm roaming my house and not out yeah when he offered for us to go I was like don't I don't think I want to do don't run that on WPS or the Baduca I I think um you know I think I think we just need um you know the whole idea of us talking about it was to bring it to the forefront you know have us discuss it openly uh if there's people that uh I mean CJ came tonight if there's you know if there's people that have an opinion about it one way or the other we want to hear from them.

I mean that's so that's what an open discussion is designed to do.

And I meant sensible people aren't fighting and things like that.

That's what I mean they're not they're ready to go home when they're ready to go home there actually has been some of that downtown late so I'd say to say that there hadn't been in instances I don't think that's you know entirely accurate but I mean when I first saw the shifting gears when I first saw the you know the discussion about curfew when I first saw all the curfews I thought well you know Baduca might be um maybe at midnight would make sense uh you know a little later on weekends you know but if we don't think uh I mean I if we don't think it's an issue and we just want to try to enforce it as is um you know I don't have a problem with that either yeah I'm good with that.

But you can you can close it early but people who want to drink will just move to the next place and do their thing and then it becomes an issue there.

And you could extend the curfew or make it sooner but it's not yeah I don't know it's gonna not gonna change anybody's behavior absolutely so I'm not concerned about the curfew at all.

I mean I do think it's appropriate.

Our um development liaison, Laura Cowles.

Um I've asked her to do a little bit of the research um that came out of um the commission priority setting as it relates to ride share and Uber and Lyft and those kind of things.

Um one of the next things that I think she was hoping to do was to reach out to our late night bar owners um and get input on that topic.

Um we could also get input on um alcohol hours as well if you all are interested in that at that same time.

Well I think it's I think it's good to reach out to them and listen to them.

I think uh, you know, they're important you know, business owners in the community, and so you know I think you know, whether or not we make any changes or not, it would be good to listen to them.

So that's a good idea.

I'd really like to see us do something to help incentivize maybe Uber or something to get more service.

It's a problem.

I think we have it, there is some, but not enough.

Yeah, it's it's a problem.

But we're not a college town.

So really that makes a difference, I think.

TJ came in today um related to something else, and we got to talking about it, and he actually had some some good input um to to bring to the table around ride share and those kind of things coming from a a business owner perspective who's open late night.

So good.

Thank you.

All right, great job, Lindsay.

Thank you for all the research.

Claudia.

Appreciate it.

Um before we go in to the comments for city manager, um, I want to recognize uh our city planner and our county planner uh for an award uh that we won uh this past week for our comprehensive plan.

So Carol and Greg, would you guys come up and just tell us a little bit about and Josh and Josh, sorry about that?

I didn't see you under that cowboy hat.

Mayor, thank you for the opportunity.

And I did ask Josh to come and and be with Greg because quite frankly, they did do all the work.

Um but what I found was really unique about this award and and this opportunity is that neither party nominated themselves for this award or the other.

It was actually done through Kendig Keist and Gary Mitchell, and he had sent that in, and I thought that spoke volumes about the work these two gentlemen did and how they work together as a team.

And uh it was nice to see that and see them accept the word together last week in Lexington, and so we wanted to share that with you, and I'll I'll let them talk about it here real quick.

Okay.

Thank you all.

Uh it was uh pretty uh momentous thing for the city and county to get this award since it has been so long since we worked together on a comprehensive plan.

Uh but now in my staff reports, you can see our award-winning comprehensive plan now.

So um we're uh we're pretty proud of it.

In fact, we just have one, but I've talked to the guy that made those, so we're gonna get one for each the city and county.

So we'll have one here all the time, one at the courthouse at all the time.

But um, yeah, it was just great to get recognized for um putting that together and a special thanks to Gary as well.

He was really instrumental in getting that together.

A great leadership on the comp plan.

So uh hopefully whenever we do it again in 15, 20, 30 years, their firm will still be around and they did a great job this time.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think our I think back uh Greg, would you like to say anything?

And I want to thank everybody.

We're getting the credit for it, but it was a community deal.

Good point.

I mean, all you all know you all were involved.

All the listing sessions, the advisory groups, the open houses, I mean, it was the whole community coming together to do this.

We get the credit for it, but you all did the work.

So thank you.

Uh it's a great point.

And and I just remember, you know, the last time we did a comprehensive plan, prior to this, we did them separately.

We the city did a comprehensive plan, and the county did a comprehensive plan, which to me is crazy, you know, to think about that.

So, you know, when we set uh set out to make sure that we did it together, you know, that was you know, that was an accomplishment, you know, to get started, and and really when you look at our community, you know, the lines are so overlapping, you know, and unity is so important that it's just great that we had such success, and so congratulations to both of you.

Oh, thank you all.

This was attempted what 10 15 years ago.

Yeah.

And last minute fell apart.

I was talking to Steve New Little, said, what about doing this?

Because I knew y'all's was to do and ours was due.

They they were doing your part.

And Steve made a call, and here we are.

Yeah, we discussed it internally in planning as well, and knew that you know, if you're a citizen driving down the road, you have no idea where the city starts and counting ends.

So it's important to make that nexus between the two to where it really is seamless in so many ways.

Absolutely.

Congratulations, guys.

Thank you.

And last night the judge gave me strict instructions to smuggle this by out the back of the supporthouse.

So I have no fine, we have no rewards anyway.

Okay, uh comments from city manager.

Uh mayor commission just want to remind uh everyone that Monday will be a holiday, and so majority of our offices uh will be closed.

Um public safety will still be out doing uh curfew checks.

But uh uh on that, and then also um a a departure from our regular meetings uh for September.

Uh we will actually be coming together uh next Tuesday night uh for a special called meeting uh here in the chambers uh will be our first of two meetings in September that will be special called meetings, but uh we just have a a week uh so we need that extra holiday to get ready for next Tuesday night.

That it's okay.

All right, thank you.

Any comments from commissioners?

I have a one comment or one question, but uh you know oftentimes we have issues with buildings downtown starting to grade, falling down.

We've got one in third and Jefferson, and I think it's important to talk about that with the public because the city um oftentimes the city gets blamed because well they just in this beautiful historic building, and the city just goes in and tears things down, and uh I just want you to, if you can kind of explain the process that we've been going through on this one building because you know there may be that type outcome, and you know, people don't understand what the city's position and how much time and effort we put into it.

So sure.

Uh thank you, Commissioner.

Yes, the third and Jefferson.

Uh we uh were made aware back in April of uh that building falling in disrepair.

Um we had an engineer that actually went uh and looked at it and gave us a report that uh immediate uh issue needed to be taken.

Uh we tried to work with the building uh property owners at that time to notify them to get some resolution.

Uh uh we did get them uh with help of the state uh to put up the the fencing uh that you see there now.

However, that the status of that building actually moved to uh the state's purview uh for enforcement, uh although we have been keeping an eye on it.

It's been the state that's actually been having the uh the conversations uh with the owners and uh giving them dates certain to get uh things done.

Uh they have failed to meet those dates.

Uh and just as of uh as late as this afternoon, I got notice that uh the state filed uh with the circuit court yesterday for uh asking for help from the court for relief on that, and the that is on the docket for either this Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

Uh the date hadn't been set, but it we do know this either going to be they're gonna be in court, the state's gonna be in court uh asking for injunctive relief on that uh this week because they have been unsuccessful of getting the uh property owners to to move on repairs.

Um and so we'll see how that comes out.

You say injunctive relief.

Can you explain that?

Uh so what they're asking is the injective relief is to come to compel the owners uh to rehab, repair, or demolish within 14 days of court ordering that.

So there's a bigger issue, or you know, there's an issue that led to this issue, and that is that you know, we we allow buildings to sit empty without any regulations or you know, any fees that we assess, or you know, we don't go in and we're not allowed to go in and inspect them.

And I know that uh Lindsay and some others have been working on a possibility of an ordinance coming forth in the future, and uh that is on our priority list.

I don't think we have a time frame yet, but we have been talking about it.

And uh, you know, with all the work that Main Street is trying to do downtown, uh I think it's I think it's imperative that we uh not let a building just sit empty without us being able to have some uh authority to at least inspect it.

Um I agree.

So that was something we're working on.

I know a lot of times these people buy these buildings and they're waiting for downtown to you know to continue to grow and all, and they want to, then they decide they'll either sell the building or they'll fix their building up, but they're waiting for other people to do the work, and sometimes that doesn't happen, and then by that time the roof's bad, they don't want to spend the money on it, and it just ends up being a mess, and the city is stuck in the middle of it, which we I think we should be much stricter.

I agree on letting it happen.

I agree.

Absolutely.

Uh I think we've got consensus on that.

Yeah, we're move we're moving forward.

Yeah, I know you you mentioned uh the clerk and our uh fire department have been meeting and having conversations a couple weeks ago, even with legal uh to find a path forward so those do continue to progress.

All right, any other comments down on this end?

We all good.

You're looking at me like you're expecting me to I think again it would be remiss if we didn't, you know, recognize Steve, of course, Dolittle, who passed away last night unexpectedly, and who worked for many years for the city.

And then uh, of course, again, Ryan Hudson with the police department.

It was a beautiful service on Saturday, and thank you.

I I hope the police department knows we're all behind them and I'll support them.

I know it's been a tough time.

Yeah, it's been tough.

And uh the Steve Doolittle um, you know, Steve, you know, he's a wealth of knowledge uh because he had both city and county experience, and I know he was um you know a key person, of course, with the fiscal court, and he will be hard to or maybe impossible to replace.

So we definitely it was nice of you to mention him in the prayer tonight.

So um I think it's important that we do also uh recognize the family of Jemina Walker, a young lady who lost a life with the baby.

I think that's important.

That's that's a really good point.

So yeah, it's been a it's been a tough week, you know, for the city.

So okay, uh, we are going into executive session tonight.

Uh we do not plan to take any action afterwards, and I'll ask the city clerk to please read.

I proposed motion of the board of commissioners to go into closed session for discussion of matters pertaining to the following topic.

Future sale or acquisition of a specific parcel of real estate is permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection one B.

Proposed or pending litigation as permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection one C.

A specific proposal by a business entity where public discussion of the subject matter would jeopardize the location retention, expansion, or upgrading of a business entity as permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection one G.

So move.

Second.

Call roll, please.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson.

Aye.

Mayor Bray.

Aye, okay.