Well, good evening, everyone.

It's five o'clock, so we're gonna go ahead and get started, and I'll call this meeting to order on April 14th, 2026, and ask the city clerk to call Rob.

Commissioner Henderson?

Present.

Commissioner Smith.

Here.

Commissioner Thomas.

Present.

Mayor Bray.

Mayor Pro Tim Wilson.

Present.

And with that, we will stand, and Commissioner Thomas will lead us in the invocation, and then we'll have the Pledge of Allegiance.

Continue to cover us as a city and as leaders in this community.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

So City Manager, are there any additions or deletions to the agenda?

Mayor Pro Tim, none this evening.

Okay, great.

Well, first uh we have a proclamation for Arbor Day, and it's Jonathan Perkins here, who's over our tree.

What is the official position is tree advisory board?

Yes.

Chairman, and do you have other members here with you?

Great.

All right.

Well, the mayor left this for us.

So whereas trees are an essential part of our natural environment, providing clean air, conserving water, preserving soil, and sustaining wildlife, and whereas trees enrich the beauty and livability of our community, enhance property values, reduce energy cost, and contribute to the overall well-being of our residents, and the planning and care of trees inspires environmental stewardship and reflects a shared commitment to protecting and preserving our community for future generations.

Now therefore I, Sandra Wilson, Mayor Pro Tim of the City, on behalf of Mayor George P.

Bray, here we're hereby proclaimed April 24th as Arbor Day in the city of Paducah and urge all citizens to support efforts to plant and protect our trees and woodlands for our present and future generations.

So I'd like to present this to you all.

Thank you for your service on our tree board.

I know we've been getting a lot of questions and we'll always continue to get questions anytime there's construction, like can those trees stay.

And uh we are what can happen.

So we hope that we can always have more trees.

Kudos to the Parks Department and Planning Department help help us.

Yeah.

So we can do that without them.

Thank you.

We appreciate you all coming.

Taylor, are you gonna be taking care of those?

Taylor Morching and Greg, okay, great.

So Destiny Coleman and Coleman Cole Royal as new employees.

I'll get us started.

Um this is Destiny Dalton.

She's gone through a recent name change actually, just in the last few days.

So Destiny Dalton.

She started working for Paducah Parks and Recreation as our admin assistant on March 19th.

Um she's already handled many registrations, many reservations, taken lots of phone calls, met with a lot of people that come in person to her office since it's kind of a busy time of year with everything.

Um Destiny's the mother of one daughter who is her world.

Uh she spends most of her free time doing things with her daughter, such as crafts, exploring nearby creeks, swimming at the lake.

Um she previously worked for the county of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation for over five years, um, then moved to Kentucky, and she's been working with children in the mental health field for the last several years before starting with us.

Um I know she's excited to um continue working for us.

We're excited to have her.

She's already been a great help.

Um so this is Destiny Dalton.

Destiny's one people will be reaching out to, right?

To book.

Yes, ma'am.

Great, good.

Well, welcome.

All right, I'll let Greg go next.

Hello, this is uh Colin Rowe.

He comes from us, uh he came to us from Ornsboro, Kentucky, where he was born and raised.

Um he did uh several years at uh the National Park Service uh and which most of it was at uh Memory Cave.

Uh he's a great addition to our team, and he's our new uh maintenance supervisor.

So welcome.

So welcome to the community and welcome to the city and the parks department.

Really happy to have you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bob.

Welcome.

All right, next, we're gonna be swearing in some new police officers, and I believe Judge Kitchen is gonna do that.

Are you taking it from here, Chief Laird?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Uh this, I guess, is technically also a new employee introduction as well.

We have uh three police officers that we're gonna swear in tonight if you guys want to step forward.

Uh we've got Jason Montgomery.

Uh Jason retired from the Paducah Police Department back in uh late 2020.

He was one of our training officers.

He worked as a detective, he worked on our SWAT team, and after retirement, he worked down at the federal courthouse working security, and now we've brought him back to work as the security officer in City Hall, which you guys remember approved his contract, I believe at the last commission meeting.

We also have uh Craig Campbell, Craig's originally from Indiana.

Uh he spent four years in the Marine Corps and most recently was employed with the McCracken County jail.

Uh and then there on the end we have Davin Perkins, originally from Tennessee, uh, grew up here in Paducah.

Uh McCracken County High School graduate, and is also a member of the Kentucky National Guard.

So uh Davin and Craig have already started the online virtual portion of the police academy, and then here in a couple weeks we'll head to Richmond to finish up 18 weeks of driving back and forth to Richmond, Kentucky to finish up the police academy.

And then uh Jason is doing some in-house training right now, and then he's got some state training that he has to do to get recertified, and uh, we hope to have him in place early May to mid-May.

We should have him here in City Hall.

Great.

So we'll welcome we're honored to have you all.

And Judge Kitchen, if you want to come up to the front so you can do the official swearing in here.

Stay in front of the backdrop.

We always enjoy having Judge Kitchen.

We always appreciate your service as a judge.

But coming here tonight to always my pleasure.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for having me.

Gentlemen, raise your right hand, please.

Solemnly swear or affirm that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth.

And be faithful and true to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, so long as you continue a citizen thereof.

And then you will endeavor to the best of your ability to detect and prosecute all gamblers and others violating the laws against gaming.

And now you will faithfully execute to the best of your ability.

The office of the Paducah Police Officer for the Paducah Police Department, according to the law.

And then you will faithfully discharge the duties of your office.

And you further do solemnly swear or firm since the adoption of the present constitution.

You being a citizen of this state have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within the state nor out of it.

Nor have you sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons.

Nor have you acted as a second carrying a challenge.

Congratulations, you might want to come just come back through here and start with Commissioner Hunts.

I should have had the others do that too.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Glad to have you.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thanks again.

Thank you.

Welcome back.

Thank you, Cadge.

Thank you.

Okay, we have one public comment tonight from Parker Jaco.

And I think you know the routine.

You have three minutes, and you need to introduce yourself and your address.

Last time I was here was back in January, uh, when I informed you all about the local organization Paducah Action and their efforts to raise money to help eliminate medical debt in the county.

Well, today I am here to update you on that endeavor and to let you know kind of where we stand.

Last time I was here, we were I believe just under um about four or five thousand dollars in donations.

Uh currently we have now hit over fifteen thousand dollars in donations.

Um and that specifically fifteen thousand four hundred and ninety-three dollars and ninety cents will help alleviate medical debt in the county, equaling out to over three million dollars.

Um so the way that this happens is we have partnered with a nonprofit called Undue Medical Debt, uh, where their main focus is to buy medical debt in bulk and then just forgive it outright.

Um for people in the community who who need it most.

Um most of those people are going to need to fall under one of two categories at least.

Um their debt has to be, I believe, uh five percent or more of their annual income, or they have to make four times or less the uh federal poverty rate.

So um that being said, I just wanted to kind of update you guys on on where we are at.

Uh, we have about two weeks left until our uh campaign finishes out.

Um so if any community member has been kind of on the fence about donating, uh, just know that every dollar you donate will equal out to about 200 dollars of medical debt for given just by the rate in which they buy the debt.

Um so you know, I hate to hate the fact that the mayor's not here today to to get that update, but I'm glad the rest of you guys are.

Um, and so I hope you guys will continue your support of local organizations like mine um who titler tirelessly and effortly effortlessly fight for the betterment of its community and the people within it.

So thank you again for your time, and I'll go sit back down.

So thank you.

Thank you, Parker.

We'll pass the word on to the mayor.

Thank you.

I'm gonna hold my comments uh until the end because a lot of it is calendar events.

So is that okay?

All right.

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

The city clerk will read the items recommended for approval.

Would any commissioner like an item for separate removed for separate discussion?

I would not.

Okay.

I'll ask the city clerk to read the items recommended for approval.

Approved minutes for the March 24th, 2026, Board of Commissioners meeting.

Receive and file documents, reappointment of John Sperlin to the Code Enforcement Board.

Said term shall expire April 25th, 2029.

Personnel actions, a municipal order approving a fleet maintenance, motorized equipment, and emergency apparatus service agreement with the City of Marion, Kentucky, to provide fleet maintenance services at hourly rates and authorizing the execution of all documents related to SAME.

A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute an amendment to the agreement with Tyler Technologies for a law enforcement mobile site license in the amount of 45,000 twelve dollars.

A municipal order approving the execution of a grant application to obtain a fiscal year 2025.

Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant through the U.S.

Department of Justice in the amount of eleven thousand six hundred and forty-nine dollars to be used by the Paducah Police Department to purchase three thermal monoculars, accepting all awarded grant funds and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to SAME.

A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute an application for a 2026 Kentucky League of Cities safety grant in the amount of two thousand five hundred dollars toward reimbursement for personal protective equipment, accepting any grant funds awarded by the KLCIS.

And authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to SAING.

So moved.

Second.

Anything else?

All right.

Uh roll call, please.

Commissioner Henderson.

Aye.

Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tim Wilson.

Aye.

We don't have any municipal orders or introductions tonight, so we're just gonna go on into discussion, which we have quite a bit of that.

So we're just gonna go on into discussion, which we have quite a bit of that.

And one is where I'm excited about is for a build grant update.

And so Greg Good and Melanie.

Uh Greg, you're gonna lead it.

Yep.

Now you know I'm gonna want you to do when you drive through Broadway.

This is what you see now, and this is what you're going to see.

So when you go through the slides, make sure you're telling us where everything is what it's gonna look like.

We'll do.

So evening, Mayor Pro Tim Commissioners, City Manager, City Clerk.

Uh we got some pictures here to show you, just uh some updates on the build grant project and how things are progressing.

Uh so starting over here at uh the convention center parking lot.

This would be at you're standing in the fourth street flood wall opening.

Look at the looking at the primary entrance to the convention center.

Uh you can see the um extension of the greenway trail through there, and uh some of the murals on the flood wall and such.

This is uh in the primary entrance to the convention center that's been reworked.

You um you can see the lane adjustments there uh out onto Park Avenue and uh the Greenway Trail over to your left.

This has been a great addition.

I don't know if you want hold comments to the end, but I will just say it's very nice when you have the large crowds leaving the convention center, it makes a big difference.

Yeah, no comment at at any point.

This is second street and uh Jefferson near the Quilt Museum, one of the uh uh bus shelters that has been installed.

The other one is located uh just around the corner at uh Walker Hall.

That one has also been installed at this point.

So uh these are some aerial photos you can see.

See, do I have the mouse?

Yeah.

Here's the foot of Broadway, and this would be the Christmas tree opening on Water Street, just kind of giving an aerial photo of what the current construction looks like in that area.

And I'll skip to the next slide.

This is more or less what that area will look like at the end.

Um this would be the staircase that was in the previous picture and the entrance into uh Christmas tree opening and the foot of Broadway down, whoops, closer to that end.

Yeah.

This is looking down the staircase that was in the past pictures, though.

So this would be the grand staircase down to the pier, up to uh the entrance there at the Christmas tree opening.

Another picture of the staircase.

Uh there will be hand rails on the staircase at the end.

Uh those are light fixtures there in the side.

So this uh is an example of what that is gonna look like at the end.

Um like I said, grand staircase and just kind of the entrance there into uh downtown.

We are having the port of Paducah letters.

Yes, and I'm gonna show you, I think on one of the next upcoming pictures.

So if you see Oh, this is a good before and after.

Yeah, so I had asked for those to be released for the media.

So maybe you could use them somewhere.

But right here is the foundation that the letters sit on on each side of the staircase.

You have your port of Paducah letters looking like this.

Just another example of the ongoing work along the the pier and the entrance there.

So there's a shot of the pier itself showing the uh concrete panels and how uh that construction looks, those will ultimately get tied together and present one walkway all the way down.

How wide is that trying to remember we work through that 20 feet, I believe.

And well, there will be fencing on the side.

There will be handrails on both sides.

The handrails are removable for when boats dock at different levels.

The rails will be removed to allow for access at the given level on the pier.

The back side can be removed to help facilitate with maintenance of any debris that might get caught in between.

This is a picture of um the uh bird cones that sit on top of the piles to help keep birds off.

You can see here this is where they've welded uh beers together, and this is the fenders that sit on the outside.

I'll show you the next picture to kind of help maybe put all this together.

So I think that now they're orange in this picture, but this is what we're talking about.

So the fenders rise with the water level that allows the boat to pull up against it and uh and land at the dock.

Moving over to the compass rose area.

This would be um Masson Street, second street entrance, the Harrison Street entrance would be off the screen down to the right.

This is the amphitheater seating over the transient boat dock would be out in front to this direction.

Uh so you can see some of the concrete work and the pavers that has all gone into in at this point, and various trees have been um planted as well.

There's another picture of what what that looks like.

So behind that, will that be grass?

Yes.

So uh it's not well shown in here, but yes, it is grass back behind.

Um there is a there is a stone walking path that comes over.

See the next stone walking path that comes from this end of the terrace uh seating area that wraps around the back side of that area.

But yes, it will be all landscaped.

And then you can drive through it.

Yes.

And so you can see on this picture here, there's the traffic going through the compass rows in this in this direction here.

Let's see.

So, yes, you can see traffic will enter and go through the the compass rows here through Harrison Street over to 2nd Street.

This would be a continuation of trail off to the north over towards Executive Boulevard and over towards the convention center.

There's another picture of you know this.

This is where this will be asphalt, this will be your roadway, asphalt out through the opening.

You can see the light poles that have been sawed.

Um, my understanding today was that uh not all the light poles, but some of the light poles will be should be functioning tonight and get a chance to see what that might look like.

And this is looking down at the compass rose itself.

Um north being down on the page here, but just an idea of what that looks like as far as the intricacy of the the brickwork, the design, everything that went into uh creating this.

Out there.

So more pictures of what the what this is to look like at the end.

Beautiful.

Uh this looks continue.

This continues north, executive boulevard, convention center off uh off the screen to the north.

Uh this is the the chain monument will be in this location, and uh ties into the existing greenway trail and just adds further uh features to the and all of that on the grass.

Yes, it'll be basically a park area.

I have the ability to host events uh and such as well.

This is what that would expect that to look like this is backed up looking at the whole riverfront area on that end.

So that's the end of the pictures, um, barring a couple.

Does anybody have any questions regarding what what they seen?

Craig, if you go back to for so we can explain a little bit about to the beginning where you've got the design of there from where the Christmas tree comes in.

Yeah, where we're gonna put the Christmas tree.

It's gonna stay up there.

We actually made sure we had electric for it.

Tell me when you get one you like.

So uh yeah, keep going back one more.

Uh oh.

Jumped on me.

Oh driving there.

So yeah, right there, that's a good one.

So in the photo, you notice the stairwell that's being built, the the grand staircase.

Um, and people may say, well, I may have mobile I have mobility issues, so how am I going to get down there?

It actually wraps, oh excuse me.

It wraps around, so the design of it does allow for pedestrian walkway uh to come back up and uh access the top tier of that so you can walk down the steps, or if you wanted to take a longer, get some more steps in, you would be able to come down and around uh to access that.

So this will wrap all the way around back and forth tie in uh to both foot of Broadway and Christmas tree opening.

It does wrap around the foot of Broadway, so you can walk all the way to the foot of Broadway too.

And it will not be gated off, correct?

In relationship to the where the boats are, people can still walk down.

The pier.

Yep.

Any other questions on the photos?

Looks good.

Looks good.

Looks very good.

Thank you.

Back to where you were.

Uh so these are just uh some of the same numbers you've seen before as far as uh funding sources and allocation with the project.

Um where we are on expenses, spending rate, and then the monoliths.

What the monoliths looked like before, and this is what it looks like now.

And the area is open.

It looks really great.

It opened up the area, I think very much.

So we'll be able to put, I know people talked about artwork, we'll be able to put it in other areas.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And so looking ahead, um, what our goals are at this time is the the Commons area, which is the the compass rose, the area that we talked about over by Harrison Street and 2nd Street, the goal what we're targeting for uh completion at this time.

We're looking at July as kind of the is the target to finish everything in that area.

The excursion pier and plaza, looking at September and uh the grand opening of the of the project targeting September this year.

And because of river levels, uh, you know, we we can't put hard dates on that, uh, but we have begun having internal conversations uh in relationship to what that grand opening ribbon cutting, having a nice event uh to celebrate that and the and the work and and then invite our um state and federal partners uh to come and join in in our celebration of that opening.

So as soon as uh we have some more understanding about uh what the river is going to do or not do, and allows how quickly we'll we'll be able to provide some more additional information as to when we firm up that date.

But that's what we're targeting right now.

Looks great.

Thank you.

Absolutely Greg and Melanie, all your staff for everybody for working on it and the contractors.

I mean, you know, I drive I drove there when I got back on Saturday just to see where you were.

And I hope other people are watching it.

And uh, you know, it's one of the biggest developments that we've had uh in a many many years, if ever, on the riverport, riverfront, even when I guess the hotel was there, we probably didn't cost what this has cost, you know, back in those in the days of the executive end.

So this is a really great event, great project for our community.

So thanks to our federal partners, our state partners, and thanks to our city.

So and thank you all.

Thank you very much.

So any other questions.

Okay, take a drive by there tonight.

See if the lights are on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna talk about household bulk item collection pilot program.

Chris Yarber, I thought it was a success.

I want to hear about it from you.

I didn't personally put anything out, but I'm saving that.

Um Mayor Pro Tam, Commissioners, City Clerk, Madam City Clerk, City Manager, thank you for having me.

Uh, this will be extremely short presentation.

A lot of it's a recap of where we started, and I'll bring you up quickly to how the program went.

We'll take you from there.

Uh initially we set out to do a pilot program for bulk items.

Uh the stipulations were three large items, uh, no larger than the couch or standard appliance.

Uh we'll not collect prohibited items.

We were a little lenient in what we actually did because you never realize how much stuff people have in their houses that's bigger than the couch, but it's something reasonable for us to pick up.

So there were a few things of that magnitude.

We'll not collect prohibited items, and just to recap uh refrigerant items, refrigerators, and things like that with cooling in them, tires.

Uh we do not accept those.

We had initially set out that we were not going to collect uh electronics or televisions, and there were a few out there, and we went ahead and picked them up.

That's just to get them off the street.

Uh with the next go-round, if we decide to do this, we'll have a uh something specific for electronics and TVs and things like that, so we can make sure they're disposed of properly instead of just going to the landfill.

But we did that this time.

We made sure no electronics that we could see were in there.

So when people had TVs and things setting out, we pulled them out and were disposed of them properly.

Okay.

Do you think you would do that again?

Yes.

I'll let you get to the end of your paper.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh we decided it'd be uh curve pickup only, street side.

Uh all existing solid waste rules uh would apply.

Uh we set out that the pickup uh calendar or would be structured by your collection of your trash day.

Uh that worked very well.

So uh that's something we were happy with and made it easy uh for people to know that got word.

Um the way we sent word, advertisement.

We did direct household mailers.

So if you have a residential Paducah water account, which they do our billing for solid waste, uh, then you should receive this this postcard to announce the event.

Uh we use social media, uh city website.

Uh we also had weekly Mapaduka app promotions that went out and weekly emails that went out, and that's all thanks to to Pam Spencer, of course.

She helped us with all that.

Uh to get into the program, uh we spent 375 man hours, 274 equipment hours of the type of equipment that was used as you know, the knuckle booms, uh the grapple trucks.

Uh we like using those, they're safer, cleaner for the employees and things like that.

But we did realize there were some things that were put out that are bigger than the rollout, but too small for a knuckle boom.

So we we did end up sending out a uh rear packer uh to pick up some of those things.

So that those were at a minimum, but uh next time if we choose to do this, we'll already have that in the in the plan.

Uh just to give you an idea, we had 900 stops, so approximately about 10% of our household accounts participated.

Uh, of those, we had uh a total of 61.65 tons uh of bulk items collected.

Um that's a lot of weight per household that that participated.

Uh just to give you an idea, before this program, uh outside of this program for the current fiscal year, July through the current date, we had a total of 414 completed what we call pay house, which what is what these would have been considered.

So we had 900 stops during the program throughout the year outside of this program.

We've had 414 completed stops, so it lets you know about the participation.

Um based on that, I would say I would like to think that uh with more word if we were choosing to do this again that we would have more participation.

Uh we did have some uh let me continue.

Let me not interrupt me.

Um we did have some um uh customer citizens that uh they called after Sunday, we requested you put it out on Sunday, and they called.

Some of them were lucky we hadn't been to their area in the zone yet, so they put it out, we got it, but some of them we'd already passed their area uh and they they were missed, but we had very few of those.

Uh, but we did stick to the rules uh other than that the few televisions that we picked up.

Uh and that was just the to keep the efficiency and get a better idea of what the program may bring in the future.

Uh key takeaways, Miss Commissioner Wilson.

I feel it was an overall success.

Um the staff feels that way.

In fact, I asked them, we sit down, I said, okay, what are the key takeaways?

What do we learn?

What can we do better?

What can we do different?

And I've been thinking about this for several several days, and it really went well.

And it's nothing, although public works is that good.

It's just the program was set up good with the help of Michelle and Pam, and it just went well.

Uh what I would like to do is talk about the next steps.

Uh, of course, we'll get your feedback.

Uh, we're gonna launch a community survey of the participants, and then we're gonna review the feedback, get with finance, collect the financial part of the data uh as far as uh putting a cost to the equipment and to the man hours and to the the bulk item tonnage and and review that and then we'll come back with you at a later date with a recommendation.

How much does it cost to dispose of a ton of waste?

Currently it's costing us we're paying $69 a ton.

Okay.

Really not much in the scheme of things.

Well, it's not uh as you approved for us to go out for bid.

We we hope we can do better.

We hope competition will create that environment.

So anytime we can drive down that cost, it's that's that's the main driver behind the solid waste division is disposal.

So really, what do people do with the couch unless they sell it on some way?

What were they doing with it before?

Can you hear we do have the annual cleanup day where you can bring it to us and dispose of it for free.

I might have one.

Now I will say this we do provide we do provide PayPal service where if you were to contact us, we have a minimum fee for that type of item would be like 25 dollars is the minimum fee.

So if you have more items of course, the more it is.

But if you had one couch, we would charge you 25 and come pick it up.

I don't think you can get it done if you don't have a truck or or trailer itself.

I don't think you can get it done any other way.

And then you dispose of it.

Yes, yes, yes, because if you if if you as a citizen were to take the cross the scale yourself, they have a minimum fee, and you're gonna pay the minimum fee.

Okay.

So it is a big deal for to the community for us to have this program.

Uh we just have to make sure that we can keep it balanced with what we have responsibility to do now and what we add as programs.

And prior to the program, we just covered everything up with nice quilts.

Most things if you leave out there alone enough, some of them.

Some of them have actually $25 is really good.

I guess if you have the $25 to get rid of a couch or a refrigerator, whatever.

I mean, that's that's a great uh that's a great service that you guys provide our citizens.

It really, it really is.

Get rid of that stuff.

Uh we as far as efficiency in the process, we feel like the $25 works.

Yeah.

Um people there's maybe worth a little bit less, some people maybe a little bit more, but as far as the efficiency, that's the best way for us to do it.

I know you mentioned TVs, but I think those and those are important to get rid of.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am.

For one, there's components in them that whoever recycles them for us, they'll take out the components that are useful.

Um, and that's a big deal in today's environment.

And and and with the economy and recycling, I think it's it's a major deal for us to anything that we can recoup as far as resources.

People don't realize this planet holds a limited number of resources, and we have to recoup whatever we can.

Did you already tell us how many tons you collected?

61.65 tons, yes, sir.

And when we do the financial, the the way we do it is for the equipment, it's standard to use the FEMA rates.

What FEMA would use as a charge for that equipment or allow you to charge for that equipment uh for particular what type of equipment it is.

So we'll attach that to the man hours and to the equipment hours and come up uh with a cost.

Uh of course it'll be hard cost or overhead that you're already gonna pay, and then additional cost, which is the bulk items that we're picking up.

So then we can judge if if we really want to continue the program or if we can sustain the program.

But uh at this standpoint, uh I believe it was a success.

I think if the people that participated, if you call them, they would probably say so as well.

Um, and uh again, the main idea is to just citizen services for the citizens that we can afford and keeping the city clean.

Great.

I I think it was great.

What what are you when I know on the survey are you looking at it being quarterly twice a year?

Um that's something I want to discuss.

Uh the timing, uh you know, you have the holiday season where people usually get bigger items if they're gonna get them.

Then you have tax season where people replace items as they can, and and uh those may be the times.

This particular timing of this one may have may be a good time.

And then as we review the numbers, we'll look and see do we want to do one in the fall, maybe do one in the fall and see what that looks like.

And then I think it's something that we'll want to repeat uh to get a uh even better picture, and and we'll just take from there.

So I would anticipate if we choose to do this again, we we may would probably do it in the fall that kids getting ready to go back to school, things like that, fall cleaning.

I guess people do fall cleaning along with spring cleaning.

That seems to be the good times that people are cleaning out.

Hold on to it, we bring it to cleanup day, or call us, and we charge a very reasonable price if you want to get rid of it quickly.

Many times uh the problem is if we don't they just want to do it quicker than the program's coming or waiting for cleanup day.

Any other questions or comments?

City manager.

Yeah.

So Chris, you know, you showed the slide that we talked about, our promotion and how we scheduled it out.

Uh yes, that slide there.

So you started on a Monday.

On average in each week, about when were you finished?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, we finished uh we were finished by Tuesday of each week.

Uh we anticipated, of course, we threw everything we thought we needed to add it because we just didn't know what the participation is going to be.

And it ended up being uh uh two, some days three knuckle booms and a ripacker, some days a couple of ripers, but they finished fairly early than the week in any given week.

We didn't work past Tuesday on these pay bills or bulk items.

So that's something we'll consider in the future as we evolve the program as well.

I I think it will grow.

It may be that people you know spread it out some, but I think as people become more aware of it, they'll plan ahead.

Yeah, you know, uh public work we can get to just about anything done that we plan to do.

Uh the only thing concern with this really is just the the pure volume and participation.

That's where your your additional cost is gonna come.

But um based on that rate and the amount, it was a minimum.

I just we'll see.

I I think it'll be a good program for us to continue.

Uh we just have to really make sure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We appreciate it.

It was uh good job.

Thank you.

I think it takes so much time.

I thought this was a really good short.

Look.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Next up about the budget.

So we're getting closer every time that you present to uh getting closer to the budget time.

So thank you, Audrey.

Okay.

All right, good evening.

Mayor Pro Tim, Commissioners, City Manager, City Clerk.

Uh, tonight for a budget discussion, we're going to talk about general fund expenditures.

I want to start by taking a look at the current year's original budget to use as a baseline before we shift into the discussion of what we're anticipating for next year.

Here's a breakdown of fiscal 26 original general fund appropriations by major category.

As a service organization, personnel is the city's largest expense.

It makes up about 68% or approximately 35 million in the current year.

After personnel, the largest categories are commodities, contractual services, and interfund transfers.

And over the next few slides, I'll walk through each of these major categories.

As you can see, public safety makes up about 63% of all personnel costs.

Not only is this the largest area in the number of employees, but there are also additional costs associated with the public safety function.

This includes a higher retirement contribution rate, which is almost double that of a non-hazardous employee.

Additionally, these are 24 hour a day services with mandatory shift requirements, uh, causing both scheduled and unscheduled overtime.

Public works and parks have the next highest personnel costs at 3.1 million and 2.9 million, respectively.

This category personnel includes not only wages and overtime, but also taxes and benefits.

The city's retirement contributions alone total roughly 6.5 million of the general fund budget.

Health insurance is 2.6 million for uh fiscal 2026.

Next is commodities.

These are the day-to-day operating costs that keep services running, like fuel repairs and maintenance, utilities and supplies.

A few things to point out on this slide.

Utilities include not only what is required to run our city-owned facilities, but also city street lighting expense, which is around 780,000 annually.

Training and travel is highly concentrated in public safety.

It includes training for new recruits, academy training, officer school, recertifications, and even canine training.

Other, the other category is primarily street and stormwater materials.

There's other components, minor components, including postage printing and safety-related supplies.

Repairs and maintenance does include some minor facility and equipment upkeep, but in the general fine, this is largely comprised of fleet maintenance and lease charges allocated to the departments.

Supplies includes all supplies needed for ground maintenance, rec programs, computer tech supplies, field op supplies, janitorial, gear, leather, and office supplies.

Contractual services includes costs where we rely on outside providers or special services, specialized services.

The insurances represented in this category include primarily liability and property damage.

The maintenance agreement category is almost entirely computer software and hardware agreements, supporting everything from our ERP system to network administration to NCAR and body cameras.

Other services include those for which we use temporaries, our service agreement with WKCTC for operation of our government access channel, board member payments, and various other service agreements.

The final category I want to highlight is interfund transfers.

These are how the general fund supports other critical operations and long-term obligations across the city.

For fiscal 26, these transfers total nearly 3.7 million.

The majority of this amount is recurring and represents commitments the city has already made, such as debt service and capital funding, fleet insurance support and pension contributions.

So stepping back to my first graph and looking at this overall structure, we have personal expenses that are key to service delivery, commodity expenses that can fluctuate based on prices and demand and impact day-to-day operations, contractual services that are largely ongoing and can increase over time, and interfund transfers that are largely recurring and represent commitments that have already been made.

This existing service service structure and obligations form the foundation of the budget and limit how much flexibility we have as we begin to plan for the next fiscal year.

So fiscal 26 gives us a clear picture of how resources are currently allocated.

These next few slides explain the challenges we are facing as we develop the 2027 budget.

These are several areas we are watching closely as we build the budget.

They are not new issues, but they're continuing to build and will require careful consideration as we move through the process.

Starting with personnel, this continues to be the most significant driver of expense in the general fund.

Initial calculations using existing staff staffing levels project a $2.2 million increase for fiscal 27.

We have two newly adopted union contracts, police Paducah Police Bargaining Unit and AFSME that allow for adjustments to keep these wage groups in line with surrounding municipalities.

Another reason for the increase is health insurance.

After several years of no adjustments, significant premium and city contribution adjustments were made for the calendar year 2026 health insurance renewal.

As we move forward in refining these numbers for 27, I want to touch on a few other things related to personnel.

Retirement is a continued pressure.

Although the contribution rates remain high, they have leveled off for now, which is good news.

However, the cost is still immense, and the system's move away from a defined benefit plan, place additional stress on our wage and benefit structure to remain competitive with the private sector.

I included limited flexibility in this group because we're a service organization.

Any substantive change to staffing levels can affect service delivery and vice versa.

Any meaningful change to service delivery is likely going to impact staffing levels.

On the commodity side, probably no surprise that our biggest concern is fuel.

The general fund alone utilizes nearly 70,000 gallons of fuel annually, with over half of that being diesel.

We are monitoring fuel prices carefully and we'll adjust the budget accordingly.

We are projecting fairly sharp increases in insurance costs for fiscal 27, particularly property damage and vehicle liability.

The overall increase for the general fund is around 17%.

Vehicle and equipment replacement costs along with the cost of repairs have increased dramatically over the past several years, and these costs have a direct effect on our insurance premiums.

Software maintenance agreements are also an area we are projecting increases for fiscal 27.

As most all software companies have switched during the process of switching to subscription services, we are experiencing shorter contract periods, most lasting only a year, as well as increases with each renewal period becoming the standard.

Legal services is an area we are also watching.

The increases we have noted in the past few years have been driven more by increased demand as opposed to increased rates, and we are still evaluating if these higher than normal expenses will carry over into fiscal 27.

Another key area for next fiscal year is capital and infrastructure.

These costs don't show up directly in the general fund the same way as operating expenses.

They're often represented by funding transfers out to the capital improvement fund or transfers out to capital-related debt service payments.

However, they are a critical part of the city's overall financial picture.

And as projects and long-term needs continue to develop, they compete with operating needs and limited resources.

As we move forward with the fiscal 27 budget, our focus will be working through these challenges in a way that maintains our core services while staying within our financial capacity.

And at our next meeting, we will be discussing general fund revenues.

I know you're getting ready to start their meetings.

Yeah, our um actually this week uh we begin finance and I uh meeting and talking over the department's uh finance.

I think you've met with all the departments most of them.

Yes, we start our second round.

No, though there's still a few I haven't had yet.

We've due to scheduling issues, we've had to kind of layer on this year.

So we're I know we're at least halfway through, but we start some city manager meetings tomorrow.

And so getting into that, and then we will be having uh meetings with the commission um in late April, early May for that, with the uh the second meeting of May uh being where we'll bring the budget message and for first reading of the budget.

Um so I wanted to to highlight a couple things.

Uh thank you, Otter, for for laying that out.

Uh and it's not anything small, and but I think for full transparency when we talk about personnel costs being the largest part of our budget, uh, and we're talking about a two million dollar increase, you know, to that personnel cost as we set today of nothing more than just being competitive and providing competitive wages uh to to keep our our team members uh in attract new team members like the three new officers that we had, you know, bringing on tonight.

Uh there's not two million dollars in new revenue that that's coming on board, and so we're looking at that at this point to begin to figuring out so what do we have, you know.

There, you know, what what are our opportunities uh for efficiencies?

Uh where can we reduce some cost uh but also uh be competitive in in our wage and and our salaries for our team members to be fair on that.

Um additionally, we'll be um be looking at uh you know the mention the fuel.

That is a big big unknown.

Uh and what what was the number?

I forgot uh how many gallons 70,000, 70,000.

Over half of that's diesel.

And on that slide, I had um other uh commodities listed as well.

I didn't go into them, but ultimately a change in uh fuel price can affect all of all commodities in that category.

So, you know, we've seen inflation really started hitting with the vehicles and the vehicle repairs back.

I would say the last five years, it started around 2021.

Um, that the vehicle prices really started to skyrocket.

And now with the fuel going up, then that's gonna have further impact on our other commodities.

So the higher price of a vehicle means a higher price to insure that vehicle too.

So it all you know flows in uh on that.

And so we're looking at at all those aspects.

Uh and like I said, Otter mentioned, you know, next next meeting we'll we'll do an update on revenue projections and where we where we see those and a little bit better.

It's not two million.

Yeah, yeah, it's uh uh but we're not in we're not alone in the in that.

No, and and I was as you were talking, I'm going off script, which I I promised myself never to do, but I am.

Um I was actually looking at my personal budget yesterday.

Um we were in a discussion about groceries and food, and uh, you know, in my personal budget, my food has gone up since 2020 about 40 percent.

And uh in total, I do have one new family member, but I have the grand baby, but didn't eat that much yet.

But anyway, uh, as I'm looking at the cost like of a car and what it costs in 2020, it's it's really you know, we're all experiencing the same thing.

Um, what happens to us on a personal level is hearing is happening here at the city as well.

And you know, putting this presentation together, uh, wasn't was it my favorite one to put together, especially going after Chris and the bill grant?

Uh not my favorite, not my favorite, but we're all experiencing it, and there's just uh just kind of where we're at with rising costs.

And I also want you know, I I stressed a couple of times that we are a service organization.

I'm also in the middle of putting together my first uh Citizens Academy presentation for the end of the month, and that's one of the things that um that I we focus a lot on in this presentation I'm putting together is the fact we are a service organization and service delivery is what we do, and that's gonna be people.

So and the last point that that I will uh make tonight on this is that we always start from the basis that these are the public dollars that were entrusted to us, and so how do we efficiently maximize those dollars and to keep that forefront?

And so uh I've shared with executive leadership team uh that uh you know while uh the the saying that I borrowed from somebody else is that uh pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.

And so uh we we're we're not asking for pie in the sky.

Oh no, uh we've combed through, we've combed through this budget uh pretty well in terms of anything that uh uh was maybe considered a want as opposed to a need.

We've uh pulled that out for separate consideration with the city manager.

Of course, you all have the capital improvement plan.

Uh so we've tried which those items have not been incorporated into the budget yet.

So uh we're trying to make sure to isolate the decisions that need to be made so that there's nothing you know muddled in that gets overlooked.

That anything that from the smaller size decision points that are will probably be discussed at the city manager level to the capital improvement plan that will rise up for uh discussion with the commission.

You know, we've tried to isolate all those items.

All right.

Thank you, Caldra.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you.

Really appreciate all of it.

Okay.

Uh city manager, do you have any comments?

Uh I am going to put our city clerk on the spot uh in my comment time and let her uh talk a little bit about uh something that the uh is being hosted uh here in our community this week.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you for the opportunity.

So our Kentucky Municipal Clerks Association is having um their 50th anniversary spring conference, and they are coming here to Paducah to have that.

So we are very excited to host them.

Um we have about 115 clerks from around Kentucky coming here.

We'll be at the convention center um this week starting tomorrow through Friday.

We have speakers coming in from out of town, as well as we have our finance department, Stephanie Millet will be giving a presentation also.

Palmer Stroop and our planning department will be giving a presentation at that.

So I think that it's gonna be a really, really good conference for um our municipal clerks around around Kentucky.

Yeah, we'll welcome them to Paducah.

That's great.

Absolutely.

Lovecomers coming in.

Yes, yes, it is.

We are very excited to have them here, and they're excited to come.

Gonna encourage them to do some retail therapy.

Yeah, yes, we did.

We uh on our programs we linked them to all of the shopping and the CVB for eating and dining and and downtown activities as well.

So great.

Good job.

Yeah, great, thank you.

City commissioners.

Do you all have it?

I don't have any comments.

Well, I have one.

Well, I have a couple actually.

So I think I I've we've had the dogwood trails been going on, but you'll notice Lindsay and I both remembered to wear our dogwood pens tonight.

But um, that's still going on, I guess, as long as the dogwood trails.

I know the signs are still up because they kind of come through my neighborhood.

But next week is the quilt show.

So that's huge.

I want to just remind everyone, and I know that you all have been doing that to all the stores to sweep through sidewalks and get ready, rolling out the red carpet for all our mysteries that are coming.

And um, I know we've been planting flowers downtown, so thank you.

Yes, it looks great, look really looks beautiful.

I want to thank Main Street for all the work that they're doing on it.

And then tomorrow we kick off here in City Hall.

The Paducah Garden Club is presenting Among the Dog Weds, a club flower show in the atrium.

So it's tomorrow from 2 to 4 and Thursday from 8 a.m.

to noon.

It's open to the public, free of charge.

So we want to encourage everyone to come down.

I know the garden club has been working so hard on it uh to make sure it's a big success, and they want us all to be here at different times.

I know you should have gotten an invitation for tomorrow afternoon late to be here for an award show with them.

So they did provide us some information.

Flower shows have long been a vital part of the Badika Garden Club and the Garden Club of America, founded in 1913.

The Garden Club of America's mission extends far beyond flower shows.

It includes civic improvement projects, awarding over 500,000 in scholarships for postgraduate studies and fostering an appreciation for the beauty and joy of flowers.

So within a flower show, there are four distinct classes in floral design, each representing a different style of arrangement, table design, creative design, functional design, and pedestal pedestal, a pedestal.

Table design creative design functional design and pedestal pedestal a pedestal pedestal design.

So the horticulture division highlights plant specimens showcasing what thrives in our growing zone and how these plants appear at their best the photography division features the talents of club members behind the camera and lastly the educational division provides the public with in-depth information on a specific topic and this year's focus is on growing dogwoods.

So if you have a dogwood pen come down here tomorrow and bring it and then I know there's a quilt show going on at the same time so it's a great time for visitors to come to City Hall.

In fact you might mention that if you can at some point I missed that you are to the parks that are in town when when Claudia and I go to clerk conferences other places we always try to stop by the city hall as well because it's always interesting to see so we'll definitely bring that up to them.

Good then have them come over so tomorrow two to four and Thursday 8 a.m to noon flower show I think it's going to be a great time to be in city hall and see all of that.

So with that man this is probably the longest meeting I've ever had for one hour but I don't think we have an executive session.

Alright we'll wrap it up with a motion to adjourn so move second commissioner Henderson aye commissioner Smith?

Hi.

Commissioner Thomas Mayor Pro Tim Wilson Hi.

Thank you all for coming and I hope you can get some pictures from all everything that's going on.

Okay great