The Winchester City Commission met on March 3, 2026, beginning with an invocation and call to order. The commission unanimously approved departmental agency reports and received updates on grant funding, downtown development, and upcoming projects. A major presentation highlighted the first year of the city's coordinated grant operation, resulting in over $3.5 million in awarded funds.
Please remain standing. We'll have our invitation by our city manager Mike Land. Let us pray. Father, we come to you this evening thanking you for the day and Lord for what you've given us. And Lord, uh, our thoughts go to those that have lost uh service members in our military due to the conflict that's going on. I pray that you'd be with those families tonight. And uh Lord give them the uh comfort and the care that they need watch over. And Lord, uh we just pray for our country that you would uh help us and uh help those that are making decisions to make the right ones. And Lord, uh we just pray for our country that you would uh help us and uh Lord help those that are making decisions to make the right ones and then Lord, even at this level. We pray tonight as we look at the business of the city and the things that are going on that the Lord uh guide and direct us, uh Lord, uh give us some wisdom and the uh decisions that are made. May you be honored glorified through all that we do. We love you this evening. We thank you for your mercy and your goodness in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen. Please be excited. Call the meeting to order. Um item number two, departmental agency reports A through E. Is there anything anyone would like to highlight? If not, I'll accept the motion for departmental agency report. Motion by Commissioner Cox. Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Chenault. All in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed by like sign? Motion carries item three, A, and B. What I have asked Alicia to do is the work session is Alicia's gonna be doing that. So she's gonna include item 3A and 3B since they're informational items only in her presentation. So, Ms. Martin, it's all yours. So, informational item A, Winchester Fire EMS received official notifications from the Kentucky Board of Emergency Emergency Medical Services that the fiscal year 2026-2027 ambulance block grant application was reviewed and approved, and this was $9,920 for EMS medical supply lockers. So, congratulations to Whitey. Um, and then informational item B, Mayor Reed attended a um and along with some representatives from WMU attended the uh Congressman Barr's Community Project Funding Event where it was announced that WMU will receive one million dollars in federal funding for their Hancock Creek watershed sanitary sewer project. So Mayor Reed was able to make some remarks, and it was a wonderful event for her to interface with Congressman Barr as we are now preparing our new community project funding request. So it was a great event to attend. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you guys so much for the opportunity to give you a year one up. Your investment in a coordinated grant operation has produced both in numbers and the capacity that we've been able to build this year. When I stepped into this role about a year ago, I feel like my objective was pretty clear. I needed to find the money for your projects. And I'm really excited to let you guys know about the progress we've made in just one year. So straight to the numbers. We submitted a total of 36 grant applications this year. 17 of those were awarded. 11 were not awarded, eight were still awaiting decision. The total dollars requested was 10 million, a little over 10.6 million dollars in total funds requested. Total dollars awarded, just over 3.5 million. And we're still waiting to hear back on another 5.2 million.