By Trisha Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
CRESCENT SPRINGS
Crescent Springs city council chose a new council member Monday night from among three people who applied for the position, Bob Mueller, Chad Longbons, and Jeff Smith.
Each candidate was given a chance to make a last speech, but after Longbons and Mueller spoke, Jeff Smith got up and said he was taking his name out of consideration and throwing his support behind Bob Mueller. All three candidates are running for council in November.
After consideration, council chose Mueller, and City Clerk April Robinson administered the oath of office after which Mueller took his place on Council and the meeting continued.
Mueller replaces Steve Wilcoxon, who had to resign for personal reasons after being on council a very short time. Wilcoxon took the place of Bill Schult.
Council held the first reading of an ordinance setting the tax rates for the city. The proposed tax rates are .193 per $100 for real estate property, and .198 for tangible property.
FORT MITCHELL
Fort Mitchell city council passed the second reading of the real estate property tax. After a brief public hearing, the rate was set at .108 per $100, which is the same rate as last year.
Council also passed the second reading of an ordinance approving the recommendation of the Kenton County Planning Commission to accept the concept development plan for the Fort Mitchell Gateway project. Before passing that council had to approve the findings of the KCPC, which they did. Mayor Jude Hehman told council he expected all the bonds and finances to finalize in September.
FLORENCE
Florence city council passed the first reading of an ordinance annexing approximately 18.847 acres located on the east side of Gunpowder Road, adjacent to the city limits.
CAO Joshua Hunt said that the request was made by Matt Dedden and JJ Miller, and their development project is still in the Boone County Planning Commission, so the matter cannot be discussed until after the BCPC makes a recommendation on it.
Hunt did say that there was a public hearing in conjunction with the project so he can say they are proposing single family homes and owner occupied condominiums.
COVINGTON
Covington Mayor Joe Meyer lambasted the Emergency Shelter Tuesday night at the regular Commission meeting, criticizing the letter he received from their lawyer threatening to sue the city.
“I read Mr. (Brian) Halloran’s letter with a sense of bemusement,” he stated. “Then I recognized that it is just more bombastic bluster, threatening to sue us and all this. And if we look back it is in the shelter’s normal course of conduct to threaten lawsuits against anybody who voices concerns about the management of the shelter.”
He pointed out a retired nurse who came to the city acting as a whistleblower, and she received a cease and desist letter threatening to sue.
“I can tell you, I’ve been around a long time, and I have never seen a social service agency that is so reliant on lawyers to shut down criticism or fair comment,” he said.
He recalled how it all started, saying two residents contacted the city who were former staffers, and they had serious concerns about how the shelter is being run. Since then they have received copies of complaints from neighbors and volunteers about management issues. He added that they also have the shelter’s excessive reliance on public safety services, which is an issue specifically raised in the licensing ordinance.
“So the fact is, we as a city do have legitimate cause and reason to be concerned,” Meyer continued. “Our first obligation, as a city commission, is to our residents. We have been working hard to restore trust between us, our government, and our residents as well as to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. And both of these values have come into direct conflict with the management of the 13th Street shelter.”
He said historically the shelter has been antagonistic with the city, and he acknowledged that there is no trust in the situation, going either way.
When the complaints started coming in, Meyer said he suggested bringing in a third party, unassociated with the city, to do a management audit, and look into the city’s compliance with the city’s ordinance.
He contacted Kevin Finn, the CEO of Strategies to End Homelessness in Cincinnati, who is a friend of Kim Webb, the director of the troubled shelter, and he gave the city the name of an independent third party auditor. He recommended to Webb that cooperation in the matter would be appropriate.
“So in our effort to bring in an independent third party recommended by Kevin Finn, we are doing the right thing here,” he stated. “We all have conflicting interests, and the city is bringing in, at its expense, an independent objective third party recommended by an ally of the shelter to look into these compliance requirements. So the shelter’s refusal to cooperate is regrettable. And together with regularly threatening lawsuits against our people and our city they do make people think that the shelter has something to hide.”
In the meantime, the city will proceed with the management audit, to review the license application submissions and will take it one step at a time from there. He said he hopes that the shelter cooperates.
“I will conclude by saying we don’t have these problems with any of the other three shelters that are operating in the city,” he summed up. “And the people have not raised any complaints about the other shelters. So this seems to be a one-off situation, that, you know, my time here is about gone, a little bit more than three months, and I hope that we can get it resolved so that we can have an effective working relationship going forward.”
On a brighter note, the city has won a series of awards from the International Economic Development Council, an organization with members from all over the country. They have allocated five awards for the city of Covington, the top one a gold medal for innovation in economic development in their approach to the Covington Central Riverfront Redevelopment.
Police Captain Robert Rose is officially retiring as of August 31, and he was honored at the meeting Tuesday night. Two promotions came about after the above retirement. Lieutenant Justin Bradbury was promoted to Captain, and Sergeant Jay Zerhusen was promoted to Lieutenant, while family members looked on proudly.
Mayor Meyer announced that there will be two meetings next week, a caucus meeting on Tuesday, and a meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday to decide tax rates.
KENTON COUNTY
Kenton County resident Donna Salyers was honored with the Pioneer Award at the regular commission meeting Tuesday evening. She was lauded as being the ‘perfect example of a pioneer that has made this community great.’
The second reading of an ordinance setting the tax rates was read and voted on. The new rates are .125 per $100 of assessed value for real estate, .16 per $100 for personal property, and .158 per $100 for motor vehicles. Kenton County Judge Executive Kris Knochelmann said it is the fourth year in a row that the court has reduced tax rates, and the new rate hasn’t been this low since 1983.
“We are doing the right thing to get the rate down,” Knochelmann said.
It was announced that County Attorney Stacy Tapke won the County Attorney of the Year award by the Kentucky Attorney General’s office.
Homeland Security Emergency Management Director Steve Hensley said all the cities have signed up for the Hazard Mitigation Plan, and can be eligible for Hazard Mitigation Funds.
He also said there was an exercise held on the B+B Riverboats, featuring an active threat simulation on board the boat, as well as people in the water, and the 250 first responders reacted very well.
Hensley said there will be a unified command center for RiverFest this year to help with crowd control and any other problems that occur.
EDGEWOOD
There was a special meeting Tuesday night at the senior center for Edgewood citizens to listen to engineers and Kenton County School board members as they explain what the intersection of Oakbrook and Tupman will look like in the near future. About 65 people attended and Edgewood CAO Brian Dehner said the feedback has been positive.
The intersection has been troublesome for awhile now, especially during school season, with the extra traffic. The business owner on the corner approached the school about selling his property to them and they accepted.
A rendition of what the intersection will look like was presented and Dehner explained that they will take some of the curve out of Dudley to help visibility, and there will be dedicated turn lanes that will be extended to accommodate more cars. The school campus will look different, with more greenspace and parking.
The project will go out to bid in January or February, and some activity will begin around April, but the majority of the work will start immediately after school ends at the end of May.
Dehner said the project will cost approximately $1.2 million.
“We have wanted to redesign this intersection for a long time,” said Dehner. “Now we are able to partner with the school, and they have bought some of the property and will demo the properties, which will save money for Edgewood residents. This will eventually bring relief for the traffic problems, and people will someday look back and be glad it was improved.”
BOONE COUNTY
Boone County Fiscal Court held a caucus meeting Wednesday evening, and people were permitted to come and talk about things that they are concerned about.
Amy Stauffer brought handouts with diagrams showing Graves road, and she suggested that possibly Williams Road could be located in back of the new project proposed at the Graves Road intersection, and that would really help the traffic congestion she predicts will come.
She told the court that she has been listening to the talks about the 2045 Comprehensive Plan, and she said the Petersburg road project is a great example of what not to do. She explained that having three warehouses being built in the middle of farmland is a stark contrast to the rural living community of residents out in the area, and she said her neighbors are upset.
“Can we please stop building and approving these warehouses taking up all our greenspaces?” she asked. “It’s just really sad seeing a community torn apart like that. I love Boone County. I don’t want it to become something that we can’t ever recover from.”
Bill Kunkel from Union stood up and wondered why the county buys up so much land. That accusation was refuted by the court.
Kunkel said the Kentucky constitution assures citizens of Life, Liberty and Property. He said he has heard Boone County talk about a higher quality of life, but he asked, for who?
Richwood resident Sheila Scalf also stood up and painted a graphic picture of the traffic failures at the Richwood road intersection. She told how the semi trucks regularly run red lights, and drive the wrong way through Dunkin Donuts, and drive on Paddock when the signs say they can’t do that.
She said now the cars are running red lights. It is normal to sit at a traffic light for three to four times before the traffic clears enough for cars to go through.
“If I have an appointment, I have to leave an hour early to be able to get through Richwood road,” she said. “That lady that spoke up last time and asked ‘when is enough enough?’ My quality of life is not what it used to be.”
She asked the court if she should continue to call the state about the problems, or could the court do something to help the situation.
Judge Executive Gary Moore said she should continue to call the state, and they will try to contact them on their end. Moore seemed mystified by the speech, saying he has talked to people from Richwood who use the interchange, and they told him not to change anything, that it works fine.
Director of Communications Elaine Zeinner gave an in depth presentation about social media, and what elected members of government can and cannot do on social media as per recent rulings of the Supreme Court.