By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
FLORENCE
Florence Mayor Julie Aubuchon administered the oath of office to new council member David M. Schneider Tuesday evening at the caucus meeting while his son and Pam Osborne looked on. David takes the place of David A. Osborne, who died on January 10 of this year, just weeks after having been sworn in.
A lifelong Florence resident, David Schneider served as a board member of the city of Florence Board of Adjustments from 2006 to 2014 and was an officer for the Bean Bash charity, as well as for the Boone County Business Association for 20 years. Pam Osborne attended to give David her blessing.
Former State Representative Sal Santoro joined Wade Williams from the Montrose Group to talk about TID, or Transportation Improvement Districts. A TID is a special purpose governmental entity created to coordinate and fund transportation related projects within a specific geographical area. If it is a city, the population has to be at least 20,000, and it can be a county or a grouping of up to 3 counties. What a TID can do is finance, do maintenance, repair, or operation of a project, issue revenue bonds, receive and accept local, state and federal grants, and acquire, hold and dispose of property. What it can’t do is use condemnation or disturb a utility or common carrier, and they can’t levy taxes or special assessments.
“This is a way, local control, local funding, along with the state, to get your projects built,” said Santoro, who had authored a bill to this effect which was signed into law. “This is just good public policy, and you are going to be in control. It’s just simple.”
EDGEWOOD
Edgewood city council listened to the annual independent audit report by Jim Sparrow from Rankin and Rankin, and then approved the audit.
Our approach to the budget is to undershoot our revenues and to undershoot those expenditures and make sure we do come back with money at the end of the year,” said CAO Brian Dehner. “The result of that has been that council has been able to reduce the tax rate every year that I’ve been here.”
The council meeting on February 17th is canceled due to President’s Day.
Mayor John Link told council there will be no roundabouts in Edgewood. This is because Fort Mitchell and Fort Wright have been scheduled to be endowed with roundabouts and people have been asking about their city. He also said there will be a Jimmy John’s store across from the new Krogers.
CAO Dehner said the Kroger store may not be open until June and they should have about 210 employees.
Council passed a resolution opposing centralized collection of occupational fees or taxes by the state of Kentucky. Mayor Link explained that the legislative session in Frankfort is only 30 days, but three bills have already been submitted and this centralized collection of occupational taxes and fees is one of them. Most of the Northern Kentucky cities have issued resolutions that strongly oppose the legislation.
“We don’t believe that it is right,” said Dehner. “They are trying to take away home rule from a city.”
INDEPENDENCE
Independence Mayor Chris Reinersman administered the oath of office to Officer Cody Monson, who will be the newest police officer in the city.
He also welcomed Taylor Graham, who will be the new Police Social Worker. Graham was selected from among 17 applicants, and she was deemed to be the best fit for the city.
Council approved the second reading of an ordinance prohibiting trucks weighing 11,000 pounds or more on Stephenson Road.
An ordinance was proposed which changes the name of Court Street, which is a 160 foot long street, to Ponzer Court in honor of Vic Ponzer. Council liked the idea, and the second reading should be held in March.
Council also passed a resolution stating opposition to any forthcoming legislation from the state about centralizing the collection of occupational fees at the state level.
FT. MITCHELL
Ft. Mitchell city council honored Young Marine Abby Smith at their regular council meeting Monday night. Smith is a resident of Ft. Mitchell and is a junior at Beechwood school, and she was recently named Division 3 Young Marine of the Year. Mayor Jude Hehman honored her for her leadership and high achievements. February 3 was named as Abby Smith day in Ft Mitchell.
Stephanie Huhn from Bramel and Ackley CPA, gave a report on the city audit, and she proclaimed the city in good shape financially, with favorable balances in their general funds.
Council passed a resolution opposing any legislation by the state that would centralize the collection of local occupational fees or taxes. Several Northern Kentucky cities have done the same to let the state legislature know how they feel about the subject.
BOONE COUNTY
Boone County Fiscal Court listened to a presentation from SMP architectural company who have been tasked to find and design space for an Emergency Communications building.
Currently public safety is in the Florence Government building, and Emergency Management is housed in the Boone County Sheriff’s department, but there are challenges to space and growth in both areas, and duplication of certain things because these departments are not together. Their solution revolves around a 6.4 acre portion of county owned land at the corner of Conrad and Bullittsville Roads, where they recommend building a 19,000 square foot single story building that would combine all the essential services under one roof.
The area is already zoned public facility, it already has a lot of infrastructure, it is already owned by Boone County.
The money for the design of the building was budgeted for last July, at a cost of $489,000, but commissioners had to approve the money, and it would come back to the court for bidding. The total cost of the building is estimated at $7,737,118.22. Commissioners passed a resolution that would allow the design to go forward.
The first reading of an ordinance was held which changes the zoning from A-1,
agricultural, and SR-1 Suburban Residential 1 to A-2, agricultural estate for a 37-acre site located on Locust Grove Road.
NEWPORT
Newport city commissioners listened to and passed a resolution strongly opposing any legislation from the state to centralize the collection of occupational taxes and fees, as recommended by the Kentucky League of cities. Apparently even though the legislative session this year is very short, there is a bill that will be presented next week to centralize the collection of occupational taxes and fees.
This was a special meeting of the Newport Board of Commissioners.